Yes, you heard that right. This entry marks a 3-for-1 deal of epic proportions of stupidity. This time three awards are given out to three different winners in the same article with comments.
In the article, Ronnie Polaneczky: Oh, brother! “A judge threatened a man with arrest if he didn't pay twin's 17-year-old traffic tix.” Okay, that needs a tidbit of explaining before the Are You Thinking awards start flowing.“It all started on Aug. 8, 1967, when Edward Stanley Harris and his twin brother, Edwin Shelby Harris, were born. Some might question the wisdom of a mother giving her twin sons, who share the same birth date and home address, such similar names.
…
In the fall of 1992, PennDOT's driver-licensing bureau notified Edward that his license would be suspended for nonpayment of tickets. Realizing that PennDOT had confused him with his twin, Edward went to Philadelphia Traffic Court to straighten things out. The court wrote PennDOT, confirming that the tickets belonged to Edwin, not Edward.
Thankfully, PennDOT withdrew the suspension threat. Nonetheless, between November 1992 and June 2007, the routine repeated itself, like a scene from "Groundhog Day":
Every year or so, PennDOT re-discovered those same, unpaid tickets of Edwin's, decided they belonged to Edward, and threatened to suspend Edward's license. Each time, Edward returned to Traffic Court, and the suspension threat got lifted.
So Edward assumed the same annoying scenario would repeat itself last Nov. 21, when he took his latest license-suspension notice before Traffic Court Judge Willie Adams. According to Edward, Adams wouldn't listen to his saga or review the copious paperwork that Edward supplied to support his innocence.”
So award #1 goes to the Penn DOT for doing the exact same screw up 17 years in a row!!
Award #2 goes to Judge Willie Adams for not know he is supposed to be following the law and reviewing evidence!!
But Award #3 goes to a commentator named gr8fuldeadgrl68 who gave the following ever so insightful comment.
“Anyone ever heard of a social security number? Perhaps this is why they were created.”
I’m thinking Grateful Dead Girl had one too many ‘shrooms that left her seeing pretty colors. Let us give a review of how high this ranked on the intelligent post scale.
Uh gr8fuldeadgrl68, Social Security numbers were created so individuals would have their own government run retirement account.
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Anonymous
4:07 PM
They were originally created to help regulate the govts retirement account, but post 9/11, SSNs are being used more and more for identifiable purposes by state and federal agencies, with some state DMVs following suite.
Posted: Feb. 5, 2008
Updated: Feb. 6, 2008
Raleigh, NC — The state Division of Motor Vehicles is sending letters to 4,454 people who have driver's licenses but who the department's records show have incorrect Social Security numbers.
They have 60 days to verify their identities or risk losing their licenses. People who do not respond within the 60-day period will get a second letter and have a final 30 days to verify who they are or have their licenses canceled.
DMV Commissioner William C. Gore Jr. said Tuesday that the first round of letters started going out to motorists this month.
The verification effort follows a state audit last March that found nearly 27,000 licensed drivers' applications that did not match Social Security numbers. Many of those licenses had been issued prior to 2004, when the DMV linked to a federal Social Security data base to verify a driver's identification.
Many of the nearly 27,000 licenses were later found to be either expired or already revoked. The remaining 4,454 drivers who are getting letters now are a small percentage of the state's 6.3 million licensed drivers.
The audit came partly in response to criticism that the state DMV was not doing enough to prevent non-citizens from getting driver's licenses.
The General Assembly didn't start requiring a license applicant to prove he or she was in the country legally until last year.
As part of the "REAL ID" Act recently approved by Congress, driver's license holders will have to reaffirm their identity, home address and right to be in the country. The requirement starts late this year.