On biometrics and the politics of a national ID card

I find myself in total agreement with Bert Knab at the Glass Houses blog on why a national ID card is a bad idea and biometric identification won't stop employers from hiring illegal immigrants. Go read what he has to say.

I'd add an observation I've been stressing for many years on Grits: that biometrics are generally bad identifiers for ID purposes, precisely because they can't be altered if a thief gets hold of them. If someone steals your password or your credit card number, it can be changed. However if biometrics like your thumbprint or iris scan (which to a computer, after all, is just information: ones and zeroes) are used as identifiers, once they're stolen you can never mitigate the damage.