Hi Rob, The ATF concerns about illegal munitions (where I live, if two of your neighbors think you're a nutter, they can have the government seize your guns) were a federal pretext fronting for regional allegations of child abuse. Texas seems to have (not unlike some other states) interesting uses of (local) state power to protect children from their parents. Not unlike the Mormons, Koresh may have been a little too inerrent in his biblical interpretations such as the ones on polygamy (I never can find the one on heavy metal rock music). Will our various anti-government militias erect a cenotaph in Waco like the one near the Alamo where the Mexicans burned the piled-up bodies of the defenders? Or was that the reason for Oklahoma City? Ann ----- Original Message ----- From: Rob Schaap <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, August 29, 1999 3:36 AM Subject: [PEN-L:10443] Re: Waco and the Lesser of Two Evils > The Waco thing was aired on Oz TV a few months ago (non-commercial telly > here is terrific between about 11.00 and 2.00am - which suits non-sleepers > like me - and our least-funded station (SBS - multilingual, soccer, world > movies, more soccer, and often surprisingly radical stuff) goes in for lots > of those relatively cheap US video-docos (there was a beauty on the Panama > slaughter, too) that don't make the technical grade for US networks (or are > just not gonna get on - as per those filters Chomsky and Herman outline in > chapter one of their terrific *Manufacturing Consent*). > > Anyway, a wholly convincing show on yet another of those episodes that > gives meaning to that 'only in America' slogan. That big-time murder went > on (those twisted little charred corpses of kiddies killed by cyanide fumes > shall stay with me forever) seems beyond doubt to me, but the thing we > never got to hear was what *really* caused the trouble in the first place. > In a landscape dotted by charismatic would-be christ-figures and > armed-to-the-teeth 'citizens' militias', what was it about Koresh's mob > that stood out to the authorities? I never really understood that. > > Cheers, > Rob. > >
