Thursday, February 18, 2010

How do people who are bankrupt own planes?

I'm sure most people know by now, but a fella named Joe Stack flew a plane into a building a couple hundred yards from my office this morning. And if that's not crazy enough, my office almost moved directly next door to that building just a couple of months ago. Really glad we didn't.

Don't worry, he's not a Muslim so it's not terrorism, according to the mayor.

So why did he do it? Because the American Dream is bullshit, essentially. Shit, Joe, you could've just moved. He had been financially ruined a few times and didn't feel represented by his government (this is where I say "I told you so.") Oh yeah, and also, he's batshit crazy.

10 comments:

  1. I drove past there about 5 minutes after it happened. It was pretty crazy. We drove past again on our way home this evening and the building looked as if it had been clawed to peices.

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  2. Trying to kill people to make a political statement. Nope, not terrorism. Especially if your motives reflect current popular right wing sentiments (taxez r dum).

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  3. I heard about this. Yesh. I know times are tough, but if you've gone bankrupt multiple times while trying to strike it rich it might be you who is the problem, not the government.

    I've always considered small English country town to be a nice paradigm for an ideal form of government, but I think I'm just being sentimental. I just read your post on the New Tribal Democracy and I think it's sort of interesting, but I have a few questions.

    - How is this significantly different from the type of government we have here? This sounds a lot like good old fashioned federalism, only your states are a lot smaller.

    - What is the relationship between popular sovereignty and individual rights? Will it be within the rights of the majority in a 'Christian Tribe' (or Atheist Tribe) to outlaw certain books, make certain religious practices mandatory (or forbidden), et cetera?

    - Do you worry that this will encourage small sectarian groups to distrust people outside that group? This seems to be the history of tribes in pre-colonial america, Africa, et cetera, and of human nature in general. Hatred of other people is allowed to fester and run wild when you are isolated from people different from yourself.

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  4. That is the main difference, size of states. I know it's not a perfect idea, but I don't think it would encourage too much in group/out group metality. The idea is that it encourages more live and let live mentality. Tribes wouldn't be isolated in any sense other than politically, and there would still be some blanket federal laws I'm sure to protect rights like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and whatnot.

    I'm just trying to think of a way to govern that makes citizens feel more represented and more responsible for their governing. I don't know anyone that feels represented by our government.

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  5. I'm all for cultivating a greater sense of representation, but I'm skeptical that smaller states would do much in the long run. The problem seems cultural, not political. I might be wrong though, who knows. I do think that the trend in the last hundred years has been to slowly move away from an emphasis on state sovereignty to greater and greater federal power. This is, I think, worrisome, and could account for part everyone's alienation with the political process.
    I think our current lack of interest in self-governance has more to do with our collective poor priorities, our indifference to moral and religious reasoning (by religious, I just mean coherent worldview thinking), and a lack of prudence. All of us, on the right and the left, think less critically about our ideological commitments and are simultaneously less willing to compromise anything.

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  6. I read Ishmael as a freshman in college (about five years ago I guess) and remember enjoying it, although I didn't take it too seriously. I never made it to Story of B and My Ishmael. A few of my friends from school seemed to be (temporarily at least) greatly influenced by Quinn in almost a religious way... Their reactions reminded me of some people who read and encounter Ayn Rand and are greatly influenced by her.
    I don't think I could responsibly comment on them without reading at least Ishmael again. Maybe I should do that.

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  7. I'm not a fan of the Story of B, but I'm one of those influenced in an almost religious way where Ishmael is concerned. My Ishmael is also really good. I think you'd enjoy it.

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  8. Thanks, I bet your right. I'll have to go back to them again.

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  9. I don't wanna get into the politics of this, and I haven't really read about the details of this story so my facts might not all be straight...

    taking politics and religion out of it, if he owned the damn plane and was bankrupt, he should've sold it and dealt with his issues instead of killing himself and two other people. that's selfish and weak, people deal with their issues on a daily basis without flying planes into buildings. this is america, everyone's got financial issues. you can't blame the government for all of your problems. you can't rely on it to solve all of them, either.

    just my two cents.

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