Three North Carolina men were arrested Saturday and charged with plotting against the U.S. military. Walter Eugene Litteral, Christopher James Barker and Christopher Todd Campbell had amassed numerous weapons, thousands of rounds of ammunition, body armor and helmets, and home-made grenades and pipe bombs. With the exception of the explosives, that’s not all that unusual. But according to federal officials, the men were plotting to lure government forces into a trap and kill as many as possible. More specifically, the men were roused by reports of a military exercise called Jade Helm. Mark Alexander recently explained the purpose of the exercise and warned against conspiracy theories bubbling in some corners. “Obama loathes our military Patriots, as most of them do him,” Alexander noted. “Frankly, he has far more concern about military loyalties than the good people of Texas need have. The notion that somehow our military Patriots will follow a pathological narcissist like Obama down a path to tyranny is patently absurd.” If reports are true, however, these three North Carolina men (not, by the way, from a state in any way involved in Jade Helm) bought the conspiracy theory hook, line and sinker. They are innocent until proven guilty, of course, but they face a long time behind bars for a fool’s errand.