One amusing strand of right-wing paranoia is the persistent fear that the government will implant microchips in people in order to track them. Timothy McVeigh claimed in the early 1990s that the government had implanted a microchip in his buttocks. Georgia Republicans recently moved a bill to prevent microchip implantation:
Last Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee entertained SB 235, the bill sponsored by Sen. Chip Pearson (R-Dawsonville) to prohibit the involuntary implantation of microchips in human beings. ...
Three states have instituted bans, and others have considered the legislation. In Virginia, a bill supporter declared microchips to be the “666″ mark of the beast referred to in the Book of Revelation.
Pearson has said his motivation isn’t biblical or religious – that he is simply working in advance of technology’s next assault on personal privacy. Not unlike limiting the uses of DNA testing by health insurance companies, he argues.
At the House hearing, state Rep. Ed Setzler (R-Kennesaw), who is shouldering the legislation in the House, spoke earnestly for better than a half hour on microchips as a literal invasion of privacy.
Yes, the bill is sponsored by a man named "Chip."
At the same time, you see members of the far right taking an interest in the microchip implantation issue from the other side, like this from Iowa:
Speaking at a Tama County Republican forum Monday, six candidates for the GOP nomination to face seven–term Democratic Rep. Leonard Boswell opposed amnesty for illegal aliens and called for tougher enforcement of border security.
“I think we should catch ’em, we should document ’em, make sure we know where they are and where they are going,” said Pat Bertroche, an Urbandale physician. “I actually support micro-chipping them. I can micro-chip my dog so I can find it. Why can’t I micro-chip an illegal?
“That’s not a popular thing to say, but it’s a lot cheaper than building a fence they can tunnel under,” Bertroche said.
It just seems odd that the same basic people are the source of both paranoia about microchip implantation and actual proposals to carry it out.