Posted on 12/05/2013 5:34:33 PM PST by marktwain
A firestorm has been started on Esquire’s The Politics Blog with a Tuesday opinion piece by Lt. Col. Robert Bateman titled “It’s time to talk about guns and the Supreme Court.” He not only takes SCOTUS and Justice Antonin Scalia to task for their Heller decision interpretation of the Second Amendment, but goes on to propose citizen disarmament edicts that dispense with false assurances given by some in the gun ban camp that nobody wants to take our guns away.
Bateman does, big time, and makes no bones about it. In a way, he’s done us a service by giving a glimpse of the end game less candid incrementalists are inching toward.
Per his profile at Small Wars Journal, he “is an infantryman, historian and prolific writer. Bateman was a Military Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and has taught Military History at the U.S. Military Academy.”
That he can boast these achievements brings an assumed gravitas to the discussion he wants to start simply with his credentials. When such a man speaks out, there is a natural presumption of authority.
The problem is, his arguments don’t live up to that expectation, and rather quickly fall apart with just a superficial analysis.
The Second Amendment only protects a well regulated militia, he argues. “As of 1903,” he maintains, “the ‘militia’ has been known as the National Guard.”
Actually, the resulting United States Code also recognized the “unorganized militia” to include “members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia,” but Bateman dismisses that responding to a comment poster that “they are not ‘well regulated’ [and] are therefore not the body considered in the 2nd Amendment as protected.”
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/08/14/1231285/-In-Case-You-Didn-t-Catch-It
Bateman has an argument that will stop many of them dead in their tracks. It came at a time when his life was going through a not too good place.
What followed was stereotypical for a divorce of this sort. I spent a lot of time after work going to local bars. All of them within walking distance from my apartment on a hillside known as Marye’s Heights, in the town where I lived. This was 2002.
Being disinclined to sociability at the time, when prompted by a fellow barfly into a conversation I did not feel like having, I would assess my interrogator. If he fit the profile (and so many did), I would counter-present a statement as a way of starting a “conversation.” That “profile” had nothing to do with socio-economic status, but it did have a hell of a lot to do with race, and the bugaboo of “heritage.” At least “heritage” as it is interpreted in rural Virginia anyway. Regardless of the topic he was trying to engage me on, I would parry. Then I would start a new conversation. My entree was, “I think that Robert E. Lee, as a traitor and betrayer of his solemn oath before God and the Constitution, was a much greater terrorist than Osama Bin Ladin… after all, Lee killed many more Americans than Bin Ladin, and almost destroyed the United States. What do you think?”
The FFs knew that, while undesirable, we’d end up with a standing army anyway. Having one leads to calls for disarming the people, so they said in no uncertain terms that the government was not empowered/allowed to disarm them.
I haven’t pored over the thread and I’m not normally a conspiracy buff, but has anyone raised the possibility of the officer purge being related?
HE’S ALL IN WITH OBAMA. He is bucking for a promotion from Lieutenant Colonel, jumping full Colonel, one, two and three start generals, right to the top as a 4 star. Obama will love this puke. A traitor to the republic. Military control of the civilians. That is what is coming.
The first really tough jump is from LTC to “Full Bird” Colonel. Most competent career officers can make it to LTC, but there is a big dropoff to Colonel, and a huge dropoff to General.
I do not know if this LTC has much command time, but as he does not mention it much, he is likley a fair staff guy. Much tougher for a staff guy to make Colonel.
At least that is as I understood it a few years ago.
Look at this article by the LTC:
The Meaning of Oaths and a Forgotten Man
http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/what-an-oath-means
I quote him:
“I think that Robert E. Lee, as a traitor and betrayer of his solemn oath before God and the Constitution, was a much greater terrorist than Osama Bin Ladin… after all, Lee killed many more Americans than Bin Ladin, and almost destroyed the United States. What do you think?”
We are approaching the US vs THEM phase. We the People will prevail over the forces of evil. Totalitarianism in all it’s forms is EVIL. Leftist build nothing only Destroy.
Yes, I know some of them.
It is my desire this be ended without blood being shed.
That is not the normal outcome dealing with Socialists.
The loss of life from protecting the Leftist Lie during the last century is huge.
I do not believe that LTC Bateman has commanded a battalion. With the drawdown, he doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of being promoted to Colonel. He knows this. He has been a bombthrower and bombast all of his life, judging from his body of work, so he believes that this circus act will vault him to the next level. For him that would be a choice position in either academia or the think tank world. He is well suited for both: full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
Fare thee well, Bateman. Once your flame has burned out, you will be relegated to waxing eloquent on obscure Civil War blogs.
I do not know Bateman, but I know others of his ilk. Not worth a passing thought.
I have known many officers who had NO command time get a Bird. It depends on their military specialists. Some jobs do not have them. JAG for one does not.
Yes, and doctors and dentists as well. I wonder if Bateman is a military Historian.
I recall that there were a few slots for them in the officer corps.
Send old Bob Bateman an email at bobbateman@admallc.com and tell Congressman to tell Bob that his wheeling and dealing with big government defense contracts are in jeopardy
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