The Furher wants to see your papers, NOW SLAVE !

going to respond to this, as preventing "illegal" immigrants from gaining employment was one of the primary excuses used to justify a National ID. "But, we didn't mean that!" they'll say, just as they're being hauled off to the Gulag.

I am the radical at the office.  I am known for NEVER going through the body scanners.  I am known as someone who distrusts everything the government tells me.  I must be rubbing off on people because in a recent meeting we were discussing a business trip and the subject of changes to the TSA rules came up.  Someone asked how they will be able to fly since they don't have a passport or a Real ID drivers license.  I assured them the new rules hadn't taken effect yet, then I paused and asked everyone in the room, "Am I the only one who thinks there is something terribly wrong when an American has to present a Passport to travel...in America."  To my surprise, everyone agreed that this is just nuts.

When I went on my trip, I opted out as usual in my hometown and again in Salt Lake City when I came back.  Nothing unusual happened in my hometown (the TSA folks here are friendly and don't seem to mind my eccentricities), but the TSA agent in Salt Lake wanted to get me to tell him WHY I didn't want to go through the scanner.  First of all, the agent was a twenty-something twerp so I knew from his leading question that bringing up the Constitution was going to lead nowhere, so I asked him if he was happy with the scanners.  Yes, he said.  Funny, I said, because the FBI says they don't work and most weapons get through.  Well, he said, we catch plenty (yeah, right).  That was the end of hte conversation.  Maybe my comment will nag him and he'll do some checking on how poorly the scanners do their job.

When I meet people like that, I hesitate to bring up the Constitution.  It is not the slam-dunk argument we think it is because, frankly, there are million of people who don't care about the intent of the Constitution, they're only concerned with what 'works.'  (A recent faked petition drive at Harvard to repeal the 1st Amendment was signed by numerous students without hesitation; they did not see the Constitution as the guarantor of civil liberties but as an impediment to achieving their other objectives such as a society 'safe' from hurtful words.)  Instead, I try to point out the waste and ludicrous failures of the current system, and if the opportunity is right I try to show how more personal freedom solves problems better. 

The principles of liberty are not arbitrarily plucked out of thin air, they are distilled observations of human interactions.  Correct principles are not just philosophical abstractions, they are practical rules that WORK.  If they don't work, then they are not correct.