Why You'll Need a Passport

The [expletive deleted] minds in the government have decided we need to use a passport to cross into Canada and Mexico (and for their residents to come here), probably starting in 2008.

Now, Canada's up the road from me. I've mentioned that it's not so tough to drive up around the border and accidentally start out on one street in Vermont and arrive at an Arrete! sign at the end of the same street because you've unwittingly crossed the border into Quebec. This is a situation most of us avoid as much as possible, of course, because if you then return to the states through a border crossing they get kinda fussy. But for many folks here on the border, this is a daily issue because many work just on either side of said border.

But a passport to pass into countries right next to us? As I recall, many of the accused 9/11 hijackers had passports and visas issued by our lovely government.

So what's this going to do for security? It's defintitely going to cut further into cross-border shopping (on both sides).