Re: Internal Passports

[Duncan Frissell <frissell@panix.com>]

On Sun, 4 Aug 1996, Bill Stewart wrote:

>> 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.

Don't forget the bus.  Of course you can still drive a car without a DL.
Just don't get stopped.  Additionally, driving without a license is a pretty
minor offense.  Stick with cheap cars so confiscation isn't a problem.  Most
also forget that the Driver's License can be issued by any nation on earth.
Some countries have easier standards for license issuance.

Strange facts about cars and drivers in the US:

1)  It is legal for an unlicensed driver to own or drive an unregistered car
as long as he stays off the public streets and roads (what for expansion of
the definition of public streets and roads).

2)  It is legal for a licensed driver to drive a car owned by some other
person or legal entity.  Ownership and control can be two different things.

3)  A car can be registered in other states or in other countries and still
be driven anywhere in the US.

4)  A licensed driver is one with a license from any jurisdiction on earth
(try to stick to ones most cops have heard of).

5)  A US court cannot suspend a foreign license (but they can bust you for
other stuff if you get caught in the same local jurisdiction twice.)

>> 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....
>

At 12:52 PM 8/5/96 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote:

>I often have trouble with foreign passports and one of my associates often
>has extensive problems trying to use an american passport for anything in
>the United States.
>
>Comments uttered in my presence on the subject have included:
>
>"We don't accept THOSE."
>
>"Sorry, we need to see OFFICIAL identification."
>
>"Don't you have something state issued?"
>
>"Uh, we need a driver's license number."

At least the Passport doesn't have your address or much useful information
on it.  And if you've done things properly, it's not connected to your SS
number.  Should work for flight ID at the airport these days, however.

DCF