VoIP and ENUM

I still can remember the days when you could leave the US without showing your passport. In the worst days of the German Democratic Republic, you had to show your passport only twice. Yesterday in Miami I had to show my boarding pass and my passport three times:

1. at check-in to get the boarding pass-ok
2. entering the concourse in front of the escalator: pls show boarding pass and passsport
3. On top of the escalator: pls show boarding pass and passport

Now this is an interesting one, because there is no way in or out from the bottom to the top of the escalator. Are they starting to check each other, like in the GDR?

4. in front of the x-ray again, this time only the boarding pass. Why? No idea. Why would anyone not forced to go through security and if, who cares? It is secure by definition, isn't it?

BTW, I have no problem showing my boarding pass at the gate, it prevents you from taking the wrong bus.

Of course there is a potential to improve this harrassment: e.g. in Washington at the duty-free they wanted in addition to the boarding pass also the passport and at some other airports they want to see the passport in addition to the boarding pass again at the gate. So you would end up showing the passport five times.

The next step will be that any officially or half-officially looking person may check your passport at any time, e.g. if they are getting bored standing around chatting with each other. Or you have to show your passport at Starbucks or Burger King.

The final step will be that any passenger may ask any other passenger at anytime for the passport, also to get over the boring wait and even to make some contacts: "What nice cute passport you have"

The interesting issue with all this security is that everybody is taking this deadly serious, but the procedures are different on any airport. I just wonder if something is so deadly important on one airport, why is it not happening on another? BTW, you may do anything in front of these persons but definitely not a joke.

My final conclusion is that this a well prepared conspiracy to finally overcome any restistance to get two chips (for redundancy) implanted in the ears like cattle, just to avoid waiting in line for hours and get asked 10 times for the passport within 10 minutes.