Differences between an Internet Tough Guy and a viable threat

[Rocknrule]

Up until this month, I have enjoyed fucking with right-wing ITGs on boards like Yahoo or Topix on occasion. I assumed that most of them were blowing smoke out their asses and were just pathetic e-thugs that needed to be put in their places. That is, until this month.

The day after New Years, I battled an ITG on a Topix forum, and at the time I used my phone to post messages. Looking back, and in light of recent events in AZ, this guy probably should be behind bars now. He made several explicit, profanity-laden threats that one day he and other "patriots" would "hunt down and eradicate every last one of them (liberals). It doesn't matter if they hide in Canada, or in France, or on the God damned moon." The rest of the stuff he said sounded like it came out of Cho Seung-Hui's diary. After a couple of my responses, he went into a long-winded rant threatening not physical harm, but to "hunt you down to the ends of the earth", dig up as much personal info on me as possible and destroy my reputation online. I still didn't take him seriously until I got a phone call from a guy who I assume was the ITG. The caller, and you can quote me on this, sounded tough yet stupid, and said "Ok, I want to know who this is..." and at that point I hung up, extremely creeped out that this guy had somehow found my phone number.

I called the cops and they said they took care of it. I haven't heard from this guy since, so I assume they did, but I won't go anywhere near the unmoderated cesspool known as Topix again. But this, along with the AZ tragedy, really opened my eyes as to just how dangerous some of these people are. Some of them will literally hunt down people who disagree with them, and have the means to do it. As someone once said to me, "liberal nutjobs are merely annoying, conservative nutjobs are dangerous." Have any of you had experiences like this where a political spat went too far? Have you ever been stalked, threatened, or found yourself in a dangerous situation with someone like this? What would you say are some differences between dangerous nutjobs like the man who shot Giffords and just another ITG with no substance behind his hate and threats? Personally, I think that after this, ALL threats should be taken seriously, no matter how vague or "not serious" they are.

[Rocknrule]

1. Also, what I'd like to know is

how can someone find your phone number from a forum posting if you used your phone to post a message?