A word of advice to the fringe Right.

No matter what your cause is or who you're up against, sending death threats or threats of sexual assault don't do anything to credit your side, and may draw undeserved sympathy to your opponent.

The Associated Press reports that Kyrsten Sinema (D-Far Left) has been receiving such threats ever since introducing HB 2286, which would make felony domestic terrorists out of anyone patrolling for criminals while armed. (HB 2286 is cosponsored by Ed Ableser, Steve Gallardo, Phil Lopes, David Lujan, Robert Meza, Tom Prezelski, and Albert Tom, for those keeping track of antiliberal loonies to dump in '08.)

Of course, this bill is aimed at Sinema's bogeyman, the Minutemen. The Minutemen may be motivated by a combination of evil and stupidity, but they're just a protest group with hero fantasies, sitting on lawnchairs, looking through binoculars, and calling in suspected illegal border crossers to the Border Patrol. And they have interesting fashion accessories--guns--which may also be used in the unlikely event they have to defend themselves. The ACLU's legal observers found that they had to be more concerned for the Miutemen's rights than over any mischief they'd cause. Nevertheless, those fashion accessories coupled with their association with even more unsavory characters like white supremacists gets them labeled "scary" terrorists by Sinema.

It's a good thing this bill doesn't have much chance of passing; I, too, would be a domestic terrorist. I don't know what kind of neighborhood Sinema lives in, but when I walk late at night, I'm usually armed, and when I hear someone prowling around the backyard or driveway area of my building I go out with either my baseball bat or revolver, depending on the circumstances and whether I'm not loaning out the latter. That's a patrol for suspected illegal activity, and I'm not affiliated with a "law enforcement entity."

Will the right-wing nutjobs out there kindly keep me out of trouble, then, by not giving this nonsense any more attention or sympathy than it deserves?