So many interesting threads to discuss on this matter. The problem in the US is too many people hate that others have freedom--hence the MADD group's desire to

So many interesting threads to discuss on this matter. The problem in the US is too many people hate that others have freedom--hence the MADD group's desire to remove any semblance of fun in order to make everyone else as miserable as they are. The US drinking age, if there should be one at all, should revert to 18 and the ID problem would pretty much disappear. I can't describe all the ways that people have become emotionally and socially stunted simply because we have too many laws making typical, normal human behavior illegal in order so that some company can earn higher profits (think lawyers, think insurance industry). They've ruined our way of life and we need it back. We are a nation in hiding, ducking too many laws, too many cops, and too many restrictions. I'm not saying people should be free to drink and drive, but I am saying that all the laws limiting behavior have had tremendous negative consequences. On to the lowly driver's license. Once upon a time, possessing one demonstrated that one could competently operate a motor vehicle. No more. Today, most "driver's" can't drive worth a damn, and the "license" they hold is an over-regulated, poorly implemented national identity card that you must have in order to get on a flight or enter certain Federal facilities. It's utterly stupid. Identity cards in general are dumb and over-wrought contrivances that are mostly totalitarian in nature "your papers please"--how soon we forget. And now we have RealID, which is even worse, and soon there will be a massive data breach of all that RealID information the feds are hanging on to with all the attendant negative consequences for the people who willingly surrendered themselves to big government. That there exists a thriving illegal Id industry in the 21st century makes me happy because it means the trap of tyranny isn't completed shut--there is still resistance, still a means of escape. People, Americans especially, and HN readers most notably, need to forego their fears and re-learn what it means to be free again. Free doesn't mean "subject to incalculable bureaucratic restrictions on one's life." Quite the contrary. Be free, resist the bullshit! The other, related matter that irks me is the background check. Never was there are more worthless, false sense of security than the background check. But that is a matter for another day.