From Yahoo via AP:

Last month, an agent who worked searching checked luggage at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was suspended after the owner of a stolen iPad used the tracking feature on the device to locate it at the agent’s home. Police found seven other iPads there.

Also in January, authorities charged an agent at Miami International Airport with swiping items and luggage and smuggling them out of the airport in a hidden pocket of his work jacket. He was arrested after one of the items, an iPad, was spotted for sale on Craigslist.

Two other former TSA agents at JFK were sentenced on Jan. 10 to six months in jail and five years’ probation for stealing $40,000 from a piece of luggage in January 2011. The agents, Coumar Persad and Davon Webb, had pleaded guilty to grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and official misconduct.

Last year, a TSA supervisor and one of his officers pleaded guilty in a scheme that lifted $10,000 to $30,000 from passengers’ belongings at Newark Liberty International Airport. A federal judge sentenced the supervisor, Michael Arato, to 2½ years in prison and his subordinate, Al Raimi, to six months of home confinement.

It’s not enough that we have to endure the liberty neutering regulations when trying to fly in an airplane, but now we have to worry that the people we are supposedly entrusting with our safety is also ripping us off in the process.

Granted this is a small, tiny even, percentage of idiots stealing from passengers, given the size of this agency. Still doesn’t make me comfortable knowing that while I am at the mercy of their herd control measures I also have to worry that they are stealing my luggage as a bonus.

Look, if you feel like you haven’t given enough of your treasure to the government then by all means stop hiring tax attorneys and accountants, stop taking deductions and simply write a fat check to the Treasury with your 1040EZ form.

I am sure that these elitists can “afford to pay more”. That is not the point.

The point is that the government does not deserve another single penny until spending is under control. The point is that the tax system sucks and needs to be flatter and simpler.

See what will happen is that the idiots in Congress will raise, say the capital gains tax from 15% to 30%. Fine. Warren Buffett will be ecstatic. I won’t be. I invest in stocks which I benefit from a low capital gains rate just like Buffett. But the idiots in Congress likely won’t make that distinction.

I find it reprehensible that these people would prefer to pay into the liberal’s collective wallet than make those contributions to worthwhile charities. It would be more impressive if they would say “hey feds, you know if you would just reduce taxes then I would love to contribute (more?) money to charities.” Nah, a liberal’s favorite charity is funding class warfare.

Yep, this country is deep in debt. I would be more inclined to listen to the leftists talk about paying more taxes if there was any seriousness in reigning in the debt. WTH should anyone give more to a government that cannot control its spending?

How about you celebs talk about the government balancing the budget THEN suggest that taxes need to be reformed so it is fair for everyone?

Until then, by all means write a check to the U.S. Treasury if it helps assuage your liberal guilt.

Following a smashing success of Tea Party backed candidates in 2010, for some reason conservatives could not get behind someone worthy of defeating Obama. Michelle Bachmann gave it a go but, honestly, conservatives at least recognize a lightweight when they see one, unlike liberals.

Candidates who should be in the race like Mitch Daniels, Alan West, Marco Rubio or Paul Ryan declined to run for one reason or another. Some even valid, but at this point in what will be remembered as possibly the most embarrassing GOP primary since…2008, someone should have stepped into the fray with vigor.

It seems like we trotted out the second team to go against the defending champ.

I do not know if Romney or Gingrich will shrink the government. I am sure either will govern the United States much differently than our current house band, Obama and the Socialist Tendencies.

It’s just unfortunate that both these candidates have such massive flaws. I find Romney and his Massachusetts healthcare plan to be the most egregious of all. How does he effectively argue against Obamacare? Anybody but a politician sees how stupid that is!

The establishment is pounding Romney down the GOP esophagus and the conservatives are trying their best to choke down Gingrich.

If it wasn’t such a serious matter to remove Obama from his throne it would almost be hysterically funny watching cerebral pundits, otherwise thoughtful politicians and right-side bloggers justify the current crop of GOP political bobbleheads. They are twisting themselves into pretzels in an attempt to support….someone.

I wish the establishment of the GOP would go away. They are in complete odds with conservatives. There should be at least three parties in the country. Liberal Panty Waste (LPW), Big Government Cronies and Conservative (Defenders of the Republic). Wouldn’t it be great to see each faction for what they truly are instead of mashing them into two parties?

Obama has to go. The damage done to this country over the decade has been incalculable (though we can start with the 16+ trillion we owe). The government expansion that Obama, and Bush before him, has inflicted on this country and future generations of citizens, is absolutely criminal. Criminal. It is just sad that of all the great people in this country we are left with two characters named Gingrich and Romney that otherwise intelligent people are fighting over.

After spending months trying to get someone to distribute the movie, he finally succeeded and was able to get the movie shown on the largest theater in Tennessee. Apparently movie distributors do not want to do business with conservative material. Shocking, I know. If the movie does well in Nashville then he has a chance of it going on a much broader national scale.

The movie opened this weekend and from what I can tell is doing quite well. The wife and I saw it just this afternoon at the 2:50 matinee and it was packed with an eager crowd.

I hope you get a chance to one day see this movie. It completely debunks all the climate change bullshit that the leftists shovel in their warped view of environmental change and global control.

The movie shows Al Gore appearing before a Congressional committee to discuss his desire to control CO2 emissions while taking apart his thin argument fact by fact as Phil interviews experts in the field of climatology.

The film is not just a boring bludgeoning of hard facts. It is also entertaining to watch Phil take to the street to interview people on their knowledge of CO2 and climate change. Government education and indoctrination never looked so painful. He is also filmed trying to get an interview with the Goracle himself. These personal interactions can be quite funny as Phil has a great on-screen personality.

I encourage anyone that thinks that Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to be the last word on climate change to go see An Inconsistent Truth. You owe to yourself to get both sides of the argument and decide which one seems more plausible to you.

As a conservative, I urge you to see the Goracle’s movie first, then see Phil’s movie. Whether you are a leftist or not. I am not afraid of the facts as presented in Phil’s movie as a complete dismissal of the lies and deceit in Gore’s movie. I doubt very much a liberal would suggest you see Phil’s movie. Climate change is a necessary component of their desire to redistribute wealth and control human existence.

This was easily one of the best documentaries I’ve seen. I was proud to support Uncle Phil in the release and urge you to see it if it makes it to your city.

From the website:

An Inconsistent Truth takes you along for the ride on one man’s quest for the truth. Many people believe in man-made global warming but they don’t know why. This is one of the most important issues of our day yet the average American knows so very little about what’s really going on. Is that by design? Who stands to make billions off cap-and-trade legislation? Why do those who raise their voices the loudest lead the most wasteful lifestyles? Is carbon dioxide really a pollutant or is it a harmless gas that’s essential to life here on Earth?

This movie is an entertaining, fact-filled odyssey that will have you thinking, cheering and laughing. Phil Valentine goes straight to the experts and so-called experts and demands to know the truth. And the truth just may change your life.

Join Phil as he climbs aboard Bennie the “BioBenz”, a car that runs on biodiesel that Phil makes from used vegetable oil. Phil talks with scientists and politicians and relentlessly pursues an audience with the poster boy of global warming, the man who brought the world An Inconvenient Truth – Al Gore.

I believe this country is in trouble economically, socially and politically. That is no secret. The question is what to do about it. I have been hoarding gold, silver, food, water, guns and bullets. Big deal. Prudent people have enough food and water on hand to get through any emergencies that come what may. Prudent people save their money and diversify. Prudent people protect their family and property.

There used to be a time, not too long ago actually, when people in this country were Pioneers. They lived off the land, grew their own food, built their own shelters, cut their own wood, hunted and fished. They were self sufficient. They hoarded food by necessity. My grandparents shopped sparingly at the grocery store once a month. They canned food. Had a couple of deep freezers full of frozen treats. The grew a lovely garden and had half ownership of a farm.

There are some people who are returning to that life of self-sufficiency. Some never left. These folks will be perfectly fine if a financial collapse cometh.

Then you have the zombies. The people that you will be shooting in the face off your front doorstep as they are scrounging for food. These folks buy just enough to get them through the next pay check.  They eat out virtually every meal. They are screwed because they believe the system, the government, will take care of them.

Then, of course, you have those that are losing their minds. I enjoy reading “prepper” blogs. They are vastly entertaining for the fantasy life many engage in writing about. Understand that I believe in preparation. What I don’t care to involve myself in is Mad Max apocalyptic fantasies. Have you read “The Road”? Not pleasant. Denzel Washington is cool as hell in “The Book of Eli”. Your post-apocalyptic life won’t be nearly as awesome.

Preppers talk about “bugging out”. Sounds great until you think….where? OK, sure if I lived in an urban cesspool then I would be thinking about where to go and how to get there in the event of mob rule. Which I don’t discount is coming. Thing is, if you live in the city then you are most likely already a zombie and will be roving around until you get to my front doorstep upon which I’ll have to shoot you in the face.

Preppers talk about all the things they need to survive. The list of items they think they must have to survive when the SHTF. Well, from what I’ve read you’d need a house to store it all in. Are you going to put three rooms worth of survival gear on your back or stuffed in your car? Get real.

Some have a groovy cabin in the middle of nowhere. Great if you live out West. Maybe the roads won’t be too crowded on your pilgrimage to your hideout. If you’re East of the Mississippi then I wonder how you are going get to it with the over-crowded roads. If you stuff all your goods in the cabin, how do you protect it if that is not your primary dwelling?

I think this survival craze is a hobby for many. “Let’s buy a new knife this weekend.” “Check out that camp stove dear!” Look, I love survival gear. I like camping and hiking. But I don’t think for a minute it will be cool to leave my home with a knife, a solar panel, canteen, poncho, a few silver rounds and live in the woods eating grubs and dead cats. Even if there is a crisis, an apocalypse,  mob rule, or similar, I will be barricaded in my home.

What I am most concerned about is the government overlords. The burgeoning police state. An event that sees government over-reaction which includes martial law. Gun confiscation. There is no surviving that. Ask German Jews how they enjoyed the Nazis. Ask Japanese-Americans about their time in the state gulags. The only survival is to leave.

The time to leave is any time before it is too late. Will it come to that? I don’t know. People are certainly making money on folks who believe that expatriating the U.S. is the only answer. The devil is in the details though. It costs money to live in another country. You need savings or a job. And where are you going to go? They say some countries in the Far East are groovy. I certainly loved Singapore. Maybe Latin America. I’m not certain it’s easy monetarily, emotionally, culturally to simply…leave. But then again I’ve been looking at my options.

Like many I have become content with the conveniences of life in the U.S. Maybe things will change as the country converts into a European Socialist utopia. Things may get worse as the collective overtakes the individual. I don’t know. What I do know is I care for my family, friends and church. Those are difficult to simply leave.

I have subscribed to a couple of expat, investing type newsletters. They provide some good information, maybe some actionable items that are reasonable. The problem I find with their advice is they are single dudes or empty nest couples. Traveling the world in a briefcase and a stack of passports is no big deal. Risks can be had because they aren’t responsible to anyone.

I find myself not willing to take those risks because…this is home. Maybe because I AM responsible I should take a risk and leave while I can get everyone out. But it still seems…extreme. Many would argue that it is extreme to live here while the water boils. I don’t know.

My expat newsletter buddies would say I am being overly optimists and naive. That it already is over. Whatever.

I’m not quite ready to give up. I’m not quite ready to let go of Madison’s, Jefferson’s, Adams’, Washington’s republic. The U.S., and the idea of it, is certainly worth fighting for. Why should I be part of the history that lets the leftists, Marxists, Socialists, Occupiers, collectivists take over?

I guess the answer, for now, is to make sure that I can be as self-reliant as possible and not have to grovel for government handouts. To protect my family and property in the event of societal meltdown. To save money in diversified accounts and investments. To surround myself with people I love and trust. To keep informed. To keep the faith.

The Internet stands against tyranny.

I laughed out loud as reports indicated that Anonymous took down DoJ, RIAA,MPAA and Universal Music. Anonymous reported on Twitter: ““Tango Down! JUSTICE.gov – U.S. Government Website DOWN!”.

Awesome stuff. The battle lines are drawn.

Don’t misunderstand me dear reader: piracy is not honorable. Stealing is immoral.

Isn’t it just a little coincidental that the FBI swooped down in helicopters, seizing millions in property and shuttering numerous websites soon after SOPA and PIPA were tabled? Like the government was saying, “you know, we have the authority, the POWER, to shut these sites down whether it is signed law or not.”

Don’t think for a minute that it was all about stopping a rogue outfit distributing Hollywood content with abandon. No, as The Daily Reckoning reported:

…the trendline with Megaupload was clearly toward using the space to launch new artists with new content: not piracy but creativity. As Wired.uk wrote, this crackdown came shortly after Megaupload announced music producer Swizz Beatz — married to Alicia Keys — as their CEO. They had rallied a whole host of musicians including Will.i.am, P Diddy, Kanye West and Jamie Foxx to endorse the cloud locker service. Megaupload was building a legitimate system for artists to make money and fans to get content.

What’s this all about? It is some powerful corporate lobbyists trying to prevent the emergence of an alternative system of art and music delivery, one powered by people rather than merely the well- connected.

The U.S. government is corrupt and sick with the lobbyist cancer. More from The Daily Reckoning:

This is the battle for whether the digital age is permitted to exist in an atmosphere of free speech, free association, free enterprise, and real property rights, or whether it will be controlled by government in conjunction with aging media moguls from monopolistic corporate oligarchies. The lines are clearly drawn, and it is taking place in real time.

I cannot imagine a life not being free. I refuse to believe that even the wanna-be Marxists running around this country really hope to achieve a collectivism that would infringe on their rights. But this is where we are. I can only imagine how many hypocritical Socialists who have supported ever expansive government the last 10 years were actually on the front lines of stopping SOPA and PIPA.

The government is at war against its citizens. Power and control. Piracy controls are just a tip of the their spear. You’ll eventually have to decide if you prefer to be among the collectivists collecting scraps from their government master’s table or if you want to be free and choose liberty.

My government is the scourge of this earth. Too much power wielded by officials bent on controlling vast swaths of your life. Too much power bought by lobbyists with no interest in the good of the Republic. From the Patriot Act, Sarbanes-Oxley, Dodd-Frank, Obamacare, to the proposed SOPA legislation, lobbyists are spending mountains of money to control how you live and how they enrich their lives.

Hollywood executives have reportedly spent upwards of $90 million to enact SOPA. Unfortunately they are focused only on piracy, which is bad of course. Unfortunately these things have, as they say, unintended consequences. The bill is so freaking broad that supposedly if I link, or a commenter links, to a web listing that is dubious as far as their copyrights, then my site could get shut down.

Imagine what that must be like for Reddit, Tumblr or WordPress.

A day doesn’t go by that I am not thoroughly disgusted with my government. The asshats that are in charge in D.C. are incredibly stupid. Very few are responsible citizens that believe in this Republic and wish to preserve it. For most it is a power trip. A means to enrich themselves at our expense.

What is it going to take to wake people up?

One day, and it may begin the day Obama is re-elected, there will be significantly more chatter about State secession. Our 2nd Amendment rights will be assaulted like no other time. The police state will be suffocating. But more and more people will want out of the federal system.

Many will leave the country. Many won’t have the means. And they will begin wondering what the point of being in the federal system is. A second civil war in this country would not surprise me at all.

Sorry, I wandered off tangent. How did I get from SOPA to civil war? Crazy right? Maybe not.

There will be something that the government does, maybe SOPA, that will piss enough people off in this country en masse, where they will demand real government change.

Taking away the only freedom people know, the Internet, the WWW, just maybe the catalyst to get people, young and old, rich and poor, all colors, finally paying attention to what this government is doing.

crap Michelle Obama is on Icarly. She ruins Disney and nick this sucks

She’s upset and gets a pass with the salty verbage as she just discovered government intrusion and indoctrination.

Okay, okay, enough chatter. She further explains:

she especially ruins Disney I hate obamas she is stupid as farts on a Saturday night

“Stupid as farts on a Saturday night”. Indeed and WTF.

Her mother asks for clarification of the Saturday night farts. She continues:

Yes yes they are worse on Saturday night. you do not know how mad I am she is like “eat more veggie and fruits” on disney next thing you know she is going to be on TLC. stupid

Couple of things. Yes my 10 year old did in fact add the quotes to the text message. She’s homeschooled and knows such things. Yes my oldest and her watch garbage on TLC. They enjoy watching the fabric of our society being ripped in front of their eyes. They find it amusing and not a reality they care to participate in. Finally do not try to indoctrinate kids on Disney and Nick. The smart ones are perfectly happy letting their parents parent, the TV entertain and the Obamas stick to grownup crap.

After she sent the texts we had a chat about what’s going on. I then told her to let me know when she sees the female Obama and we’d share a Hershey bar.

“We can’t wait for Congress to act, and if Congress refuses to act and if Republicans choose the path of obstruction, rather than cooperation, then the president is not going to sit here. This gridlock in Washington is not an excuse for inaction.” –White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

So, in effect, cooperation means agreeing with the Democrat agenda. See, the beauty of our republic government, and make no mistake, the Founders did not establish a Democracy, is that there are (supposed) to be numerous checks and balances built into the system. The government is not supposed to get its way. Because there is a lack of agreement there is protection of the people’s freedoms and liberties.

I want the government to be inactive. I want them to go home. I want them to stop meddling with my freedoms and liberties.

As the 5 Min Forecast reported yesterday “It’s not that the 40,000 new laws — state and federal — that hit the books yesterday for the first time are outrageous… it’s the sheer quantity that’s alarming”

40,000 new laws. THAT is what you get when you have agreement in government.

We are losing this country folks. Between the Fascist in charge, his Socialist agenda and his alphabet soup of tyrants, we are losing what makes this country great. And I have NO illusions that the GOP is any better. I seriously doubt any of the Republican muppets, save crazy Ron, would work to reduce the size of the government.

I wonder what you 2 or 3 readers are doing to prepare? Are you in denial that anything wicked this way comes? Everything cool? Or are you getting your money out of the dollar, out of the country, thinking about buying foreign real estate, expatriating your retirement accounts into safe havens and/or purchasing stacks of the precious? Your options as an American are few and far between unfortunately. The IRS has made it so that virtually no one wants to bank with an American.

Do you feel the boiling water? Are you comfy in your slow boil? You are the proverbial frog, you know.

One day you will wake up and find that the government has confiscated your retirement accounts. It’s happened before in other countries. They’ll make you “invest” in the government bonds. It will be the last desperate act of a government losing control and not being able to pay for its spending and borrowing excesses.

We have the most awful bunch of idiots running this government. 4 more years of Obama is likely. The transformation of this country from the land of liberty, hope and wealth will be complete as we descend into the morass of European Socialism or worse.

Perhaps our only hope lies with the hundreds of thousands of guns that people have bought since Obama was elected and the millions bought before him. Hopefully millions of bullets have been stockpiled as well. Obama’s second term will see war against the 2nd Amendment. The Founders were afraid it would be necessary to protect our freedoms from an overzealous government and gave us the means to do so. I fear we are fast approaching that moment.

In a last ditch effort to save the U.S. dollar from total irrelevancy, the Fed is going to print rolls of Benjamins for sanitary use.

The rumored Apple TV will in fact become a wonderful doorstop.

The end of the world will not happen but you will wish it had following the economic collapse and social turmoil that will ensue.

You’ll be happy buying a gold coin or two at $1400, sad when your purchase falls to $1200 while grudgingly buying another couple, then ecstatic when the price of gold reaches past $1800 by the end of the year.

You’ll need big balls if you’ve bought silver. It will greet $17 in short order. Dumbasses the world over will be flinging themselves into the path of moving buses and whirling prop plane blades grieving their egregious losses. Survivors will be curling their mustaches with cognac fingertips as the price recovers into the mid 30′s.

God is going to make it official and give Adele wings to go with her heavenly voice.

Jennifer Aniston still won’t make a movie worth a crap.

People will finally discover what a kick-ass TV show Supernatural is while at the same time figuring out how over-rated The Walking Dead has become.

2012 will be the first year that every Hollywood movie released into general consumption will be a sequel, remake or creation of some comic book.

Microsoft’s Windows phone will surprise folks and become a viable alternative to the proprietary arrogance of Apple’s iPhone and something different from the ubiquitous Android.

Gun sales will increase every month in 2012. Interestingly, Apple’s iGun flops due to proprietary ammo and yearly magazine upgrades.

The Internet, and more specifically the World Wide Web, will become endangered by the American political class seeking to gain additional control over the herd. Internet taxes will be widely discussed as well as steps to censure content. The result is likely to unite leftists, independents and conservatives like nothing else could have. Lost Ball retreats to Usenet while a splork is rumored to be growing grapes on a Chilean plantation.