I recently attended a presentation by Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies at the Cato Institute (www.cato.org). He presented on his book, “Identity Crisis: How Identification is Overused and Misunderstood.” Jim’s a great speaker and it was refreshing to hear someone so eloquent in both identity issues and government policy. Jim was quite upfront about the motivations in writing the book, chief of which was to provide solid arguments against the US REAL ID Act. Among the interesting anecdotes Jim shared with us was how he proved it was possible to travel on an airplane without identification. He made a bit of a spectacle of it by inviting some press to observe as he voluntarily made himself subject to a “more extensive search” in lieu of showing an ID. Reportedly, this option was faster, because it moved him to the front of the line. For those of you interested in the entire presentation, Phil Windley recorded the event and posted it on his blog.
I’ll be on an airplane today. Since I don’t have any reporters with me, I think I’ll bring my ID!
[posted by Mike Neuenschwander]
