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The Internet: Where The Hapless Rally

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Daniel Ruth

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 10, 2008

One of the first things you notice when you log on to the Web site of the paranoid lunatic fringe Freedom Force International is its association with the pinup sweetheart of the black helicopter crowd, delusional presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Say, there's a ringing endorsement! Vote for Ron - In Your Heart, You Know He's Certifiably Insane!

The second thing that comes to mind is that these people are the collective Crazy Guggenheims of the cowering conspiracy theory nut cases dotting the societal landscape.

And finally, you also realize these folks are armed to their dragging knuckles with all manner of weaponry, a fact brought vividly to home this week when a Freedom Force International acolyte, Glen Lee Powell, entered the Pinellas County Judicial Building and opened fire on a group of bailiffs who, as it turned out, had much better aim.

It would seem in the pantheon of losers, the now very tardy Glen Lee Powell was the Washington Generals, the Iraqi Air Force, the Willy Loman of the hapless.

Hard Times

An Air Force washout, the once-promising Powell had fallen on hard, hard times, drifting from job to job and just last month being served with divorce papers.

Perhaps in another time disaffected mopes like Powell would simply wind up as one of society's dolts going through life unnoticed like the paint scheme in a holding cell.

Alas, thanks to the glories of the Internet, the unhinged can find common ground with fellow travelers of the Planet Zircon 9 set who give them a reason to live - and to die.

Once reality went belly up for Powell, he started visiting the online Bund meeting of Freedom Force International, which among its many twisted philosophies holds that Jews, Mormons and Jesuits are conspiring to control the world.

That's absurd. Everybody knows it's the Rotary, the Hair Club For Men and the Visiting Nurse Association who are bent on world dominion.

Web Droppings

Over time, as he perused the Freedom Force International Web droppings, Powell began to buy into the group's manifesto that the government was plotting to expand its power and deny the citizenry of its liberty, as well as its encouragement of its very scary and deluded followers to take up arms.

It's always worth remembering that while the evolution of the Internet has represented one of the greatest advancements in man's ability to communicate and learn, it has also served as the most monumental co-equal force for evil and abject stupidity the world has ever witnessed.

Because of the Internet, we have seen a rise in con artists preying on the gullible, sexual perverts preying on the innocent, religious charlatans preying on the praying, and anti-Semitic, bigoted, redneck Nazi-lites, who have created all manner of crazed political movements to prey on the fears and insecurities of those looking to blame anybody and anything but themselves for their failures in life.

Who knows, absent his conversion to Freedom Force International, if Glen Lee Powell would have launched his assault?

What we do know, is that when he died in a hail of gunfire, he had plenty of sad company.

Keyword: Book of Ruth, to read and comment on Daniel Ruth's blog.

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