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Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

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Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#31

Post by CoryMathews »

smokinn wrote: post #26
blackguardx wrote: post #16

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement calling this a criminal act, not terrorism. I am confused. A few years ago everything was considered terrorism and now nothing is. This guy wasn't targeting individual people in the IRS, he was targeting the whole establishment. This is akin to the Oklahoma City bombing. If that was a terrorist incident and 9/11 was a terrorist incident, this is too. He even ha…

I tend to agree with the cynic in me that says it's because the guy's name was "Joe Stack". Had it been Mohammed something then it would've been terrorism.

Agree, The way I see it is that if its a criminal act against the government it because terrorism. Had he been out to kill someone in that building it would have been a criminal act. This was terrorism.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#32

Post by Femur »

I think it is interesting that the IRS treats certain workers differently:

"This section shall not apply in the case of an individual who pursuant to an arrangement between the taxpayer and another person, provides services for such other person as an engineer, designer, drafter, computer programmer, systems analyst, or other similarly skilled worker engaged in a similar line of work."

(this was cited in the letter)

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#33

Post by eli »

tlrobinson wrote: post #15

What are people's thoughts on the hosting company pulling the site so quickly at the request of the FBI? Would they legally be required to? IANAL but I can't think of any reason.

I suspect they were not legally obligated to take it down (without a court order or a National Security Letter, anyway). But they also, of course, had no obligation to keep it up. I'd probably take it down if I worked there.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#35

Post by natrius »

blackguardx wrote: post #16

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement calling this a criminal act, not terrorism. I am confused. A few years ago everything was considered terrorism and now nothing is. This guy wasn't targeting individual people in the IRS, he was targeting the whole establishment. This is akin to the Oklahoma City bombing. If that was a terrorist incident and 9/11 was a terrorist incident, this is too. He even ha…

Different administrations have different policies. My issue is the contradiction between this event and the Christmas underpants bomber. The only excuse I can come up with is that it would be politically impossible to not call that one terrorism.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#36

Post by icefox »

natrius wrote: post #30
spudlyo wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It helps that it's 33K of static HTML. Looks like it was converted from Word, some interesting metadata: Joe Stack Joe 27 1848 2010-02-16T19:24:00Z 2010-02-18T06:42:00Z

Most static pages still get pulled by hosting providers when faced with that kind of traffic. That might be what happened here, or the authorities could've asked them to pull it.

I could understand for dynamic pages, but static? Do they think they are getting attacked?

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#37

Post by BigZaphod »

blackguardx wrote: post #16

The Department of Homeland Security released a statement calling this a criminal act, not terrorism. I am confused. A few years ago everything was considered terrorism and now nothing is. This guy wasn't targeting individual people in the IRS, he was targeting the whole establishment. This is akin to the Oklahoma City bombing. If that was a terrorist incident and 9/11 was a terrorist incident, this is too. He even ha…

Would you be so quick to assume the terrorism label if he hadn't used an airplane to commit his crime? I do think that's going to color a lot of people's perception of this wording issue.

I suspect they don't believe the term applies because he didn't claim to be acting on the part of an organized group or even a very specific ideology. His note made it pretty clear he thought of himself as some kind of lone warrior for justice.

Re: Anti-IRS Rant of Software Engineer who Today Flew Plane into IRS Building

#40

Post by CoryMathews »

mbrubeck wrote: post #12
lliiffee wrote: post #11

I urge everyone not to read this. We should not reward murderers (or attempted murderers) with out attention.

Fortunately - and not surprisingly - it's barely readable anyways. I read most of it and I still don't have a clear picture of what made this guy so mad. [Edit: While I don't agree with lliiffee, I think it's a valid point of view and I wouldn't vote it down. I wavered between wanting to understand this person's state of mind, and not wanting to "reward" him with attention. But even if he were alive I don't think he'…

did you actually read it or just skim it?

It made perfect sense to me. I see exactly where he is coming from, and why he did what he did. I have been wondering how long until someone did something like this. I would bet this will be the first of many things similar, where people start to rebel against the government. The less violent the better however.

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