Cliven Bundy started as a conservative cause célèbre. He was surrounded by a small, brave, band of patriots standing courageously against federal tyranny.

Then came this:

"I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro."

Followup televised clarifications haven't helped him, but the very first interview endowed him with the green glow of conservative kryptonite.

And because they were basically on government subsidy – so now what do they do? They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never, they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered are they were better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things? Or are they better off under government subsidy?

- Cliven Bundy, April 23, 2014

Even the wingiest of wingnuts have scrambled for lead shields. The gleeful aiming of firearms at fleeing workers from the Bureau of Land Management has gone from the subject of bombastic boasts to the subject of FBI investigations. Members of Cliven Bundy's well armed band of brothers are now the keystone cowboys.

Racial suspicion remains the undercurrent of American politics. But recognizable, overt, in-your-face, racism strikes a painful nerve. Conservatives have nurtured the myth that racism is over, that the only remaining racism lies within those who perceive racism.

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North Carolina's new Republican nominee for the United States Senate, Thom Tillis, is Speaker of the State House of Representatives. He has worked tirelessly to cut back Medicaid in North Carolina. Folks in Thom Tillis' state who are seriously ill or disabled, and who cannot afford medical insurance, are blocked from receiving federal help.

Speaker Tillis refers to objections to the restrictions as "whining coming from losers." He is on video describing to an appreciative audience how he intends to appeal to those losers.

What we have to do is to find a way to divide and conquer the people who are on assistance.

We have to show respect for that woman who has cerebral palsy and had no choice in her condition that needs help, and that we should help. And we need to get those folks to look down at these people who choose to get into a condition that make them dependent on the government.

- Thom Tillis (R-NC), October, 2011

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Senator Lindsey Graham summarizes the memo, but he relies more on what he knows in his heart about motivation than he does on actual content.

What do you think they were worried about when she went on TV? Tell me about the property damage in Cairo? Explain the loss of the property in Cairo? They were worried about explaining the death of four Americans.

They knew America would be upset by losing the first ambassador in 33 years and other brave Americans. To say that this wasn't trying to shape the Benghazi story is inconsistent with the document itself, flies in the face of the facts, and yet another false, misleading lie.

- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), May 1, 2014

Bill O'Reilly provides a motive for the conspiracy.

The President and the White House created a political agenda, saying a spontaneous demonstration led to the murders, not a coordinated terror attack. And they did this because the President was running for re-election on a platform that he had broken al Qaeda and any evidence to the contrary might have hurt his campaign.

- Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, April 30, 2014

It really is the coverup, isn't it, that implicates more than the crime that's being covered up?

The conspiracy theory does have a major flaw.

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Professor Ian Morris of Stanford University knows how to sell his work. He has just published a book the central thesis of which is that war, over the long range, is good. The implication is that we should want more of it, because war brings peace.

He has written the short version in an article published by the Washington Post last week. His logic isn't hard to follow. War leads to to expansion, which leads to empire, which leads to law, which leads to order, which is ... well ... peace. What holds it all together is economic interest.

Empires were established to enrich those who ran the base countries. Romans wanted to tax dominated subjects. It was messy, but it worked. They put taxing franchises up for local bid in the conquered provinces. Those individuals who paid enough for the privilege were given their quotas. At tax time, they sent the required amount to Rome. If they collected more, they were allowed to pocket the difference.

That pretty much explains how tax collectors are viewed in the New Testament, and why the fact that Jesus would occasionally commune with them was a potent accusation. Tax collectors were not popular people.

But empires also benefited from trade. Trade routes were protected from lawlessness. Trade had the unintended effect, from the viewpoint of the rulers, of benefiting both sides of each bargain. The Empire was enriched, and so were those in conquered territories.

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I realized the Secret Service was becoming more and more concerned as we saw the crowd begin to mount.

- President Richard Nixon, via Dictabelt (mp3),   May 13, 1970

The dictabelt recording is filled with clicks and a consistent background hiss, but the voice of Richard Nixon is audible.

I was a college student, a participant in anti-war activities, when I heard about the incident.

The turmoil of those days is painful to recall, even four decades later. The expansion of the Vietnam war into Cambodia had been announced a week earlier. Then four protesting students were killed at Kent State by National Guard troops. We didn't know then that more students would be killed soon after at Jackson State University in Mississippi.

A restless President had been roaming through the White House as late Friday became early Saturday. At 1 AM, he telephoned Nancy Dickerson of NBC, waking her at her home. At 4 AM, he put on loud music in a sitting room. A sleepy employee wandered out to see what was going on. President Nixon invited him on a late night excursion.

A few months ago, news outlets ran retrospective stories as a Nixon private recording was made public. Richard Nixon had dictated his account of that restless night. Students against the war were camped nearby at the Lincoln Memorial. The President seemed to think of himself as bold, even a bit heroic, as he traveled that short distance to convince the young protesters of the error of their position.

The cost per month would be a little more than half. Her astounded reaction:"I personally do not believe that."

And who can blame her? She had been told by anti-Obamacare activists that the most expensive of her prescriptions would not be covered. She would have to pay for it in addition to the new insurance coverage. So there goes the savings.

I have a modest suggestion for an ad campaign.

The issue is the manufacture of a specialty beer in St. Louis. Phyllis Schlafly is opposed. The beer is produced by a partnership that includes a nephew by marriage, Tom Schlafly.

Phyllis Schlafly has a point. She has made the name Schlafly famous through her conservative activism. She has written on many topics, most notably against any arms treaties with hostile nations. But she is most famous for her opposition to feminism.

She seems to practice what she preaches. She once told an interviewer that she cancels speeches whenever her husband instructs her to spend more time at home.

One soldier kept Rome from being conquered by a surrounding army.

He didn't threaten the army, or the enemy city that sent the army.

He confronted the King who led the army with one dramatic act.