Gulf1 - C - From the Gunny's Desk

Gangster politics, Gangster Government

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

For the last five years, we’ve been treated to the sight of a two party system with one party radicalized, fulfilling the promise of “fundamentally transforming our Nation”, while most citizens call, write and communicate with congress demanding our nation return to Law, restore National Principle; in every way reform our Nation back under the Constitution.  Instead, we have watched the last five years culminate over a century of active subversion changing of our country from “the republic”, with government under the rule of law, to a central government which has no use or respect for law what so ever, and whose actuaries believe themselves to be “the law”.

A substantial part of the moving from the constitutional powers vested in the three branches of government, and forming other bonds, with the intent of “getting things done” has come about because the constitutional form of congress, two houses, each with different authority over different aspects of legislation, and both constricted from authoring bills based on the authority of the other.  This was designed specifically to prevent any legislation from being passed which could not meet the standards of constitutionally minded senators in the senate, or representatives in the house.

One of the singular, and most critical aspects of our bi-Cameral congress, has been the ideal that two houses, each with a different directed focus, must run into intractable disagreement whenever a party or group wishes to move legislation which is antithetical to first principles.  Deadlock was considered the proper way to ensure only “Constitutional legislation” could pass two houses and an executive signature, and keep “crony politics” from overruling reasonable denial.

When the debt ceiling was reached, instead if congress doing its constitutionally demanded job, and shutting down the aspects of government we can’t afford, members of the two houses illegally colluded, formed “the gang of 12” and came up with a “compromise”, by which the debt ceiling was raised by 1.6 trillion dollars, in return for owing more, and having a greater portion of the GNP consumed by the interest we owe on our debt.

Had congress followed the constitution, the house would have written a budget which consumes the revenue taxes generate, and scheduled payment of debts by priority, and leaving off at the point when only ten percent of the revenue was left, it  by principle, saved for emergencies, which we always have, every year.

Had the Senate followed the constitution, they would have formed a committee, gone over the draft budget, made suggestions, but that is all.  The members of both houses know what the constitution requires of government, and exactly where its authority stops.  The gathering of “gangs” to iron out “intractable issues” is forming illegal councils, to illegally convene outside constitutional standards, on bills in congress.  Such groups commonly enmeshed themselves around  pieces of legislation in the Parliament, and our form was laid up specifically to deny this from occurring.

We now have had all sorts of “gangs” which have done a good many crimes substantially altering our form and ways as a Nation and as “A People”.  It may appear we recently got “Chicago style politics” moved into D.C., but in truth, at the point congress first decided to form an “external committee”, of the two houses, it flung the doors wide open to the exact form of crony “tradeoffs” which a “triumvirate form of government with a bi-cameral Congress” was specifically designed to prevent.

Whenever there is “gridlock” in congress, it is the definitive sign of illegal powers being sought, and the proper function of our form, preventing the success.  If “We, The Sovereign Citizens”, allow congress to simply make up its own rules as it goes, we have surrendered all our natural authority to those we elect, and we make them “sovereign masters”, and ourselves the subjects under their sovereignty.  We are a “Sovereign People” only if we exercise our sovereignty; to do so we must exercise it every time the smallest part of government over-steps its authority.  Once allowed, government never relinquishes stolen authority without a fight.

You want to know why congress, the executive branch, and especially the Judiciary don’t care a whit about what “we, The People” have to say over law, its execution, and the judicial consideration of it?    We have allowed the elected to tell us what “our Constitution” means, and we have failed to remind them we own it.

Copyright 5/16/2013 by Gulf1.com

On the Other Hand

by Gunerry Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

We like to think that our form of government was designed and built to the desires and intents of the citizens who populated the “several states” existing after the war brought us independence, but the truth is, “the people” had almost no input, little impact on the principles chosen as its foundation, the ideals which would be inserted in it very carefully.  In truth, the whole of its design and implementation can reasonably be called “imposition” of the republic, ameliorated only by the fact this foundation, the ideals, and the plan had to ratified by “the people of the several states”, and by the states themselves.

For a business to take note of empirical changes in technology and calculate the point at which altering ways and means is most economically effective, is a natural matter of “keeping books”, and ensuring one is fully understanding of economics.  No matter what else it does, if a business does not make a profit, it fails, and ceases to exist.  No principle for business can come before that fact; work done must produce profit, because the “most noble” goal intended can only be reached if the business succeeds, therefore profit must be first.

The 58 men who made up the “continental congress” were selected by both communities and by leading figures in such, and by this, it was “representational”, however, every act they took from that point forward was done by their own determination, on their own authority.  These were in fact, dictators, alone in the position of establishing the Government according to the determinations made from animated discussion of ideas.  They met in private, efforts made to keep most of the work out of public view, the aim to put forth only a finished product, that the principles be secured by the whole of the congress in harmony in everything substantial.

Our founders noted The Roman republic was formed by reasoned consideration, however they did not have the advantage of so much history, and in truth, our own form is more one greatly revised, but owing its foundation to Rome.  Few governments have ever been designed, even today, with over 190 governments represented in the U.N., less than a handful are anything but the natural descendants of forms going back millennia.

The actions of that congress were an utter failure for weeks, they concluded confederacy could not perform the necessary functions of “government”, yet another way was not to be found, only argument.  At that point, one of those who had been seminal in the independence from the very beginning, Ben Franklin, took the floor to stand and state; “we founded our stance on the principles of God, and entered war for independence upon faith, and won it.  We have argued over form and substance to no avail, and the singular thing missing has been acknowledgement of the source of our success.  If a sparrow cannot fall without God taking note, is it likely a nation can rise up, without God’s approval?  I suggest we take this opportunity to break, take our supper, and upon our return, begin our session with prayer to The Almighty God we placed our faith in, to achieve our goal.”

The congress took this as inspirational, and on their return, they opened with prayer, partaken by all, fervently, and according to the records, from that time on, the flow of work was steady, steadfast, and progressive, with little discord over principles, and almost every consideration long debated, over issues of “man’s proclivities”, and whether “we, as people” could choose to hold to the truths being established into a government with an exact purpose, limited no less accurately than any scientific endeavor ever was at the time.

I stand absolute on the fact we cannot restore such a designed and considered government except by peaceably stopping the current behemoth, noting its abject denial of legal constraint, and follow the same process, with exactitude, or accomplishing the same by force, because we can’t find enough “good men” to stop it by our word.

It is completely irrational to believe we can achieve what 58 minds, dedicated to logic, principle, completed in their faith in God; in any way that doesn’t follow what every creator of anything knows as first founding principle.  We must follow rational means, if we would achieve that rational form.

Copyright 05/09/2013 by Gulf1

Calculated Change

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

About a million years ago, I got my first real “metal lathe” I didn’t build myself. The “engine lathe” is the mother of all machine tools.  The first machine tool, it is the only one which can build its self, and its primary functions are how every other machine tool came into being, becoming a tool in and of its self, so the lathe could be kept busy in its own work.

I bought my lathe from a man in his late 80’s, who apprenticed on that lathe at about ten, in 1900 or so.  When it was installed, machine shops had an engine out back which ran a “line shaft” running in the rafters, with pulleys and clutches, belts to every machine in the shop.  This form rose with water power, long before engines were invented.

“Central power” was “the only way” for centuries; the only change was improvements in and additional sources of “central power”, moving from only water power, to wind, steam, and ultimately, gas, which was fully in its own by the 20’s.

At that point in time, two decades of advances with competing electrical designs brought about the electric motor, power stations, and the idea we could power anything we desired by putting a motor to it, and plugging it into electricity.

For the machine shop, this meant more work for the individual machinist, more maintenance on his own machine, but for the shop, it meant no one had to run “the engine”, maintain it, work it, oil it, and it no longer brought the whole shop to a halt when it broke.

Our Nation was founded at a time when central power once necessary to defend against enemies was no longer the only way, technology provided more effective arms, new tactics; much like the individual motors for each machine in the shop, and with this understanding, the founders decided it was possible to form a “self-governing Nation” on this principle.

The form of “the republic” was to enumerate power and responsibility of “Nation” which had to remain central, our constitution spelled them out exactly, and so stated, the duties and purposes of the federal government are exactly defined, all other power and authority is reserved to The States, and to The People, respectively.

The man who got up each morning and serviced the engine before firing it up, was almost “the captain”, if he was skilled, and not lazy.  He lost his job when the shop changed.  It still needed that emergency generator, but there was no one place everything depended upon.  The individual machinists were expected to be far more than they were before.  When our Nation took its first step, “the people” were “independent”, self-sufficient to a large degree, and their own understanding made the very idea of central government ridiculous, not even rational.

As a Nation, we have gone through a reverse course, having started as independent sovereign citizens, meeting all our own needs, and surpassing them, our freedom, our initiative making us the most efficient producing Nation in history.

We started our Nation very much where “mechanically powered manufacturing” became most efficient and cost effective, having come to individual machines, capable of operating on their own.  As such, there has never been any need to change our form; the only real changes necessary have been natural improvements that come with learning.  The sole driving force of centralization has been the desire to consolidate power so it could be taken control of.

No logic demands central control, every bit of rational consideration remains standing on individual choice being the best means for “free and independent citizens”.  We have had our form overturned, the working form destroyed, demeaned and denigrated, all so power can again be in the hands of the few.

In the same century all industry went from wasteful inefficient central power, to individual power, at the point of work, we have allowed “would be princes” to cajole us into undoing all the progress made in that singular change, our choosing and gaining personal independence, and turning our form back to exactly what was thrown away.

It won’t happen in industry except at the behest of politicians,( think green energy); profit is necessary for business.  If we considered our form and principles for government as we do for business, we would return to “the new way”, the one we abandoned piecemeal, solely to allow princes to rule again.

Copyright 5/2/2013 by Gulf1.

The Changling

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

“I’ve got vision and the whole world’s wearing bifocals” Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

About six months ago, I replaced my monitor four times in three days.  Looking at the original receipt, realizing it was eight years old, I chose to buy a computer rather than spend a quarter the price getting the old one fixed.

At the time, the decision was easy;  it’d been in the shop a dozen times for repairs, but each time it came home, I’d find another glitch in another program where a small bit was gone, from the invasion or the fix.  Every program I used had problems I had to work around, things I had to do to make it act like it did originally.

I went to a store, looked at what was offered, almost bought one, but got enticed into waiting a week, and getting the new version with four times the memory that would work better with the newer 3D drawing programs available.  I put my order in, got my ticket, and waited at home for the call.

I had to stand a couple hours in line when I was called, and upon getting home, discovered windows 8 was a lie, it had no relationship with any windows product before, it was a bastard child, a changeling, homeless, with a wicked heart.  It was like no other computer before it.  Every other “new computer” I’d bought was running that day, and just a learning curve from the previous.  This one was unrecognizable.

Within a day I’d made an appointment with tech support, and they got my email working.  The next day it stopped working, I spent a couple days on the phone with people on the other side of the world who couldn’t help.  At the store, I got a tech manager to look at it, and my email was up again.  (My excuse for anyone wondering why you didn’t get an answer to a letter.)  Of course it wasn’t working the next day.

I talked to a different manager, and was told the new system didn’t support old email protocols, I had to buy “office” and get “outlook” if I wanted to keep my email.  Two hundred more, plus thirty for the manager to set up outlook the next day, after if refused to cooperate for me.  Once you get used to spending on something broken, it gets easier up to a point, then every penny feels like a dollar leaving the pocket.

I had about two weeks of working through “webmail”, and about half a dozen emergency “automatic upgrades”, and all of the sudden, my email started working, but only sort of like it should.  I dragged on, now wishing I hadn’t waited, but bought the one with less memory, I haven’t even had time to open the drawing program yet.

I thought about taking my old computer to my “guru”, getting it working and buying a new monitor, and I’m going to do that.  I know they can’t make my old computer exactly like it was when I bought it, too many patches, too many interfaces with other programs with patches; there isn’t any “original” left.  They can make it work.

My “old” computer is no more than a storage deposit of my pictures and work, and I want them.  It can’t be restored because it has had more than eight years of constant patches, and the devices we use are vastly different today.

Our Nation is in similar straits, however unlike the computer, the “operating system” remains the most advanced and viable in the world.  The computer has to interface with ideas which didn’t exist when it came out; the founding principles and man’s nature don’t suffer that problem.  It is suggested we need a “new operating system”, but none is offered, man remains the same, evil pursues the same path; identical and flawed, yet our original system is good, just no longer used.  A “default” way, a work-around, is at every turn, but we can simply go back and do things right; and we can live the way our founders did, living under “the rule of law” and reason.

A new “operating system” is suggested, but none is proffered.  They might as well suggest me putting windows 8 in my old computer, as if it might even turn on.

Copyright 04/24/2013 by Gulf1.

The Rule of Law

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

Last week, a retired Master Sergeant, Iraq and Afghanistan multiple tours in each veteran, was taking his son on a hike as part of his son’s work to earn his “Hiking merit badge” in the desert land in Texas.  He took a handgun and a rifle along for safety.  Carrying a gun has never seemed very odd in Texas, at least to me.

Someone saw him with the rifle and called the police, demanding he be checked out.  Since the Scouts require documentation of merit badge activities, they, the father and son, were recording the hike on video.  When the officer confronted the two, he demanded the man turn over his rifle, eliciting the question; “why?”.  He received no answer, just “hand the rifle over, do you have any other weapons?”  At this point, the Veteran asked if he was being arrested. 

The officer stated he was being detained for further investigation, the veteran stated absent an arrest, there was no reason to disarm him.  The officer replied he could disarm anyone who he felt threatened by.  The Master Sergeant asked if merely having a rifle made him feel threatened and the officer replied it did.  At this point, the officer stated he felt threatened, and put his hand on his own weapon demanding the rifle.  While the officer took his rifle and handcuffed him, the veteran carefully transferred his camera to his son, telling him to record the whole incident.

The officer’s supervisor was requested at which point the other officer, standing behind the patrol vehicle, stepped forward saying he was the sergeant and supervisor, at this point, the veteran directed further conversation with the sergeant.  The junior officer continued placing him under arrest, handcuffing him after seizing his handgun for which he had a concealed carry permit.  He then demanded his wallet, at this point, the man asked again if he was under arrest and was told emphatically no, whereupon he told the officer he did not have permission to look in his wallet, looked to the sergeant to enforce the law, and was treated with total contempt.

The man was arrested for “resisting arrest” having been told he wasn’t being arrested.  As they took his son taken away, his dad said to answer no questions, but wait until his mother arrived and leave all answers to her.  At the station, the boy was not allowed out of the vehicle because he refused to answer without his mother present.  He was intimidated into answering their questions despite his absent parents.

This American was polite, responsive, gave no cause for questioning, as visible on the video, yet  he and his son were treated as if carrying a rifle and a pistol on a hike in the desert were a crime, in and of its self.  The sole issue appears to be his presumption of respectful treatment by a police officer.

Every aspect of the encounter was dealt with complete respect and reasonable response from the Father and Son, and every aspect of the officer’s conduct was completely out of line in the absence of any evidence of any crime.  The officer came upon a father and son on a trail hiking, with no act, no provocation, no possible excuse for the behavior of the officer.

The fact a supervisory officer was present and backed up the officer in the commission of his crime makes this a matter regarding the whole of the police force, its training, and standards of practice.  The fact the citizen was arrested for “resisting arrest” demonstrates the total lack of respect for the law on the part of the District Attorney’s office, and reflects on the state of town government, and county.

While citizens serve in government, “we” have no rights in office, the officer had no right to impose his will upon the law abiding citizen.  The situation was clear, there was no violation, so every action once that was notable, was criminal on the part of the officers.

If the least of government is this far out of touch with constitutional law, how could we not expect the most of government to be explicitly wicked?  We can take back our Nation, by force if necessary, or we can capitulate, and choose to be subjects.  Just as the officer chose to suggest the man was a threat, we citizens have reason to believe rightfully, someone in a police uniform is a terrorist, and a threat, just judging them by their actions.


Copyright 4/19/2013 by Gulf1

Violence in our Society

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

With the events which purportedly took place at a school in Sandy Hook, we received an instant, knee jerk reaction; it’s time to ban guns, especially automatics, and assault weapons, no one needs thirty bullets to hunt, all the standard malarkey.

Such things never take place in a vacuum, but always have a cause.  We know the single most important aspect of liberty and security “among the people” is the nature of our culture.  In fact, we deliberately form and control the way our culture develops - the direction it heads because we know it is the source for all principle we intend to inculcate in our children.

This nation has gone through some vast changes since its inception, primarily because altering a world’s perception of the status of People and Their Governments, with seven millennia of history is the most enormous change in cultural standards ever deliberately fomented.

We did not set out to change the world, wanting only a decent respect for the legal rights of English Subjects.  The colonies were ruled by appointed governors, and on the other side of an ocean, our complaints were lightly taken, ignored for lack of urgency; we could easily be ignored, and were for more than half a century.  Only our actual acts in rebellion, starting as people chose liberty over security, and the colonists became “guerrillas” bit by bit, gave cause to pay attention, and bring about the movement of troops to “quarter” in our homes.

Our primary intent was preventing such from ever happening here, and in our selfish notion, noted it should never happen anywhere, clearly a violation of what was seen as “self evident truth”, and made our rebellion more than it simply appeared.  It opened our eyes to hundreds of tiny incursions in our lives.

The People of these Colonies were staunch, self-reliant, and knew their own capabilities, having had to survive life.  The moment governors called for troops, we no longer were rebelling against the illegal actions of our government, but were put to the test of rebelling against an actual occupation, with the full intent of British Troops occupying the homes of Colonists.

We did not defeat the King or pull down the British Empire; we only won our Independence by costing the Empire more than we were considered “worth”, to keep.  The States choosing confederation shows there was no plan in place to form a New Nation, no plan for a new form of government, it took experience as a “confederation of states”, to realize “confederacy” would not serve as government.

The establishment of a coherent government, designed deliberately, with careful consideration,   with representation of “The People”, and the full ratification of this plan was a new concept in government, the logical one, following our actions.  Even with such care, obviously such an endeavor must have erred, and be modified and corrected.  In doing so, we have allowed antithetical ideas be couched as political when they are in complete opposition to the principles of our establishment, and thus allowed us principles debauched, our form lost.

People killing each other is the most common fact recorded as history.  The only real substantive change in “History” is the occasion where people have managed to go a significant length of time without wanton killing.

The key to our having had a choice of fighting a government determined to subdue us, was entirely our being armed and an independent minded people.  Nothing else is significant in this argument.  It is a simple fact government has been the primary perpetrator of mass killings since the beginning of history.

We are at a turning point in our own history.  Half our Nation is accustomed to living off the other half; we have an open, active president pressing to extend this.  We can choose to keep our guns, and be both present and relevant at the table, or we can allow them taken, and be given a token seat, from which we can watch our own demise.  We are exactly at the point when our arms are of the most significant they have been since the war of 1812.  Make no mistake; that was the culmination of years of abuse by England, proof they would never take us back by force, nothing more, nothing less.  What is at stake today is whether it is “The People”, or “The government” which is to be “The Nation”.

Copyright 4/13/2013 by Gulf1

Equal Rights

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

The founding premise of the issue of homosexual marriage and the entire “normalization” of homosexuality is the suggestion homosexuals don’t have equal rights as people, and are by this way discriminated against.  If I can leave aside the religious issue for the moment, I’d like to discuss this as even handedly as I am able to.

To start with, homosexuals will state they experience bullying and discrimination from their entry into public schools.  Well, I have to agree, I’ve seen it, watched it, and knew it was happening, mostly because it happened to me too, only I don’t have a special moniker to hang my “discrimination” on, I just got bullied and picked on for being small and weak.  Truth to tell, I didn’t know those others, the homosexuals, were being picked on for special reasons, I thought they were just small and weak too.  I didn’t find out about the “sex” thing until I was about ten or so.

In truth, public schools are the primary place it seems we get the most reports bullying, and specific “picking on”, it seems to me it is high time to consider whether the idea of government run, central controlled, “no moral foundation” “conforming education” might be the proximate cause of this anti-social behavior which we recognized publicly for minorities, and ignore the fact “bullying and picking on some” has no connection with the minority status, but appears as such because our common society standards deliberately ignore the fact almost every kid gets bullied and picked on at some stage of their experience except those who find it natural to do so, and their nature and upbringing are more impacting on this than any other aspect.

In focusing entirely on minority discrimination, society has essentially said “no one else is significantly impacted nor changed by routine bullying”, when the fact is, all of us are formed by our personal experiences as we grow up, and all those who lived through years of bullying have their personality altered by it.  I am dyslexic, I grew up my early years overseas, because I’m a “Navy brat”, and spoke Spanish and Italian, and argued with teachers over history, having walked through Rome, the Greek ruins, the whole ruins of “western civilization”, in person, and finding textbooks were frequently wrong and frequently deliberately obfuscating.

I have a good understanding of what a homosexual experiences growing up, having had a cousin who went through it and grew up to become an integral part of society and a functional part of his society, and I know he went through different challenges, however it is utterly ridiculous to suggest only those “minorities” who are willing to peg themselves as “different beyond normal being different”, are sufficiently greater impacted by common human experience than the other sixty percent of children who have to grow up through the public school system being “picked on”, no less.

I decided by about eight I was not going to allow someone to pick on me anymore, and having well established my studies in science, I used technology against would be tormentors, building electrical “shock boxes” as I entered my radio experimenting days, and when I placed my wood pencil box against my tormentor’s side and shocked him, there was a new paradigm in the school yard.  I got punished for using a weapon, I argued with the vice-principal and the principal, my “weapon” was equalizing my small size with the bully’s strength, and I did no wrong.

I got picked on no less than any other “average kid” through the rest of my school days, but I never worried about the issue again.  I knew from experience I would be confronted, and while I would be punished for my return, I would not be confronted again until I was among people who didn’t know yet.

We have only such freedom and liberty here, among ourselves, as we allow others to have, because ultimately, we control society at community level.  People who wish to live with all their “rights and privileges”, must recognize they must put up with aspects and issues of others which may not be to their liking fully, but if we fail to see it as their right “to be wrong”, we immediately consign “determining right and wrong” as something we impose on others externally, and by this, we deny the capacity of Man to “rule over ourselves”, as “Sovereign Citizens”.

Copyright 4/4/2013 by Gulf1

Cathartes aura Oportunis

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

Except for those who served, married them, grew up with them as parents or as sons or daughters, Marines are a strange and difficult to understand a culture which has grown into our unique American form, as they have helped form this Nation to be what it once was, and could be again.

This Nation was designed to be something new, a form based on the certain knowledge of the colonists, they were capable of carving our communities, culture, and States from the wilderness.  They could do so with the sweat of their brow, the dreams in their visions, needing no help from any army or government, no help but that of neighbors and those who would be neighbors, when the fields were cut out, and the homes built.

Our founders spent almost forty years telling their government to get off their back, leave them alone, knowing the cost of government only impeded things, and there was nothing it provided which they themselves couldn’t do equal or better.  Only then did they challenge the right of government, and win our independence and the opportunity to build the Nation they believed in.

Last week, a squad of Marines fell victim to a training accident, with a report of an eighth Marine dying since yesterday.  This is not an unusual incident; the Marines don’t train for “the occasional war”, but for the sudden, unplanned deployment which is called in the middle of the night, because that is “how it is”.  We train with live munitions, like we are doing it to survive, because we are.

Senate Majority leader, Harry Reid, took the opportunity to suggest perhaps the training accident was due to poor of faulty training or equipment caused by “sequestration”, suggesting perhaps if his political enemies had capitulated to his demands, those Marines might not have died.  There can be no doubt, “sequestration” will be the proximate cause of Marine deaths, and perhaps Soldiers as well, but it will be in the weeks and months ahead, and when it occurs, no one will have the testicular fortitude to open their pie hole then.

I want very badly to bring the full view of War to The People to take a look at, and see, as the democrats are just now seeing the effects of sequestration, and only now squealing, even though the whole issue of “sequestration” is entirely about forced, no choice acts which become such precisely for failure to do their actual jobs, the very least of which is to write an actual working budget which encompasses our whole debts, starts from the real revenue actually to be expected to arrive, and pays off debt, or pays against principle of debt each and every payment cycle.

When a Senator wants to speak on training deaths, and why they occur, they’d best get their jobs done per their oaths and the actual orders which delineate what those jobs are.  I feel for those families, I know what they are going through, and while I pray for those Marines, I know they are at home, and have nothing to be ashamed of, they did their duty.

We, serving in our roles in the Marines, face actual forced decisions of how to accomplish our mission given the resources, the down-sized personnel, and reduced supply support, and we never have the option of suggesting we can’t accomplish the mission for lack of resources.  We are tasked with a duty, and we go forth and accomplish it.

I retired out of the Corps in 97 while we were still issuing Vietnam era boots.  These “troglodytes” don’t know the meaning of “required”; they believe they understand the word “hardship”.  These “servants” sit in their millionaire’s offices, surrounded by staff, with the whole revenue of the nation in their hands, and they won’t write a budget.  Won’t, not “can’t”, only that writing a budget means real numbers, and having to look at revenue before wishful spending.

If they actually took the steps to write down revenue, then write down the payments in order of precedence, they would have to reach the point where revenue ends, while still not touching the pie in the sky dreaming.  Harry Reid suggests Marines die because someone held a firm line, but not a one of them will write down the items they demand, which can’t be acceded to because there is no responsibility from the left, their only principle “never let a crisis go to waste.”

Copyright 3/28/2013 by Gulf1

Sitting on a Fence

By Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

Just about everyone sees the need to fix our government, as it is not in our control at all at the present. We have a vast assemblage of problems, accumulated over decades of government ruling government, with no concern for “The People, and what our intents are.  The problem seems to be a vast gulf between those ready to do something about our problem, and those who believe we can fix things without heavy handed action.

Colonel Pappas speaks of the story of “how to cook a frog”, Dr. Wallace provides a sound, studious look at economics, Dr. Bates shows us the clear, unquestionably deliberate acts by which this criminal president has assumed rule as dictator, with no response from the central government, not even responsive to any demands of citizens.

I am castigated regularly for being “too brazen” or “over the top”, but I have my own place in this conversation, one which has bearing on how we choose what to do.  I began my career as a mechanic at less than a year old, it is my nature.  By the time I was about twelve, I found it routine for other mechanics to come to me when diagnosis was necessary, I realized eventually, one technician in five has the capability of “troubleshooting”.

The primary reason we have activists, ready for change, and we have the cautious, hoping they believe and are right, we can change our ways and fix things, and those who see the merits of both positions but don’t know which side to turn to is because most people are not accustomed to finding out why something broke, and only a small portion of society knows how to do so.

I stand on the notion we have reached the point we have to confront our unresponsive servants directly; demand they fall in line, before we replace them with “servants” not self-styled “leaders”.  I see society as little different than a radial engine, with thousands of parts all which must fit and work together for the engine to run right, to its full capacity.  I’m not just the mechanic who can take it apart, measure everything, order the parts and rebuild it, but my skills are troubleshooting, analysis, making the big choice; tune and adjust, or tear down and rebuild.  Our government problem is not one of adjustment, but everything out of line and failing. The government doesn’t even look like its picture today.

No one wants to go to war except they expect to gain something of substantial value out of doing so.  Those who understand the nature of evil and man’s proclivities, more easily accept war is a necessity at some point.  Those accustomed to fixing everything with committees always find the idea of “stopping the whole thing, and tearing down the main engine” horrendously fearful, and will argue against as long as there is no absolute, unassailable proof it must be done.

For our society to survive, “We, The People”, must decide who best describes our condition, and act on that decision.  No one but “Us” has everything at stake.  Much as I hate to say it, I hear the master rod bearing knocking, and that means if we don’t ground the bird, pull the engine, and do a complete rebuild, within a couple of flight hours, that engine is going to disassemble its self, violently, scattering parts across the sky, and our Airplane of State is going to plummet like a thousand bricks, ten thousand bits of mortar.

Our constitution is perhaps the most carefully assembled form of government ever attempted, and its extraordinary success due to its singular form.  Since that first couple of decades, every idea anyone has had, has been tacked on, and we now have “a one pound federal government with five pounds of socialism, communism, bureaucracy, fascism and out and out totalitarian dictatorship” added, hooked to ever open corner or loose end.

With one part legal and five parts completely unconstitutional, we can’t do anything less than tear it all down, and start with our original form, and expect to accomplish anything other than “kick the can an ever shorter distance”.  A bare glance tells this truth; a casual inspection proves the glance correct.  The only reason against starting from scratch is the notion we lay at risk the whole time we are at a halt, and rebuilding.  Aren’t five to one odds sufficiently equal to any risk we face at this stage?

Copyright 3/21/2013 by Gulf1

War on Stupidity

by Gunnery Sergeant John McClain, USMC, Retired

We have come to a point in our Nation where the genuine, can’t find the top of their heads with both hands stupid people seem to outnumber rational thinkers.  Today, I read an op-ed piece where a six year old student was suspended for two days because at snack time, he, in his own words “tried to make his breakfast pastry look like a mountain”, but it turned out to look like a gun, “I knew I was in trouble when the teacher saw it”, was comment from the boy.

The school was shut down, the father called at work and told his son was suspended for two days, and the boy’s creative eating was defined as “inappropriate eating”, clear and obvious, as it caused the shut down of school, and no doubt, angst for dozens of adults, bewilderment for hundreds of kids, and one hopes thousands of kids wondering if aliens had landed, and stolen the brains of all the adults.

In recent months, a boy was suspended for pretending to throw an imaginary grenade, another boy was suspended for making his hand into a gun and “shooting someone”, a five year old girl was suspended for a pink pistol in her backpack which spewed soap bubbles, clearly a serious danger.

We are led to believe there is a horrendous outburst of un-heard of gun violence, that has arrived, and the future of our world is at stake over this sudden change.  If this were a third world nation, where the vast majority of people, adults and children were in fact illiterate, schools completely absent, and history something passed word of mouth, it might be excusable, however those same freaks who have done these suspensions will suggest we are among the best educated in the world.

If this is true, why are all our children not being taught that Hitler used the several school shootings which took place while he was mere “chancellor”, to call and get mandatory gun registration, which allowed him as Fuhrer, to disarm Germany and bring on the “Holocaust”?

Why aren’t we being reminded of the hundreds of mass shootings which have taken place in the past century in America, each because someone had an irrational grievance and went someplace they knew they would not face guns, and took out their angst on total innocents?

I hear of such idiocy, and my first thought is “these people are so far removed from reality they don’t know that pastry gun is unloaded, they really believe if he pulled the trigger part of the pop-tart, it would fire”.  I have to wonder, when was the last time most kids in general were put in the position to actually see a real gun, touch it, feel it, do something which could actually make a difference, learning, for instance.

I married my wife and her two children in 1984, my son was eight, my daughter five, and they got their first taste of “The Corps”, as we shipped out to Hawaii.  I took Roger and Melissa out to the authorized range, and taught them to shoot.

I took them out with an 1862 Colt Navy revolver, one you had to pour powder into the cylinder, put a ball on top, then ram it down in, and load each of the six chambers that way.  I’d had them practice at home before, so they got it pretty easily.  Then you have to put a copper cap on each of six nipples, crimping each so it will stay on.

After they had each fired a dozen shots at the paper target, I set up the half a dozen melons we bought at the market.  Both of them made good hits on their first and subsequent shots.  There was never any question that someone shot did not just get up like on T.V., they never ever played with guns, and are adults, with a healthy respect, because they have knowledge.

It is only the truly ignorant who are the real danger in this issue.  While evil exists in this world, those good, must have the means to resist at least equal to that which evil has access to.  Edmund Burke has always proven right, “evil prevails only because good men do nothing”.  Teaching arms, as all the founders stated a necessity, is our sole security.  It is obvious there is no “security” in the teachings of school.

Copyright 3/13/2013 by Gulf1.com