Joe Millier and Colonel Quaritch

Just read about Alaska's Joe Miller, a deluded man in quest of America's early 19th Century, trying desperately to live out his rugged rural fantasies on 20 acres with eight children, the youngest of whom attend a "CHRISTIAN" school where his wife teaches.

He seeks to return America to a time when "men were free and life was good." Goodness, he's been reading too many "Man's Life" magazines from the 50s.

Miller himself, a native of Salinas, KS, where his father owned a "CHRISTIAN" book store, has a remarkable educational and military record - further proof that intelligence and knowledge do not necessarily lead to wisdom and maturity, but can, as it did in Nazi Germany, lead to the most bizarre dreams of a time when "every German was free, and life was good."

He'd be right at home in any post-nuclear holocaust story, with a bandoleer strapped around his chest, a cigar stuffed at the side of his mouth, a giant Panga machete in hand, ready to slash his way to victory and freedom.

With his West Point credentials, his record as a tank commander in the first Gulf War, and his Yale Law Schools education, apparently we can take the boy out of a Salinas christian book store, but we can't take that twisted upside down world out of the boy.

It isn't any longer about states' rights, for a nutcase like Miller, it's about dismantling the United States; Balkanizing us - transforming us into 50 little nations, each carving out life for themselves, every man for himself - and, yes, it would be a "man's" world.

Having just seen "Avatar" for the umpteenth time, I'm struke by the similarity of looks and style between Miller and Colonel ("A recon gyrene in an Avatar body ... that's a potent mix! Gives me the goosebumps!") Quaritch.

"Shut your pie hole!"

Miller wants to phase out Social Security and Medicare

Brothers hatched in some secret Utah lab owned by Donald Rumsfeld and Mike Huckabee?

These are not nice people. Quaritch destroys everything around him while sipping a cup of coffee and  offering to cover the first round of drinks if they get home in time. Miller lives in a fantasy world no less than the silver-screen world of Quaritch.

But when the movie ends, so does Quaritch.

But Miller is real, and his vision is a doomsday scenario, fed by neo-con philosophy and whacky christian imagery pulled selectively from the Book of Revelation and fired by fundamentalist preaching.

Miller is still a tank commander, and that's okay for the tank. But it's not okay for the nation, nor for Alaska. Just hope that the good folks in that fair state will be able sort things out and send Miller back to Salinas to run his daddy's "christian" book store.

Or join ranks with the kooks at Dove World Outreach who want to burn a few Qurans. 

As Robin once said:

"Holy atomic pile, Batman!"