Monday, February 05, 2007

Can you say, Passport?

I took notice of an article by Leslie Miller posted on the AOL news site, “States Challenge National Driver's License” (linked via title bar). There was a veiled threat, the big dogs in Washington holding everyone in check, “States will have to comply by May 2008. If they do not, driver's licenses that fall short of Real ID's standards cannot be used to board an airplane or enter a federal building or open some bank accounts.”

I can’t buy into that particular empty threat. There already exists an authorized national identification system; it’s called a Passport. In January it became mandatory to hold a passport upon entering this country, something which should have been done years ago. I see nothing sinister about requiring a passport to enter the United States of America and since the use of airports and flying is of major concern to the safety and security of our citizenry it would seem only a natural extension of thought to include passports as a means of identifying passengers on domestic flights as well.

They better be more specific about opening “some bank accounts”. Maybe they think that an IRA account funnels money to the Irish Republican Army; you know how rotten Republicans are. That part about entering a federal building might have some teeth in it; oh golly gee wiz and Auntie Em I want to go home; give me a break, so I won’t open an office in a federal office building.

The flip side of such an asinine requirement would be how easily it is to forge a passport, to manufacture them in mass quantities; at least that’s what I got from watching the Bourne Identity and the Bourne Supremacy movies. That guy had a passport for every day of the week and they all looked real enough to get him where ever he wanted to go.

We’re back to square one then, liars are going to lie, thieves are going to steal and we keep sending them to Washington where they make our lives more difficult ; what is wrong with us?

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