The museum killer

A few more details are coming out about James von Brunn, the Holocaust Museum shooter. Not surprisingly, he's a white supremacist and Holocaust denier of a Christian civilization flavor. In 1981 he was caught trying to kidnap members of the Federal Reserve Board and served four years in prison. At the time he said he was trying to perform some kind of citizen's arrest of a group he considered treasonous. This sounds to me like he's a student of some of the legal theory that the militias often promote. Law enforcement officials are looking into time he spent in Idaho. I can't find any details on what they mean by that. My guess is that he was at the Aryan Nations compound. Identity religion, Antisemitism, standard racism, militia legal theories, and a whole host of other conspiracy theories mixed together with a healthy urge toward violence in that part of the country in the eighties.

I recommend reading everything David Neiwert has to say about this over the next few days (here or here). He is one of, if not the, leading authorities on the subject. His book In God's Country is required reading for anyone interested. Dave also has a new book out on hate radio that has been ignored by most of the news media. He should be on every talking head show. If he's not, I recommend we all start writing to the shows demanding he be on. Start with Maddow and Olbermann and work your way down the list. I will.

It's a good thing right wing extremism isn't a threat in this country.