Write Lightning is a blog from writer Deb Thompson.
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Everyone is welcome here.
(Some links or topics may not be completely kid-appropriate.)
Mon, May 30 2005
Fingerprint Identification Shouldn't Hurt
We have another bit of biometric security fun to make moving about more difficult, and even painful, in my case. If the government decides to use the fingerprint matching system for things other than incoming immigration, I dread it. If we end up using it for voting or filing taxes or domestic flight someday I'm going to see if I can get a permanent dispensation. Every time I go to the DMV or some other place where they want that live thumbprint thing I hold up the line for ages while they try and try again to get a decent reading. Finally someone ends up grabbing my thumb and smashing it onto the scanning window so hard that it cuts off my circulation and makes my thumb turn purple. And even their brute force method fails on three out of four passes.
And now I read that the very thin skin that makes electronic fingerprint reading so difficult will apparently also place me in a category of people highly sought after in terrorist recruitment. That probably means the government will want to keep an eye on me even more. It's bad enough that people are always telling me that they saw me in the airport and that I didn't speak to them. I just have that kind of face. I've always wondered how long it would be before my face was like that of some criminal who showed up on "America's Most Wanted". Now I'm going to have fingerprints like those of terrorists.
I always wondered why many country singers shunned air travel and opted instead for a bus. Now I'm thinking of asking a few of them if I can hitch a ride now and then.
posted at: 07:46 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
We have another bit of biometric security fun to make moving about more difficult, and even painful, in my case. If the government decides to use the fingerprint matching system for things other than incoming immigration, I dread it. If we end up using it for voting or filing taxes or domestic flight someday I'm going to see if I can get a permanent dispensation. Every time I go to the DMV or some other place where they want that live thumbprint thing I hold up the line for ages while they try and try again to get a decent reading. Finally someone ends up grabbing my thumb and smashing it onto the scanning window so hard that it cuts off my circulation and makes my thumb turn purple. And even their brute force method fails on three out of four passes.
And now I read that the very thin skin that makes electronic fingerprint reading so difficult will apparently also place me in a category of people highly sought after in terrorist recruitment. That probably means the government will want to keep an eye on me even more. It's bad enough that people are always telling me that they saw me in the airport and that I didn't speak to them. I just have that kind of face. I've always wondered how long it would be before my face was like that of some criminal who showed up on "America's Most Wanted". Now I'm going to have fingerprints like those of terrorists.
I always wondered why many country singers shunned air travel and opted instead for a bus. Now I'm thinking of asking a few of them if I can hitch a ride now and then.
posted at: 07:46 | category: /Politics | link to this entry
