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Tuesday's real weekend news - Identification card scanners - a new wave of proliferation
This entry was posted on 7/8/2008 8:41 PM and is filed under Tuesday's Real Weekend News,Data-mining,Fortress Entertainment,That Darn Orwell,Privacy.
The people that are the handlers of our nation and many states have been working overtime arguing for years now as to what level of our personal data is fair game for governments and business to collect. It is enough to make a working guy's head spin. But something on a more local level is creeping into the smaller urban areas of Wisconsin - the identification card scanner.
There is a tavern I eat lunch at once in a while. I also partake in their food at supper time now and then. It is my hang out now, if you will. It is not my neighborhood bar that is the problem. It is the larger, supposedly hip, sports-dance-everything-meatshop-bar next door that has me worried. Recently they have instituted an identification scanner at the door. Swipe your drivers' license or identification card, or you don't get in. "No problem," you say - because you are 55 years old. "Let the young patrons eat cake," you say.
Wrong, great Orwellian angst Batman! Everyone has to be scanned - even an old gray-bearded Harley ridd'n, but graduate school educated, cynic like me. It has bothered me for a couple months after I wandered in there one day as my tavern does not have a pool table.
"Run your ID through the scanner sir," the Bouncer said and grinned. He could not spell "cat" if you spotted him the "c" and the "t."
"Why? I asked.
"Just run it or leave," he said still grinning.
"Are you selling the data?" I asked.
"Whaa-a-a-a? he giggled.
"I'll have my attorney give you a call," I said and grinned back.
"A whaa-a-a-a...hey man?!" he said as I laughed at him and walked back to my "sane" tavern next door.
In retrospect, I am lucky he did not shove the scanner up my rectum. Anyway, here is an old article from Wired Magazine when they suspected a problem over four years ago " Great Taste, Less Privacy."
Wisconsin military service person of the week
Army Specialist Bert E. Hoyer, 23, an Army Reservist died Wednesday, March 10, 2004 in an explosion when his convoy was ambushed in a roadside bombing in Baqubah, north of Baghdad. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Hoyer was a 1999 graduate of Ellsworth High School. He enlisted in the Army Reserves while he was a student at Vermilion Community College in Ely, Minnesota. There he was studying wildlife management and had one semester left. Hoyer shipped out to Iraq in April 2003. According to the Journal Sentinel, Bert enjoyed writing back to kids who had been writing to soldiers in Iraq. The 652nd is described as a bridge and road engineering unit that had built bridges in Baghdad and across the Tigris River. Another Wisconsin soldier previously killed in Iraq from the 652nd was Sargent 1st Class Dan Gabrielson, 40, of Frederic. Two soldiers from the Michigan detachment of the 652nd have also been killed in Iraq. Specialist Hoyer is the fourth person from the 652nd Engineer Company to die in Iraq. Hoyer is survived by his parents, and a younger brother and sister. Specialist Bert E. Hoyer was the 11th military service person from Wisconsin to die in Iraq since the beginning of the war.
As of this blog entry's posting date:
85,325 Iraqi civilians have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
8,406 Iraqi Security Forces have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
4,115 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
533 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
314 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
331 Coalition soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
30,275 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
2,134 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
90 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
10 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
129 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.
15 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.
Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; washingtonpost.com; thehighground.org; Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs; iraqbodycount.org; and, icasualties.org.
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