So Tommy Thompson , former Health Secretary under President Bush, is pushing a plan to put ID chips in US citizens, and Bush has committed $125 million in the 2006 budget for pilot programs. John Procter of VeriSign, the company working with Thompson and the President on the program says, “virtually everyone could benefit from having a chip inserted,” and points out that in addition to the chip's benefits as ID for medical purposes, it can be used to secure financial transactions.
I've written before about how there is a disturbing undercurrent of Christian neo-cons that have the hubris to think that they could play a role in bringing about the rapture (more, more). The theory they have is that by “forcing” the events in Revelations to play out, they can hasten the second coming of Jesus. Sadly, I kid you not. Keep the above in mind when you read Revelations 13:16-17:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.
Anyway… I was briefly at the beach today. When I got there a wirey looking kid, maybe 25 or so, was sitting at one of the bars and shouted out that he liked my tattoos, and started rolling up his sleeve to show me a small patch on his shoulder. “I was in the Marines,” he told me.
“Must be nice to be down here in Mexico instead of over in Iraq,” I replied.
“I killed six hundred and thirty six people over there. Got shot nine times and was legally dead for twenty two minutes.”
“That seems like a lot.”
“It sure is nice to hear people speaking English again,” he tells me. “I'm in the Secret Service these days — I shouldn't be telling you this, but do you want to see something cool?”
“Sure,” I say, as he pulls out his wallet and opens it a little. I can see inside it there's a large stack of hand laminated cards of some sort. He pulls one out. It's some kind of homemade ID with his picture on it and some writing. He flips it over and in big block letters it says something like “BRITISH MI-6 AGENT” — it becomes clear that he's either kidding or a crazy person. He looks at me as if I should be extremely impressed, and I'm not really sure how to reply, but he changes the subject anyway.
“So, do you do tattoos?”
“No, but I run an online tattoo magazine.”
He asks for the URL, and I give it to him, and then head off to sit by the water. Maybe he's even reading this note right now? If you are, drop me an email and tell me your real story.
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