TERRORISM FOR THE HELL OF IT

So we learned about this today:

Authorities thwarted what could have been a deadly domestic terror attack last week when they raided the home of a militia-linked Minnesota man, law enforcement sources told ABC News today.

Buford "Bucky" Rogers, 24, was arrested Friday after an army of federal, state and local officials raided his home and discovered a cache of weapons including a Romanian AK-M assault-style rifle, several Molotov cocktails and what investigators suspect to be pipe-bombs, court documents said.

Jeanne Cooney, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minneapolis, told ABC News this morning that authorities rushed to arrest Rogers to get him off the street before he could proceed with his plans for an attack....

Cooney declined to say what the target of the attack was, but Montevideo, Minn. Police Chief Adam Christopher told ABC News Rogers had started a group called the Black Snake Militia, an organization with anti-government tendencies. Two senior law enforcement sources told ABC News Rogers appears to be a "militia"-type suspect whose targets potentially included local authorities....

The obvious takeaway here is that this guy was reportedly planning to shed blood in a spectacular way despite not being Muslim.

Beyond that, though, I'm struck by how ordinary some of Rogers's interests seem, if this is really his Facebook page.

On the one hand, it's been noted that he made many anti-government, Alex Jonesian remarks on Facebook:

The war is here tsa agents are doing random cheeks and shooting people for no reson

...ever one better get your guns ready cuz there comeing FEMA

And so on.

On the other hand, while his self-proclaims interests include

United States Militia, The Unorganized Militia, URBAN MILITIA - Military Store, I support the deployment of a citizen militia to secure our southern border ... Alex Jones ... National Rifle Association ... Ron Paul 2012

they also include

,Starbucks, Reese's, Selena Gomez, Universal's Halloween Horror Nights - Orlando (OFFICIAL), Bear Grylls, Criss Angel, Seal of Honor, Monster Massive, Game Informer, Converse, SuperheroStuff.com, Rockstar Energy Drink US, Anime, L ( Death Note ), Dodge, Mike Epps, vitaminwater, Michael Jordan, Cartoon Network, Domino's Pizza, Urban Freeflow, Jim Gaffigan, DC Shoes, Foamy The Squirrel : iLL WiLL PrEss, Walmart, Cheez-It, Netflix, George Lopez, Ellen Page, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Pee-wee Herman, ... Jackie Chan, Ford Motor Company, ... Carl's Jr., Redbox, Tapatío Hot Sauce, Gatorade, Metal Mulisha, Zumiez, Urban Dictionary, I am a Jamaican, Brock Lesnar, Bam Margera, ... Chicago Bulls, Dixie Carter President of TNA Wrestling, Jack in the Box, Undertaker - WWE Universe, The Official Ronnie James Dio Fan Page, Rey Mysterio - WWE Universe, Left 4 Dead 2, McDonald's, The Oakland Raiders, Marijuana is Safer, Cabela's, highDEAS, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Phillies, Not Giving a Fuuck, Kevin Hart, "Mom, mom, mommy, ma, mom, mom, ma, ma, mommy, mommy... WHAT!!... hi!, Skittles ...

Oh, and he's a Juggalo -- a fan of the much-loved (and much-mocked) white rap duo Insane Clown Posse, and the acts on the ICP-affiliated Psychopathic Records.





This gets us back to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and the fact that so many people seem to be unable to reconcile his pothead, pop-culture-saturated, all-American lifestyle with involvement in the Boston bombings. Well, maybe it's not so odd. His brother seems to have become somewhat of a zealot -- but maybe our notion of terrorists as thoroughly focused monomaniacs needs to be revised. Between them, the Tsarnaev brothers seem to have been half in and half out of the world their peers were living in (Tamerlan had withdrawn quite a bit, Dzhokhar hardly at all). Bucky Rogers seemed quite focused on the militia movement, but ge also seemed to be am ordinary consumer of American culture.

It starts to seem as if planning terrorist acts doesn't involve all that much commitment these days. The plans and the encouragement are online (from Al Qaeda, from the militia/Alex Jones orbit, or whatever). The weaponry is ridiculously easy to come by. You can do this as a part-timer.