My better half needed to replace a lost driver's license. Since mine was up for renewal, and I couldn't find it anyway, this looked like a good time for both of us to get our DMV visits out of the way.

After showing our documents to the clerk at the information desk, she gave us forms to complete and we waited for them to call our numbers.

For identification, I had my Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit, Health Insurance Card, Current Bank Statement, W2, employer ID and a current Press Card (photo ID) issued by the District of Columbia Police Department. (My passport was in a safety deposit box.)

These, however, were not sufficient I.D. to get a either a renewal or a replacement driver permit. I asked the clerk to please 'look up my record' since I have a current permit, I just could not find it.

She advised me that she would not look up my record until my application was completely acceptable. Of course, the only item preventing my application from being accepted could be easily verified by merely looking up my record. The classic Catch-22 came into play here.

My spouse, on the other hand, had an expired driver permit (expired more than one year, however, which I guess makes her somebody else) college ID, insurance cards, bank statements and so-on.

These were not acceptable to obtain a duplicate permit. Her current license was also on file, just a couple of keystrokes away from the clerk. They wouldn't look hers up in the system either. Although a "State Issued Photo ID" was supposed to be acceptable, her College ID, issued by a local State College, was not.

Keep in mind, we were not applying for new licenses, merely renewing an existing one, and getting a duplicate of another.

They would have accepted copies of our birth certificates as primary ID, by the way.

My DC Police Press ID, employers ID, Voter Registration Card and The Commonwealth of VA Firearms Permits were not sufficient identification. The DC Police Press Pass may have qualified as a state issued photo ID, but though it was current, it was issued more than 60 days before.

This should make us all feel much more secure.

I, for one, truly appreciate this level of security. I am certain that all of these positive ID requirements will help prevent future incidents of identity theft and terrorism.

Here we were at the DMV, hands full of identification, some with photos, some government issued, and none acceptable.

A birth certificate, however, with no photo, no physical description and no way to authenticate that we actually were the persons named thereon, (my spouses would even have borne a different last name,) would be fine in lieu of photo ID.

This points to the ugly flip side of this coin.

After getting back to the office, I visited the Virginia DMV Website. From there, I was allowed to get both the duplicate permit and the license renewal, on-line, without showing any ID, and never interacting with a live human being. They will simply mail it to me.

If you show up in person, make sure you comply with all of the acceptable ID requirements.

Conduct the same transaction on-line, however, and no ID is required!

They do require a PIN number, and they will mail it to the address they have on record. I guess they have never heard of mail theft.

A logical person might ask, "why couldn't she just look up your existing license in the system while you were standing there in front of her?"

A realistic person might answer, "Because this is just another way the 'servants' get to rub their power and authority into the faces of the law abiding citizens who pay their salary."

The bureaucrats will probably respond, however, by eliminating the on-line renewal system, flushing a few million more technology dollars down the waste drain.

While on the subject of bureaucrats, why didn't the very polite and professional clerk at the information desk tell us our ID was not sufficient when she gave us the forms? (She did ask to see our IDs.)

If she had, I would most likely have retrieved our birth certificates or passports, dashed back to the DMV and this rant would never have been written.

Instead, it took a 45+ minute wait in the queue for someone else with a typical holier-than-thou bureaucatic attitude to tell us we had to come back and wait in line yet again.

Maybe I should have shown them my new National I.D. Card

But that's another rant!