Letter from Airplane Pilot, Michael Roberts, On Airport Security

My name is Michael Roberts, and I am a pilot for ExpressJet Airlines, Inc., based in Houston (that is, I still am for the time being). This morning as I attempted to pass through the security line for my commute to work I was denied access to the secured area of the terminal building at Memphis International Airport. I have passed through the same line roughly once per week for the past four and a half years without incident. Today, however, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents at this checkpoint were using one of the new Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT) systems that are currently being deployed at airports across the nation. These are the controversial devices featured by the media in recent months, albeit sparingly, which enable screeners to see beneath people’s clothing to an extremely graphic and intrusive level of detail (virtual strip searching). Travelers refusing this indignity may instead be physically frisked by a government security agent until the agent is satisfied to release them on their way in what is being touted as an “alternative option” to AIT. The following is a somewhat hastily drafted account of my experience this morning.
As I loaded my bags onto the X-ray scanner belt, an agent told me to remove my shoes and send them through as well, which I’ve not normally been required to do when passing through the standard metal detectors in uniform. When I questioned her, she said it was necessary to remove my shoes for the AIT scanner. I explained that I did not wish to participate in the AIT program, so she told me I could keep my shoes and directed me through the metal detector that had been roped off. She then called somewhat urgently to the agents on the other side: “We got an opt-out!” and also reported the “opt-out” into her handheld radio. On the other side I was stopped by another agent and informed that because I had “opted out” of AIT screening, I would have to go through secondary screening. I asked for clarification to be sure he was talking about frisking me, which he confirmed, and I declined. At this point he and another agent explained the TSA’s latest decree, saying I would not be permitted to pass without showing them my naked body, and how my refusal to do so had now given them cause to put their hands on me as I evidently posed a threat to air transportation security (this, of course, is my nutshell synopsis of the exchange). I asked whether they did in fact suspect I was concealing something after I had passed through the metal detector, or whether they believed that I had made any threats or given other indications of malicious designs to warrant treating me, a law-abiding fellow citizen, so rudely. None of that was relevant, I was told. They were just doing their job.
Eventually the airport police were summoned. Several officers showed up and we essentially repeated the conversation above. When it became clear that we had reached an impasse, one of the more sensible officers and I agreed that any further conversation would be pointless at this time. I then asked whether I was free to go. I was not. Another officer wanted to see my driver’s license. When I asked why, he said they needed information for their report on this “incident” – my name, address, phone number, etc. I recited my information for him, until he asked for my supervisor’s name and number at the airline. Why did he need that, I asked. For the report, he answered. I had already given him the primary phone number at my company’s headquarters. When I asked him what the Chief Pilot in Houston had to do with any of this, he either refused or was simply unable to provide a meaningful explanation. I chose not to divulge my supervisor’s name as I preferred to be the first to inform him of the situation myself. In any event, after a brief huddle with several other officers, my interrogator told me I was free to go.
As I approached the airport exit, however, I was stopped again by a man whom I believe to be the airport police chief, though I can’t say for sure. He said I still needed to speak with an investigator who was on his way over. I asked what sort of investigator. A TSA investigator, he said. As I was by this time looking eagerly forward to leaving the airport, I had little patience for the additional vexation. I’d been denied access to my workplace and had no other business keeping me there.
“Am I under arrest?” I asked.
“No, he just needs to ask you some more questions.”
“But I was told I’m free to go. So… am I being detained now, or what?”
“We just need to hold you here so he can…”
“Hold me in what capacity?” I insisted.
“Detain you while we…”
Okay, so now they were detaining me as I was leaving the airport facility.

We stood there awkwardly, waiting for the investigator while he kept an eye on me. Being chatty by nature, I asked his opinion of what new procedures might be implemented if someday someone were to smuggle an explosive device in his or her rectum or a similar orifice. Ever since would-be terrorist Richard Reid set his shoes on fire, travelers have been required to remove their footwear in the security line. And the TSA has repeatedly attempted to justify these latest measures by citing Northwest flight 253, on which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab scorched his genitalia. Where, then, would the evolution of these policies lead next?
“Do you want them to board your plane?” he asked.
“No, but I understand there are other, better ways to keep them off. Besides, at this point I’m more concerned with the greater threat to our rights and liberties as a free society.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said. And then, to my amazement, he continued, “But somebody’s already taken those away.”
“Maybe they have,” I conceded, watching the throng of passengers waiting their turn to get virtually naked for the federal security guards.
As a side note, I cannot refrain here from expressing my dismay and heartbreak over a civil servant’s personal resignation to the loss of civil liberty among the people by whom he is employed to protect and serve. If he no longer affirms the rights and freedom of his fellow citizens, one can only wonder exactly what he has in view as the purpose of his profession.
The TSA investigator arrived and asked for my account of the situation. I explained that the agents weren’t allowing me to pass through the checkpoint. He told me he had been advised that I was refusing security screening, to which I replied that I had willingly walked through the metal detector with no alarms, the same way I always do when commuting to work. He then briefed me on the recent screening policy changes and, apparently confused, asked whether they would be a problem for me. I stated that I did indeed have a problem with the infringement of my civil rights and liberty.
His reply: “That’s irrelevant.”
It wasn’t irrelevant to me. We continued briefly in the conversation until I recognized that we were essentially repeating the same discussion I’d already had with the other officers and agents standing by. With that realization, I told him I did not wish to keep going around and around with them and asked whether he had anything else to say to me. Yes, he said he did, marching indignantly over to a table nearby with an air as though he were about to do something drastic.
“I need to get your information for my report,” he demanded.
“The officer over there just took my information for his report. I’m sure you could just get it from him.”
“No, I have to document everything separately and send it to TSOC. That’s the Transportation Security Operations Center where we report…”
“I’m familiar with TSOC,” I assured him. “In fact, I’ve actually taught the TSA mandated security portion of our training program at the airline.”
“Well, if you’re an instructor, then you should know better,” he barked.
“Really? What do you mean I ‘should know better’? Are you scolding me? Have I done something wrong?”
“I’m not saying you’ve done something wrong. But you have to go through security screening if you want to enter the facility.”
“Understood. I’ve been going through security screening right here in this line for five years and never blown up an airplane, broken any laws, made any threats, or had a government agent call my boss in Houston. And you guys have never tried to touch me or see me naked that whole time. But, if that’s what it’s come to now, I don’t want to enter the facility that badly.”
Finishing up, he asked me to confirm that I had been offered secondary screening as an alternative “option” to ATS, and that I had refused it. I confirmed. Then he asked whether I’d “had words” with any of the agents. I asked what he meant by that and he said he wanted to know whether there had been “any exchange of words.” I told him that yes, we spoke. He then turned to the crowd of officers and asked whether I had been abusive toward any of them when they wanted to create images of my naked body and touch me in an unwelcome manner. I didn’t hear what they said in reply, but he returned and finally told me I was free to leave the airport.
As it turned out, they did reach the chief pilot’s office in Houston before I was able to. Shortly after I got home, my boss called and said they had been contacted by the TSA. I suppose my employment status at this point can best be described as on hold.

It’s probably fairly obvious here that I am outraged. This took place today (now yesterday, when I wrote all this down), 15 October 2010. Anyone who reads this is welcome to contact me for confirmation of the details or any additional information I can provide. The dialog above is quoted according to my best recollection, without embellishment or significant alteration except for the sake of clarity. I would greatly appreciate any recommendations for legal counsel – preferably a firm with a libertarian bent and experience resisting this kind of tyrannical madness. This is not a left or right, red or blue state issue. The very bedrock of our way of life in this country is under attack from within. Please don’t let it be taken from us without a fight.

Malo Periculosam Libertatem Quam Quietum Servitium

Michael S. Roberts
3794 Douglass Ave.
Memphis, TN 38111
901.237.6308
FedUpFlyers@nonpartisan.com

Conspiracy Theory on Fox News!

Jesse Ventura may have a pony tail... but does he have some truth to what is going on.  Who knows exactly?  As my career has progressed as a real estate agent in Utah, I have quickly learned that things are not always as they seem behind the scene.  In every community there are the closed door undocumented transactions going on that give certain people power and gain.  Possibly modern day networking is not what it seems.  If history repeats itself, which it usually does... we are in for an exciting next 5 years.

Colton - discover your true'ness'

Baboon Bastards and Compassion

“What good is social class and status? Truthfulness is measured within. Pride in one's status is like poison - holding it in your hand and eating it, you shall die.” - Sri Guru Granth Sahib

In the documentary produced by National Geographic called Stress: Portrait of a Killer, it tells the story of humans compared to baboons.

A baboon is considered a dirty bastard that disgustingly enough is no different than us humans. In a troop of baboons there are different social status levels. There are alpha males and subordinates. There are those with higher social value and those with little social value. The alpha male is the one that gets baboon poon when ever he wants, beats on the lesser social valued baboons and creates a level of who can do what to whom and how they interact with one another is trickled down the line of where you rank.

A similar study was done for 40 years amongst 28,000 people in England. Of those they study were government civil workers, much like those that work at Hill Air Force Base, and the same things were found as the social class in baboons. The lower on the totem pole one is, the more stress one had, the less healthier an individual was, even the more fat one had on his or her mid section and butt.

It is horrific to me to look from a birds eye view that we humans have become so inhumane as a specie. We now are set in a desire with our ego and pride to climb the ranks of social status. To get more from others. Yet we have manipulated even ourselves to believe it to be OK as whole society. Even worse... we keep repeating the same pattern.

The B Side To The Truth is we are no different than baboons. We have high level of stress and low quality of life in society that does not have to be. We are unhealthy and have low immune systems and even more so in western societies where we constantly focus on work and gain. This must and can be eliminated from an individuals life. We may not be able to change the human troop as we can not and should not control another human being, yet we can change ourselves.

What really makes this comparison mind bottling, is a certain incident that was studied with a troop of baboons. One day this troop was foraging food at an old tourist spot in Kenya. As they chowed down the alpha males began to die off first. And most of those that participated in the social status began to die off. The food was tainted with tuberculosis. As further study continued those that survived were those that did not engage in class or social status. And in turn the males had twice as many females, they respected the females, and when new baboons entered the troop they began to live the new social structure and low to no levels of stress were found in all of the baboons. It increased longevity of life, standard of living, and happiness level.

So you ask yourself what you're really stressing about... does it really matter?

And taking it a step farther... in another study with people that spent there time helping others just for the sake of helping... they had increased telomerase which is an enzyme that creates DNA repair. So compassion, service, and love are key elements to reducing stress, increasing longevity, and repairing your body to increased health.

As we run a world based on benchmark lending, juggling mortgage rates, chronic disease, and worrying if the new web conferencing software works for our next big meeting... we simply are destroying ourselves.

Colton - discover your true'ness'

Mosque at Ground Zero...??

The United States is a country based... or should I say was a country based on freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of political views, freedom of religion, and freedom to prosper.

As of late there has been huge discussion and debate with major networks from Fox to CNN to even Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar walking off the set of their own Talk Show, "The View", from Bill O'Reilly.

The question that has been raised amongst our society is: "Should there be a mosque allowed to be build next to ground zero?" The debate is a "no, there shouldn't, yes there should." That makes no sense to create such a debate.

The B Side To The Truth is the debate with the mosque at ground zero is another blinder that is keeping American population and World population from focusing on the real issues at hand.

We as American people are losing our wealth. With in a 5 years or sooner most Americans will lose all of their savings and retirement. Real Estate is heading to another disastrous drop as it could possibly fall another 10-20%. As the U$D falls we are seeing the beginning of hyper inflation in the trading industry and a false stock market that is blowing the silver and gold market through the roof.

Is there an exact way to protect your wealth? Not sure... I have a strong opinion that purchasing silver will be the best way to preserve one's wealth through the years to come.

So with the debate on a mosque at ground zero... I pose the question... "Does it really matter in the larger scheme of things?" At this point we should be more concerned not with the problem, yet more time focusing on a solution!

Colton - discover your true'ness'

Two Fat Kids in a Wal-Mart Parking Lot

“Overweight and obesity is the second leading cause of death, killing 300,000 people a year, ... There is not a miracle pill that will lead to weight loss.” - Richard Carmona

As I went to a super busy Wal-Mart in American Fork last night, I was leaving the bathroom as an 11 or 12 year old was washing his hands. He had to be at least 250 pounds. I thought to myself... "how is it that one gets this way at such a young age". As Jordyn and I left the the store we were sitting in the car looking for something to do to pass the time for 15 minutes until we were going over to a friends house to visit. As we sat there we noticed the obese 10 year old walking out of the store towards a mini van that was parked diagonally across from us. There standing next to the van was a 15 year old girl with her own box of donuts and just devouring them. She too was an obese teen. As the boy approached the van his mom handed him his own box of donuts also and he began to devour them. The question is... is it the parents fault or the kids fault?... wrong... it is society's fault.

I thought to myself... poor kids... they have been incorrectly taught such an important principle. In our human life value, our physical realm is extremely important to have discipline in because it leads to an improved human life value as a whole. Yet this made me also realize how many millions of Americans or billions of people have been incorrectly, or worse not even instructed with any true principles through out their life.

The foundation of my principles, luckily enough, I learned in my youth. Yet the ground breaking, life changing principles were only learned after I earnestly sought further knowledge on subjects that I was not getting the results I wanted. I learned the power of seeking education and not through a formal public way of school.

Many will complain and disagree with this post, people will bring up things like "Some people have bad thyroids", "Some people have diabetes." Well those comments create interesting topics in them self. What causes these chronic diseases? By taking the time to analyze one's life and their current situation... through study and questioning... answers can be found. Think about it... with processed foods, pasteurized milk and juices, GMO seeds, wrongfully used grains and rice for cattle and human consumption and many other things we do to "end hunger" have left us, especially us Americans... malnutrition-ed. And not only malnutrition-ed, also super wrongfully nutrition-ed. This cause long term effects on a humans body.

The B Side To The Truth is our food system is jacked and the fundamental principles are not being utilized or even recognized in our society for the most part. To increase your human life value you must go out of the "normal social realm" and get answers to your questions. Unhealthy, processed foods do not have to destroy your physical realm.

“I had to go through this because men never ask for help. And they never take a good, hard look at themselves to figure out what's broken, what's not effective, what's not working.” - Neil Strauss

Colton - discover your true'ness'

The Ability To Watch

How is it possible to watch and not suffer? I thought a curious thought yesterday as I was speaking with my friend Ivun about our current situations in life. He is rebuilding a book of business in Insurance and I am getting married and preparing to travel a mini gap year with my beautiful fiance. As we were discussing the paradigm shifts of life and the scarcity mindset of fear, the curious thought that came to me was "I would rather die living than live dieing."

As the recession continues in this country and world wide, many doomer and gloomer's haven given up on life and many are blinded in vanity. Because of that they are even more blinded.

Whether someone is a spiritualist or an atheist, the patterns of history exist. It has come to my attention I constantly feast in the books and seek temporal knowledge as much as eternal knowledge, that 2011 is going to be one the most pivotal years in the history of the World. Whether a Christ is returning soon or not, this year will be recorded as one of the most World Changing times in all of history. This year one can build extreme wealth and become millionaires and billionaires in the matter of only a few years. With silver on the rise of being the new gold... if people played their cards rights and read the patterns of history, silver is going to sky rocket through the roof.

My conscience moral dilemma is do I follow my desire to travel the World with my best friend, or do I participate in the flow of economy in one of the most crucial years in my life. I believe with my limited knowledge and limited capitol, I can invest in an ultimate 100% control investment and through the shift I will become a millionaire.

Imagine having 1,000,000 with no debt, how much financial freedom one could create. It would greatly create temporal security... yet would it be one hundred percent freedom. Yet seeking truth through all walks of life will build character to my reality in my mind that creates a sense of bliss that brings joy to my heart. Yet after awhile I'm sure much will all be the same. We become a greedy people and become blinded of what is crumbling beneath us.

The dilemma persists, yet the yearning for the unfolding of quick to come events creates an adventure today. As I am continually encouraged internally to search, to investigate, to do my due diligence... I have this feeling that says "that's it Colton! You will find what you are looking for."

As I sit and read my history and look back at the experiences that have given me character and a sense of hope as I realize more and more every day... I must believe in God and hope that what he God is claimed to be is true... because every day I feel more and more vulnerable.

I have come to the conclusion that I am truly just a spec in this broad view of everything. Yet it is what I am given... make the best out of it.

There is one card that is dealt... and that is you were born at this time. Make the best of it. Make the best of it while seeking truth and eternal life. Enjoy your phase in the search and move on when it is time to move on.

The B Side To The Truth is we must continue to watch patterns and history, as this market of life unravels in front of us. Yet as we watch... speak from the heart of gratitude for every experience you have given you that has brought you closer to your quest.

This 2011 is a once and a lifetime opportunity financially and eternally...


HaHa I just realized when I say eternally... some people may think I am a whack job. I am referring to eternally as basically a step closer to understanding.

What awaits 2011

In economics, hyperinflation is inflation that is very high or "out of control", a condition in which prices increase rapidly as a currency loses its value.[1] Definitions used by the media vary from a cumulative inflation rate over three years approaching 100% to "inflation exceeding 50% a month." [2] In informal usage the term is often applied to much lower rates. As a rule of thumb, normal inflation is reported per year, but hyperinflation is often reported for much shorter intervals, often per month.

The definition used by most economists is "an inflationary cycle without any tendency toward equilibrium."[citation needed] A vicious circle is created in which more and more inflation is created with each iteration of the cycle. Although there is a great deal of debate about the root causes of hyperinflation, it becomes visible when there is an unchecked increase in the money supply (or drastic debasement of coinage) usually accompanied by a widespread unwillingness to hold the money for more than the time needed to trade it for something tangible to avoid further loss. Hyperinflation is often associated with wars (or their aftermath), economic depressions, and political or social upheavals.

- Hyperinflation according to Wikipedia

In 2011 as the dollar value crashes there is a trickle effect that will affect citizens of the United States of America. Since June 2010, many of the things that affect the consumer goods in the grocery stores have have inflated greatly. Just the commodity of wheat has gone up almost %70.

The every two week pay check that most Americans receive will not go as far if milk is $6 dollars a gallon. Cereal as much as $10 a box. And many other trade items such as iron, rubber, corn, barley, vegetables, and so on. As these things start rapidly increasing in the trade industry they will then trickle down to the restaurants and the grocery stores and these costs will be passed on to American citizens. Yet your pay check will remain the same for many of you and that means it will not go as far in the normal survival purchases, i.e. food, shelter, water, hygiene. As that begins the majority of peoples money will be spent on necessities and less on luxuries.

The B Side To The Truth is this recession no matter what the media is saying is still going on and still getting worse. The difference is from the last major depression in 1929 is that you possibly will still have money in the bank. It just will not be worth anything.

Top investments will include precious metals, agriculture land, and food storage. To protect oneself, you should pay off all debt... including cars and mortgages. Buy food storage first and things of self reliance. Then buy silver. Buy silver on a regular basis. It is still considerably affordable and will appreciate at a higher rate. I do recommend doing your own research on the subject.

Colton - discover your true'ness'