April 1, 2005 by s.z.

Happy First of April, You Fools Hey, check out the special April Fool's  American Street.  See if you can guess which item I contributed. 8:20:59 AM

Hell on Earth It's probably time to start making your summer vacation plans, and so we have a suggestion for you: the Worldview Weekend Branson Family Reunion. A Vacation with a Purpose Branson, Missouri  April 29, 30, & May 1st 2005 Join us for a weekend of music, comedy and great Bible teaching What kind of comedy, you ask? Why, the comedy stylings of Kirk Cameron and Ray! Enroll now for the Worldview Weekend Evangelism Training Course with Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. After you have eaten lunch we will meet up at an announced location.  [...] Once the crowd gathers around Kirk and Ray due to their special gift of attracting a crowd; the evangelism begins. After Kirk and Ray preach you will have the opportunity to engage those that have been listening. Engage them, handcuff them, and force them to accept "Family Ties" "Growing Pains" as their personal savior. This will be a weekend like no other. The goal of this weekend is to take our Worldview Weekend training and learn how to not just polish the fire-engine of apologetics but to get around the intellectual arguments using the moral law and following the way of the Master; Jesus Christ. And besides learning not to not just polish the fire-engine of apologetics the Kirk and Ray way, the weekend will offer even more humor, such as: Star Parker, The stunning story of how Star Parker left her life of drugs, abortions, and welfare abuse to become a leading advocate for the family. Well, eventually menoapause would have caused her to leave her life of abortions, but what the hell, this sounds like a fun seminar for the kiddies. Steve Saint, Son of Nate Saint, who along with four of his friends, Jim Elliot, Pete Fleming, Ed Mc Cully and Roger Youdarian, were killed by a primitive tribe of Amazon warriors, known as the “Aucas. Steve was raised in the tribe, baptized in the river his father was killed in and saw the man that killed his father become a believer and grew up calling him his "tribal father." Think this sounds kind of hard to believe?  Well, here's the photo (and caption) that proves Steve's story: Steve Saint with Minkaye, the man that killed his father Nate Saint. Minkaye became a believer and Steve grew up calling him his "tribal father." Hey, that would be a great plot for a sitcom: "He killed the young man's dad, but then he became a believer, and so the young man had to forgive him.  It's Saint and the Tribal Father.  They're cops!"  Now, for the spiritual part of the weekend: Matt "Bubba" Gumm and Thom "Gabby" Gumm, "back by popular demand."    Don't you just feel closer to God after looking at them? I think the "great Bible teaching" will be offered by Dave Hammer, Jim Barber, and Hootchi, the Dog With the Thyroid Problem. Plus, the music of "The Branson Boys," and a salute to the armed forces!.  Oh, and your "weekend honorary co-hosts" will include Don Wildmon, "Founder/Chairman of the board of American Family."   Sign up now!  Tickets are going fast! 8:18:34 AM

Just a Project to Give Retirees Something to Do  Here's the part if the NY Times piece on the "Minuteman Project:" Walter McCarty, an 82-year-old retired Marine sergeant, says he is looking for adventure on the most porous part of the American border with Mexico. So, on Thursday, he signed up for the Minuteman Project, a volunteer patrol in search of furtive immigrants making the desert crossing into the United States. "I hope to go out on patrols at night, find some illegals," said Mr. McCarty, who had his .38-caliber pistol strapped to his leg as he stood outside the citizen patrol's makeshift headquarters here in Tombstone, the town where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday engaged in a shootout with the Clanton gang in 1881. "I need some excitement. And this is better than sitting at home all day watching rattlesnakes crawl out of the den." [...] Still, for days, an assortment of volunteers, most of them retirees, has been trickling into the headquarters, on Toughnut Street, to get assignments that will begin Saturday and last a month. [...] People like Mr. McCarty, the retired marine, say they are here for the distraction, and the thrill. "I'm restless," Mr. McCarty said, leaning against an adobe fence in the midday sun. "I needed something to do before I drove my wife crazy." So, Walter McCarty is just an old guy who wants to get out of the house, and so joined the Minuteman Project, where he will meet up with some other old guys and have a little pretend "adventure" on in the desert while they watch for illegal aliens -- and if they see anybody trying to cross the border, what could a bunch of old guys do anyway except take notes?   (The gun strapped to Mr. McCarty's leg is probably just an old army souvenir that doesn't even work.)  Sounds like heart-warming fun, doesn't it? But there's more to old Mr. McCarthy.  Stuff that the Times didn't mention.  For instance, that he was Tim McVeigh's firearms teacher, and they discussed militia matters not too long before McVeigh began making his bomb preparations. Here's part of a May 15,1995 Time Magazine story: The FBI has set up a command post in Kingman, Arizona, McVeigh's last known permanent residence, and will remain there for several months. More bits of information keep seeping out from the dusty desert town: McVeigh allegedly purchased fertilizer there in 1994, and his radical views and fascination with guns were widely known. "I still can't believe it," says Walter McCarty, a former Marine who talked politics several times with McVeigh and was his instructor in a weapons-training class. "If he's found guilty, I'd be the first one to volunteer to blow him away in a firing squad." Apparently Mr. McCarty had no problem with McVeigh's anti-government views and fascination with guns, as he never dreamed that McVeigh would do anything like blow up a government building, because McCarty never has, despite being an anti-goverment militia enthusiast with a fascination for fire arms. Here's more about McCarty from an April 1995 Boston Herald story archived at FreeRepublic: Walter T. McCarty, 72, said McVeigh stuck around town long enough to take his free gun class in June 1994. McCarty is a retired Marine drill seargent who is known in town for his anti-government views, his association in with militias and for the pistol he keeps at his side. When McVeigh walked into his class with Fortier, McCarty knew he wouldn't be able to teach McVeigh anything. "I said to myself, 'He already knows what I'm going to tell him,"' McCarty said. "What he wanted was to hear what I had to say as a 72-year-old retired Marine patriot. I just got the impression that they wanted to pick my brain about being in a militia or being a militant." I bet he he did. And while there is no indication that Mr. McCarty had any influence over McVeigh, or was in any way involved in what happened in Oklahoma City, the fact that he is the kind of guy whom an angry , anti-goverment type like McVeigh would seek out seems to say something about McCarty -- and about the project which attracted McCarty. Here's a bit more about McCarty from a May 2004 story about the Terry Nichols trial: McCarty is among a group of Arizona residents who were subpoenaed by Nichols' defense team. McCarty said he would have to travel more than 2,000 miles to testify for Nichols - a man he defines as "the enemy." [...] McCarty said he can understand and appreciate Nichols' right to a fair trial, "but what about my rights?" he asked. "Is it fair and reasonable to order me to say things before a jury that I know for a fact will help (give aid) to Mr, Nichols in his bid to remain in prison as opposed to being executed? "Everything and anything I say under oath will only make Mr. Nichols more comfortable. I don't want to make Mr. Nichols more comfortable... I want to make him miserable." McCarty said a member of the defense team informed him his testimony would be about "influence over human behavior, i.e., brainwashing." "Surely they don't believe I am going to get on the stand, under oath, and say that I believe Tim McVeigh (and others) brainwashed Terry Nichols into doing what he did," McCarty said in his letter. McCarty said his question would be who brainwashed McVeigh, and others, into doing what they did? Um, maybe the defense would imply that Mr. McCarty and his militia buddies did, which is why McCarty didn't want to testify. Anyway, I find it interesting that Mr. McCarty, known for his milita associations, has joined up with "The Minuteman Project."  And when I want to learn more about American militias and such, I turn, as always, to the invaluable David Neiwert.  Here's the first part of his most recent post on the subject: Well, the anticipation is palpable now as participants in the so-called "Minuteman Project" are gathering near the Mexican border even as we speak to defend Mom and apple pie against an invasion of anchor-baby-carrying brown people. We've been promised 1,000 of them. And hey, even Michelle Malkin has endorsed them, calling the project "the mother of all neighborhood watch programs." Funny, that: That happens to be exactly how John Trochmann described the Militia of Montana to me. But then, these ideas are the products of people who have been organizing "border militias" all along -- that is, they are bona fide extremists. So, Mr. McCarty should feel right at home.  I just hope that nobody gets hurt this time. 2:17:48 AM