[UPDATE below.]

A couple of readers have asked for my thoughts about the suicide note of the guy who flew his plane into an IRS building. For the purposes of this post, I'm going to assume the basic news reporting is accurate, and that this is really the guy's suicide note. Apparently the guy had had repeated troubles with his business for various reasons, and he ended the note on these terms:

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand. It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants. I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after. But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change. I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less. I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are. Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer. The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

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.

The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.

Here are my thoughts:

(1) This guy should not be (secretly) applauded by libertarians. There could have been a bunch of little kids who died in the fire, and they needn't even have been the kids of the IRS agents (as if that would make it acceptable "collateral damage"). There could have been delinquent taxpayers in the building pleading their cases, who brought their kids along. Since this guy doesn't know know the difference between "principal" and "principle" I'm not confident that he scoped the building out beforehand to be exactly sure of his target. This guy's justification is the same as George Bush's: There are bad people out there I don't like, so I'm going to lash out and hopefully I'll kill some of the bad people. (BTW if any of you are planning on attacking DC, don't do it when I'm testifying please. I'll post my schedule.)

(2) OK let's put aside the moral objections. From a PR perspective this was a disaster. This guy has singlehandedly discredited the Tea Party movement and other, peaceful Resistance efforts more than Sarah Palin's single hand (with notes written on it). Can you imagine how much we're going to hear about the hateful rhetoric of talk radio, angry online rants against the government, blah blah blah?

(3) Finally, let's put aside the moral objections, and let's forget winning hearts and minds because we've written off the "sheeple." It's just the hardcore dude with his plane, and a few thousand other people, stacked up against the might of the US federal government. Was that a good use of his life? What exactly will this accomplish? Is the IRS not going to be able to recruit people? Of course not, it will (if anything) just mean that the IRS has to lower the bar further. I suppose it's possible some agents will be less likely to really harass somebody on a fuzzy case, but that is hardly worth sacrificing your life for.


It is foolish to try to fight the government on their terms, using violence. They are professionals; they thrive on it. You will never be as ruthless as the people employed by the government. That is a good thing; it's to your credit. Don't be ashamed of your timidity in causing death and destruction on innocent bystanders when you are in conflict with another group.

The only way to restore liberty in the United States is to convince far more Americans that they have foolishly forfeited their freedoms, in exchange for promises of economic and military security that lying politicians cannot possibly fulfill. If we convince enough Americans, there will be no need for bloodshed. If we cannot convince enough Americans, no amount of violent rebellion will work. Violence is neither necessary nor sufficient to restore liberty.

We must convince others of the justness of our cause.

You don't persuade people by flying planes into buildings.

UPDATE: In addition to the pro-Obama people saying this just shows how awful talk radio is blah blah blah, I expect to be equally disgusted by Rush Limbaugh et al. not condoning the attack but trying to understand the motives. And for sure they won't recommend that we stop letting white people into the country. Why, I bet they would even be OK with the government investigating this as a criminal act, as opposed to an act of war.

(For newcomers, my point is that the right wing talk show guys will not treat this the same way they treated Muslims flying planes into buildings because they oppose evil actions by the US government.)