May I see your i.d., please?

It does get the population used to being more compliant. Then again we've got more CCTV than anyone else, and nobody seems to mind.

Carding before sales of alcohol or cigarettes is supposed to increase security? That's one I hadn't heard before.

What?

I take it as theater. Well, the whole thing, but particularly ridiculous re carding for cigs or alcohol someone who is 81.

of course and that's just as silly as carding someone who is 41, 51 or 61. No one can say these measures are meant to prove a customer's age. The change in procedure has been put in place as a 'hidden' security measure since the events of 9/11 in 2001.

However when I ask why this is done in Target Supermarket, management tells their cashiers it's to help them keep their jobs in case of an agent from ATF (alcohol, tobacco and firearms). They are told that everyone is to be carded regardless of how old they look." Big brother is watching.