Catching up on news (actually, I stream BBC News anyway), and I’m enjoying reading about the following little beauties from the past week:
- Fingerprinting people going into bars and clubs. The UK government are trialling this service because, if we put everything everybody does into a giant wankerbase then we can track them in every part of their lives.
- Monitoring your every movement. The UK government wants to add GPS-trackers into every car to calculate tax based on driving pattern. In theory, not a bad idea, but unfortunately another source for the government mega-wankerbase to track your life, citizen. No privacy guarantees being mentioned (and of course they won’t bother with that).
- Banning fireworks. Several MPs are looking into banning private firework sales in the UK, because a small number of people are fucking idiots. The feeling is that the little people should go to officially organized events (where I guess they can watch you more easily, too) instead of having a few fireworks at home. What a fucking stupid idea.
- Blair wants to fingerprint/DNA everyone at birth. Yup, this one came up again this week – the government wants a giant wankerbase storing records on every newborn citizen so that they can more easily track people from cradle to grave. And remember, if you start doing it from birth, you can brainwash people into thinking this is the status quo.
Anyway. Don’t worry, fellow Brittons. You can spend your time criticising the US and other countries – or you could wake up and smell the coffee (smell that liberty being burned all around you) and realise where the UK government is heading too all in the name of making us safe from ourselves.
Jon.
As I mentioned to you many times before, your beloved Democrats want exactly the same things.
I have a couple of easy tests for your love of freedom:
#1: Driver’s License provides no safety benefit and is only a tracking device for the Big Government. As such it has to be abolished. Agree/Disagree.
In this test, you get bonus points for demonstrating the understanding between concepts of Certificate (that a particular individual is qualified to drive) and License (that PERMITS to drive).
#2: The .50 cal rifle never killed anyone and was never used in any crimes, either before or after it was banned. Thus, it presents no public safety hazard and the ban has to be lifted. Agree/Disagree.
Hi Pete,
Ok. So I guess we can agree on some things
1. I don’t “Agree” that the drivers license is pointless BUT I will Agree that its use has been abused. RealID and similar legislation is extremely damaging (it’s not as bad as the UK equivalents) and so in general is the need to use ID for most purposes for which it is claimed to be necessary. For example, purchasing alcohol should at most require a card with my photo and a mark that I’m over 21 (or whatever). The only person who has a need to know my inside leg measurement is my tailor (and I don’t currently have one of those).
2. I’ve said before that – from a freedom point of view – I am opposed to making guns illegal. This is solely on the grounds that it restricts personal freedoms. However, I like to think that I’m (at least somewhat occasionally) a sane person, so I understand and believe in the need for gun control on some level. Whether a specific kind of gun should be allowed or not is something I’m not going to comment on – mostly because debating gun control normally results in me having variously heated arguments with myself.
Jon.
I took the family to blackpool the other day and had to go through a metal detector to enter the pleasure beach. This is an example of false security because I set off every alarm going and the ’security’ guard only asked to see what was in a single pocket.
I put a full courier bag next to the scanner and picked it up on the other side without it even being opened. I have three chains on my wallet and was wearing a studded belt so I wasn’t surprised when the metal detectors went off. I showed the security guy the belt and chains and shugged my shoulders expecting a quick scan with the hand scanner instead he was only interested in what was in one of my pockets. I pulled a single key out of my pocket to show it was a bunch of keys and was waved through. I could have taken anything in (and indead did take a 2″ blade as part of a multitool on my keyring. But I bet everyone felt safe and sound inside knowing people couldn’t possibilly have taken weapons or bombs in with them.
The only thing the so called security did is promote a sense of wellbeing in the punters which is all well and good but I could have taken a bomb in with me and I am pretty sure all the work done getting the public to identify bags and packages left in public places over the last 30 years would be undone by false security.
The Today show this morning was talking about how difficult it is to get yourself off the DNA database again today. At least once a month this story is on while I am doing the school run and get’s me wound up.