Several friends sent me a copy of the daily koz article on Virginia HB 53 accompanied by peals of laughter. I am fairly skeptical about Koz and immediately looked for another source. I mean this bill looked like the Xfiles joined Armageddon. Unfortunately, the Washington Post pretty much reported the same story.
The Virginia House of Delegates voted Wednesday on HB 53. It is a bill that makes it illegal for anyone to put a microchip in your body without your permission. The bill passed the House of Delegates. The bill is mainly aimed at employers, insurance companies and government. To most people, having a bill that sounds like the Xfiles is a bit unusual:
According to the Washington Post, quoting from the bill’s sponsor:
Del. Mark L. Cole (R-Fredericksburg), the bill’s sponsor, said that privacy issues are the chief concern behind his attempt to criminalize the involuntary implantation of microchips. But he also said he shared concerns that the devices could someday be used as the “mark of the beast” described in the Book of Revelation.
“My understanding — I’m not a theologian — but there’s a prophecy in the Bible that says you’ll have to receive a mark, or you can neither buy nor sell things in end times,” Cole said. “Some people think these computer chips might be that mark.”
Cole said that the growing use of microchips could allow employers, insurers or the government to track people against their will and that implanting a foreign object into a human being could also have adverse health effects.
“I just think you should have the right to control your own body,” Cole said.
The religious overtones have cast the debate into a realm that has made even some supporters uneasy and caused opponents to mock the bill for legislating the apocalypse.
In the interest of respecting diversity, I am not coming to comment other than to ask, why is our House of Delegates dealing with this type of legislation? Have there been threats of body snatching? Aare we going to make it illegal to do the alien abduction thing? If it is religious, doesn’t that belong in church? Is our state legislature losing it or what?
Mulder and Scully, here I come!
I will respect diversity…I will respect diversity….I will respect diversity…..
Is there such a threat that a bill would be introduced? It reminds me of mandatory vaccinations ( such as the military). Biblical aside, there is always a case for abuse and control.
Don’t know. (looking around for my buds Scully and Mulder) I have never heard of a threat.
Just sayin’…..lol 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDZBgHBHQT8
But bottom line I agree with Cole: “I just think you should have the right to control your own body,” Cole said.
I would love to check Cole’s voting record on pro-choice issues. I wonder if controlling your own body crosses over into that area? Now if I were a bettin’ woman…I would bet no.
Bwwwaaahahahahah I sure didn’t have to look long and far for the answer to that question. Funny how controlling your own body stops if you are female.
Of course there is no threat, Red Dawn. But I see the vote for this bill as a prudent act of religious tolerance. There are many Virginians who believe the Book of Revelations in a prophesy that will one day come to pass. While think that corporations forcing bar codes under our skin is preposterous, unconstitutional, and completely impossible, the introduction of religious belief into the bill makes it hard to vote against. On the one hand, there is no harm in writing into law something that will never happen anyway. On the other hand, if your state government says “No, I will not protect you from the antichrist,” that could be pretty unsettling for some people. Why put them through the panic if you don’t have to?
Isn’t it a waste of time to do this when Virginia is in a budget crisis, unemployment is rampant, schools are underfunded, Much as been made of President Obama playing golf during crisis, or wasting time doing this and that. However, we give a pass to some dude who wants to keep us from having micro-chips implanted without our permission?
🙄 I was actually speechless over what I read. I was not believing it. All the bitching and moaning about this that and the other and Virginia can waste time creating legislation about micro-chip implantation? This is truly the Xfiles. Why don’t we have a law against alien abduction. It makes about as much sense. Actually I wouldn’t mind mandatory micro-chipping for dogs. That would save much heart-break when a pet goes missing.
I am not even going to get in to the religious aspect of it. I try to be respectful of all religion. Let us say that religion has no business being part of government. And frankly, if any of the supernaturals that people believe in came to do something nefarious to us, I doubt that the state of Virginia could do much about it.
I am picturing the goddess Virtue with her foot on the Beast right now. Sic Semper Tyrannus!
“I just think you have the right to control your own body.”
Wow, I didn’t know Del. Mark Cole (R) Fredericksburg was pro-choice!
Religion in government is a huge problem…
I study science and a lot of other academic issues, as deeply as I have time for. when I say something it is not usually from an emotional perspective (except for racism, I really hate racial advocacy and racial advantage arguments for minority wealth over majority wealth based on a person;s color, gender, religion or ethncity)…this is one fight I’m going to continue until it stops…
But if you study the history of religion, it rarely uses any science to back its claims, it always uses belief, mysticism and political oppression.
To decide if any kind of personal tracker is a threat, you must study it scientifically, with real data and real results as to how in helps or hurts peoples; lives, not emotionally…
To prove something true or false, the science community (unlike religious fanatics and mysticists, have to be able to prove a scientific finding to the entire community in a series of repeatable experiments. These experiments have to be consistant, and produce consistant results. About the only branch of science that tends to bend these rules requiring repeatable experiments and results is the social science field, which tends to attract as many mysticists and religious fanatics as real scientists, these people will make any statistic or probability match their beliefs and political opinions. Another class of scientists are those who have more greed than professional integrity, and will twist their results to match the political and commercial goals of thier paying customers (large business and political action committees…
This is why you get conflicting so called “scientific studies” that tell the general population
as Emma put it best:
“Eggs are a nutrient-rich, perfect food. No, wait, eggs will clog your arteries and kill you. No, wait, they’re not all that bad.
Working moms are evil and bad for children. No, wait, children actually benefit from daycare. No, wait, it’s all evil. No, wait, as long as Mom does a good balancing job and projects happiness and contentment. No, wait, Mom really needs to get her priorities straight…..
Red wine is good for you, red wine is now bad for you, especially if you’re a woman, and even in small amounts–no, wait, it’s good for you.
Coffee–bad, bad, bad. Wait, actually it’s a great mood-enhancer. No, it can cause breast cancer. No, wait….
Drink milk for strong bones and teeth! No, don’t drink milk–too many hormones. You have osteoporosis? You should have drunk more milk when you were younger!
Depression drugs can save your life. Depression drugs (per Newsweek a few weeks ago) really don’t work.
The Surgeon General (a federal officer) says smoking is bad for you, but the federal government subsidizes tobacco growers.”
For the most part many of these results are not scientifically credible either, because they are usually not peer reviewed and scrutinized by a professional body of “scientific journals” whose reputation depends on carefully accepting and rejecting papers that don’t meet a long, critical professional acceptance standard…
But in the case of pure science, these scientists are interested in finding the truth regardless of the political or business consequence. Think Galileo, Newton, Copernicus, Einstein, etc….
Thi is one of those social issues that needs a “Science” and that has a governing body of peers, NIH, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, etc and top-end university researchers with very competitive and highly protected credentials that place integrity and honesty above all other values in their work.
When these scientists universally agree that we are creating a social problem or health problem then I will worry about the impact of putting a device into a human body, the worry needs to be evaluated in terms of context and harm…But I’m all for people being allowed to choose for themselves what “medical” treatment they have, not the government and not a bunch of religious fanatics in government….
Again, If you don’t believe what I’m telling you, study it for yourself….don’t listen to others, just get the facts….
You probably can’t comprehend that the baby is another, different body.
Odd bill, huh? But you know, after the Truck Nutz bill last session, nothing (and man, I mean NOTHING) would surprise me with our legislature.
Slowpoke, you might not be able to comprehend that Poor Richard was making a joke.
————————————————————————————————————
Good one Poor Richard. I didn’t know that either. Funny how that works out.
Hee-freakin-larious!!!!!!!!!!!!
But not as hilarious as this anti-martians-anal-probing bill. What?????!!!!! I’m laughing, really hard, at the entire House of Delegates, but not as hard as non-Virginians are laughing right now. I’ll be ashamed to go to work on Monday.
Curious as to what Daddy Love Canals had to say about this one. I’m sure he voted for it, but did he give another creepy-ass speech?
Bwaaaahahahahaha….Justin you are killing me. Daddy Love Canals indeed! I thought it was Luv. I don’t know that Big Daddy is too much into kicking the snot out of Beelzebub as he is protecting those Luv canals. I sure hope he didn’t give a creepy-ass speech though. Well, on second thought, maybe I do. Think of the laughs we will get. And Lafayette can put it in her arsenal.
If you go to work, wear a paper bag over your head so no one recognizes you. Do not whistle ‘Carry me Back to Ole Virginny.’ (another great source of embarrassment.)
Slow, I had forgotten all about those truck nutz. Refresh my memory. Were those forbidden or not? That truly was a low in the Old Dominion.
I’m not sure of the outcome of the law, but I did see Truck Nutz at Spencer’s in the mall. I laughed so hard the first time I saw a shiny pair dangling from the back of a truck. Oddly enough it was the PW courthouse parking lot.
Justin & Moon,
Arsenal? LMAO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6k4RrKNk7s
What’s Daddy Love Canal’s stance on IVF?
Is preborn infant the new PC term for unborn infant? WTF!! A fetus is UNBORN until it’s delivered ALIVE. Things do go wrong in the last weeks and delivery and not all fetus are born.
Here’s a new twist on Family Planning Advice. Hope this doesn’t offend anyone, but it is funny. imo
http://oddlyspecific.com/2010/01/funny-tattoos-family-planning-advice/
Corr: Things do go wrong in the last weeks and delivery, and not all fetuses are born ALIVE.
I just think the term preborn is the radical right to lifers’ feeble attempt to be PC.
I wish they’d pass a law against the Thetans and the Tri-Lateral Commission beaming thought control transmissions to my fillings.
Thank goodness for our Great Leaders in the Virginia General Assembly.
Now maybe I can sleep at night.
– The Anti-Anti-Christ Bill — yep, no chip on my shoulder or anywhere else!
This should slow her down. The Babe can now start with anyone with a RPV
card.
– The Gonzo Gun Groupie Bill — with one gun a month it was taking forever
to fill my backyard bunker. Hollow heads demand hollow points!
– Pompous Piety Prevails Bill – suffer illness and pain, but NOT “Obamacare”
or anything else that might come from Wicked Washington.
Alternatives to proposed plans to solve obvious problems? Silence.
Help. I’m being attacked by Socialist space aliens.
Poor Richard, you are on a real tear! Thanks for the laugh. Amazing how many giant steps backwards we have gone in such a short period of time.
And good old Joe May (R) Loudoun — pushing hard to raise speed limits
and legalize radar detectors – along withl cutting VDOT road maintainence
and State Patrol funding. A real stimulous plan for Funeral Homes
(always shovel ready). But is this pro life?
PR, you are killing me. All great points.
I am waiting to see the final vote on the Trust Women/Respect Choice license plates. I feel certain that all those who vote against it will be the first people to tell you hoe much they respect freedom of speech. Theywould be those same who voted for the Choose Life last year. I am watching to see what our local legislators do in particular. I want to see how far hypocrisy goes.
I will be buying one of those new plates if they go through.
Hey Wolfie, I notice that you like the word hypocrisy. I agree with you that politicians are filled with it.
For example, how do you like the talk of wanting to work with the conservatives for bipartisanship because the people want it. Then you rip a bill away that actually reflected bipartisan agreements in order to prove that the republican party is the “party of no”. Sure sounds like the party in power really wants bipartisanship. To them, bipartisanship can only happen if the republican party agrees with them and even when they do, they use a bill to score political points for the upcoming election. It sure sounds like either the President is serious and has no power to influence his own party, or he agrees with the approach and is a hypocrite. Both are not very appealing to me. We need to kick start the employment system and it appears to this layman that the only employment system being talked about is the one that takes place in November.
If anyone gets fooled by the “hypocritical” rhetoric of the White House and the Democratic Party, then people truly do not want to open their eyes to the type of hope and change that they have in mind when they say they want to transform Washington. To them it continues to be “my way or the highway.” So lets spread the talk of hypocrisy around.
By the way, my post comes from two articles in that bastion of conservatism, the Washington Post. Is it just hypocrisy on one side or are both guilty of it?
I’m convinced the majority of the human race is just stupid….political turmoil based on emotion and belief is just another form of this stupidity…ergo the Republican and Democratic debates over religious versus progressive social issues and social laws (levitivcan versus race based-laws).
Its sad than only about .001% (1 out of 1 thousand) of the human population has an IQ above 148 and that is falling loosing an averaqge of 1 IQ point per year….no wonder humans are evolving to be dumber…with political environments like this that promote even more stupidity among the population…
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/PDF_files/a35.pdf
..the rest are wannabe politicans and lawyers…
I sometime wonder what the forcing functions will be for the human race to evolve in the next 100 years, those who survive long enough to produce childbirth, on average will they get smarter and smarter or just dumber and dumber as the world population hits 9 billion?
If you want to really get controversial about who needs to protect from putting microchips into people to track their whereabouts by RACE, try these recent test results…no-one can explain why…but the distribution is measurable…
http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Race_and_intelligence
If you want to avoid racial controversy and a racial war in this country then stop putting all progressive and religious political issues and people into “racial” and religious legal buckets and giving them priviliges and advantages over all other individuals (others not part of these religious and 8a progressive political groups),
Note that in every racial distribution there are “poor” people who make less than the “average” salary of everyone else…they just live in a different parts of the country than DC and Virginia…as Wolverine explained they as individuals just want to work and take care of their families…and they are VERY ANGRY at both progressives and religious fanatics in the Democratic and Republican parties…
This is why its critical to judge people based on concept of Democracy that protects the individual from religious and political oppressions (As the Free Masons invisioned and the greeks envisioned), and to give them opportunity that is fair and equitable based on individual talent and ability and not what race or ethnicity they belong to.. This is what Democracy protects, the individual from politics and oppression based on what race, gender, religion or ethnicity he belongs to…
I have to fight everyday for my right as an individual, based on my individual talent and ability to win a contract from the US government and overcome the racial bias of the current OBAMA administration that prefers to give all government contracts to some 8A racial preference block…that will later never be able to execute the contract well and usually will then look for companies like mine once they have won the contract to bail them out (while the racially “diverse” CEO of this 8A company gets rich based on his social and political advantage gained over other individuals by his or her race, gender, religion or ethnicity), that is true discrimmination and government racism policy…
I’d be a lot more afraid than just having a microchip placed in me by this administration…
Don’t know, Rez. I can only keep up with a few cases of hypocrisy. (and yes I use it alot when talking about politics) Afraid I have to limit what I follow to that which pisses me off the worst. Fear not though, there is more than enough to go around for all of us, with lots to spare.
In the case of HB 53, I don’t even think it is hypocrisy. It is just wacko unless something is going on out there in employment land that I haven’t heard about.
Wolfie, I thought the bill when I first read about it was a little strange myself. I would think that people who truly believe in the Last Days prophecies would say that it was pre-ordained. It takes a lot of arrogance to think that man can pass a law to overturn something that is God-ordained. But that is just my opinion.
I think I would rather concentrate on doing what God would want me to do to ensure that I make it in the first round and miss the plagues that are foretold.
HB 53 is political theatre – a diversion from the main challenge of the GA –
how to draft a realistic coherent budget that will not get them killed
by the voters on election day if not before.
Not sure why I see anyone having an issue with HB 53. Reading the text of the bill – I agree with it.
Why would anyone here be comfortable with an insurance company or employer wanting to implant a tracking device into anyone?
The government already has new born baby DNA profiles. If a health insurance provider ever got access to that database – game over for anyone wanting insurance that has an undiagnosed long-term health issue.
Rez, I agree with your comments in #30. If those are someone’s beliefs (they are not mine, just to clarify) then if something is ordained, why wouldn’t it take care of itself?
Marinm–why is our general assembly wasting time with this kind of stuff. We have budget problems out the wazoo. Actually, pedophiles ought to be micro-chipped. It would also help with alzheimer’s patients. Do you think either would give permission.
Next think I know my dogs will be suing me because I didn’t ask their permission to micro-chip them.
Back later, Fox Mulder is calling me. I want to believe!!!!!!
@Moon-howler
Moon, think about what you just said. You are OK with the idea that your boss OR worse AIG, BCBS, Aetna, Kaiser, et al. could have a technology that could keep track of your medical profile – allowing them to dump you at will.
Pretty bold statement. Very pro-capitalism if you ask me but even I have a limit.
Marnm, we would not be okay with it, no one would, but then again, it just seems so unlikely.
Don’t try to put words in anyone’s mouth. Their thinking is that perhaps our taxpayer dollars, and our way-too-brief in-session time in Richmond, should be spent on solving problems that really are facing us instead of problems that have almost no chance of ever arriving. Also, the idea of a company forcing surgery of any kind on its employees sounds completely unconstitutional. So if Mr. Burns really did try such a thing on Homer Simpson, Homer could file suit.
As for the theological aspect of this, yes, I understand that some people do not buy into the End of Days theology that inspired this bill. But, as I said before, given that a considerable number of people DO buy into it, and given that the bill was introduced, isn’t it better to go ahead and pass the law don’t you think. If the time is already wasted anyway, why send the message to fundamentalist Christians that you don’t care about their religion?
We should respect people’s religion across the board, because one person’s fairy tale is another person’s gospel.
@Witness Too
Unlikely? You do realize that only 30 years ago the Virginia government was able to order doctors to steralize those with mental defects that were wards of the State? The reasoning – to maintain the pureness of the gene pool.
From Wiki: We have seen more than once that the public welfare may call upon the best citizens for their lives. It would be strange if it could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the State for these lesser sacrifices, often not felt to be such by those concerned, in order to prevent our being swamped with incompetence. It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. The principle that sustains compulsory vaccination is broad enough to cover cutting the Fallopian tubes.
Not sure Homer would have a suit on Mr. Burns in terms of consitutional grounds. He may file based on state discriminatory laws or for involuntary termination if the employee refuses.
I concede that it’s not very likely now but what may be unimportant to you may be very important to someone else. I’m still not happy that the feds keep baby DNA but I believe that I’m in the minority here.
BTW, because prisoners are wards of the state and it was easy [at the time] to claim that a prisoner was a mental case – guess how many minorities were taken out of the gene pool?
As soon as genetic testing becomes common with insurance carriers healthcare prices will come down a LOT. Because insurance companies will now have a great tool to be overly selective.
@marinm
No, I am not ok with those ideas. Why would you say I was?
How many bosses do you know who drag you off and micro-chip you? I have worked for some real AH’s but never that bad. Sounds like a conspiracy theory to me.
While we are at it, why don’t we just make some laws against alien abduction, while we are at it.
@marinm
I don’t agree with your reason about forced sterilization. I feel fairly certain that the official reason was it was felt that those people to who the procedure was done were ill equipped to raise another human being. Now, don’t turn that around and say I approve. I don’t.
Furthermore, doctors weren’t ordered to do that out of the blue. That sounds like Nazi Germany.
This line of thinking is getting way too conspiratorial for me.
@Moon-howler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racial_Integrity_Act_of_1924
http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?011+ful+HJ607ER Expressing the General Assembly’s regret for Virginia’s experience with eugenics.
Feel free to do the research on this. It’s not conspiratorial in that it’s just an understanding of Virginian history.
But, the wheel doesn’t stop turning. And, it appears that this law will act as a block to the possibility of a health insurance company wanting to give it a go on genetic testing/implanation of medical devices.
Another way of looking at this is: You have a self-employed person. Good health. Costs about $800/mo to get a standardish coverage with Kaiser. Kaiser says hey we have this new program that if we test your blood and implant this device in you to tell us about your lifestyle choices and genetic make up that we’ll give you a 1Y contract for $400. Guy of course says, “Sure!”. Afterall he’s saving $400/mo.
He gets chipped and his blood is checked and the guys at the lab give the results to the number crunchers. 1Y later he’s dropped with a vague – pre-existing conditions rationale. They’d be justified because he did have the condition before he joined up and the company knows that in 15 years he’ll run the risk of prostate cancer.
Actually, I believe that there is already a device which helps to track Alzheimers patients who wander off. Law enforcement departments in Virginia have often lauded the program and urged that its use be broadened. As I recall, it consists of a wrist band of some kind which the patient cannot easily remove and which can help law enforcement to track him or her down electronically. Sort of like the tracking devices which help to find stolen cars.
Marin, your self employed case gave permisson. That isn’t what this law is about.
Secondly, Wikipedia isn’t really the most reliable source to be quoting nor is an apology that was issued over something that happened 80-90 years ago, not 30. No one is justifying past practices such as forced sterilization. Apples and oranges.
Your descriptions are far more draconian that actual historical fact. Plus your times are off by a good half century.
Hopefully the Senate doesn’t die laughing and will tell the Delegate assembly to get back to work on the budget.
Wolverine, I believe you are correct. Speaking futuristically, however, I am trying to think of cases where you might have a case where micro chipping is desirable without someone’s permission. (It was a dinner topic) We came up with pedophile location and Alzheimer patients. Pedophiles wouldn’t and Alzheimers patients couldnt.
The beast reasoning that Cole was talking about really shouldn’t involve the General Assembly either. It certainly isn’t a reason government should be concerning themselves with.
Hey, Mr. Cole and I have alot in common! I too believe you should control your own body, glad to have him as a pro choice republican!
whoops………I just realized, he only thinks you should have dominion over your body from alien computer chips! BAWAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I crack myself up, I really do. What a hyprocrite.