Homeland Security Update

[beemaster]

We all know it's getting tougher to do anything. Flying is almost NOT worth the trip and personally I have no intention to ever leave the United States, although I know I'll be missing most of the natural and artist beauty by my own fear of flying beyond our borders. Here is a comical (yet scarey) vision of where Homeland Security can take us. Don't think that the technology isn't already in place, it's just a matter of when they flip on the switch.

ORDERING PIZZA IN 2006

This is so close to what is probably going to be happening in 2008 that
we're not sure how funny this really is...

Operator: Thank you for calling Pizza Hut.  May I have your national ID
number?

Customer: Hi, I'd like to place an order.

Operator: I must have your NIDN first, sir.

Customer: My National ID Number, yeah, hold on, eh, it's
6102049998-45-54610.

Operator: Thank you Mr. Sheehan.  I see you live at 1742 Meadowland Drive, and the phone number is 494-2366. Your office number over at Lincoln Insurance is 745-2302 and your cell number is 266-2566.  Email address is
sheehan@home.net. Which number are you calling from sir?

Customer: Huh? I'm at home.  Where'd you get all this information?

Operator: We're wired into the HSS, sir.

Customer: The HSS, what is that?

Operator: We're wired into the Homeland Security System, sir. This will add only 15 seconds to your ordering time.

Customer: (sighs) Oh well,  I'd like to order a couple of your All-Meat
Special pizzas.

Operator: I don't think that's a good idea, sir.

Customer: Whaddya mean?

Operator: Sir, your medical records and commode sensors indicate that you've got very high blood pressure and extremely high cholesterol. Your National Health Care provider won't allow such an unhealthy choice.

Customer: What?!?! What do you recommend, then?

Operator: You might try our low-fat Soybean Pizza.   I'm sure you'll like
it.

Customer: What makes you think I'd like something like that?

Operator: Well, you checked out 'Gourmet Soybean Recipes' from your local library last week, sir. That's why I made the suggestion.

Customer: All right, all right.  Give me two family-sized one's, then.

Operator: That should be plenty for you, your wife and your four kids. Your 2 dogs can finish the crusts, sir. Your total is $49.99.

Customer: Lemme give you my credit card number.

Operator: I'm sorry sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to pay in cash. Your credit card balance is over its limit.

Customer: I'll run over to the ATM and get some cash before your driver gets here.

Operator: That won't work either, sir. Your checking account is overdrawn
also.

Customer: Never mind! Just send the pizzas. I'll have the cash ready. How long will it take?

Operator: We're running a little behind, sir. It'll be about 45 minutes,
sir. If you're in a hurry you might want to pick'em up while you're out getting the cash, but then, carrying pizzas on a motorcycle can be a little awkward.

Customer: Wait! How do you know I ride a scooter?

Operator: It says here you're in arrears on your car payments, so your car got repo'ed. But your Harley's paid for and you just filled the tank yesterday.

Customer: Well, I'll be a #%#^^&$%^$@#

Operator: I'd advise watching your language, sir. You've already got a July 4, 2003, conviction for cussing out a cop and another one I see here in September for contempt at your hearing for cussing at a judge.  Oh yes, I see here that you just got out from a 90 day stay in the State Correctional Facility. Is this your first pizza since your return to society?

Customer: (speechless)

Operator: Will there be anything else, sir?

Customer: Yes, I have a coupon for a free 2 liter of Coke.

Operator: I'm sorry sir, but our ad's exclusionary clause prevents us from
offering free soda to diabetics. The New Constitution prohibits this. Thank
you for calling Pizza Hut.

[Beth Kirkley]

All I can say is....

oh my

[buzz]

Man, it would be really sad if it was ever actually like that.

[TwT]

eye opening, makes you think ha!

[Jerrymac]

Many of us paranoid conspiracy theorist have been preaching it for years. Nobody listens.

But then he doesn't spread the word either.

[BigRog]

As BigRog searches online for his own pizza oven.............

[Kris^]

Here's a scary reality:

The chinese food place I used to order delivery from once sent me a Happy Birthday postcard advertisement -- right near my birthday!  I only ever gave them my phone number and address, nothing more.  Not even my name.  Freaked me out!  

-- Kris

[golfpsycho]

It's already there.  File an OJI report at the workplace.  Enter the employee soc.  Every scrap of information  regarding his or her employment is in there, ncluding the dates and details of previous jobs, pay scale, time and amount of raises, family members.  You name it.. it's in there.  It's another database, but I'm sure the medical and perscription purchases are accessible as well.

And they told us.. the social security number would not be used for identification... George Orwell was right.  It won't be long before you can't get a job because your health prospects indicate you will miss X amount of time, or are uninsurable, or any number of other things.  And thats just the beginning

[eivindm]

slashdot.org had a story about Abika, and according to slashdot, this is not humbug.  

here is what Abika say they offer:
- Background Checks, Personality Profiles
- Trace IP Address. Source of Emails, Instant Messages
- Locate Anyone's Computer, ebay User Background Checks
- Cell, Unlisted or Disconnected Phone Number Searches
- Monthly Call Activity, Reverse Phone Search, Trace Calls
- License Plate Search,   Driving History, Trace Cars
- Drivers License Information and Vehicle History Reports
- Search Criminal Records by State, County or Federal
- Nationwide and International Criminal histories
- Tax Records, Mortgage and Lien Records, Evictions
- Home Values, Property Photos & Sales History
- Trace People from their Picture or Online UserNames

OK. some of these are open services in Norway too, like license plate search, but together, they can tell a lot about a person.

[BigRog]

I love my country,
But I fear my goverment.

[Jerrymac]

Isn't technology a wonderful thing?

Ben Franklen said, "Those who are willing to give up their liberty to attain a little temporary saftey, deserve neither liberty or saftey."

Do people live in fear as much as the media says it does? As the world gets smaller due to the technology advances, the bad guys are crowded in tighter with the good guys. And all the shivering masses want's someone to protect them. Yet they do not want to change their way of doing things. There fore the governments will jump on the situation and impliment more laws and find more ways to keep an eye on everybody. How many times have you heard this, "If you are doing nothing wrong, you don't need to worry about it." Well yeah that is true. If a person does absolutly nothing that is against the law then he/she has nothing to fear from the law. And why should they care if their whole life can be brought up on a computer screen with the push of a button? One is incompasitated and the EMS enters the persons name and has access to his whole medical history. Could save his/her life, A car is stolen. Just track it down via satillite, and possibly even catch the bad guys in the act.

And yes they do have those little chips that can be injected under the skin. All the time the conspiracy theorist were warning of this, and everyone was denighing it, there was some research going on somewhere in California. Then I read somewhere a few years back that it has been released for use in pets. Now if your pet runs away you can find it the same way you find your stolen vehicle.

Children being abducted. A devastating thing to happen to anyone. Finally someone came up with the Amber alert. Then they started a program where your child is fingure printed. All for the purpose of finding the child should he/she ever be kidnapped. If all goes well with this program we will have a whole generation's fingure prints on file for the rest of their life. I feel it won't be long before the chips for pets is soon placed in children at birth, just in case they should get lost or stolen sometime in their life.

Still what is wrong with all of that? Nothing to fear until one breaks the law, and now it is getting easier and easier to catch the bad guys. Should make us all feel really safe. Don't you feel it?

What is the name of that movie where they have these people that can sense someone is going to commit a murder and they go arrest the person before they commit any crime. What happens when we are all reduced down to numbers and some computer program runs all these numbers and comes up with names of people who are most likely to commit a crime, what sort of crime they will commit, and when they are most likely to do it. Won't that be a gas?

Ahh, the remote speed detection devises and cameras. When they get spread out across the country won't we all feel safer out driving on the highways and byways? I can just see someone that never ever broke one traffic law in their life. (Mythical beast) Just toolin' down the highway in colorful Colorado and is over come by the beauty of it all as he is going down a hill. While looking at all of natures wonders he lets the gravity increase his speed, then realizing he is going too fast slows the car down and continues on his way. He gets back home from his trip a few days later to find a speeding ticket in his mailbox. Don't we all feel secure knowing another wreckless driver has been justly punished.

Why shouldn't the government micro-manage our lives? I can just see the health patrol showing up at my door forcing me to do those exercises I keep putting off. The health food Association out buying my groceries because I continually want my steak and taters. May we all be restricted in doing things that are dangerouse to us, all in for the sake of saving taxpayers money on health care. I have to ask, when did it become the governments business to protect me from high colesterol? When did I ever ask for the tax payers to pay my hospital bills. I must have been asleep.

So you don't want people coming over here and blowing up our buildings and killing our people. In order to do that we have to have a way to track these people, find out who they are, and what they are doing. In order to do that a system has to be set up to keep tabs on everybody. For who knows when someone is gonna snap and blow up the FBI office in Oklahoma City. Did he do it or was it a government conspiracy so they could put more of the "people watch" system in place. For that matter, was it our own government that took out the world trade center so they can start watching more people.

So do we want safety or do we want our privacy?

[Jay]

Yes it was Ben Franklin and the quote was:
" Those who are willing to give up their liberty to attain a little temporary saftey, deserve neither liberty or saftey. "

[Jerrymac]

Thanks Jay,

I will go correct it.

[beemaster]

I've said this before (not sure if in this posting or not) that I am FOR DNA sampling of every new born, if not all of us. I believe that in a single generation it could solve nearly EVERY crime - both the victum could be identified and the criminal (who always leaves something behind) could be identified.

I don't think that if it is done to EVERYONE that it is a violation of anyone's rights. I am finger printed, have been for the last 2 jobs I have had - is THAT a violation of my rights?

I think that DNA sampling would be a great deterent toward crime and it would end the heartbreak that so many families go through when a child or loved one is missing and when a body is found. Sometimes you need to give up something to get something.

I believe that having a DNA database used as the Finger Print Database is today is a good use of technology. Everythng in life has drawbacks, but when you weigh the good and the bad, if good wins then you have gained not lost.

I have read about DNA "SNIFFERS" just like bomb sniffers in airports, which will literally SMELL a person and register their DNA - is THAT a violation of privacy too???

Sorry, I'm a conspiracy kinda guy, you all know I love a good "Area 51 at Roswell. JFK Cover-up, or other conspiracy story" but at sometime in our lives, we need to realize that ALL THINGS are not negative and could actually have positive expectations. The scarey part of course is not WHAT the technology can do, but WHO has control of the technology - that may be a very different issue, but I stand by my belief that we need to somehow identify all people for catastrophic purposes.

Imagine if in the Tsunami if DNA sampling had been commonplace. We would have known the names of tens of thousands of people who were buried in mass graves. Isn't there a point where knowing is worth giving up a degree of privacy.

I do know that if a single eyelash found at the sight where something tragic happened to a family member could point to the guilty, that DNA sampling helped put the person behind bars.

Lastly, at the VERY LEAST EVERY SINGLE IMPRISONED MAN AND WOMAN should have their DNA tested and filed. Eventually, all evidence could be sampled from unsolved crimes and finally people could sleep at night knowing the trash that harmed their loved ones are put away where the belong for the rest of their miserable lives.

[leominsterbeeman]

All the sales guys in  my office went to an internal sales conference last week and they had  to wear an nTAG device around their neck.  

The nTAG tracked when they entered and left conferences - ie; did they skip out and go golfing.  
It tracked how many new contacts they made with their peers.  They had to give feedback on the conference presentations on it.
It sent them messages about the people they were meeting, and
after I read the ntag website, I saw that it did a lot more.   The creepy thing about it, is the other information that it could collect about you.  For example, if you frequently sit with the same people during a conference session ; ie; you weren't networking enough.  

http://www.ntag.com

It's kind of spooky, it has some benifits, but this could easily be turned around and in a few years to work against you.  I didn't like the fact that someone could draw the wrong conclusion about you without knowing you.    For example;  one guy in our office has to walk with crutches and someone also carries his stuff for him.  but if you didn't know that, you would only see that these two guys were are every session togetther and never networked with their peers.