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Car Guy
The Case Against Driver’s Licenses
Do they still have anything to do with actual driving?
That little plastic laminated card you’ve got in your wallet or purse — you know, the state’s permission slip for operating a motor vehicle? Ever stop to reflect how peripheral the driving part of a driver’s license is?
Because, of course, a driver’s license is in fact our national ID card.
It’s extremely hard to function in modern society without this national ID card — even if you never get behind the wheel of an automobile. You can’t open a bank account, cash a check, visit the doctor, vote, board an airplane or even get a job without one.
Or at least, it is very difficult to do these things without one.
And none of these things, as such, have anything to do with the operation of a motor vehicle.
If it were merely a driver’s license, the main issue would be whether we’re sufficiently competent to get behind the wheel. There would be a meaningful test of one’s ability to handle a car. An actual road test on an actual road, in traffic — not the perfunctory drive around the cones in the DMV parking lot (and even that is only required of new/first-time applicants in most states) preceded by a sixth-grade-level written (well, touch-screen video) test of one’s knowledge of The Law.
A medium-smart baboon could pass this test with a little coaching. Few ever fail it — baboons or otherwise. Most of us snicker at the absurdity of it. But it is only absurd from the perspective that assumes they are testing our ability to drive.
Rather, the object of the exercise is ascertaining our identity — in order that we may be kept track of via the interlocking system of data acquisition, indexing, recording and cross-referencing that is the Matrix of modern society.
It is about information — and control.
If it were not, “driver’s licenses” would not be linked to one’s Social Security number — the government-issued ear tag every calf (oops, citizen) is issued at birth. The SS number, in turn, is the number the government uses to make sure you pay your taxes, to keep track of where you work (and how much you earn), where you bank (and how much you have in the bank), where you live, whom you marry, whether you have children (each of them to be issued their own ear tag in turn) and so on — all of which, again, have nothing to do with your competence as a driver.
But just try to get a “driver’s license” without presenting your Social Security card.
They will also likely want your birth certificate, a document (with your SS number) from your bank, or your mortgage holder, or something along those lines. Then, just to be sure, they will obtain “biometric” information — a fingerprint in some cases or merely a special photo that maps your face so that the Panopticon (those cameras that are increasingly everywhere) can register your presence and record your presence wherever you happen to be — which most of the time, of course, will be somewhere that’s not in your car.
I go too far?
Then consider the fact that even non-drivers must obtain what amounts to the same national ID card in order to be able to do the things mentioned up above. They must show up at the Department of Motor Vehicles and provide the same items — SS number and other documents confirming that number. They will then be biometrically catalogued, just like the other cows (er, “drivers”).
No one escapes the national ID card unless they are “off the grid” — a person who exists outside the system, as a de facto (if not de jure) outlaw.
About the Author
Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (72) | Leave a comment
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scythe| 1.17.12 @ 6:29AM
Thank you for a very timely column. You linked it all together and it really is disturbing. Read the original SS law - it stated it was NOT to be used for ID. In fact, the older SS cards specifically state not to be used for identification. Years ago you got a card when you began working. How did we allow this to happen? Between the license requirements and the SS (love the initials) cards our government has effectively created an electronic tatto for its "citizens". When I visit a new doctor and am asked for my SS number I refuse to give it. When I have to renew my license I make sure it is illegible. And since so many instances of identity fraud have originated in Motor Vehicle Offices around the country, they really have some damned nerve asking people to put themselves at risk.
Gr0w1er601| 1.17.12 @ 9:07AM
Bug Brother is watching... and waiting...
Buzz| 1.17.12 @ 3:54PM
I hate mosquitoes...
Ignatz Mouse| 2.10.12 @ 11:15AM
Question authority and the authorities will question you.
Ed White| 1.17.12 @ 11:21AM
I am always pleased when a salesperson asks for my driver's license to ascertain if the name on my American Express card matches the one on my driver's license.
We need an ID card for all kinds of reasons. What's the big deal? Big Brother? You're being hysterical!
Kingofthenet| 1.17.12 @ 2:14PM
They aren't supposed to do that, and the Credit Card Companies FORBID it. They want the card to be used and accepted, they promise to cover in case of fraud. I give my Girlfriend my card all the time to buy stuff, and would be incensed if she were denied.
TrueBlue | 1.17.12 @ 3:41PM
They promise to cover cases of fraud, but then it becomes a protracted battle when you try to prove that fraud occurred. If they can prove at ANY time that someone other than you used your card they can deny your fraud claim and you're screwed.
I don't really mind the idea of an ID card to prove who you are, I just mind all the other uses that information gets put to beyond establishing your identity. Also, using the driver's license is silly since those should only be issued when someone is a qualified driver.
Occam's Tool| 1.17.12 @ 3:55PM
Well, be incensed. If you push the point, the store can reserve the right to refuse service to you because of THEIR concerns of fraud. As long as it's not due to race or religion (and I'm sure you would be fulminantly assaholic in your usual fashion, King), they can get away with that.
Jacob R| 1.18.12 @ 7:31AM
Can you give me your home address and social security number? If you don't we will find you so you BETTER GIVE IT TO ME NOW! You don't want to ruin your own life and expose yourself as a criminal by not giving it to me now do you?
We won't trample your rights or anything, but we can get you a little jail time and three years of probation if you refuse!
Brian Mc| 1.17.12 @ 6:44AM
C'mon, Eric...it's all for the children. Sieg Heil!
John Daniel| 1.17.12 @ 7:25AM
Government has the lists and TSA is conditioning the sheeple to bleat supinely to the slaughter...we've traded liberty for safety and will reap the wind....
Say Baptist| 1.17.12 @ 7:30AM
You're lucky,I've reached the age where I have to submit a urine sample and a blood test. Auto enthusiasts talk about special licenses for skilled drivers. As autos are still a major industry we can't confine driving to the highly skilled. The license is still a ticket to freedom and mobility, even as it has become an"Asphalt passport."
Appleby| 1.17.12 @ 7:37AM
I didn't get a driving license until I was 25 -- and only then because I was living in California and it was impossible to move without one (note that I didn't learn how to DRIVE when I was 25; I never really learned how to drive, although I operated various vehicles from small motorcycles to Ryder Trucks at some point). In the early 1970s people assumed one was an enemy alien if one did not have at the very least a Sheriff's Card (the non-driver's DMV-issued ID). Today because I have limited sight, I have no driving license; however, I have a Passport and a Health Card and a PR (Permanent Resident) Card, all of which tie me into the Grid. Recently a Canadian entered the USA by displaying his passport that he had stored on his iPad. In the not too distant future, the Official Document will be read from your Binkie every time you pass a Checkpoint. And you will welcome this because it will mean you will NEVER HAVE TO SHUT UP...every minute of every day without your having to open your mouth, you will be broadcasting yourself to the world.
RRC| 1.17.12 @ 8:23AM
Appleby, yes, we will be tracked every second of every day. By work bosses. By spouses. By parents. Military supervisors will love this. So too will your boss.
And if you try to avoid this? Just try saying "no." Try saying you are uninterested and want to remain "old school." Just try it.
You/One will be labeled a 9/11 co-conspirator and immediately placed under suspicion.
Your passport has all kinds of data on that bar code inside. Same as your driver ID/license. This is more for controlling you, not for ascertaining an adult's ability to convey a motor vehicle.
Mr. Orwell knew just what he was trying to warn us about.
DaveD| 1.17.12 @ 8:05AM
One thing's for sure, a Drivers License does NOT mean the holder knows how to drive. A half hour in tush hour traffic will confirm that.
Moe Blotz| 1.17.12 @ 8:33AM
No doubt you meant rush hour, but I like the term tush hour as well: sitting on your arse in your car going nowhere.
Occam's Tool| 1.17.12 @ 3:56PM
I will steal that phrase tush hour. I like it very much.
Melvin| 1.17.12 @ 8:08AM
!Oh Me O' My! I feel so disenfranchised. My therapist tells me that I can apply for Social Security because, "Disenfranchisement," is a disability, and I can collect.
Modernity - perils aplenty| 1.17.12 @ 8:14AM
It if funny how Americans love to heavy sarcasm joke (in German accent) saying "Your Papersz Pleeease!!!" (Maybe using a Sergeant Schulz of Hogan's Heroes fame, accent)
That really is what we have.
Police demand this ID card at every turn. Most of us are now old people. Try being 19 or 23 all over again. They are asked for ID all the time.
And all the data on that bar code? I believe that in some states this includes all of the data on one's birth certificate, records of former addresses, schools information, etc.
Every time some idiot starts talking about the National Identity Card, I say, "WE ALREADY HAVE IT." It is your driver's license -- a license that can be 'read' by law enforcement officials in all 50 states.
Remember the good old days where state-t0-state databases were not that sophisticated so as to permit 'viewing' of an unpaid traffic ticket in a state 800 miles away?
All that is long, long gone history.
This is the police state. Look for thumb printing data to soon be part of what is stored on the bar code. That will be followed by eye/retinal information.
And.....then GPS positioning data also on that ID card chip....(it is already in your cell phone, in your car's GPS)
John Navratil| 1.17.12 @ 9:19AM
Modernity - perils aplenty,
This isn't so important when the state exists at the will of the people. I've quipped that this will go on until we get tired of it, but the $100 (now $300) speeding ticket was sufficiently painless to cause any serious revolt.
We seem to me to be like frogs in the water. It's getting hot but we do not notice. Now we are compelled to give blood is we are suspected for drunk driving and refuse to "blow." The impositions are increasing, but the people seem to think this is all a "good idea." Good ideas often make bad laws. It was a good idea to clean up our nations air and water in 1970. Today we have the EPA telling people they cannot build a house on their own property. Try getting rid of the EPA - you'll need more than pitchforks.
Mac Jehoff (below) suggests it is paranoia to fear creeping authority. I do not.
Modernity - PA| 1.17.12 @ 9:41AM
The author of this piece cites several instances where one does not move from A to B nor accomplish simple life tasks (like banking) without this Police State ID known as our driver's license.
I know that readers here love to bemoan socialist Europe.
Well, for all its ills, I've ridden buses, trams and rails for miles upon end in over a dozen European nations and never needed to show ID to anyone for any reason. Certainly not to just purchase my rail tickets or passes.
However, in the USA, in the "Land of the Free" don't even think of getting on Amtrak without showing TWO, yes two, forms of photo identification and having all your bags (or just one's lone knapsack) scrutinized and electronically scanned like a suspected jihadist that they know you to be.
The woman at the counter won't even look at you to make a ticket sale unless you have those two forms of ID (which she takes from you and then starts typing away into her log and database). She also asks destination and purpose of travel. (Maybe I was just getting the 'preferential' treatment?)
This is true. Try to shrug off the need to show ID, pointing out that the rail ticket is only for a total of 20 - 25 miles, matters naught.
This? The "Land of the Free?" Hardly. This is the land of the numskulls.
Oh, and in socialist Europe at the airports? It was only twice when flying that I had to take off my shoes. And that was years ago.
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 1:02PM
You have a valid point, Modernity, but it's useful to keep in mind how different things are in Europe as compared to the USA. For starters, Europeans use "public" transportation more than the Americans do (and it shows in our obesity rates). We walk to our driveway, get into a car, and don't get up again until we walk to work from the parking lot. Europeans walk a couple of blocks to the tram station, walk between stations, and then walk around more.
Here, I try to use public transportation and there are crazies on it much of the time. Literally crazy people. Or the ultra poor. It's worth considering when we talk about the automobile as Americans have, for practical but also political reasons, embraced the automobile as their master.
Regarding Amtrak: I rarely take it because it's horrifically expensive. I can get on megabus for a 1/4 of the cost. The trains often run half full. In Europe, I can go nearly anywhere door to door in about the same amount of time as driving (sometimes even less when traffic jams are in place and the rails move along).
Jacob R| 1.18.12 @ 7:33AM
Sir, what's your license and social security number? I don't have to go over what happens if you break the law and refuse to give it to me do I?!?
Mac Jehoff| 1.17.12 @ 8:36AM
I hear black helicopters buzzing over my head everywhere I go, and they are watching me...I know they are.
tm| 1.17.12 @ 10:01AM
Mac, might you have a daughter or two? Be sure to know that if your daughters are of the dating age and still pretty and under 28 or so, those police stops (yeah, the male cops) when they ask for your daughter's ID? And then say, "This won't take but a moment. I'll be right back."
What are they doing with her ID? You know. They're running the scan to check out her bio info. Single. Height, weight. Age. Address. Home or cell listed number at the DMV. Even her last couple of driver's license photos.
That lonely, perverted and horny beat cop in his black and white on a Thursday night is not averse to using his "authority" to obtain ID information for potential "(un)official" activities.
Hey. Maybe he'll get lucky and find out she lives in his precinct where he's often on patrol or maybe she lives near where he does. When he comes back with the ID and starts chatting her up using some of the info he just viewed, maybe a light will go off in your daughter's head? Alarm bells?
Cops love to do this to college girls. And, yes, they follow them. They spot and follow. Certain cars are "chic" cars and they look for a reason to pull her over. Nighttime especially. And when the girl is alone in the vehicle.
Hey, if it is a slow night, why not? A cop can learn an awful lot of potential date info once he has her ID in his hands. And he can try his hand and small talk with her. Just no telling where it might lead.
Just thought you and your daughters should be aware of this.
Occam's Tool| 1.17.12 @ 4:00PM
tm:
what--- that cops are bullies and thugs and try to abuse their power? No shit.
I remember dealing with a moron from the LASD who was insisting that I take a patient from the ER so that he could get out of my psych ER. The guy was still unstable, and the cop was trying to bully ME, a licensed MD, with his assertion that the patient was stable. I told him that I would call the Hospital cops to remove him if necessary, and submit a formal complaint from me, an LA country physician, that he was endangering a patient's life, on official stationary.
That eventaully shut the idiot up. Similar problem in Las Cruces, NM.
Cops are very similar to the people they chase.
Occam's Tool| 1.17.12 @ 4:01PM
Sorry---LA county MD.
Denver Todd| 1.17.12 @ 9:16AM
In Lakewood, CO, an issue made the news sometime back where riders of a public bus line had to show photo ID when the bus passed through a gated Federal complex, even though the rider was not getting off within the complex. There was no particular reason the ID had to be shown, other than to ascertain that the rider had one. One rider either didn't have an ID, or refused to show it, and that is what put the issue on the radar. I forget how this got resolved.
Denver Todd| 1.17.12 @ 9:23AM
Here is a link to one posting about it: http://www.prisonplanet.com/ar.....papers.htm
Colin | 1.17.12 @ 9:38AM
Actually, the driver's license isn't an official I.D. card for ... everything. In many American states, and with the full blessings of Eric's Justice Department, Obama's affiliated links to LaRaza, MEcHA, the NAACP and Oprah Magazine --" 'Ju don' need to show no stinkin' driverz license wheen 'ju vote." It's a cultural thing.
Thing is, the last time I checked, you still might need to show one when cashing a welfare check at the Mayfield Bank, if it's a kid buying cigarettes at the Pleasant Valley mini-mart, or before test driving a $40,000 Prius on the I-80 freeway.
Some outfits can be so ... picky, picky, picky. 'Ya think?
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 9:43AM
As Appleby hinted, we have passports which are true national ID's but with a catch: it's the property of the federal government and can be confiscated at anytime (read inside!) and is permission to travel outside of the USA.
With identity theft and nearly all citizens subject to identifying themselves we need a true national ID instead of the cobbled together system we have with drivers' licenses allowing leftists in government to issue them to illegals. It's a separate issue whether asking for ID for someone to board a plane enhances security much (since such a person who poses such a danger but is legally able to still move around otherwise could come up with ways to change their name legally and get around it.)
Tampa Bri| 1.17.12 @ 1:46PM
2nd paragraph: WE NEED A TRUE NATIONAL ID!
How about NO WE DON'T - The "Government(s)" at all levels already know too much. Are you a Communist, a Nazi, a DemocRAT, or just plain STUPID?
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 3:36PM
Tampa, namecall all you like but my point is that the government already largely has the ability to track you down via your drivers' license already and credit rating. You're using a computer so it's safe to say that you probably have a pretty long paper trail for them to follow. The only beneficiaries of the current system are identity thieves and illegal aliens and the latter are LOVED by the Democrats, commies, and the stupid.
Anthony| 1.17.12 @ 9:52AM
As a segue to this somewhat paranoid article, one has to be willfully stupid, terminally stupid, or just plain intellectually dishonest, like Juan Williams of FOX and other lefties, who steadfastly cling to the notion that photo I.D.s disenfranchise minority voters.
Yes, Juan, even on Martin Luther King day, photo I.D.s are required to do a miriad of things in America, and you can get one for FREE.
Lefties steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that an ILLEGAL VOTER disenfranchises all of the rest of us legal voters. But the left do not care to hear this, winning at all cost is what they are about.
And no Mr. Peters, we're not quite the old Soviet Union yet, and I.Ds are the least of what the left are doing to us.
Mark MacInnis| 1.17.12 @ 9:56AM
"I love Big Brother!" *SOB!*
Brubaker| 1.17.12 @ 9:56AM
Does Eric Peters still have anything to do with automotive issues? This current screed against a "national ID card" sure as hell doesn't.
OregonBuzz| 1.17.12 @ 10:10AM
The drivers license and the vehicle license plate were both initiated to pay for paved road construction. They were not intended, at that time, to be a source of identification nor were they entered in a "database" as there were no computers, etc.
The drivers license has evolved to its current use as a virtual national identity card. That is of course, unless you are an illegal alien. For those folks the drivers license is the key to the bank vault and a registered voters card. Ain't it grand?
Al Adab| 1.17.12 @ 10:47AM
All that being said, how is it that we must not expect voters to show up at the polls with a registration card and DL or ID? That would be un-american. Who dreams this stuff up?
J. Moses Browning| 1.17.12 @ 10:48AM
It has always been thus in civilized societies. Nobody likes weird strangers lurking about. If they can't give a good account of themselves, they'd better be out of town by sundown.
C. S. P. Schofield| 1.17.12 @ 11:04AM
The prpblem with a government that's big enough to give you everything you want isn't that it's big enough to take everything you have. It's that it is big enough to squash you like a bug without even noticing. We have de facto national ID cards not because of some dark conspiracy, but as a natural consequence of what WE have asked the State to do.
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 11:22AM
Not necessarily. Most of the time I care about my "ID" is relating to PRIVATE transactions such as credit cards, checking into a hotel, renting a car, and even getting on a plane (which is STILL piloted by a non-government employee, for now :-)
All of these private interests want reliable ID to ensure their assets are protected and I respect their reasons why. In addition, on our side, we want our identity and credit worthiness protected.
Minuteman78| 1.17.12 @ 11:16AM
"No one escapes the national ID card unless they are "off the grid" -- a person who exists outside the system, as a de facto (if not de jure) outlaw."
Oh, you mean Democrat voters!
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 1:06PM
My wife has an acquaintance who married an illegal alien who has a drivers' license from Maryland. That's right: they got married in the USA despite him being illegal and her having conditional residency. Don't know how.
Nonetheless, Chipotle has given him an ultimatum that unless he produces some documents for his I-9, they'll have to let him go. It's taken them months to get to this point.
Paul Kotik| 1.17.12 @ 1:11PM
I know a local businessman who's told me he thinks it's a sufficient safe harbor to create a paper trail of giving the ultimatum. He doesn't think he actually has to act on it.
Al Adab| 1.17.12 @ 2:53PM
If I recall correctly were not employer sanctions part of that "horrible" Arizona 1070?
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 3:32PM
Maybe that's why it's taking so long. I'd complain secretly to INS, but we all know that Obama would probably tell the justice department to not do anything.
Paul Kotik| 1.17.12 @ 12:47PM
How long before it's a tattoo?
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 1:07PM
We already have one: DNA. Did you ever see the film "Gattica?" It still takes a good day to run a DNA test but in a decade or so, who knows?
Paul Kotik| 1.17.12 @ 1:09PM
Extremely good point. In a decade or so, who knows?
Cheap, quick genome scans. It has the feel of inevitability about it.
Al Adab| 1.17.12 @ 2:51PM
We already put chips in dogs and some children upon parental request. Insert at birth perhaps? HMMMMM
PolishKnight| 1.17.12 @ 3:34PM
That's just it: With DNA, no need for intrusive measures. No need to even take a blood sample (the dead skin cells on your hand should do nicely.)
Tags| 1.17.12 @ 1:09PM
I don't have a license. But I just want to vote, so I'm good thanks.
Slacker| 1.17.12 @ 2:02PM
Shucks, my DL was expired for 9 months and I never noticed. I was moving about just fine, until one day Avis would not rent me a car. I passed through airport security several times with the expired license.
russel| 1.17.12 @ 2:15PM
Bammo Eric , what a home run . Your article comes at a time I have to renew my identity , only now this sparsely populated state requires a SS # and birth certificate , thanks to the feds brow-beating our legislature . Didn't President Reagan sign into law no entity has a right to your SS # except the IRS ? .
Schutzstaffel (SS) , “Protective Echelon” , is more appropriate .
Ron| 1.17.12 @ 2:54PM
Eric,
I like your articles, but I think you got a bit off kilter on this. Point 1: in all states anyone can go to the local DMV office and get simply a State issued ID. I did this for my children when they were 2 and 5 respectively, and thereafter for them as their appearances, height, etc. changed. So, in actuality, no one "needs" to get a Driver's License to have a valid ID for opening accounts, getting on an aircraft, etc. Point 2: My first driver's license was obtained back in 1980. I took Driver's Education during my HS summer break, and upon completion with an "A", I had the option of simply taking the written test and being granted my license. I elected to take the driving test as well, which consisted of driving in actual traffic, and not in a parking lot around cones, including actual parallel parking. My daughter got her driver's license two years ago, and guess what? She had a full blown driving test, in traffic, during the winter, including parallel parking.
My SS# is not on my driver's license, and has never been used in conjunction with it. In fact, the only matching numbers on my driver's license matches my Alaska CHP.
Occam's Tool| 1.17.12 @ 4:04PM
I had to drive in traffic and parallel park.
Occam's Tool| 1.17.12 @ 4:04PM
Actually, the ID makes sense to present when VOTING, and for cashing checks, buying cigarettes, and the like. For many others it is stupid. Credit Cards should have your picture on them.
Brubaker| 1.17.12 @ 4:09PM
Eric Peters frequently authors columns that are borderline irrational, but this one verges on hysterical. Take a couple Prozac and chill.
tdiinva| 1.17.12 @ 4:23PM
Wrong on so many details. People take the driver's license as an ID because it is nearly universal. You can use a Passport for the same idenfication purposes. You can go to the DMV and get a state issued subsitute if you don't want to drive.
The biggest boner in this article is the conncection of the SS number with the drivers license. Many states adopted the SSN for the license number but then the Feds cracked down and made them take it off. You do not need to show a SSN card to get a drivers license. A birth ceritificate and passport do nicely.
This sounds like Paulist rand.
russel| 1.17.12 @ 8:35PM
What country do you live in . The SS # is on the DOT RECORD and the Feds have Required it , dumdum . If anyone is wrong on details , go try it some time . This is no political rant but the truth . And by the way , don't come complaining when your identity has been stolen .
tdiinva| 1.18.12 @ 10:56AM
The Virginia DMV no longer holds your SSN. While that might not be true in your state it is in mine. They don't even ask for your SSN now. Just your birth certificate and some other form of ID.
somnolence| 1.17.12 @ 5:13PM
Driving should be just as much of a right as owning a handgun or rifle. Was the horse and buggy licensed? Or the first tin lizzies? The licensing of drivers is one of the biggest crocks of utopian legacy ever perpetrated upon the good senses of man.
The Bruce| 1.17.12 @ 5:26PM
That's funny, because I needed to produce a state driver's license (or state ID) each time I purchased a firearm.
If getting a driver's license is such a pain, you should move to Arizona, where you only have to renew it twice (when you turn 21 and when you turn 65 -- I'm not kidding).
The Bruce| 1.17.12 @ 5:21PM
Eric, I think it's time for you to switch to decaf.
Or, perhaps, moonlight at InfoWars.
somnolence| 1.17.12 @ 6:04PM
It is a pain, but I reluctantly abide by the law, as I have been driving for 42 years. Thanks for the info about Arizona. That is a far better approach than other states. Has licensing drivers cut down on fatalities on the highway or stopped intoxicated drivers? Hardly.
gracepmc| 1.17.12 @ 8:16PM
Points well taken. And yet itsn't it odd that having to present ID when voting is opposed by the DOJ, the Democrat Party and various supporting groups like LaRaza.
POST American| 1.17.12 @ 10:00PM
-----Tracking, surveillance, eavesdropping
and data collection was never easier.
-------------THANK YOU BILL GATES!--------------
-----------------THANK YOU N.S.A.!------------------
-------------------THANK YOU CFR!-------------------
----------------HUAC/ Nuremberg 2012---------------
Bulgaricus| 1.18.12 @ 4:04AM
You can open a bank accout w/o a driver's license...out 18 yr. old daugher did so recently. She has no DL but a US passport which works for most ID.
oldfart| 1.18.12 @ 5:22AM
Just be unlucky to find yourself on the Washington DC beltway during rush hour and you will quickly discover that have a drivers license and being able to properly operate a car are two different things. Around DC it just means that you can keep the car moving, talk on a cell phone, shave or put on makeup and take notes on a yellow pad all at the same time. YUK
nathan| 1.18.12 @ 10:06AM
I like Mr. Peters but what kind of test would he have us take and how often would he have us update our driving credentials? My foreign born wife at my insistence went to a driving school and learned how to drive, IN TRAFFIC, learned to park, all of it. The driving test was realistic up to a point. But let's face it. I got my license and my own car at 16 (I'm in my late 50's now) and so much about driving which is a complex skill is experience, reactions, knowledge and so much else. How do you test for all that?
We are on the road every weekend and every weekend we see drivers who are distracted by cell phones or other devices. We every weekend without fail see drivers who drive right up on the bumpers of other drivers to "bully" them to get out their way. This past weekend I was in the left lane of three lanes south bound and some driver just out of no where flashed through two lanes to get in front of me and would have caused an accident if I chosen to accelerate right then. I honestly don't think he saw me. We routinely see people like these drivers who should be taken off the road for a year or two. How do y0u test for that?
Teenage drivers are a real menace so kids are either not getting licenses at 16 or getting condtional licenses. We know elderly drivers are becoming a problem so states now are testing to see if they can be safely put on the road, testing for things like signs of dementia and other issues.
One solution if states want to invest the money and charge drivers for it is to do the testing via simulators the way pilots do it now. Put the person being tested in a simulator and do a 30 minute test where we see how they drive in rain, heavy traffic, snow, you name it. Throw all sorts of things at them.
But let's face it too. We have to get serious with drunk drivers. 10,000 deaths a year, three times more deaths than 911 EVERY YEAR. I'm not a huge fan of roadblocks but at the least if you drink and hurt someone, than the law should be that you never get out of prison until you're 60, NO EXCEPTIONS. Or set up the cars to do sobriety tests on the drivers. The fact that we tolerate this "legal" drug celebrate it, while making a big deal over marijauna appalls me. But yes, there's more that we can and should do to make the roads safer and drivers better.
POST American| 1.23.12 @ 11:38PM
---And are you aware? your license is
chipped and, like ON STAR in your car
tracking and data collecting.
-------North Korea is looking ever more
avante garde.
West Houston| 5.25.12 @ 9:29PM
Pretty much everywhere else in the world, people are required to have national ID to vote. Call them "cows" if you are an arrogant buffoon.
People are voting without ID in many states. Voting fraud has been proven in hundreds of cases. It's hard to do so because many states don't require ID. Nevertheless, dead and fictional people are voting.
You don't like ID cards and call people "cows". I like ID cards and call you "a crook".