Big Brother is here.

Taken from www.100monkeystyping.com/wlog

"What's all the fuss with the Real ID Act about? President Bush is expected to
sign an $82 billion military spending bill soon that will, in part, create electronically readable, federally approved ID cards for Americans. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the package--which includes the Real ID Act--on Thursday.
What does that mean for me? Starting three years from now, if you live or work in the United States, you'll need a federally approved ID card to travel on an airplane, open a bank account, collect Social Security payments, or take advantage of nearly any government service. Practically speaking, your driver's license likely will have to be reissued to meet federal standards."

From CNet News:

"What's going to be stored on this ID card?At a minimum: name, birth date,
sex, ID number, a digital photograph, address, and a "common machine-readable
technology" that Homeland Security will decide on. The card must also sport "physical security features designed to prevent tampering, counterfeiting, or duplication of the document for fraudulent purposes." Homeland Security is permitted to add additional requirements--such as a fingerprint or retinal scan--on top of those. We won't know for a while what these additional requirements will be."

Big Brother has been with us for a while now, but its methods are becoming more and more invasive. They're saying it will "curtail the future abuse of drivers' licenses by terrorist organizations", but we know better. It's like the Dark Side of technology. In and of itself, technology is a wonderful thing-- But what it's being used for is something entirely different. It's like Star Trek gone Nazi.

George Orwell was a genius. He may have had the year wrong, but 1984 was eerily accurate.