Every once in a while, somebody proposes an American national ID card -- generally to have the idea shot down. So we don't (yet) have any statutory requirement for people to carry IDs. Which makes it a little strange that our local Boston subway cops are about to start checking them anyway. Boiled frog, anybody?

In unrelated news, the New York police are considering banning photographs in the subways -- a policy that has already been reportedly in place here for a while now...