Your Papers Please...

Check out this article in our local rag the Daily Camera (Leysia calls it “the Boulder Newsletter”) about the government's program called the Clear Card:

Airline Passengers eye fast lane

So, here's the government strategy:

1. Take advantage of 9/11 to impose a lot of useless security measures that don't make us safer but provide the illusion of "security": this is called "security theatre".

2. Wait for these security measures to become so onerous and stupid (see here for an article on how the TSA detained a 5 year old boy recently) that people will do anything, including giving up their civil liberties, to avoid the long lines caused by these procedures.

3. Offer a "fast track" approach to getting through security at the airport, all the citizen has to do is "register" their information with the government.

With the above program and the impending disaster of the Real-Id program, we will soon have reached the point in the USA that was achieved back in Nazi germany, when the SS would ask everyone they met for “your papers please”…

The country I grew up respecting and admiring, the USA, is slowly slipping away. Its a tragedy and makes me wonder how I'm going to protect my children as they grow older and our society grows more and more totalitarian.