At 3:55 PM -0800 4/24/01, Raymond D. Mereniuk wrote:
>On 24 Apr 2001, at 11:02, Ken Brown wrote:
>
>> You need phone numbers to buy train tickets? Why? Since when? The USA
>> may be a wonderful country but over here where we we employ
>
>I believe in the original story the fellow bought a train from Phoenix
>Arizona to Boston MA. This is a little different then buying a ticket
>for a trip from Waterloo to Sevenoaks or London to Manchester.
>Distance wise it is comparable to a London to Baghdad trip.
However, it used to be SOP to buy train tickets at the ticket
window--for cash and with no I.D. or phone numbers or SS numbers or
forehead marks.
It looks like the "temporary measures" to combat the "TWA 800
bombing" sorts of events, even though TWA 800 almost certainly wasn't
a bombing, are now spreading to the trains.
"First they demanded ID and SS numbers for the airlines, but I didn't
fly so I did nothing. Then they demanded the same for trains, but I
didn't take trains, so I did nothing. Now they demand ID and SS
numbers for buses and public parking lots, and my trial is next
month."
Anyone paying in untraceable funds is Assumed to be a Suspicious
Person. Anyone not giving credit card and SS information, likewise.
And in Amerika, to be a Suspicious Person is probable cause for a
search of bags and backpacks and purses, the Fourth Amendment be
damned.
(The taking without due process, covered by other constitutional
rights, is another matter, though the conclusion that Amerika has
become a kleptocracy is unchanged.)
Those in other countries should not sit back and smirk. France,
Germany, and Japan are already far along in their march to statism.
Kanada is catching up.
--Tim May
--
Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
