The Neo Nazi From Maine

March 11, 2009 1:25 PM

On December 9, 2008, Maine resident Amber Cummings shot and killed her husband. James Cummings was an abusive neo-nazi millionaire who was furious over Obama's election, and appears to have been making a dirty bomb.

More on this story here and here.

From the second of the three links:

...a number of materials were taken from the home of James G. Cummings on the night of Dec. 9, and ...the FBI was contacted.[...]

Cummings had quantities of hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium, lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium, boron, black iron oxide and magnesium ribbon. Cummings also reportedly had literature on how to build dirty bombs and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, additional radioactive materials, although he did not actually have those materials.

posted by ornate insect (155 comments total)

James Cummings was an abusive neo-nazi millionaire

That must have looked amazing on business cards.
posted by brundlefly at 1:28 PM on March 11 [39 favorites]

Every day I worry that I'll die in an accident and people will discover my closet full of uranium and extremely flammable crosses and assume the worst.
posted by giraffe at 1:35 PM on March 11 [7 favorites]

From linked story:
Charlie Parker, next-door neighbor, talked with the BDN [Bangor Daily News] at his home Wednesday morning, February 11, 2009. "He [ James G. Cummings ] always seemed nice to me. He never talked about bombs, but he showed me pistols that he had. He told me he was a Nazi," said Parker of Cummings.

I hereby revise my definition of "nice".
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 1:36 PM on March 11 [30 favorites]

it appears that the actual source of his wealth was a trust fund established by his father

Damn trust fund kids.
posted by nola at 1:36 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

Needless to say if the guy's name had been Mohammad or Abdullah I think we would have heard about this by now.
posted by ornate insect at 1:38 PM on March 11 [15 favorites]

I can't wait for the Obama administration to open up the Civil Collection and Reorientation Center system for these guys. What's taking so long???
posted by troy at 1:39 PM on March 11

She allegedly told police that Cummings subjected her to years of mental, physical and sexual abuse. She also said that Cummings was “very upset” when Barack Obama was elected president.

Remarkable what will push someone over the edge (the wife, not the husband). Is that patriotism?
posted by meowzilla at 1:39 PM on March 11

The report itself--which is a long digest of many incidents--makes scary reading. Check it out.
posted by MarshallPoe at 1:39 PM on March 11

an abusive neo-nazi millionaire

A breed notable for its rarity, as most neo-nazi millionaires are fairly gregarious, fun-loving types.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:39 PM on March 11 [24 favorites]

a nice nazi empties out the ashtray when he's finished.. well.. remember that joke about how many jewish people fit in a volkswagon? ouch.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 1:40 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Charlie Parker, next-door neighbor

And his neighbor was a famous long-since-dead jazz musician.
posted by ornate insect at 1:41 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Under Bushk, he would have been rendered and given water torture treatment in New Jersey.
posted by Postroad at 1:42 PM on March 11

I look forward to the Law and Order: SVU spinoff of this where it is revealed, in a shocking plot twist, that the wife framed him, he didn't beat her, and he wasn't a Nazi at all! dun-DUN
posted by emjaybee at 1:43 PM on March 11 [9 favorites]

Here is the piece referred to about dirty bombs around in the US. I had posted it at my site.

The "dirty bomb" that disappeared - .
posted by Postroad at 1:44 PM on March 11

Cummings’ wife, Amber B. Cummings, 31, told investigators that her husband spoke of “dirty bombs,” according to the report, and mixed chemicals in her kitchen sink.

Um, I wouldn't use that sink...

(because of Nazi germs)
posted by Artw at 1:45 PM on March 11

We just don't hear much about right-wing terrorists in this country. It's amazing how much self-censorship exists with editorial staff in prominent media outlets, hiding the ugly right-wing side of America that no one in power wants to admit exists.

If you're a hippie that burns down a McMansion, you'll get front-page, 24/7 coverage on CNN and FOXNews. If you're a gun nut who stockpiles weapons, chemical, biological and radiological agents to go after queers, Jews and darkies, good luck with anyone hearing about it.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:52 PM on March 11 [38 favorites]

This is exactly why I am not friends with neo-Nazi millionaires.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:52 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

So, this is true? Some rich, White is Right nutjob was building a dirty bomb, and the only reason he didn't use it is because his wife shot him?

Why on Earth isn't this all over CNN?
posted by paisley henosis at 1:53 PM on March 11 [19 favorites]

I look forward to the Law and Order: SVU spinoff of this where it is revealed, in a shocking plot twist, that the wife framed him, he didn't beat her, and he wasn't a Nazi at all! dun-DUN.

I hate it when they do that. And all of the L&Os do it. Which is one of the reasons that I stopped watching them. But Alex is back on SVU so I have to start watching it again.
posted by nooneyouknow at 1:53 PM on March 11

Yeah, what BP said.
posted by paisley henosis at 1:53 PM on March 11

Why on Earth isn't this all over CNN?

B/c he wasn't a Muslim and/or an Arab.
posted by ornate insect at 1:54 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Why the hell would a Mainer be a Nazi? The state motto is "whatevah" and obviously he was never personally wronged by minorities, except perhaps French Canadians-- about whom Hitler had very little to say.
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:55 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

That must have looked amazing on business cards.
posted by brundlefly at 1:28 PM on March 11

Confirmed.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 1:55 PM on March 11 [56 favorites]

Confirmed.

That typeface choice screams "OCD". Yeah, definitely a type-A type nazi.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 1:59 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

At least with Bush out of office, and this off the front page, I am less worried about how it will lead to my civil liberties being further eroded.
posted by paisley henosis at 1:59 PM on March 11

That is indeed a damn handsome business card.
posted by baphomet at 2:00 PM on March 11

I smell a cover up. Firstly, he wasn't a neo-Nazi, but the last surviving member of the Thule Society. Secondly, he wasn't making a dirty bomb, but instead was cracking open the very fabric of space to unleash gibbering horrors upon us. And, lastly, he wasn't shot by his wife, but by Hellboy.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:00 PM on March 11 [18 favorites]

We've got our very own version of the Taliban living in our midst, in the form of these right-wing freakjobs. Fortunately, we kicked our Taliban out of power last November.
posted by jamstigator at 2:01 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Nazis raus!!
posted by saulgoodman at 2:02 PM on March 11

quantities of hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium, lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium, boron, black iron oxide and magnesium ribbon.

As a child, I had all of that in my closet, except uranium and thorium. Unless you count the piece of uranium ore. Back in the day, most of that stuff came with the deluxe chemistry set.
posted by StickyCarpet at 2:05 PM on March 11

Now the TSA is going to be confiscating polished jackboots and racist tracts. Probably even from toddlers and grandmas. Allow extra time for boarding, folks.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 2:06 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

an abusive neo-nazi millionaire

A breed notable for its rarity, as most neo-nazi millionaires are fairly gregarious, fun-loving types.

Actually I think most neo-nazi millionaires are known for their existence solely in bad episodic TV sci-fi (see Doctor Who's 25th anniversary "celebration" Silver Nemesis) and 80s action movies.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 2:09 PM on March 11

We should have seen it coming.
posted by Roman Graves at 2:10 PM on March 11 [7 favorites]

Why the hell would a Mainer be a Nazi? The state motto is "whatevah" and obviously he was never personally wronged by minorities, except perhaps French Canadians-- about whom Hitler had very little to say.

But he wasn't a native Mainer. (Is that really what they call themselves?) Apparently, his crazy comes from northern California by way of Texas.


So, this is true? Some rich, White is Right nutjob was building a dirty bomb, and the only reason he didn't use it is because his wife shot him?

Why on Earth isn't this all over CNN?

That's the million dollar question. No one in the mainstream news media outside of the Bangor Daily News seems to have covered this at all, and even they didn't know about it before the report got on Wikileaks.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:11 PM on March 11

Who knew neo-Nazis used Mrs. Eaves?
posted by ocherdraco at 2:14 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

We've got our very own version of the Taliban living in our midst, in the form of these right-wing freakjobs.

But the media tends to ignore them:

Feds: Right-wing terrorists were preparing machine-gun attack on Mexicans (2007)

Almost 60 radical right-wing terrorist plots uncovered in the U.S. from 1995-2005

There was also the guy a few years back who was found with chemical weapons in Colorado. Barely a peep out of the media.
posted by ornate insect at 2:15 PM on March 11 [10 favorites]

I suspect there are still a lot of neo-Nazi millionaires out there. My grandfather once broke off contact with a member of a well-to-do Texas oil family he'd been hoping to do business with because, having been invited on a hunting trip on one of the family's large private campgrounds, he found that the property also housed a neo-Nazi para-military camp, complete with Nazi flags flying overhead.

My grandfather was both profoundly racist (despite being half Cherokee) and a life-long conservative Republican. But he drew the line at trading with Nazis. He was also not the kind of guy who made spurious claims or told tall tales, so I have no reason to question his account of what happened.
posted by saulgoodman at 2:18 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

Confirmed.

Look at that subtle off-white coloring. The tasteful thickness of it. Oh my God, it even has a watermark!
posted by PenDevil at 2:19 PM on March 11 [15 favorites]

Skinheads from Maine
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:21 PM on March 11 [3 favorites]

The end of that Bangor Daily News article notes, "The FBI field intelligence report was apparently first reported on by unattributable.com, an online magazine which covers and blogs on current events."

Seemed worth a link, not least for the post with the hilarious pic from an anti-Fred Phelps rally in Chicago.
posted by mediareport at 2:22 PM on March 11

Darn you, Roman Graves!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:22 PM on March 11

and the only reason he didn't use it is because his wife shot him?

Well, that and the lack of radioactive materials. But yeah, it's astonishing this hasn't been more widely reported. A search for Amber Cummings at CNN's site turns up nothing at all.
posted by mediareport at 2:25 PM on March 11

Goddamned trust fund nazis.
posted by snofoam at 2:27 PM on March 11 [3 favorites]

Also the wife was released on bail and pleaded not guilty based on "mental disease" - link for the sole purpose of sharing hilarious random reader comments.
posted by Big_B at 2:30 PM on March 11

That's some serious nightmare fuel there, ornate insect.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:32 PM on March 11

Apparently, while he had some of the materials, he really didn't have any of the good stuff, and probably didn't have enough of a quantity that the public was in danger.

Officials Verify Dirty Bomb Probe Results:

BANGOR, Maine — In the wake of revelations that a Belfast man had a stash of potentially hazardous materials at his home when he was killed last December, state Public Safety Commissioner Anne Jordan stressed Wednesday that at no time was the public at risk.
...
The document indicated that Cummings had quantities of hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium, lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium, boron, black iron oxide and magnesium ribbon. Cummings also reportedly had literature on how to build dirty bombs and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, additional radioactive materials, although he did not actually have those materials.

So the uranium is bad if it's the wrong isotope (unlikely that he's got anything seriously pure), same with thorium, but he really didn't have the stuff on hand that would really kill large numbers of people. That's probably got something to do with the story not getting a whole lot of traction.
posted by jenkinsEar at 2:33 PM on March 11

a well-to-do Texas oil family...connected to the far right? Sounds familiar.

The Bushes were and are connected to all the key players, and HL Hunt was about as rich and right-wing as they come.
posted by ornate insect at 2:33 PM on March 11

Confused. Is this post about the Neo-Nazi or the wife? I don't see how his neo-nazidom is related to his wife shooting him.

Again, the response to people doing bad to you is to call the police and get the hell out of there rather than shoot people.

Again, the response to Obama being elected is to attempt to get someone else elected next time, rather than build a dirty bomb.
posted by Ironmouth at 2:34 PM on March 11

I hate Illinois Maine Nazis
posted by dabitch at 2:39 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Look, anonymous: I know that you're posting this question here hoping that we can help you, but as other people above have said, if you're pretty sure your husband is making a 'dirty bomb,' well, there are people who are much more well-equipped to answer your question ('I'm pretty sure my husband is a neo-Nazi terrorist - what should I do?') than we are. Talk to your doctor about this.

That said, my heart goes out to you. I've had this exact same thing happen, and I know how painful it can be. Here's what worked for me: shooting him with a gun. YMMV.
posted by koeselitz at 2:39 PM on March 11 [26 favorites]

Wait, did you say Bangor, Maine?

Are you sure Stephen King hasn't just written us all into his latest book?
posted by graventy at 2:39 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

If you're a hippie that burns down a McMansion, you'll get front-page, 24/7 coverage on CNN and FOXNews. If you're a gun nut who stockpiles weapons, chemical, biological and radiological agents to go after queers, Jews and darkies, good luck with anyone hearing about it.

Correct me if I'm mistaken but burning down McMansions happens to be illegal and an actual act of terrorism as it is defined by law.

Where as stockpiling legally acquired weapons is not. Neither is being an asshole nazi.

And when somebody secretly stockpiles quasi-legal items for a theoretical illegal use we don't hear about it. Until they get murdered by their wives or something. In which case it is the murder that we hear about.

Or were was that a cheap attempt at pandering favorites. Of which I am not opposed.
posted by tkchrist at 2:39 PM on March 11

Are you sure Stephen King hasn't just written us all into his latest book?

He sets everything in Florida now. It's a bit disorientating.
posted by Artw at 2:44 PM on March 11

Goddamned trust fund nazis.

I'm with you. Self-made one's are a-ok, but the other type? Scum.
posted by ob at 2:49 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

I will now hurt myself for the blatant grocer's apostrophe in my last comment. It's the least I can do.
posted by ob at 2:50 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

tkchrist, I think the point - which has been made pretty clearly above - is that if the husband and wife had been Muslim, with the exact same "theoretical illegal use" of "quasi-legal items," this almost certainly8 would have been major national news for days.

Are you claiming that's not the case? It's not clear.
posted by mediareport at 2:50 PM on March 11

Under Bushk, he would have been rendered and given water torture treatment in New Jersey.

No...he's white, remember.
posted by hal_c_on at 2:51 PM on March 11

And when somebody secretly stockpiles quasi-legal items for a theoretical illegal use we don't hear about it. Until they get murdered by their wives or something. In which case it is the murder that we hear about.

But it's like ornate insect already mentioned - if this guy had been Middle Eastern, his murder would have been front page news, with special emphasis on the terrorism angle. But then again, maybe it is a bad thing to keep perpetuating the culture of fear. But then again again, sometimes there really are things to be afraid of. I don't know.
posted by Kevin Street at 2:51 PM on March 11

Are you sure Stephen King hasn't just written us all into his latest book?

He sets everything in Florida now. It's a bit disorientating.

So maybe he switched with Carl Hiassen? A gun-toting heroic woman who murders her abusive neo-nazi millionaire husband would certainly fit into one of his books. Only instead of a dirty bomb it would be a real estate scam.
posted by goingonit at 2:54 PM on March 11 [7 favorites]

[NOT NAZI-IST]

oh wait.
posted by odinsdream at 3:01 PM on March 11

“Back in the day, most of that stuff came with the deluxe chemistry set.”

Yeah, I’m on the fence here. On the one hand – yeah, were the guy muslim, hippie, all that.
On the other – I could pick up about 40 or 50 moisture density gauges (for construction survey) and have a good chunk of radioactive material (americium and cesium – forgot the numbers – but it is an important distinction, U-238 is essentially just a heavy rock in the wrong hands. Hell, it’s used as ship ballast - it’s used as radiation shielding in fact. Particulated it can be dangerous, up the odds you’ll get cancer and such. And hell, you can give people cigarettes and accomplish the same thing. And anyway, it’s pretty hard to particulate given it’s so dense. And DU bullets, enough of them, can be a health hazard, but again – the stuff’s laying around.). It’s not that hard to amass this material. Nor is it hard to get ahold of technical advice on how to build a ‘dirty bomb’ (get radioactive stuff – put it around bomb – voila, you’re now on par with the Chechen rebels).
Oh, it’s a lot of work and effort. Particulated cobalt-60 would be a real problem beyond just scary. But good luck with that one too there Mr. Physics.
(although still lots of nasty things you can do with chemical explosives)

But all that aside – most of the damage from a ‘dirty bomb’ would be from public panic when you say the word ‘radiation.’ Which is why it’s an ideal terrorist weapon. Which is why they should stop going around blathering “AHHH! DIRTY BOMB! BE AFRAID!” whether it’s neonazi idiots or muslims or whomever.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:02 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

And PenDevil beat me to the American Psycho reference.

Do you like Phil Collins?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:02 PM on March 11

Are you claiming that's not the case? It's not clear.

Did I mention Muslims? No.

I quoted Blazecock specifically. Who compared to environmentalists burning down McMansions to a guy stockpiling weapons asking why there is no news coverage. Comparing a clearly illegal act to one that is not a clearly illegal act. So the answer is "Duh. Of course one garners news over the other."
posted by tkchrist at 3:03 PM on March 11

And when somebody secretly stockpiles quasi-legal items for a theoretical illegal use we don't hear about it. Until they get murdered by their wives or something. In which case it is the murder that we hear about.

I think the point is that it's still not on cnn, or most national news services, despite the wife testifying that he talked about building dirty bombs and was a neo-nazi. Even his murder hasn't put this on front page news outside of maine, which seems to be the problem.
posted by shmegegge at 3:04 PM on March 11

jenkinsEar : So the uranium is bad if it's the wrong isotope (unlikely that he's got anything seriously pure), same with thorium, but he really didn't have the stuff on hand that would really kill large numbers of people.

Dirty bombs are dangerous by virtue of being, you know, bombs, but generally the real damage they do is psychological. It's not really so much about distributing radioactive material into an area (though that is obviously a hazardous byproduct) as it is causing panic and chaos as people flee the area trying to avoid being contaminated.

Put another way, dirty bombs are instruments of terror and the people who use them are terrorists. Regardless of their color, nationality, or religious affiliation.
posted by quin at 3:14 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

...hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium, lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium, boron, black iron oxide and magnesium ribbon...

Coincidentally, this is exactly what you get when you blend an iPod.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:18 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

I think the point is that it's still not on cnn, or most national news services, despite the wife testifying that he talked about building dirty bombs and was a neo-nazi. Even his murder hasn't put this on front page news outside of maine, which seems to be the problem.

Sure. But for christ sake while I appreciate the irony do you really want more of this bullshit? And. Was he actually building dirty bombs? Or was he yet another among the thousands of inert loud mouth kooks in this country.

The José Padilla "dirty bomb" story was alarmist bullshit and used to justify all sorts of bullshit policy.

It would be nice to no more about this dipshit Nazi and all to flesh out the facts but the flip of the coin is shit-stirring another hysterical frenzy. Only this time one where lefties get to storm the citadel, hold up the torches, and scream TREASON. Great.
posted by tkchrist at 3:18 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Oh wow. It's too good to pass up.

Metafilter: thousands of inert loud mouth kooks
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:22 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

We have nothing to fear...

...except wealthy white conservatives, apparently.
posted by sourwookie at 3:24 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Confused. Is this post about the Neo-Nazi or the wife? I don't see how his neo-nazidom is related to his wife shooting him.

I can, however, see how the way HE WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DIRTY BOMB is related to public interest.

Again, the response to people doing bad to you is to call the police and get the hell out of there rather than shoot people.

No, I'm sorry. The question was, "How does one deal with a crazed neo-Nazi who is trying to build a weapon of mass destruction with which to kill as many Americans as possible for having the gall to vote a black man into the White House?" And the correct answer was: Stake through the heart, stuff the mouth with garlic, cut off the head, bury the body at a crossroads.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 3:29 PM on March 11 [6 favorites]

Put another way, dirty bombs are instruments of terror and the people who use them are terrorists.

I agree.

Now. Where is this bomb? And when/where has one been used?
posted by tkchrist at 3:30 PM on March 11

Moscow. Didn't go off tho. Cesium and dynamite planted by Chechen rebels.
posted by Smedleyman at 3:35 PM on March 11

Moscow. Didn't go off tho. Cesium and dynamite planted by Chechen rebels.

that's what I thought. so the actual threat threshold for dirty bombs is significantly lower than say the cheap and available AK-47 arms markets.
posted by tkchrist at 3:41 PM on March 11

There once was a neo-nazi from Maine
Who was more than a little insane
His wife, she shot'im
And we're real glad she got'im
Because he was building a fucking nuke.
posted by Kattullus at 3:47 PM on March 11 [26 favorites]

I don't see how his neo-nazidom is related to his wife shooting him.

Well, there's only so much neo-Nazidom a person can take in a relationship. A little here and there, sure, I can let it slide. But when it becomes constant, that wears a little thin. It used to be she'd come home, we'd have dinner, she'd read a little Mein Kampf, I'd try to put my hand under her shirt, we'd fight, then go to sleep. But pretty soon it was the first thing she did when she got home, sometimes before she'd even kicked her shoes off. A lot of nights she actually passed out on the couch being an habitual Nazi. Didn't matter if we had guests over. I'd be in the kitchen putting the cream cheese in the celery, she'd be in the lounge room talking about Zyklon-B.
posted by turgid dahlia at 3:56 PM on March 11 [6 favorites]

Any company of any era that put thermite into a chemistry set would be sued into oblivion as soon as the first house burned down.

The thermite is also a good answer to "it’s pretty hard to particulate given it’s so dense."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 3:58 PM on March 11

It would be nice to no more about this dipshit Nazi and all to flesh out the facts but the flip of the coin is shit-stirring another hysterical frenzy. Only this time one where lefties get to storm the citadel, hold up the torches, and scream TREASON. Great.

Speaking for myself, I don't see how this should be a right or left issue. Liberals and conservatives alike should shun extremism. A man attempting to build a freakin' dirty bomb who is simultaneously pretty open about his white supremacist beliefs would be, to my mind, a safe example of extremism*.

Granted, a lot of American extremists shifted their focus after 9/11, and others have swung their attention towards illegal immigrants. You don't hear a lot of talk about the "ZOG" anymore, but that doesn't mean that domestic terrorism isn't a very real thing - look at Oklahoma City, or clinc bombings, or the assassination of obstetricians. Still, counterterrorism issues in the mainstream media have been more focused on foreign threats or on American Muslims.

I've no reason to believe law enforcement doesn't take a potential Tim McVeigh as seriously as they do a potential Mohammed Atta. But yes, I think it's pretty fair to speculate why we're not hearing more about this, and why the mainstream media in general seems disinterested in non-brown terrorists within America's borders.

*And just to head this off at the pass: No, I don't think "ideas should be criminalized". What I'm saying is the combined behaviors spell trouble. Not that building a bomb just for laffs would be cool.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:06 PM on March 11

We have nothing to fear...

...except wealthy white conservatives, apparently.

Oh no, I'm getting lots of assurances from Metafilter posters that millionaire neo-Nazis trying to build radiological weapons for use against the Presidential inauguration are no threat at all, and completely un-newsworthy.

Seriously, seeing the hoops people are jumping through to try to make this seem like it's no big deal leaves me amazed.
posted by happyroach at 4:11 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

That typeface choice screams "OCD". Yeah, definitely a type-A type nazi.

All my business cards are in Wingdings. What does that scream?
posted by hal_c_on at 4:11 PM on March 11

James Cummings was the son of a wealthy Fort Bragg real estate owner who was murdered by a former employee in 1997. The FBI report said Cummings bragged of inheriting $2 million from his father.

Wow. Like father, like son.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:17 PM on March 11

The Terrorists You’re Not Told About
posted by homunculus at 4:20 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Seriously, seeing the hoops people are jumping through to try to make this seem like it's no big deal leaves me amazed.

Second Amendment, baby. It's what makes a man a man. That and, of course, a pair of Nazi testicles.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:22 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

Big_B, you are right-- the comments are hilarious:

Before you make a blanket statement like "woman bashers", the last time I checked this is United States of America.

Please read something called the "First Amendment", just because you don't like "men" expressing there rights given in the first amendment "please" consider finding another venue to spew your name calling, man hating comments. But you have the same right to the First Amendment, so do as you please.

I wonder what "men" are?
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 4:22 PM on March 11

All my business cards are in Wingdings. What does that scream?

π♣√∫℘‡◊!!
posted by scrump at 4:27 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Seriously, seeing the hoops people are jumping through to try to make this seem like it's no big deal leaves me amazed.

I think it's more sensitivity over the idea that owning a stockpile of legal weapons == terrorist.

Nuts about guns rather than nuts about Nazis. There's an NRA joke in there somewhere but I'm too tired.
posted by fullerine at 4:32 PM on March 11

.
I made you a Dirty Bomb.
But my wife shot me.
.
posted by Xoebe at 4:37 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

That and, of course, a pair of Nazi testicles.

Pair?
posted by DU at 4:39 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Also, remembering when asking where the WMDs were was "emboldening the tairists" even though Iraqi WMDs and terrorists had nothing to do with each other? And yet when an actual right wing nutjob actually has been spurred on by actual hate speech from actual conservatives...*crickets*.
posted by DU at 4:42 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Look at that subtle off-white coloring.

Oh hell no. Nothing but pure White.
posted by DU at 4:51 PM on March 11

If you're a hippie that burns down a McMansion, you'll get front-page, 24/7 coverage on CNN and FOXNews. If you're a gun nut who stockpiles weapons, chemical, biological and radiological agents to go after queers, Jews and darkies, good luck with anyone hearing about it.

I could do without either of them. Call me crazy. Let's not reduce the political universe to my-fanatical-yo-yo-is-better-than-your-fanatical-yo-yo.

As far as this guy goes, good riddance. I have family in Maine, it's a beautiful and friendly state and they don't need any racist screwball rich kid retahds, thanks.
posted by jonmc at 4:56 PM on March 11

Any company of any era that put thermite into a chemistry set would be sued into oblivion as soon as the first house burned down.

The thermite is also a good answer to "it’s pretty hard to particulate given it’s so dense."
posted by Kirth Gerson

Well, some assembly is required. And Fisher Scientific did mail order, no questions asked.

There was a company that sold bomb kits in the back of comic books, called Echo Products. Each of step of the instructions was prefaced by a phrase like "Whatever you do, don't glue the end caps on the cylinder with the little pouch of glue included." I'm not talkin' fireworks, either. Real bombs. Aluminum dust and perchlorate.

And they weren't sued when the first house burned down, they were convicted of murder after one too many kids got killed. I heard that on the radio 10 years after my brother became one of their best customers.
posted by StickyCarpet at 4:57 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

I could do without either of them.

The Pigeon's point was not that you should or could.

Let's not reduce the political universe to my-fanatical-yo-yo-is-better-than-your-fanatical-yo-yo.

Also not his point.

The point is the unbalanced coverage. Even minor-league leftist "terrorism" such as chaining themselves to fences or shouting at whalers gets extensive coverage. Witness the hate that PETA gets almost everywhere and all they do is make "provocative" TV ads, for crying out loud. Whereas a guy who was planning to set off a radioactive bomb inside the US isn't mentioned at all.
posted by DU at 5:06 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

Let's not reduce the political universe to my-fanatical-yo-yo-is-better-than-your-fanatical-yo-yo.

Also not his point.

Perhaps not, but that's what conversations about fanatics of any stripe seem to get reduced to, since moderates on either side unwilling to simply say 'fanatics of any kind suck ass. to hell with them.'
posted by jonmc at 5:12 PM on March 11

When I first read about this right after it happened, I fully expected it to make some headline news on the big outlets. It's just the kind of thing they would love to go on about for at least a couple of days. But it never did, and I completely assumed it was because the guy was white and American.

For me, it's not that I necessarily think this story needed to be big headline news, but there doesn't seem to be equality in reporting this kind of thing. A bunch of brown guys in Britain had some standard household chemicals, an idea they wanted to create some kind of liquid explosive, and a vague plot to blow up some planes. What they didn't have were plane tickets, passports, or any actual bombs or liquid explosives of any kind, and yet it was on the news endlessly and the final result was people not being able to take liquids on airplanes. None of these men were found guilty of targeting aircraft (or much of anything else).

Had this guy been vaguely planning to build and detonate a dirty bomb, had the chemicals he had, and not been a white American living in Maine, it likely would have made more of a news impact. Either we should be panicking about every hair-brained, almost non-existent plot or none of them at all. Something seems skewed to me in the way this stuff gets reported, and it seems to be skewed due to the race/religion of the plotter and not the actual amount of danger to the public.
posted by Orb at 5:12 PM on March 11 [9 favorites]

Witness the hate that PETA gets almost everywhere and all they do is make "provocative" TV ads, for crying out loud.

Umm, PETA gets more coverage because getting coverage is what they want to do. Just saying.
posted by jonmc at 5:14 PM on March 11

Perhaps not, but that's what conversations about fanatics of any stripe seem to get reduced to...

In that case, thank you for stepping in and nipping that non-existent conversation reduction in the pre-bud.
posted by DU at 5:16 PM on March 11

DU, my point ultimately is that both sides of the political spectrum use the other side's extremists as bogeymen to detour conversation away from actual dialogue. To my eyes anyway. YMMV.
posted by jonmc at 5:21 PM on March 11

Your moderater-than-thou sanctimony is exactly the outcome that the unbalanced coverage wants to create. Use some all mouth and no action whackos from one side to "cancel out" some actually dangerous whackos on the other side and the "center" has been shifted.

Overton Window
posted by DU at 5:27 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Also found was literature on how to build “dirty bombs” and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60, radioactive materials.

So he's real into the Police and he's automatically a Nazi?
posted by cmoj at 5:30 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

How did everyone miss the fact that the guy's *father* was also shot to death-- in his case, by a disgruntled employee. This article has the details, including a contractor who was so afraid of the guy, he didn't sue to collect his fees till now. Others say he was frequently abusive to the wife.

I'm betting she gets off on the "he had a dirty bomb, he was a Nazi, he was beating me and if I didn't do it, he would have blown up Boston" defense.


You can't make this stuff up.
posted by Maias at 5:34 PM on March 11

DU, by all means lock up the ones who actually do stuff and let the all-mouth whackos of any stripe rant into the wind, but that's a side issue. My point is that the commie-pinkos and the nazi-fascists can both go fuck themselves. If that makes me 'sanctimonious,' so be it. The older I get the less fucking patience I have with ideologues of any stripe. It breaks my fat old heart if you disapprove, really.
posted by jonmc at 5:34 PM on March 11

Oops, link is here.
posted by Maias at 5:34 PM on March 11

My point is that the commie-pinkos and the nazi-fascists can both go fuck themselves.

What's your stance on motherhood and apple pie?
posted by DU at 5:49 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Your mother can stand on an apple pie all she wants.
posted by jonmc at 5:59 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

How did everyone miss the fact that the guy's *father* was also shot to death-- in his case, by a disgruntled employee.



James Cummings was the son of a wealthy Fort Bragg real estate owner who was murdered by a former employee in 1997. The FBI report said Cummings bragged of inheriting $2 million from his father.

Wow. Like father, like son.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:17 PM on March 11

I'm beginning to suspect that I am invisible.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:28 PM on March 11

Either that, or too subtle.
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 6:29 PM on March 11

who said that?

sorry

what have we learned today? Rich people are at least as fucking nuts as the rest of us.
posted by jonmc at 6:30 PM on March 11

Did anyone else here just hear a noise? I caught this whiff of what smelled like gravy and then it was gone.

No? Weird. Must just be my mind playing tricks on me again.
posted by quin at 6:35 PM on March 11 [3 favorites]

Where as stockpiling legally acquired weapons is not. Neither is being an asshole nazi.

One of the biggest terrorism related national news stories of the entire Bush reign was a story about a small group of black guys who ran their mouths too much about possibly carrying out terrorist attacks and then went on to make the fatal mistake of associating with the wrong people (namely, undercover FBI agents).

That anyone can have the gall to seriously argue this case isn't at least as newsworthy--or more so given the lethal history of far right extremists in recent American history, from clinic bombings to Oklahoma City--boggles the mind. No, I take that back. It actually pisses the mind off.

The Bushes were and are connected to all the key players, and HL Hunt was about as rich and right-wing as they come.

I'll say this much, ornate insect: It was a member of one of those two families.
posted by saulgoodman at 6:39 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

I guess this time we did forget the gravy?
posted by jonmc at 6:40 PM on March 11

My point is that the commie-pinkos and the nazi-fascists can both go fuck themselves

So people who favor the redistribution of wealth are the moral equivalent of people who favor the incineration of entire races of people? Way to shift the center, you moderate you.
posted by dersins at 6:41 PM on March 11 [6 favorites]

Perhaps not, but that's what conversations about fanatics of any stripe seem to get reduced to, since moderates on either side unwilling to simply say 'fanatics of any kind suck ass. to hell with them.'

Fanatics of any kind or flavor suck ass if and only if they are armed beyond a level that might be considered personal protection for sporting purposes. If they're not armed and they're not violent, the first amendment protects them. They're welcome to be obnoxious, but they may not commit crimes and claim the action as protected expression.

That said, I do find them personally distasteful for the most part.

I think it's more sensitivity over the idea that owning a stockpile of legal weapons == terrorist.

Nuts about guns rather than nuts about Nazis. There's an NRA joke in there somewhere but I'm too tired.

Okay, having lots of weapons indicates a terrorist. But, only if there's also evidence of an intent to use them in violence for political purposes. Obviously, you can have the weapons and plan a simple mass-murder out of your own idiosyncratic, apolitical type of crazy (Columbine or Virginia Tech), and that's a threat to public safety to also be aggressively pursued by law enforcement. But, the label of "terrorist" must refer to the use of violence to advance the interests of a political minority.

Likewise, if you just have a bunch of guns 'cause you collect them and take 'em down to the range of a Saturday without any evidence of intent to use them in violence, that describes a lot of my friends and is constitutionally protected. Without arguing whether it should or shouldn't be made illegal, it is currently legal in most places (and definitely Maine) to own as many weapons you might like so long as you come by all of them legally and never use them in any crime. Ex-cons aren't usually allowed weapons either.

In my mind, this Nazi dude fulfills the criteria for "terrorist". He was amassing weapons with no legitimate recreational use--you can't go shoot targets with a dirty bomb. Likewise, there's no reason to assume that somebody who builds a weapon of mass destruction (or hysteria) is just going to sit on it in his garage till he dies of old age.

But, she didn't shoot him because you might call him a terrorist. She shot him 'cause he'd hit her for the last time. Or, because he got way paranoid and threatened her first. Or she was tired of him raping the kid. I really think there would almost have to be a more immediate reason that a woman who'd put up with years of abuse would choose to shoot the dude. He was obviously getting crazier as he put together his dirty bomb. I'll bet that crazy expressed itself more personally as well.
posted by Netzapper at 6:41 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

I dunno, there were lots of stories on right wing militia wackos a bit back. They stockpile a lot of weapons (how many weapons = stockpile?). The Waco thing. Although how would you do a news story on someone stockpiling weapons unless they use them somehow?

Still, I don't think there's any question during the Bush administration the "oogah boogah! be scared!" was played up, and on dirty bomb stuff as well.
But anyone think the individuals and organizations that benefit from that have just gone away because Republicans aren't in power? Those forces just going to quit?
Seems to me some folks made a deal for arms with the Iranians and they weren't part of the administration.
But yeah, red, blue, or black and white all over, the bottom line is green. Which kills me. Or rather, which kills you in the stampede away from a chemical bomb and some millirads which will up the odds of you getting cancer by maybe .001 percent ( steady dose - whole other thing, you get 500 millirads per year, that's a big jump in the odds).
Terrorists love publicity.
posted by Smedleyman at 7:10 PM on March 11

So, he inherited 2 million?

I know that millionaire technically means assets of a million or more, just like it meant in the 1917 film of that name, featuring Oliver Hardy.

In today's world, I pronounce it million-year, as in annual income. 2M in assets doesn't make you a titan of the Universe.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:20 PM on March 11

That anyone can have the gall to seriously argue this case isn't at least as newsworthy--or more so given the lethal history of far right extremists in recent American history, from clinic bombings to Oklahoma City--boggles the mind. No, I take that back. It actually pisses the mind off.

Good thing nobody in here is arguing this isn't news worthy. So your getting pissed off over fucking nothing.
posted by tkchrist at 7:39 PM on March 11 [2 favorites]

Wow, StickyCarpet. You must live in a different today's world than I do. By my math, $2,000,000.00 is enough for me, my wife and son to live at our current annual income level for the next 23 years without lifting a finger other than to wipe our asses on wads of twenty dollar bills every now and then. And by my annual income, I'm classified as upper middle class.
posted by saulgoodman at 7:40 PM on March 11 [3 favorites]

tkchrist: I'm not pissed at anybody in this thread, tkchrist. I apologize if it came across that way. I'm just pissed off this story--and all the other stories like it--isn't bigger. Not "bigger" in the sense of hyped more, but in the sense of being acknowledged broadly and treated with some proportional sense of gravity.

It's not a bigger story, in that sense, presumably because there's a consensus among some group of people somewhere out there who have the power to flood the news outlets with stories seemingly manufactured out of their own absurdity, like the infamous Terrorist Fist Bump that clogged up the air waves for nearly a week and continues to be a matter of passionate interest in the darker recesses of the web, or the epic blood feud between Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell.

That's what pisses off the Giant Floating Brains in Space (or at least, some small part of one of them).
posted by saulgoodman at 7:59 PM on March 11

without lifting a finger other than to wipe our asses on wads of twenty dollar bills every now and then.

Really. Could you refer me to your ass wiper? Mine has gotten unionized and is charging absurd rates. We went from silk back to cotton wipes but I will compromise no lower. He either charges less to wipe my magnificent golden god-blessed ass or by God I will fire the insolent whelp and find my self a new wiper boy.
posted by tkchrist at 8:00 PM on March 11

It sounds like there is no evidence beyond idle speculation that he was building a dirty bomb at all.

He had a workshop and some of the things in it could, with some imagination, be considered "dual-use" for nefarious purposes. I know of a few science and radiation enthusiasts and hobbiests whose specimen collections would, by these police standards, make them a nuclear superpower.

What the police routinely consider to be "materials on bombmaking" is as imaginative as how they frequently describe the family beach vacation pics as a collection of child pornography. If he's a radiation enthusiast, there is almost no way his browser cache wouldn't have material on dirty bombs, even if he has limited interest in them. Homeland Security has made them the new hotness threat that everyone talks about.

The guy is dead, so it makes no difference in this case, but the speed with which the police routinely falsely leap to the conclusion of "it's a bomb!" (even when "it" doesn't exist), and the routine reluctance or outright refusal to examine the likelyhood of that conclusion with anything akin to common sense, makes these pronouncements worthless for all but the stopped-clock principle.
posted by -harlequin- at 8:01 PM on March 11

As long as inept plans for domestic terrorism continues to exist in America, and continue to be foiled by law enforcement (or convenient acts of domestic violence) before they get off the ground, here is my preference ordering for how I wish the media to report on it:

1) Don't report on any of it.
2) Report on all cases, whether committed by liberals, muslims, or a neo-nazis.
3) Report only on cases where it was committed by liberals or muslims.

So yes, since I prefer (2) to (3), I would prefer that this story get as much stupid, unnecessary play as it would have were the neo-nazi millionaire instead a muslim communist. But I'll grant that I may be wrong in this; maybe it's better to go Gandhi and just take the high road.
posted by chortly at 8:09 PM on March 11

We have nothing to fear...

...except wealthy white conservatives, apparently

Well that one's dead now so I guess his money won't help him now.
posted by nola at 8:09 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

It's not a bigger story, in that sense, presumably because there's a consensus among some group of people somewhere out there who have the power to flood the news outlets with stories seemingly manufactured out of their own absurdity

Think about it like this: the Sub-prime/banking melt down; Every major news outlet missed it UNTIL it happened. Every leading economist and finance person knew for last five years what was heading down the pipe. Many wrote about it. Few major MSM news outlets said dick before it happened. It's not a big conspiracy. It's becuase they, like the consumer, are largely not very bright. Lots of these rich media types lost all their money and are going out of business. If news was some conspiracy you'd think they would have got that right.

The reason we are heard more about Muslim terrorists was becuase they blew shit up and they fit the right narrative of the time.

This idiot Nazi fucking guy didn't do anything illegal yet. If he had detonated a dirty bomb OBVIOUSLY that's all you'd hear about. And then yes we'd have expose after expose on Right Wing terrorism. Just like we did with Islamic terrorism after 911. The media is not a very good predictive agent and never has been.

Earlier Blazecock fired off a drive by about environmental groups torching McMansions and why that is more "newsworthy" than some guy stockpiling weapons. Which is a pretty dumb thing to compare. It's not that a bomb building Nazi deserves less front page space it's that burning down McMansions doesn't require investigation and predictive capacity. Burning down McMansions HAPPENED. Detonating a dirty bomb did not. It's honestly that simple.

Should right wing terrorsim be a larger story? You bet. And when it happens it will be again. or on't you guys remember the nightly Ruby ridge, Waco and McViegh coverage? That when on for almost a decade. Bin Laden just had a better PR sense and pushed them off the page. Team Bush simply took advantage of that. And in the news business habits are hard to break. After all they got all them nifty Al Qeueda 3D graphics to use up.
posted by tkchrist at 8:14 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

So, he inherited 2 million?

According to this, Cummings's trust had an annual income of Ten Million Dollars.

Ten Million Bucks a year could buy a lot of a lot of things... but apparently not decency and common sense.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 8:15 PM on March 11

but apparently not decency and common sense.

Or a wife that won't shoot you and tell everybody you're a Nazi.
posted by tkchrist at 8:22 PM on March 11

Could you refer me to your ass wiper? Mine has gotten unionized

Well, there's one union meeting where nobody joins hands and sings....
posted by jonmc at 8:25 PM on March 11 [4 favorites]

In the article it's mentioned that he got the uranium from a domestic company.
I'm betting it was United Nuclear, who deals in "Scientific Equipment & Supplies".

The company happens to be owned by Bob Lazar. Yes, that Bob Lazar.
posted by mrbill at 8:50 PM on March 11

Stay classy, Republicans.
posted by bardic at 8:51 PM on March 11

jonmc: they don't join hands, but they do have a good rally song:
"Oh, no you can't scare me, I'm stinking up the union..."
posted by boo_radley at 8:53 PM on March 11 [1 favorite]

The key here is not that this story didn't get traction because nothing illegal happened, it was the wrong kind of uranium, etc.

The key is comparing how this spurious story didn't get traction to all the other spurious stories they report, things like shoe bombers, missing brides and kids trapped in wells.
posted by JHarris at 9:09 PM on March 11

Seriously, my own household lives well enough off of $85,000 a year in gross income at most. We can't really afford to do as much traveling as some of our wealthier friends and acquaintances, but all in all, we live well.

Even if it were just $2,000,000, that's literally enough for me to stop getting out of bed in the morning--enough that I could just sit around doing nothing but cooking up plots to defend myself against all the "unseen menaces" in the world for 23 fucking years at exactly the same standard of living I know now. Or I could spend time teaching my son about the world, get back into painting, finish my long-incomplete first collection of poems, produce a few more albums, do some traveling, spend some time with all the friends I never get to see because I'm chained to my financial obligations. I could fly to Germany and finally see my mom's grave, visit my sisters, buy them some gifts. I could put some real money into promoting the bands on my micro-indie label.

But instead, I'll have to keep working my ass off for the next 23 years, putting up with glib remarks about $2,000,000 being chump-change all the while (despite the fact that I kniw I have more useful skills, more native talent and a better work ethic than 99.9% of the 200,000 or so people pulling in annual incomes in excess of $1,000,000), and at the end of my life, I'll probably still be in the red. (And obviously, I make up for my relative paucity of disposable wealth with excessive modesty.)

Lots of these rich media types lost all their money and are going out of business. If news was some conspiracy you'd think they would have got that right.

If all the news outlets go out of business, doesn't that pretty much achieve the same goal as making them put out only bullshit? Especially if your only real goal in running the outfits at all is to subvert their core reporting functions, in order to keep people from knowing what kind of sneaky, greedy crap you're up to?

But no, the general point is right. Media conspiracies just don't happen. People are too incompetent to ever plan things in secret and then successfully carry out their plans. It literally never happens.
posted by saulgoodman at 9:44 PM on March 11

Wow, StickyCarpet. You must live in a different today's world than I do. By my math, $2,000,000.00 is enough for me...

I was only saying that the word millionaire was popularized, and took on the meaning of a very powerful person, when the dollar was worth 11 times more than it is now. At that time his 2M would have been 22M, and he could have had 1M of today's dollars as an annuity perpetually. (Or until the market crashed.)

That would have been a Nazi Millionaire in the classic sense. Maybe not quite a Bin Ladin, but someone with resources to make scary trouble. Once this guy bought a car and a house, he really didn't have the resources to develop weapons of mass destruction.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:59 PM on March 11

ach. sorry. need to go to sleep now. getting irrational and testy.
posted by saulgoodman at 10:02 PM on March 11

Fuzzy Monster: ...Cummings's trust had an annual income of Ten Million Dollars.

In that case, we may have lucked out. That's enough to make some scary trouble.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:04 PM on March 11

"I would prefer that this story get as much stupid, unnecessary play as it would have were the neo-nazi millionaire instead a muslim communist"

I would as well. As long as there's an aside like "By the way, dirty bomb? Pretty much just terrorist rhetoric. Don't worry too much about it." You got a guy in Germany takes out 15 people with a 9mm pistol that's probably more dangerous. The Unibomber - dangerous guy, almost no one knew about him until he got his manifesto printed. Nothing dirty about his bombs and they were pretty effective (not so much in the lethal sense, what with the wood construction, but in the terror sense), they would have been much more so with greater publicity. (No p-zed is safe from (formerly of) Chicago Ted)
posted by Smedleyman at 10:40 PM on March 11

My point is that the commie-pinkos and the nazi-fascists can both go fuck themselves

So people who favor the redistribution of wealth are the moral equivalent of people who favor the incineration of entire races of people? Way to shift the center, you moderate you.

Ooh! Ooh! Hmmmmm. Which killed more people in the 20th century? Gonna have to go with the pinkos, on this one.
posted by codswallop at 10:41 PM on March 11

Can we be sure he wasn't just building a dirty blonde?
posted by klangklangston at 10:43 PM on March 11

Another conspiracy down the drain.
posted by hortense at 11:06 PM on March 11

Which killed more people in the 20th century?

If that is our metric for evil, which country has been most evil in the 21st century?
posted by asok at 4:14 AM on March 12

Or a wife that won't shoot you and tell everybody you're a Nazi.

It's not just his wife. Everybody quoted in the news stories is saying it, and the cops found an application to the ANP. Maybe before you set your It's-All-Hysterical-Bullshit wagon in motion, you should have read some more of the articles. Personally, I'm glad this hobbyist didn't get to combine his innocently-collected toxic, explosive, and pyrotechnic substances into whatever way cool political statement he had in mind.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:35 AM on March 12

If that is our metric for evil, which country has been most evil in the 21st century?

Since when is wealth redistribution a country? I'm confused. I thought "Communism" was the name of that country what killed all their rich people and gave their money to welfare queens and heroin addicts...

The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been, and must always be, to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows... At every stage, and under all circumstances, the essence of the struggle is to equalize opportunity, destroy privilege, and give to the life and citizenship of every individual the highest possible value both to himself and to the commonwealth.

I don't think Teddy Roosevelt killed all that many people in the 21st or 20th centuries (well, there was the Spanish-American war and all, but I'm pretty sure he didn't exterminate somewhere in the range of 9 to 11 million people, despite his radical-left, pro-wealth redistribution marxist ideology).
posted by saulgoodman at 7:30 AM on March 12

Any company of any era that put thermite into a chemistry set would be sued into oblivion as soon as the first house burned down.

Hunh? "Thermite" is nothing but some aluminum and ferric oxide powder. (Or maybe it's ferrous oxide. The whole -ic and -ous business still confuses me.) You used to get both in a lot of chemistry sets; I remember making it when I was a kid. It's hard to set off, though; you need to ignite it with a bit of magnesium. (Which was helpfully also included in the chemistry kit, I'm pretty sure.)

It's not like they pre-mixed the stuff in a jar labeled "Thermite - For Burning House Down", but I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of the first things that most kids with a good old-school chemistry set did.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:15 AM on March 12

So I haven't read the whole thread, but I just want to say that I'm totally, completely shocked that the first act of nuclear terrorism could have been a homegrown right wing terrorist. Just shocked.
posted by Caduceus at 8:47 AM on March 12

I suspect if he had an actual real useful amount of uranium we wouldn't be hearing about all the other crap he had.
posted by Artw at 9:11 AM on March 12

How much uranium is "not useful" for the purposes of a dirty bomb?
posted by DU at 9:20 AM on March 12

Fortunately he was killed before he finished building his Giant Squid.
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 9:23 AM on March 12

It's not like they pre-mixed the stuff in a jar labeled "Thermite - For Burning House Down", but I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of the first things that most kids with a good old-school chemistry set did.

Last comment on thermite. Don't have any recipes here, but yes, the basic idea is souped up gunpowder with iron in it. Half a cup of that on the hood of a junked car will burn a big hole through the metal.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:33 AM on March 12

Yeah, but didn't you need magnesium tape to set it off? I mean, thermite's not actually that hard to make, but igniting it without some fairly high-temp source is hard, if I recall my teenage years.
posted by klangklangston at 9:54 AM on March 12

I'm not getting how it's supposed to be difficult to particulate ore for dispersion: I mean, rent a cement mixer, throw the ore and a few forged machine parts into it and leave it running in the garage for a few weeks, then switch the machine parts out for hardened ball bearings and repeat? Granted, the mixer and garage are going to be hot once this is done, but this guy dosen't seem like he'd particularly care about the rental people.
PS: Loved the business card, O.C. - Was thinking of running a batch off the laser printer and tossing them into various 'enter for a free lunch' bowls
posted by Orb2069 at 10:22 AM on March 12

Charlie Parker, next-door neighbor, talked with the BDN [Bangor Daily News] at his home Wednesday morning, February 11, 2009. "He [ James G. Cummings ] always seemed nice to me. He never talked about bombs, but he showed me pistols that he had. He told me he was a Nazi," said Parker of Cummings.

Tailor: John was a quiet boy, a kind of a loner. But real polite. He always stood still when I hemmed his cuffs. Nice kid.

Ted Koppel: Do you believe he killed Buckwheat?

Tailor: Oh, yes, definitely. That’s all he ever talked about. Why, just the other day, he comes in and he says, “Saul, make me a new suit. I’m going to kill Buckwheat, and I want to look good on television.”
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:30 AM on March 12

Orb2069, et al. : Home chemistry sets gave you everything as particle grains, so your pyrotechnics would sputter and sizzle. For rockets and bombs, (OK, the truth is all the rockets blew up, too,) you had to grind everything into dust.
posted by StickyCarpet at 11:08 AM on March 12

Yeah, but didn't you need magnesium tape to set it off?

Never done it, but can't you just use a sparkler?
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 11:14 AM on March 12

"I'm not getting how it's supposed to be difficult to particulate ore for dispersion."

Ore? Not hard. Uranium? Hard. It's highly toxic, radioactive and doesn't discriminate. You drive your cement mixer back to the rental place wearing a level A demron suit (which you'd need for the respiratory protection) they're probably going to be a bit suspicious.
You're right tho', the mechanics of it are easy.
I suppose if someone was really suicidal - still, blowing yourself up is one thing, a slow painful death through radiation poisoning, whole different level there. Most terrorists outfits don't have the resources to handle all the logistic problems, especially if they want to remain mobile, secret, all that. Chemical bombs are much more efficient all things considered. Only real thing with this would be the prestige I suppose. But, double edged sword, everyone's extra motivated to hunt you down.
posted by Smedleyman at 11:28 AM on March 12

Never done it, but can't you just use a sparkler?

Sure, if you're in a state where you can buy sparklers. (I wasn't, or at least you couldn't when I was a kid; I think you can now.) In that case, you get magnesium ribbon and use it as sparklers.
posted by Kadin2048 at 7:46 PM on March 16

Wait, what?

This is America, where you can have as many guns as you like, and they ban sparklers?
posted by Artw at 8:14 PM on March 16

Only for people who don't have an SID card and a license to sparkle.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 1:43 AM on March 17