I read the following today: ___________ Chips: High Tech Aids or Tracking Tools? Article Tools Sponsored By By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: July 22, 2007 Filed at 6:24 a.m. ET CityWatcher.com, a provider of surveillance equipment, attracted little notice itself -- until a year ago, when two of its employees had glass-encapsulated microchips with miniature antennas embedded in their forearms. The ''chipping'' of two workers with RFIDs -- radio frequency identification tags as long as two grains of rice, as thick as a toothpick -- was merely a way of restricting access to vaults that held sensitive data and images for police departments, a layer of security beyond key cards and clearance codes, the company said.... ____________ This is my response to the four-page article: The naive assumption is that this device is never to be misused or fall into the hands of bad government. However, one can hardly avoid drawing the parallel to the Nazi practice of tattooing forearms of Jews. The government of the US is not permanent, and some would contend, is not to be trusted even now with certain powerful members using little moral restraint. This electronic Nazi-like tattoo is far more insidious if controlled by unknown others who could improperly employ it for political or criminal purposes. Its current primitive state apparently doesn't allow thought scans, but technology that invades the individual body for information seems a short step away from determining and foreshortening thoughtcrime. What might its uses be say by interrogators using newly approved but anciently employed "harsh techniques"? If I were being thus pressured, might it contribute to giving others power over my yes and my no? Could say Cardinal Menzenti have held out against it? I've already had to forfeit too much of my individuality to modern herd-control devices. If I develop Alzheimer's or whatever, maybe I can depend upon some kind passersby to stick me under an interstate bridge during the wall of a hurricane. I'm willing to take my chances. I fear further loss of liberty more than death. John Dwyer