Can I See Your Papers Sir!

I don't feel too good about having to get one of these for Levi in 2008!

I am not too big into conspiracy theories, but this little fact I learned has scared me a little uneasy:

United States Public Law 109-13 gives the Department of Homeland Security the ability to standardize a defacto National ID card with at minimum: name, birth date, sex, ID number, a digital photograph, address, and a "common machine-readable technology" that Homeland Security will decide on. The Real ID Act says federally accepted ID cards must be "machine readable," and lets Homeland Security determine the details. That could end up being a magnetic strip, enhanced bar code, or radio frequency identification (RFID) chips.

For an unbiased look at all this, follow this link here.

So what's the big deal. Nothing, atleast that's what I thought. Until I started to think about all the ways this card could be used. Thinking back to my days at ACU, my SS# was used as my student id. I couldn't do anything without it.

Blow that up to a card that you have to use to open a checking account, buy a house, buy liquor, get on an airplane, drive a car, go to the doctor, get insurance, and a host of other things. Add on top of this the fact that all this information about you will (spending habits, taxes paid, parking tickets unpaid, health information) be stored in a standardized and universal way that can be accessed by all governmental agencies, private institutions, and retailers it gets a little freaky.

Check out this movie trailer and see if you don't go hmm?
More info here.