Good morning, Netizens...

A. Joseph Stack III put his name in history books yesterday. He began his day by setting fire to his house in Austin, Texas while his wife and family were inside. He capped his morning off by flying his single-engine Piper PA-28 aircraft into the side of the building in Austin, Texas in the AP picture above, where the Internal Revenue Service had a portion of their headquarters. Having already posted a verbose screed about his failed relationship with the IRS on a website (which unfortunately has been taken down) a number of failed businesses, several tax audits and numerous other complaints, Stack felt he had enough, and simply put, took matters into his own hands.

At least two people, including Stack, are dead.

"Nothing changes unless there is a body count," Stack wrote.

Nobody, it seems, have warm fuzzy feelings in their hearts for the IRS. Several of the mainstream news media have already made the statement that this was not an incident of terrorism, that Stack was a sadly despondent man, perhaps seriously depressed over his battles with the IRS. Pardon me, but I know a few people who have battled with the IRS and lost, but none of them ever flew planes into the IRS office to express their outrage.

If Stack had been from the Middle East and undertaken the same goals, we would call him a terrorist beyond a doubt. How much difference is there between Islamic terrorists blowing up American assets in the United States and Stack?

In his parting words posted on his web site, Stack wrote, “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.” I could not disagree more.

Violence against groups of innocent persons, even people as wretched, deplorably unethical and self-serving as the IRS, is terrorism in my book.

What about yours?

Dave

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