October 06, 2004

• I've heard tale there's Canadian soil that farther south than any US soil. Some island in the Pacific. Anyone know the name of it?
• Tasmania?
• Heh, I don't think that's it, but it could be just as good. What's the healthcare like there? I'd have to relearn how to drive, but I'd get used to driving on that side of the road. You don't have a Homeland Security Dept, do you?
• Healthcare's universal. Will cost you a levy of 1.5% on your income. Excludes most dental and optical, but the rest is all fixed. If you have dental and optical issues, you can take out private insurance that will sort that out for a few hundred bucks per year, 30% per cent of which you'll get back as a rebate. You will probably earn a bit less money, but your costs will be less too.
• 1.5%? That's it?
• 1.5%? That's it? No. Health care is about 9% of GDP in Australia, so it would be impossible to finance that out of 1.5% of personal incomes. The rest comes out of general-purpose taxes. Or fees, for stuff that's not covered. But rest assured it's not conjured out of thin air; one way or another, Australians pay it.
• *reads article @#$%ing politicians looking for a @#$%ing silver bullet that won't work again. @#$%.
• I don't think they're looking for a silver bullet. I think that the politicians are aware how non-effective this will be against terrorism. They're not doing it to save us, they're just doing while they can; while we'll let them get away with it. They F-ing know it's not going to make Americans safer, it's just going to give the F-heads more power. That's all they're after.
• I think it'd be OK to have a national ID card, if it did just that...identify an individual. I do not think, however, that a card that's swipabble and that'll keep track of my every move from "cradle to grave" is necessary, or even smart. Fuck no...
• It's fairly obvious that a "silver bullet" solution does exist - given the large terrorist threat from Islamist Werewolves. But Knickerbocker and BearGuy wouldn't let a little something called THE TRUTH get in the way of their usual pro-werewolf Democrat bullshit. And THAT'S the reason why I never comment on MoFi anymore.
• First: we arlready have an emminently forgeable national ID card, subdivided by state, called your driver's license. Second: Manufacturing national id cards for every over 18 adult in America would be a hellish logistical nightmare, not to mention the massive cost. Third: connecting the data on the national ID's magnetic strip (which one can only assume must be provided at time of manufacture by the ID'd individual himself, hee hee) to a super-colossal database that tracks various individual activities wiuld be a hellish technical nightmare, (Enemy of the State fantasies notwithstanding) not to mention massive cost. That's two massive costs in a row during a wartime economy government already spending like drunken heiresses and running buttclenchingly high deficits. Imagine also, if you will, the lines to obtain these IDs - lines that would make your local DMV look like the Autobahn of Efficiency. All of which is to say, I'm not calling my local Tim LaHaye Book Club with breaking news of the Mark of the Beast just quite yet.
• Sure, Fes - sure. Just don't come crying to me when the werewolves start prowling through your neighbourhood. Who's gonna save your ass then, eh? John Edwards, and his magical anti-werewolf beans? HA HA HA! Jesus, you hippies crack me up.
• Any werewolf that comes by gets to meet my good friend Mr. Remington and a giant stack of silver dimes melted into slag and poured over 2-inch magnum shotgun shells. Mangy bastards.
• Already feels pretty Nazi-esque to me. Try refusing to show your ID to a cop sometime. See how fast you go to jail. (Ask me how I know.)
• By "ID", I mean driver's license, of course.
• The issue that conservatives like quidnunc keep avoiding is that Islamic werewolves only strike at night, and only when there's a crescent moon (with a star in it) in the sky. This national ID isn't going to yank the moon from the sky, nor will it magically obscure the moon by clouds. A national ID that tracks you will only aid islamic werewolves, it won't make you any safer.
• Speaking as a conservative, I can't help but confirm, though it pain me mightily, Mr. Knickerbocker's assertions vis a' vis Islamist werewolves lunar predilications. ID's will likely not defang, as it were, the IW menace, unless they note during the Id'ing process that they are, indeed, IWs, in which case tracking and ventilating them would be much aided. Of course, IWs know that, and all but the stupidest will be unlikely to proffer this information at the time their ID is made. Werewolfery does tend to make Islamists less than perspicacious (nor does it render strength to one's self-control, although that's for a different thread), but I don't think we can count on a large percentage of IWs declaring themselves as werewolves.
• Don't worry. I'm working on my new silver-pork alloy for bullet manufacture, which will effectively neutralize any IW menace. I'm also submitting a proposal to the DoD that we nuke the moon once and for all, like we should have done during the first Gulf War.
• National ID's won't stop any terrorists, of any type. All they can do is prove that said individual is holding a card that appears to be valid, unless they include a DNA marker of some sort that has to be validated against the cardholder every time it's used. Beyond that, it's just like a driver's license that is just as capable of containing out-of-date information. Like I said, Canada. Canadians like Americans. No, really. OK, so they don't hate us as much as everyone else.
• As for that middleclasstool and his plans to blow up the moon - well, let's just say that we all know where the liberal media hid the secret documents that conclusively prove that "Allah" is actually John Kerry. How convenient, middleclasstool - or should I say, COUNT DRACULA!?!
• Actually, maybe you should say "Count DracAllah!?!"
• A-blah-hu Ak-blah! Curses, foiled again, blah! *grabs werewolf beans, skedaddles*
• What Mr Knickerbocker said ^^^. I think the heads of government have been agreeing to the idea of this cattle-stamping idea when they all meet up. And then they present it to us with the flimsiest of justifications, none of which stand up to the smallest scrutiny, but they press on, because it's what they want - more easily monitored and hence controlled populace. Fuckers, the lot of them.
• A national ID card, in the interest of Homeland Security. Ah, what a magical and inclusive USA it would be, when the PTB have complete access to your records, know to which jobs you are applying, which buildings you are visiting, and which cities you are visiting. Anyone, remember the Soviet Union?
• Werewolves, Vampires, what about wallet space? Don't I have enough IDs between my Driver's License, Passport, SS card, etc.? Why don't they just use their hokey pokey antics on one of those?
• It would *have* to be magical, of the Harry Potter/Dungeons and Dragons sort of magic, to do all that. We can't seem to track sex offenders - a tiny percentage of the population, with definite records already held by various government agencies, and a emplaced dedicated government apparatus devoted to tracking them - with even 50% accuracy. But *this* turdly bit of legislation will throw the US into totalitarianism? Call me a crazy optimist, but I don't think we're going to have to watch the skies for scrying archmages during our job interviews anytime soon.
• I want more scrying archmages. And some scantily-clad, cartoonishly-busted Amazon warriors who are on a mission to spank me. Ooh, and my own heavily-armored battle steed. And a +1.
• I'm wlling to sell you my level 40 belt of sexual vigor with a +9 cock ring of stamina. For use in case of busty amazon assault
• *Fes magic missile's middleclasstool*
• The national ID card will only lead to prying archmages, not a scryer among them. Previous posters are right, we American monkeys have a national ID card, sensibly decentralized on the state level, but generally adhering to the same technical and production characteristics. And you're also right. I am pro-werewolf and I always thought vampires were overrated. But I can suspend my opinions on mythical beasties in the name of level-headed debate of pressing issues. Besides which, werebears kick ass. Say, and why is it we never see weremonkeys? Or a weregorilla? That would be pretty funky, like John Landis meets Dianne Fossey.
• A-ha! The legendary Pud-Cuff of Lotharius! With it I shall enslave all of Lesbos! My alignment is Chaotic SEXY! *rolls 18, jumps in magical Internet hole, ducks missile*
• Slightly OT, I went to school with Gary Gygax
• well, in reality, it aint gonna happen. so stop ruffling your feathers kids.
• MCT- Long may you dominate Lesbos!!! As long as we're on the topic of weres why not Weremice or Werehamsters? Perhaps even the mighty Werenakedmolerat
• Wouldn't a weremonkey be the Missing Link all them archeologists are looking for? Suomynona, there's wererats, if that satisfies ya. Me, I'm a weresmyknickers, bocker.
• For Suomynona: A review (at Something Awful) of the unfortunately-all-too-real worst d20 sourcebook ever: The Book of Erotic Fantasy.
• Two words: clueless twats. Them, not us. weregnats.
• PatB, they changed their linking policy (I'd link the comment from the other thread if I could figure out how). Seriously, what's bad worse about this situation? Don't let them frame the issues; let's not get all huffy about a slight increase in the govs power and forget about the fact that they tried to put fucking star chambers into Patriot Act 2 and extraordinary rendition. The only application for this is that they could find out where all the liberals work in order to coordinate a CIA helmed terrorist attack or perhaps out people running for public office who frequent gay bars.
• Bone - Wow... I uhh... wow.
• For all your lycanthropic needs.