Insanity in America

[altivo]

It's a rampant disease that seems to strike primarily among the far right. Following the example of Timothy McVeigh, another lunatic has attacked a building in Texas. He did it by flying his private plane into the building kamikazi style, apparently because IRS offices were located there. *shakes head* Teabaggers are loonies. Too bad his name wasn'

Comments

[gremy]

[altivo]

They don't generally fly airplanes into buildings or blow them up, though. They just talk a lot.

[keeganfox]

So now we can expect more general aviation restrictions, and more stupidity. :(

[altivo]

Seems likely, doesn't it? Though how much can they do beyond making everything a no-fly zone or grounding all private aircraft? That sort of thing really steps on the toes of the effete wealthy, and they are the ones who own both sides of Congress when you come right down to it.

This guy was bitching and moaning about having to pay taxes, yet he had enough money to fly a private airplane? I'm lucky I can buy insurance and gasoline for an automobile, and I don't feel I have a right to complain about federal taxes. It's the local taxing bodies who are wasting incredible amounts of money. And guess what? In my county they are 100% Republican.

[keeganfox]

You can make all pilots do some sort of (expensive) federal background check, and require all flights to file flight plans 72 hours in advance*, and at least 50 other things to erase the last recreational pilots.
Of course this won't make us safer. A few years ago there was a case of a teenager who after learning on Microsoft's Flight Simulator, stole an airplane for a joyride. I suppose you could immediately machine gun airplanes that engage in unauthorised engine starts or something, but terrorists would just find other targets.

*This alone would decimate large segments of general aviation. Gliders in particular are not only VFR flying, they're also extremely weather dependent, and even the best forecasts aren't accurate enough three days out.

[altivo]

I noticed the media making a big deal out of the fact that the guy didn't file a flight plan, but I don't see what difference that could have made.

Surely all three of the planes on 9/11 had flight plans too, and I'm sure none of them said "Crash into XYZ building at approximately 10 am" or anything of the sort. Yet the events still happened. Once you're in the air, who knows whether you're following your flight plan?

[dakhun]

When even things as trivial as a cream pie to the face get labeled as "terrorism", it's strange to see this incident being denied as a terrorist attack. Obviously, it was a very good example of domestic terrorism.

And denying that he was a Teabagger, when he left behind a manifesto right along those lines - well what else can they do but go into denial about that too. :-P

[altivo]

I read the "suicide note" and it was obviously the ramblings of a deranged mind. However, he was harping again and again on some notion that he was being robbed by having to pay taxes. I was amused that he objected to the health care establishment as it stands, yet he was otherwise opposed to federal intervention, regulation, or taxation. A typical teabagger. Nothing rational about his thinking at all, just short-sighted complaints about being "robbed."

[dakhun]

numerous jabs against Mr Bush

"Numerous" = one
...but then Bush hasn't been that popular with Republicans for at least a couple of years now. You don't get a 29% approval rating without bipartisan dislike.

Joe Stack did the "founding fathers" bit, and the "no taxation without representation" bit. His problems with the IRS go much farther back than either Bush or Obama, or even Bush Sr., but I'm sure he wouldn't stand out from the rest of the teabaggers if he was with them.

[altivo]

What dakhun says. The guy was a fruitcake, of course, but the teabaggers aren't showing any particular allegiance to Bush. They've forgotten all about him. They're just opposed to paying taxes. Period, forever.

[animist]

Leftwing or right wing, neither has a monopoly on lunacy. One reason I left the Unitarian church was activists that did things in the church's name. Some of them belonged to the local anti-police organization, and wore shirts depicting a scary looking police office pulling a club to (presumably to beat someone to death) emerging from a dark alley. They would have violent protests everytime the police used deadly force in self defence. After one guy on crack was shot for managing to twist his arms around in handcuffs and rushing a police office with knife, one of their protests got really ugly, and they started throwing rocks through the windows of city hall. When mounted police tried to use crowd control techniques to move them away from the building, one of the leaders (from the church) punched a horse in the face and was arrested by his rider. I left soon after that. I don't have anything against pacifists as long as they don't smash things and attack animals or people.

[altivo]

The expressions are usually different though. The right seems to do a lot more of what I'd call "terrorist" behavior here in the US. In spite of extreme anguish over the behavior of the recent Bush administration, no building attacks, hostage situations, or assassination attempts were laid to the left wing. Now that the power has shifted, though, the loonies seem to be crawling out of the sewers.

[animist]

Yeah, I don't think we've had any left wing terrorism since the "Weather Underground". I think it's because leftists form groups. Rightists tend to be loaners. At least in the USA. A loan loony leftist can always be talked down by his buddies I guess. But thes crazy loaners have no such safety net.

[altivo]

Good point. That might explain it. Goddess knows there was plenty of incentive during Bush's second term to drive some people to crazy acts, yet we didn't see the McVeigh sort of things threatened, even as doctors and nurses were being murdered etc.