Second World America- The Sunday Collage

(This was last week's piece. I didn't like it but I have posted it today in a Frankenstein Government two for one sale!)

I've had a pretty interesting week which ended with last week's giant, Friday stock market rally brought on by Japan's announcement that they were going to further debase their currency and buy one half a trillion worth of American equities. More or less. So the bankers decided to front run those eventual purchases by the Japanese- by buying on Friday. The QE shit show that never ends.

I read a snarky Forbes piece about what a great deal Obamacare is this morning. It sure is- as long as you are subsidized by taxpayers. Unsubsidized people like myself are faced with 8000 dollars worth of annual insurance costs which approximate my mortgage or about 17% of my after tax income. (500 x12 mo with a 2k deductible)

On to the topic du jour.

When I was a child and later a young man, there was a sense of optimism in our lives. I knew and my friends knew- that if you worked hard and made wise decisions you could accumulate a small fortune and have a good life. We took for granted that our system of laws protected us. Who thought that laws actually protected our way of life- the kids of the 60s and 70s?

Do today's kids think like that?

Several weeks ago, I had a reader write and ask that I write a little bit about the damage inflicted upon us by lawyers and lawyer legislators. It goes something like this. Legislators, state and federal, are forever creating new laws. All this new law gets implemented and then the fallout takes place. In our system many of us assume that good laws are kept and that bad laws are somehow thrown out.

Lawyers create laws, they steward the law, and they make legal decisions regarding the law. If they adhere to simple principles regarding the law- such as the Constitution and the Bill of Rights- then things would work fine. When lawyers deviate from freedom guided principles and begin to authorize let's say- politically motivated laws or laws designed to unreasonably seize citizen assets- then the system starts to break down.

In a nutshell, it's really hard to support any person, groups of persons, or any other institution which is seizing or really- just simply stealing your assets through the force of bad law. People who extort money from others used to be called thieves. These days we refer to them as government.

Even the most staunch libertarian like myself believes in the necessity of government for the safety and protection of our citizens. I am more than happy to pay taxes and fund our national defense (not offense) for agencies like the FCC and the FDA, and any number of other alphabet agencies that protect our citizens.

Where I get crazy is when government starts stealing my money for home loans, student loans, TARP programs, cell phones, medical insurance, bond interest, or any number of other programs ranging from ridiculous grants to farm subsidies where farmers are paid not to grow crops. All of this garbage has nothing to do with the PRIMARY job description of government. The safety and protection of our citizens.

Or more succinctly from Publius Huldah- a true constitutional scholar- comes the following:

The parallel in our Constitution is that the Constitution is the Supreme Law which the civil authorities are to obey. Noah Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary defines “constitution”:

“…In free states, the constitution is paramount to the statutes or laws enacted by the legislature, limiting and controlling its power; and in the United States, the legislature is created, and its powers designated, by the constitution.”

So our Constitution is the Standard by which the validity of all Acts of Congress, all acts of the Executive Branch, all judicial opinions, and all Treaties is measured and judged (Art. VI, cl. 2).

So law comes from a higher source than the civil authorities. The “Rule of Law” prevails when the civil authorities obey that higher Law – be it God’s Law or our Constitution.

So how do all of these bad laws come about and stay? Could it be as simple as legislators who create law and who are often lawyers, lawyers who steward these laws once created, and judges who are lawyers and make decisions regarding these laws?

Of course. Let me give you one little example.

Lawyers blew it and I do in fact lay the blame at their doorstep. In fact, in a very simplistic way, John Roberts of  the Supreme Court while casting the tie breaking vote could have ended Obamacare dead in it's tracks. Instead, Roberts threw out any rationale regarding the 4th amendment and authorized the greatest asset seizure and forfeiture in American history. Say that again. The greatest asset forfeiture in American history.

What did Roberts, a lawyer and judge, steal from me?

Roberts stole my liberty and freedom to choose how to live and direct  my life. He seized my work product without due process and apparently suspended the 4th amendment- which is supposed to protect me against unreasonable seizure. In short, Roberts stole my freedom, my rights as a human being, and ultimately my money. I don't see things any differently than if my government ordered me to buy satellite television because my participation would allegedly keep the costs of TV watching down for everyone else. Roberts could have stopped all of this stupid shit. But he didn't because he is a fallible, human being who's credentials far exceed his common sense.

When I was a child, that law would have never been written- let alone passed and upheld by a room full of Harvard jurists. Not in my wildest dreams have I ever seen a finer example of socialism in a country that once detested socialism as the graveyard of dead republics.

In a few months I am going to have to file my taxes and I am completely angered by the fact that I must pay a penalty for a service that I didn't want, didn't ask for, and can't afford anyway. This, in the land of the free.
What a joke that is. It didn't use to be that way.

I suppose that's how a great republic declines. It abandons the concepts and principles that once made it great. It's an entirely odd concept to think that embracing freedom, capitalism, and a rule of law meant everyone participated on a level playing field maintained by our country's jurists.

Today we embrace statism, socialism, and we ignore the rule of law- choosing to let mob rule democracy decide who can keep what. Our jurists are largely missing now, their bad decisions now setting bad judicial precedent which will form a foundation for the laws that will surely follow. Soon the mob will find ways to take more and more wealth from the people who possess it- making it a criminal act to possess something they want- like Russian wheat farmers under Stalin.

Why would anyone produce anything if they knew they would have to surrender it to the state? Isn't that the essence of socialism or communism?

You can't keep seizing the assets of our hard workers and give them to the non workers. This is how you take a well run country that embraced the concepts of freedom, the rule of law, and ruin it. By stealing the property of hard working and innovative Americans and delivering it to couch potatoes and deadbeats by passing terrible law- you most assuredly will steal the motivation of the best and brightest in America.

That's why today, we have become "also rans." In virtually any category, from birth to death rates to tax rates- we have dropped dramatically. We no longer sit at the top of anything except the amount of money we spend on our military and our 18 trillion dollar debt. And our costs for health care. I laugh when people still maintain that we have the best health care (certainly the most expensive and wasteful, we win that hands down) and I run across those statements from time to time. Let's just say the World Health Organization disagrees.

The laws of this country violate the tenets of the 4th amendment which was designed to prevent unreasonable searches and most importantly- seizures. Those unreasonable seizures are destroying our way of life. They cannot be allowed to continue or we most assuredly will become a second world country. The truth is- we have probably already arrived at that destination.

As a child I never thought I'd live to see these days. We took our way of life for granted back then and they stole it from us. Sometimes when people steal your shit- you have to steal it back. Sometimes a lot of people get jailed and a lot more get killed. History teaches that lesson over and over again. You'd think at some point- we'd pay attention.

An Unexamined Life- The Sunday Collage

Have you ever met someone who has that unquenchable thirst of always wanting and obtaining things? Someone who is always busy doing something? I know hundreds of people like that. Intelligent people who believe that every second of their day must be consumed with some "useful" project or their life will be filled with guilt and ruin.

I once knew a guy, a local potter who was locally famous here in Boise. His pottery is very fine and considered quite valuable. Unfortunately, that pottery of John's has never improved my life. My life would undoubtedly be the same without his pottery albeit a little less colorful. Strangely, I think that it is Mr. Takehara that is worth examining and not his pottery. A lot of folks would think I have that backwards. Mr. Takehara always fascinated me, maybe some others. http://janestreetclayworks.com/tag/john-takehara/

Unfortunately, Mr. Takehara is no longer with us. Even if he were, I doubt he'd have much to say. Talking about himself was just not his style.

Someone famous once said, "The best two minutes of a man's life occur when he is born and when he discovers why he was born."

The span between those two minutes in my life ran from Dec. 1960 to April, 2008. The first minute occurred in eastern Montana. I don't remember it so well but it's not important. It's the second minute that I want to talk a little bit about.

I've always thought that there has to be some sort of purpose for us being here. Sometimes, I think people get caught up in living their lives and adhering to some script placed in their heads by their parents and family members. Sometimes I think, they live their lives like little ants- dutifully building some ridiculous little ant hill- which the world kicks over with hardly a sense of loss.

Can you imagine living a completely useless life? What a cruel joke that might be.

So if there is any sort of purpose here...the only thing that makes any kind of sense to me- is that we are here to help others become better people.

Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living. Why did he say that?

Perhaps while examining your life it causes you to become brutally honest. You become aware of all of your mistakes and shortcomings. You realize how self centered you've been. You look at your life and think, "I should have done this or I should have done that" and you realize the things that you did right but more importantly- the things you did that were wrong. That kind of brutal honesty is the breeding ground for truth. Telling people the truth means you have examined your life. You have something conscious and useful that the rest of us can use. If you fail to honestly examine your life- then you have learned nothing. Not only that- but you have nothing to give others.

If you examine your life but are too fearful to disclose it to others- then you have sort of failed too, haven't you?

My examination happened in April of 2008. I was in New Orleans doing a personal inventory of my life and generally just kicking myself in the ass for having been a whiny, self centered and angry, ego maniac. I walked it all back. I saw all of the cause and effect. I realized how I came to that place, detail by detail. And just like Takehara's pottery- most importantly I began to understand who I was- and not what I had produced. For just as surely as Mr. Takehara brought beauty into the world, I had brought the product of my actions as well. But unlike Takehara, when I screwed something up- I couldn't just smash it to pieces or melt it in some kiln and get rid of it. Sometimes there's no taking something back.

You gotta get ok with that. Because your actions helped shape this place and in fact- that was your role. You were cast for that part. it wasn't a mistake.

On Black Friday the day after Thanksgiving- I will get the opportunity to tell an audience what an unexamined life looks like and what an examined life looks like. I absolutely love to contrast the two. There is nothing better than telling the world what an idiot you have been and then laughing about it. People think you are some special kind of nuts.

I think that's the 2nd moment I discovered back in New Orleans. That there is nothing more helpful than being honest and helping others. Being authentic comes from a place in the heart where it is ok to be an idiot- ok to make mistakes. People understand that and they can take action to avoid the same pitfalls that have sucked you in. I've been helping a lot of people get ok with themselves since '08. It hasn't always been pleasant but it sure has been gratifying.

Besides, I suck at making pottery.

A Two Week Hiatus

I've been really busy at work.

I have written two fairly decent pieces this week for the Sunday Collage. I shit canned them both primarily because they aren't anything new. I get tired of regurgitating the same old stuff with a different spin.

So I am putting the finishing touches on a much better piece and I should have it up by tomorrow. Thanks for keeping the faith.

The God of the Machine- The Sunday Collage

In about ten days time, three things are about to happen. Millions of un-informed Americans are going to march to the polls and vote for someone. Millions of informed Americans are going to march to the polls and vote for someone they think they know something about. Millions more are going to stay home for one of several reasons ranging from apathy to a loss of voting rights. I fall in the second group. I am going to go and vote straight libertarian which is an absolute waste of time- or maybe I'll just pass altogether.

The outcome of course has already been determined. Nothing will change. There will be no lobbying reform, or term limits, no tax reform, voting will not buy us ethical leadership nor a Supreme Court willing to stop the intrusions and illegal seizures of big government. In fact, voting will get us exactly what we already deplore. More of the same- insert a new face here or there. Rinse and repeat. The GOP is anxiously awaiting this year's election because they think their sociopaths are going to beat Obama's sociopaths. So it is, today's victory will be the next election cycle's loss.

We don't have a political problem in this country- we have a personal courage problem. I cannot think of a better illustration than the one I'm about to offer up. In my mind, it is the 20th century's greatest unsolved mystery.

I have always wondered how Japanese Americans could have been stripped of virtually every constitutional guarantee and freedom, their bodies seized, their homes and businesses left for ruin, and then relocated like cattle to some shitty desert locale like the Minidoka camp in Southern Idaho. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minidoka_National_Historic_Site

Can you imagine being arrested tonight, carted off to a camp, and jailed for a few years without any sort of due process? How did that happen? Did every citizen of this country just look the other way in 1942? What about the lawyers, what about civil rights? Where were they?

If we are guaranteed rights and freedoms given to us by God, specifically identified and itemized in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights- how was one man able to issue an executive order and remove all of those rights- systemically reducing people to cattle? It was 70 years or so ago and not exactly the dark ages. About 19 years before I landed on this rock.

I have had some furious back and forth with older Americans who rationalize and justify those actions as "reasonable" given the fact there "might be" Japanese sympathizers with ties to Japan and the national mood post Pearl Harbor was unanimously bitter and suspicious toward that class of people. I'm not sure what those potentially embedded west coast Japanese spies were going to do exactly- perhaps they had access to Colonel Sanders secret recipe.

I cannot think of a better definition of mob rule democracy. The rights of the minority were absolutely trampled by the majority. So how and why could something like that happen?

This feat compleat' was done by "executive order." An executive order is a mysterious order which cannot be found in the Constitution nor will anyone find any wording or phraseology that authorizes Presidents to remove constitutional guarantees or the rule of law- whenever they feel the urge. Executive orders do not exist anywhere in the Federalist Papers either. In fact, the framers were expressly trying to stop those very imperial edicts- edicts which abused and removed the God given freedoms and rights of our people.

FDR's very first executive order was an act that seized our gold in 1933. Did someone simply suspend the 4th amendment in the Bill of Rights? Did we not have lawyers and courtrooms back then? Did Congress go on a field trip? (They can overturn an executive order)

Who is going to stop an executive order which will violate immigration law by allowing millions of undocumented aliens into this country? Will Obama try that after the elections? A lot of people think so.

The king of the executive order- issuing more than 3500 of them and about as many as the last 11 Presidents combined- was FDR. Historians might say that Lincoln intruded on state rights and I might agree- but nobody undermined our rights and liberty worse than the Father of Statism- Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Many of FDR's edicts can be traced back to the Federal Reserve Banks' creation which plunged us into the Great Depression some 16 years later. They did the very same thing again- in 2008.

Certainly a President has the right to direct the activities of his cabinet, executive branch agencies, and the like. Nobody will argue that. But where I get a little frosty is when I see Presidents undermining existing law to satisfy their own selfish interests or destroying rights and laws designed to protect our civil liberties by issuing royal edicts. Here's a new twist from President Obama. He is exercising his "executive privilege" and obstructing the disclosure of legally obtainable documents on the Fast and Furious scandal- you know- because he is all about the "transparency." http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/10/obama-asserts-fast-furious-executive-privilege-claim-holders-wife-2/

We don't need voters. Voters do nothing other than extend the dysfunctional life of our political process and the sociopaths who make "careers" out of politics.

We need patriots. We need men and women of courage. We need people who understand that the Bill of Rights is not some negotiable instrument to be ignored or marginalized because it is politically expedient in any given moment. We need people who will stand against a mob and say, "We have a rule of law in this country and like it or not- that rule comes first and it protects us all." When we start caving in to the whims of the mob we undermine and lose our freedoms and liberty. We cannot let the mob decide who has rights and who does not or soon, none of us will have any rights at all. I submit- that day is not very far off. The Affordable Care Act has proven that to me.

The problem this country has is far simpler than just labeling everything a political quagmire and ignoring it. We've grown fat, complacent, cowardly. The solution? I'm convinced any such effort must start with campaign reform, political contributions reduced to paltry individual amounts, lobbying reforms, and most importantly- term limits. In fact term limits would go a long way to stop these enormous 100 million dollar re-election campaigns. They wouldn't occur because contributors would realize they would no longer have influence beyond the only re-election bid of any particular candidate. Our country simply cannot operate on a level playing field so long as political influence is available to the highest corporate bidder be it the health insurance lobby, big pharma lobby, or any other corporate interest seeking to monopolize the marketplace.

This week I got a kick out of my old hometown's "pizza and politics" semi annual ritual. Every two years the local newspaper holds debate night where candidates put their best face on and try to pretend that they know what they are talking about. What they are really after is ego gratification, a little power and influence, some money, and a better looking resume'. Events such as this help the "voters" pretend to be informed. http://www.mtexpress.com/index2.php?ID=2007154252#.VEwA8NzB_hA

I shall leave you this week with my favorite all time quote and this blog's former subtitle. It is the very definition of politics. They do it on purpose. Thanks FDR.

“Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.” 
― Isabel Paterson, The God of the Machine

The Hunting Trip, Part 2- The Sunday Collage

Wednesday was largely uneventful. We had some more yelling, some more swerving, some more dog whining, one heated political discussion, and then we arrived at our destination in Williston, N.D. late Wednesday. We hunted a little on Thursday and Friday. The big hunt was scheduled for Saturday morning.

I have to tell you about an incident that occurred on Friday. We had driven by two gals on horseback who were riding about a quarter mile from us. We were hunting some farmland about ten miles from Williston. My cousin Ronnie is a character. He has lived here his entire 61 years, everyone knows him, he has catchers mitts for hands and a size 14 shoe. He was quite the rounder in his day and he still scares the shit out of me. So Ron jumps out of the truck and just as soon as he does- the dog kicks up a rooster. Ronnie shoots it. Just as he shoots, I glanced behind us and the two horses those gals were riding spooked a little bit. The riders were about 200 yards away and they brought the horses under control pretty quickly. I didn't think anything of it.

About an hour later, some drunk guy showed up driving his truck and attempted to kick us off the land we were hunting. Ronnie always gets permission and he told the guy to beat it since it wasn't his land and he had no standing in the issue. The drunk guy's daughter (one of the riders) was in the truck with him and she was trying to turn this incident into some big deal which it wasn't. We attempted to apologize but this only empowered the young girl to act even worse. So between the drunk guy and his whiny ass daughter, we quickly surmised there was no win here and that if we continued- one drunk guy was liable to get hurt. It reminded me a lot of my old law enforcement days.

On Saturday morning after about 5 minutes of sleep, we had to go into Williston to get Montana hunting licenses via some state reciprocity at 6 a.m. The Bakken oil shale formation has turned Williston into a traffic nightmare. Williston simply doesn't have the infrastructure to support the enormous truck traffic which has consumed this area. As we got closer to town, a truck turning right onto the highway had ripped out an entire four lane traffic signal system- temporary lights which they have strung up like Christmas tree lights. The lights were laying all over the road with the cops directing traffic. (I looked for a link to the news story but I could not find one)

We obtained the licenses, drove back to my cousin's house, and though it was still very dark- we left for Montana. The wind was howling when we arrived at the posted and protected 1500 acre farm that we would be hunting. I was only out of the truck for a minute or so when I realized my ears were about to become frozen and turning blue. It seemed entirely possible that they might break and fall off my head with any sudden movements. I felt like an idiot for leaving my knit hat behind. I noted everyone had the hoods up on their hoodies. That seemed like a logical move.

There were pheasants everywhere. Hundreds of them. My dad and I posted up at the end of a field while two dogs and four people drove birds at us. The wind was blowing so hard that the pheasants were coming at us like small, 100 MPH missiles. I tried leading them 10 feet or so and I couldn't hit them. At one point, there were dozens coming, we couldn't keep shells in our guns, and we still hadn't hit one pheasant. I began laughing so hard that I couldn't stop.

Ya know, I've been shooting my whole life. Anybody can hit clay targets that move the same speed, in the same directions, on command, at the shooting range on some warm day that you select. I would have loved to have seen some professional shot gunners I know- guys who have shot in the Grand National- try to hit those birds. I have a feeling that I would have laughed even harder seeing those guys miss. I have no idea how far one leads a pheasant fleeing for his life with a 30 mile an hour tailwind. The walkers nailed a couple.

We changed locations. One of the guys coming at us shot straight at me. I heard the thick grass, maybe only 20 feet in front of me, get peppered with shot. I hate hunting with more than four people for that reason. You really have to pay attention to where everyone is, where the dogs are, where the trucks are, and sometimes you just can't shoot. Sometimes, people make mistakes.

We must have covered 10 miles of very hard walking on Saturday. We shot 17 pheasants, one short of our limit.

On Sunday morning at 6 a.m., cousin Ronnie decided to wake us up with his electronic dying rabbit calls which he uses to lure in coyotes. He has a remote control and he can make several different noises. So the dogs went haywire  and started barking, we all got up shaking our heads, and Ronnie was upstairs laughing as he changed the desperate noises on the remote control.

We hunted again on Sunday morning but mostly I am hunted out at this point. It was a beautiful day, sunny, warm, all the trees are changing color and they were beautiful. My brother, his wife, and cousin Ronnie went fishing during the afternoon.. I napped, watched football, and wrote this. We will probably hunt one last day and point the truck towards Idaho.

The week went by quickly. I hope the trip home goes by just as quickly.

The Hunting Trip- The Sunday Collage

Our annual hunting trip begins.

It is 1:24 a.m. on October 15, 2014. I can't sleep... more on that in a moment.

Each year for the past 6 years, I find myself traveling to the Montana-North Dakota border for our annual pheasant hunting trip. The first two years were rather easy. I simply got in my car, set the cruise control on 80 and arrived in one day- about twelve hours by high speed Frankenmobile.

Then a couple of things happened which changed the course of human events. My father moved back to Idaho from North Dakota which unbeknownst to me initially and later knownst to me each year thereafter- meant that my father and I would be traveling back together to hunt each year. This is moderately tolerable given the fact that my father travels 10 MPH under the speed limit come hell or high water. At no time in his life has the thought ever occurred to my father that his son once picked up a driver's license around 1976 and then logged something north of a million miles in water trucks, forklifts, ambulances, squad cars, motorcycles, and delivery trucks. And so it is, my 76 year old father points us eastward each of the last 4 years, using both lanes frequently, and making sudden swerves only while turning his head to yell at the dog.

Remember the dog in Chevy Chase's movie, "Funny Farm?" The one that takes off and is only seen running through forests from time to time throughout the movie? My father's German Short Hair makes that dog look sedentary. This dog is so high strung that all I have ever seen her do is run away in open spaces, pace back and forth in confined spaces, and whine continually. For an encore the dog chews and shreds everything in sight including seat belts, coats, and anything else you may have left nearby. She rarely stops moving. Occasionally, my father lets out some profane epithet at about 100 decibels which has a calming effect on the dog for about 15 seconds and pisses me off for 15 minutes while I wait for the tinnitus in my left ear to fade away. Today, dad gave the dog a tranquilizer. This slowed the dog down from whirling dervish to pain in the ass.The dog's behavior would be marginally acceptable if the dog had even a remote idea of what we would like her to do. I do not think this dog could find a pheasant if one landed on her head and shit in her ear. This is my fourth year trekking back with dad and the whirling dervish. Gawd help me. How quickly I forget what this trip is like.

Somewhere near Bozeman, Mont. this year and shortly after my father let fly with one of his 100 db outbursts, I began to think that maybe I could drink again. Just this once. Bushmills or Malibu Rum. Just one large bottle couldn't hurt. Thinking it through and then dismissing that as sheer lunacy- my thoughts shift to those doggie tranquilizers that dad keeps in the truck somewhere. I wonder if humans could take them. Finally, we reach the Lazy J Motel in Big Timber, Montana.

Right now Dad is snoring and the whirling dervish is licking her paw non stop. It's 2:56 in the morning. The bed is small and hard like a sheet of drywall only not as comfortable. The sheets feel like cheap toilet paper. Every once in awhile, death I think, might provide some relief but that is selfish. I shall wait until the trip is over.

I remember looking at the clock at 6:08 and then falling asleep. I wake up at 6:27 when my father gets out of bed and announces that he can no longer sleep and it is time to leave.

To Be Continued...

TSA, Bringing the Love

10/14/14. This is a four year old piece from the FG archives. I thought I'd repost it because it's just as good today as it was back then. It received a whopping 75 views. The background music was nice. Brian

Well today ends my disco week marathon. Thinking rockin' country week next week. So while all you people were doing useful things, like swilling beer, practicing self love, and sleeping...I was putting this gem together.

As a career cop, nothing pisses me off more than the Transportation and Safety Administration. Months after the 9/11 attacks, these termites infiltrated my ski resort home town. I tried to play nice with these guys. Let me tell you how they select the TSA hierarchy. Potential candidates for upper level jobs are asked to undergo a CAT scan. If they see any evidence of common sense as demonstrated by electrical activity in the frontal lobe- you are summarily disqualified, your transfer is denied, and you are sent back to your job at the post office.

One of the first acts of the TSA swarm was that they ordered us to import bomb sniffing dogs and check all of the cars in my airport parking lot or have them all towed away. I had two initial thoughts. Kicking the snot out of one of these guys was not possible- they had exercised caution by using the phone. Ok, I had three thoughts. My second thought, was since I had no bomb sniffing dogs, was to just lie and tell them that we had searched the cars at some future point. My third thought was just what the hell did flying planes into the WTC have to do with bombs in cars? Cars parked in some rural airport months later?

This is the kind of shit that the Federal Government dreams up. I should have made my stand right then and there. I wanted to. But then the TSA threatened the Airport Manager with shutting down the airport. I was pretty sure between the Airport Manager and a few angry, jet owning millionaires and billionaires- that my big plan and I would crash and burn... so to speak.

Common sense has no place in the TSA. That this bureaucracy has claimed 50,000 employees is mind boggling. However and true to form, the TSA has now completely gone full idiot. Confiscating our money to pay for this lunacy. See through clothing body scanners and grabbing folks' in private places. We didn't get here on a winning streak.

Here's a great site: http://wewontfly.com/

I clipped this piece from one of a few articles I have read. Pilots with courage, and now as it turns out, free time.

Anger over the screenings hasn't just come from passengers. Two veteran commercial airline pilots asked a federal judge this week to stop the whole-body scans and the new pat-down procedures, saying it violates their civil rights.
The pilots, Michael S. Roberts of Memphis and Ann Poe of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., have refused to participate in either screening method and, as a result, will not fly out of airports that use these methods, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington.
Roberts is a pilot with ExpressJet Airlines and is on unpaid administrative leave because of his refusal to enter the whole-body scanners. Poe flies for Continental Airlines and will continue to take off work as long as the existing regulations are in place.
"In her eyes, the pat-down is a physical molestation and the WBI scanner is not only intrusive, degrading and potentially dangerous, but poses a real and substantial threat to medical privacy," the lawsuit states.

Unfortunately, the formation of the TSA, was a perfect example of government seizing control of a situation, exploiting it, and seizing upon an opportunity to intrude into our privacy and creating a money sucking bureaucracy that will never go away. Maybe one day the sheep will catch on. Let's hope it's soon.