A tragedy in Austin, Texas where a man flew a light aeroplane into an office building. Reports – which may or may not be confirmed – indicate that the man set fire to his home first, and left a suicide note. The building included Federal government offices.
At least the apparent suicide is dead. But the White House’s immediate reaction that
“the crash did not appear to be an act of terrorism”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8522746.stm
bears a little bit more thought. If Joseph Andrew Stack, a deranged man with a grudge against the IRS, had been a deranged Muslim, would this apparent suicide attack have been “Not terrorism”?
UPDATE
I do not vouch for the authenticity of this, but this is alleged to be from his “suicide note”.
Why is it that a handful of thugs and plunderers can commit unthinkable atrocities (and in the case of the GM executives, for scores of years) and when it’s time for their gravy train to crash under the weight of their gluttony and overwhelming stupidity, the force of the full federal government has no difficulty coming to their aid within days if not hours? Yet at the same time, the joke we call the American medical system, including the drug and insurance companies, are murdering tens of thousands of people a year and stealing from the corpses and victims they cripple, and this country’s leaders don’t see this as important as bailing out a few of their vile, rich cronies. Yet, the political “representatives” (thieves, liars, and self-serving scumbags is far more accurate) have endless time to sit around for year after year and debate the state of the “terrible health care problem”. It’s clear they see no crisis as long as the dead people don’t get in the way of their corporate profits rolling in.
http://www.legitgov.org/joseph_andrew_stack_manifesto_180210.html
That is the CLG site; I subscribe to the newsfeed, as can you at the bottom of that page. I recommend the feed as an excellent source of leads to alternative stories for the intellectually curious.
What’s your point? To go the other way – do you want to define such acts as acts of terrorism? If so, you’d be opening the floodgates. I really doubt that you’ve thought through this issue.
Most of the mainstream, western media, are obsessed with Muslims. A friend of mine works for a national newspaper, and she told me that stories that would normally be cast into the waste basket get published, if one can find a way to find the “Muslim slant.” Suddenly, miraculously, a story becomes interesting, and saleable, once one finds the link to Muslims and Islam.
Larry,
I believe Craig’s point is that the White House (and others) do or don’t label things in an inconsistent, and probably politically motivated, way.
No, not terrorism – it was his own ‘plane, so not “a man with a bomb but no air force”.
There’s not a whole lot of detail on the BBC report. It may be that the White House believes this incident was not politically motivated, in which case it’s not terrorism. It’s probably true that if the pilot were Muslim the media would declare it “terrorism”.
Scary Larry the half wit twit emerges like the other creature in his native land the Skunk demanding respect. Take the hint Larry and post on your own blog where your lack of intellect and intelligence will be appreciated.
“a man with a bomb but no air force”
What’s the source of that quote? I’ve come across versions of it before, but never the source.
Just a local individual act of non-political revenge.
Discuss.
It’s just something I heard in the ’80s:
Q: What is a terrorist?
A: A man with a bomb but no air force.
Political or not? He was mighty pissed off with the political system. You can read his “manifesto” here:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2010/0218102stack1.html
so a jihadist called me a skunk! awesome!
Awesome. Perhaps more people need to fly into tax offices around the world.
“Perhaps more people need to fly into tax offices around the world.”
What a horribly infantile yet cruel statement.
“That is the CLG site; I subscribe to the newsfeed, as can you at the bottom of that page. I recommend the feed as an excellent source of leads to alternative stories for the intellectually curious.”
Of course you recommend it, Craig. It’s a source for 911 nuttery and other nuttery. Are you also “intellectually curious” about the so-called “oddities” concerning the Virginia Tech shooter?
“Pilot deliberately crashed into Texas building, official says 28 Feb 2010”
Look! Something’s wrong with the headline!
We’re being fed lies and eating them up like sheeple!
Actually, I have no problem calling this guy a terrorist, especially if it WAS politically motivated. There is a relatively small but nonetheless dangerous group of people who’ll act out their sick fantasies such as this and claim some kind of lunatic justification for it. The guy says he’s not a crackpot. I beg to differ.
“Awesome. Perhaps more people need to fly into tax offices around the world.”
This is so stupid!
Craig, reading through the killer’s note, it’s exactly the sort of paranoid thinking that the conspiracy culture creates. Impressionable people read the crap that people like you push and this is the consequence.
His note smacks of the Alex Jones crowd in Austin. Of course, you have no problem giving people like Alex Jones the legitimacy of having a former ambassador going on their program.
Does Nick Griffin have a radio show? When he gets one, will you jump at the chance to appear on his show?
I note various themes in Stack’s suicide note: corrupt politicians, 9/11, Enron, Big Pharma, Banker’s Bailouts, the plundering of pension funds, self-serving lawyers, destruction of the industrial base, lack of political representation. This man knew exactly what he was angry about, and millions of others are angry about exactly the same things.
Assuming the note is genuine, his greivances were coherent – but the idea that killing some poor tax clerks is the answer was deranged. Or killing anyone for that matter. But I stick by my observation that he is not being called a terrorist because he is not a muslim.
“his greivances were coherent”
Right. At some point perhaps you could tell us what grievances you find incoherent.
He’s a right-wing fantasist tax protester nut. The IRS conspiracy has become a very minor industry in the States, with snake-oil salesmen coming into town and giving speeches (subject to an entrance fee) telling you why you don’t have to pay your income tax. Obviously with the Internet this minor industry has expanded and changed. In any event, there are impressionable people like this nutter who take this stuff very seriously.
This whiny right-wing nut should have simply paid his taxes.
Fuck, Craig, obviously this asshole had a problem with placing blame at the correct doorstep. My thinking is that he was a whiny prick who blamed random IRS employees. On the other hand, you seem to think that his grievances were coherent.
Anger is irrational. Evolution shaped it that way, as a deterrent against injustice, so I can’t call him deranged. Where could he find a legitimate target? I don’t wish this upon office workers. It should never have come to this, but it has, and we’ve all seen it coming for years.
“Let them eat cake”
“so I can’t call him deranged”
I can’t even imagine what would be deranged to you. Apparently Arsalan and others are not deranged. And this killer was not deranged.
You suggest that I don’t have morality because I don’t like people taking advantage of a tragedy.
You people are sick.
Clark,
I have read that someone hasn’t been accounted for. Do you know who this is? Is it possible that this person was killed by the guy flying his plane? Did this person have kids? Did they even work there?
I tried to read through his green ink ramblings and it reads like a lot of other letters I have seen and heard of. The guy was no doubt quite educated but he was paranoid and self-pitying and he discovered that whatever he looked at would confirm his reasons for feeling paranoid and for pitying himself.
A few things, it appears the guy set up a private engineering firm for himself after graduating from university. While he pours scorn on all the suckers who he sees blithely paying taxes and not seeing injustice everywhere, it didn’t seem to stop him thinking the world owed him a successful business.
He gets married, he gets divorced. 9/11 happens and he blames the government for shutting down air travel which means that his business suffered.
Some of what he writes is just stupid:
“Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature on the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.”
Totalitarian? Try visiting North Korea. Having to put a signature at the bottom of a tax return is NOT totalitarian.
“In particular, zeroed in on a section relating to the wonderful “exemptions” that make institutions like the vulgar, corrupt Catholic Church so incredibly wealthy.”
Hey! I wish organized religions wouldn’t get tax breaks too and there are ways of going about trying to get the law changed if you want. But I don’t make this all about ME, ME, ME and how the world is so incredibly unfair to ME!!!!
Some of the things in here, such as the elderly couple having to live off social security is very shit! I agree. But the same people as him would probably be outraged that they pay taxes that FUND social security!
“Ironically, after what they had done the Government came to the aid of the airlines with billions of our tax dollars … as usual they left me to rot and die while they bailed out their rich, incompetent cronies WITH MY MONEY!”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586627,00.html
Angrysoba, these silly gooses actually make me miss the relativists.
“Angrysoba, these silly gooses actually make me miss the relativists.”
Oh, they’re a pain as well, “We’ve made our own reality which is just as legitimate as your reality. In fact, more so! So there!”
I remember when Jacques Derrida died. My philosophy professor laughed his head off, “How’s he gonna talk himself out of that one!”
Yeah, it isn’t nice to laugh at someone dying (or to gloat, of course) but some “intellectual’s” influence is so toxic that it is a relief when they finally shut their yaps.
Larry,
Angrysoba,
you two just don’t get it, do you? Empires rise, they become powerful, then arrogant and decadent. Those left behind bubble, and then boil, the pressure rises and eventually something has to break. It’s happened time and again throughout human history. I don’t want it to happen, but happen it will, and the more powerfully it is contained, the bigger the eventual bang.
Go on, blame me for noting the obvious.
Clark, no, no, let me note the obvious … out of a population of 305 million, once in a while someone will do something selfish and destructive and murderous.
I don’t think the decline of America has been in any way further signaled by this asshole not being able to deal with the fact that he couldn’t pay his taxes.
How many people have you got being evicted in the US? How many repossessions, how many short of food, how many losing their pensions and healthcare? These are real questions, not rhetorical, I’m asking for figures. And are they doing up or down, and how are the second derivitaves?
“you two just don’t get it, do you? Empires rise, they become powerful, then arrogant and decadent. Those left behind bubble, and then boil, the pressure rises and eventually something has to break. It’s happened time and again throughout human history. I don’t want it to happen, but happen it will, and the more powerfully it is contained, the bigger the eventual bang.”
No, Clark. I am fully aware that America, and you can call it an Empire if you wish – it may well be – will not last forever. But you don’t have to see the behaviour of this one guy as a harbinger of its imminent destruction.
Like Timothy McVeigh or Eugene Corder, this guy will look around for evidence everywhere that he is right and that everything from the tax laws to 9/11 to the behaviour of the Catholic Church is a personal attack on him and justifies his self-pity. It’s incredibly self-centred and incoherent. If he was trying to damage the federal government with his behaviour then he’ll be sorely disappointed. If he really believed what he wrote in his own letter he should know this. It just creates grief for other people who may well be struggling to get by too but think of more legitimate ways of tackling their grievances.
I’m just counting down for the conspiracy sites to start questioning why his plane wasn’t shot down and how the authorities didn’t stop a guy after posting his “manifesto” on the Internet and how this is all rather false flaggy.
How are you unemployment figures? There’re looking none too good over here…
There are lots of problems, as one can expect in any economic downturn.
Have you noticed how fucked up other countries are?
Have you also noticed how very few individuals go on a murder spree because of their economic circumstances? Offhand, I can think of only one – this asshole.
So are you arguing that there’s lots of these assholes out there?