Although the super-patriots and the teabaggers don't like to admit it, America has a rich history in terrorism. They flourished in "Bloody Kansas" after the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and then openly rebelled against the United States from 1860 to 1865. (You know what we call that.) For the next century, they intimidated, degraded, hunted down, raped and lynched black people in the South and elsewhere. And in the last 40 years, they have blown up federal buildings, threatened women seeking abortions, bombed health clinics and assassinated doctors, in their homes and even at church.
So. Terrorism. America. They pretty much go hand in hand, but suddenly everybody's having qualms about calling these Cliven/Ryan/Ammon Bundy idiots in Oregon what they are.
A bunch of white guys with long guns taking over a wildlife refuge buidling on land that our taxes pay for, in support of a couple of arsonists? We don't know about you, but we cats sure feel terrorized. What's to stop a bunch of teabags from overrunning the forest preserve down the road from us (or an office building, or a mall) and committing all sorts of mayhem because, say, they don't like marriage equality in Virginia or Mark Herring's latest ruling on gun-license reciprocity?
There's civil disobedience and there's terrorism. And no fine line exists between them that we can see. On the contrary: There's a yawning chasm, and it almost always involves some nutcase with a firearm.
President Obama's executive orders on keeping crazy people away from guns can't come soon enough. In the meantime, we cats HISS.
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