Last night Dr. Katherine Albrecht was the first hour guest on Coast and she brought her usual flash and flair to the show. She is a consumer privacy advocate who is staunchly opposed to R.F.I.D. technology. The problem with Dr. Albrecht is that she, in a similar manner to Glenn Beck and Alex Jones, plays on the fears of the simple minded to make her case. Most discerning individuals could see right through her act, but I am here to help along those of you who cannot.

First, I will start with an obvious example of her straw man type arguments. On the show she mentioned that RFID Chips could be used to identify people with certain characteristics and mark them for destruction by the Government. She cited how Hitler had used characteristics to identify his victims. The problem is obvious for most, but for those who don't get it let me explain. Obviously, Hitler didn't have chips. Hence, these chips obviously were not necessary for him to pull off the biggest genocidal killing spree in history. Yet we are supposed to fight this technology because future "Hitlers" may want to use it as part of their plans, and ignore the fact that they could be very successful in such endeavors without them.

Katherine makes the claim that RFID chips cause cancer in animals. I quote here from her site AntiChips.

The report evaluates eleven articles previously published in toxicology and pathology journals. In six of the articles, between 0.8% and 10.2% of laboratory mice and rats developed malignant tumors around or adjacent to the microchips. Two additional articles reported microchip-related cancer in dogs. See Original Research Articles section below for details.

In almost all cases, the malignant tumors, typically sarcomas, arose at the site of the implants and grew to surround and fully encase the devices. These fast-growing, malignant tumors often led to the death of the afflicted animals. In many cases, the tumors metastasized or spread to other parts of the animals. The implants were unequivocally identified as the cause of the cancers.

The Washington Post has interviewed Scott Silverman, CEO of VeriChip Corp on the topic, and he points out the flaw in this logic.

To date, about 2,000 of the so-called radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices have been implanted in humans worldwide, according to VeriChip Corp. The company, which sees a target market of 45 million Americans for its medical monitoring chips, insists the devices are safe, as does its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions, of Delray Beach, Fla.

"We stand by our implantable products which have been approved by the FDA and/or other U.S. regulatory authorities," Scott Silverman, VeriChip Corp. chairman and chief executive officer, said in a written response to AP questions.

The company was "not aware of any studies that have resulted in malignant tumors in laboratory rats, mice and certainly not dogs or cats," but he added that millions of domestic pets have been implanted with microchips, without reports of significant problems.

"In fact, for more than 15 years we have used our encapsulated glass transponders with FDA approved anti-migration caps and received no complaints regarding malignant tumors caused by our product."

The FDA also stands by its approval of the technology.

But in case a little cancer scare wasn't enough for you, Dr. Albrecht holds the ultimate emotional trump card with "Charlie Brown The Chiuaua", the brave little dog who bled to death in it's owners arms after receiving a chip implant. I'm sure you can follow the natural line of logical progression here, right? Millions of dogs have been chipped. Thousands have been saved from being euthanized at a pound by this chip which helped identify their owners. But we should stop it all, because one procedure went wrong and resulted in a dead dog. I remind you, Katherine has a Doctorate from an Ivy League school. There is no way that makes sense to her, but she is banking on her hopes that you're dumb enough to fall for it.

Much of Dr. Albrecht's case is based on her belief that the chip stands in the natural line of progression towards the mark of the beast. It goes a little something like this. UPC Codes, Credit Cards, RFID Chips, worshiping the beast for a snickers bar. Makes sense to me. So convinced is she that the bar codes are part of the process that she has convinced her publisher to print her new book without a bar code. It will be available in Third World Bookstores everywhere.

This is the kind of ridiculous notion that drives me nuts. The positive benefits of RFID are almost too large to fathom. Imagine a world where you never wait in a cashier line. Where your refrigerator informs your computer that your milk has expired, and it emails your shopping list to the grocery store. A world where you and your neighbor are both watching the same TV show, yet each are seeing different commercials from the other that are marketed to your individual needs. All of these things are technologically right around the corner. Unless, of course, Charlie Brown The Chiuaua mucks the whole thing up for us.

On last nights show, Dr. Albrecht claimed that she had never been called paranoid. I am proud to be the first, so for future reference, good Doctor... you're paranoid!