Holy Big Brother, Batman

• 1st they will chip and track the homeless like this to "prevent crime" and get federal money.
• 2nd immigrants will be chipped and tracked "to fight terrorism and illegal immigration".
• 3rd ex-cons will be chipped and tracked "to fight parole violations".
• 4th people on welfare and/or food stamps will be chipped and tracked to "prevent fraud".
• 5th disabled people will be chipped and tracked "to provide better medical coverage for those at risk".
• 6th children will be chipped and tracked to "prevent abduction".
• 7th adults will have to get chips to get any banking services "to prevent money laundering".
• Finally, all children will be chipped and issued their (linked) social security number, providing "cradle to grave service eligibility and identification", along with total location awareness.

Hello, Big Brother. It always starts with the unwanted and unrepresented, then moves to children, then the few remaining.

It will be a crime to be a "blank" unchipped person in about 40 years.

Edit:
The article may have been a hoax: http://thunderbay.indymedia.org/news/2004/04/13282_comment.php

Still, the fact that it is so frigging believable is downright scary, and what is a hoax now may be our reality in ten years.

Edit 2:

The reality, however, is almost as discomforting. See this report on HMIS by The Electronic Privacy Information Center about a plan to collect extensive personal and invasive information from homeless clients, aggregate it, and then *store* it for 7(+?) years.