Sunday, August 10, 2008

The Jacknut Chronicles' Sunday Edition: The Devil In The DMV

Butch Paugh, a West Virginia minister who seems to genuinely believe he gets inside tips from The Man Upstairs, has been lobbying state government for years to allow West Virginians who share his beliefs to drive legally without a state issued drivers license. (Quick wave "hello" to Pastor Butch: everytime I mention his name on a blog, my Sitemeter goes bonkers from someone in central WV a-google-ing his name.)

Why the issue with the DMV? He thinks having digital pictures, part of the licensing process carried out at the DMV, in cyberspace is paramount to accepting the mark of the beast.

(But for some reason, Paugh isn't that concerned with his digital image being on the youtube. He's got more posts on that video sharing site than a 14 year old vlogger looking to impress chicks.)

Think I'm lying? Here's the link to the actual discussion Paugh had with West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin about the issue from a couple of years ago.

Well, I'll be damned if Paugh's efforts haven't paid off. According to the Charleston Gazette, it looks like MoJo figured out a compromise.

"A handful of people who believe digitized photos on state driver's licenses could be the beginning of the biblical 'mark of the beast' will receive special licenses from the Division of Motor Vehicles today.

'What these people objected to was the digital image. Right now, I have three or four people who have requested it for religious reasons,' DMV Commish Joseph Cicchirillo said. 'I think what they told me was it had to do with the mark of the beast.'

One member of Paugh's group, Phil Huddock, a Randolph County physics teacher, contends that the digital photos give people's 'unique facial' qualities and 'will do more to identify people than fingerprints.' He also objects to school photos, saying companies that take the pictures are sending them to the national database of the Amber Alert program, which deals with finding missing children.

'My children won't even have yearbook pictures taken,' he said."

It's always been my contention that if the whole Mark Of The Beast thing was true, I'd be first in line to sign up. Being able to exchange and obtain information quickly and over long distances would be a valuable technology to have, and never having to use cash or cards to buy groceries at Kroger would be really cool. Simply waving my hand--with my account information encoded in a chip embedded in the palm of my hand--over the clerks scanning device would not only be efficient, it could be fun. Sorta like I was magic!

C'mon, jacknuts. Lighten up.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Like you've said, TFG, it's all about priorities.

And persistence certainly helps.

The Film Geek said...

Right on both counts, Hoyt.

Religion = a ready made congregation of potential voters who can be easily organized to vote against someone who supports "the mark of the beast."

Poor folk and victims of domestic violence? They got other worries that tend to distract them from being as organized, and as persistant.

And Mojo, like most politicos, knows it.

Christopher Scott Jones said...

He said "facial"

Uh huhuhuhuh
Yeayea. heh heh hmmeheh

The Film Geek said...

LOL

I actually heard Beavis in my head! I'm devil fodder for sure, now.

primalscreamx said...

The wages of sin is death, but there is a nice benefits package, including free dental.

The Film Geek said...

That's a message I can buy into.