More Lists!
Apr. 16th, 2006 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lurkittyWe all know about the No-Fly list,but how about the No-Buy List? This is an interesting one. Having brought it up in the context of the No-Fly list, I should explain that this list is not a Homeland Security/ Patriot Act mechanism, but a Treasury Department list called "Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List" that predates it, and is easily accessible on its public website, access to which is being monitored, by the way.
The thing is, it is illegal to sell anything to anyone on that list. So if you sell anything in this country, from a car to a pair of shoes to a candy bar, you should be checking that list. Every time. It's the law. There's no minimum transaction amount. It applies to restaurants, beauty parlors, banks, you name it.
95% of the people on the list are not in this country, the Washington Post article points out. Does anyone in their right mind really think the other 5% are signing up for grocery club cards under their own name?
With some in the administration using the IRS to try to pull the tax exempt status of non-profits that disagree with its policies, while ignoring churches that openly publish Republican voting guides, one wonders if this law could be used in the same manner.
Meanwhile, we edge closer and closer to a system that tracks our every move. Last week, a friend asked why we just couldn't put locator chips on little children so that if they got abducted, we could track them. My response was that the same technology was available to the molesters. How could a tagged child ever hope to hide? I didn't bother to quote Orwell.
The thing is, it is illegal to sell anything to anyone on that list. So if you sell anything in this country, from a car to a pair of shoes to a candy bar, you should be checking that list. Every time. It's the law. There's no minimum transaction amount. It applies to restaurants, beauty parlors, banks, you name it.
95% of the people on the list are not in this country, the Washington Post article points out. Does anyone in their right mind really think the other 5% are signing up for grocery club cards under their own name?
With some in the administration using the IRS to try to pull the tax exempt status of non-profits that disagree with its policies, while ignoring churches that openly publish Republican voting guides, one wonders if this law could be used in the same manner.
Meanwhile, we edge closer and closer to a system that tracks our every move. Last week, a friend asked why we just couldn't put locator chips on little children so that if they got abducted, we could track them. My response was that the same technology was available to the molesters. How could a tagged child ever hope to hide? I didn't bother to quote Orwell.
