From: Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 5 Aug 1996 08:52:41 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Internal Passports
Message-ID: <199608042250.PAA13719@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 10:02 AM 8/1/96 -0700, tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote:

>Question (a la "Wired"): "When will the United States introduce an internal
>passport?"
>May: "2005, but they won't call it that."

Stewart: "Last week, but they didn't call it that."

According to Alaska Airlines, the FAA's policy as of last week
has switched to a mandatory policy that if you don't produce
government-issued photo-id, you can't get on the plane;
the previous policy had been more flexible.  

The folks stamped my ticket "Documents Verified" - looks
suspiciously similar to "Papers In Order".

       (Which they actually weren't, on my return trip;
        I handed her my work ID in the same plastic carrier
        as my train pass, and handed her the credit card
        I'd bought the tickets with explaining that I wasn't
        on government business and asking when had
        the policy changed and commenting.  And the nice
        Rent-A-Xray-Technician who asked if I minded if
        he searched my computer bag was totally confused
        when I said "Yes, of course I mind.")

You can still travel in a car if someone else is driving,
and you can still get on a train without identification,
but without papers you can't fly or drive, and you can't
ride a horse on the freeway except in the back of a horse trailer.
Driver's licenses were the beginning of a long downhill trend.

I wonder if they'll still accept an American passport; the country
has obviously been taken over by Pod People while we weren't looking....
#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> 	Defuse Authority!