Tuesday, April 08, 2008

The Republic of Branch Polygomists

Texas has been home to several groups of crazies that have holed up and had some sort of show down with the authorities. In 1993, we had the infamous Branch Davidians in Wacko, I mean Waco. In that instance David Koresh was convinced that God wanted him to arm a handful of nut jobs to take on the evil government and to impregnate all of the women in the compound irregardless of martial status or age. Good times!

Then in 1996, the world was introduced to the Republic of Texas. Richard McLaren believed that Texas was a captive of the U.S. government and that we never really rejoined the union after the Civil War. So after the lawsuits failed he decided that the best way to free Texas from the captivity of the U.S. government would be to take a couple of hostages. McLaren led one of three factions of the Republic of Texas. After another faction was dissolved (convictions for threats to assassinate government officials will do that), the remaining faction set up its government in Overton, Texas. However, the headquarters burned to the ground in 2003. There are still other Republic of Texas groups out there. Even my neighbor and I had a Republic of Texas Embassy when we lived in New Orleans. Basically, we hung up a Texas flag between our apartments and made a sign.

Now we have the freaks at the YFZ Ranch outside of Eldorado. I remember when they bought that property because the locals were freaked out that a bunch of radical Mormons were moving to town. There were articles in the paper and in The Texas Monthly and stories on the TV. I would imagine the locals were counting the days when they could raid that compound. Let's face, not only do they violate our bass ackwards idea that marriage can only be between one man and one woman but we love a good compound raid. Don't get me wrong, I am against the mistreatment of children and forcing girls to marry and bear children when they are 14 is disgusting. But it seems like the compound raids in Texas have taken a downturn in the excitement factor. There wasn't any violence this time around. I will not be watching the Lifetime made for TV movie about this one.


8 comments:

LesleyRamsey said...

True... totally LAME raid. And, what's with the outfits?
--The one and only Only Grrrl

pineapple said...

they were totally "lame compound on the prairie" outfits.

Unknown said...

Where is Roy Rogers or John Wayne when we need them.Snore...

mad said...

That's because the feds weren't leading the raid -- you know, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the feebies. There weren't any flame-throwing tanks and psyops and such.

pineapple said...

jill: yeah, because they had guns and weren't afraid to shoot someone just because.

mad: a raid without ATF is like drinking non-alcoholic beer. there is just no point to it.

LesleyRamsey said...

ok......that last comment was weird. and for that matter.....all thoughts about "god" are somewhat patently absurd, so......why create a special blogspot? it's like thinking about vampires or werewolves....if i happen to run into one, THEN i'll delve into my thoughts......otherwise.....i'm better off coping with my "real world" problems, like ...... well, i don't actually have any real problems.......it's all just a matter of perspective.....

pineapple said...

I'm with you -- that is a really weird comment and I don't even know how to respond. there are a lot of absurd things but making nonsensical comments doesn't make it interesting or anything...

Anonymous said...

Such a nice blog. I hope you will create another post like this.