A STING IN THE DESERT

LA Times ^ | SEPTEMBER 21, 2014 | JOE MOZINGO

[Second Amendment First]

For generations, the people of the Four Corners region have battled the federal government over collecting and selling Native American artifacts. Then agents persuaded a local dealer to go undercover.

Operation Cerberus Action was supposed to expose a lucrative trade in stolen antiquities.

Instead, it tore a hole in a Utah town.

In the high country of the Navajo reservation, a family walked through the pinyon pines, combing the earth for the remnants of a vanished civilization.

Their breath steamed in the morning air. Dr. James Redd wandered away from his wife and daughter for a few minutes, then called back: “Hey guys, come and look.”

He pointed to a white shell, smaller than a dime, lying partly exposed in the wind-scoured dirt. It had been carved in the shape of a bird, with a hole drilled through it.

Millions of such artifacts lay strewn across the region. The doctor's wife, Jeannie Redd, reveled in the way the pieces connected her to the ancient Anasazi culture.

Jim handed the shell to Jeannie, who hooked it on a safety pin and put it in her pocket, never imagining the trouble it would bring.

Two weeks later, a man named Ted Gardiner strode up the steps to the Redds’ home, high on a knoll south of Blanding, Utah.

Gardiner was 50, tall and leathery, with a mantis-like build that helped him move about the vertical world of Utah's canyons. He was a dealer in Anasazi antiquities, and he'd been visiting the Redds for about seven months, trying to buy and sell artifacts.

[Pollster1]

FedGov is not on our side. The sooner people learn that, the better.

[sergeantdave]

This surprisingly well-written story from the LA Times underlines why conservatives must, ABSOLUTELY MUST, elect a pro-2nd amendment, constitutional sheriff in their counties.

In its most simple terms, leftist Washington DC armed fascists must be met by armed sheriffs and their armed deputies and volunteers.

[JAKraig]

There are 21 million Federal & State employees. They are all overpaid and all are looking for a little more authority.

We’ve got to stop this nonsense. 7% of this country works for the Government. The average Federal employee makes over $80,000 a year plus very generous benefits which push that to about $120,000 per year. The 7% is misleading in that there are only about 104 million non government workers, which makes the government the employer of every 5th worker. The average pay of non government workers is about $54,000 a year. Non government workers are paying taxes to pay people 75% more than they earn. This cannot continue.