Let Us Give Thanks For Idiots

From the Houston Chronicle: regarding the recent arrests of six men who are alledged to been preparing a bloody attack on the US Army Base at Fort Dix, New Jersey:

"The investigation began more than a year ago after a New Jersey store clerk was asked to transfer a videotape onto a DVD. The tape showed 10 men shooting weapons at a firing range and calling for jihad, prosecutors said. The 10 included the six men under arrest, authorities said."

Imagine the sheer stupidity of taking a VHS tape to a commercial company, which lays out a scene that reeks of a possible violent terrorist attack. This ranks right up with the genius who came back to get his deposit on the Ryder truck that was used in the 1993 truck bombing of a car park under the World Trade Center. (He claimed it had been stolen. Trouble was the investigators found the VIN number intact on the truck after the bomb went off. Perhaps he should have run for it and forgotten about the deposit money. But then he wouldn't be a dumb criminal.) It resulted in the arrest of himself and several of his Islamist-terrorist friends.

I'm not implying that folks of the Muslim community are more stupid than the average criminal or terrorist. Stupidity and bad planning by would-be cutthroats of all races and creeds is quite common. Just recently I heard about a conveinence store robber who allowed the clerk behind the counter to use her cell phone while he was robbing the store, using the excuse that she was just calling home.

(She--surprise!--called the cops instead, who arrested the guy on the site.) Moral of the story--if you suspect you and your gang are dumber than the people you are trying to cheat, rob or kill then do everyone a favor and go to truck driving school instead.

Thank goodness that some bad people are also stupid people. And, barring this New Jersey case being trumped up Jessica Lynch/Pat Tillman style by the authorities to make them look better at their jobs than they really are, thank goodness that store clerks at DVD stores sometimes snoop into other people's "recreation" activities.

for more on the "odd" stupid criminal, check out this site:

http://stupidcriminalfile.blogspot.com/

and this "you tube" entry presents one of the classic crime moments in cinema history:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyQO6Q5hmsE&mode=related&search=