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 It must be yahoo season. Perhaps the arrival of Spring brought them out, but you see them all over the country now. The first mass sighting was in Nevada, on Cliven “I’m just like the Founding Fathers” Bundy’s ranch. Bundy is the rancher who grazed his herd of cattle on public land while refusing to pay the required fees. Having no success in collecting the money after obtaining several judgments in court, the Bureau of Land Management decided to seize the cows in a civil forfeiture action. Drawn by the urge to defend Scofflaw Bundy and his cows from the oppressive Federal government, droves of armed men in camo appeared in Bunkerville, NV. The resulting standoff ended with the Feds backing off and the yahoos beginning a military-style occupation. More than one media wag pointed to the striking similarity to the situation in eastern Ukraine where Russian-speaking dissident “Ukrainians” have occupied government buildings. In Bunkerville, the self-styled militiamen have been relegated to frightening the locals and brawling among themselves.

How will it end? Here’s your pop quiz:

1. In a move reminiscent of Seal Team 6 and “Zero DarkThirty’”, a black ops team swoops in with stealth helicopters one night and snatches Bundy.

2. Using drones, the government incapacitates the occupiers with gas and then rounds them and the cattle up.

3. After a decade of frustration fighting asymmetrical wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military launches an all-out assault on the Bundy ranch: Air strikes, artillery bombardment and a charge by a platoon of Abrams tanks. The operation is code-named “Barbeque”.

The yahoos had another mass gathering the last weekend in April when the NRA held its national convention in Indianapolis. The theme, besides shootin’ shit, was paranoia. It is obvious that the people who sell firearms are really committed to telling us how the dangerous the world is and that we need to own guns to protect ourselves. From whom or what, you say? Muslims, and criminals, and, of course, the government, are popular answers. That was the thrust of the speech given by cheerleader-in-chief Sarah Palin when she did her burlesque act for the N-RAns. The crowd loved it. Applause line: "If I were in charge, they would know that waterboarding is how we baptize terrorists”.

In a more indirect way, the yahoos appeared again this week in, of all places, the liberal media, on Chris Hayes nightly MSNBC telecast, “All In”. Hayes did a piece on smart guns- guns that employ technologies which prevent them from being fired except by the owner. The focus of his piece was that opposition to the sale of these weapons is surprisingly vociferous. He pointed to the organized pushback against dealers who have attempted to sell these weapons in the US, pushback orchestrated by the NRA and another group, Gun Owners of America.  A Maryland gun dealer who announced his intention to sell the smart gun was harassed and threatened on his Facebook page and eventually abandoned the idea completely. Hayes had Larry Pratt, head of the GOA on his show this evening to ask about the organization's policy towards the smart weapons. The confused Mr. Pratt encountered great difficulty in even understanding Hayes’ questions.

And that’s the things about yahoos: The only seem to listen to other yahoos.