Needlenose

I’ve been warning for some time about the rising levels of wrong-wing hate, and how that hate is again turning to either outright violence, preparing for violence or just simple hate-mongering and hate-speech that can incite others to violence.  Now others are noticing a dramatic resurgence of militia activity that is

“(is) reminiscent of what was seen in the 1990s – right-wing militias, people ideologically against paying taxes and so-called “sovereign citizens” are popping up in large numbers, according to the report to be released Wednesday. The SPLC is a nonprofit civil rights group that, among other activities, investigates hate groups”

Did you catch the news about the wing-nut who brought and dropped a gun at a political meeting?  I mean I know the reactionaries are crazy and stupid, but do they really believe the Libruhls are gonna attack their crazy tea-bag parties and protests?  Don’t they realize that we aren’t armed?

Back in the Clinton era my own life was threatened by some wing-nut because I had posted a tongue-in-cheek website parodying the ‘black helicoper’ crowd (the main reason why I remain anonymous on this site).  Bad as the Bush years were, the wing-nuts seemed to calm down in spite of the volume and stridency of the reactionary media hate speakers like Billo the Clown and Ann Coulter.

However the massive rejection of the Repugs at the polls and the election of a centrist President seems to have thrown them back into a frenzy that if anything seems even nastier and scarier than before.  Living in San Francisco as I do I rarely encounter reactionaries, but today I was having a conversation with a self-described “moderate” from the South who went on at length about Obama’s Socialist agenda for health care and financial services, and railed about the swelling deficit – a guy who never squawked once about how Shrubya threw Clinton’s balanced budget to the wind and drove up the deficit like a two-bit lobbyist with a federal credit card.

I guess one of the downsides of the end of the “War on Terror” is that the reactionary talking heads have turned the other half of their hate rhetoric, formerly targeted at the Islamic world, at us Libruhls, again firing at us figuratively and literally with ‘both barrels.’

*Update* Bill Clinton better worry if he plans to participate in the contentious health care ‘town hall’ meetings - wing-nuts might use this guy’s technique to conceal an assassination weapon.

I few weeks ago I was getting a cheap laugh at the citizens of Tennessee and their desire to legally mix moonshine with handguns.  But I figured it was a freak hillbilly thing, and we wouldn’t see other Red States rushing to recreate the Old West.

But I’ll be danged – here I am sitting in a bar in Phoenix reading the paper and guess what?  The folks in McCain Country will shortly follow suit, creating a toxic mix of booze, rednecks and firearms.

I better git outta Dodge pronto!

Tip from General Contractor Buddy, Tennesseens can pack heat in bars.  Let that sink in for a moment – rednecks…alchohol…guns…all in one place…

Still, it seems wiser than the Georgian’s desire to carry guns in airports – I’m still not sure what that was about.  And of course you need to pack a piece to defend yourself against Yogi and Boo-Boo in the National Parks.  Of course for some reason we still haven’t opened up churches to weapons of individual destruction in spite of the fact that killing in church appears to be all the rage.  I mean nothing says “Jeebus loves you” like a bullet to the head, right?  Just ask this pastor in Kentucky!

This precisely summarizes the lunacy of extremist gun enthuiasts:

An eight-year-old boy accidentally killed himself while firing a Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a US gun fair.

What kind of “adult’ puts an Uzi in the hands of an 8-year old?

*Update* More wrong-wing freaks that wanted to kill Obama

I’d declare these next 10 years ‘the decade of the gun nuts’ here in the U.S. Hot on the heels of the SCOTUS’ judiciously activistic decision to sanction handguns for everyone, the gun nuts are coming out of the woodwork – they’ll be aggressively pushing their agenda ad absurdum. Witness the Witless Governor of Georgia pushing for redneck vigilantes packing heat in the Atlanta airport. Yeah Dumbass, what a great idea – good thing those terrorist cells don’t speak English and can’t read newspapers! They’d never think of storming a security station with handguns and holding travelers hostage and forcing their way on a plane!

The Dumbass also wants people to bring guns into family venues like restaurants. Guess he’s the guy who can’t read or has amnesia – the shoot-n-dine concept was pioneered in Texas.

Now that the Rush Limbaugh era is past, what’s a right-wing loonie to do? Take over Montana!During the ’90s you couldn’t get away from them. The lunatic fringe of the right wing were everywhere. Rush Limbaugh’s reedy voice and fat, smirking face filled the airwaves, bravely defending the perquisites of white men. Numerous Limbaugh “mini-mes” crowded the AM dial, spewing vitrolic about jack-booted thugs killing innocents at Waco and Ruby Ridge.

Tracts circulated about mysterious, night-flying black helicopters filled with U.N. storm troopers preparing to take over the country. Charlton Heston proudly boasted that Federal agents would have to pry his gun out of his cold, dead fingers to disarm him. Weekend militias crawled through the hills. Even stranger groups, like the Montana Freemen declared themselves independent of the U.S., financing their movement through check-kiting and printing their very own currency. They declared that U.S. law didn’t apply to them, and that the only legitimate law rested in the Magna Carta and Admirality Law (of all things).

I think the wave crested with Timothy McVeigh’s home-grown terrorist assault on a Federal building in Oklahoma that left 168 men, women and children dead. It finally broke with his conviction. I remember tuning in that day to local “hot air” radio host Mike Savage and hearing the resignation tinged with regret in the voices of his callers. It was the end of an era.

So where are they now?