Screaming Patriotism

[smofbabe]

Just got my shiny new US passport and am not impressed. It basically shoves patriotic symbols at you at every turn. (Some photos posted here)

• The inside front cover shows an engraving of the battle scene that inspired “The Star Spangled Banner” with the last stanza superimposed in period handwriting (Key's, one assumes)
• The signature page above the photo page shows the Preamble of the Constitution on top of a giant colored bald eagle head
• Each page includes a quote that, according to the US State Department's description, reflects "the hope and success that is the United States of America"
• The interior pages also include pink and grey illustrations of Americana ranging from a clipper ship to Mount Rushmore to a long-horn cattle drive that are so prominent that I'm really not sure whether visa stamps will be readable over them
• Finally, the inside back cover, which includes the embedded computer chip, shows a close-up of a satellite, the Earth, and the moon (which I hadn't realized the US owned until now)

I swear, this thing could serve as the crib for an eighth-grade US Civics class. My favorite quote about it is from a scathing review in The New Republic by Michael Currie Schaffer: "Plastered like a NASCAR vehicle with cheeseball patriotic clip-art that might have been swiped from The Colbert Report's opening credits, the new books spill jingoism the way traveling Americans once spilled hard currency." There's also this one, from a New York Times story from when the new design was first released: “'It is like being given a coloring book that your brother already colored in,' said Michael Bierut, of the design firm Pentagram in New York City."

I'm going to seriously be embarrassed having to show this to Australian Customs officers.

Comments

[king-espresso.livejournal.com]

Maybe you need a Hello Kitty passport holder.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

It would be less embarrassing than carrying this passport, seriously.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Passport reviews. Amazing.

I'm looking at our old passports, which don't expire until well into the Obama administration. The pages are faintly covered with state seals. That's patriotic, shows the variety and coverage of the U.S., but isn't obnoxious about it.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

I am so not looking forward to the renewal of my passport.
I Will be getting it a Nice Cover with anti RFID feature. If I can't buy it, I'll make it, complete with aluminum foil. They can read the RFID Only If and When I need it to get into or out of a country. Until then it will be shielded from any scanners.
Did I tell you of the time I had my passport for a flight after 9/11 and the idiot checking boarding passes and ids wondered if it would be enough? *snort*

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

There are several ways to disable the RFID chip in your passport. Wired made an excellent suggestion when they first came out: bash hell out of them with a hammer. It might also be possible to electrocute them, microwave them, or expose them to a large electro-magnet.

Or do all of the above, just in case.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Actually disabling the thing may be trouble, as it is one of the verification processes for all passports (we aren't the only country using them).
But I do want to be sure it is ONLY read when at a customs window. So I will be putting it into aluminium to keep it unreadable except when it needs to be read.

[eackerman.livejournal.com]

I hated to get my passport renewed because my old passport photo was fabulous.

Didn't look anything like me, but the person in the photo looked fantastic.

[stevengould.livejournal.com]

Embarrassing as it might be to show it to Australian customs, just remember that they've already perused thousands of them and they are so inured by now they're not even seeing the stuff.

[hzatz.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I like the colored pages in my new passport. And I just got to use it, a few hours ago.