Joseph Stack’s final act, deliberately crashing his plane into an IRS building yesterday in Austin, Texas was, first of all, a human tragedy: Stack dove off the edge into homegrown terrorism, people were killed, and other people lost loved ones. But in cultural and political terms, the attack has been like a sudden lightning strike, creating lots of opinionated noise, and illuminating the nooks, crannies and hidey-holes from which a variety of rightwing nuts have scurried to voice support for Stack’s views — and even his murderous actions.
Facebook fan pages sprang up, calling Stack “a true American hero,” and even comparing dead IRS employees to British soldiers during the American Revolution. Rightwing extremists popped up across the internet, with one woman asserting that “if I were in that building when Joe struck it, I would have been honored to die for a good cause.” And just in case this blog post seems like some lefty blaming the right for everything, consider that the GOP’s new hero, Sen. Scott Brown, told FoxNews that Stack’s actions could be a sign of how frustrated voters are.
It remains to be seen whether or not the media will settle on the word “terrorism” to describe Stacks’ actions, or if the country will come to terms with how dangerously crazy some of the right’s anti-everything rhetoric has become. I’m not directly blaming Stack’s terrorist attack on FoxNews or the Tea Party crowd; but it’s no secret that overheated rhetoric, goofball conspiracy theories and exaggerated claims of “tyranny” and “oppression” can fire up the, um, less stable among us.
Remember last year when a federal report begun under the Bush administration was released, noting the rising danger of rightwing violence? Conservatives reacted by claiming the Obama White House was out to get them, and ratcheting up their rhetoric to evermore-heated levels. Don’t expect the right to engage in any self-reflection as a result of Stack’s attack, though; that would be playing right into the hands of the socialists who are out to enslave us all through their Kenyan dictator, right?
Just one more question: which country does Dick Cheney think we should invade as a response to this latest terrorist attack?
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2010.
That ending sounds like it was written by a 12 year old.
I wish the IRS would go away. However, I do not condone violent pre-emptive acts to bring that to pass. Libertarians embrace the spirit of non-agression.
Its funny that so many neo-cons are trying to explain away this guy’s actions. Stack committed a suicide attack similar to what the Islamic fools do. The neo-cons somehow “understand” Stack’s feelings. Yet, they don’t understand how decades of US occupation, intervention and killings in Middle Eastern lands would create the same sentiment in those people.
Further, none of these neocon Republicrats would do anything to end the Income Tax, oh yea, they’d instate The un-Fair Tax, with its 30% fee on all purchases. As if the government is entitled to that money. It’s a bait and switch, the neo-cons are trying to tap into the anti-tax movement, but want to put in their own theft device…very clever.
The insanity continues.
I was right about the fair tax and it would make things more expensive. In response, a huge black market would be created to avoid that ridiculous consumption tax.
No such thing as a “fair” tax.
I think you’re mistaking the Flat Tax with the Fair Tax.
I’d be ok with a very small Flat Tax, say $500 per person no matter how much money they made. That is a real Flat Tax.
You need to read the book.
There is no reason or need to make things more expensive.
We already have a consumption tax. Everyone would get their taxes back on the basic needs with the fair tax.
I think that you do not understand the fair tax.
Just read the book.
There should be no taxes at all! Goverment service like polices and fire and the U.S. ARMY will be fundded through private donation and church colections!
The true patriot of this great country will take back goverment from the bureacratts and run town halls to set policys, not “profesional” politician like Comrad Socialist OBAMA!
And bring back GOD to the public policy as the founders did! Let His word guide our laws!
I like your idea tea party guy but you need to alter your argument just a tad. The founding fathers new that we needed some form of federal government. An example would be national defense. Government is evil so it must be kept as small as possible.
The usefull idiots like many on the CL are so brain washed they want the government to pay for all their everyday needs. They are not educated enough to see the consequences of their actions. I would suggest many at the CL readers look to Greece and see what happens when the government spends like mad. Their people are striking against spending within their own country’s budget. The hubris of those idiots. You can see that same hubris here at the CL. We are lucky that they are still the minority of citizens.
The tea partys are great BTW.
No Sir Mr. Grifin I do not thought we need goverment at all, not federal goverment nor none other!
I TOLD YOU, we will financed the ARMY through private donation and church offering and it will be ran by patriott citizin militias!
We will abbolish goverment and start anew and set up TOWN HALL citizin laws and try for treason all those SOCIALIST TRAITORS who are ruinning this grate nation!
And we will declare ENGLISH the OFICIAL LANGUAGE of the U.S. and close our border to THOSE WHO DO NOT TAKE AN OATH OF GOD TO SPEAK OUR LANGUAGE AND RESPECT OUR HERITIGE!
Wow, Mr. Teabagger, we can only hope that any immigrants who come here can master the English language the way you have.
Or, should I say, can master the “OFICIAL” language of our proud “CITIZINS” and “HERITIGE.”
I can tell by your spelling and grammatical skills that you are exactly the kind of man we need advising us on the “goverment.”
And congrats to you too, Frank. Looks like you’ve finally found your intellectual equal in Mr. Teabagger. May you both prove to be “usefull” idiots to your respective causes.
Stack was a Bush-hating, corporation-bash, anti-Catholic, pro-healthcare-reform liberal.
No doubt about it – Your guy, lefties.
It’s ranting note sounds a lot more like a Keith Olbermann diatribe than a conservative screed.
And look – liberals have been running around trying to commit mass-murder all week.
It’s because they thought everything would be great when Obama was elected.
Now that they have Obama, and Democrats running Congress, and their lives are still miserable, it’s dawning on them….
THEY are the source of their own misery.
I’m aftraid that as the Democrats continue circle the drain, we’ll see many more liberals wigging out.
I’d push for a no tax solution, no fair tax, no flat tax and no income tax. I also wish we would have stayed with the Articles of Confederation instead of the Constitution.
All taxes are taken by threat of force, that is the definition of stealing. Its understandable that some would use force to keep from being stolen from. So while I understand Stack’s anger, I do not condone his actions.
I’m a leftist and a liberal, and I, too, would like to see the federal bureacracy greatly diminished if not imploded altogether.
I plan on moving to New York or San Francisco or Seattle or somewhere more attuned to my cultural and political worldview.
I do not want some fundamentalist preacher from Alabama or gun-toting “patriot” from northern Michigan having any voice or influence in my life.
Conversely, I’m certain a small-town business owner in rural West Virginia does not want a West Coast liberal having any say in his life.
Power should be returned to the local level — not the state level, the local level. Let towns set their own laws and policies. Get Washington, D.C. out of our lives.
Again: I am a dyed-in-the-wool liberal. And I have no trust in or faith in the federal government.
As an addendum: as a leftist, I am ready to make common cause with those on the right to advance the idea that the federal government has grown much too large and intrusive.
I invite others on the left to join me. Rather than look at the Tea Party movement, or the right wing, as your enemy, join with them as allies. The only true answer to the divisions in this country is to eliminate the federal bureacracy and return power to the local level.
If a village made up of liberals wishes to pursue a pro-environment, pro-entitlement, pro-choice, anti-gun policy, it has the freedom to do so without a central government tying its hands.
If a conservative village wishes to teach Biblical scripture in schools or ban abortion, it has the freedom to do so.
This is the only answer, friends.
Ay yi yi, looks like the crazy season has come early this year. All we need now is a good old-fashioned conspiracy theorist to qualify this thread for the Loony Hall of Fame.
Grooms, you’ve done it again. Managed to lure every batshit political crackpot in greater Mecklenburg County out of their caves….
Regardles of what you would like Mr. Grifin THE TRUE AMERICA PATRIOTTS is already rising up against GOVERMENT OPRESSION! We are GUIDED BY GOD ALMIGHTY and not by the foolish way of MAN! We will elliminate the federal goverment and return AMERICA to its TRUE CHRISTIAN ROOTS! And all you libberals and imigrints can MOVE BACK TO MEXICO or VIETNAM or go to FRANCE because Sarah Palin and the TRUE AMERICANS are taking back this grate nation!!!
Frank, as long as we’re making smug, pat generalization, let me also give you warning that you will live in a town:
1. Where women seeking abortions will be prosecuted and jailed;
2. English will be the “official” language and violaters will be sent packing(see Monsoir TeaPartyer);
3. Alcohol sales will be banned by Fundamentalist-dominated town councils
4. Schools will eliminate the teaching of evolution in favor of Biblical theories;
5. Marijuana users will face mandatory minimum sentences right beside the rapists and murderers;
6. The economy will go backwards because well-educated entrepreneurs won’t want to live in such an intolerant, backwards place that won’t even sell them a bottle of wine.
Did you know the crime rate in erstwhile “liberal” cities like New York, San Francisco and Seattle is much lower, per capita, than the crime rate in such red-state bastions as Houston, Memphis, Miami, Atlanta and, yes, Charlotte?
Did you know cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Portland and Boulder consistently rate much higher in terms of liveability, cultural offerings, professional opportunity, etc., even as they also rate high in caring for the homeless and impoverished?
Anyway, as you said, I like the idea of right-wingers sinking only their town or city.
As an addendum:
Being “liberal” is not, as you and others would like to define it, a matter of being a proponent of Big Government and opponent of free markets. That is a very shallow and narrow definition, and one that was arbitrarily assigned 30 or so years ago by an opposition political party looking to gain traction among voters. I have to admit, it was an effective political strategy.
The true definition of “liberal” — the one that applies pretty much everywhere outside the U.S., including England, where the language was invented — is simple: it’s about being open-minded, and not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition.
I am for all of those characteristics. So are many “liberals.” It means you are open to ideas, and willing to adapt and change. Certainly government is not the answer to all or even most of our problems. Neither, for that matter, is capitalism. Some things require a public-private partnership. Some require government. Some should be left to the private sector.
You can be a liberal and believe in these things. You can also be a liberal city and be aware enough to know that you must adapt to changing times and rid yourself of the expensive programs that have proven not to work. That is why cities like the ones I’ve named above continue to thrive. They have been open-minded (“liberal”) enough to change course when need be.
You of all people must know that socially conservative states such as Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas, etc., have reaped huge benefits from big government through farm subsidies. Is that fair? Have they adapted to the changing times, or are they still bound by the old ways?
Are they willing to invite Hindus from India or Buddhists from China into their communities to help develop 21st Century economies. Will they be willing to tolerate different cultures and customs? Do they imagine they will attract talent by continuing to bash immigrants, non-English speakers, non-Christians?
My answer is this: yes, many socially conservative communities are willing to adapt. Many are not. But I don’t look at them as the enemy.
Being handcuffed by politically-motivated stereotypes will not advance your cause, Frank. You need to free yourself from those first.
liberalism used to mean “no government intervention”. Freedom to do what one wants without the government dictating things.
They are really relative terms.
And Frank, I looked up Boortz’s Fair Tax, you were wrong, I was right.
23% federal tax on all retail items at time of sale — that INCREASES prices. Something that costs $1.00 will then be $1.23. that would be ON TOP of state sales tax and other local taxes. In fact, you could have state sales tax, state income tax, local taxes, other federal consumption taxes like the gas tax AND the federal fairtax…the Fair Tax could also be raised by congres. The “Family Consumption Rebate” — that’s welfare once again like the Earned Income Credits. Socialism at best.
The IRS would be replaced by a Sales Tax Bureau? Same thing different name. This bureau is supposed to make sure businesses and individuals don’t evade their federal sales taxes. Same ‘ol bait and switch. Government spending must be brought under control. Fair tax proponents predictably ignore this.
Abolish the Income Tax and replace it with NOTHING. This is the only viable solution.
Frank,
You seem to be missing the point. I am not referring to what YOU would want in a town — when I make those points about what kind of town it might be, I’m talking about a town where policies are set by the fundamentalists who dominate by the current conservative movement.
You are a Libertarian; the fundamentalist right wing does not care about your views on pot or abortion. Sorry if I’m the first to inform you on that.
Trust me, I have lived in big cities like NYC and small towns in the South. I know of what I speak from personal experience. I can tell you this: “conservatives” in NYC would be called “liberals” in the rest of the country. Guiliani had to move far to the right when he entered national politics. His work to reduce the crime rate could only have been possible by reaching out to the left. And vice versa. I was there; I know. I doubt you were there, but that’s another story.
But let’s back up. You said I might end up living where “every worthless non-working fool will come to your town for freebies.” That is the stereotype I was referring to. And that is simply not true. Go visit Portland or Seattle one day. You will find liveable, prosperous cities with liberal attitudes toward dealing with the homeless. That is simple fact.
I agree with you on many points. If I have had a hard time making my points, then that’s my fault for not communicating well enough. And I can see by how badly you miss my points that they are not getting through.
But I doubt it would make any difference. I can see by your responses that you are unable to pursue reasoned dialogue, and only see and hear what you want to see and hear. Judging by your anger and bile, I doubt you’ve ever made an effort to engage the other side. You are comfortable with your own stereotypes and prejudices and have decided to see everything in black and white, like a child.
Which is only one of many reasons you will never get what you want. At least half the country disagrees with you, perhaps even more. Ranting and name-calling will get you exactly nowhere.
T-Bone,
You must be relatively new to CL, because otherwise you wouldn’t bother trying to engage Frank in a real dialogue.
So let me give you the short version: Frank is a wacko with deep-seated anger issues who spends an inordinate amount of time babbling incoherently on this Web site. He doesn’t really care about anything but trying to be right. Which is odd, since he’s never right about anything.
And don’t buy into his Libertarian BS. At heart he’s just another redneck right wing Republican.
ANYwho….it’s mighty noble of you to try and reach out to Frank. But it’s pointless. Frank has shit for brains, so even the good points you make fly right over his head.
T-Bone, you are right in that Frank misses your point, probably because he has blinded himself to any other point-of-view but his.
As for you, Frank: you must be out of your mind if you think the current immigrant-bashing isn’t about religion, or race.
It is exactly about those things for the huge percentage of Angry White Christians who are always complaining about people who don’t speak good English or don’t adhere to “traditional American (read: Christian) values.”
You have to be either blind, stupid or lying not to believe that the reason so many Americans (99% Caucasian and Christian) have a problem with immigration is because it now involves dark people from other cultures and religions coming here. The “illegal” immigrant argument is just a convenient smokescreen.
No Mr. Grifin I don’t agree with single think Mr. Groom have to says and further more YOU are the one who prettending! You and all the other GODLESS fake Amercicans who want to legalize drugs and murder babies! In case all of you LIBBURALS on this page have not heard America is ANGRY and want change and tired of goverment running our live!
That is all I will say it make me angry just reading what you ANTI-AMERICANS have to say!
yeah, those liberal cities really don’t know shit about business, do they Frank?
Oh, except that Boston is a hub for biotech and New York is a hub for finance and media and Los Angeles is a hub for entertainment and San Francisco is a hub for high tech and Seattle is a hub for technology and aerospace and they’ve all been dominated by Democrats and liberals for decades.
Of course, red states like Mississippi and South Carolina and Alabama and the Dakotas and
Alaska have also done a great job of being hubs for low-paying crap jobs and poor, undereducated citizens.
Did you know that about 15 years ago the Charlotte Chamber made a concerted effort to tone down the city’s right wing Republicans so Charlotte could attract more jobs and business investment? Here’s how it worked: a bunch of right-wing Republicans opposed public funding of the arts because some of that art was too “controversial.”
The Charlotte Chamber — our BUSINESS leaders — supported the public-private arts partnership. They were worried that companies from New York and San Francisco might change plans to move jobs and offices here if they perceived that Charlotte was run by right-wing fundamentalist Bible thumpers. So the business community rallied to put a sock in the right-wing social conservative Republicans who threatened our economic growth.
Moreover, many of Charlotte’s business leaders have been Democrats, including Hugh McColl, an ex-marine who built the company that is now Bank of America and helped turn Charlotte into a financial powerhouse.
But don’t let the facts get in the way of your argument.
I have a feeling Frank doesn’t know shit about the way the business world operates besides what he reads, because I’m reasonably certain he doesn’t work in the business world.
The corporate elite of this nation would laugh Frank out of the room inside of 5 minutes if he started spewing his high school-level Libertarian horseshit about Demon Government and the Nanny State. Nobody would take him seriously because he’d come off sounding like one of those clowns on local access TV.
And here we see Frank pitching his bi-weekly temper tantrum because intelligent adults aren’t buying the snake oil he’s trying to sell. He really, really believes that if he regurgitates the standard right wing talking points often enough, eventually we’ll all go, “Well gooooolllly, that surely makes sense now dont’ it!”
Sorry Frank. Maybe you can sell your horseshit to a few troubled uneducated boobs like yourself. But not us grown ups.
Once again you’ve gotten your ass handed to you by smarter, more experienced adults. Learn to live with the pain, and eventually you’ll learn to love the pain. he he
Yep, Frank really came unglued on this one. It’s even more gibberish than usual, twice as paranoid, and three times as erroneous. Plus the grammar and spelling — oy, vey.
Frank is so busy trying to tame the voices in his head that he says stupid, 100% wrong things like, “Companies do not come to Charlotte because of the high taxes. If the taxes were lower you would not need fancy art or bribes to get them to come here.”
Companies have been relocating to Charlotte like mad for decades — it’s why the population has more than tripled over the past 30 years. But the biggest ones didn’t start relocating here until the government started paying for better infrastructure, transit, airport expansion, cultural centers, etc. Taxes have always been lower here than other like-sized cities, you dumb schmuck. That never mattered before. What mattered to many companies was whether it was a progressive, forward-thinking Southern city instead of a redneck haven filled with backwards fundamentalist bigots.
Besides being wrong 90% of the time, Frank, you don’t even know how to make your own arguments. You shoot yourself in the foot over and over again. It’s actually kind of hilarious.
Poor little Frankie. Always getting picked on by the other kids.
And all because he’s an uninformed dork who keeps drinking the Fox News Kool-Aid.
It’s not Frankie’s fault, everyone. He’s just a retard.
Oh, sorry Frank. I know how that offends you Palinites.
Well, this was quite the enlightening experience….
🙂
There’s no point arguing with Frank because he has no interest in the truth, only in advancing his warped opinions.
He can’t see that the Tea Party movement, which is almost exclusively white, does not represent the country as a whole, which is less than two-thirds white.
He tunes out the fact that the most vocal opponents of U.S. immigration policy — again, they’re pretty much exclusively white — aren’t just opposed to illegal immigration, but also to guest worker and amnesty programs (which, by the way, are supported by many large employers, for obvious reasons).
When someone provides examples of how Democrat-dominated, liberal cities like Seattle or New York or Boston or San Francisco are also hubs of commerce, he tries to change the subject by saying some ridiculous mumbo jumbo about the advantages of “natural resources like harbors,” neglecting to mention that those same advantages apply to both Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana — none of which have anything close to the commercial might of NYC or Boston or San Francisco.
Frank is a typical right-wing idealogue. And as much as he’d like to convince himself he is in the majority, he’s not.
Tina, also, don’t forget that Frank is nothing if not fluid. He can change his argument on a dime if it fits his needs, and he does so over and over again.
Tell him how much economic growth the U.S. enjoyed under decades of Democrat rule, and he’ll say well those Dems would be Republicans now.
Point out that the racist, conservative Dems of the 40s and 50s switched over to the GOP side in opposition to the Civil Rights bill, and he’ll say, “See, liberal Dems were the racists,” completely ignoring the fact that 1) none of those Southern Dems were racist; and 2) they all became Republicans.
I could offer 500 more examples but why bother? It’s basically Frank trying to convince himself he’s right anymore, because no one — not even Libertarians like Luke — ever agrees with him.
I, of course, meant to say, 1) “none of those racist Southern Dems were liberal;” and 2) they all became Republicans.
Oy, I’m spending too much time on this thread trying to educate Frank and bring him into the human race.
Or, as he would say, “he he”
Gosh Frank, three long-winded, paranoid and incoherent posts all in a row? That must be some kind of record, even for you.
It would be sad if it wasn’t so much fun watching you fall all over yourself trying to explain away your bogus arguments. And the funniest part? I bet nobody even read those last three posts. I know I didn’t. I just hopped on here because I knew you probably came back with 1,000 or so words of pure drivel.
Man, it is so easy to get under your skin. You are the easiest, cheapest laugh in town.
As mentioned previously in other threads, Frank exhibits several characteristics of the classic narcissist. I’ll list a few of them below:
1. Has a childlike need to draw attention to himself.
2. Has a childlike need to proclaim victories that exist only in his head
3. Has a grandiose, yet wholly unearned, sense of self importance.
4. Is mainly driven by deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and insecurity
4. Fantasizes that those who disagree with him are inferior in intellect and moral character.
5. Lacks empathy
6. Refuses to acknowledge the validity of counter opinions.
One need only look at Frank’s posts to see a consistent pattern of such characteristics. There has been speculation that Frank is a deeply conflicted and insecure person. I agree. As to reasons, I would not venture to guess. I can, however, say with certainty that Frank has more than his share of personal issues.
In any event, he is not to be taken seriously by those wishing to engage in civil or enlightened discourse. Frank’s main goal is to validate his own opinions. Whenever an alternate view is presented, he reacts with a passive aggressive anger and disdain. Again, this is a common trait among narcissists.
My advice to those who are offended by Frank is to ignore him. That, more than anything, is what he fears the most.
As mentioned previously in other threads, Frank exhibits several characteristics of the classic narcissist. I’ll list a few of them below:
1. Has a childlike need to draw attention to himself.
2. Has a childlike need to proclaim “victories” that exist only in his head.
3. Has a grandiose, yet wholly unearned, sense of self importance.
4. Is mainly driven by deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.
4. Fantasizes that those who disagree with him are inferior in intellect and moral character.
5. Lacks empathy.
6. Refuses to acknowledge the validity of counter opinions.
One need only look at Frank’s posts to see a consistent pattern of such characteristics. There has been speculation that Frank is a deeply conflicted and insecure person. I tend to agree. As to reasons, I would not venture to guess. I can, however, say with certainty that Frank has more than his share of personal issues.
In any event, he is not to be taken seriously by those wishing to engage in civil or enlightened discourse. Frank’s main goal is to validate his own opinions. Whenever an alternate view is presented, he reacts with a passive aggressive anger and disdain. Again, this is a common trait among narcissists.
My advice to those who are offended by Frank is to ignore him. That, more than anything, is what he fears the most
For those of you who don’t understand Frank’s mangled verbal skills, his last post amounts to the following:
“I know you are but what am I?”
Or:
“I am rubber, you are glue; what bounces off me sticks to you.”
Good day.
As mentioned previously in other threads, Frank exhibits several characteristics of the classic narcissist. I’ll list a few of them below:
1. Has a childlike need to draw attention to himself.
2. Has a childlike need to proclaim “victories” that exist only in his head.
3. Has a grandiose, yet wholly unearned, sense of self importance.
4. Is mainly driven by deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.
4. Fantasizes that those who disagree with him are inferior in intellect and moral character.
5. Lacks empathy.
6. Refuses to acknowledge the validity of counter opinions.
One need only look at Frank’s posts to see a consistent pattern of such characteristics. There has been speculation that Frank is a deeply conflicted and insecure person. I tend to agree. As to reasons, I would not venture to guess. I can, however, say with certainty that Frank has more than his share of personal issues.
In any event, he is not to be taken seriously by those wishing to engage in civil or enlightened discourse. Frank’s main goal is to validate his own opinions. Whenever an alternate view is presented, he reacts with a passive aggressive anger and disdain. Again, this is a common trait among narcissists.
My advice to those who are offended by Frank is to ignore him. That, more than anything, is what he fears the most.