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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (505513)	8/17/2009 3:19:22 PM
From: jlallen	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1574591

The Malicious Militia Myth by jaymaster on August 16, 2009 in Politics, Religious Paranoia They’re at it again. The militia thing. It mysteriously crops up with every “liberal” administration. No, I’m not talking about an increase in militia activities. But of an increase in spooky stories of shadowy groups of right wing, anti-government radicals organizing and arming themselves in preparation for attacks on the government. Or on immigrants. Or black people. Or LIBERALS!!!!! The AP fired the first shot a few days back. ABC followed soon after. Now, I’m sure there are a few radical groups who are bent on violence, with some no doubt calling themselves “militias”. But I’m also sure a significant percentage of those violent groups are, in fact, left wing or anarchist. I was once in a militia. An honest to God, gun toting group of mostly white guys, who hung out at a compound in the woods, practiced military tactics, dug bunkers, grew food, and basically prepared for the worst. And we even called ourselves a militia. And hell yeah, we flew the Gadsden flag! This was back in the late 80’s/early 90’s, when I lived in North Carolina ( part of the “Deep South” mentioned in the articles…). During the Bush 1 and, yes, bleeding in to the Clinton 1 years. But we were most definitely NOT anti-government. It was more survivalist than anything. We weren’t preparing for an attack on the government. In fact, we were preparing to protect ourselves IF THE GOVERNMENT FAILED TO PROTECT US. Bit of a difference there, don’t you think? Many of the members were ex-military. And we studied and practiced all sorts of tactics, like guerilla warfare, and most importantly, anti-guerilla warfare. Many folks tend to forget the guerilla movements that sprung up in the early 70’s . Maybe it’s because most of them were left leaning. But some of us considered it possible, even likely, that such groups could make a comeback, or possibly develop as a result of a collapse in society. And we wanted to be prepared to defend ourselves against them. But it wasn’t all military, all the time. I also learned valuable skills like running a bulldozer and a backhoe, large scale gardening and food preservation, welding, distillation, and even a bit about explosives and demolition. Our “compound” (which was actually a couple hundred acre mountain retreat owned by an old money tobacco heir) was on the opposite side of a river from the largest nearby city. And we discussed the possibility of blowing the bridge under a worst case scenario, to help isolate ourselves from the large population centers. Never did it of course. But yes, we talked about it. The pros. The cons. And how we might be able to do it if we ever decided it was the best thing to do. And we weren’t all Republicans. There were several old school, hard core Democrats, and a couple loony Libertarians (including me, for a time…) But you know what was actually the prime motivator for participating in these activities for most of us? F.U.N.!!! It was DAMN FUN! Weekends in the mountains, serious male bonding with liquor, and machine guns, and heavy equipment, building things, and tearing things down. It was like a child hood dream come true! I’ve no doubt an Ivy League educated (or Wannabee Ivy League educated ) ammophobe would quiver and quake at the site or sound of us guys having some full-auto fun in the woods. And her mind would logically jump to the most fearsome threat she could imagine. Or the most politically expedient…. deanesmay.com