First, I'm sorry about that last post. I was angry when I wrote it because David posted this story on another site and I had been there reading the debate that followed. It was flat out stupidity for the most part and because David posted the story and I posted it here the two of us somehow became thought of as followers of Ed Brown, or right wing fruitcakes, or guys that want to vote for Ron Paul. Anybody that reads us here would clearly find this amusing. The thing is there are people, and on the Daily Kos site this moron who goes by Geekesque falls directly into this category, that exhibit a thought process that does not go beyond "they broke the rules, they pay the price." Hey, welcome back to the 5th grade. Our TV society has seemed to spawn a large group of people who quickly judge anybody that flashes across the screen. If you exhibit any sort of behavior that people might find slightly different...well...they slap the nutjob label on you and begin to marginalize you right away. If you're somebody they can label a kook who may come to a bloody end...you are a fucking superstar and your life is now worth nothing more than ratings and papers sold. No consideration is given to what led to the Browns being in the situation they are now in. The papers and news reports and the federal government say they are criminals so that's good enough for a lot of people and we should just let the chips fall where they may and go get a burger.

Sorry, but obviously a lot of these people are more interested in judging these people first and once they have made up their mind...ok, KILL 'EM!

So what are the "crimes" the Browns committed? Well, they did not pay their taxes and for some reason to a lot of people that do pay their taxes and "follow the rules" somehow this is grounds for execution. The second thing they did, or to be more specific Ed Brown did, was to walk out of court after he was told he could not present his arguments. So they convicted him in absentia. Basically he went home and locked himself in his house. His wife stayed and attempted to bargain with the court but failed to get anywhere and she was fitted with an ankle bracelet and told she could stay with her son in Worcester, MA. Prior to this their major crime spree and what made them a danger to society was that she was a dentist and he worked in I think pest control. Now some people may want to kill their dentist so I guess that might explain the folks that feel she's getting what she deserves.

Now, you know they sent an army to download the information on a computer that belonged to the Browns. Seriously, snipers and everything. They probably did this because Ed Brown was a "constitution ranger" which as far as I can tell was some loosely formed group that had a fondness for our Constitution and telling people about how our government often violated it. This I'm sure got Ed the "nut" label and they figured they better come to get him with a full battalion and while they were at it check what he might have up his ass because you know folks who bother to read the Constitution must be the type that hide things up their ass.

The thing is, the Browns appear to be people you can negotiate with and to me it makes sense to send in a team to do just that. Back the army away from their front door and try talking to them first. I believe all of the negotiations should be recorded and they should not set a time limit on them. This way nobody gets killed and the guns can be put away. The Browns have not shot at anybody and they don't have a record of going around killing people. I see no reason to send an army in after these folks. This was about the government wanting their money, the Browns not paying, and then walking out of court.

I'd like to think that most of our society can see the value of negotiation. Nobody gets hurt and the Browns even have the money to pay off the government if they work this out. Or we can all act like George W. Bush and bomb everybody we think might do something sometime in the future. Oh, and when your kid takes that extra piece of cake after you told him not to and then back talks you to boot...chop off his fucking hand to teach him a lesson.

I don't want to see anybody hurt, the Browns, the cops, the feds...it would be wrong if there is any kind of bloodshed over this bullshit.