Musings of a Drunken Monk: Individual Entry Archive

I'm not denying that the national Republican Party has gone mad. I'm merely stating that by "mad" I mean just what you've said. Thing is, though, the whole federal g'vt has gone mad(der). It's not just Republicans voting for crap like this.

Also, you're totally a libertarian.

Yeah, I do agree on that last comment--the whole damn government has gone mad. When 100 senators can unanimously pass this thing many of them knowing full well that it was in the legislation (several are quoted saying as much AND saying that they in fact opposed this tidbit) and they still didn't even stand up and say "wait a minute!", then it basically proves that the law-making process is broken.
So, at this point, do we blame the politicians because they haven't fixed the broken-system, or do we blame ourselves because one way or another we allow it to continue?

You know, I should followup by saying that I don't completely disagree with the concept of unified identity managment and authentication. As an IT guy, it's one of those things that makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, as with the IT-world, it's not at all easy to implement in a useful, secure, and non-abusable way.

System designers spend years talking about the details of making things like this work. My fear is that by passing a law that tries to "design" a system in a few paragraphs by simply declaring that it will happen, we basically open the federal government up to being able to do whatever they want with it. I'd love to think that they would actually bring in the world's best talent to design and implement this properly and for the good of all, but we all know that the federal government doesn't have a good track record on such activities. These days, I certainly don't trust the federal government to do something properly for the "good of all". Heck, if they did, we would be too much like one of those OTHER forms of government. :-)

Oh, and although I'm no good at analyzing political viewpoints, I wouldn't take the Libertarian comment as an insult, but more of a compliment. I've been told the same thing on multiple occasions...

Hmm. I never thought much about libertarians because my environmental views are completely at odds with the views I've typically seen espoused in libertarianism.

Anyway, it's pathetic how the system is obviously no longer working. People (pretty much Democrats and a few Republicans who haven't gone insane) were pretty much forced to vote for the bill even if they didn't like the RealID addition. This is what happened to John Kerry with the whole "he voted for the war and then changed his mind!" debacle. If anyone had voted against giving money to tsunami victims or the troops in Iraq he'd be on the receiving end of shrill conservative "terroristo!" cries. It's a disgusting, lose-lose situation.

On second thought, though, it occurred to me that many of the uber-conservative who voted for Bush would love this bill. It keeps "all those wetbacks and towelheads" out of the country. Three cheers for ignorant nationalism.

"It keeps 'all those wetbacks and towelheads' out of the country."

I can't actually see it doing too much better of a job at this than the current system. Sure, it in theory cuts down on illegal immigration, but we'll see what happens.

what's a "wetback"?

what's a "wetback"?

You're kidding right?

Well in case you (or anyone else) don't know, it's a pretty bad slur meaning Latin American (I think?) immigrants. I think illegal but I'm not sure. Not really willing to research it so much.

..well at least I've seen Office Space already ;)

Justin is correct about "wetbacks." I think it may actually be specific to Mexican illegals. I believe it stems from having "wet backs" from running across the river into Texas.