The boogeyman in our back yard...

A whole host of web-based “alternative media” websites are (once again) reporting about a supposed Muslim terrorist training compound in Texas. Specifically, about half an hour from my home outside a sleepy little town called Sweeny.

First, let's look at the fact that this rumor has been swirling around for over a decade. No one has ever been arrested in the big bad terrorist training camp. If they have been the subject of an investigation by the FBI or the BATFE, nothing has ever come of it.

The reason for this has nothing to do with the Obama administration refusing to do anything because he's a “closet muslim” or some ridiculous crap, and everything to do with the fact that nothing is going on. If there was even a hint of something going wrong out there, our government would be all over it like white on rice, because that's what government agencies do. They do it because their budgets depend on making the big bust and scaring the hell out of everyone.

This is Texas. Within a half a block away from my home, even the poorest of the working poor can walk into a pawn shop and buy an AK on the layaway plan. I know this because I walked into that pawn shop yesterday, and I'm thinking of getting said AK. Including tax, any non-felon/non-psycho can buy a functional AK-47 for less than $30 per week and have complete ownership in six months. If you have $758, you can walk out with it today.

Think about that long and hard. You're willing to accept that the BATFE would knowingly arm criminal cartels in Mexico for the purpose of scaring everyone into thinking that we needed to further regulate firearms, but a “terrorist camp” has existed in Texas for 10 years and no one is doing anything about it?

Second, let's look at the source. The latest version of this rumor was being spread around by the website “WorldNetDaily”, which has long-since been viewed as a publication whose readers make people like me appear almost normal...and that's really saying something! WND goes on to quote two sources, the first being The Clarion Project and the second being ACT! For America. Both appear to have a heavy anti-Muslim/pro-Israel bias, as evident by both the front pages and the about pages of their websites, destroying any sense of journalistic integrity they should be exercising.

Further, the “joint investigation” from Clarion and ACT! claims to have uncovered declassified FBI documents about this so-called “terrorist camp”. Those “FBI files”, when you finally chase down all the links to their final ends, consist of nothing more than a copy of a phone bill.

They further go on to say that “neighbors have reported gunfire at the encampment, while law enforcement officers have done nothing”. Photos show empty rifle and shotgun casings found in the area. Well, no shit! If you go look up the googlemap of the area, you'll find that it is a rural area...and I would know, my in-laws live on the next road over. Before you even get to this place from the nearest major highway, you'll pass a “fishing and gun club”. Most property owners in the area have at least one deer stand on their plot, I think we have three. Hunting wild hogs is a very common pastime, I personally shot one a mile and a half from this “terror compound” over the Thanksgiving holiday last year.

It would appear that the writer of this article was careful to not say that reports of gunfire were made to the sheriff's department, while implying that they were, in order to seem as though the county sheriff was either “part of the conspiracy” or simply not engaging in due diligence. In reality, if people called the cops every time they heard gunshots out there, deputies would be questioning me every time I go out there!

So here's my take on it. The story is a non-story, courtesy of people who want you checking in the closet for Osama bin Laden every night before you go to bed. Fearmongering at its finest, nothing more and nothing less.

Ironically, the same people who act like our government should be all up in the mix about people living in trailers and shooting guns in the woods of south east Texas are the same people who would shit bricks if the cops tried to tell them they couldn't do exactly that. Get over it already, people.