slog idiot of the week #2: Totally and awesomely insane!

Totally Awesome Computers owner Dell Schanze is a bit insane and that goes without saying. For further proof, just read today's Deseret News for his paranoid rants that will probably leave you scratching your head. It left me me on the floor, laughing my ass off at what a complete and utter nut this guy really is. And that is why it goes without saying that he's our idiot of the week.

This story began last year when Dell Schanze pulled a gun on a couple of mad neighbors in a Draper neighborhood. Apparently Schanze had been speeding through the streets and the ticked off neighbors hunted him down and confronted him. Schanze paints the picture of a mad mob storming the hills much like in the movie Frankenstein, pitch forks and all. According to Schanze (though his statement could never be corroborated), the mob threatened to damage his car with a rock. So he did what any good gun lovin' Utahn would do and pulled out a gun. Yes, I guess it's perfectly logical to protect yourself from a rock with a freaking gun! What next, a flamethrower for crab grass?

Well in Utah, branishing a weapon IS against the law and especially if you do it to someone holding a freaking rock! So he was charged (they're still pending). There was a long period of nothing. No Super Dell TV or radio ads that made you want to punch the person sitting next you and no fanatical rants that made you question Schanze's sanity. But that all came to an end abruptly yesterday, as Schanze announced the closure of his Utah computer stores.

The kicker in all of this comes from an article running in today's Deseret News. It's vintage Schanze, all the way from the wild conspiracy theories to the lunatic rants! Enjoy.

"It's too bad that all of the media in Utah are liars and murderers," he said. "You just destroyed the greatest computer company of all time. We were the best in the world, the world champion. All this hatred was created by you. You're basically angels of Satan. All I can say to the people in Utah is, please pray for all the news people."

Yes, let's use the media as a scapegoat for your own failures! That's always the way to go, blame it on someone else. Forget the fact that maybe Utahns finally tired of your antics and realized your insanely annoying TV commercials were only a glimpse into how extremely disturbed you really are!

In fact, it seems an anonymous e-mail pretty much backs up my statement.

An anonymous e-mail sent out Friday said that privately held Totally Awesome Computers had faced "a steady decline in sales since 2001," and "during the last year their sales have been 40 percent to 50 percent down over the same month in the prior year." The anonymous e-mail attributed the declining business to Schanze's "media stunts" and allegations related to the incident in Draper in 2005. Schanze is charged with three misdemeanors: making threats with a dangerous weapon in a fight, a Class A misdemeanor, and the Class B misdemeanors of reckless driving and making written false statements.

Yes, for every action there is a reaction and when you look like a nut for so long, people are going to start thinking you're nuts. Who wants to buy a computer from a crazy guy? Not me and apparently not a lot of Utahns, either.

Totally Awesome Computers is finally gone and now we can hope Dell Schanze takes a cue from his own company and goes as well. No one wants your computers and they don't want to see you on TV anymore. If we wanted to watch lunatics ranting and raving, we would have watched the Utah State Legislature when they were in session.