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Real ID: Federal Mandate, National Card, or Something Worse?

The Real ID is now the law of the land, but it is not the law most Americans think it is, and the story of how it arrived at your local DMV is a twenty-year saga of congressional sleight-of-hand, serial postponement, and a quiet transformation of the American driver’s license into something it was never designed to be. The question everyone should be asking is not whether they need one. The question is what the Real ID actually represents in the architecture of American civic life, and whether the reassurances offered by the Department of Homeland Security hold up under any meaningful scrutiny.

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The Weiner Effect: Is Photography a Crime?

Is photography a crime?  There is a keen website dedicated to answering that question when it comes to recording the public activities of the police — Photography is Not a Crime! — and we need more sites like that one dedicated to freedom and transparency.

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No Votes for Gonlon Davidesco

For the last two years I have been struggling to get the Board of Elections in the City of New York to understand two simple concepts : My name and where I live. I have thus far been unsuccessful in doing both at the same time. I moved back to New York from Seattle in August of 2008 — in Seattle, my name was well spelled and my address was accurate.

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Just Say No to Customers: The Allergy Dealer

The other day I tried to buy my favorite allergy medicine — Claritin-D 24 Hour — and I was treated like a criminal drug dealer by my pharmacist as if I were detained on a Citizen’s Arrest while waiting for incarceration and prosecution.

I wasn’t handcuffed or fingerprinted, but I was detained and required to show my state-issued photo ID as well as a major credit card. I also had to sign my name and provide my address in a pharmacy book before they’d take my money and sell me my “over-the-counter behind-the-counter” allergy relief medicine. I was only allowed to purchase 10 pills.

Continue reading → Just Say No to Customers: The Allergy Dealer