The Gathering Storm

Gathering Storm
Georges Michel

And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. (Matthew 24:6)

What is going on in this country? The Constitution is either the law of the land, or it is not. If it is not, then we are no longer living in the United States of America. If that be the case, then the current civilian leadership in Washington D.C. and the military leadership of the Armed Forces have decided to set aside their oaths of office and govern by fiat. Can the use of armed force to enforce the will of the current political regime be far behind?

A while back I was doing some research regarding the oaths sworn by both officers and enlisted upon entry into the Armed Forces of the United States. Well, I have been doing some further research on this topic and found something interesting, to wit:

One notable difference between the officer and enlisted oaths is that the oath taken by officers does not include any provision to obey orders; while enlisted personnel are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice to obey lawful orders, officers in the service of the United States are bound by this oath to disobey any order that violates the Constitution of the United States.

Before going any further, let’s take a look at the oaths. Here is the officer oath:

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

And the enlisted oath:

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

Note that in both instances, the “So help me God” portion of the oath may be omitted for persons who desire to affirm rather than to swear to the oath. Yes, I have a bit of heartburn with that bit but Article Six of the United States Constitution states:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

The underlined bit being that which relates to the phrase “So help me God”.

So those are the oaths sworn by the members of the Armed Forces of the United States. The President, Vice President, members of Congress and federal judges also swear oaths. All of which make reference to the Constitution.

The President:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

The others:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. [So help me God.]

Now as regards the current President, he may actually not be in violation of his sworn oath. I say this because the oath does state “to the best of my Ability“. It’s quite possible that he is doing the best he can. It’s possible that he’s just not that capable and the office of the President is beyond his competence. If so, then the electorate is at fault for electing an incompetent to the office.

Now the oath as taken by members of Congress, the judiciary and the Vice President don’t cut them any slack as regards “ability”. Their oath states “I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office”. My guess would be that if they are unable to do that, then they should step down.

Now all of that aside, there seems to be a hue and cry in this country for a “conversation” regarding firearms. Exactly which part of the 2nd Amendment don’t these clowns understand? To wit, “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed“. No “conversation” is necessary, we have the right to keep and bear arms. The government is specifically prohibited from infringing upon that right.

The 2nd Amendment does not specify the type of arms. Various legislative acts and court decisions down through the years which have prohibited citizens from bearing certain types of arms are unconstitutional. The Supreme Court does make mistakes and has since the country was founded. I need only refer to the Dred Scott Decision.

From Wikipedia:

Dred Scott (1795 – September 17, 1858), was an African-American slave in the United States who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom and that of his wife and their two daughters in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857, popularly known as “the Dred Scott Decision.” The case was based on the fact that although he and his wife Harriet Scott were slaves, they had lived with his master Dr. John Emerson in states and territories where slavery was illegal according to both state laws and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, including Illinois and Minnesota (which was then part of the Wisconsin Territory). The United States Supreme Court decided 7–2 against Scott, finding that neither he nor any other person of African ancestry could claim citizenship in the United States, and therefore Scott could not bring suit in federal court under diversity of citizenship rules. Moreover, Scott’s temporary residence outside Missouri did not bring about his emancipation under the Missouri Compromise, which the court ruled unconstitutional as it would improperly deprive Scott’s owner of his legal property.

While Chief Justice Roger B. Taney had hoped to settle issues related to slavery and Congressional authority by this decision, it aroused public outrage and deepened sectional tensions between the northern and southern U.S. states. President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and the post-Civil war Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments nullified the decision.

So the Supreme Court made a mistake, they are, after all, human. Any decision made by the Court which infringes at all upon our 2nd Amendment rights is unconstitutional, period, full stop. One does not need a law degree to figure out the Bill of Rights. One just needs to be able to read and comprehend English.

The way I see it, the President, the Vice President and a large number of congress-critters are in violation of their oath of office and should either correct that behavior or resign their office. Any officer in the US Armed Forces who supports the infringement of the 2nd Amendment needs to reconsider that stance or resign their commissions. They are morally and legally bound to do so.

Enlisted soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and coast guardsmen need to understand that any order or orders which may cause them to infringe upon the rights conveyed by the 2nd Amendment are illegal orders and should not be obeyed.

Why are Progressive Elements in this country so intent upon dismantling the Constitution, or at least the parts they don’t agree with? Because they think they know what’s best for the rest of us.

Beware America. Once your 2nd Amendment rights are taken away, the rest won’t be far behind.

Say goodbye to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of worship, freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances, freedom to peaceably assemble, in short, say goodbye to the United States. You might as well learn how to speak Chinese. You’ll need it when the new rulers take over.

Saudade

Saudade (1899),
by Almeida Júnior.

Over on Facebook I learned something new last night.

You see, lately I’ve had this nearly indescribable feeling that “something is missing”. At first I thought it was just a touch of post-holiday depression. But it’s more than that, much more.

Then on Facebook, I saw a post from our friend Mongo, regarding an “Instagram” from the daughter of another friend of ours. That other friend was our own beloved Lex. His daughter, the Kat, had posted a picture of her with her Dad when she was very young. She also explained the Portuguese concept (for it is more than just a word) of saudade. As the first anniversary of Lex’s passing approaches, I can only imagine what his family must be feeling. Especially how his youngest child is dealing with it.

From Wikipedia:

Saudade is a Portuguese word that has no direct translation in English. It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing will never return. A stronger form of saudade may be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing.

Saudade was once described as “the love that remains” after someone is gone. Saudade is the recollection of feelings, experiences, places or events that once brought excitement, pleasure, well-being, which now triggers the senses and makes one live again. It can be described as an emptiness, like someone (e.g., one’s children, parents, sibling, grandparents, friends, pets) or something (e.g., places, things one used to do in childhood, or other activities performed in the past) should be there in a particular moment is missing, and the individual feels this absence. In Portuguese, ‘tenho saudades tuas‘, translates as ‘I have saudade of you’ meaning ‘I miss you’, but carries a much stronger tone. In fact, one can have ‘saudade‘ of someone whom one is with, but have some feeling of loss towards the past or the future.

In Brazil, the day of saudade is officially celebrated on January 30.

Saudade is exactly what I’ve been feeling lately.

For me it’s getting close to the anniversary of my Father’s passing, three years ago. It does not nearly feel like it’s been three years. Every time we go to visit my Mom, it feels like Dad has just stepped out for a moment. Saudade.

We didn’t go to my Mom’s for Christmas this year. Instead we went up for New Year’s. Of course, the Christmas decorations were still up. And naturally she told us all about the Christmas she had, with my brother the Old Vermonter and his family and my other younger brother the Musician, up from Boston. It was something I wish I’d been there for. Saudade.

Then at New Years’ I had a lot of fun with my Mom. She’s in her 80′s yet still acts like she did in her 30′s. But still, she’s in her 80′s. I am terrified at the prospect of my Mother not being around someday. Saudade.

At least it’s how I understand the concept of saudade.

Where I live there are many Portuguese, primarily from the Azores (Açores, in Portuguese), I can’t wait to talk to my Portuguese friends about saudade.

It’s something I’ve felt and understood for a long time. Now I’m glad to know there’s actually a word for it. A word with many subtle shadings and nuance. Saudade.

I also have a new day to “celebrate”. On the 30th of January, I’ll remember those absent from my life.

My Dad. And Lex.

OK, Just So We’re Clear About This…

There’s quite a bit of what passes for “conversation” about the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States going on right now.  Here’s what it says, verbatim:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Of course, being ostensibly a nation of laws, there’s been a lot of parsing of its meaning over the years.

Of late, as emotions and overblown rhetoric have ramped up, and sadly been exploited by those who disagree on What Is To Be Done about these things, we have now resorted to what I consider the Corollary to Godwin’s Law: When all else fails, and you have already implied, either directly or indirectly, that your opponent in the “discussion” is a “Nazi,” play the trump card and imply or say directly, that their point of view is “racist.” Game over, you win.

See: Here.  And: Here.

So, there you have it: If you support the Second Amendment of the Constitution, you’re a racist.  If you support gun controls, you’re a racist. Unless, of course, you’re a person of color, in which case, you’re a racist.

 

Happy Birthday, Marines

Jarheads.

Bullet Sponges.

Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children.

Call ‘em what you will. Nonetheless, they have a birthday, tomorrow, falling between Hizzoner and Veteran’s Day.  Very appropriate, I’d say.  Not bad for an outfit that was quite literally founded in a tavern that doubled as a Masonic Lodge.

Semper  Fi.  That is all, carry on.

I Have Not Yet Begun to Fight!

John Paul Jones
United States Navy

Okay. The election is over. Some of us feel like we lost. And we did. We feel it in our heart of hearts. But to quote Sir Winston Churchill:

Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning to the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Or as Rumbear put it:

Mount Up……
The battle for liberty begins anew this morning.

Let’s do this people! This is no time to be quitting and yielding the field to those who would tear America down. Remember:

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

FIGHT’S ON!

The Daily Lex – September 16th

“Executive Experience”

Not all that:

It’s not often that one person plays key roles in two — count ‘em, two — trillion-dollar disasters. Welcome, my friends, to the world of well-connected Democrat Jamie Gorelick.

It’s no mean feat to spring from toadstool to toadstool in quite the way Gorelick has done. She came to our attention [...]

Originally published on September 16th, 2008.

Enjoy Labor Day

Summer is inexorably waning; solstice is but three weeks away.  A day set aside to honor those who toil has, like so many, morphed into something else.  I shall eschew discussions of agricultural versus industrial or service labor, unions good versus union bad and such.  What I ask of you, Dear Readers, is that if you do have this day free from toil, to remember a few who get up today and it is like any other day of work for them.  Some are part of some branch of what is referred to as “organized labor,” some are very definitely not. But for all of them, and tens, if not hundreds of thousands like them, today is NOT a day off.

US Marine Patrol

Hotel Staff

Coast Guard on watch

Law Enforcement

Army Foot Patrol Eastern Afghanistan

Health Care Providers

Food Service Workers

Firefighter

Sailors at Sea

Ember Arriving!

Ember Celee when she was just minutes old

My thanks go out to Glenn for posting Ember’s pic the day she was born
My apologies go out to everyone for my absence, but I figured you’d understand

Cindy and I have been pretty busy.  Cindy’s been taking care of Ember and healing up from the C-Section while I’ve been busy working – especially since I found a steady job!  Everyone’s healthy and happy even if we are rather tired

And yes, my perspective on many things and my understanding of some of Lex’s writings have changed a bit since 22 August 2012.

I should have a real internet connection at home soon, so I’ll be around much more often.  Have a great day, everyone!!!

Please, Do Tell Me Again About Your First World Problems.

Somehow, I don’t this guy really wants to hear about hard it is to find a decent Feng Shui facilitator, or how bad your bike ride was into work.

Corporal Todd Love

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2195897/Triple-amputee-veteran-completes-grueling-10-5-mile-endurance-race-called-The-Beast-hours-honor-fallen-U-S-soldiers.html
True grit.

Communities

The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word “community”, in part, thus:

“com·mu·ni·ty

noun, often attributive \kə-ˈmyü-nə-tē\

Definition of COMMUNITY

3 … b : common character : likeness <community of interests> c : social activity : fellowship d : a social state or condition

Origin of COMMUNITY

Middle English comunete, from Anglo-French communité, from Latin communitat-, communitas, from communis

First Known Use: 14th century”

This usage has, of late, become expanded upon by those who like to give a sense of inclusion, to nearly Brobdingnag proportions. “Community organizer,” “the Farmall tractor collectors community,” “the University of Southern North Dakota at Hoople student community,” ad infinitum.  It has been used, and miss-used to such an extent that at least one weary radio commentator has taken to “foghorning” (a more elegant raspberry, “The sound one hears immediately after uttering an incredibly moronic statement and/or a word not in the Garage Logic Lexicon. All FOGHORN-ABLE words are words whose original meanings have been distorted and embraced by mysterians in an attempt to mean something else.”) the phrase when it creeps into pompous public pronouncements like so much ragweed onto the lawn of living. ) All that being said, there are times when communities do in fact spring up, based upon a broad or narrow common interest or enterprise.  The creation of Mr. Zuckerberg, et. al, has certainly aided and abetted such ad hoc gatherings of people of like minds.

Those of you, dear readers, who have suffered along so far in this extended literary enterprise know that Son Number One, now known as “Specialist Dunno,” has joined a considerable number of young men and women from both these United States and even a few who’s origins are elsewhere in enjoying the sunny climes and gentle zephyrs that waft this time of year through the pines of central South Carolina, there to build upon his knowledge base, his physical character and enjoy other suitable pastimes, all under the guidance and direction of an older cadre of caring mentors, known to the general population by the appellation “Drill Sergeants.”

Personalized mentoring, Army-style.

Out along the periphery of all this, stand a cadre of parents, friends and romantic attachments, both established and yet-to-be-formalized.  Back in the “stone age,” e.g. pre-interweb, they would wait individually, lurking near a mail box in the hopes that they would perhaps receive an epistolary glimpse of their loved one’s current enterprise.  Now, courtesy of the tireless efforts of untold trillions of electrons, we have the ability to form near-instantaneous groups, therein to “share” our mutual, shared joys, worries, knowledge and even, I venture to say, pride.

The military has been naturally hesitant to embrace “social networking,” for some good reasons.  Also, it has been our habit to be more than a tad “traditional.” To the point that on the occasion of each and every Navy Birthday your humble and obedient servant has been party to, raise a glass in toast to “the United States Navy: 237 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress!”  To its credit, though, the Army, as have the other armed services to various degree, been becoming more and more engaged, because they have discovered that with developing social communities, comes interaction, understanding and “buy in” by those who would otherwise stand off and wonder just what it was their loved one had gotten themselves into.

Likewise, we now see families and loved ones of in this case the “Soldier In Training” (SIT) also setting up ad hoc groups.  In the case of SNO, there’s now a group, gathered on the ubiquitous Face Book, brought together by a parent who has “seen it, been there and done that” that will last less than a summer’s length; about ten weeks in all.  But over the course of this time we will share what we know, what we don’t know, what we may have heard in hurried phone conversations or read in letters. (As if, in the case of SNO)  I witnessed people who’d never known each before helping others, for example, navigate the ins-and-outs of how to get airline tickets for their SIT’s graduation.  Others jumped in and explained in fine detail other things to a non-native English speaker in their native language. The last 24 hours saw a flurry of messages and responses within our little Face Book “community.”  It was supposed to be “phone call day,” the first time since our SIT’s began the most intense phase of their initial training sequence, the one where all the cliches from every movie ever made about this kind of thing, comes into reality.  (Well, maybe except for one)

The Doctor and I planned our day for this call.  All outside tasks and chores and errands completed well in advance of when we thought religious activity availability (“church call”) would be done, and sat by our cell phones and the home phone.  Your truly’s thighs began to ache from all the leg jiggling.  Time did NOT fly, it dragged.  Calls caused an immediate jump to whatever instrument was ringing, only to be quieted when we realized it was not the call we’d been waiting for.  I assured The Doctor that as soon as someone from our group heard from theirs, they’d post it.

Finally one courageous soul had to ask, had anyone else heard anything?  The floodgates opened; even as we read one response, two more would pop up, all with a universal negative.  “Hopefully soon,” said one.  Others offered their own hope, their own sense of waiting.  The day went on and still nothing.  Slowly, inexorably, we shared stories from letters, what we’d heard.  Finally, a former SIT from SNO’s Company, sent whom for purely medical reasons, and who had contacts “inside the wire” so to speak, broke it to us: No calls for them.  Something had happened, time had run short, they were the end of the line, and the line stopped ahead of them.

The disappointment was naturally palpable, and people who less than four weeks ago had never even heard of one another, who shared neither physical proximity nor regional culture or even a love of baseball, for all we knew, came together to express the frustration, the let down and the resignation that Things Were Not To Be.  In those few hours, as evening’s twilight spread from east to west across the breadth of the Union, I got to witness in the cool light of the laptop’s screen a remarkable thing. We began to deeply bond.  THIS was not little bits and pieces about own kids, husband, wife, fiancee.  It was about us.  About the sharing, and the sense of a group of people brought together.  Last night it was out of frustration and disappointment.  In a few weeks, on a parade ground set among pine trees and red earth, it will be out of pride.

Like our young soldiers, we too, in a sense, will have bonded for a time, and will always be, in our own way, “Echo Company.”  For an old sailor, let me say this: “Hooah.”  Carry on.