Don't Boobytrap Your Backyard Before the Tax Man Comes

Tax protestor Ed Brown is finding out that it probably wasn't a good idea to line his property with pipe bombs and black powder cans to keep away federal agents.

According to an AP story,  Brown also got into a staring match with the judge who ordered him to stop his outbursts during his testimony in his federal weapons trial. Was that a good idea? Probably not.

The judge got so upset that he ordered the jury out of the room and threatened Brown that if he didn't follow his orders, he would be removed from the courtroom and his testimony stricken from the record. Brown didn't get along so well either with the judge in his previous trial. So much so that Brown simply stopped showing up at court out of sheer frustration when the judge wouldn't allow the defendant's witnesses to testify about his tax strategies. Major debits on that move.

He did claim that he just left the pipe bombs and powder cans around his property because he was afraid of another Waco or Ruby Ridge incident occurring after the federal agents came calling on him, and he only meant to scare them away, not harm them.

Hopefully he'll get the benefit of the doubt, though right now it doesn't sound as if the judge is very favorably disposed toward his arguments.