I have been meaning to write something about "REAL ID" for a while now, so will attempt to provide an update on what's happening with this initiative and some additional food for thought. What is REAL ID you say? Well, for those of you who haven't managed to hear about this identity card mandate, it started with the 9/11 Commission's recommendations (Recommendation #14 in fact) and became a matter of law in 2005 as the "REAL ID Act." The authors of the 9/11 recommendation and the subsequent legislation all were ostensibly aiming for the same thing: preventing the use of a fraudulent driver's license by terrorists through the development of safeguards that would help prevent tampering and use of such a document for false identification -- and that would also enable more effective and trustworthy authentication of individuals for purposes such as boarding a plane...