#joseph stack

[rampant-masochism]

I wrote this for a college assignment and I think it disserves a chance in the limelight 

"While technology has many a gift to give it also has very notable downsides. A troubling problem I have noticed is the spreading of infectious and downright dangerous ideas. there is a word for this, "Cognito hazard", literally "a hazard to your ability to think". I think that, in consolidating all of the human experience in one, easy to find resource, we have inadvertently given a new vector for literal mental illnesses to infect. a man by the name of Will Wood once said, "ideas don't spread because they're good, ideas spread because people like them." I think that is what is happening as I type. appealing ideas like anarchism and accelerationism gain foot holds in people's minds not because they are good methods of governance, but because they offer a simple and gratifying solution to a complicated and stressful issue. never before has a manifesto been easier to read, simply look up the "Joseph Stack" or "Ted Kaczynski" and you will find very well worded arguments for why you should do the most terrible of things. it would be here I would offer a solution, but I don't have one. I can only hope someone smarter than me will come along soon to grace me with a good idea. or, failing that, an idea I like."

[harlemprodigy-blog]

One Angry American? Or rather a Domestic Terrorist?

Do you have a grudge against IRS? You do? I do as well. They force me to pay astronomical taxes. I'm a U.S. citizen and I do want to show my loyalty to the state, but the IRS is the end of me. There must be another solution. Perhaps, destroying an IRS building will do the trick. Surely, it will attract the attention of the government. Maybe they will reconsider their tax policies. 

Obviously, I'm not serious. Unfortunately Joseph Stack, an Austin resident, thought otherwise when he flew a small aircraft into and Internal Revenue Service building in Austin, Texas. Personally, I'm a bit bothered by this incident. Have Americans become so irrationally incompetent that we must utilize extreme measures in order to fell better about ourselves and our situations? Honestly, what did this act of violence solve? Nothing. Stack killed himself and another, while also managing to cause near fatal harm to others. Does this change anything? Hell no. We all still have to pay taxes. The law is the law, and it is our duty as citizens to abide by these laws, despite any of our personal protests. It certainly didn't solve any of his problems, unless he believed dying was solution to avoid paying taxes. 

It's sad.

It's also disturbing.

I'm more perturbed, however, by the media's reception of this incident. Stack, has been portrayed as a easygoing, hard worker engineer and musician. The crash is described as an isolated incident, one not driven but the ideologies of a terrorist conspiracy. Yet, he left behind a vicious suicide note condemning the government (especially the IRS) and bluntly implied he would take aberrant action. Flying a plane into an IRS building was a blatant act of terrorism. Undoubtedly this act was a premeditated crime against the government , one based on an obvious political motive. He depicted clear disregard for 200 innocent civilians working within the building and was determined to weaken a government agency. He even burned down his own house. Joseph Stack is a domestic terrorist.  

Americans tend to associate terrorism with Al Qaida and other Middle Eastern leaders. Hopefully this unfortunate event will help us recognize other forms of terrorism unlike the terrorism we have become familiar with these past few years.  Americans and our government must be more cognizant of dangers that exist within before placing extreme emphasis on the dangers without. Click below to read the suicide note:

http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14426581?nclick_check=1

-Free

[theragblog-blog-blog]

Author Estrin saw spooky parallels between his novel Skulk and the actions of disgruntled software engineer Joseph Stack, who flew his small plane into the Echelon Building in Austin. But, he points out, his novel was a hell of a lot funnier.

[caseyayers]

Officials confidently stood before reporters and said the crash wasn't terrorism. But others, including those in the Muslim community, look at Stack's actions and fail to understand how he differs from foreign perpetrators of political violence who are routinely labeled terrorists. "The position of many individuals and institutions seems to be that no act of violence can be labeled 'terrorism' unless it is carried out by a Muslim," said Nihad Awad, director of the Washington-based Council on Islamic-American Relations.

It's pretty rare for me to come down on the same side as CAIR on an issue.  But if it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, writes manifestos like a duck and crashes planes into the side of buildings like a duck, isn't it a duck?

To do otherwise is political posturing by Janet Napolitano, who knows that this would otherwise be seen as the second terror attack to take place under Obama's administration in only its first year.