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Young Marines of Fox Valley

Young Marines
Young Marines

I’ve been drafted! No, not back into the Corps, but pretty close. Well, to be truthful—I did actually volunteer, but with much trepidation. The Marine Corps League (MCL) of Elgin, IL had been trying since January to start a Young Marines unit in their area. They had some folks interested, but no one would step up to be the Unit Commander. Then somehow, my MCL in McHenry County learned of their need and unbeknownst to me, threw my name in the ring.

I went to their website (www.youngmarines.com) and the more I read, the more interested I became. Finally, the first part of April, I gave in and agreed to take on the responsibility of Unit Commander. We have an XO, Adjutant, and three registered adults (Nancy is one of them). I will assume the billet of Training Officer until I find a Marine qualified for the job. 🙂  We are still feverishly in search of a Paymaster, but until found the XO will handle that job.

We have been hard at work setting up everything for the past few months. I finally received our charter and our 501 3c letter from the IRS last week. Now I’m waiting for the packages to arrive with all our “stuff” e.g., flag, guidon, etc.

We have ten children who have already signed up to become Young Marines. We must conduct a twenty-six hour syllabus appropriately entitled “Boot Camp” to be designated as a Young Marine Private. Until then, they are, what else — “Recruits.” Perhaps many of you have heard of the Young Marines. If not, I would encourage you, when you have few free minutes. to peruse their website and see what they are all about – www.youngmarines.com. This organization is NOT a recruiting tool for the Corps. It has; however, been sanctioned by the Corps. The unit adheres to the Corps’ credo of Honor, Courage, and Commitment, wears Marine utilities (without the EGA), uses the Corps’ grade structure, and teaches many of our principles and leadership traits. Their mission is to: “positively impact America’s future by providing quality youth development programs for boys and girls that nurtures and develops its members into responsible citizens who enjoy and promote a healthy drug free life style.” Their motto is: Strengthening the lives of America’s youth.

Lord knows a mission and a motto like that is something we sorely need. I have been reborn. By that I mean I am excited to have the opportunity to use what the Corps taught me during all those years to try and have some impact on today’s children and to pay back to our once great nation for what I have been blessed with at my age and station.

We do not receive federal or state grants and no funding from the Corps or the Young Marines HQs. We will get some help from the MCL in Elgin. We survive through donations and by holding fund raisers.  It is costly to become a Young Marine. Our XO and I visited a unit south of us and their fee to join is $589. That got them a set of utilities, pair of boots, cover, PT shorts and shirt and a few other garments and items they would need. I can’t and won’t do that. To begin with, families in our area are hurting,  I cannot expect parents with two children to dish out a thousand dollars to enroll them in the program, or have to make a decision to only enroll one.

So, I am asking for donations, every penny will help provide a young boy or girl the chance to learn the necessary skills to become a success and in some small way help this once great nation get out of the sick state we now find ourselves. We are a 501 3c non-profit organization; therefore, all donations are tax deductible. Just yesterday, the XO opened the unit’s account at a local bank. Any donation would be greatly appreciated. Checks can be made out to “Young Marines of Fox Valley,” and mailed directly to me at:

4303 East Drive Crystal Lake, IL 60012

Or, if you have a “Fifth Third” bank near you, you can simply go in and tell them you want to make a donation to the “Young Marines of Fox Valley” and they will handle it

I thank you so very much. This was very humbling to have to go out to my friends and Marines Corps family asking for help. I would never do so if I did not believe it is for a good cause.

Thank you, Gy Bathurst has awoken. 🙂

As always, Semper Fi;Jim Bathurst

 

Originally posted 2016-06-04 21:42:20.

Once More – Go Army (but where)

This has got to be the saddest piece I have read thus far about what is happening to our U.S. Army. If it weren’t so sad and tragic, it would be hilarious! The comments in red are mine. Sorry, I just could not help myself. Wake up America, we are doomed!

BoykinBoykin bounced: Fort Riley cancels Delta Force hero’s prayer breakfast speech.

A Kansas military base abruptly canceled an upcoming prayer breakfast that featured retired Lt. General Jerry Boykin after complaints were lodged that Boykin is anti-Muslim and anti-gay.

Military Religious Freedom Foundation founder Mikey Weinstein told Army Times that Boykin’s invitation had caused great angst among soldiers at Fort Riley – leading some to break down in tears.

“I have clients of ours weeping on the phone about this,” he said. Weeping? Oh, please. OMG, the soldiers were crying because they were upset. OMG OK men, fix bayonets, and follow me CHARGE! Yeah right. OMG

“I sincerely doubt that America can expect to win wars if the people who are tasked to do so are frightened by an old retired general with biblical views and a testimony of faith,” Boykin told me.

Boykin, an original member of Delta Force and an executive vice president of the Family Research Council, was scheduled to deliver remarks at a June 6th prayer breakfast. The event was set to be held in conjunction with the 1st Infantry Division’s Victory Week celebration.

The MRFF launched a protest on May 31 accusing the retired three-star general of being a “homophobic, Islamophobic, fundamentalist Christian extremist.”

“He sows hatred and heinous divisiveness with his sickening screed of fundamentalist Christian supremacy, primacy, exclusivity and triumphalism,” Weinstein wrote in a complaint to Fort Riley.

Mr. Weinstein might want to consider cutting back on caffeine – and adjectives. Yeah, I think he needs to crawl back under his rock!

He went on to label the decorated military hero as a “World Class bigot” and threatened to sue unless Boykin was ejected.

Gen. Boykin told me the cancellation is “just another reminder of the incredible discrimination against Christians in our armed forces.”

“This should tell you how difficult it is for Christians, and especially chaplains, to live their faith in our military,” he told me.

I reached out to Fort Riley and they confirmed that the prayer breakfast has been called off. They blamed the cancellation on a scheduling conflict and said it would be rescheduled. Yeah right, who’s schedule? 

“Lt. Gen. (Ret) Boykin’s credentials as a Soldier and leader speak for themselves and his 36 years of service to our nation are worthy of our respect,” Chief Public Affairs NCO MSG Mike Lavigne told me in a statement. “However, in an effort to ensure everyone in our broad and very diverse community feels welcome at any event on Fort Riley, we will pursue the invitation of a different speaker for the prayer breakfast once it is rescheduled.” There’s that word, diverse” again. you have to use it in every sentence when trying to explain the morbid, insane, idiotic, and ludicrous goings-on in our military today. It’s all about diversity, nothing about mission capability.

Now, it’s important to follow the timeline on this story. Boykin was extended an invitation to speak on March 31. On June 1, the MRFF filed their complaint and 23 hours later Fort Riley canceled the breakfast.

However, Fort Riley denies the MRFF complaint had anything to do with their last-minute decision to drop the prayer breakfast – calling it a “coincidence of unfortunate timing.” Yeah right, who is the commander of Fort Riley I wonder. Perhaps an up and coming Kool Aid drinker?

Folks, now you know that I deeply admire and respect the Armed Forces – but you could plant a mighty big crop of butter beans with the kind of fertilizer coming out of Fort Riley.

Mr. Weinstein makes a very comfortable living by bullying the military into eradicating public displays of the Christian faith within the Armed Forces.

Most recently, the MRFF has been successful in forcing the military to remove Bibles from “Missing Man” displays.  And they aren’t big fans of the Baby Jesus either.

The MRFF demanded those responsible for inviting Boykin (base chaplains) be “aggressively investigated and visibly punished.” Who does this jerk think he is?

So what kind of punishment would be suitable Mr. Weinstein and his MRFF minions? Would they be satisfied if the chaplains were stripped naked, tied to a pole and beaten with a whip?

Boykin said he understands that Fort Riley’s commander was “caught between radical secularists and a Commander-in-Chief who seeks to impose a politically correct culture on the military.”

“The Fort Riley commander is in a tough spot,” he said. “However, he must remember we all took an oath to support and defend the Constitution – all of it, including the First Amendment.”

Sadly, I’m afraid the Constitution doesn’t have a prayer at Fort Riley. Well put General Boykin, but you simply should have called your fellow soldier  who commands Fort Riley exactly what he is — a coward!

Todd Starnes is host of Fox News & Commentary, heard on hundreds of radio stations. His latest book is “God Less America: Real Stories From the Front Lines of the Attack on Traditional Values.” Follow Todd on Twitter@ToddStarnes and find him on Facebook.

Originally posted 2016-06-03 12:46:20.

A Response to My Conservative #NeverTrump Friends

Trump hatWhat a well written article for all your #NeverTrump “associates.” I say associates, because they would not be friends of mine if they took the stand of simply not voting. Are you kidding me? A “no vote” is the same as a democratic vote!

Dennis Prager’s latest book, “The Ten Commandments: Still the Best Moral Code,” was published by Regnery. He is a nationally syndicated radio show host and creator of PragerUniversity.com.

When you differ from people you admire, you have to question yourself. After all, what is the purpose of admiring people if they aren’t capable of influencing you?

So, I have had to challenge my position — stated since the outset of the Republican presidential debates — that if Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination, I will vote for him over Hillary Clinton, or any Democrat for that matter.

I devoted many hours of radio and many columns to criticizing Trump. His virtually assured nomination has therefore caused me grief as an American, a Republican and a conservative. That his character defects, gaps in knowledge on some important issues, and lack of identifiably conservative principles came to mean little to so many Republican voters is quite troubling. (Though, I might add, it is even more troubling that virtually all Democrats ignore the even worse character of Hillary Clinton, as well as the idiotic socialist ideas of Sen. Bernie Sanders.)

#NeverTrump conservatives, such as (in alphabetical order) Jonah Goldberg, Bill Kristol, Ben Shapiro, Bret Stephens and George Will are not merely people I admire — they are friends and colleagues. Goldberg, Stephens and Will have made multiple videos for Prager University, which receive millions of views. Shapiro and I have spent Shabbat together. I have had the privilege of writing for Kristol’s The Weekly Standard and having him on my show many times. And I have enthusiastically promoted their books. These individuals are special to me not only as thinkers, but as people.

However, in the final analysis, I do not find their arguments compelling.

Take the “conscience” argument that one can sleep with a clear conscience by not voting for Trump. I don’t find it compelling because it means that your conscience is clear after making it possible for Clinton or any other Democrat to win.

In fact, the “conscience” argument is so weak that Goldberg — to his credit — published a column two days ago titled “Sorry, I Still Won’t Ever Vote for Trump.” He wrote, “If the election were a perfect tie, and the vote fell to me and me alone, I’d probably vote for none other than Donald Trump.”

Shouldn’t all Americans vote as if their vote were the deciding vote? Including those whose votes “don’t count” because they live in states that are so left-wing they would still vote Democrat if Vladimir Lenin headed the Democratic ticket?

The choice this November is tragic. As it often happens in life, this choice is between bad and worse, not bad and good.

But America has made that choice before. When forced to choose between bad and worse, we supported Joseph Stalin against Adolf Hitler, and we supported right-wing authoritarians against Communist totalitarians.

It seems to me that the #NeverTrump conservatives want to remain morally pure. I understand that temptation. I am tempted, too. But if you wish to vanquish the bad, it is not possible — at least not on this side of the afterlife — to remain pure.

The most moving interview of my 33 years in radio was with Irene Opdyke, a Polish Catholic woman. Opdyke became the mistress of a married Nazi officer in order to save the lives of 12 Jews. She hid them in the cellar of the officer’s house in Warsaw. There were some Christians who called my show to say that Opdyke’s actions were wrong, that she had in fact sinned because she knowingly committed a mortal sin. In their view, she compromised Catholic/Christian doctrine.

In my view — and, I believe, the view of most Catholics and other Christians — she brought glory to her God and her faith. Why? Because circumstances almost always determine what is moral , even for religious people like myself who believe in moral absolutes. That’s why the act of dropping atom bombs on Japan was moral. The circumstances (ending a war that would otherwise continue taking millions of lives) made moral what under other circumstances would be immoral.

In the 2016 presidential race, I am not interested in moral purity. I am interested in defeating the left and its party, the Democratic Party. The notion (expressed by virtually every #NeverTrump advocate) that we can live with another four years of a Democratic president is, forgive me, mind-boggling. To that end, with at least one, and probably multiple, additional leftists on the Supreme Court, a Republican presidential victory in 2020 would mean little. All the left needs is the judicial branch, especially the Supreme Court. Left-wing judges pass so many left-wing laws that they render those who control Congress, and even the White House, almost irrelevant.

Here, then, are nine reasons (there are more) why a conservative should prefer a Trump presidency to a Democrat presidency:

—Prevent a left-wing Supreme Court.

—Increase the defense budget.

—Repeal, or at least modify, the Dodd-Frank act.

—Prevent Washington, D.C. from becoming a state and giving the Democrats another two permanent senators.

—Repeal Obamacare.

—Curtail illegal immigration, a goal that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with xenophobia or nativism (just look at Western Europe).

—Reduce job-killing regulations on large and small businesses.

—Lower the corporate income tax and bring back hundreds of billions of offshore dollars to the United States.

—Continue fracking, which the left, in its science-rejecting hysteria, opposes.

For these reasons, I, unlike my friends, could not live with my conscience if I voted to help the America-destroying left win the presidency in any way.

I just don’t understand how anyone who understands the threat the left and the Democrats pose on America will refuse to vote for the only person who can stop them.

 

Originally posted 2016-06-01 15:49:30.

Socialism for Dummies,

or, for all those Millennials, even young people, oh, and also for all the Liberals that have been and are still are living under a rock.

SowellOnce again, Thomas Sowell writes a very clear article that even a liberal “should” be able to understand. But I am sad to say, many will not get it. I could not resist changing the title at the headline; I hope Mr. Sowell doesn’t mind. Knowing him I am sure he won’t.

Socialism for The Uninformed….

Socialism sounds great. It has always sounded great. And it will probably always continue to sound great. It is only when you go beyond rhetoric, and start looking at hard facts, that socialism turns out to be a big disappointment, if not a disaster. While throngs of young people are cheering loudly for avowed socialist Bernie Sanders, socialism has turned oil-rich Venezuela into a place where there are shortages of everything from toilet paper to beer, where electricity keeps shutting down, and where there are long lines of people hoping to get food, people complaining that they cannot feed their families.

With national income going down, and prices going up under triple-digit inflation in Venezuela, these complaints are by no means frivolous. But it is doubtful if the young people cheering for Bernie Sanders have even heard of such things, whether in Venezuela or in other countries around the world that have turned their economies over to politicians and bureaucrats to run. The anti-capitalist policies in Venezuela have worked so well that the number of companies in Venezuela is now a fraction of what it once was. That should certainly reduce capitalist “exploitation,” shouldn’t it? But people who attribute income inequality to capitalists exploiting workers, as Karl Marx claimed, never seem to get around to testing that belief against facts — such as the fact that none of the Marxist regimes around the world has ever had as high a standard of living for working people as there is in many capitalist countries.

Facts are seldom allowed to contaminate the beautiful vision of the left. What matters to the true believers are the ringing slogans, endlessly repeated. When Senator Sanders cries, “The system is rigged!” no one asks, “Just what specifically does that mean?” or “What facts do you have to back that up?” In 2015, the 400 richest people in the world had net losses of $19 billion. If they had rigged the system, surely they could have rigged it better than that. But the very idea of subjecting their pet notions to the test of hard facts will probably not even occur to those who are cheering for socialism and for other bright ideas of the political left.

How many of the people who are demanding an increase in the minimum wage have ever bothered to check what actually happens when higher minimum wages are imposed? More often they just assume what is assumed by like-minded peers — sometimes known as “everybody,” with their assumptions being what “everybody knows.” Back in 1948, when inflation had rendered meaningless the minimum wage established a decade earlier, the unemployment rate among 16-17-year-old black males was under 10 percent. But after the minimum wage was raised repeatedly to keep up with inflation, the unemployment rate for black males that age was never under 30 percent for more than 20 consecutive years, from 1971 through 1994. In many of those years, the unemployment rate for black youngsters that age exceeded 40 percent and, for a couple of years, it exceeded 50 percent.

The damage is even greater than these statistics might suggest. Most low-wage jobs are entry-level jobs that young people move up out of, after acquiring work experience and a track record that makes them eligible for better jobs. But you can’t move up the ladder if you don’t get on the ladder. The great promise of socialism is something for nothing. It is one of the signs of today’s dumbed-down education that so many college students seem to think that the cost of their education should — and will — be paid by raising taxes on “the rich.” Here again, just a little check of the facts would reveal that higher tax rates on upper-income earners do not automatically translate into more tax revenue coming in to the government. Often high tax rates have led to less revenue than lower tax rates.

In a globalized economy, high tax rates may just lead investors to invest in other countries with lower tax rates. That means that jobs created by those investments will be overseas. None of this is rocket science. But you do have to stop and think — and that is what too many of our schools and colleges are failing to teach their students to do.

Thomas Sowell

Originally posted 2016-06-01 15:31:58.

Wasn’t Lou, but still true

I have seen the following article several times over the last few years, and each time, it was always attributed to the famous football coach we all love, Mr. Lou Holtz. While I feel certain Lou would have said all that the article exposes had he had the chance, it was actually an essay written by Bob Lonsberry and published on his website on 9 December 2013 shortly after the Street Hustler gave his speech on our Nation’s income inequality. No matter the author, every word, every phrase, every concept still rings so true.  God bless the United States of America and HER Marines. Semper Fi, JB

Two Americas

 

The America that contributes and the America that doesn’t. It’s not the haves and the have nots, it’s the dos and the don’ts. Some people do their duty as Americans, obey the law, support themselves, contribute to society and others don’t. That’s the divide in America.

It’s not about income inequality, it’s about civic irresponsibility. It’s about a political party that preaches hatred, greed and victimization in order to win elective office. It’s about a political party that loves power more than it loves its country.

That’s not invective, that’s truth, and it’s about time someone said it.  The politics of envy was on proud display a couple weeks ago when President Obama pledged the rest of his term to fighting “income inequality.” He noted that some people make more than other people, that some people have higher incomes than others, and he says that’s not just. That is the rationale of thievery. The other guy has it, you want it, Obama will take it for you. Vote Democrat. That is the philosophy that produced Detroit .

It is the electoral philosophy that is destroying America . It conceals a fundamental deviation from American values and common sense because it ends up not benefiting the people who support it, but a betrayal.

The Democrats have not empowered their followers, they have enslaved them in a culture of dependence and entitlement, of victim-hood and anger instead of ability and hope. The president’s premise “ that you reduce income inequality by debasing the successful“ seeks to deny the successful the consequences of their choices and spare the unsuccessful the consequences of their choices. Because, by and large, income variations in society are a result of different choices leading to different consequences.  Those who choose wisely and responsibly have a far greater likelihood of success, while those who choose foolishly and irresponsibly have a far greater likelihood of failure.

Success and failure usually manifest themselves in personal and family income. You choose to drop out of high school or to skip college – and you are apt to have a different outcome than someone who gets a diploma and pushes on with purposeful education.  You have your children out of wedlock and life is apt to take one course; you have them within a marriage and life is apt to take another course. Most often in life our destination is determined by the course we take.

My doctor, for example, makes far more than I do. There is significant income inequality between us. Our lives have had an inequality of outcome, but, our lives also have had an inequality of effort. While my doctor went to college and then devoted his young adulthood to medical school and residency, I got a job in a restaurant. He made a choice, I made a choice, and our choices led us to different outcomes. His outcome pays a lot better than mine. Does that mean he cheated and Barack Obama needs to take away his wealth? No, it means we are both free men in a free society where free choices lead to different outcomes.

It is not inequality Barack Obama intends to take away, it is freedom. The freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. There is no true option for success if there is no true option for failure. The pursuit of happiness means a whole lot less when you face the punitive hand of government if your pursuit brings you more happiness than the other guy. Even if the other guy sat on his arse and did nothing. Even if the other guy made a lifetime’s worth of asinine and short-sighted decisions.

Barack Obama and the Democrats preach equality of outcome as a right, while completely ignoring inequality of effort.  The simple Law of the Harvest “ as ye sow, so shall ye reap“ is sometimes applied as, “The harder you work, the more you get.”

Obama would turn that upside down. Those who achieve are to be punished as enemies of society and those who fail are to be rewarded as wards of society. Entitlement will replace effort as the key to upward mobility in American society if Barack Obama gets his way. He seeks a lowest common denominator society in which the government besieges the successful and productive to foster equality through mediocrity. He and his party speak of two Americas , and their grip on power is based on using the votes of one to sap the productivity of the other. America is not divided by the differences in our outcomes, it is divided by the differences in our efforts.

It is a false philosophy to say one man’s success comes about unavoidably as the result of another man’s victimization.

What Obama offered was not a solution, but a separatism. He fomented division and strife, pitted one set of Americans against another for his own political benefit. That’s what socialists offer. Marxist class warfare wrapped up with a bow. Two Americas , coming closer each day to proving the truth to Lincoln ‘s maxim that a house divided against itself cannot stand.

“Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it.”

 

Originally posted 2016-05-22 10:59:31.