Haben Sie Eine Ausweispapiern?

The title of this blog is "Haben Sie Eine Ausweispapiern". But Hollywood shortened this factual request to "Haben Sie Papiern"?

For those who are uninitiated, the asking for your identity papers during a period of history brought fear and intimation. What did I do? What's wrong? It smacked of Big Brother. Well 1984 is almost 25 years in the past and in many respects the Orwellian world that was described is hear and yet there is much more to go to be that intrusive. George Bush still has a few days left!

So one day last week I needed to get a decongestant for my allergies. So I went into the local pharmacy,(sorry it wasn't Walgreen's), and I took a card off the rack for a package of Zyrtec-D. I went back to the pharmacy counter and presented the card.

All of a sudden I had to produce my drivers license, photo ID sign a book, have the transaction entered into a computer that is tracked worldwide.

I felt like I got caught with my hands in the cookie jar. The Federal Government now knows I have allergies and I take pills to control my sniffling, sneezing, coughing, flem spitting habit. I am ruined!!!!! Wait till this gets out. My neighbors will avoid me. My friends and co-workers will think I have some diminishing communicable disease like TB. Or maybe it's the start of something worse?

It is great that the Federal Government is taking such strides to keep us safe. Yet they can just fork over hundreds of billions of our tax dollars to greedy, self centered, self promoting lying, cheating, stealing, banks and insurance companies without so much as a list of where the money is going.

Washington, you've got it covered. Lean on the little guy and pat the back of your big corporate paramours. Did you ever think about why we have laws against crime? The government hates the competition.

So today it's allergy and cold medicines. What's next, creamy or extra crunchy peanut butter? All I can say is keep your "Ausweispapiern" handy. You'll never know when you'll be called upon to produce it so you can buy a pack of "Sen - Sen".