Center of Attention
Extra attention to a few Centrist blogs.
Jon Swift makes a strong case to lower the miminum wage. Well… sorta. Kinda.
Andrew Sullivan is engaged in an interblog dialogue: a blogalogue. Go check it out.
Callimachus notices that the life expectancy of Hispanics who have to serve time in jail goes down, while that of African-Americans… goes up.
Read this article at Winds of Change. Whatever the case may be, Google scares me. It’s far too big, far too powerful and far too little concerned with that little something called ‘privacy’.
Lastly, also read PatHMV’s take on the National ID Bill. To say that he opposes it is… putting it mildly.
I think I mentioned this once already, but we have to be able to identify ourselves at any time. Whenever the police stops us… we have to show them our identity card. If one forgot it at home, one has a problem: a beautiful… fine.
To make matters even worse the new ID’s have a chip in them – if necessary the government can check your where-abouts.
Yes, that is how silly it has become in Europe. It is unbelievable that the Dutch are simply accepting this. Some lawyers opposed it, and went in against it, but lost the battle and, by now, the little controversy it caused, has disappeared.
It is ludacrisludicrous (not the rapper). The reason that I have not yet spent an entire post on it is that it angers me so much that the post will become even more incoherent and rambling than normally.
20 Responses to “Center of Attention”
It’s rare that I agree with Pat, but I agree with him on BOTH points in his post–National ID Bill AND gun control.
Where have all the civil libertarians gone? From tacking anti-meth Bills onto the PATRIOT Act to tacking on a last minute measure banning online gambling onto a Port Security Bill to laws banning smoking in bars, politicians will say just about anything and sink to just about any measure to run roughshod over our civil liberties.
Man, yesterday Rudi and I were agreeing on stuff, and now Nic and I are. I must be slipping! lol
Seriously, though, I believe in finding allies on particular issues, and fighting particular battles rather than the larger, murkier, more generic battles of “left versus right [versus libertarian, I add for Nic's benefit].” Whenever we agree on an issue, we should work together on that issue, even if we disagree on a hundred other issues.
Pat: yes, that is how politics in general should be approached in my humble opinion.
That and trying to find common ground on issues one seems to disagree on
Pat, you hit the nail right on the head in those respects. Too bad those in power don’t hear us, though.
OMG the 4 horsemen are coming, I think the four of us agree.
MvdG Your ID card works with a RFID chip. In a simple sense, it is a minature radio transmitter. It is going to be big in the future, but the technology is old. Two problems to BigBrother and RFID are range and crosstalk.
Range is apparent, i will include a link and some text about range. On a n ID card the range for a read is 2 to 10 feet. 2 feet isn’t a problem. at 10 feet we are entering the ‘unlawfull warrantless search area’. If the EU is using the RFID I recommend a film bag you use to protect film at the airport. Will block the transmission of info and reading of card.
RFID Range
Crosstalk is another problem/issue with the cards. If you want more detail go to Wiki. A simple example is conversations at a crowded party. If you try to listen in on a private conversation across the room, other conversations will jumble or interfer(crosstalk) with your easedropping. You will hear multiple conversations instead of the party your snooping on. With an RFID card, mix in with a large crowd, there is safety in numbers.
For civil libety sake, bar codes and low frequency RFID are the safeest for privacy. But any ID should only include name, rank and serial number. Any other info can be gathered from a database in a police car or at the station after an arrest. With an UHF RFID capable of large storage,(Houston) we have a problem. With long range and large storage, your life history and profile would be available without your knowlege or a warrant.
This ID is coming to the US, Virginia is looking into incorparating RFID in drivers licence. Here’s a link:
Virginia is for RFID
Michael, while we’re talking about guset posts, I could gather up some data on RFID(in near future).
Rudi,
That would be more than interesting, as is your comment in this comment section by the way.
This worries me bigtime.
Hey: we’re like the Daltons!
MvdG If Holland is using RFID in ID cards you could become a successfull buissness man. A simple lead foil envelope will render cards uselees, like protecting film. Patent a lead foil card holder and your government will jail you. On the blackmarket…….
lead foil envelope? what is that exactly (protecting film? i never protect film since i never videotape).
also: if you truly want to spend more attention to it, let me know.
They make lead foil bags which are used to protect 35mm camera film from x-ray exam at the airport security lines. Similar bags will block your ID card from being read if you don’t hand it to an official.
Thanks for being practical about this Rudi. What I cannot understand is that if this would happen in America, many people would simply ignore the governemtn: civil disobedience. Here, we just let it happen.
also rudi: does it make the card stop working altogether, or just as long as you’ve got the lead foil bag with ya?
Michael, putting the lead or other shielding material around the card only makes it not work while it’s in the shielding. Take it out of the shielding, and it’s as good as new. With a proper lining in your wallet, you could control access to the RFID data, prohibiting access when the card is in your wallet, and simply taking the card out of your wallet when you need to use it.
Ha! that sounds very good! So this way it doesn’t work as long as it is in my wallet?
Ha!
MvdG Wiki has an exellent article on RFID. Wiki covers the history and technical aspects of RFID, even mention use in Dutch VIP clubs. I hope you don’t have a chip under your skin. The article doesn’t address the civil liberties problem. LOL From friends of Laura:
http://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/3/292005f.asp
There is a comment to PatHMV;s post that made a lot of sense. We are so aghast at what the government knows about us, but at least we can hope that Congress monitores the data collected and how it’s used.
In the meantime, private industry collects masses of information about all of us, and we have no idea what exactly they know and how they will use that information. The marketplace is a voracious collector of private information.
You can’t shop, visit a doctor, or order flowers for your mother without becoming part of some data base. All are vulnerable to hackers, buyers of client lists, not to metion all those clerks open to passing on information for bribes.
Privacy in this day and age is a myth.
Domajot, yes I agree. Just look at Google I’d say.
Rudi, again thnx.
Hehe! That Jon Swift guy is great!
“In France, Great Britain and Australia, the minimum wage is more than $10 an hour. But when compared with countries like Botswana, Latvia and Papua New Guinea, we are significantly overpaying our workers.”
“By significantly lowering the minimum wage below Mexico’s, we could end the immigration problem very quickly.
Some Republican Senators have an even better idea: Abolish the Federal minimum wage altogether. They sponsored a bill that would let states set their own minimum wages below the already inflated Federal minimum wage. This measure would have given states the ability to compete to see who could pay workers less, helping small businesses and attracting new businesses. Some of the poorer states in the South, for example, could set their minimum wages at zero, which would allow family farmers to pay their workers by giving them room and board or scrip instead of cash. They could import workers from places like Africa, where just earning a little food and a roof over their heads would represent a significant improvement in their living standards. The South would finally rise again with this kind of economic stimulus.
Unfortunately, this measure didn’t pass, but 28 Republican Senators voted for it, including potential Presidential candidates John McCain, Sam Brownback and Chuck Hagel, both of the Senators from Georgia, Mississippi and South Carolina, and the bill’s sponsor Wayne Allard. These Senators know that if we are going to compete with Third World economies we need to start paying Third World wages.”
Gray,
Yeah, Jon is absolutely hilarious. It’s not for nothing that I link to him so often.