Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes Dept.

By way of WRSA comes this remarkable report:

“Didn't know the Marines had to take the bolts out of their rifles for the Inaugural,” an email forwarded to Gun Rights Examiner from a United States Marine Corps source observed. “Wonder if someone can explain why [they] would be marching in the inaugural parade with no bolts in their rifles!”

The email linked to a YouTube video of the 57th Presidential Inaugural Parade, embedded in this column, featuring Bravo Company Marines from the Marine Barracks Washington. Sure enough, the observation in the email is confirmed by watching the video, with screen shots provided in the photo and slide show accompanying this article....

Wondering if this may be an inauguration policy of long standing that transcends administrations, Gun Rights Examiner made a cursory search and found something even more curious. In the 2009 Inaugural Parade, the United States Navy marched with rifles that had not been so disabled (see 1:24 into that video plus the final slide).

There can be only one reason why the Marines in the inaugural parade were compelled to disable their rifles. Considering that the White House is alive with military personnel from the oldest service -- the stewards are Navy and the external guard staff is Marines -- I cannot help but wonder why Obama and his henchmen fear Bravo Company so greatly as to insult their integrity in so blatant a fashion.

But after a moment's sober reconsideration, I have to say that I'm not really surprised.

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The great hazard to every tyrant known to history has emanated from those clustered closely around him. How could it be otherwise? To rise high in a tyrant's service, one must demonstrate absolute amorality and complete ruthlessness, which are seldom found apart from overwhelming personal ambition. The armed men he requires for his protection have more often than not been the instrument of his removal. That's more than sufficient to explain why dictators have so often left office "feet first:"

The moral dimension of arranging the assassination of a popular politician didn’t trouble Wriston at all. Living in the public eye had always entailed increased risk. Historically, whenever some troublemaker had roused the rabble to a greater pitch than the Establishment of that time and place could tolerate, it had disposed of him with no compunction and extreme prejudice. There were parts of the world where that was still the inevitable price of rising to power—places where a dismissal from high office was always administered with high-velocity lead. Power seekers in such lands arrived in their palaces with their death warrants already signed and sealed; they merely awaited delivery. [From Shadow Of A Sword]

As aggravating as our men at arms must find it to serve under a commander-in-chief who openly despises America's armed forces, the likelihood of a Marine firing at Obama is smaller than our finest instruments can measure. Thus, Obama's insult to Bravo Company was gratuitous; he was in absolutely no danger from the Marines in his parade. Were he a rational human being and a man of good will, he would have known that...but we're speaking of Barack Hussein Obama here, so that premise lacks credibility.

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The larger context surrounding this incident is entirely consistent with it. Tyrants always fear their subjects, no matter how much success they've had at suppressing opposition. Obama and his advisors are desperate to eliminate all possibility of a popular uprising. The administration's most recent initiatives -- incursions on Second Amendment rights; domestic drone flights; destruction of used military brass; massive purchases of weapons and ammunition by nominally non-military federal agencies; compilations of lists of "potential domestic terrorists" heavy with cohorts known to lean to the Right -- one and all suggest that Obama fears an uprising and, if he can't prevent it aborning, is preparing as best he can to defeat it.

Ironically, as such measures are made known to the public and their implications assessed, the probability of such an uprising increases. Indeed, many commentators have already noted the huge surge in weapons and ammunition sales to private citizens. If the likelihood of a popular revolt is increasing, so also is the likelihood that it will succeed.

Perhaps Obama should fear his guards.
But those guards are merely the uniformed segment of a greater threat.
Americans have begun to realize what Obama's covert agenda must be.
And to say the least, they don't like it.

Pray.