What am I to make of a recent segment of MTV's Vice Guide To Everything, which featured a gushing portrait of Arizona's best known neo-Nazi J.T. Ready, as he hunts "narco-terrorists" in the Sonoran desert?
(You can watch the J.T. segment, here, beginning around seven minutes in.)
Aside from a few snarky comments from goofy pseudo-reporter Ryan Duffy, it's an entirely positive take on so-called "border militias."
Well, except for the fact they were not on the border, but supposedly near Stanfield, Arizona in Pinal County, which, last time I checked, is nowhere near the U.S.-Mexico border.
The doofus introducing the piece contrasts the "bad boys" who want to get out of some Jamaican prison to illegal aliens who want to get into the United States. All while talking about cow droppings. No, I'm not making this up.
Cut to Sand Land, where Duffy dutifully follows Ready and his fellow AR-15-enthusiasts around. Never once are Ready's white supremacist activities or affiliations discussed.
Much less his erstwhile ties to state Senate President-elect Russell Pearce, which must be far more embarrassing for J.T.
As you'll recall, as recently as November, Ready was marching through the streets of Phoenix with the swastika-totin' members of the National Socialist Movement.
I've never found Ready to be shy about his views. I'm sure, if asked, he would have discussed them in detail with Duffy.
So, I think it's worth a mention, even by the hard-nosed journos over at MTV. I mean, isn't a neo-Nazi leading patrols in the desert more interesting than some regular dude doing the same thing?
And I think we can all agree that Ready's no regular dude.
"We do kind of have a Wild West spirit out here," says J.T., as the camera cuts from some guy putting a cigar in his gob. "We have very liberal gun laws. You can own machine guns. You can legally own grenades. Tanks even. We got some terrorist coming at us with machine guns and ski masks in the middle of the desert, we're allowed to shoot them right in the face."
Way cool! Think Johnny Knoxville and the rest of the Jackass crew will wanna do their next movie there? Maybe the cast of Jersey Shore could make a visit to the Vekol Valley, and Snookie could hook up with J.T.
I asked the Arizona ADL's regional director Bill Straus if he'd seen the clip. This was his response:
"I did and can't believe MTV---or any reporting entity couldn't dig deep enough to find out who JT is (and it ain't Captain America!)."
Thing is, Bill, ol' buddy, ol' pal, it wouldn't surprise me a-tall if J.T. gets his own reality show one day. Such are the times.
Why, I'd even bet a little dinero that some of these TV crews pay Ready for his time, though I have no idea if that's this case with MTV's Vice.
Not that I'd blame Ready. Heck, it's the American way. Hope J.T. took them tenderfeets for every last quarter.
