Thanks to Alwin Hawkins, who knows I like to keep watch on the paramilitary right, for sending me this item. Militia member ‘filled with rage,’ plotted ambush: After the arrest on firearms charges of Norman Somerville, a 43-year old former Special Forces (aren’t they all?) veteran and self-styled radical militia member in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, investigators at his home discovered an impressive arsenal with an underground bunker, booby traps and pictures of Bush and Rumsfeld centered in the crosshairs of a gunsight. Informants said he was angry about the death of another militia member in a shootout after a police officer died trying to serve him a warrant. They said Somerville planned to cause an auto accident and mow down responding officers with a machine gun he has mounted in his jeep. While they said he was crazy and rageful and had told their children to avoid the man, neighbors said they had not realized “he was stockpiling back there.” Has the post-8/11 climate suppressed all but the most unbalanced rageful of the rabid ultraright? There haven’t been many news reports similar to this in recent months, I am struck after being pointed to this one. —Grand Rapids Press [thanks, Alwin]