After watching the recent documentary about the Weather Underground, regardless of how one may judge their activities, one cannot help but be struck by how articulate, concise and straightforward their message was. When they issued their communiqués, they didn’t waste your time with rambling nonsense that only they could understand. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves; they knew that if they chose to, they could lead successful lives free of conflict, far away from urban misery. They viewed the world as corrupted by injustice, but they didn’t see themselves as the victims; they were putting their otherwise comfortable existences on the firing line in the cause of aiding those they viewed as members of the oppressed class.

On the other hand, people like Joe Stack have more in common with the likes of Timothy McVeigh and other right-wing extremists. These are people who internalize bad fortune or bad judgment into a conspiracy against themselves. The IRS, federal agents, the government—they are all conspiring against them personally to destroy their lives. These people are self-involved and self-pitying—so much so that they disdain life, and not just their own. These are people who would complain that no one will pay any attention to the injustices that have been inflicted upon themselves by agents of oppression unless they go out in a blaze of conflagration—and take as many people with them as possible. McVeigh, of course, hoped to escape his evil alive.

Many millions of people have also suffered in their lives, but they realize that sometimes it is due to poor decisions or living beyond their means. I’ve referenced my own fiscal situation and its consequences in an oblique fashion a few times here, but I’ve chosen to take a Dickensian view of the situation; after all, it makes a more a interesting story when you experience difficulties and talk about them in the hopes that someone might learn from your mistakes, rather than ramble on about what “they” did without explaining what exactly “they” did—or being purposefully vague about what you did to get yourself into misfortune.

Anyways, I read a PDF file of Stack’s “suicide e-mail,” and found it to be confused, disingenuous, and a bit nutty. Like all such sob-sister (or rather, sob-brother) harangues, it was fairly short in the detail and logic department. It is one thing to rail against corporations, politicians, and taxes; but it is wholly another thing to whine endlessly and pointlessly about personal travails without actually giving people a clue about how this your life was specifically undone by the forces of oppression.

He does give us some tidbits of information, but what little there is tells against him. What’s this about “undocumented income?” Didn’t he know that if you make early withdrawals from your IRA, it is subject to tax penalties? The only sense that we can make out of all of this is that perhaps there was financial hanky-panky going on that he was unable to face his wife and kid with. The specific tax law he referred to appears to be aimed at closing a loophole which allowed temp workers to claim that they were “independent contractors” or businesses for tax purposes.

No doubt Fox News and the rest of the right are going to find ways to judge this an indictment of Obama and the Democrats; what it may really be about is how the propaganda of the right resonates in minds of self-pitying sociopaths of the Tea Party/Patriot movement type. The “mainstream” media, meanwhile, has been loath to call this incident what it is, perhaps because its own failure to hold itself to even minimal levels of responsible reporting, allowing right-wing extremists and purveyors of paranoia and fear—even within its own ranks (see Fox News)—to drive public debate. This was a suicide attack on a specific target with the intent to kill as many people as possible; as Stark himself wrote in his statement, no one will pay attention to his “problem” unless the “body count” is big enough. It was an act of domestic terrorism by a white man. This is why the Sarah Palins, Tom Tancredos and Glenn Becks of the world who feed into and off this insanity are so dangerous. Tiger Woods’ private life is not the single most pressing issue facing the country today (or any day), as CNN and its corporate masters would prefer you to think.

Speaking of golf, the only thing that benefits from Woods' prolonged absence is the bruised egos of his fellow golfers. The longer he stays away, the more the game returns to its past status as a third-tier sport of little or no interest to the average sports fan, and with it loss in television share and decreasing revenue to fill the players’ pot. Golf owes Woods more than he owes them.

You look like you don't believe a word that guy is saying, or at least you have a lot of corrections to make.

Interesting picture, though. Lots of suits.

Hi Thom,

Unless I suffered a "senior moment", I don't think you ever finished telling about your White House meeting and the special point you made at the meeting. (Please forgive me if I missed it --- I was really interested in hearing it, though.) Could you please repeat it?

@okay- HArry wins, one teabagger can do!

Tort reform: If lawyers are getting 50% of their fees from punative awards, limit the amount the lawyer can take not how much can be awarded.

I mean: Only one to do it, as long as it’s a male bulb and a female socket.

Allright- how many tea baggers does it take to screw in a light bulb-

David Bossie new exactly what he was doing or he was a big patsy for the corporatist faction of the Supreme Court.

@KMH: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." -Shakespeare, King Henry V

So is this an act of terrorism by a tea bagger?

Me thinks the Supreme Court wants to take out the lawyers as our next level of protection.

You gotem! Alqaeda United through the Manufacturers Union.