Real ID Act
“He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”— Revelation 13:16-17 (NIV)
Ok, so I'm not going to say the newly approved Federal Real ID system will be the mark of the beast. But that is not going to make me like the idea of a federally run ID system in the United States. I don't like the idea of carrying around a smart card that I must present to open a bank account or get on an airplane. How much information do I want the government to have?
I just happened to run across an Flash advert from the ACLU today (see here). It is well done and somewhat amusing. But it also demonstrates the frightening possibilities of a nationally connected ID database. Sure, I don't think the local Pizza Hut is going to start worrying about my health soon, but a little hyperbole hardly invalidates the point of the ad. Yes, let the record show that I agree with the ACLU on this.
Interesting… there are many signs of the apocalypse occurring at the moment. First, there was the case a week or two ago when I found myself agreeing with Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, now I find myself agreeing with the ACLU. What's next? Four horsemen doing a cross country tour?
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Re: Real ID Act
Well, let’s see; four horsemen, generally regarded as symbolizing bad news on a global scale, but not necessarily all at once everywhere.
Conquest — At the very least we are looking at a sea-change in politics. Yep, we got some of that.
Conflict, war — Gotta be deaf, blind and in a deep cavern to miss that.
Scarcity — Most people don’t see that, but give us one good economic crash and it will be there. I agree with many economists that we aren’t that far from it.
Death — Got a few new diseases out there that, if they ever get the right nudge, they might not be easily contained. Marburg, anyone? Wars bring death, too.
Actually, I consider the four a set that always comes together. You get a new ambitious ruler who brings war, which brings economic disaster, break down of the infrastructure, followed by disease outbreaks. We could have that here.
Re: Real ID Act
Ah, Ed, you always come through for me, don’t you?
Good point, btw.
Re: Real ID Act
Plague and famine have been riding around a while already, haven’t they?
Re: Real ID Act
Not to mention war, of course. There’s really nothing new about that, is there?
OK, I’m back again after reading some about the real ID act. Could you explain what it is you have against it? From the admittedly few pages I read about it, it sounds as the ID card system that we’ve had around for ages, or?
Re: Real ID Act
Well, Flip, I think part of it is that we Americans are independent folks.
Personally, I like the current, decentralized system. Each state administers its own database… all the states recognize the other states’ ids, but there is not one massive database.
A federal level ID smart card would allow for sophisticated tracking of the citizenry. If you combine such a system with one of the largest and most powerful sets of intelligence agencies in the world (which we have), there is a lot of potential for abuse. Especially, as I said, since it is a smart card — which makes it quite easy to extend its uses so that perhaps soon when I write a check, the government immediately knows that a wrote a check at such and such a locale. Great for crime fighting, but it makes me a little worried too. It clearly isn’t the mark of the beast (if, in fact, the mark of the beast is even literal), but it is a step in that direction or, at least, the direction of a less private society. W.B. Yeats’ “Second Coming” has the beast “slouching toward Bethlehem”… a gradual process.
I’d trust our government more if it didn’t abuse its privileges at times. Certainly, I’d be much better with this if we did not have the USA PATRIOT Act. But, since we do, I’d rather have a decentralized ID system play the role as the balance to the government’s check.
Like I said, I don’t see this as the mark of the beast. I’ll get one of the Real ID’s when it replaces my current driver’s license. But, I’m not going to be thrilled about it.
Re: Real ID Act
Eh. Like they aren’t already tracking us. I’ve read 1984. I’m as paranoid as the next guy. I see this as a good thing.
Re: Real ID Act
Ahh, now I get it. I missed the “smart card” detail
The ID cards we have have bar codes on them but are usually never scanned, just shown, even if there’s a national registry that state agencies can access. I can see how this would give the government a lot more control combined with the Patriot act (which seemed clearly paranoid to me, btw). But how far would this American independence stretch, do you think? Would you have the same issues if it was just a matter of a national register for ID cards?
Re: Real ID Act
I dunno, Flip. I think I’d have less of a problem with that, but I really like our current system too much to get very enthusiastic about any nationalization. Even my father, who is on the other side of the political spectrum from me, was unhappy about this (so it seems the discontent is bipartisan!).
Re: Real ID Act
This is not The mark of the beast light.
This is the real deal. What people are missing is that scanning this card IS scanning ones hand, at least to those whos finger prints are already on file.
Links to how this is set to come about are available here: http://www.antichristid.com
Spread the word!