I found an interesting story about how airlines lie about federal laws regarding what is required to fly. Apparently on domestic flights there is no need to have a government-issued ID, even though the ticketing agents will tell you, “it’s federal law” without being able to provide any further details.

The next time I refused to produce ID and the agent freaked, I told her, “just tap up Sec-Dec 96-5 on your computer, and go to Paragraph 1, Section C. Designate me as a ‘selectee,’ and proceed accordingly. She apparently thought I was an FAA undercover employee, because she said that she was “tired of you federal guys coming around” and literally spying on airline agents, “coercing us into lying to people, and essentially being the ‘bag man’ for an activity which has no legal requirement.” I told her that I could not agree more.

Anyway, this kind of stuff could be helpful to know. I’m not terribly comfortable with the idea of people pretending that certain laws exist and getting away with it, especially when it’s people who have a such terrible track record for distinguishing between what’s dangerous and what’s utterly harmless.