Dumb and Dumberer

When I first starting reading this story:

'Dumb' cross-burning botched from the get-go Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12/31/03

I thought, this could probably provide a good example of how "respectable" racists can use "low-class" varieties as an alibi, to criticize the guys who actually wave Confederate flags while the critics have Confederate flags in their hearts.

But I actually wound up just laughing at what a bunch of doofuses these guys were, and marveling at the tangled stories of the characters involved. Eva Hurst is the daughter of a proud Klansman, now deceased. But Eva's daughter is dating a man who is half white, half African-American. So these six guys thought they would burn a cross in Eva's yard to intimidate her daughter.

So these brave warriors of the Master Race came out one night and boldly set a cross on fire in Eva's yard. But their training as guerrilla fighters was apparently not very advanced:

But moments after the fire was lit, one intruder panicked and called 911. The woods surrounding the Dade County house were dry, Hurst recalled, "and they thought they might burn down the elderly couple right next to me."

The phone call led the FBI and local investigators to six men, who were indicted Tuesday on federal civil rights charges.

"They should be on the 'world's dumbest criminals' TV show -- burning a cross, then calling the law on themselves," Hurst said. "They didn't scare anyone. They just messed themselves up."

And take a look at the photos of these prime specimens who were out to defend the purity of the white race.

If these guys had gotten hold of one of those Texas cyanide bombs, they would most likely have gassed themselves. Police would probably have wondered if it was a cult-suicide kind of thing.

Tags: authoritarianism, christian terrorism