[prev] [thread] [next] [lurker] [Date index for 2005/03/09]
On 04/03/05 08:19 -0800, Darrell Fuhriman wrote: > > "I'm sorry sir, but a passport is not a valid form of identification." > > This person was likely very wrong on that front. > > > Guess what valid form of ID you can show to get a state ID? ...a passport. > > Ah, the lovely land of illogical ID requirements. Just catching up on this thread. To be completely fair, the requirements aren't *totally* illogical (and I'm speaking as a UK citizen who just moved to California...) Firstly, you need to understand that Federal and State governments are hugely, massively, extremely keen on ensuring that Minors don't get beer or cigarettes. What's happened here is one of those classic security trade-offs: the more stringent you make the security requirements, the more likely that some legitimate users (or in this case beer-buyers) are going to be given access to the system (or beer). What Government here has decided is that it's acceptable for some legitimate buyers to be denied their beer, if it reduces the chance of minors getting some. What this means is that the officially accepted legal form of ID in most states is a DMV-issued licence or ID card (that's certainly the case in CA), and this status extends to transactions such as beer-buying. There is a logical reason for this. You can't reasonably expect a liquor-store clerk to reliably assess the legitimacy of, say, a UK passport. They may have seen 5 or 6 before in their life. And if you're going to accept a UK passport, you're going to have to accept every passport. I doubt many people are familiar with every passport format in the world. Whereas everyone's familiar with the look and feel of their state Driving Licence/ID, so the chances of forgeries slipping through is reduced. That's the theory anyway. And if a liquor store is duped by well-faked State ID, they're unlikely to be punished. If they serve alcohol to a minor based on a passport, they're toast. Having said that, I didn't have trouble using my passport once in the month before I got my CA drivers' licence. But then, those establishments *chose* to accept my ID (perhaps on the basis that I really don't look *that* young). And, in passing, US beer isn't actually as bad as its reputation. In a weird piece of serendipity, I wrote this last night, before I read this thread... : http://hitherto.net/5371/archives/2005/03/why_busch_is_ba_1.htmlThere's stuff above here
Generated at 05:00 on 02 Apr 2005 by mariachi 0.52