[Note, as I write these words, this post is three and a half years old. For anyone coming here in April 2006 via Kathryn's link at The Corner, this post is closed for comments, but I've started another one here]

I'm traveling, and have limited net access.

One quick travel horror story, though. We went to LAX terminal 4 (American) for a flight to St. Louis via Dallas. We got there later than we should have, for reasons both our fault and the cab company.

We got into line as usual for security (we had e-tickets). After waiting for several minutes, we were told that we had to have boarding passes. New procedure.

We tried the self-service machines, but they wouldn't issue the passes, because we were too close to flight time. So resigned to missing the flight, we got into line to talk to an agent.

Fortunately, our flight was late, so we got our boarding passes and got back into the security line again.

This time, they segregated us into a separate line, apparently reserved for suspicious types, though it wasn't at all clear what profiled us. This is apparently a new procedure, under test at this terminal (though not American's other LAX terminal--terminal 3). Apparently they no longer pull random people out of line at the gate for the wanding and luggage rummaging, but instead do it at security. They also no longer check ID at the gate--the boarding pass alone is sufficient under this procedure.

One step forward, two back, in my opinion.

I guess the idea is that they no longer delay departures for people still being frisked at the gate. Now, you get frisked back at security, and if you miss your flight, you're screwed.

Anyway, we managed to make the flight.

One more irritation. At the gate in Dallas, which was still using the old procedure, they asked for ID along with boarding pass. I have an old expired California drivers license that I use for ID, because it's no big deal if I lose it (as I did my passport a year ago).

The agent looked at it, and said, "This license is expired."

I said, "Yes. So?"

"It has to be a valid ID."

"It is a valid ID."

"But it's expired."

"But I'm not. Nothing happened after it expired to make it no longer my ID. It's not a valid driver's license, but it's still a valid ID."

There was no arguing with her. She had to see a current driver's license. Not wanting to hold up the line, I got out my Wyoming license, good until 2004. And fumed.

This is called "not understanding the concept."

Someone told her that it had to be a valid ID, without explaining what that means.

But what are you gonna do?

It is the prevailing attitude that an expired driver's license is not valid for use as a photo ID. My bank will not cash a check on my old license, I had to buy an ID from the Department of Elderly Affairs.

Note - in my state, this ID may be issued regardless of age...

Isn't that crazy? See, it's just more of that idiot not-thinking-things thru. It's expired, so it's no longer valid. Because you may have turned into someone else the day after it expired. You terrorist, you.

Well, you know, I could lend my old DL to anyone fortunate enough to resemble me (if I were willing to take the obvious risks), and I'd still have one to show to the traffic cop.

Anton: and so? Most states are remarkably understanding if you show up at the licensing bureau and claim to have lost your license. I know more than one (disorganized) person who got a replacement license and then found the old one.. Until it/they expired, they had two seemingly-valid, non-date-expired licenses. Anyone minded to loan out his license to a lookalike would easily follow this same procedure.

My wife and travelled to Aruba at the beginning of the month, so I made sure to go the DMV for this very reason. My picture license had been expired for quite a while (I'm lazy, what the hell).

In Philly they did the frisking both at security and at the gate. I got picked at the former, and my wife at the latter. No checked luggage must have made us look suspicious.

Yeap just travelled to Anguilla at the beginning of December out of DFW Intl'. There was a lady right in front of me that had to step off to the side right as we were boarding the plane because she had an expired drivers license and didn't have a current one handy. It's strange though because this was when they were running the boarding passes through the scanner right before you get on the plane. Earlier when I went through the security gate they checked my boarding pass and ID there too and somehow this lady must have gotten through the security gate with her expired license. To me nothing is more frustrating then a lack of consistency in policy and procedure.

Rand,

Same thing happened to me a few months ago. Expired license, "This is not a valid driver's license" yada yada.. I promised the security guy that I had no intention of driving the plane. Ended up pulling out other ID.

I've come across a burst of similar complaints over the past few days.

The point is not to have an ID with your picture and your name on it. The point is to have an ID with your picture, your name, and your *current residence* on it. From his post, it seems as though Rand doesn't live in California anymore; he lives in Wyoming. Hence: inaccurate, and therefore invalid.

Frankly, I fail to see the problem. I haven't used my passport since '95, but it expires in '03 and I'm going to get it renewed even though I don't plan on going anywhere with it. No big deal.

The new policy, clearly, is that all identification must be current and up-to-date. The fact that it's being inconistently enforced is a because both the policy and the system are a few months old.

If keeping bomb-toting Ahmed from boarding a plane using his brother Farouq's 1990 Massachusetts driver's license that he got when he was a student at MIT means that folks have to renew their driver's licenses, then tough luck.

It's not foolproof, of course...but it's intended to put one more obstacle into the path of anybody who's not supposed to be here and is intending to do something nasty. If they get everyone on the same page, it means that any would-be terrorist has to interact with a state or federal agency to keep their ID current, and that's one more opportunity for them to get caught. Fine by me.

No, I still live (sometimes) in California, and I still own the house in the address on the expired license. I just happen to legally reside in Wyoming. And there's no requirement to get a new license when the address changes, as far as I know. That's why the cop usually asks, "is this still your current address?" when you get pulled over.

Sorry, Ian, but I think that this is just unthinking bullshit (like most government security measures, since nothing they've done since September 11 probably would have prevented that event...)

This kind of nonsense going on at airports, I can understand and even shrug off. But I was recently denied entry to an ORDINARY OFFICE BUILDING in New York City because I could only produce a New York State Non-Driver's ID which was valid between 1996 and 2000. "You couldn't get on a plane with an expired ID," the security guard barked at me, "and you can't get into this building with an expired ID."

Luckily, I had recently joined my local BJ's Wholesale Shopping Club, where -- in addition to being able to buy five-pound packages of bacon for half-price -- they also give you a personalized crappy-looking photo ID on the spot. Anyone can join if you can pay forty bucks cash and write your name on a form. The card is good for a one-year membership, but oddly, it doesn't display an expiration date.

"How about this one?" I offered it to the guard.

And whaddya know -- he waived me in. I was now free to plant bombs anywhere in the building.

I can hardly wait to try it out at LaGuardia.

As luck would have it, I ended up in possession of two valid picture IDs once... my 19 year old sister looked substantially like me, as well. No surprise, then, that I found myself with a new escort when I went to bars... even though the bouncer would check my license, then my sister would walk in right after me, with my license showing the same name...

Picture IDs are useless; I just hate the thought that we might have to resort to biometric data for drivers licenses...

In Florida you have to get a new driver's license every time you move, or you get fined. In a state full of transients as this one, that means a lot of extra revenue for the coffers in Tallahassee.

At DFW it was not TSA that initially checks you in - checking ID's against boarding passes. That job belongs to a company hired by the airport, Prospect. They are not federal. And as far as security being "bullshit"? How many planes have been hijacked since new security procedures have been put in place?