Authentication blues

Why do mailing lists authenticate posters based on email address? In this day of “permanent” forwarding addresses (of which I have about four), I would think that the return address would be an imprecise attribute to use to validate the sender’s identity.

(Background: I’m unable to post to a neighborhood mailing list because it only accepts mail from subscribers. However, I subscribed with my permanent forwarding address, not my “real” email address—and it’s the latter that appears as my return address in outgoing mail and is used to authenticate me.)

Sigh. Passport appears to be edging closer and closer to the dustbin of history, and the Liberty Alliance is no closer than it was over three years ago (when I first wrote about single sign in) to delivering true identity services. When is someone going to solve this problem?