[Previous entry: "Reviewing the Freedom Flashlight"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Rumsfeld and Tamiflu"]

11/03/2005 Archived Entry: "Here's how your biometric Real ID drivers license will be used"

THIS IS HOW YOUR SHINY NEW REAL ID DRIVERS LICENSE will be used. Bet you just can't wait until this sort of thing comes to your state, right?

Every time life without a DL becomes so precarious that I consider giving in, I read something like this and I say, "Never again."

Just recently, the mail receiving service I've used for many years suddenly closed up shop. The former owner is still receiving the mail for a few more weeks "until customers can make other arrangements." But I find myself in the embarrassing position of being such a non-person that I literally don't qualify to have a mailing address! No post office nor private mailbox place will serve the government-IDless (and therefore obviously evil, terroristic, money-laundering, drug-dealing, etc.) likes of me.

One "legit" friend tried to offer service and got put through a bureaucratic wringer. I turned to another friend who made his best try -- and discovered that not only was he not able to help me get a truly private new mailing address; he himself would never again be "allowed" to rent a p.o. box or private mailbox! Of course I'll get another address. And he, too, will never let himself fall into the limbo our government and private masters are preparing for those who prefer privacy and self-ownership to state control. We'll eventually find friends, or subterfuges, that will get us our mail. And my friend, even with his own predicament, is still nobly seeking the best solution for me. But it's still a ridiculous situation.

Here's another one:

UPS has quietly, without any fanfare, decided that no one will be allowed to ship or pick up a package at one of its retail stores without government ID. Not just ID. Presumably, even a UPS employee badge won't do. No, only Holy Government is capable of telling us who we really are. (Scroll down that page and look for a small paragraph on the left.)

Of course, every person mailing a package is obviously a potential terrorist package-bomber. And the only way you can tell a terrorist from a good citizen is by the ID they carry. Why heavens, that's obvious even to the stupidest bureaucrat or corporate drone. In fact, it's most obvious to the stupidest. Somehow, the smart folk and terrorists fail to see how government ID stops any crime.

Sigh.

So the noose tightens on American refuseniks. But then, that's what nooses -- and dictatorial governments and their useful idiot agents -- do. It's not a reason to cooperate; it's a reason to become even more adamant about non-cooperation.

If we don't stop this attempt to turn everybody into either a government asset or a non-person, then we'll ALL be one or another eventually. And life won't be pretty for either.

(The find about biometric ID in Texas was made by privacy maven Richard M. Smith.)

Posted by Claire @ 05:37 PM CST
Link