Reading a thread on Metafilter just now on the release from jail of three Hutaree militia members, I followed a link to an article on Ornicus that I’d previously overlooked. Here, in hopes that you might find it as interesting as I did, is a clip:

…These escalating armed demonstrations, accompanied by belligerent sloganeering, are a clear signal that these folks are done talking — and, worse, have already decided that democracy is futile, and taking up arms is the only appropriate response to the threats we now face. They’re carrying weapons to scare us weak-kneed girly libs into submission, and to show us they mean business. Growing up in gun country, I was taught at my daddy’s knee that when someone says they’re going to shoot you, it’s always smart to take them at their word and handle yourself accordingly. Right now, I think that’s good advice for anybody in America who considers themselves a member of the reality-based community.

But it’s not just armed individuals. They’re also busily forming armed groups, which are gearing up for a fight. For the past five years, armed Minutemen have been usurping the job of the US Border Patrol. And within the past year, according to the SPLC, the number of right-wing militias has more than doubled to over 500, many of which present themselves as alternative law-enforcement posses that are adjunct to the ones staffed by the county sheriffs.

What these groups are telling us is that they no longer recognize the government’s sole franchise on the use of force; and they’re actively organizing to seize and exercise at least some of that power for themselves.

Most alarming of all: some of these right-wing warriors have advanced to the point of actual target acquisition. This should worry us, because law enforcement and terrorism experts know that when groups like this get to where they’re settling on specific targets, they’ve reached the final stages of gearing up for violent confrontation.

When Bernard Goldberg wrote a book listing the “100 people who are destroying America” — which included some government officials — he was writing a target list with seditious intent. (And at least one guy took him up on it, in his own deranged way.)

When the “spiritual warriors” of the Transformations movement proudly announce that they’ve mapped every town in America — literally creating target maps of “demonic activity” that pinpoint government offices, non-Evangelical houses of worship, clinics, theaters, Indian mounds and sites; or even just households with Muslims, neo-pagans, Goth-baby teenagers, or Obama stickers on their cars — they’re putting us on notice that they’ve identified the specific people and places that need to be “cleansed” in order to purify their communities. According to researchers Rachel Tabachnik and Bruce Wilson, these “transformation” attempts have already become government-level issues in New Jersey, Arizona, Texas, and Hawaii.

At present, they claim that they’re only mapping their neighborhoods so they can pray over us all; and their attempts to take over local government are being done by purely democratic means. But, as has often happened before (yes, the Nazis started out just this way), the day may come when they’ll decide that mere prayer and organizing is not enough. Like any street gang, they’ve taken proprietary responsibility for a piece of turf; and they believe God is holding them accountable for everything that happens there. The resulting performance pressure is a perfect setup to justify more aggressive cleansing tactics if they can’t convert the town by peaceful means.

And some of these groups have already effectively crossed the line, in spirit if not in prosecutable fact. When the Christian dominionists train up “Joel’s Army” by sending their sons to the US armed services so they can get the combat experience they’ll need to set up a worldwide theocracy, that’s evidence of an active plan to effect an armed government takeover. When senior US military officers put their commitment to Jesus ahead of their commitment to uphold the Constitution and regard the military as God’s force in the world, we should be very afraid.

For years now, we’ve dismissed all of this as crazy talk, the rantings of a loony fringe that will never get enough traction to become a material threat to our democracy. But we’re well past the point where it’s no longer quaint and funny, or an embarrassing breach of democratic etiquette that polite people should just ignore.

It’s time to confront the sobering fact that the entire right wing — including the GOP establishment, which encourages, endorses, and echoes these sentiments almost every time its officials appear in public — is now issuing nearly constant invitations to criminal sedition. They’re creating a climate and using language that lowers their base’s inhibitions around violence — and irresponsibly eggs on the handful of sociopaths in their midst who are already primed to kill. They’ve given their newly-expanded corps of flying monkeys permission to brandish their guns in public, empowered their militias, promised them glory, and are now telling them explicitly which targets to hit…

And it may or may not be related, but a pipe bomb went off at a north Florida mosque recently.

[This post was brought to you by the Fort Hood Spiritual Fitness Center.]