Father Torches Car in Protest Over Child Support

Anchorage Daily News ^ | October 18, 2002 | Tataboline Brant

[RogerFGay]

CHILD SUPPORT: Officials say suspect had threatened staff before.

Two floors of the 19-story Atwood Building were evacuated Thursday morning after a man parked his blue Mercedes near the building's entrance, doused the car with gasoline and set it ablaze.

[RogerFGay]

Blatantly bigoted editorial.

[RogerFGay]

Blatantly bigoted editorial.

[dighton]

Tataboline alert.

[IronJack]

"Child support workers in the building have been afraid of something like this,"

So they KNOW how much they're hated?

It was upsetting to staff members. ... These are just people trying to do their job."

So were the guards at Treblinka.

"We're certainly aware that some people don't like what we do,"

I can't imagine THAT! People don't like being robbed??!!

"People shouldn't have to be afraid to come to work,"

On the contrary, they SHOULD, if their "job" involves stealing money from people in the name of the State.

[RogerFGay]

What kind of name is Tataboline?

[dighton]

What kind of name is Tataboline?

An extremely unusual or unique one, belonging (I'd guess) in the category of "invented to attract attention." Google turns up only Ms. Brant for that "Tataboline."

BTW, I'm not giving an opinion about her article, just pinging a few name-collectors.

[cornelis]

"These are just people trying to do their job"

Jones and Heimmler were a good meticulous clerks.

[null and void]

Office workers didn't take any chances Thursday morning when they saw Magby's distinctive car on fire. The second and third floors where the enforcement division has offices were evacuated.

Any bets on whether they advised anyone else to evacuate the building?...

[null and void]

She was named after her tata's...

[RogerFGay]

Tataboline Brant's article about Jed Magby's protest over child support was blatantly bigoted. Federal funding for child support enforcement is provided in proportion to the amount of child support paid. Child support formulae have replaced rational law in deciding child support amounts. Due process is dead. The formulae produce arbitrarily high child support awards. No reasonable and informed person could agree that amounts ordered as "child support" today are generally "valid." Every form of protest has been tried and millions of appeals have been filed to no avail. By refusing to acknowledge the corruption in the child support system and the legitimate complaints of fathers in the press, writers like Tataboline Brant cut off access to the remaining established institution for peacefully addressing grievances. Men in Alaska and throughout the rest of the United States feel that they have no choice but to consider other forms of protest. I sincerely believe that most child support enforcement workers know that what they are involved in is wrong, yet they continue to do it. If nothing else, it's their job. State Department of Revenue deputy commissioner Larry Persily knows that maintaining public support requires blaming the victims. I certainly hope that Anchorage Daily News will publish many letters to the editor and counterpoint op-eds to bring some balance to blatantly bigoted coverage of the event.

225 words max, letters to the editor

[BuddhaBoy]

Every time I see an article like this, I am glad I dont have any children. I have come to consider children as the conduit of government intrusion into the life of an individual.

Kids are wonderful things, but I feel very fortunate not to have any.

[longtermmemmory]

ahh more fallout from the "great society" initiative of the 60's. It went from trying to help women without husbands to outright discouraging women from having husbands. Fathers went from a family pillar to a family burden.

Well done democrats.

[null and void]

Just out of curiosity, does Alaska have the same charming custom of revoking driver licenses for failure to pay child support that other states (like California, for example) have?

Torching one's own car might be a pretty to-the-point way of expressing displeasure with this particular policy...

[null and void]

Kids are wonderful things, but I feel very fortunate not to have any.

I feel very fortunate to have two.

Even now when I have $2200 a month due in child support, and no job...

[RogerFGay]

Just out of curiosity, does Alaska have the same charming custom of revoking driver licenses for failure to pay child support that other states (like California, for example) have?

States are quite uniform in the unconstitutional things they do in relation to child support. That's because the whole system is now driven by federal funding. When you read an article about local officials coming up with an idea on their own initiative -- they're lying.

[null and void]

When you read an article about local officials coming up with an idea on their own initiative -- they're lying.

Still, it's a great way for a Washington bureaucrat to float a trial balloon, and have a low level flunky take the heat...

[independentmind]

The men's right crowd here on FR steadfastly refuses to acknowledge the single biggest flaw in its approach. The inner workings of the family have traditionally been seen as outside the domain of the state. It is divorce more than anything else which invites the state to interfere in areas in which it has no business, and in which it more likely to do harm than good. Revising child custody laws will do absolutely nothing to correct the situation. In fact, I think such policies may have the effect of further devaluing the importance of motherhood to society.

You men want an easy way out. Work on your marriages more, and you won't have to deal with these problems in the first place.

[RogerFGay]

Still, it's a great way for a Washington bureaucrat to float a trial balloon, and have a low level flunky take the heat...

They've been doing it far too long now to think of any of it as trial balloons. One of the reasons these old ideas are presented locally is to give the impression that they're new ideas -- they're lying. They're also pretending that the Constitution is still in effect; like that our lives are not really controlled by central committees and "Great Architects" just like Stalins USSR and Mao's China.

[RogerFGay]

I take it you're a divorced women with children, or are very close to someone who is.

[general_re]

...just pinging a few name-collectors.

Wee need to see about introducing some of these people to each other. "Mr. and Mrs. Hampig and Tataboline Sassounian" has a very nice ring to it.