Biometric National ID

John R. Houk

© January 12, 2011

Remember the push for a National ID card? Congress actually passed into law for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to develop a National ID card. The ID card is to be implemented through State Driver’s Licenses. The process was through individual Sate data corruption under guidelines originating from the legislation with specificity provided by DHS. This all began thanks to Congress in 2005. The DHS mandate for State compliance was in 2007. That deadline has come and passed with NOT one State cooperating with the REAL ID Act of 2005. There have been a few extensions since 2007. The latest extension I found is May 10, 2011. The issue has been a combination of Civil Liberties, flawed data bases for the nature of the requirement with the REAL ID ACT and State refusal to comply with the REAL ID Act.

Now I see the plusses and minuses of having a National ID card. Without looking up the pro-ID card people I can some plusses would be some greater scrutiny of illegal aliens, placing blood type and other medical information that may needed in case of emergency and/or perhaps other pertinent information that is noninvasive for it is knowable via open public records anyway.

There are a number of minuses I could dwell on including the betrayal of my privacy by Federal, State, County and City government agencies that is none of the government’s business. I live in Oklahoma. When I updated my Driver’s License last year I discovered a new thing Oklahoma initiated. No ifs, ands or buts; in order to receive an Oklahoma Driver’s License I had to make a digital thumb print available to the Department of Motor Vehicles. I took a moment to think about that because I realized if I had been in a place a crime had been committed obviously leaving my fingerprints around, I would be on a suspect list even though I had nothing or inkling that a crime was committed. I have to tell you that annoyed me. I was in a moment of “now or never” because of the inconvenience of having to come back if I decided to comply with this infringement. I submitted. My submission to the rules is something every Oklahoman has probably followed through with even with doubts about information about a body part was now a permanent record with the State government of Oklahoma and by extension also any Federal agency that had data access. Probably only the most stalwart of Oklahomans with their civil rights and personal information refused the thumb print process. Those rare and brave individuals are driving illegally with no Driver’s License even though they are stalwart citizens.

The thumb print reignited an issue that was going around with Christians in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s. That issue was the Federal government going to a cashless society and having the ability to tag individuals with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chip to track or to make available one’s personal information. I became a Born Again Christian in 1978 so that stuff really affected my psyche at the time.

Here we are in 2011 and all those predictions for the 1980’s that proved false, are seemingly a heartbeat away from reality. In the REAL ID Act there is talk of utilizing biometrics as part of National data base that will be collated from all the States Driver’s License data. Friends this is more than simply personal information which is bad enough. Biometrics would embed facial recognition into your Driver’s License which would merge into a Federal data base for the government to track you.

I had to recall the revelations of the Apocalypse of John which speaks of the mark of the Beast being utilized for all business. It sounds a lot like the biometric Driver’s License is a step toward the embedding of RFID technology in humans which could evolve into a national data base then an international data base mingle with the possibility of a couple of people hailed as peace makers globally and demonizing the existence of Christianity as a threat to world peace. Check it out:

15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or[a] the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.

8 And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon[a] is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
9 Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”

19 And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. 20 Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone.

2 He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; 3 and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while.

4 And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them. Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ for a[a] thousand years. 5 But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. ([Emphasis Mine] Revelation 13:15-18; Revelation 14:8-11; Revelation 19:19-20; Revelation 20:2-5 NKJV)

Is “the mark of the Beast” a literal “666”? Personally I think not, I believe “the mark” of “666” was a Biblical representation of a future digital mark that may not even be visible to the naked eye. I am not going to fall into the trap that those Christian folks’ of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s fell into by predicting approximate or specific times or dates of the coming Tribulation, any Rapture(s) or the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. That stuff causes doubt and unbelief and adds to the amount of the deceived who exchange the glory of God for an angel dressed in Light which is really a representative of Satan’s darkness undoubtedly painted as Secular Humanism. Nonetheless, the Lord did tell us to be watchful of the signs of times AND those signs are evidence of the Last Days.

Regardless the good intentions of the plusses of a National Identity card, you have got to know the minuses either in the present or the future have notorious potential for wicked misuse by human government. I don’t know about you but I am not hip with the government knowing my actions, location or purchasing habits. Even if some of those aspects are presently available for use today in diverse manners due to the lack of the centralizing of data. At least if the data is multiple and divided, government tracking would be slowed down for good citizens or good Christians deemed as bad citizens or SECOND Amendment Conservative law abiding citizens deemed as gun toting Right Wing extremists. Right Wing extremists are those that build up caches of weapons to overthrow the government because of the outright hatred of the national system (e.g. Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists or Skin Heads etc.) or those who have grown weary of the abuse of the Constitution or their interpretation of the Constitution and are preparing to either defending the Constitution against Left Wing abuse or are preparing for a perceived chaos resulting from the dissolving of Constitutional government (e.g. Militia Separatists or  apocalyptic religious groups).

It is a surprise to Leftists; most Right Wingers DO NOT and HAVE NO affiliation with any of these groups of extremists in America. To the surprise of Right Wingers; most American Leftists have no actual affiliation to militant extremist Lefties. The days of the Weathermen and Symbionese Liberation Army are not as prevalent today but still do exist.

Biometric tracking should be a concern to America’s Left and Right. Privacy and Civil Liberties are the issue.

JRH 1/12/11