so, forgive me for being academic about this, but I have to ask: "what is the purpose of a passport?"

I thought it was to certify identity so a person could leave the country if one chooses to do so. Why would I need more information for a passport than I would need for a driver's license?

tommyrot, I'm glad your dad is doing better.

And that passport shit is crazy like WHOA. Fuck you, State Dept. That's ridiculous.

I'm not looking to monetize blogging, but I do plan on including occasional blog posts on issues germane to my business foci on the site, to keep it lively, showcase writing skills, and keep RSS feeds live and my name out there on social networking tie-ins, like Twitter.

Erin, that all sounds like an awesome plan -- and in fact I pretty much end up advising everyone I do biz with to blog for exactly those reasons (even though (as mentioned) I barely manage to do it myself. um.)

I'm so excited for you -- I think you're going to rock this thing.

In other news, the State Dept. is on some serious fucking crack, yo.

Why would I need more information for a passport than I would need for a driver's license?

Well, for one thing, you don't (in some places?) have to be a citizen to hold a driver's license. And really it's for getting back into the country, not for leaving.

Passports aren't for leaving countries. Passports are for entering countries.

So far I've done about a morning's worth of work plus gotten my sink snaked. That was nasty. Bleach bleaching right now.

One annoying thing about the proposed passport changes is so far they haven't said who would get the new form. I wonder if it'd be like the "do not fly" list, where they won't say why people are on the list. So if for some reason they decide you get the new, complex form, you might be SOL because they might not tell you why.

Related to Erin's question. I'm going to get booktitle.com if still available. Do I need to buy and park .net and .org .

I'm trying to imagine worst case scenario for not doing it. Some buys booktitle.net and makes a satirical website? Or uses to push really offensive porn? I mean satire and porn if someone wants to link to book title could still be on any of hundreds of extrension - .info and country extentions like .tv . So is it really worth the money to buy and park (or buy and redirect) the .net and .org extenstions?

I am at new job!!!

I am learning both SalesForce and Quickbooks! and it looks like I am going to be working 25 hours a week! WHEE!

Yay!

Tommyrot, I saw that too, but I also saw some commentary that indicates that the form is:

(1) only being considered: the public comment period isn't the end of the review process; (2) only intended for use by people who have no other way of proving citizenship.

The original source of the story appears to be here: [link]

Oh, and here's a link to a comment by someone who spoke to the point of contact in the Fed Reg notice: [link]

So, still burdensome, but only for those who don't have any other evidence of citizenship.