or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
April 21, 2005
Dennis Perrin On Killer Liberals
Dennis Perrin accurately points out that the progressive online world has barely noticed that this past Tuesday was the 12th anniversary of the Waco attack. I did my part by blithely forgetting about it. Moreover, I'm embarrassed to say that until the second I read Dennis' post I didn't know the federal government had managed to kill SEVENTY-FOUR people at Waco.
Among other useful sources, Dennis points to Gore Vidal's article "The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh", Justin Raimondo's examination of the parallel justifications for Waco and Iraq, and something from the surprisingly well-written World Socialist Web Site.
Posted at April 21, 2005 09:27 AM | TrackBackJonathan,
If you have not seen "Waco: The Rules of Engagement," I suggest you check it out. While possibly overly sympathetic to the Branch Davidians, the film clearly demonstrates how the US government used torturous chemicals in massive amounts on the people inside the compound, including the many children the government said it was trying to protect.
While I have seen contradictory evidence about how the fires started, there is nothing contradicting how the government used specially armed tanks to tear giant holes in the buildings and spray tons of chemical weapons inside. The children were likely the worst afflicted by this because gas masks are not designed to fit kids.
The government's response to this criticism was that it was the parents' fault for not bring the kids out following the gassing.
It makes me sick to think about it. Remember that the original goal was to arrest Koresh, who could have been nabbed on one of his many trips to town. The accusations about the children being abused was only raised after the ATF raid disaster, and nothing was ever proven about that.
It was wrong for the Davidians to fire on those agents, but the ATF/FBI response was worse.
Take care.
Colin
Posted by: Colin at April 21, 2005 11:47 AMThe progressive online world has largely ignored that this past Tuesday was the 230th anniversary of the second-largest, and arguably most important, armed insurrection on American soil. April 19, 1775, local militias in Concord fired on a British regiment marching out to confiscate gunpowder, or something. It's been a while. Anyway, a bunch of people died. A year or so later the colonies declared independence. They quickly set to squabbling, much like the Iraqis today, over what seemed like mortal differences in politics. They turned out to be mortal differences, but it took four score and seven years for that to play out.
The progressive blogosphere has also largely failed to notice that April 19, known thereabouts as Patriots Day, is the date of the annual Boston Marathon, in which thousands struggle to overcome the ennui which suffuses the Boston region. Give them some credit!
Why is it that I get nervous every April 19?
Posted by: sb at April 22, 2005 06:42 AM
