Thursday, February 28, 2013

Federal government tyranny at Waco: 20 years ago today

It's amazing how time flies.  It was 20 years ago today - February 28, 1993 - that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms conducted their infamous raid on the Branch Davidian community outside Waco, Texas.

The ATF were purportedly there to serve an arrest warrant on Davidian leader, David Koresh, for federal firearms violations.  As a local sheriff stated at the time, if the ATF had wanted to do that, they could have picked up Koresh while he was jogging.  Instead, the ATF attacked the Branch Davidians with almost 100 agents who transported to the Davidians' home in huge horse trailers pulled by pickup trucks.  In the ensuing firefight, six Davidians and and four ATF agents were killed.  That is the part of the story that happened 20 years ago today.  Fifty-one days later, the FBI and U.S. military troops conducted an assault on the 80-or-so Branch Davidians who were still holed up in their facility.  After pumping the building full of highly flammable CS gas, the assault set off a fire that destroyed the Branch Davidian facility and almost everyone in it, including dozens of young children.

It was one of the most shameful episodes of government tyranny in United States history, and no one in the federal or Texas state government paid any kind of penalty for it.  Looking back, the Waco Raid and the ensuing siege and deadly assault can be looked at as a test case for the federal government finding out more precisely what they were able to get away with.  They certainly found that it is imperative that if you successfully demonize your opposition, there is no limit to what the dumb masses out there will tolerate.

I will always remember that the siege was still underway when a quickie TV movie was aired in which the federal agents were lionized and whenever the actor playing Koresh was on the screen, ominous music played in the background.  Again, this TV movie aired BEFORE the April 19th assault and fire took place.  The government and their lapdog media realized how imperative it was that the narrative be set as quickly as possible; and keep in mind, this was before the buzzword "narrative" was really used like it is today.

Were the beliefs of the Branch Davidians weird?  I think so.  Did their beliefs justify what was done to them?  Not even close.  What was especially poignant was that one of the primary justifications that Attorney General Janet Reno gave for what ensued was that there were reports of child molestation within the Branch Davidian community.  So Reno's way of saving these children was to incinerate them?

The summer of 1992 had seen the Ruby Ridge/Randy Weaver fiasco in which FBI agents and U.S. Marshals under the George H.W. Bush administration carried out an assault on one American family in Idaho.  You remember that one right?  Where federal agents shot Randy Weaver's teenage son in the back and then later shot his wife in the head while she held their infant child?  That was one of the first indicators to the American people that some sort of shift was beginning to take place.  But the Weaver Affair was small potatoes compared to the Waco massacre of the following year.

As bad as Waco was, we now have an occupier in the White House who makes Bill Clinton seem moderate and reasonable by comparison.  I shudder to think what Barack Obama is capable of doing if given the right circumstances.  He has already shown himself to be willing to take out children by the bushel with overseas drone strikes.  The current fear is that those drones are soon to be unleashed upon We the People.

If you ever want to watch an informative, riveting, maddening, and heartbreaking account of what took place at Waco during February-April 1993, watch the Academy Award-nominated documentary Waco: The Rules of EngagementYou can watch it in its entirety on YouTube.  The Congressional hearing footage showing those rats like Chuckie Schumer, John Conyers, and other statist snakes will make your blood boil.  For a comprehensive book on the subject, I suggest The Ashes of Waco by Dick Reavis.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson


Thursday, February 21, 2013

Pro-2nd Amendment Rally this Saturday, .223


For the record, that is:

When:  February 23, 2013 (.223) at High Noon (12pm)

Where: California Veterans Memorial Obelisk
13th and Capitol Streets
Sacramento CA State Capitol Park

Additional Info:  Call 916-764-0708

I plan on trying to make it to this event.  I will be the one with a holster strapped to my hip with a banana in the holster to symbolize our governments' (federal and state) attempts to disarm us.

 "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Out: "To Protect and To Serve" In: "To Intimidate and To Show Power"

As the insanity continues to ramp up regarding the statist control freaks among us, and their attempts to disarm the American people, we were today provided with a little glimpse into the mind of one of those statist control freaks.

Let us begin with a little quote from the Chief of Police of the city of Emeryville, California:
One issue that always boggles my mind is that the idea that a gun is a defensive weapon. That is a myth. A gun is not a defensive weapon. A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and show power....
Wow. I don't quite know what to do with that statement.

First of all, a little geographic context is needed.  Emeryville is in the San Francisco Bay Area.  It is sandwiched in between Berkeley to its north, and Oakland to its south, and is the last community you pass on the I-80 Freeway before beginning your trek across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.  What other kind of person would you expect to be hired to run the police department of a city with that kind of location?

To shamelessly use a gun metaphor, the Chief's comments are a prime example of what can happen when you speak with your brain half-cocked.  Is the Chief actually saying that his Emeryville police officers are going around intimidating and showing their power to the citizens of that fair city?  Is he saying that is what all armed police officers around our nation are doing?

That comment should easily justify the termination of this man's employment with the city of Emeryville, and woe to any other city who would have the gumption to hire this man as their chief of police.

For the record, it is estimated that guns are used defensively somewhere between 800,000 and 2.5 million times per year.  Apparently, no one thought to mention this to the Chief, or he doesn't want to hear it.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be."  -Thomas Jefferson