"I Will Not Be Pushed, Filed, Stamped, Indexed, Briefed, Debriefed Or Numbered. My Life Is My Own."

Dec 4, 2009

Meet Angela Epstein, the idiot who celebrates her status as the first person in the United Kingdom to be branded with the Mark of the Beast as a "historic moment for democracy."

Having been invited by the Home Office to be the first member of the public to receive a national identity card this week, I found myself being fingerprinted at Manchester`s passport offices as part of the process. …

[S]ome ventured that as a Jew I must be all too familiar with the sinister wartime echoes of having to prove identity. Why didn’t my skin prickle at the very thought of carrying an ID card?

Why didn't it indeed? Now, wherever Ms. Epstein goes, her government and all of the corporations with which she deals will know what Ms. Epstein is doing. Ms. Espstein is fine with that, because only the guilty have something to hide.

Personally, I cannot see what there is to lose — and there’s certainly everything to gain. An ID card is a portable, convenient way to prove your identity without having to carry something like a passport with you — which is murder to replace if you lose it.

I'm surprised Ms. Epstein's philo-semitic friends haven't told her that for millions of Jews outside Germany, a passport wasn't a document allowing international travel.

And if it’s another weapon in the fight against identity fraud, illegal workers and terrorism, then that can only be for the good.

And if it's another weapon in the fight against people who want to preserve some level of privacy, to be left alone, and not to be tracked 24 hours a day, expect willing serfs like Angela Epstein to agree that can only be for the good as well.

This is the problem with the western left: They can see a noose with perfect clarity when the hangman is a conservative. But when the noose is placed by their fellow leftists, they'll call it a necktie every time.

Via Geeklawyer.

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18 Comments

Nanny State, privacy

17 Comments

Geeklawyer • Dec 4, 2009 @9:54 am

Excellent commentary with one small flaw:The British Labour party is no loner a Socialist party, and hasn't been so since the early 1990's. Re-branded as "New Labour" by Tony Blair it is nicknamed Neo-Labour to reflect it's current "more right-wing than Maggie Thatcher" political values.
Charles • Dec 4, 2009 @11:59 am

I don't want a national ID card that I must carry at all times either but I still feel like I'm reading a Chick tract.
Patrick • Dec 4, 2009 @12:19 pm

Charles, did it occur to you that the reference to the mark of the beast might not have been utterly serious?

I recommend that you read David Denby's Snark: It's Mean, It's Personal, and It's Ruining Our Conversation. You and Denby probably have a lot in common.
Charles • Dec 4, 2009 @3:22 pm

I figured the mark of the beast for a Chick reference. The whole thing still felt like a Chick tract.
Linus • Dec 4, 2009 @3:45 pm

The whole thing still felt like a Chick tract.

Why?
Charles • Dec 4, 2009 @4:06 pm

"willing serfs", "leftists" … what started as a parodic tone didn't seem out of place with the rest of it.
Patrick • Dec 4, 2009 @4:07 pm

That's just hyperbole on Charles's part. At least I hope it is.

To write a Chick tract post, I'd need to go well beyond my current paranoia, to mention that the Catholic Church is really a satanic cannibal cult, that all contemporary music is a front for atheism, and to discuss eschatology.

But on the off chance Charles is serious, I don't hold his provincialism against him. He's a New Yorker.
Patrick • Dec 4, 2009 @4:10 pm

And Charles, how would you characterize a person who is so proud to be fitted with the state's equivalent of a dog collar that she writes an op-ed encouraging others to do the same?

"Willing serf" is actually more temperate than what I originally planned to call her.
Charles • Dec 4, 2009 @8:20 pm

Hyperbole, sure, but something about the tone just didn't sit right. And I didn't know what to make of the Denby remark, especially because I think it has Denby totally backwards. He'd be mad at me for the hit and run in the comments, not at you for flaying a serf.
Base of the Pillar • Dec 6, 2009 @6:43 am

Well, thankfully, the UK is known for preserving civil rights in the face of adversity, such as The Troubles. So I can't see how this could possibly go wrong.
gbasden • Dec 6, 2009 @1:45 pm

I don't mean to be contrary, and I'm certainly willing to be educated, but I don't see how this is significantly different from the status quo. I have to show my government issued drivers license constantly, and my government issued passport is used frequently. Why is the idea of a government issued ID card so different than what we have now?
Base of the Pillar • Dec 6, 2009 @3:36 pm

I never use my federally issued passport when traveling within my country. I don't need a state issued drivers license unless I choose the privilege of driving nor does said drivers license require me to get fingerprinted. And after that, I only need to display said drivers license if I get into trouble or am electing to use a privilege.

But above and beyond all that, what does one gain through a federally issued ID? The federal government gains quite a lot. And the most insidious words are often spoken to support the national stamp of approval: well, only those guilty wouldn't submit to such a burden.
DMG • Dec 7, 2009 @10:39 am

Let's see if I can get blockquotes right for a change….

This would have been an excellent time to pull out the old "fasicsts of the left and right" line. Note that US rightists had no problem with the noose when it was in Bush's hands but have now become enlightened thanks to it being the hands of a black, Muslim socialist.
DMG • Dec 7, 2009 @10:40 am

I meant to include this quote.

This is the problem with the western left: They can see a noose with perfect clarity when the hangman is a conservative. But when the noose is placed by their fellow leftists, they’ll call it a necktie every time.
Patrick • Dec 7, 2009 @11:33 am

Absolutely DMG, but this isn't a post about right fascists. It's about left fascists, or as Geeklawyer points out, nominally left corporatists who've sold out to Big Surveillance Camera.

This ain't Fox News. I don't need to trot out some Alan Colmes to whine, "yes, but…" when I want to bash the left.
DMG • Dec 7, 2009 @11:51 am

I didn't mean to imply that you're required to do anything of the sort. I wasn't a regular reader here until recently, so from now on I'll just assume there was similar bashing when the right was in power (at least in the US) and leave it at that.
Patrick • Dec 7, 2009 @12:53 pm

We tend to balance out DMG. I lean right, but I'm right libertarian verging on anarchist. Ezra is a sort of squishy socialist with occasional syndicalist leanings. Ken is a sensible, moderate libertarian, who would have included a reference to Ann Coulter or something. Charles balances us out by his infinite faith in government, and his infinite distrust of corporations.

SO, I will point out that many Republicans, and probably the Conservative Party (to stay on topic) think national identity cards are a wonderful idea. Many of our readers, like gbasden, don't see what the big deal is. And while they're all probably correct, I at least am unhappy at the idea that I might have to wear an ID tag or be microchipped.

I own dogs. I know exactly what the card signifies. That some dogs tout the advantages of leashes, tags, and microchips doesn't mean they aren't property. They just resent it when other dogs remind them that they're property.