Quote of the day–Joseph Stack

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Joseph Stack
February 18, 2010
Man Angry at IRS Crashes Plane into Office
[I also consider it a bit insane to deliberately kill yourself in the process of getting a different outcome. I can empathize with the desire to take out an IRS building (or 10) but I don’t think this was that great a plan.–Joe]

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9 thoughts on “Quote of the day–Joseph Stack

  1. I hope you don’t mean that… I am a strong, vocal, and contributing supporter of the FairTax (http://www.fairtax.org) and would love to see many IRS offices shutdown and many IRS agents out of work… but there is no way I can “empathize with the desire to “take out” an IRS building (or 10)”, regardless of the plan. Besides, the guy’s manifesto makes it clear that he was (a) playing fast and loose with his taxes and (b) doing so intentionally to try and “break” the tax code. He should have seen this coming. (note that, under the FairTax- http://www.fairtax.org – all of this would be a moot point)

    Look at it this way: take “oppressed taxpayer” and “IRS building”, replace with “oppressed Islamic Jihadist” and “office building”, respectively. Still empathize? What about “racist neo-Nazi” and “synagogue”? Terrorism is terrorism… and it is stupid, regardless of the motivation.

    PS: By the way, did I mention that I support the FairTax (http://www.fairtax.org)?

  2. Yeah, great Gene: Let’s add another tax! Splain me how you will make the old one go away — and how you’ll enforce that.

    As for the IRS, it’s just a pity nobody ever told the suicidal ijit about truck-portable EMP devices. That’s all I have to say.

  3. Gene,

    There is a big difference between empathizing with the sentiment and advocating the action.

    The IRS is a wealth redistribution tool created by our government. It can be legally and morally destroyed without harming anyone and to the benefit of many. The same is not true in the substitutions you propose.

  4. Roberta,

    EMP devices are non-trivial. They are not nearly as simple as some claim they are. Back when I was a government scientist I helped write a proposal on how to build one that actually worked.

    We can talk about it face to face sometime if we ever get the chance…

  5. Check the link… it is all in the bill that has been proposed.
    Instead of an income tax, we move to a consumption tax (just like sales tax is collected… note, this is exactly how Texas and Florida run their tax collection for the state). It is collected at point of sale, period.

  6. Joe, I agree whole-heartedly. I am just saying that “take out” leaves a lot of room for interpretation, and if anything I empathize with the families impacted by death and injury caused by this nutball… just because they happen to be in a building with people the nutball didn’t like. JMHO.

  7. Gene, the “FairTax” is anything but and it is a joke.

    By supporting said idea, you are basically saying “I believe America is run by Plutocrats who aren’t smart enough to buy used” and “I want a bigger black market than existed in Soviet Russia which circulates stolen merchandise.”

    Ronald Reagan once said, to paraphrase, that a Communist was someone who read Marx and an anti-Communist was some one who understands Marx.

    Replace “Communist” with “Fair Tax person” and “Marx” with “the Fair Tax Plan” in both phases of that paraphrase and you’ll get it. The Fair Tax wouldn’t get rid of the IRS, it’d just change the name.

    A flat income tax is the only “Fair” tax.

  8. A lot of people commit suicide over many things. False imprisonment, having your kids removed and your life long assets and home confiscated all on the word of a beurocrat somewhere. Instead of just taking his own life when he thought his life was over he decided to strike back at the same time.

    This is what our government fears. People willing to die to take out the people that make these decisions. If enough do it and people in government face the consequences of their decision then it will force them to change.

    Although I believe in the lawful way of change when the government makes it impossible to do what other oprions are there? Sit passively while it changes into a Socialist world which will ruin your life but is unsustainable.

    Very few of us would not retaliate if the circumstances are right. We all draw the line at different places in the sand. For this guy, and many others, the line has already been crossed. For many more that line is being approached daily. Formost of us that line is unlikely to be crossed but even in your revolution howmany people were actually involved? A very few.

    I’m in the UK and we are much worse than you. Great Britian is in a coma and been replaced with a socialist UK. Daily there are news items where I wonder when we will get driven over the line. Children removed by the state illegally then in the subsequent court case it is agreed it was illegal but the case took so long due to obstructions by social workers that the kids didn’t know their parents are and so were left with the new parents. That would get me down the pub looking for a nice new Uzi if it were me. Our lot whinge to the papers and top themselves and we watch and wonder why it goes on. A few social workers with lead posioning would cause pause.

    This guy is likely to be the first among many. And they won’t all be as ineffective as he was.

  9. Mr. Hunter probably was a nice guy and loved or at least liked by his neighbors.

    However, a soldier doesn’t kill the soldier in the other uniform because he kicks his dog, beats his children, cheats on his wife, and molests young boys. He kills him because of his uniform. It is that simple, he kills him because he is the enemy. He is pursuing the enemy’s goals. That is enough reason to kill him.

    Now comes the hard part. When that enemy looks just like you, or your perception of that enemy, right or wrong, looks just like you and you believe you have been abused and he is in the regiment of abusers, what do you do?

    Some people fly their plane into his office. I do not condone what Stack did, but I do understand the how and why of it.

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