From the ArcaMax Publishing, Automotive Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/automotive/s-563424-159104
Now they'll be fingerprinting us for jaywalking. Or "speeding." Just
about any (formerly minor) traffic violation. Beginning in the
once-fine state of Tennessee. Southerners, it appears, are becoming
just as statist as the Yankee carpetbaggers they used to (rightly)
despise.
Two bills have made their way through the rancid colon of the TN House
and Senate, HB2220 and SB2153, respectively, that would "...
authorize(s) use of fingerprints as (a) form of acknowledgement, in
lieu of, or in addition to, a person's signature for citations and
certain other notices and documents." (See http://www.capitol.tn.gov
and type in the bill numbers.)
In plain language, when you get pulled over or stopped by a cop for
some trivial reason such as doing 5 mph over the limit in a Radar Trap
Zone, the cop - at his discretion - may compel you, the offender, to
submit to being fingerprinted "in lieu of, or in addition to" your
signature on the summons.
Tennessee's tyranny is the first such action of its kind in these
forcibly united States - and has aroused a popular groundswell of
resentment and resistance. Understandably.
Fingerprinting starts with an "F" - because generally, the accepted
practice has been that only felons, or those accused of committing
felonies, get inked. Fingerprints go into a national criminal
database, so that in the future it will be easier and simpler to track
and identify the activities of felons. But jaywalkers, U-turn bandits
and speeders?
Hell, under TN's new cornpone jackbootery, a person could be
fingerprinted merely for spitting on the sidewalk, in violation of
town ordinance Barney Fife 5, Section 3a. It would be humorous, maybe
a little bit, if it weren't so obnoxious to common sense and civil
liberties.
A particularly irritating aspect of this business is that the proposed
law comes as a result, in part, of the tsunami of illegal alien
squatters who have decamped in TN. These migrant workers are sans ID
(or sans real ID) and often do things like drive drunk without
insurance and wreck someone else's car. They then skip town and never
show for court - leaving both the other car's owner and the state
holding the proverbial bag for damages and so forth.
So, a pair of bright-bulb lawmakers decides that, rather than deal
with the illegal alien squatters, let's hassle American citizens
instead.
This is of a piece with the general trend: Americans - you know, real
ones with U.S. birth certificates and citizenship and stuff like that
- have to submit to body frisks, rifling of their possessions and
questioning when traveling by air. They get randomly stopped at
"checkpoints" when driving - even though they've done absolutely
nothing to warrant being, in effect, temporarily detained and
interrogated by an armed agent of the state. They must jump through
hoops and dance and sing - and pay taxes, too.
But nothing is done about Pedro and Co. Me gusta! Si, se puede! Now
ordinary Tennesseans will be fingerprinted like common criminals as
well - just in time for the Fourth of July festivities. Ah, freedom.
This legislation may or may not be stopped. The governor may or may
not sign it. All that is largely beside the point. What matters is
that this kind of thing is becoming par for the course, routine and
commonplace. A week does not go by, it seems, without some
suit-and-tie-wearing Thug at a Distance (because others will do the
eventual dirty work) proposing a new species of tyranny to be imposed
on the human cattle - that is, on us.
The governor of TN will not be fingerprinted - just as Judge Sotomayor
will not be disarmed (at least, her Praetorian Guard will not be). We
will be fingerprinted and disarmed - in brief, put at the mercy of our
Betters who run the show. If that is, we sit back and allow it.
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www.ericpetersautos.com or EPeters952@aol.com for
comments.