STATE DEPARTMENT WANTS TO KNOW THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF YOUR BIRTH when you apply for a passport.

UPDATE: See the update at BoingBoing. But a reader who requests anonymity — and looking at his email I can see why — writes:

I’ve been a long time reader of your site and the post about the passport and birth certificate caught my eye today.

I am getting married in the Bahamas on May 7th and my fiancé and I did a “scouting” mission last year for locations. I called it marriage recon, she called it vacation, lol.

Anyways, I never had a passport before last year, so I went to my local post office with my short form birth certificate to apply for my passport and was told that it was required I present the long form birth certificate.

Now, I’m no “birther”, but not being a fan of Obama I joked to the postal employee that, “I needed to present my long form birth certificate to get a passport, but not to be President?”

We shared a laugh and then I went home to order my birth certificate from an online service the state sponsors here in Massachusetts. I still use the joke that I had to provide more documentation to travel an hour south of Miami than Obama did to become President.

Just thought I would share.

Heh.