The "driver's" licenses all of us carry today are nothing more than the equivalent of the yellow tags you see stapled into the left ears of cows

Why do even have driver's licenses in the first place, asks Eric Peters, as they're "certainly not a measure of even minimal competence as a driver."

So, we do we bother with them at all? Because in the U.S., a driver's license is really an ID card. A sort of internal passport we're all compelled to carry -- and produce, upon demand. It has very little to do with driving -- and much to do with herding us like the cattle we've become. I go too far? Well, see how far you can go without a driver's license -- even if you never get behind the wheel of a car. Banks want to see your driver's license before they'll open an account -- which you need to cash your check from your employer -- who won't hire you unless you produce the government-issued internal passport -- which you also can't board an airplane without and do many other things besides.

All of which have exactly zilch to do with operating a motor vehicle.

Of course, it was the Germans who invented the "driver's" license. (Stifle the PC outrage; your angry correspondent is as ethnically Volkdeutsch as sauerkraut.) … The Germans have a DNA-encoded fetish for controlling things -- including other humans.

…We now have to carry around these infernal internal passports that have nothing to do with driving ability, in order for the authorities -- government and corporate -- to be able to identify, record and process us.

Like the Fourth Amendment and other former freedoms we've surrendered over the years, the freedom to travel thus no longer exists in this country. … the "driver's" licenses almost all of us carry today are nothing more than the equivalent of the yellow tags you see stapled into the left ears of cows. And serve the same purpose.

I think it's time for the cattle to question the whole business…