🚀 go-pugleaf

John M Atkinson wrote:
> 
> Thus Spake klaatu <klaatu@clark.net>:
> 
> %Evidently you have me confused with McLaren in Texas. and I do
> %appreciate your respect for the Constitution. Oddly enough, I find that
> %most often these days the Military seems to be about the only people who
> %_do_ respect the Constitution. The civilians I usually encounter
> %(including many who should know very much better) seem to be largely, -
> %indeed abysmally - ignorant of other's rights to differ.
> %
> %But tell me this since you seem so determined to hunt me down.
> %
> %If I and like-minded non-felonious citizens take to arms to defend
> %common ground (say in the case of a riot of the Rodney King Riots in LA
> %a few years back), repelling boarders, etc _until legitimate authority
> %can take control and provide for the common defence_ - will you hunt
> %_us_ down? For having _presumed_ to defend ourselves?
> 
> If you are reffering to something like the Korean shop owners who sat on their
> roofs with shotguns shooting at looters who entered their property, go for it.

Absolutely! They may not have thought of themselves as militia, but
indeed they were. They may not have been sufficiently organized to
actually "quell insurrection" but they certainly did a fine job of
keeping most of their stores from getting looted.

> 
> %I suspect that _you_ mightn't. But as you say above, the population
> %certainly does seem to be behind the idea of hunting down anyone who is
> %willing to take care of themselves instead of waiting for the cops that
> %never come in time to save anything. (doubtless the media's increasing
> %linkage between the phrases "anti-government" and "militia" has
> %something to do with that sad popular loathing for local militia.
> %[ sadly many militia "spokesmen" seem to make the same linkage! ])
> 
> My impression of the so-called "militia" groups is formed by their public
> statements.  These are the same people spewing nonsense about black helicoptors,
> a UN takeover of the US, and in many cases, racial ideologys.  It's a little
> disturbing to think of these people wandering around with weapons.

Um, yeah. Interesting little sidebar, there was an article in the
_Washington Post_ (that purported bastion of liberalism and Third World
Order [sic, snicker] influence) some weeks ago, which detailed special
units of the Army and BATF getting asked to leave Philadelphia, where
they had been doing training missions involving, you guessed it,
black-uniformed soldierly types doing ninja/commando raid exercises
involving, you guessed it, pre-dawn raids in black helicopters. Scared
the crap out of the locals who were actually getting up in arms and
calling the cops and the mayor and preparing to start believing all of
those black helicopter stories... because, after all, seeing is
believing. Great little story. Given that evidence plus the assorted
rumors of this and that circulating in the fringes of cyberspace and
assorted short-wave stations, it's easy to see that some folks who might
be um, not wrapped too tightly - well they might tend to jump the gun
half-cocked to mix my metahpors.


> 
> %> Obviously not enough did.  300 Guardsmen (and about the same number of VADF
> %> types) had to be called up.  My point isn't about volunteerism and so forth,
> %> which I'm in favor of, but that the Guard still fulfills traditional militia
> %> roles in support of local authorities.
> %
> %No problem with that and thank you very much. It's the same thing, I
> %guess, as me admiring a policeman if he's out nabbing a robber, while
> %being a tad annoyed when I see them writing parking tickets.
> %
> %Um, re: not enough people brought out their 4-wheelers - actually, I
> %suspect that this might have been more due to the complete
> %impreparedness of the local highway departments regarding timely
> %clearance of the highways in such outrageous (for hereabouts) weather.
> 
> It did set a number of records, as I understand.  :)

Yuppers, had the snow not been practically a gift from the godz in its
immobilization, things might have gotten a bit out of handin town at
that time, lot of things going on.

> 
> %> Just be very, very careful with whatever you're planning on detonating it
> with.
> %> Ammonium Nitrate is fairly insensitive, but it takes another explosive to set
> it
> %> off.
> %
> %I'd love to tell you which of about five ways I could set it off, but
> %I'll refrain since I don't need to get lumped into the category of
> %people who post bomb-making recipes in UseNews. Besides I wouldn't want
> %to give anyone any ideas.
> 
> It's just that the sort of people I knew personally who were the type to
> actually make bombs of this kind were generally the last people I wanted to be
> around if they were holding blasting caps. . .

Um, there is that. Alcohol and fulminate are a bad combination,
especially when leavened with west-cost turnarounds...

> 
> John M. Atkinson
> jatkinso@gmu.edu
> "A nation which despises its soldiers will all too soon
> have a despicable army
>                  --Jerry Pournelle

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