This and That...

[Warph]

Lately, Obama and the Republicans appear to be getting along.  Maybe they are learning that they think about the same.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit, Red.

[Warph]

I believe it is essential that the GOP take back control of the Senate in November because it would help limit the damage that Obama can do to this nation in his final two years. But I'm not sure that's enough. If you doff your rose-colored glasses, it's awfully hard to see a lot of silver linings.

Once you get past our gallant past and the promise of our divinely-inspired Constitution, what do you see? What I see are a million abortions a year. I see the foolishness of same-sex marriages and I see states tripping over themselves in their rush to legalize brain-deadening drugs. I see the filth and decadence of our popular culture. I see journalists who have rejected objectivity and assumed the role of propagandists for the Left. I see our leaders promoting a racial divide that ignores black violence, black illegitimacy rates and the morphing of black thugs into Muslim terrorists, while accusing the entire white race of bigotry.

Furthermore, I see an education system, once the envy of the world, moving away from instruction in favor of indoctrination, and colleges that continue to offer degrees in such clownish pursuits as Black, Hispanic and Lesbian Studies. I see parents flaunting their vanity by insisting that even the dullest of their offspring squander years and a potful of money getting degrees that neither make them any smarter nor help them earn a post-graduate living.

In the meantime, they move back to their parents' basements, demonstrate with Occupy Wall Street slackers, and whine about the injustice of capitalism, while thousands of jobs for welders, mechanics and plumbers, go begging.

As if all that isn't bad enough, we continue to keep our borders porous because those in one party want Hispanic votes and an increased number of union members and those in the other party lust for cheap labor. And for reasons I can't begin to grasp, neither party wants us to get out of the U.N. and get the U.N. out of the U.S.

To this day, I don't understand why we ever decide to defend one group of Muslims from another group of Muslims. I understand attacking them whenever they appear to be a risk to America or Israel, but not on behalf of anyone but ourselves. These people are not our friends; they are swamp creatures. What's more, all they ever do during these conflicts is offer to hold our coat while we do their fighting and dying for them.

I recently saw a cartoon of Obama trying to explain the seating arrangements at an Anti-ISIL gathering to a maître d': "Just make sure you don't put any enemy-of-my-enemies next to any friend-of-my-friend's-enemies-enemy."

Recently, a man in London at a rare non-Islamic demonstration was seen carrying a sign that read "We would boycott Palestinian goods, but they don't make anything." That's not entirely true. They make trouble and, what's more, it's their major export.

These days, we can't even trust our scientists to tell us the truth. Take global warming, for instance. I am not a climatologist. I don't spend my time measuring glaciers, taking the ocean's temperature or interviewing polar bears. My particular strength is sniffing out hypocrisy and bullshit.

So when I hear so-called experts defending global warming as "settled science" or "scientific consensus," I know I'm standing downwind from a stockyard. Science is rarely or ever settled unless we're referring to things that have been measured and proven, such as the law of gravity or the theory of relativity. As for consensus, science is not proven by taking a vote, especially not when by measurement, there has been no discernible warming for the past 17 years!

Therefore, when it comes to siding with one group of experts or another, I ask myself which group is receiving academic honors and government grants. Which side is being hired by universities and being granted tenure? And which side keeps trying to provide facts in spite of facing ridicule and the loss of employment while being labeled "climate-deniers," likening them to Holocaust-deniers and "Truthers" by the likes of Al Gore, Barack Obama and Harry Reid, who have a vested political and financial interest in promoting the hoax.

Possibly the surest sign that America is in decline is that the country twice elected Barack Hussein Obama to be its commander-in-chief. The chump hasn't the know-how to be a crossing guard, but we gave him the same two terms we once gave George Washington and Ronald Reagan. As I said just prior to the 2012 election, I thought America could probably survive eight years of Obama, but I wasn't so sure it could survive an electorate that would grant him a second term.

I keep hearing people tell me that Obama is bright. But how bright can he be when, reminiscent of Bill Clinton's inability to define "is," this turkey can't define "war" or recognize "Islamic terrorism," which he keeps referring to as "workplace violence" or as criminal activity on a par with knocking over a 7-11.

Both Obama and Kerry seem to think that if we don't send ground forces into Iraq and Syria, and only rely on planes and bombs, it's not really a war. However, during WWII, Germany never successfully invaded England. Instead, they relied on the Luftwaffe and their V-2 missiles. I suspect the English believed they were engaged in a war even if there were no Nazi boots on the ground.

A minute after announcing the beheading of an American, Obama ran off to the links. Then, when he was chastised for his insensitivity, he said he should have anticipated "the optics." That statement not only confirmed once again how unfit he is for the office he holds, but exposes what a group of toadies and incompetents he has surrounded himself with that not one of them – not Valerie Jarrett, Josh Earnest, David Plouffe or even Michelle –advised him to skip golf on that day of national shock and mourning.

Richard Nixon once wrote a memoir called "Six Crises," in which he detailed half a dozen memorable events in which he played a role, including the Alger Hiss case and his debate with Nikita Khrushchev. George W. Bush wrote a memoir called "Decision Points" in which he related how he came to make a dozen of his most important decisions related to 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and the war on terrorism.

If Barack Obama ever gets around to writing his own presidential memoir, I assume it will deal with the 18 toughest rounds of golf he played during his time in office.

....Burt

[Ross]

AMEN WARP AMEN !

[Ross]

US Attorney Gen.
Eric Holder
to Resign

Thursday, 25 Sep 2014 01:19 PM

By Newsmax Wires

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/eric-holder-stepping-down/2014/09/25/id/596839/

[Ross]

Four Men in Two Cities
Killed in Acts of Islamic Jihad;
Media, Obama, and Holder Silent

September 12, 2014 By TPNN Staff Writer

Brendan Tevlin was a 19-year old from New Jersey who had just finished his freshman year at the University of Richmond. Like many kids his age, he played sports and video games. He also liked to surf. Brendan also played the bagpipes and was a Eucharistic minister at his church. But none of those things led to his tragic death. What led to Brendan's death is that he was an American.

Ali Muhammad Brown, 29, was charged with the murder of 19-year old Brendan Tevlin on June 18th. Brown also confessed to killing two people, Ahmed Said and Dwone Anderson-Young, in Seattle on June 1. In addition, he was also charged with shooting another man, Leroy Henderson, in the Skyway area of Seattle in April. All of the men were killed with a 9 mm handgun.

There is consistency in Brown's statement to police in both King County in Seattle, and Essex County, N.J. He told authorities that he was doing his small part as vengeance for U.S. actions in the Middle East.

Q13 FOX in Seattle reports that Brown described the killing of Tevlin to authorities in New Jersey as a 'just kill' which he defined as as a target that was an adult male, not a woman, child or elderly person. Brown stated, ""My mission is vengeance. For the lives, millions of lives are lost every day," he reportedly said. "Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, all these places where innocent lives are being taken every single day ... All these lives are taken every single day by America, by this government. So a life for a life."

Todd Pettingill, radio host of The Todd Show in the Morning, on 95,5 in New York,  discussed this jihad killings on his radio show. He said, "If there was ever a reason to riot in the streets in the name of humanity, it would be for this case. But, has that happened? No. And I'm not suggesting that it should. What did the friends of family of Brendan Tevlin do? They had a candlelight vigil. What I am suggesting should happen is that this should be talked about and written about and the American people should know. Why is Eric Holder not visiting the Tevlin family? Why is the President not going to mention Brendan Tevlin tonight? He was a young boy who was killed...for being an American."

In addition to calling out Holder and Obama for their failure to give any attention to these jihad killings that were done on American soil, Pettingill also said, "It was in fact an act of jihad, perpetrated by a fellow American who sympathized more with those who want to annihilate us than with his own country and its people."
But, with ISIS on a bloody killing spree in the Middle East in their quest to establish a caliphate and their threats to take their attacks onto American soil, the only Brown the media wants to talk is Michael Brown. The media and Congress want to put more emphasis on the domestic abuse case surrounding Ray Rice than acts of jihad in America with men being killed simply for being an American. And Barack Obama wants to deny the severity of ISIS and, in fact, refuse to even recognize that they are dangerous Islamic terrorists who kill innocent people. Perhaps Obama should pay attention to the news more often. He would learn that not only do people kill innocents in the name of Islam, but it is happening already right here in the United States.

Please share on Facebook and Twitter to shed light on what most media outlets won't; the fact that acts of jihad are occurring in America and the government who is supposed to keep us safe remains silent.

http://www.tpnn.com/2014/09/12/four-men-in-two-cities-killed-in-acts-of-islamic-jihad-media-obama-and-holder-silent/

(There is a video on the site that I could not get to run for me,)

[Warph]

[Warph]

Rip Van Whitey

Part #3

*Rip *

On nearer approach he was still more surprised at the singularity of the stranger's appearance. He was a tall, slender young fellow, with slick-backed hair largely concealed under a derby, with a clean-shaven face. His dress was of the antique American fashion—a three-piece pin-striped suit with a club collar and gold bar under the perfect knot of his purple necktie, coordinating with the cufflinks in his French shirt. He bore on his shoulder a stout keg, that seemed full of liquor, and made signs for Rip to approach and assist him with the load.

Though rather shy and distrustful of this new acquaintance, Rip complied with his usual alacrity; and mutually relieving one another, they clambered up a narrow gully, apparently the dry bed of a mountain torrent.

As they ascended, Rip every now and then heard short cracks, like abbreviated thunder, that seemed to issue out of a deep ravine, or rather cleft, between lofty rocks, toward which their rugged path conducted. He paused for an instant, but supposing it to be the muttering of one of those transient thunder-showers which often take place in mountain heights, he proceeded.

Passing through the ravine, they came to a hollow, like a small amphitheater. Upon entering, new objects of wonder presented themselves. On a level spot in the center was a company of odd-looking personages playing stickball. They were dressed in a quaint outlandish fashion; some wore Oxford bags, others seersuckers, with suspenders or belts, and most of them retained their suit vests, of similar style with that of the guide's.

Most discomfiting of all, was that they were all porcelain white. Every last one of them.

There was one who seemed to be the commander. He was a distinguished looking gentleman, with an amiable though aristocratic countenance; he wore an impeccably pressed suit, a skimmer hat, small spectacles, and—quite scandalously—clutched a cigarette holder between his teeth.

(The whole scene might have reminded Rip of some classic piece of art...were Rip ever exposed, at any point in his long tenure in his multicultural, diverse paradise, to anything resembling art.)

What seemed particularly odd to Rip was, that though these folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were, withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever witnessed. Nothing interrupted the stillness of the scene but the noise of bat on ball, which, whenever they met, echoed along the mountains like short peals of thunder.

To be continued...

[Warph]

IS THAT A SEMI-AUTOMATIC ASSAULT FINGER?

Things just get worse and worse for the suck, suck, suckiest "news" left-wing propaganda joint, MSNBC.  Summer ratings were just released and MSNBC's numbers have gone down faster than Barney Frank at a gay porn convention.  Even leftards have quit watching.  What a pity! MSNBC used to be so good! Bwahahahaha!

Primetime ratings have plunged 50% from last year.  Even on the lovely and gayly talented Rachel Maddow's program, the network's flagship show.  MSNBC's latest rankings put them just below 'The Colonoscopy Channel' and just above the "Hit Yourself In The Head With A Hammer" network in primetime viewers.  Nielsen Ratings now puts the number of daily viewers of MSNBC at 25, down from last year's high of 50.  However, not all of MSNBC's ratings plunge can be blamed on reduced interest.  Two longtime MSNBC viewers in Oklahoma were killed when the meth lab in their trailer exploded in June.

When asked about the dismal ratings of his network, MSNBC President Phil Griffin said:
"What? We're still on the air?  Hell, I quit watching MSNBC myself a few years ago after watching a drunken, perspiring, slovenly Ed Schultz spewing spittle onto the camera in one of his stupid rants on Global Warming!  You'd have to be an idiot to watch MSNBC!"

I wonder how anyone could not be entertained with such hard-hitting news talent like this:

[Warph]

Much, I'd say too much, has been made of the incident in the elevator involving Ray Rice and his then-fiancée. I believe that most of us agree that men should not slug women and women should not spit on men. But in a world where men are being beheaded and women are being stoned, whipped and sold into sexual slavery, I think we should all get a grip.

In the wake of the incident NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stood a good chance of losing his job. As I sit here, the question hasn't yet been answered and, unless you're a friend or relative of Mr. Goodell's, it will be of no concern to you.

"The NFL will do everything in its power to restore honor and integrity to the country's most lucrative and popular pastime." There's no getting around the fact that Americans, by and large, love their football, but "honor" and "integrity"? This is a sport, let us never forget, that welcomed Michael Vick, a convicted torturer and killer of dogs, back into its ranks. Whether we're talking about football at the college or professional level, "honor" and "integrity" are two words that are as out of place as they'd be in a candid `discussion of American politics.

Speaking of politics, as some of you already know, I greatly admire Dr. Ben Carson's surgical skills. But I fail to see how his career has prepared him to be the Commander-in-Chief. Although I understand that we all have reason to question career politicians, I no more want another amateur in the Oval Office than I do in an operating room.

I have already raised my objection to Dr. Carson based on his lukewarm defense of the Second Amendment and his fulsome praise of Jesse Jackson, hailing the race-baiting corporate extortionist as a great leader of the civil rights movement, but I have only recently discovered that he supports affirmative action. That's perfectly understandable because he has acknowledged being a beneficiary of the policy. But he is 62 years old, meaning that he benefited from it four decades ago. To suggest that even 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, it should be necessary to offer black students advantages over everyone else smacks of reverse racism.

As of this August, Dr. Carson's PAC had raised eight million dollars. My question is what happens to the dough if he decides not to run or if he simply drops out of the race if he fares badly in Iowa or New Hampshire? Somehow, I doubt if the unused portion will be returned to the donors. So who the heck gets it?

As I have admitted in the past, I am not religious, probably because I wasn't raised in a religious household. Still, I don't get why so many people are proud to boast they're atheists. To me, it appears that these nincompoops have signed up for a religion based on nothing more than their own disbelief.

I mean, how can one devote so much of one's time to denying the existence of something one insists isn't real? After all, people like the late Christopher Hitchens don't go around debating whether the Easter Bunny lays chocolate eggs.

What I do know is that if I devoted my life to denying that God exists and mocking those who believe in Him, I'd be having serious second thoughts on my death bed. For when it comes to knowing who's been naughty and who's been nice, one has to assume Santa Claus is no competition for God.

When a reporter asked Obama if it wasn't true that the only reason he had postponed announcing amnesty for millions of illegal aliens until after the midterm elections was because Senate Democrats had begged him to hold off, giving them at least a shot at being re-elected, Obama denied it. However, being Obama, he couldn't help tipping his hand by saying "And I'm being honest now..." One, people accustomed to telling the truth don't feel compelled to assure others they're not lying. Two, that pesky little "now," suggests that, subconsciously at least, he was signaling that everything he had said previously was absolute rubbish.

What is amazing about Obama is that even though he has spent even more time lying to the American people than he has playing golf, he is no better at lying today than he was in 2008. One can only hope that at least his golf game has improved.

As an example of what a politician should be, consider Ted Cruz. Recently, he agreed to address an organization called the Defense of Christians. It seems that several Christian leaders from Syria and Lebanon, who had voiced support for Bashar Assad and Hezbollah and had made some virulently anti-Semitic remarks, were in attendance.

Apparently the organizers of the event assumed that Sen. Cruz would temper his remarks and shy away from speaking about the Jew hatred that festers equally among Christians and Muslims in the Middle East.

Instead, Cruz told the audience that those who hate Israel also hate America, and those who hate Jews also hate Christians, and that anyone who hates Israel and the Jewish people is not following the teachings of Christ.

He went on to say that Christians in the Middle East have no better friend than Israel, and that it's the one nation where Christians can pursue their faith free of persecution. His words were greeted with a chorus of boos.

Before leaving the stage, the Texas senator told the creeps that "if you will not stand with Israel, if you will not stand with the Jews, I will not stand with you."

Can you, in your wildest fantasy, imagine Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton venturing into such a venue and stating a position with such moral clarity? Obama, as we all recall, bowed and scraped to Islam in his 2009 Cairo speech...

....and Mrs. Clinton showed her own true colors when she scolded a congressional committee, insisting that it made no difference who attacked our consulate in Benghazi and massacred four gallant Americans.

The most disturbing aspect of the response to Sen. Cruz wasn't the booing from the Middle Eastern contingent, but the fact that so few American Christians in the auditorium were willing to confront the bigots in their midst by at least applauding the senator's remarks.

Far too often, conservatives try to pass off their reluctance to stand up to bullies as simply good manners. But it's not worth the effort because absolutely no one is fooled. Even on a school playground, no eight-year-old has ever confused cowardice with civility.

....Burt

[Warph]

Nowhere To Hide As Minority Report-Style Facial Recognition
Technology Spreads Across America

By Michael Snyder, on September 17th, 2014

What is our society going to look like when our faces are being tracked literally everywhere that we go?  As part of the FBI's new Next Generation Identification System, a facial recognition database known as the Interstate Photo System will have collected 52 million of our faces by the end of 2015.  But that is only a small part of the story.  According to Edward Snowden, the NSA has been using advanced facial recognition technology for years.  In addition, as you will see below, advertising companies are starting to use Minority Report-style face scanners in their billboards and many large corporations see facial recognition technology as a tool that they can use to serve their customers better.  Someday soon it may become virtually impossible to go out in public in a major U.S. city without having your face recorded.  Is that the kind of society that we want?

To the FBI, this technology does not represent an invasion of privacy.  Rather, they are very proud of the fact that they are not going to be so dependent on fingerprinting any longer. 

The FBI has been developing the Next Generation Identification System for years, and this month it was announced that it is finally fully operational...
The federal government's Next Generation Identification System — a biometric database that relies largely on facial-recognition technology — is now fully operational, the FBI announced Monday.

"This effort is a significant step forward for the criminal justice community in utilizing biometrics as an investigative enabler," the FBI said in a statement.

The latest advance in the technology gives users the ability to receive "ongoing status notifications" about individuals' criminal histories, the FBI said. That means if, for instance, a teacher commits an offense, law enforcement can be immediately informed — and then pass that information on to administrators.

It's to monitor criminal histories of those "in positions of trust," the FBI said.
As part of this new system, every American will eventually be assigned a "Universal Control Number".

Does that sound creepy to you?

Even mainstream news reports are admitting that it sounds like something out of a science fiction movie...
It aims to eventually replace fingerprinting with a complex array of biometrics, assigning everyone with a "Universal Control Number", in what sounds like a plotline from a sci-fi movie.

And it won't just be the FBI using this database.

According to Fox News, more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies will have access to this information...
More than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and other authorized criminal justice partners across the country will have access to the system 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
So if your face is scanned somewhere or you do something noteworthy that is registered by the system, virtually every law enforcement agency in the country will instantly know about it.

Pretty scary stuff, eh?

But the FBI is actually lagging far behind the NSA.

According to Edward Snowden, the NSA has been using "sophisticated facial recognition programs" for many years...
The National Security Agency is harvesting huge numbers of images of people from communications that it intercepts through its global surveillance operations for use in sophisticated facial recognition programs, according to top-secret documents.

The spy agency's reliance on facial recognition technology has grown significantly over the last four years as the agency has turned to new software to exploit the flood of images included in emails, text messages, social media, videoconferences and other communications, the N.S.A. documents reveal. Agency officials believe that technological advances could revolutionize the way that the N.S.A. finds intelligence targets around the world, the documents show.
Do you remember that stuff you saw in the Jason Bourne movies about how the NSA can track people?

Well, most of that stuff is real.

If you don't like it, that is just too bad.  At this point not even Congress has much control over what the NSA does.

And there are police departments around the nation that are also way ahead of the FBI.

For example, just check out what has been going on in southern California...
In a single second, law enforcement agents can match a suspect against millions upon millions of profiles in vast detailed databases stored on the cloud. It's all done using facial recognition, and in Southern California it's already occurring.

Imagine the police taking a picture: any picture of a person, anywhere, and matching it on the spot in less than a second to a personalized profile, scanning millions upon millions of entries from within vast, intricate databases stored on the cloud.

It's done with state of the art facial recognition technology, and in Southern California it's already happening.

At least one law enforcement agency in San Diego is currently using software developed by FaceFirst, a division of nearby Camarillo, California's Airborne Biometrics Group. It can positively identify anyone, as long as physical data about a person's facial features is stored somewhere the police can access. Though that pool of potential matches could include millions, the company says that by using the "best available facial recognition algorithms" they can scour that data set in a fraction of a second in order to send authorities all known intelligence about anyone who enters a camera's field of vision.
Widespread use of facial recognition technology by our law enforcement authorities is becoming a way of life.

If the American people don't like this, they need to stand up and say something.

But instead, in an era of widespread Internet hacking and identity theft, many Americans are actually clamoring for the implementation of more biometric identification.

For instance, the following is a brief excerpt from a Fox News article entitled "Biometric security can't come soon enough for some people"...
In a world where nearly every ATM now uses an operating system without any technical support, where a bug can force every user of the Internet to change the password to every account they've ever owned overnight, where cyber-attacks and identity theft grow more menacing every day, the ability to use your voice, your finger, your face or some combination of the three to log into your e-mail, your social media feed or your checking account allows you to ensure it's very difficult for someone else to pretend they're you.
As financial institutions adopt this kind of technology, a day may come when virtually all of us are required to have our faces scanned at the checkout counter.

That may sound crazy to you, but according to the Daily Mail a company in Finland has already launched this technology...
Bank cards are already being replaced by phones and wristbands that have payment technology built-in but the latest threat to the lowly plastic in your pocket could be your face.

A Finnish startup called Uniqul has launched what it calls the first ever payment platform based on facial recognition.

The system doesn't require a wallet, bank card or phone – instead a camera is positioned at the checkout and takes a photo of a shopper's face when they are ready to pay.

It then scans a database for the face and matches it to stored payment details in order to complete the transaction.
And advertisers are even more eager to adopt facial recognition technology.  In fact, the kind of face scanning billboards that we saw in "Minority Report" are already a reality.  For example, a company called Amscreen says that it already has more than 6,000 face scanning digital screens that are being viewed by approximately 50 million people each week...
Advertising network Amscreen recently launched a unique face-detection technology, originally developed by automated audience measurement firm Quividi.

Cameras have been installed in Amscreen's digital advertising displays that can scan a person's face and determine their gender, age, date, time and volume of the viewers.

This is so adverts are served to the most appropriate audience.

Amscreen already has over 6,000 digital screens seen by a weekly audience of over 50 million people.

Even dating websites are starting to use facial recognition technology at this point.

Just check out what Match.com has been doing...
Popular dating site Match.com will use photos of users' exes to determine which type of look they're attracted to in order to find them a dating match.

The dating site has partnered with Three Day Rule, a Los Angeles-based matchmaking service, which has dating experts that act as personal dating concierges who hand-select and personally meet every potential match before making a formal introduction to clients, Mashable reports.

Members of Match.com will be able to upgrade to Three Day Rule's premium service which will ask users to send pictures of exes to determine the type of look they're attracted to. Three Day Rule will then use facial-recognition technology in an effort to help users find dates.Our world is changing at a faster pace than ever before.

Powerful new technologies are literally being introduced every single day now, and the future is probably going to look far different than any of us are imagining.

But with all of this new technology, will we end up losing what little personal privacy that we have left?

[...]

FBI's facial recognition system will combine faces of criminals and ordinary citizens

by: EMMA REYNOLDS From: news.com.au
September 16, 2014

Facial recognition system data points. Picture: FBI Source

THE FBI has launched its "next generation" facial recognition system — and the implications are terrifying.

It not only draws on a database of criminal mugshots, it searches through ordinary people too.

Anyone who has ever had a background check when applying for a job could be identified in a police hunt.

Your face could appear during a police search for a criminal

.

And the system is hardly infallible — a search will pull up 50 faces, with only an 85 per cent likelihood that the suspect will be on list, by the FBI's own estimation.

The Interstate Photo System is expected to have reached 50 states by the end of the year, and have collected 52 million faces by 2015.

"This effort is a significant step forward for the criminal justice community in utilising biometrics as an investigative enabler," the FBI said in a statement.

And it may not be long until Australian biometrics become this far-reaching.

Digital finger printing and facial recognition has been in use in Australia for years.

In NSW, a system called PhotoTrac has been matching CCTV footage and photos to a criminal database since 2011.

Victoria Police have been using the iFace biometric system since 2010, with officers able to scan photos snapped on their mobiles in the street as well as pictures lifted from Facebook, according to IT News.

In 2012, privacy laws were changed so that scans taken for passports, driver's licences or nightclub entry could be stored in police and spy agency databases, in what was slammed as a Big Brother-style development.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison has already said that $158 million "eGate" departure gate scanners will be rolled out mid-next year.

Biometric "eGate" scanners will be rolled out in
Australian airports next year.

The FBI's Next Generation Identification system simply takes the technology one step further.

It aims to eventually replace fingerprinting with a complex array of biometrics, assigning everyone with a "Universal Control Number", in what sounds like a plotline from a sci-fi movie.

"One of the risks here, without assessing the privacy considerations, is the prospect of mission creep with the use of biometric identifiers," Jeramie Scott, national security counsel with the Electronic Privacy Information Center told the National Journal in June.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in that same month that the National Security Agency pulls in millions of images to aid its own facial recognition program.

Queensland University's Professor Brian Lovell
tests a facial recognition program on dingos.

The IPS had some success last month, The Verge reported, when a child sex abuse fugitive was caught when he applied for a visa at the US embassy in Nepal.

It still compares poorly with Facebook's DeepFace system, which can tell you with 97 per cent accuracy whether two pictures are of the same person. But authorities using the social network's technology could only be a court order away.

Besides, the FBI has disclaimed responsibility for the accuracy of the IPS, stating that the list "is an investigative lead not an identification."

It would seem we need to keep a close eye on the surveillance methods coming soon to our hometowns.