Subject:
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Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 5 Oct 2001 21:29:36 GMT
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Viewed:
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287 times
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Yes, the national ID card will be used with some effectiveness to fight
international crime and terrorism. But in the midst of that fight our
politicians will remain politicians. They will still fall in love with power
and they will still propose any means possible and legal to make sure that
the power they so love will always be theirs.
The more information you have on the people you rule, the more secure your
position is. What better way to develop and preserve endless pages of
information on every American citizen than an electronically coded national
ID card?
Just take financial transactions as an example. Right now the federal
government has in place a little rule that requires banks and other
financial institutions to notify the government if you make a cash deposit
or withdrawal of $10,000 or more. A few years ago a Democratic Senator
introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate that would allow a law enforcement
officer to seize cash from an otherwise law-abiding individual if the cash
that individual was carrying added up to more than $10,000. Just a few
years ago the Clinton Administration was proposing a “know your customer”
program that would require all financial institutions to develop a conduct
profile on each customer, and report to the federal government when their
customer deviated from that profile. In recent years some government
bureaucrats have suggested giving the government access to ATM and credit
card computer networks.
Now, bear in mind, almost all of these privacy invasions have been based on
our government’s need to “fight the war on drugs.” Now we have an even more
insidious war to fight – a war against international terrorists who will
plan for years for the chance to kill a few thousand innocent Americans.
So --- look for the national ID, and then look for politicians to quickly
expand its use far beyond merely identifying who is and who is not a
citizen. The time will come when you must use your ID for every financial
transaction, for interstate travel and to obtain prescription drugs and
receive medical care.
The idea occurred to me – we could have the enabling legislation say that
the ID card could not be used for any purpose other than proof of
citizenship. Then I thought about our Social Security numbers. They aren’t
supposed to be used for anything other than to identify our Social Security
accounts, are they? So much for that idea.
In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Horst Lehner writes:
> ... for offering some hot air?
>
> Imagine, we would have been be able to identify airline passengers with 100%
> accuracy even before 911. How would that have helped to prevent anything of
> what happened?
>
> That said, I don't feel like a photo and a fingerprint in my ID card by
> itself affects any of my civil rights ...
>
> Greetings
>
> Horst
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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| (...) I don't think that time will really come. As the laws move that way, the underground economy -- which is already substantial -- will blossom and expand from the margins into the mainstream. Further, if such legislation were ennacted, I think (...) (23 years ago, 6-Oct-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Gotta love Oracle...
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| ... for offering some hot air? Imagine, we would have been be able to identify airline passengers with 100% accuracy even before 911. How would that have helped to prevent anything of what happened? That said, I don't feel like a photo and a (...) (23 years ago, 5-Oct-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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