Re: National I.D. Cards

[wcs@anchor.ho.att.com (bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204)]

Brian writes:
>  It would seem we are missing a point about having National I.D.
> cards. The rest of the world seems ready to rush in and adopt some
> form of "Clipper" chips to monitor their own citizens. (There doing
> it in the U.S.!) Do we really doubt they will adopt "The Card" as
> well? (don't leave home without it!)
> 
> Step 2: International I.D. Cards......
> 
>  Can you say "New World Order?" Sure you can.......

Various other people write:
> But what about the tourists?

But we've had *international* ones for years.  Passports.
Go visit Morocco, or Egypt, or other places with heavy-duty bureaucracies,
especially *French* bureaucracies, and you'll find you need to show
your passport or National ID Card to stay in a hotel or change money;
some of those places even have the beginnings of computer infrastructure
to let them coordinAte that information.  Disgusting, but all too common.
In Egypt, they stick paper stamps like postage stamps on all the paperwork
to show you've paid the fees.

We've escaped that stuff for a long time (not surprising, considering
how upset some of our ancestors got about a 3% tax on tea...),
but we could join the rest of the world just about the time they're
giving it up....