Congress is at it again. Once again, Congress is choosing the police state over freedom by grabbing power from the states and centralizing it in Washington. In this case, we're talking about a national ID card called Real ID.
In the name of security, Congress is mandating, among other things, state driver's licenses to include a "common machine-readable technology", RFID chips, and no post office box addresses. Each has real life costs higher than the imaginary benefits.
The author of the article states that the common machine readable technology will facilitate ID theft. Rather than having to deal with 50 different variations, organized crime and terrorists will be able to rely on one single point of failure in stealing your identity. Crack that one method and you are home free across the nation. What could possibly go wrong?
Secondly, RFID, with a transmission range of over 90 ft (see the Wikipedia article here) also facilitates ID theft. Unlike most magnetic stripe cards, which require third-parties to physically run the card through a reader, RFID merely needs to be within range of an electronic scanner. The information exchange occurs without user notification, knowledge, or consent. Your information is there for the taking by anyone with a reader within range of the chip. What could possibly go wrong?
Lastly, millions of people use post office boxes rather than street addresses. For some, it's a business convenience or physical necessity (there being no mail box). For others, it shields them from stalkers and terrorists intent on killing them. In any case, why does the federal government think it is any of its business to require me to tell them what street address I live at? What could possibly go wrong?
Why is the political party that supposedly hates centralized power so intent on becoming a centralized police state much like the former Soviet Union? Why do they think becoming a police state will make us safer? Why do they think shredding the Constitution and grinding it into the dirt under the jack boot of a federal bureaucracy is a GoodThing?
Comments (2)
Check this out ( http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/003271.php#comments ) before running to the emigration service. The RF stuff pales in comparison to the attack on freedom embedded in the act. It sounds worse than what an army of terrorist could hope to achieve.
Posted by sjon | May 11, 2005 9:11 PM
Posted on May 11, 2005 21:11
You can't get a USPO box without an address anyway. Last time I got one, about 5 years ago, I had decided to move my business box to a less busy PO that was about as close to the one I had been at for 20 years. I had to fill out a form with my street address, which was then mailed back to me and I could then take that back to the USPO and get the box. I don't know what people without permanent addresses do.
Posted by David | May 13, 2005 9:43 AM
Posted on May 13, 2005 09:43