Am I turing into an anti-government nut?


1993, Waco, TX

April 19th is fast approaching, so we recently re-watched Waco: The Rules of Engagement (via demonoid, as per usual). If you've never seen this documentary, it's a must for all Americans.

If you already distrust your government, it will steel you harder against the do-as-they-please, overseen-by-no-one, answerable-only-to-post-action-federal-review-boards (comprised of their good old boy golf buddies) agencies that operate against us on a daily basis. The agencies that watch our every move and monitor our every communication "to protect us". If you're never given the situation much thought, you might be surprised at how outraged you are by the whole situation. Even if EVERYTHING the government says happened at Waco is true (ha!), the ATF still illegally executed a warrant operation on private citizens in order to make a big PR splash. When the ATF dug themselves deeper than they could get out, the FBI swooped in and tortured innocent women and children with CS gas and psychological warfare.

While I disagree with the necessity of firearms for any human, and believe they should be outlawed (yes yes, then only outlaws will have them, thanks, cody) they are currently legal in this country. It is legal to stockpile weapons. It is legal to live on a crazy compound in the middle of nowhere. It is legal to have crazy religious belief, and to live your life based around a completely ludicrous set of rules, ideals and dogmas (I am, of course, referring to christians in general, not the Davidians specifically, but the same holds true). In Texas, it's even legal to marry a 14 year old girl if her parents consent to it. The Waco raid was predicated solely on the fact that a number of the Davidians COMPLETELY LEGAL AK-47s had been modified to be fully automatic. That's it.

The federal government murdered thirty-four women and twenty-three children after a 51 day siege on their home. While I'm not postive the FBI set the building on fire on purpose, they none the less set up a situation virtually guaranteeing the deaths of the Branch Davidians.

Is that a very simplistic view of the situation? Yes, but so is the government's stance that they were a dangerous cult who raped young girls, beat babies, killed ATF agents in cold blood and committed mass suicide. Neither of these things are the exact truth, but my version is much, much closer. Please watch the movie and check out the information Carol Moore (not a crazy religious nut) has on her excellent and in depth site about the tragedy.

That's my serious post for the day. Back to work!
- posted by Mason @ 1:04 PM