"Almost Heaven" Almost Gone

[MrBenchley]

Coincidentally, the same day that the news of Nevada's condos for the trigger happy scheme turned up here, Neiwert unearths an earlier version in Idaho, now all but defunct...

"Almost Heaven started in the early 1990s with just under 1,000 acres on the rim of the plateau overlooking the Clearwater River. Gritz, a former military man who describes himself as the inspiration for "Rambo," envisioned a place where like-minded constitutionalists could live, free from excessive government control and safe from crime and other dangers.
Some residents filed documents with the Idaho County Courthouse, renouncing their U.S. citizenship and claiming to be "sovereigns" of the "Idaho State Republic."
Others started a militia group called the Idaho Mountain Boys. The group was later accused of plotting to kill U.S. District Judge Edward Lodge, and member and former Almost Home resident Larry Raugust eventually pleaded guilty to 15 counts of making bombs. He was accused of planting land mines around the foreclosed property of a friend near Almost Heaven. Two other militia members were convicted of a 1999 plot to blow up a propane tank farm near Sacramento, Calif.
Local residents became more active against the patriot group, joining a loosely organized discussion group started by Nims -- the Clearwater Valley Citizens for Human Rights. Area businesses posted signs stating "No Guns" after some Almost Heaven residents began toting six-shooters on their hips. Letters were written to local lawmakers and newspapers, and over time law enforcement agencies became more successful in arresting any lawbreakers in the patriot group."

http://www.casperstartribune.net/articles/2004/08/27/news/regional/ecbe44fa237c531c87256efd0060f6b1.txt

[LibLabUK]

1. That place was a bit scary..

Louis Theroux spent one of his "Weird Weekends" there..

[MrBenchley]

5. I used to love Therous on TV Nation

[FeebMaster]

2. Those sick bastards!

envisioned a place where like-minded constitutionalists could live, free from excessive government control and safe from crime and other dangers.

[LibLabUK]

3. Yeah...

As long as you weren't black or jewish.

[FeebMaster]

7. I must have missed the part

about excluding blacks and jews.

Some of those newcomers may be pro-militia, as McLamb himself is, he said. But their brand of patriotism is not racist or violent, he said.

"You mention the word militia and they think you're all Nazis walking around saluting and hating blacks and attempting to overthrow the government," he said. "But I studied militias when they began to get popular across the United States and they were mostly just Constitutionalists who wanted to do what we're doing here: Stop the government from taking over the local government. We're ready to be called into duty if the governor or sheriff needs help."

[LibLabUK]

9. Well..

"LT's Weird Weekend" showed it in a different light.

They were most definately racist and anti-semetic.

[FeebMaster]

10. I never saw it.

[TheRovingGourmet]

4. ...and where Atlas Shrugged was required reading. :)

[MrBenchley]

6. Feel free to join them, feeb....

[FeebMaster]

8. Obviously since I don't give a shit about how they

choose to live their lives or who they choose to live next to that's a clear indication I want to head right out and join them.

[iverglas]

11. fun with words

The news report refers to the people in question as constitutionalists and patriots without any of the usual indications that those expressions are being used in something other than their ordinary or literal meaning. (The usual way of doing that is with quotation marks: by referring to them as "constitutionalists" and "patriots", e.g., to indicate that those words were used in an idiosyncratic way by the individuals in question to describe themselves.) I wonder why.

I'm a constitutionalist. I adhere to / advocate a constitutional system of government. I also support the broad values conveyed in my constitution.

And my constitution includes equality before and under the law, and the equal protection and benefit of the law. Yours, of course, expressly includes equality before the law and the equal protection of the law, which, along with that substantive due process stuff, amounts to somewhat the same thing.

Residents of Almost Heaven would simply have to agree to the community covenant, which required that they be God-fearing Christians who would stand and fight with each other should any resident's Constitutional rights be threatened.

Calling those boys constitutionalists would pretty much require a lobotomy first, I think. And given their pretty obvious contempt for their own constitution, ya'd seem to need a whack on the head with a big stick too before calling them patriots.

[MrBenchley]

12. The guy called upon in the article to describe what a swell lot they are

is Jack McLamb, a racist loony and militia nut in his own regard who's been mixed up with some of the folks at a certain right wing lobbying group. No prize for guessing the letters N R A...

"Describing himself as the most highly decorated officer in the history of his police department, McLamb ran an outfit called Police Against the New World Order that he claimed had a highly unlikely 6,300 members.
In 1999, he asserted that Vice President Gore intended to reduce world population by 90% through some kind of end-of-the-millennium Y2K plot. He suggested that Communist-led Latinos planned to take over the Southwest.
Along with his friend, Green Beret-turned-Patriot James "Bo" Gritz, he sold plots of land in Idaho as the perfect place to survive the coming troubles.
But when the much ballyhooed "Y2K" collapse failed to materialize, McLamb began to peddle his ideas on the tax protest circuit, instructing students last fall that "Taxes are Voluntary!" "

http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=364#25

[Vladimir]

13. Why are you victimising white, god-fearing gun owners iverglass?

you damn semantics nazi, you...