Woods
And you didn’t know anyone was trying to stick a microchip into you? Well, no one is really (except maybe in the vivid imaginations of certain conspiracy theorists), but that’s not stopping evangelicals from rallying behind the issue as if Pat Robertson’s TV ratings depend on it.
“We’re trying to get ahead of the curve on this one,” says Bobbie Patray, matriarch of this state’s Christian right. As president of the Tennessee Eagle Forum, she’s leading the charge to outlaw forced electronic tagging of humans.
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags, the data-storing microchips that we’re talking about here, could serve a lot of purposes in people—to store medical information, chiefly. But there have been no forcible implants, at least none that we know about.
So why are conservative Christians so riled up? There are the predictable paranoid anti-government types who figure anything’s possible once the black helicopters sweep in. But this fight’s really dedicated soldiers believe implanted microchips could become—cue the Twilight Zone music—Satan’s Mark of the Beast, which, as we all know from our readings of Revelation, is one way the devil will wield power over the Earth during the time of Tribulation.
At the website for the Texas-based Endtime Ministries, they even sell an “eye-opening video” all about RFID tags and “the need to be aware of how to combat the system that will soon become the Mark of the Beast.” We’re not making this up.
“In the Christian religion, and I’m a Christian, in the book of Revelation, there was a reference to, you know, the Mark of the Beast. Some people interpret that to be one of these microchips,” says Rep. Susan Lynn, the Lebanon Republican who’s sponsoring the Eagle Forum’s bill.
Lynn, who discusses the Mark of the Beast as nonchalantly as she would the state’s bond rating, concedes “it’s hard to say” whether microchips are actually Satan’s stamp. “Other people think it could be some type of tattoo,” she explains.
Regardless, Lynn says, “It’s an individual liberty. For whatever reason, no one should be forced to have a microchip, and no one should be discriminated against just because they don’t have an electronic chip under their skin.” You can’t argue with that.
Patray herself is sensitive to the possibility of mockery on this topic. “Are you going to write a smear piece on this?” she asks. “Are you going to make it sound idiotic?”
The legislation could certainly be viewed as idiotic, given that it aims to outlaw something that isn’t a threat in Tennessee. But its backers would call it visionary, as some companies around the country have considered asking employees to roll up their sleeves for microchip injections to gain access to high-security areas. Microchips also can be used to track movement, so they’ve been considered for use with Alzheimer’s patients. The Pentagon is studying whether to implant chips into the arms of soldiers.
Three states—California, North Dakota and Wisconsin—have taken preemptive action by prohibiting forced RFID tagging. Maybe they’re onto something. But don’t worry—until Tennessee outlaws it, we can all wrap our heads in tin foil.
Squeal like a pig
Congressman
Jim Cooper has taken a principled stand against those much-maligned
congressional earmarks—that is, federal spending earmarked for
home-district pork-barrel projects—and he’s refusing to ask for any for
Nashville in the next budget.
“This is a great opportunity to do what’s right and put a stop to ATM politics,” Cooper says. “I believe Americans are way ahead of their elected leaders on some pretty basic wisdom: Don’t spend money you don’t have, and what you do have, spend wisely. Congress should live up to such a reasonable standard.”
OK, but is it a good idea for Cooper to decide unilaterally not to ask for spending for Nashville while every other congressional district is fattening up on federal largesse? Last week, both the House and Senate rejected one-year moratoriums on appropriations earmarks, even though Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain all said they were for the ban.
Cooper himself, of course, has asked for earmarks in the past—money for charities, education and other worthwhile community projects. In a Tennessean opinion piece in January, he wrote, “Let me be clear: I play today’s political game so that the Nashville area will not be disadvantaged.” Guess now he’s OK with that.
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