RFID Chips in passports

Obviously, the government cares about the opinions of its citizens. We're going to have RFID tags in American passports starting in about 12 months. When this was proposed, the State Department asked for comments from the public.

Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 percent were negative.

Damn. It's hard to think of 1.5% as a mandate from the masses, but then...oh, yeah.

Another article has this to say:

U.S. government efforts to make passports harder to forge began in response to the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Now, I'm not 100% certain, but weren't all of the hijackers on 9/11 here on legal passports, not forged ones? So...what does this do, exactly?

It reminds me of the ban on lighters, which was partially justified by saying that Reed was trying to bomb a plane with his exploding shoes, those shoes which he was trying to light with (wait for it) matches. Matches remain legal on airplanes. Just let it sink in for a minute. I'll wait.

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