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02/02/2007 Archived Entry: "Bruce Schneier on the costs and benefits of Real ID"

REAL ID WILL COST $11 BILLION -- assuming the states don't shoot down this federal boondogle. Real security maven Bruce Schneier has an analysis of the "benefits" we'll get for all those bucks.

Interesting. He points out that the aim of a national ID card is to be able instantly to identify the class of "evildoers" and the class of "innocents," based solely on their ID and its associated data. He notes that, among the many pitfalls of attempting this absurdity is that you automatically create two additional classess: evildoers, like Timothy McVeigh and many of the 9/11 murderers, whose documentation and personal profiles make them look like innocents; and a far larger class of innocents whose ID and profiles make them look superficially like evildoers (thus all those John Smiths who can't board airplanes).

His analysis is very good as always. But he fails to mention a fifth class: former innocents who are so pissed off at the growth of the police state -- as expressed in atrocities like Real ID -- that they're inspired to become what the state considers evildoers.

Or as the old beloved Jefferson Airplane song put it, "We are all outlaws in the eyes of America. In order to survive we steal, cheat, lie, forge, f*k, hide, and deal ..."

Posted by Claire @ 01:23 PM CST
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