Keystone Pops: From grumpy old men to would-be terrorists
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It used to be said that there's no fool like an old fool -- but that usually involved flirtation with a younger woman, not contemplation of domestic terrorism. But that saying is turned on its graying head by the case of four retirement-age men in Georgia whom the feds say were doing just that.
This odd case could provide the script for an absurd movie if it wasn't itself borrowed from a paranoid online book by Mike Vanderboegh, a former militia leader and sometime Fox News commentator. The novel "Absolved" was meant as a cautionary tale, but the author admits in the introduction that it "amounts to a combination field manual, technical manual and call to arms for my beloved gunnies of the armed citizenry."
Down at a local Waffle House, not famous for being a den of intrigue, some of the faithful may have heard the call. Frederick Thomas, 73; Dan Roberts, 67; Ray Adams, 65; and Samuel Crump, 68, have been charged with plotting mayhem.
Mr. Thomas and Mr. Roberts were charged with conspiring to buy an explosive device and an illegal silencer. Mr. Adams and Mr. Crump were charged with conspiring to make a biological toxin, ricin. Some of them cupped their ears to hear the judge when they appeared in federal court last Wednesday.
The presumption of innocence applies here perhaps more than usual. As it stands, the government hasn't explained many details. Did this quartet actually act on their foolish boasts and was the threat they posed really credible?
As it is, the case sounds like a Keystone Kops affair -- correction, make that Keystone Pops affair. Perhaps they were just grumpy old men, full of resentment about a changed America, and boasting about what they'll do. It happens all the time, although not usually in front of an informant.
Whatever this was, reckless free speech or studied criminality, one verdict can be returned now: Too many Americans imbibe politics the way drunks drink whisky. Too many of all ages do nothing much more than sit around being bitter. And too many bloggers and commentators live to encourage them.
First Published November 8, 2011 12:00 am
