Fucking Government

I spent a really unproductive morning at the DMV waiting to replace the drivers' license that will expire on Dec. 31. In addition to a valid US passport with photo ID and my (then-)current license, I needed a credit/debit card bank statement to serve as proof of address. Because, you know, a terrorist with a fake passport and license couldn't possibly get a bank statement.

And after all that waiting, what I got back was my old license with a hole punched through it and a new one that was laid out vertically rather than horizontally. The reason? I won't be 21 until November 27 (this Saturday). So they gave me the under-21 ID, which I'm presumably stuck with. Had I known, I would have waited until after my birthday to get the license (and no thanks, I'm not a retard---when I first got my license, there was no distinction---this must be a post 9/11 "improvement"). Of course, it doesn't help matters much that the DMV is closed Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

So, as was the case when I saw payroll taxes deducted from my first paycheck, I get why people vote Republican. If they thought about it for any length of time, though, they'd realize that this sort of DMV nonsense is the upshot of Tom Ridge and John Ashcroft making us more secure. [They'd also realize that Republican semantic dishonesty about income taxes prevents them from ever reducing payroll taxes or placing them on a graduated scale--ed.]