The AP has a report out tonight containing some sobering but entirely predictable information: according to ATF sources, militia groups concentrated in the South, Midwest and Northwest are growing rapidly as wild conspiracy theories fuel the spread of paranoia.

How wacky are the aforementioned conspiracy theories taking root in America's heartland? One such theory claims that Mexico is plotting to invade the country to reclaim the American Southwest as its own territory. And then of course there's the usual one about how our black/Nazi/Muslim/Kenyan president wants to mobilize an army of gay "Obamacare" warriors to euthanize the elderly, the young and the infirm, after the aforementioned gay warriors have sodomized them, their pets and their children, of course, among other things.

The AP report cites an ATF official named Bart McEntire who says that he believes it's "only a matter of time" before we see another Timothy McVeigh-like act of domestic terrorism, something that doesn't seem all that far-fetched in light of recent events.

The report mentions how the Ohio Militia group recently posted a recruiting video on YouTube, which brings up an interesting point/thought — back in the early 90s, when these same sorts of groups were something to really be concerned about, they, the militia groups, were restricted in terms of their ability to recruit broadly, organize and communicate/share "intelligence" with each other. Of course, with the proliferation of the internet, all of that has changed. Just as a relatively unknown black man from Chicago was able to harness the internet's power to rise up and become President of the United States, small factions of the wingnuttery are able to grow exponentially quite rapidly through the dissemination of propaganda in emails, chatrooms and videos. Whereas they once were relegated to mailing wacky newsletters made with some sort of crude printing mechanism in someone's basement and distributed to just a handful of like-minded idiots, they can now spread their messages virally to a much larger audience in very little time. It's enough to really scare the shit out of you when you really stop and think about it.

For example...