Friday, February 19, 2010

Austin IRS Domestic Terrorist Act
A Zipdrive Blogitorial



When I first heard the news announcement that "a small plane had crashed into a 7-story building in North Austin" I was seized with panic.
My beloved Big Sis, whom you might know if you regularly read Pulp Friction comments, happens to work in a multi-story office building in North Austin, and I was frantic that the building in question might be her workplace.
Thank God she immediately replied to my e-mail and said it was not her building; she was safe.
But it was the workplace building of people who were equally loved, and those feelings of panic and dread were real for tens of hundreds of people.
The local news posted a poll: was this an act of domestic terrorism?
I didn't bother voting, but hell yes it was domestic terrorism, in my opinion.
The suicide pilot was Joe Stack, a disgruntled nutcase who was having marital problems and a feud with the Internal Revenue Service.
Big fucking deal. Who among us have not had occasional relationship problems or IRS snags?
This maniac's actions clearly were inspired by America's climate of blame, outrage, terrorism and an utter disregard for human life.
Here's a poll for you:
Do you think Joe Stack would have endorsed the teabagger movement, or not?
I think a guy like this is exactly the type whose rage and anger at The System would make him just adore the enraged teabagger movement.
Oh, how special Joe Stack must have thought he was!
I'm sure in his delusional mind, his marital problems were his wife's fault.
I'm sure he felt the IRS was singling him out just to be big meanies.
I'm sure he never once considered that IRS employees are just working civil service shlubs paid to do an often unpleasant job.
I'm sure he boarded that little Cessna yesterday, crazed with the thought, "I'll show them!"
Well, I guess he did. Innocent people are dead and injured. He's dead.
I'm sure his estranged wife and kid are horrified.
He set fire to their home before his suicide mission, so the wife and kid can add homelessness to their horror.
His widow will still have to answer to the IRS. Ironic, huh?

People like Stack and the outraged teabaggers and Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin and their ilk all share something in common. They are angry and resentful, and they don't think they should have to participate in government-sponsored activities they don't like.
They think it's perfectly okay to bitch and moan, and even destroy anything that upsets them. They think it's okay to rile people up and inspire acts of rage, and even domestic terrorism.
They don't consider that taxes finance the roads they drive on, collect their garbage, educate their children and provide for them in their old age.
It's fine for them to reap the benefits of taxation and government programs, they're just much too fucking special to have to chip in their share.
Burn in Hell, Joe Stack.

8 comments:

bigsis said...

How bad could his finances have been if he owned a damn airplane?

Iain said...

.And they dont consider that taxes finance the military that they fetishize when it's fighting foreign terrorists overseas, defending the country they purport to love.

I'm reading that Stack is a hero among the teabagger types on various forums. Where is the sick, ironic point when killing innocent Americans becomes patriotic? Is it when the murderer looks like you, lives like you and has the same selfish sense of entitlement as you?

Great piece, KZ. I'm happy that you and yours are safe and well.

nonnie9999 said...

how many people paid taxes to build that fucking airport he kept his plane at and from which he took off to commit murder/suicide? i bet a shitload of those people never used the airport, but they understand that sometimes tax money goes for the public good, not personal convenience.

what really pissed me off is that the media immediately started reading his manifesto and scrambling for his picture. that's exactly what he wanted. they should have never even said his name, let alone show his picture. fuck him! don't give him the fame and attention he was hoping for. piss on his grave instead.

Lulu Maude said...

Just read Gail Collins in the NYT... Stack's beef with the IRS is that they wouldn't let him declare his house as a church to avoid taxes.

Nothin' to do with "transparency."

bigsis said...

The part of the story worth repeating is about Robin DeHaven, the window guy from Binzwanger who stopped and set up his ladder to the 2nd story and helped 5 people out of the burning building. How about Robin getting the coverage and accolades for heroism and let's ignore the idiot/terrorist who tried to kill innocent people?

Karen Zipdrive said...

Gail Collins mentioned how politicians (like Tim Pawlenty) use violent statements to express their faux rage at government.
She pointed out that violent statements as metaphors don't always translate. Some people think when a politician suggests we take a 9 iron to government, they actually do it.

dguzman said...

You know, I don't think we should have to participate in government-sponsored activities I don't like either--but that doesn't mean I'm going to crash my Pontiac into the fucking Pentagon to protest the war.

It's incredible that these tea-baggers think they're patriots. Imagine what the founding fathers would think of them.

okjimm said...

Hey... Glad your Sis is OK. I am catching all sorts of bullshit drift that the guy was a 'Hero'.

ABC reports, "Most were shocked by the charred scene of Joe Stack's kamikaze attack on a Texas IRS office, but for an alarmingly growing number of Americans Stack is a hero. "

What crap. Tim McVeigh was not a hero. The 911 'pilots' were not hero's. Suicide bombers are not hero's.

The very same assholes that declare this guy a hero are the same assholes that WANT A TOUGHER WAR ON TERROR!

It was a sick act by a sick man.... and unfortunately some responses are just affirming what a sick society we live in.