Oregon militia standoff is unconstitutional

[anigbrowl]

13. "If I owed the Gov one dollar they would slap a lien on my home in minutes."

Twice in the past decade I have received letters from the IRS telling me I owed extra taxes and that I'd better pay up. One time they were right, but I was lazy about sending it in. They sent me another letter to advise me that they'd charged me an additional $2 in interest and that I should really get on top of it. My check cross that letter in mail and when I called them up they told me not to worry about it.

This year they wrote and said I owed them $1000. I guessed what the problem was and sent them the relevant documentation. they asked again a month later. This time I enclosed a short letter and another copy of the documentation explaining why I thought they were in error. They agreed, and wrote back to apologize and advise me that I would be receiving a refund instead.

As regards these yahoos in Oregon, I have no sympathy for them but if you look at historical parallels the government usually takes its time unless there's some imminent threat to life involved, notwithstanding the existence of structural racism and so on. Even in past situations where there has been unjustifiable use of force against political protesters, it has generally come at the end of a very protracted standoff.

I don't want to ever be the target of a raging authoritarian overreaction, but nor do I ever want to promote such a thing against others even when I hold completely opposite political views.