I Can Has Papers?

I love the academic schedule. I had my last class something like November 29th, and this is but the second week of the spring semester.

And what did I do with that time to require a sabbatical from internet blawging? I hid from the interwebs. Yes sir or ma'am, all over the country, I was without an intahrnet connection. But here I am, a little older, a little more well-rested, a little... God, I've lost my sense of humor.

Then to the heart of darkness the matter, some premises:

1. I don't buy the "One World government will destroy us all" meme. I don't think Capital One is The Beast (though I do think it's yet another neoliberal institution to make sure the hoi polloi stays in debt. Nobody steps out of line if you owe!)

2. Jesus and the gold standard mean about as much to me as the mating habits of unicorns.

(Not to be confused with Unicron)

Unicorn:



Unicron:



3. rEVOLution is only cute when in the context of the Beatles.

That said, I'm not a fan of the Real ID Act. Here's the transition, in flow chart form:

Passport. Do you need one to fly within the country? ---> No

to

Passport. Do you need one to fly within the country? ---> Yes, if you're in one of the states that doesn't adopt DHS standards for security measures on state drivers' licenses.

I don't have the list of states that don't plan on adopting it, but I live in or have lived in a couple of them, so this could possibly affect me, and that's what's important.

But RK, what would you propose we do? Those terrorists are coming after us, and they're going to use our sneakers against us; why else do you think we take them off? Surely not just so we can do one more stupid thing that makes us think we're safe?!?

Boy, whoever asked that question just got put on a watch list! Haha, I'm not flying anywhere anytime soon. ANYWAY, make a federal ID. Yep, one with all the security measures you want and say all citizens and residents of the US and A must have one to board an airplane if their state licenses don't stack up. What's so bad about a national ID? It says you're a citizen, doesn't discriminate against those who choose not to have a driver's license and avoids the "bad state" designation. Again, keeping in mind my first premise, I'm not worried about the "ramifications," of such an ID; virtually every other developed nation has a national ID and they're doing alright (Not as well as the USA though! USA! USA! OMGWTFBBQ!!!1!!)

But normatively, and maybe you can come with me here too, it's usually bad regimes that make citizens carry a passport (or papers, if you prefer), to move within the borders of the nation in which they are a citizen. We just can't seem to give away our freedom fast enough.