AT LEAST HE GOT HIS OWN WIKIPEDIA PAGE...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malachi_Ritscher

And all he had to do was sit down on the side of the road, douse himself with gasoline, and strike a match. The saddest, most bizzare aspect of Malachi Ritscher's futile act is that it took almost a month for anyone to notice.

Ritscher complained, in his suicide note, of the tragic machinations of the U.S. Government that allowed us to go into Iraq and to kill innocent civilians. He also lamented the high cost of gasoline, and the destruction of the environment by Americans.

It took nearly a month for anyone to notice that he had killed himself.

Ritscher also expressed remorse that he had not followed through on his plans to assassinate (former) Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld. It also took nearly a month for anyone to notice that he had killed himself.

The real tragedy of Ritscher's action, aside from the fact that he committed suicide on the side of a busy expressway, at rush hour, is that no one stopped to try to avert this sad and shameless display of selfishness and stupidity. The second tragedy is that no one noticed for almost a month.

For the record, Iraq is a mess. Not for the reasons that Ritscher expounded; but, rather, because radical Islam continues to foment rebellion, to kill innocents, and to disrupt what is surely the will of the broader Iraqi citizenry to live in a peaceful, democratic society.

Rather than die a senseless (if not spectacular) death, Ritscher could have done something positive with the years remaining on this earth. He could have done charitable work. He could have run for office. He could have gotten a job. Instead, he chose to go out in a blaze of glory (or up in a puff of smoke, you decide).

The upside, he got his own Wikipedia page. And, he got his fifteen minutes of fame. It just took nearly a month for anyone to notice.