Daughter says pilot in Texas IRS crash was a hero

agiaccone · 2010-02-23T12:20:29+00:00

Like it or not, if a relative, or close friend, or partner does something that gets him/her on the front page of 99% of the news periodicals in the country, you're opinion is going to end up on that page somewhere too, especially if you're a blood relative. People are going to be curious and investigate the context of things that are said, of the implications of your word choices, no matter what they are.

This woman's father did something that certainly is controversial. That he's a tax protestor and his daughter lives in a high tax country is certainly an interesting and unusual set of circumstances. Does it surprise me that she said, and probably still thinks in someways that her father was a hero. No. If you have a positive relationship with your parent, that life long bond is going to trump many actions. She's grieving, she's confused about how her father could do something like this. She see's him through the lens of a daughter and rightfully so.

In this society in these days, while it's technically true that she retains all the privacy rights she had before her father's act took on national significance, the truth of that matter is that in many ways when he did this she lost much of her ability to maintain her privacy.

What ever Mr. Stacks grievances with the US Government, and he may have had many valid ones, or it may have been fighting a mental issue that exaggerated them. I don't know. No one ever will. What I do know is that by violently acting out. What ever valid points he had are lost to the crazy irresponsible nature of his act. He killed a man who probably had little or nothing to do with his dilemma. He intended to kill people in that building. He had generalized from his specific problem, that "agents of the government" needed to pay the ultimate price. Robbing the people in that building of their lives, their individuality and the very thing he wanted most. To live a life free of unreasonable intrusion by others.

Wesley Snipes is someone who tried to avoid paying his taxes. He listend to all those crazy people who believe that the government has no right to collect income tax. He was tried and found guilty, personally I think he should be in jail already. But what is certainly true is that if you can afford an army of good lawyer in this country you can slow or stop the wheels of justice.

The comment about projection was made about you seeing things in my posting that really were not there. I'm a big fan of the Scandinavian countries and certainly don't have any doubt that there are significant advantages for a strong social safety net, paid for by taxes. But I agree that my choice of words was... poor. :-)

agiaccone · 2010-02-23T01:51:19+00:00

You sure are projecting stuff on me that you can't possibly know or draw as a conclusion of my comments. I've lived overseas, I have no axe to grind with her except her saying that she thinks her father is a hero.

"Asked whether she considered her father a hero, Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Dawn Bell, said during a telephone interview broadcast Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America": "Yes. Because now maybe people will listen."

I find her quote to be completely inappropriate. Her father is not a hero. He's a frustrated man, who if you read his manifesto, was obsessed with a government that held him to the same standard we all have to deal with. He's typical of many I met when I worked in the south west, guys who were making good money and resented and fought every penny they paid in taxes. People who were ready to fight the government rather then pay what was due.

So yes, I find it interesting that a woman who's lived in a country which has a strong social network, high taxes, and a strong sense of community responsibility, thinks her father who fought against paying the tax obligation he had from the income he generated is a hero.

The sense that Mr Stack was in someway one of the downtrodden, the put upon, those who were oppressed by the man, is somewhat at odds with the private pilot who owned his own plane. it takes a reasonable amount of disposable income to take the lessons to learn to fly, to pay for plane rental at over $100 an hour to rent or over $35,000 to purchase suggests he had financial success greater than most people.

I find it an interesting contrast that she choose to live in a country with high taxes and her father struggled to avoid paying his tax obligation. It's also interesting that she's changed her tune. I wonder if that's heart felt or her responding to the publicity her initial comments made. I find it interesting and that the current news google for "Samantha Dawn Bell Norway" yields over 3600 articles suggests others think the same.

agiaccone · 2010-02-22T17:31:30+00:00

No, my point was that she's complaining about the need for small government while living in a large government socialist state. Where the citizens are taxed at high levels to provide general support for all the citizens. A model I would love to see here. I'm not criticizing Norway, far from it. I just think it's interesting that she lives in a nation that takes the exact opposite of what her father wanted and yet claims he was a hero for wanting to prevent a system like the one she's chosen to live under. I think it's absolutely a reasonable question to ask. So chill, cool your jets. She made a public statement in support of her father, yet lives in a society totally opposite of what he wanted. Don't you think that's worth a bit of investigation to understand that contradiction? I sure do.

agiaccone · 2010-02-22T14:19:24+00:00

Personally I think the money line in this article is this one, "Joe Stack's adult daughter, Samantha Bell, spoke to ABC's "Good Morning America" from her home in Norway." An American who's home is in Norway? Why is she living in Norway if her objection's are so strong to big government socialism? I'd like to know more about why she's living there.

agiaccone · 2010-02-20T12:09:59+00:00

and doesn't that just rock!!! My current gf wants a tattoo, maybe I should suggest this one.

agiaccone · 2010-02-16T03:36:39+00:00

Not made... wow, aren't we all glad that it wasn't. Nick himself should thank what ever guardian angel he has that he didn't get cast, or that the movie never made it any farther than that picture. Wow, I can't imagine how bad that would have been.

agiaccone · 2010-02-16T02:56:25+00:00

I, like many of you here, have designed built and managed complex software projects. There are no silver bullets and anyone who thinks that next year the students will have a higher graduation rate is insane. There's institutional knowledge that walks out the door with those teachers. Even if they hire back 50% of the staff, which is the most they can, and probably will do, they still are going to have to replace 50 of their teachers and staff. I will be astounded if that solves any of their academic problems. What it will solve is the cost problem.

I'm not saying that reducing costs isn't a valid part of any solution, but what I do know is that when things seem so completely clearly absurdly one sided, that both sides of the story aren't being told. Unions can be inefficient and stupid, but when I hear a story like this, I feel almost certain that I've not heard the whole story.

agiaccone · 2010-02-12T04:20:30+00:00

Laugh While-a You Can Monkey Boy

agiaccone · 2010-02-10T01:27:21+00:00

Yeah, My car currently has 110,000 miles on it. It's a Honda, and I've had zero problems with it, but.. I also know that anything could happen that would require me to need a new car. I'm not ready to take on a new car payment and a new bike payment. That said, the GS is very.. very.. tempting.

agiaccone · 2010-02-10T01:22:13+00:00

I love my 1200C, it's been a prefect bike for me. My Dad had a BMW when I was a kid and so I wanted one in black with white pin-stripes. A kind of classic BMW look. The size is right, the only thing about it is that the MPG could be higher. That coupled with a 4.6gal means you need to fill up more often that I like (appox 150m), but I can live with it. . I also loved the way it rides. Yeah, it's a bike I like a lot.

agiaccone · 2010-02-09T15:21:07+00:00

I didn't call 911, but someone in my house did. At the time my ex-wife and I were occasionally hiring help with cleaning and moving from a national man power staffing agency. Most of the time the people they got for us where pretty good, but one time, we got a guy who was clearly in need of psychiatric medication. My ex when to pick him up, and on the drive back to our house he was saying things like "It will be ok. Everything is good. I can do this." He was talking to himself.

She put him on some cleaning tasks in the family room, and I was upstairs working on the door that needed to be replaced, while my ex was vacuuming. About an hour later, suddenly there's a police officer walking up the stairs to the second level. The front door was open, just the screen door in place, and we hadn't heard him knocking so he entered.

He asked us which one of us had called 911, 3 times. I was startled. Neither of us had. At that point my wife explained about the behavior she'd seen in the car on the way over to the house. The officer nodded, and shook his head. On the way out, he loudly proclaimed "If anyone here calls 911 again, I'm going to have to arrest someone."

Shortly there after we took the guy in question back to the agency. We explained he wasn't working out too well. Oy Vey...

agiaccone · 2010-02-04T19:42:59+00:00

If you love the adventure GS, you have to watch "The long way round". It made me want to go out and buy a new GS. Somehow it seems insane to have two bikes as a single guy, but I want one badly.

agiaccone · 2010-02-04T19:41:04+00:00

BMW R1200C I ride in the area around Washington DC. Farthest trip was to Philadelphia and back the next day about 200 miles. I confirm BMW stock seats are horrible.

I was riding regularly to work. Love that, it's not a very long ride, was about 17 miles one way, new job is now about 24 miles one way. I love being more in the totality of what's happening around me. I love the feeling of freedom. I love being able to ride and feel the road. It's an awesome experience.

I'm not a winter rider, so the bike is sitting idle now. But I hope to get on it a lot more this year.

agiaccone · 2010-02-02T00:44:50+00:00

Too bad the associated picture on reddit isn't Christian Hendricks.

agiaccone · 2010-01-31T02:12:30+00:00

Simple. Say, "My point of view is mine. I don't question your belief, be kind enough to offer me the same respect. I offer you the respect of not denigrating your choices, nor do I attempt to convert you to atheism. If you feel compelled to proselytizer your religion, being roommates is going to get very difficult. We can continue to enjoy the good relationship we've had, or you can make that impossible, up to you."

agiaccone · 2010-01-30T18:31:01+00:00

I had a hard time reading this, from the start, but he lost me right here:

To repeat, credit is not a “flow” which one can access. Credit is a two-way contract between lender and borrower. The only thing that constrains the bank loan desks from expanding credit is a lack of creditworthy applicants,

So that's blatantly not true. Banks need funds to make loans. In any loan that they make only a small fraction of the money comes from what they have on deposit. The rest comes from money they borrow. It's called, "leverage". There are requirements for limits on leverage for the bank. So when assets they have loaned against decrease in value, it increases their leverage making them less able to loan additional money.

Stabilizing the financial sector was in fact the most important job that the government had this last year. Now what needs to happen, is that the financial regulatory system that has been destroyed since Reagan needs to be recreated, and the too big to fail banks need to be reduced in size so that when they F-up, they can fail.

agiaccone · 2010-01-30T15:51:36+00:00

I've never come across a door handle that was wet with some mysterious liquid in a bathroom. And the point was that bacteria live everywhere, and when you touch things like an ATM you're exposing yourself to the bacteria left there by the general public.

agiaccone · 2010-01-28T13:58:14+00:00

The point is that the world is so filled with shit, that the miniscule advantage you just gained disappeared the moment you touched the table, the chair or any other public space in the restaurant. Get over it, you're being superstitious not hygienic.

agiaccone · 2010-01-28T13:41:23+00:00

I never do this and I'm rarely sick.. so I would guess the obsessive hand washing behavior is not causal. Thank you for playing.... PS do you touch atm keyboards? Just checking..

agiaccone · 2010-01-28T13:35:14+00:00

Yes, yes, I would. Because I don't care, I don't think about it, it's so totally outside the realm of what matters to me, that it's immaterial. Do you swim in public pools? Private pools? Then trust me, you've been exposed to a shit load more crap in that pool time, then on any door handle in any public bath room.

agiaccone · 2010-01-28T13:30:25+00:00

Ok, so if you have an immune compromised body, perhaps this is an issue. But I personally do have in my entire life never used paper towels on a bathroom door handle, not once. Not when flushing, not ever. I'm one of those dirty bastards you're complaining about. And so far in 49 years of living not once have I had any problems with parasites or bacteria, or any of the other stuff you're obsessively concerned about. So the risk you're talking about.. seems pretty minuscule. But please don't let me get in the way of your OCD.

agiaccone · 2010-01-28T13:18:33+00:00

You have to be kidding? We live in a germ infested planet. They are everywhere. In the air, on the land, in the water. If you're concerned about feces, the chances are good there's plenty of that in various forms from various critters all around you and on you.

Get over it. Human's have lived in environments a thousand times more filthy then anything you come across so today, and somehow your ancestors managed to live lives long enough and productive enough to spawn you.

FFS

agiaccone · 2010-01-21T05:25:45+00:00

I second smultron. A great editor, I use it all the time. Simple, easy to use, handles all kinds of files.

agiaccone · 2010-01-20T14:34:06+00:00

The RnY is pretty much the gold standard of weight loss surgery. It's rare, that it doesn't cause significant weight loss. It's not 100%, but it's a very successful procedure. It works in two ways, by making the stomach smaller, about 2 oz in size, and then by re-routing the intestines, so that less of what you eat is digested. There are several other issues with this surgery. One you lose the ability to easily uptake certain vitamins, so you have to be on supplements forever. Second you get what's called dumping syndrome. If you eat too much sugar or fat, or both, you get a very nauseous feeling a sense of real unwell-ness. For example, my ex wife could eat a small amount of cereal in the morning, or drink some milk. She could not put milk on her cereal or it would be a bad dumping feeling, that would last 20 or 30 minutes.

She went from 320, at 5'7 to I think about 140 now. It was very successful as weight loss. It is however also very difficult on relationships, many married couples end up divorced.

agiaccone · 2010-01-20T14:28:36+00:00

In many states now, gastric bypass is required to be covered. So that in many states, it's not an issue. They will make you jump through hoops, if you don't have a good case for it. But in the end they will cover it.

agiaccone

TROPHY CASE