Paging Michael Douglas

I feel, sort of, cheated.

No Whammy Burgers.

We refer to, of course, yesterday's action of one, seriously deranged, likely-mentally-ill Joseph Andrew Stack, flying his airplane into the Austin, Texas building, that housed the local area Internal Revenue Services offices.

Subsequently, as Cable News went into DefCon 5, wall-to-wall coverage, a ranting manifesto was unearthed, with Stack writing that he was wronged, by just about everyone, except, possibly, SpongeBob SquarePants.

Yeah! ... Power to the people! ... Down with The Man!

Trouble is, for Stack, a serious lack of imagination.

We've seen this movie before, specifically, back in 1993, with 'Falling Down', starring Michael Douglas.

Douglas's character was an engineer, just like Stack, felt like he was getting screwed, just like Stack, and then snaps, just like Stack, except, this was in the day before flying airplanes into buildings was in vogue, so Douglas's character goes on a romping, engaging rampage through the city (Los Angeles), including, visiting, and shooting up, the above-referenced Whammy Burgers.



What did Stack give us?

A charred IRS office (if, indeed, he did hit their office, since other businesses also occupied the building), in the center of Nowheresville, Austin, Texas.



Not sure Douglas is gonna want to sign up for this sequel.

So, today, we had the usual follow-up, with the Flying Monkeys of the Right Wing Freak Show, throwing feces at anybody dare say he was one of them, or a Teabagger (with his flaming manifesto, this guy could have had a "E" Ticket to any one of about a dozen tinfoil hat entities), while others, including the Obama Administration downplayed the "terrorism" angle, leading David Neiwert, over on Crooks and Liars, to ask "Huh? Since when is attempting to blow up a federal building NOT an act of domestic terrorism?"

Now, this might have boiled over, and ruptured, with the heat of Three Mile Island, except, Mister-Flying-Into-Buildings-Manifesto, again, didn't plan this out all the way.

Tiger Woods held court this morning, causing Cable News to go to DefCon 6, and bring in every talking head following it, to parse every single word Mister Can't-Keep-His-Golf-Club-In-His-Bag had to say (and, for our money, Woods came off like the President of the National Honor Society, apologizing for getting caught drinking at the Home Coming Dance).

Tough going in the Lone Wolf Revolution biz.

Zinger of the Week Goes To Joan Walsh!

We have to heart Joan Walsh today, with her "I heart Dede Scozzafava ...I promised to blog from vacation if Bill Owens won NY23; here's my lazy compromise."

I semi-promised to blog from vacation if Democrat Bill Owens defeated Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, the right-wing carpetbagger backed by jobless Sarah Palin, in the NY-23 race. I did that because, um, I didn't think Owens could possibly win. But he did, and now I've got 20 minutes free before my next hike with Sadie, and here's the best I can do: My Twitter stream from last night, as I watched the returns on MSNBC with Anne Lamott and our three dogs.

Okay, she's solid.

She said, even if halfheartedly, that she would duke Bill Owens, if he won, and she did.

The NY-23 was where a flock of Flying Monkeys, including Mommy Moose, the former leader of the Free Alaska, ganged up on the Republican Scozzafava, because she wasn't deranged enough, backing the Flying Monkey who didn't even live in the district.

And, why does Joan Walsh heart Dede Scozzafaza?

I just want to say one extra thing: It's got to be great to be Dede Scozzafaza today. She gives me hope that moderate Republicans will either come to their senses and take their party back, or more likely, become Democrats.

That will only get a few of the Flying Monkey to throw feces at each other.

The real zinger, the zinger of the week, came at the end of the post, speaking to Ms. Ya Betcha's involvement, and her sterling work record;

See you Monday -- unless there's really big news, like Sarah Palin quits whatever she's currently doing, again.

Whatever happens Joan, when the Flying Monkeys swoop in on you, don't cave-in like Letterman.

Good Post Alert: Unitarian Forgiveness

We haven't done a great many posts on the idiocy of the 2nd Amendment, and the "right to bear arms".

Most recently, we covered the tradegy at Virginia Tech, and, of course, we had to give Chuck Heston a proper send-off.

So, rather than rail against the nitwit that shot up the Unitarians last weekend, we give way to a better voice.

Over on Crooks and Liars, Nicolle Bell hosted Guest Blogger NonnyMouse, who penned "Unitarian Forgiveness".

Here's a snip of it;

What is, however, was his target - Unitarians. Members of a church renown for its pacifism, compassion and tolerance. We welcome anyone - men and women of any colour and nationality, of any religious or ethnic background, or sexuality. We even welcome conservatives.

My anger instead is concentrated on those people who callously use such vulnerable people, stirring up their bigotry and discontent, egging them to acts of violence. People like Michelle Malkin, Michael Savage, Bill O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh who have made lucrative careers out of liberal-bashing. People who write things like “Liberalism is a Mental Health Disorder”, “Let Freedom Ring,” and “The O’Reilly Factor,” - all literature found in Adkisson’s home after the shooting. People like Ann Coulter who advocated attacking liberals with baseball bats. The hate-filled spewage from the right-wing media mavens is and should be held accountable for inciting such acts of violence and murder, those heartless, soulless, conscienceless opportunists who have gleefully participated in encouraging the Adkissons of America to take out their anger and hatred and frustration on liberals.

And in the wake of the anger is pride. Despite my sadness that people were targeted for their choice of church, I have never before been so proud to be a Unitarian, as well as a liberal. Those liberals the rightwing continue to denigrate as weak-kneed cowards proved to be anything but. McKendry was the first to confront Adkisson, to stop him from going any further into the church, before several men rushed Adkisson after several shots had been fired, his victims already covered in blood. They have names too: A history professor, John Bohstedt, and Jamie Parkey, just ordinary people. But people who still prove the very best in America still exists. ‘Someone grabbed the gun and we just kind of dog-piled him to the floor’, Parkey said. His wife, Amy, described Adkisson - not as a villain, not as an evil man, not with hatred - but as ‘a man who was hurt in the world and feeling nothing was going his way. He turned the gun on people who were mostly likely to treat him lovingly and compassionately and be the ones to help someone in that situation.’ I wept when I read those words.

Go check out "Unitarian Forgiveness", it's a good read.