Posts by Robert McMurray

My life under Estonia's digital government

Re: ID Card

Here in Germany, national ID cards have the holder's current address printed on the reverse side. This is necessary when picking up a parcel from the post office (no ID, no parcel). As a Brit, I have to flash my UK passport and my German blood-donor's card which shows my address.

If card-holders move, they go to the local town hall at their new location to register their new address (a legal requirement here) where the new address is stuck on over the old one.

My objection to residential addresses on national ID cards is that if a card is lost, it may be found by a burglar or worse.

Tangentally, the homeless - who are also obliged to have ID cards - have their cards printed with the official German version of "No fixed abode".

UK hot-swaps leaders - Brown out, Cameron in

ID Cards

It's more important that the National Idenity Register and the DNA Register be aborted than the ID cards themselves.

McKinnon a 'scapegoat for Pentagon insecurity'

‘McKinnon a 'scapegoat for Pentagon insecurity'’

The Yanks are going to burn McKinnon, Aspergers and/or skunk or not.

Remember they fry mental defectives and used to fry teenagers. Uncle Sam isn't interested in justice, Uncle Sam wants revenge for being shown up by foreigners - look at Guantanamo.

Paris, because she didn't show that much - but it was a bloody sight more interesting.

US bars ID refuseniks from planes - but not ID losers

US bars ID refuseniks from planes - but not ID losers’

All this misses the point. Homeland Security was never meant to be effective. The whole thing is no more than "actionism", designed to show the American people and the rest of the world that the US government is merely SEEN to be doing something about GWB's "tourism". There are a lot of people at higher levels of the US govt & administration who damn' well that ID-ing & fingerprinting etc. of passengers at airports won't achieve anything. But it makes damn' good publicity and is good politically.