Prolific Programmer on the Internets!

Jameel related a story to Tareeq and I last night at dinner in Palo Alto which was a bit disturbing. I'll paraphrase and I'm sure he'll fill in the blanks if I'm mistaken.

Jameel was caught speeding on 280. Cop asked him for his license and registration, which he produced. Then the cop went back, took notes, returning with another request, for his passport. Now, Jameel's accustomed to the idiocy of CHP, but this takes the cake. See, passports are issued by the State Department or the equivalent in the country of origin (which in Jameel's case, is Pakistan), not the individual state. Damn near everyone doesn't carry their passport on their person all the time. So I have no idea why these state police are requesting his non-US government issued identification.

Here's where the story gets even more interesting, and a little scary, Jameel was taken to a holding facility for one night and told to carry his passport on his person at all times. There's probably more to this story than written and I'm sure Jameel will chime in with corrections and enhancements, but that's what I recall of the main points.

I don't hide my politics on this blog. In my opinion, the Republicans incessantly whinge about government incompetence when standing for election. Having achieved power, they proceed to prove themselves right. The Democrats are only marginally better. So, when people like Andrew Feinberg go on incessently about how Congress has an impact on our industry without convincing me. But, he has convinced Robert. Indeed, Robert is now gushing about what Andrew arranged for him. Now, here's my view and I can be, nay have been, criticised for it, but here it is: government actions impact an industry with the provision that you can't move. As an generation-0 immigrant myself, with a perfectly decent place to call home, I don't accept it. See, I'm part of the generation E, the world is my playground, and therefore no one country's government has any detrimental impact on me. I will grant you that the US government has a bigger impact than most (I mean who gives a rat's posterior if Zimbabwe bans the BBC vis a vis the US wanting to bomb al-Jazeera). You need to expand your purview and remove your arbitrary restriction and you'll realise that government actions don't matter half as much as the government says they do.

Our mates at the Consumerist bring us news that there's a new government superagency in the works. Historically, downturns have yielded a large growth in government (the Great Depression brought us the FDIC, the SEC and a few other government regulators), while I'm far from the most anti-government person, I'm wary of this. Why? Because this is supposed to be a conservative administration. I can't be agreeing with them on anything! This cannot pass.