Hutaree Putaree

A great old comedy routine has the members of several fringe groups showing up to protest. The audience is eventually shown a few people protesting the same event, with each individual having a slightly different group name, and slightly differing ethos and objectives. By the end of the routine, the fractious protesters had devolved into fighting amongst themselves over the most trivial of differences.

(My recollection is that it is a Monty Python routine, but I have been wrong before.)

Artistic vision, meet reality.

When the Hutaree Militia story broke on Monday, one expected the worst stereotypes of rural whites of marginal educational attainment. One was not disappointed. Among the detained included an individual with a mullet hairstyle. The apparent headquarters was a primered manufactured home with appliances in the yard. There were nine members, and four were from the same household.

That gene pool is definitely a puddle.

We have entered into an era when the broader populace has been asked what the appropriate role of government is. The answer has been a grudging acknowledgement that there are times when the public sector can do a better job of serving the public than a profit-motivated private sector.

This does not serve certain interests, as they will be obligated to take a pay cut from a killing to a living. The objective then becomes the discovery of individuals willing to act opposing their own best interests.

There are groups who are under the illusion that not only their lifestyle (such as it may be) is threatened, but their very survival is endangered as well. This has to be stressful. The group's nominal affiliation is not as important as the commonality in the methodry.

The group requires poor educational attainment among the leadership. Critical thinking is detrimental to indoctrination. It does not take a fifth grade education to see that there may be some holes in the following:

"We are going to take out some police officers and their families, develop a fortress in four Michigan counties and fight off the Antichrist and the New World Order."

I hate to break this to y'all, but I think you're going to need a bigger boat, and more than nine members. Has someone smoked himself stupid?

There is also little argument that there is a question of discipline in some of the fringe groups. Honestly, who can argue for group discipline when there are appliances in the yard??? And don't even get me started on mullets conforming to the dress code.

Fringe groups are convenient for those who are able to leverage individual dissatisfaction with poverty into rabid, virulent, violent manifestations. Other groups are taking opportunities, not a lack of educational accomplishment. A faceless colussus has ruined the individual. God is on His way back, and He ain't happy.

The main differnce between these mullet-and-camouflage Americans and the Islamists who destroyed the Twin Towers is limited to language and form of worship. Both rejoice at the loss of innocent life; both have chosen the United States as sworn enemy; both draw from the poorest, least educated and most vulnerable populations of their respective societies.

Small terror cells are useful to certain interests. The chaos wrought can be of practical use to artificially inflate the prices of commodities and services. The violence can be used to suppress moderation. They are cheap, effective, and fundamentally expendable.

One looks forward to the Hutaree detainments being the start of a strong program to impede the greatest terrorist threat facing the peaceful people of the United States of America: Right-wing white anti-government Christians.

Oh yeah, how's that profiling stuff working for ya?