Dojo Rat

Zen and Ground Hog Day

2012-02-02T09:56:00.001-08:00

Spoiler Alert

Being as today is Ground Hog Day, I thought this might be fun; but I am giving away a secret so back off if you are planning a visit to a Zen Monastery...

Years ago a friend of mine wanted to straighten out his life and checked himself into a very famous Zen Monastery here in the U.S.
There were gardening and cleaning tasks assigned, but the entire rest of the day was in seated meditation.
He said they would sit there in a large group and count each breath to ten, and then start over again. He got so frustrated he started counting every breath, into the thousands for each meditation session.
He felt he was going crazy and went to the Abbot and requested a meeting.
Am I going crazy?
No, it's supposed to happen and it will pass...
So back to the routine.

After a couple of weeks the Abbot made an announcement to the group; tonight there would be a movie shown to the group as a treat for all their hard work.
The group gathered and the Abbot put the movie on; it was Bill Murray's "Ground Hog Day".
Everybody loved it and it was a refreshing break from the weeks of silence and introspection.

A week later the Abbot announced that the group was doing so well that there would be another movie. Of course, everyone was in thrilled silence, and gathered in the viewing room.

The Abbot put on the movie:

It was "Ground Hog Day".

Ah, Zen...

By Request: How to Make Hard Cider and Wine

2012-01-29T11:01:00.000-08:00

In our last post, we looked into steps to survive a possible economic crash, and the subject of making alcohol came up in the comment section.
I tried making Beer years ago, but here's an even easier method to get quick booze made cheaply and with few supplies:

Hard Cider
Most people probably don't know this, but most of the original apple trees in the pre-industrial era were planted for making hard cider- healthy and loaded with alcohol.
Where I live, I spend most of the winter pruning hundred-year-old fruit orchards. Many of my customers have cider presses like the one below:

It is very important to shred the apples before going into the press. This is done with a hand-crank shredder or better yet one with an electric motor.
In a pinch, you could use a juicer at home, but hey, we're talking about a huge volume of fruit to process. Throw in some crabapples or pears if they are available.
You will then use a large container to hold the cider for fermenting.
From what I've found, there is plenty of natural yeast on the fruit and you do not need wine yeast. Most real brewers use large glass "carboys", 5-gallon containers that you can put a one-way airlock on to only let fermenting gasses escape and no outside air in.
But this is much more simple for trying to learn- use clean milk jugs like this one:

1. Take your cider home in sealed, clean jugs
2. To make airlocks, buy a pack of nice-sized balloons
3. Using strong tape (I use electricians tape) seal the balloon to the top of the cider-filled jug.
4. Simply let the jug sit in a moderately heated room.

The Balloon will inflate as fermenting gasses try to escape, and eventually the balloon will deflate as the sugars are converted into alcohol.

5. When the balloon deflates, take it off, throw a hand full of raisins into the jug and tape a new balloon on to the top. The process begins again with a secondary fermentation. In about a week, the second balloon will deflate and you are ready to bottle your cider.
6. Buy about three or four feet of clean, clear plastic tubing from a hardware store. There will be an inch of sediment in the bottom of the jugs and you must be careful not to disturb it. Use the tubing and siphon off the cider into a clean bottle and cap or cork. I used old plastic vodka bottles. If there is too much fermentation going on still, glass bottles can explode. That's why they usually cork glass wine bottles, but this should not be a problem.
What you end up with is a nice amber cider with quite a kick. I won a cider contest with this simple method.
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Simple Wine
The best wine I ever made was on a farm down in Oregon. All up and down the edges of the fields the birds had sat in trees and shit out plum pits. We had hundreds and hundreds of wild plums everywhere. The colors ranged from dark purple to amber yellow, which seemed to be the sweetest, but maybe that's just because of their appearance.
We picked all that we wanted and made preserves and wine. Here's the simple method:

1. Start with a clean plastic bucket and lid:

2. We used wine yeast which you can get anywhere brewing supplies are sold. I suspect that you could do it without the commercial yeast but it works so much better.
3. Crush up the fruit,berries or whatever you are using and remove any pits, add warm water and yeast to the bucket.
4. Wrap the fruit up in a wad of cheesecloth to contain the solids:

If you don't have cheesecloth (available at hardware and craft stores) use some clean, thin white cloth. This helps keep the solids contained.
Place the lid loosely on the bucket. Remember, the idea is to let gasses escape and limit the outside air from getting in.
As with the Cider above, you will see fermentation slow. You could add a little sugar or some raisins if you want to give it another kick.
Using your clear tubing, siphon off the fermented wine into bottles, but make sure most of the fermentation is finished or you could have exploding bottles later.

We ended up with the most beautiful amber, dry fruit wine I've ever had. And BOY did it have a high alcohol content.

It's pretty hard to go wrong with these methods, feel free to experiment. You can use potatoes, any fruit, add honey...

If anyone else has some good methods, add them into the comment section!

When a Man's Home is His Castle

2012-01-26T08:26:00.000-08:00

This is pretty cool if you haven't seen it:
A house that transforms into a fortress.*
Supposedly this is in South Africa. But from what I am reading on the fetid surf of the interwebs there's a lot of this going on.

2011 was a record year for gun sales. Sure, a lot of idiots think Obama is coming to take your guns. I like to remind them that the only President that has disarmed the American public was George W. Bush in Hurricane Katrina. In fact, Bush sent Mercenaries from private security firms into New Orleans to confiscate guns.

But ordinary families all around the U.S. are laying in extra food, water, alcohol, medical supplies and ammunition.
Is it the "End of the world as we know it?"
No, Maya mind, it's not the 2012 global apocalypse. But it's also not the false prediction of a technological breakdown of Y2K (If you're old enough to remember the year 2000 and the panic).

I too am stocking up. We are well positioned for an economic crash. We live in a remote island community with plenty of farmland and natural resources. Despite the long supply chain for products like gasoline and hardware, everything we need is within walking distance.
While the U.S. appears to have weathered the "Great Bank Robbery" perpetrated by Wall Street and investment houses in London, the other shoe is about to drop. Sometime in March we will find out if Greece defaults on the Debt that was loaded on it by slimeball traders with credit default swaps and bad paper.
Next comes Italy, Spain Portugal...

Here's a snip from "The Economic Collapse" Blog:

Investor George Soros:“I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I’ve experienced in my career,” Soros tells Newsweek. “We are facing an extremely difficult time, comparable in many ways to the 1930s, the Great Depression. We are facing now a general retrenchment in the developed world, which threatens to put us in a decade of more stagnation, or worse. The best-case scenario is a deflationary environment. The worst-case scenario is a collapse of the financial system.”

International Monetary Fund Chief Christine Lagarde:
"Once again, the head of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has made a speech in which she openly warned that we are heading for a repeat of the "1930s".
She told an audience in Berlin on Monday that the globe is facing "a 1930s moment, in which inaction, insularity and rigid ideology combine to cause a collapse in global demand".
During the speech she called for a trillion more dollars to support financially troubled governments, and she made the following statement....

"It is not about saving any one country or region. It is about saving the world from a downward economic spiral."
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So while the fantasy fortress in the above photos may be a little extreme, the purpose and intent is not lost on the folks that read Dojo Rat...

Further reading:

Survival Blog

The Economic Collapse Blog

And This Article

Lefty Diva: Why I Swapped Yoga for Kickboxing

2012-01-22T09:59:00.000-08:00

Alternet has a short article by the Princess of Progressive Publishing, Katrina Vanden Heuvel.
Vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of "The Nation" magazine, has written "Why I Swapped Yoga for Kickboxing".
Here are a few excerpts, followed by my commentary:

"Now, I have nothing against yoga, but in light of the threat to our country posed by decidedly hawkish GOP wannabes, I find – at least for my purposes as publisher and editor of the Nation – yoga's emphasis on serenity and pacifism to be frustrating at best, impractical at worst. It's not that there's anything objectionable about the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras; like many ancient spiritual texts, they are eminently wise and reasonable."
*
"Quite simply, yoga doesn't play in politics, which, for Republicans in this day and age, is all about winning, taking and imposing one's will upon others.
Now, more than ever, Americans need to stand up, to fight for what is rightfully ours; we cannot dispassionately let the right impose its will upon us merely because we believe we're closer to spiritual enlightenment than they are."
*
"Don't get me wrong: we need yogis and yoga in our society. Together, they represent a valuable addition to contemporary thought and culture. But for me, in a contentious election year, I find it more meaningful to lace up my gloves and kick some ass (or at least, a punching bag)."
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What Vanden Heuvel says in her article is two-fold.
First, recent studies are showing that legions of out-of-shape office workers are doing serious injury with certain Yoga techniques. Take a look at this article from "The New York Times" titled "How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body".

The second angle is something I addressed in my article on Hippie Punching, "Hippies Punch Back".

So much of the thought on the enlightened "Left" suggests that we strive for non-attachment. It's a very tolerant, Taoist ideology that accepts things as they are. While being good for managing stress and things that are just plain out of our control, this thought negates the concept that we are masters of our own destiny.

In "Hippies Punch Back", I sarcastically poke fun at Yuppie Jock-types, and warn them that Hippies can indeed punch back, and possibly do serious damage.
When I was a teenager, a biker gang rode into a park full of Hippie kids drinking wine and smoking pot. The bikers pulled a power trip and started fighting with the kids. One of them had a chainsaw chain wrapped with tape for a handle and was swinging it at the kids. Someone walked up behind him and hit him over the head with a wine bottle and the kids jumped the other biker and beat the shit out of both of them. The cops came and arrested the bikers, and within an hour both their bikes had been completely stripped and "disappeared".

For some reason, bullies on the far-right think they have the lock on toughness or survival skills. Apparently they've never seen what it takes to run a communal farm or have a baby at home.

Vanden Heuvel hints at a sea change in progressive thought. Thousands of workers shut down the capitol in Wisconsin recently, and threaten to re-call the Governor. The "Occupy" movement has been peaceful to a point, but shows no sign of backing down.
After being pushed and pushed by big corporate money and aggressive, self-righteous religious fundamentalists, things are changing.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel says it's time to lace up the gloves.

Snow on The Saloon

2012-01-20T11:02:00.000-08:00

Well, we've been snowed in most of this week up on our undisclosed secret island hideout. Took the 4wd out one day and it turned into a sled ride. The wife was driving down a steep hill with ice and snow, got a little sideways and had a slow-motion slide that left us perched over an 8-ft bank looking into the woods.

So we sat there with the truck tipping back and forth, about to take a slow roll.
-My wife did great. I told her to turn the wheels directly downhill and drop into the woods, aiming for a neighbor's driveway below. She goosed it down the bank, through the neighbors and back up onto the road.
Made a run to our village store, about twenty minutes away. Of course, it's right next to the local Tavern, so...

Swamp Ridge Saloon

Meanwhile, back at the ranch;
Last night a couple of friends that live nearby walked down to our Saloon. We had a good fire in the wood stove, a keg of Manny's Ale along with multiple shots of Tequila.
The weather is breaking south of us, but up on the border islands we are blanketed with cold Canadian polar air and the snow hasn't started to melt.
Burning tons of firewood, reading, watching re-runs of Matlock and Gunsmoke...

Hey, I know it's not Minnesota, but when this stuff goes on for more than a week it gets a little old!

M.L.K : U.S. Government Involved in the Killing, Cover-up

2012-01-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

In fact, nearly all the progressive leadership was killed in the '60's

On today, the celebration of the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, we must also remember that King was the target of a sophisticated conspiracy to kill him.
The short video above provides the results of the 1999 jury trial "King Family Versus Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators".

Here are a few excerpts from an article by Carl Herman:

"Martin Luther King’s family and his attorney, William F. Pepper, won a civil trial that found US government agencies guilty in the wrongful death of Martin Luther King. The 1999 trial, King Family versus Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators, is the only trial ever conducted on the assassination of Dr. King. The King family’s attempts for a criminal trial were denied, as suspect James Ray’s recant of what he claimed was a false confession was denied."
*
"The overwhelming evidence of government complicity introduced and agreed as comprehensively valid by the jury includes the 111th Military Intelligence Group were sent to Dr. King’s location, and that the usual police protection was pulled away just before the assassination. Military Intelligence set-up photographers on a roof of a fire station with a clear view to Dr. King’s balcony. 20th Special Forces Group had an 8-man sniper team at the assassination location on that day. Memphis police ordered the scene where multiple witnesses reported as the source of shooting cut down of their bushes that would have hid a sniper team. Along with sanitizing a crime scene, police abandoned investigative procedure to interview witnesses who lived by the scene of the shooting."
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The reason people deny the field of conspiracy theory is two-fold: some are just plain crazy racist rants (Protocols of the Elders of Zion etc.), but the other main reason is if excepted in part or complete truth - It shatters the foundation of social order that most decent citizens grow up with.

If people accept that Jack and Bobby Kennedy were killed by or with the complicity of the State. If Dr. King and Malcolm X were victims of the same plots.

-If Nixon was taken out by his own CIA.

-If the Republicans committed Treason by negotiating with the North Vietnamese without President Johnson's knowledge.

-If The Republicans committed Treason by arraging for the Iranians to hold U.S. hostages until Reagan was elected.

-If those dealings were the actual start of "The Iran Contra Affair"

-If Oliver North's Contra supply operation ran guns to the Contras in Nicaragua and flooded U.S. cities with cheap Cocaine on the return flights.

-If there was a vast right-wing conspiracy against President Bill Clinton

-If Al Gore actually won the State of Florida when the recount was completed, and George W. Bush was not a legitimate President.

-If the Bush administration ignored the warnings before 911 while "The Project for a New American Century" stated they needed a "New Pearl Harbor" to push their middle-east policy.

-If Dick Cheney insisted in being present when George Bush testified about 911 in closed session- to make sure he kept the storyline intact.

-If witnesses believe the hijacked 911 flight over Pennsylvania was shot down.

-If the Anthrax attacks against Democrats Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy and various media outlets came from U.S. Government weapons labs.

-If the Bush administration repeatedly lied us into a useless war in Iraq.

-If huge financial and industrial corporations can buy the government outright.

If these things are true, then it would shatter the very foundation of "The American Dream" of free choice, free speech, one-man one-vote, Democracy itself.

Most people just can't go there.

Chinese Bodyguard Training

2012-01-15T10:21:00.000-08:00

Our Buddy Bob Patterson from "Striking Thoughts" alerted Dojo Rat Headquarters about this one: Female bodyguard training in China!
Now pay attention fellow Dojo Rats, this will be an interactive project for all of us!

Here's what Bob Said:
"I smell an opportunity for DR female body guard training camp in the Pacific Northwest. I might quit my job to help you teach..."

From "Buzzfeed":

"Trainees gather at the beach as they wait for the beginning of a training session for female bodyguards organised by Tianjiao Special Guard/Security Consultant Ltd. Co. in Sanya, Hainan province January 8, 2012. According to the company, a total of 20 women, mostly college graduates, participated in the training session on Sunday, which was the first open group training for female bodyguards in China. All trainees will have to undergo 8-10 months of training to develop sufficient skills to serve their clients. The company will offer the best trainee a chance to attend further study at the International Security Academy in Israel. Picture taken January 8, 2012."

Now here's where all you fellow Dojo Rats out there can help;
Go to the comment section and give ol' Bob every kind of excuse you can think of so he can quit his job and open up a female Chinese bodyguard training camp up here on our undisclosed secret island hideout.
I mean it, Bob needs a new career, comment away!!!

Diary of a Naked Yoga Girl: Thoughts on Body Image

2012-01-11T09:02:00.000-08:00

Alternet has a funny and thoughtful piece by Tolly Moseley titled "Naked Yoga? Why I Stripped Down to Do "Clothing Optional" Yoga"

Here's a few clips:

"My instructor looked at me from the head of the dim room and smiled. Not in a creepy way, more in a “you can do this!” way. But I wasn’t so sure. I had struck a Warrior One pose a thousand times before, yet I still stumbled into the person next to me more often than I cared to admit. Normally I’d just offer a little self-deprecating shoulder shrug and move on, but what would I say in this situation? “Oops! I just ran into your bare penis”?"
*
"A popular euphemism for “naked yoga” is “clothing optional yoga,” but for me, opting for clothing would defeat the whole purpose. Naked yogis flock to the path to achieve radical body acceptance, after all. Also: If I learned anything in my college art classes, it’s not that raw nudity was sexual so much as the suggestion of nudity. Leaving some parts teasingly covered. Botticelli knew it, Victoria’s Secret knew it, and I knew it. I was going all. The. Way."
----------------------

You can read the rest of her story and how the classes worked out on Alternet.

It brings up a lot of issues about body image, and what is natural in today's plastic society.
In my youth, my average middle-class family was not at all prudish, but somewhat conservative in body image. There was no skinny-dipping or flaunting of bodies (until I got away from my parents).

One of my greatest memories was the first time I went to some hot springs in the Oregon wilderness. I was camping with my friend and his girlfriend up by the McKenzie river in late fall. We had a good campfire and lots of food and Beer. It was sleeting, cold, wet and dark. So I was surprised when they said they wanted to go up to the hot springs, because I didn't even know there were hot springs up there.

We grabbed beer, flashlights and towels and drove up the road about five miles, parking at a trail head.
I got out in the sleet and wind and thought "This had better be good..."
We started up the trail through the slush and mud, and finally came to some steps cut out of tree rounds set into the bank.
As we neared the top of the hill we could look down into the creekbed below, and it blew my mind; there was heavy steam coming out of a series of pools beside the creek, and the entire scene was lit up by candels. Each pool was slightly hotter than the one below it, and there were naked men and women in each. We sat there for hours and sipped our Beer in a wilderness heaven.
-------------------

That's about all it takes to get over body image issues. If you've ever been to a nude beach or similar setting, you know that very few of the bodies you see are fashion model types. Up where I live people freely swim naked in the lakes and ocean, and we share a "clothing optional" Sauna with visitors that come to a small hippie-oriented resort nearby.

Check out Tolly Moseley's article linked above and see how she got past her body image issues.

Aging Into Your Martial Art

2012-01-07T11:29:00.000-08:00

My how the cold, dark days of winter and working outside every day make us old Dojo Rats a little stiffer, achy and slower to heal.
If you are over 50 like me, you've very likely given some serious thought to how to keep your art and Martial Spirit alive.
I started in Karate around 1978, and I've seen scores of practitioners transition from tournament champions to self-defense specialists to satisfying health and hobby level players like myself.
Back in the day when I was climbing the Dan ranks, I knew high-level Masters that couldn't kick above groin level any more. After thirty years of spectacular jumping and spinning kicks, they resigned themselves to practical efficient movement that made sense for their age. Kind of makes us wonder why even try to learn something like a jump 360 degree spinning-hook-double-latte-horsekiller anyway...
It seems then that one should prepare for the day when we give up dynamic power and move into the more subtle methods of body manipulation.

There are a few criticisms of the above video we could all state, but let's look at what works in this context. This is Master Hiu, a former Tae Kwon Do champion that took up the Chinese internal arts in Malaysia. His website is "Tai Chi Secret Movements".

As you can see in this light sparring session, the Master yields, changes angles and takes advantage of what the opponent gives him.
This type of sparring will not prepare you for an MMA fight, but how many of us actually care to compete in cagefighting anyway? This kind of movement is sufficient to handle the occasional drunk or troublemaker. The techniques show fist and elbow strikes, a standing arm-bar and various sweeps.

At our old-guy Dojo, this is usually the level of sparring we play with. In fact, we usually start in a push-hands pattern to get moving with rhythm and then add in punching, roll-back arm-bars, knee kicks and the like.
The thing is, both partners must move at the same speed, usually very slow at first. Then speed can gradually increase but should never be fast. The best learning is slow, with each partner filling a void presented like the proverbial water moving around rocks in a stream. It's best to allow your partner to complete some techniques and not be too competitive.

Obviously, solo form work can stay with you well into your old age. We all know of the benefits of movement to prevent arthritis and other aging problems.
But the thing that makes people I have trained with fall away from Martial Arts practice is that they hit a plateau and never progress further.
Imagine if you are that "jump spin-kick guy", and you can't use those techniques anymore.
Do you give up and quit?
Why not change your techniques to what works for you. How about learning weapons forms or Chi Gong energy exercises?

There are many, many types of martial movement that can satisfy health and self-defense needs as you age.
Keep an open mind, and don't be afraid to start fresh as a beginner in something different and sensible for your age and needs.

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: "Chubby" Edition

2012-01-01T09:57:00.000-08:00

For everyone who puts on a few pounds during the Holidaze:

*

*

*

*

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Ok, After the nightmare of the Hell-idays I think I'm finally back to my senses.
Now let's get everything back on schedule please...
Regular work days
Regular Dojo practice nights
Regular meals
Regular amount of Beer
And hopefully regular Blog posting!

Chinese Interest In UFO's Soaring

2011-12-21T09:20:00.000-08:00

As China evolves into a quasi-capitalist society, long kept secrets are now being discussed. There are stories of giant red-haired warriors mummified with weapons and great wealth. There are huge pyramids that nobody can explain yet.
Now there have been a number of articles I have come across that have alleged ancient pictures and drawings depicting UFO's and strange aircraft:

Chinese scientist with carved depiction of UFO evidence

Combined with stories of immortals and ancient Chinese esoteric knowledge, Chinese lore points to evidence of UFO visitations:

Now here's a really interesting one:

Here's a close-up of the writing:

I have no idea if these drawings are faked or actual evidence of ancient UFO's in China, but if the one with the alien writing is real, it makes one wonder...

Here is a link for a bunch of recent articles about UFO's in China

The Corruption of Corporate Sports

2011-12-17T11:26:00.000-08:00

In November we took a look at "Why Martial Culture is not "Jock Culture", touching on the Penn State rape case and sports riots reflecting the hive mentality of the cult that is high-dollar sports.

In a brilliant follow-up on "AlterNet", Lynn Parramore writes "When Cults Collide: How Big Sports and CEO Worship Threaten Societies". Here are a few excerpts:

The Church of Football
"Big Sports in America, along with the corporate religion of CEO-worship that infuses it, exhibits cult-like features that make the tolerance of criminal activity something we should expect. When cults collide, conditions emerge that are poisonous to healthy, law-abiding, open societies."
*
"In his essay “The Sporting Spirit,” George Orwell outed the cult-like aspect of large-scale sports, which arose in the 19th century in England and the U.S. in a way the world had not seen since Roman times. He debunked the myth that serious sports was nothing more than good clean fun. Sure, it’s possible to play harmless games, but when losing means shame for the whole group, barbaric instincts surface. The competition takes on the character of warfare, where winning is the virtue, and getting in the way of winning is the vice. Intense rivalries beget a culture of cheating. Serious sports aren’t about fair play, concludes Orwell, but rather “hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.”

Along with the rise of nationalism, big time sports grew as heavily financed activities that could draw huge crowds and inspire extreme loyalty. People learned to identify with larger power units and to view everything in terms of competitive clout. Organized games flourished in urban communities where workers lived sedentary and confined lives without much chance of creativity or physical release. Cursing the other team on game day was an outlet for pent-up sadistic impulses."
*
"College sports mega-programs, like football and basketball, are not built to nurture good and useful citizens, but to produce athletes who can draw in money through ticket sales or athletic boosters. Many of the values that make people good citizens, like sympathy and mutual support, are antithetical to the goals of sports teams. Programs receive millions of dollars of public funds, very often at the expense of education. The norms and values of the cult and those that make for a healthy society diverge.

Cults share several tell-tale characteristics, such as ritualistic activities, active recruiting, promises of reward or fame for converts, expectations of sacrifice for the group, and threats of humiliation and punishment for lack of compliance. And they always have charismatic, authoritarian leaders."

------------

Parramore draws an apt comparison to elite CEO culture in American corporations, University Presidents and the obscene corruption found in both venues.

You can read more at this link

One For The Bagua Guys

2011-12-13T08:53:00.000-08:00

This is somewhat obscure, but I find it really interesting; two examples of Bagua from Sun Xikun's lineage.
While based on Cheng-style Bagua and with an emphasis on grappling applications, these demonstrations by masters are completely different. The first is an unknown master because I can't read Chinese:

Now here is Master T.Y. Pang doing the same Bagua steps. Pang is the local Tai Chi Chuan and Bagua master that lives in our area, and I have been fortunate to meet him and visit at his house. This is the style of Bagua our Dojo practices. Note the fluid movement, the tight coiling and supple nature of the movements.

Master Pang trained directly with Sun Xikun, and judging from the age of the master in the previous video, I assume he may have also.

So what accounts for the difference in style? Pang is young in his video, but even at his age now, his unique movements are still present.
Sun Xikun style Bagua is rare, and it's interesting to see these two interpetations.

The Bait, The Rat, The Trap, The Axe and the Beretta

2011-12-06T09:24:00.000-08:00

This time of year is often constant "Twilight" up here on our little island in the north. Our homestead will be dark and shady until late February when the sun returns to our small valley.
This got me thinking about rainy, drunken nights in the Pacific Northwest and the crazy stuff that happens at times.
Years ago I had a girlfriend that lived in an old houseboat. Now, anyone that has lived near the water knows that huge rats live in the rivers and sloughs around here, and they can be a problem. In this case, the owner of the moorage had put rat poison out, which can also be a problem because other animals can either eat it or eat the rats and get sick. It's not pretty.
Basically, some rat poisons use a blood thinner like warfarin coumadin, which human heart patients take to thin their blood. The rats blood thins and I imagine they die from hemorrhaging.
This makes them get cold, especially if it's winter, and they try to get into a warm house.
So one night a bunch of our friends were all hanging out with a few cases of beer in my girlfriends houseboat. I had some old coyote leg-hold traps, the kind that will take a finger off if you trip it accidentally, and I had set them on her back deck hoping to kill a few rats.
Over the noise of drunken humans, we heard the snap of a trap outside and we ran out to kill rats. Sure enough, one was caught up to his shoulder in the steel-jawed trap, and I took a mighty swing at it with my axe.
As my aim was guided by many Beers, I clipped the rat and tore it's arm off.
Bad swing.
The three-legged rat dove off into the water, leaving it's arm in the trap.

The next day while I was at work, my girlfriends daughter screamed from the bathroom of the houseboat; a rat was climbing into the insulation around the hot water heater.
You see, the poison had thinned it's blood and it was trying to stay warm.
My girlfriend got one of our buddies off the dock and gave him her Beretta .22 pistol to shoot the rat, which he did.
I asked about the incident later in the day, and he told me he had shot the rat and threw it into the water outside.
He said the rat was still alive and was trying to swim away.
And there was something else:
The rat only had three legs.

So that rat had been poisoned, trapped, hit with an axe, shot with a Beretta .22, and thrown in the water to drown.
But it swam away...

Dune: The Spice Ki-ai

2011-12-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

Lately here at Dojo Rat we've been exploring martial themes in popular movies, and this is a great example; Paul's fight with Feyd (played by Sting) in "Dune".

For those not familiar with the series of novels by Frank Herbert (a local writer from my corner of Washington State) here's the plot in a nutshell:

Paul Atreides is heir to a noble family that is sent to the desert planet Arrakis (Dune) to investigate the conspiracy to manipulate the most valuable commodity in the Universe: the mysterious "Spice", which allows users to fold time and space.
There are betrayals and double-crossing, giant "Sandworms" and a native resistance army of "Fremen" which aid Paul in his fight against the enemy Harkonnen clan.

Paul appears to be the long-prophesied messiah of Fremen legend, and the movie climaxes with this fight between Paul and Harkonnen Feyd-Rautha (Sting).

Author Frank Herbert is brilliant in his knowledge of desert culture, the occult and martial arts. Film director David Lynch distanced himself from this project after release, as aspects of this dark film were controversial and mostly appealed to followers of the book series.

What brings this video to Dojo Rat is the fight scene above. Not so much for the techniques, but for the Ki-ai which Paul uses to explode Feyd at the end of the fight.
As martial artists, we are taught to use the Ki-ai shout as a sign of intent, strength and intimidation. A weak Ki-ai sounds pathetic, a strong ki-ai takes years to perfect, and may change in subtle ways depending on use.
I read an account of an Aikido expert somewhere in the wilderness of Norway who was attacked by a moose. With no other choice, he let out a huge Ki-ai. Allegedly, the moose was dazed, staggered and briefly fell over.
I believe it. I have used the Ki-ai in similar ways. One time I was training for my first Black-Belt test and was running through some farmland in a California town. As I ran by one farm, three big dogs came out on the road and began to chase me. Well, there was surely no way for me to outrun the dogs, so I turned, stood my ground and let out the most vicious Ki-ai I could.
The dogs stopped in their tracks, turned around and ran back to the farm. The same thing happened on a dark rainy night walking down a street in Portland.

It seems clear to me that we cultivate Ki, or "Chi" for health and strength- which makes it available for use in stressful times. The Ki-ai is a great example of an expression of true intent and can be a valuable tool.

You can read more about "Dune" at this Wiki link.

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: Down on the Farm

2011-12-01T10:27:00.000-08:00

Yessiree!
Down on the farm all the harvest is in, and it's time to get down to some chores!

Don't Ask Me Where I Got This Freak Show...

2011-11-27T10:15:00.000-08:00

Hmm...

These gentlemen are Indian "Warriors of Goja".
There are a lot of us that understand how martial tricks are preformed, but this is over the top.
The first thing I thought about; If I'm not mistaken, aren't light tubes like this filled with Mercury? If so, the entire place would be a toxic mess.

What kills me is the woman judge, who feigns horror at this spectacle.

D.R. shakes head and walks away...

Cowboys and Samurai

2011-11-25T11:22:00.000-08:00

On the heels of our last post on "Cowboy Zen", here's the great Toshiro Mifune throwing Charles Bronson around with a little Samurai Jujitsu.
From the 1971 movie "Red Sun", where Mifune seeks a stolen sword.

The Best Cowboy Zen Ever...

2011-11-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Ten Bears and The Outlaw Josey Wales

Sitting down with a cool one and dinner last night, I found "The Outlaw Josey Wales" was on again.
Hands down, this is in my opinion the best Western ever. The gunfights are fantastic, but it's the dialogue and history that shine.

In the scene above, Wales goes to meet with Ten Bears, who has captured two of Wales' fellow homesteaders. Much like the ancient Samurai, Wales enters Ten Bears' camp as if he was already dead, and had nothing to loose.

Though I've seen the movie before, this time I had something to gauge the historical issues they portray in the show. I've been reading Howard Zinn's epic work "A People's History of the United States". I'll have much more to say in a future review, but I just finished reading the chapter on all the treaties with the Indian Tribes that were broken, ignored, and withdrawn. Zinn reports the words of authorities and Newspaper editorials that scream racism and "manifest destiny" of the white man.
Below, "Lone Wati" relates to Wales the story of his people, and the tragedy of "The Trail of Tears":

Here's a little history about the movie from Wikipedia:

"Historical basis Josey Wales' circumstances somewhat mirror those of a notorious bushwhacker named Bill Wilson, a folk hero in Phelps and Maries counties in Missouri. During the war, loyalties in Missouri were divided. Bill Wilson maintained a neutral stance until a confrontation with Union soldiers on his farm on Corn Creek near Edgar Springs, Missouri. Wilson became a wanted outlaw before leaving for Texas.[13]
The character Fletcher is loosely based on Capt. Dave Poole, one of Quantrill's Raiders. After the war, Poole assisted Federal authorities in convincing guerrillas to give up the fight and surrender.
This film is the first to confront the history of the Missourians who fell prey to Kansas-based Unionists who called themselves Redlegs (after their red-striped stockings and gaiters) and Jayhawkers.[14] It is a revisionist film in that it abandons the standard presentations of the Unionists that characterized Hollywood productions up to that time, along with the dark depictions of the Missouri riders.[15] The Outlaw Josey Wales reverses these stereotypes."

From "The Wall Street Journal":

"Mr. Eastwood has called his 1976 Civil-War era Western "The Outlaw Josey Wales" (which tells the story of a Missouri farmer avenging the murder of his family by Union soldiers) an "antiwar" film."

I'll have more on Howard Zinn's "A Peoples History of the United States" later-

Why Martial Culture is not "Jock Culture"

2011-11-17T08:30:00.000-08:00

Penn State Students Riot after Paterno firing

Did Somebody Kill The District Attorney Investigating Sandusky's Rape Charges?

I have always detested "Jock Culture".
I never watch professional sports. The only time I ever see it is when it's on TV in a bar or tavern. In those cases, I take a look around the bar. The most rabid sports fans are completely out of shape, cigarette smoking lunkheads that can name every coach or player but don't know who their Congressman is.
When I was in High School I was on the gymnastic and wrestling teams. The football coaches hounded me for years to join the football team, and in my junior year I finally did. What I saw made me sick. The coaches insulted the kids, and I saw one beat a player down. Another coach offered to get a star player a car and a girlfriend. I had never seen that in little-league baseball or the other sports, and I grew to hate the culture that is represented by football.
But it's not just American football, it's European soccer, and in this case Canadian hockey:
Vancouver Hockey Riots

I was drawn to martial arts because of it's emphasis on self-defense and self-improvement, and I'm guessing most people choose this training for the same reason.
But something happens in violent team sports; a "hive mentality" with a top-down authority structure that I am completely opposed to.
Nowhere has this been so obvious as in the current case of coach Sandusky's child rape allegations at Penn State. "Joepa" Paterno, Coach Emeritus gets fired and the idiot fans go nuts and riot. Not because kids were abused, but because the golden idol Paterno was fired for ignoring the rape charges.
Punks, all of them.

What about the Dead D.A.?

What is clear in the Penn State Rape charges is that "Jock Culture" has the money and power to suppress, intimidate, and possibly kill to keep it's secrets.

Ray Gricar was the District Attorney who investigated the first allegations against Sandusky back in 1998. Yes, 1998.
Gricar unexplainably did not charge Sandusky at the time, even though the evidence was clear.
What happened in the next few years is up to speculation, but Gricar was missing and pronounced "Dead" by 2005.
Gricar's body was never found. His car was parked by a river, his ruined laptop computer was later found washed up against a bridge.

What could be a motive to make a District Attorney disappear from this case?

From CNN:

"How the NCAA answers these questions may affect the future of college football. As is the case with so many recent college sports scandals, the events at Penn State call into question the effects of big money on the inside workings of college sports. Penn State football is a business -- an enormously profitable one, raking in more than $70 million a year. Joe Paterno's salary alone was about $1 million annually. Penn State profits immensely from the success of its football program on the backs of unpaid amateur athletes. In many of these scandals, the players, often innocent and unprotected, are hurt the most, while the insulated, tight-lipped higher-ups of college boards and athletic programs fall back on their salaries and pensions."

There you go, a $70 million-dollar empire to protect.

--------

High-dollar athletes often behave like thugs. Often they are thugs. There is a "hive mentality" and mythology surrounding "Jock Culture", and I have never seen the likes of this in martial arts.

Martial arts have always had a "Bushido" or "warrior" code. While many traditional schools have a chain of command and ranks, each practitioner is expected to behave with honor.

Martial Culture is not Jock Culture.

The Words of Jou Tsung Hwa

2011-11-16T09:15:00.001-08:00

The late Tai Chi Master Jou Tsung Hwa wrote the absolute best book on Tai Chi Chuan I have ever read. In his book "The Tao of Tai Chi Chuan; The way to Rejuvenation", Master Jou writes:

"Finally, when one has acquired Ching, or lightness, Man, or slowness, Yuan, or complete circularity of motion, and Yun, or constant rate, one will have completed the human stage. How can one verify this accomplishment? One will have followed the rules in the human stage when the practice of Tai Chi Chuan outdoors does not disturb flocks of birds or other animals".

Master Jou is discussing the various stages of mastering Tai Chi Chuan, the "human" stage being the first.
This notion is something that makes Tai Chi Chuan so much different than hard-style martial arts. Jou suggests a learning curve that mimics and strives to actually become part of the natural world.

It's almost embarrassing to relate this story, but it fits the topic. Years ago I had to fill in and help out at a dog kennel. It was at a time when I was really, really trying hard to prepare for a Tae Kwon Do belt test. While I was doing my chores at the kennel, I absent-mindedly slipped into a few movements of a form; block, punch etc.
Well, as expected, the animals in the kennel did not like it at all, and when they became frightened, I stopped my movement immediately.

This is what Jou is talking about. Not only was my martial movement snappy and aggressive, I was nowhere near the enlightened stage Jou claims to seek.

Lightness, slowness, circularity of motion, and constant rate is what makes Tai Chi Chuan a martial art of the natural world.

Yesterday's Big, Wet Project

2011-11-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

Over the last two years, we dismantled a pole-building and replaced it with a contemporary metal shop on a slab. The trusses and treated posts were moved down to the bottom of the property where we have the Saloon and shop, and will soon break ground on the house.
But first things first; we re-assembled the pole barn in a new configuration and stood the trusses up on a very rainy day:

The back of Dave's crane

I'm in the green coat above, Below we hook a truss up to the crane:

And the last truss goes up, the building looks huge now:

So today I have a lot of stuff to clean up in a big, muddy mess!

The Hermit's Compass

2011-11-10T09:00:00.001-08:00

Years ago when I lived in Oregon, I was care taking a 300-acre farm west of Portland. The rent was free and I got a little money at the end of the year for planting crops around the duck hunting lakes. I had chickens, ducks, turkeys and goats, as well as a huge vegetable garden.
But for my bread and butter (Beer money), I loaded up my old farm truck and drove into town to do small landscaping jobs and yard clean-ups.
One of my customers was an old guy named Walt who lived in a house overlooking the river. Walt's son was a tugboat captain and he checked me out after work one day; it's something any son would do to look after a father who was over 80 years-old. We sat in Walt's cool basement on a summer afternoon and had crackers, salami and Beer. I guess I checked out OK.
Walt liked to visit and talk on the days I worked for him. His dining room table had guns stacked on it, including a lever-action 45.70 rifle that used huge cartridges. One day Walt pulled out an old photo album, and I mean these pictures were from the 1930's if not earlier. One was of Walt, his best friend and a beautiful young girl climbing Mount Hood. They were dressed in wool pants and coats and were using the old "alpenstocks" instead of ice axes. They didn't have a car, they had walked around thirty miles from Portland to climb the mountain. From the way Walt talked, I could tell he had been in love with that girl, the kind of love that was never to be complete and never to be forgotten.
Walt had lived somewhere in southeast Portland, which would have been very undeveloped at the time. He used to walk into the rugged foothills of the cascades all the time, something kids these days couldn't imagine.
One time, Walt said, he was in the forest and not quite sure where he was. He came upon a large apple orchard and saw a small cabin in the distance. It was getting late in the day and he figured he didn't have enough daylight to hike back out. With much trepidation, he approached the cabin.
Sure enough, there was an old hermit that lived there. The guy probably hadn't seen another human in months. They talked a bit and reasoned that it would be OK for Walt to spend the night and hike back out the next day.
The cabin was very small and smokey from the cook stove. Walt said the hermit had a barrel of salted meat and prepared a stew for both of them to eat. There was small talk, the stew wasn't bad and Walt was grateful to have a place to stay.
After the meal, the hermit asked him if he knew what it was he ate, and Walt couldn't guess - deer meat, pork?
No, the hermit said, and took Walt over to a ladder that led up to the loft in the cabin. They both climbed the ladder into the dark loft and Walt suddenly found out what kind of meat they had eaten: the edge of each wall was lined with bear skulls. Each bear skull had a single bullet-hole in the forehead. Walt remembered that the hermit had a substantial apple orchard around the cabin. Each fall, when the apples were ripe, the bears would come out of the mountains and try to raid the apple orchard. The enticing fruit became the Bear's demise, and the hermit's dinner.

Before Walt left the next morning, the hermit gave him a useful gift; a "hermit's compass".
The compass was made of a magnetized hacksaw blade with another pointer blade attached at an angle. It was hung from a string and the main blade pointed to magnetic north; the smaller pointer was to compensate to true north.

And so on one hot summer afternoon, while Walt and I sat in his cool basement eating crackers, salami and Beer, he told me this story and gave me the hermit's compass pictured above.

Katana, Saber, and "Jian"

2011-11-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

Katana, Saber (Dao), and Jian (straight sword)

So now that we are learning a two-person sword sparring set from our instructor Michael Gilman, I am getting to know the straight sword again. Years ago, I took fencing in college. It was taught by a French guy that had coached an Olympic team. It was a great workout and I loved it. But we were using the Foil mostly, and a little Epe' which was a little thicker and had an edge. I was just getting into Karate and wondered how the Foil would stand up to a Katana in combat.
Stylistically they are so different, it would be comparing apples to oranges. Let's face it; the Katana is probably the most bad-ass killing blade on the planet.
While it can be used for straight thrusts, the Katana is most powerful in arcing cuts.

The Saber just may be my favorite however. We learned Saber (Dao) use while Gilman trained us in a complex Wudang Saber form which included some Bagua-type circle-walking, straight thrusts and wide, sweeping arcs. Note the ring pommel which is very useful for flipping and inverting the Saber. While the Saber is mostly one-handed, many of the cuts use both hands or use the empty hand to assist and press against the wrist of the weapon hand. The Saber is lighter than the Katana, This one is hand forged in China and I got it through Wing Lam for around $130.

My new "Jian"

The Jian (straight sword) I bought is made by Hanwei, and was sold as a practical, durable no-frills sword. The scabbard is plastic as is the handle. But the construction is good and the blade is good spring steel. This sword could easily go on a rainy camping trip with no fear of causing it damage. The blade has flexibility in the last 1/3 and while the edge is unsharpened it would not take much to dress it.
As we were told, the Saber is the combat weapon for the soldier, and it comes in many forms; thick, blunt or long as mine is. The Jian however, was used more by nobles and women. While the Katana and Saber primarily cut in arcs, the Jian is more like a surgical tool for precise cuts and thrusts. It also is double-edged which opens up a wide variety of techniques.

I love the Katana and always will. It's power and durability are legendary. Most of what I know about the Katana was from the time I spent in Aikido, and I'm sure the techniques I learned reflected the nature of Aikido.
But I love the "poetry" of the Chinese sword. The movements mimic animal and natural forms and the Jian uses sticking energy close in.
All these weapons were affordable, durable and a lot of fun to learn and experiment with.
Let me know if you also have a favorite...

Sasumata: "The Man Catcher"

2011-11-04T09:24:00.000-07:00

New innovations of an old tool are coming into use for security threats. The Sasumata is known as "The man catcher", and was recently used in a Japanese school to trap an attacker with a knife.

From "Japan Today"

"Teachers pin down knife-wielding man with two-pronged 'man catcher"

AICHI —
Police on Monday were called to an elementary school in Ichinomiya, Aichi Prefecture, after a man illegally entered the premises carrying a kitchen knife. It is believed the 62-year-old man walked into the school by the open front gate at around 7:40 a.m. before the children had arrived and was then challenged by the school principal and teachers.
When they realized the man was armed, three of them decided to use a “sasumata,” a two-pronged device similar to a “man catcher,” which was a type of forked pole weapon used in Europe up until the 18th century. Police said the teachers used the weapon to pin the man down until they arrived. Police said that no-one was injured in the incident."

Example of Sasumata in use:

Again, from the "Japan Today" article:

"According to eyewitnesses, the man was first spotted on the premises by a female teacher, who informed the principal. The principal attempted to address the man, but the man just unwrapped a newspaper bundle he was carrying to reveal the kitchen knife. The principal said he instructed staff to fetch the fork-like tool, following which three teachers surrounded the man and held him in place using the weapon. Police quoted the suspect as saying, “I came here to threaten the children.”
The “sasumata” was originally used during the Edo era for apprehending suspects. Modern variants of the “sasumata” are made for use by mounted riot police and are designed to significantly reduce the chance of injury to restrained civilians. The school principal told police that he and his staff had performed training drills using the man catcher in preparation for just such an incident. “Our preparations really paid off in this instance,” he said."

Sasumata in action

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: A Very Happy Teddy Bear!

2011-11-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, you write the caption...

UFC Commentator Joe Rogan on Wall Street Protest

2011-10-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

It's nice to feel I'm not alone in the martial arts community, Joe Rogan has just produced this video and I think it says a lot.

Here's Joes martial arts profile, on top of being an actor: (wikipedia)

"During high school, Rogan became a practitioner of of kenpo karate at age 14, then went to Taekwondo.[7] He eventually gained a black belt.[8] He went on to become a four-time state champion in Massachusetts, and In 1987, he was the USA Taekwondo U.S. Open lightweight champion.[9]
In 1996, Rogan began training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Carlson Gracie at his school in Hollywood, California. After Gracie relocated to Chicago, Rogan later began training under Jean Jacques Machado, (a cousin of the Gracie family), eventually earning his brown belt under Machado.[10] In addition, Rogan holds a brown belt in 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu under Eddie Bravo."

It's going to be a long winter, and the core groups will hang on I'm sure. I live in such a remote community I will probably only be able to donate money through the internet supply scene. Spring will come and the movement will blossom.

But Joe Rogan is a high profile tough-guy in our scene and his endorsement means a lot. That along with the military veterans that are joining on, I think there is a sea change in American politics occurring, and it's about time.

More to come, I'm sure.

Friday: Seasonal - and Silly Music

2011-10-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

After the intense political week with protests in the street, injuries, arrests and successes- it's time to lighten up with a little music.
First, a seasonal favorite of mine; Aerosmith "Seasons of Wither" performed unplugged at a MTV concert. (Remember when MTV used to do music?)

And now for something completely different:
My friends in Portland, Bill Dant and The Trailer Trashers Bust out their "Mobile Crank Lab"
Note on edit: despite accusations and expectations, I do not appear in this white trash classic:

Gotta love the production...

Send In The Marines! - is it 1932 Again?

2011-10-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

President Obama has just announced that all the troops will be brought home from Iraq by the Christmas holidays. While most of the country breathes a sigh of relief that the failed Bush war is ending, Fox news beats the drum that we have lost the war.
Fox so-called "News" is the real looser.

What does this mean for the country at-large?
Well, I expect that we will have thousands and thousands of veterans return from the wasteful war to a country with no jobs and a stalled Congress. Many of the Iraq veterans are showing up at Wall Street Protests, in some cases backing down police who are attacking protesters.

When Sargent Shamar Thomas backed down a dozen or more New York cops, he became a sort of hero for military veterans who will soon be returning, and a new movement is coalescing to join the protests against the financial elite that robbed the world economy.
You can read more about the movement in this Raw Story article, along with embedded video of Sgt. Thomas and a link to a website that supports this veterans movement.

But this is not the first time that U.S. military veterans have staged protests after they have returned from war. Those of us who are old enough remember veterans joining in anti-Vietnam war protests, and they were quite successful.
But before Vietnam, Korea, and World War Two, was the Bonus march after World War One.

From Wikipedia:

"The Bonus Army was the popular name of an assemblage of some 43,000 marchers—17,000 World War I veterans, their families, and affiliated groups—who gathered in Washington, D.C., in the spring and summer of 1932 to demand immediate cash-payment redemption of their service certificates."
*
"Many of the war veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression. The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 had awarded them bonuses in the form of certificates they could not redeem until 1945".

"Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time, visited their camp to back the effort and encourage them. On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the army to clear the veterans' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned."

-------------

So I see at least three possible scenarios playing out:

1. President Obama brings the troops home. Despite a contrary Republican Congress, Obama (perhaps through executive order) keeps the military on duty, but has them begin to fill vital duty rebuilding our own country.

2. The returning veterans return to no jobs, are organized, and join the massive protests that will resume when spring warms the United States; an American Spring.

3. In my most cynical view, it is possible that elements of the military may be used to subvert the anti-capitalist-elite Wall Street protests.
This sword could cut both ways. It will be up to those who served to decide their part in a global revolt that represents the outrage of people who have lost everything to a ruling class that respects nothing but wealth and power.

And this is our long winter of discontent.

Here is the "Occupy Marines" website

The Ghost in the Attic is Back

2011-10-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

Well, the "Ghost in the attic" is back.
Last spring we had a big owl hang out in the trees in our meadow for a long screechy spring. At some point, we figured out it was an adult that was training a young owl to hunt.
They scarred the shit out of the red squirrels that live in our maple trees, some are as large as small cats. Once the owls showed up, the squirrels split and took to the deep woods until the owls had moved on.

Now, I am very careful about how I deal with owls, giving them respect and space. The reason is, I knew a woman who was studying Native American Religion years ago. She told me to never, never touch a dead owl or even collect their feathers.
Apparently, the owl is not a good totem for a man and handling owl feathers can be detrimental.
I try to follow the natural world closely, and the mysterious nature of owls makes it easy to believe this legend. I've had plenty of interaction with the critters, but from a comfortable distance.
When I would come home in the evening last spring, the big owl would call out to me with an annoying screech. I screeched back. The owl would call to it's young partner and they would sound like ghosts in the attic.

Back in 1980 my friend and I took a year off and built a cabin in the Oregon coast range. His sister and grandfather had been attacked by a Great Horned Owl up there when they were kids, so they can be aggressive.
When we were building the cabin, we had kerosene lamps and a radio we would listen to at night. We hosted about four very small owls for several nights, they lined up on a branch over our camp and watched us for hours. At the same time, a moth that was larger than a man's extended palm attached itself to a tent.
-Magical.

So for now, the owls are back, the squirrels are gone, and we again share the meadow with "ghosts in the attic".

There Is Hope For Old Dojo Rats

2011-10-19T09:13:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well... There is hope for old Dojo Rats.
52 year-old Dewey Bozella won his first professional fight after being released from prison for a crime he never committed.
From "The Huffington Post":

"LOS ANGELES -- Dewey Bozella landed a hard right cross on his opponent's jaw at the final bell, and the 52-year-old boxer raised his arms in victory.
After 26 years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit, Bozella triumphantly realized a dream deferred in his first and only professional fight.
Bozella won his pro boxing debut Saturday night, beating Larry Hopkins by unanimous decision in the latest stunning chapter of a remarkable life.
"I used to lay in my cell and dream about this happening," Bozella said. "It was all worth it. It was my dream come true."
Wrongfully convicted of killing 92-year-old Emma Crapser in 1983, Bozella earned two college degrees and became the light heavyweight champion of Sing Sing before he was exonerated in 2009."

(D.R.)- But here's the best part:

"This was my first and last fight," said Bozella, who lives in Newburgh, N.Y. "It's a young man's game. I did what I wanted to do, and I'm happy. I appreciate everybody that made this possible. This has been one of the greatest experiences of my life."

-- 26 years for a crime he didn't do-- but at 52 he is still young enough to put his life back together. The guy has a great attitude and is a true champion.
You can read more details at the link above.

When They Outlaw Kubotans, Only Outlaws Will Have Kubotans

2011-10-16T09:58:00.000-07:00

Talk about the proverbial "slippery slope".
Trying to disarm the citizens like this simply will not work.

From "The Guardian U.K.":

"UK riots: Amazon withdraws truncheons after bumper sales-
Sales of baseball bats, Kubotans and other self-defence items soar in aftermath of rioting in English cities"

"Amazon has removed several police-style telescopic truncheons from sale on its site as soaring sales of truncheons, baseball bats and other items that could be used as weapons sparked fears of vigilantism in the wake of widespread rioting.
Sales of one type of aluminium truncheon rose 50,000% within 24 hours, entering the top-10 bestselling items in the sports category. Before they were de-listed, two different "police-style" truncheons had seen sales increase more than 400-fold overnight, though from a low base.
Amazon.co.uk also stocks, either directly or through third parties, self-defence sprays and Kubotans, short lengths of plastic or steel used as a concealed weapon. Carrying such items on the street can be against the law – entertainer Darren Day was convicted in Edinburgh in 2010 for possession of a Kubotan – but their sale is not an offence."

More at link
-----------------------

Shit, I know it's England and all, but come on - that's bullshit.
Here on the American frontier I have three knives, a plastic Kubotan and a wooden carpenters pencil on me every day of the week. By British standards I'm a walking arsenal waiting for arrest.
Some folks out there disagree with my "liberal or progressive" views, but I'm a fightin' liberal. I firmly believe in the right to posses self-defense weapons. Now, in a public building, I can see forbidding knives to enter in some cases. But for craps sake we should be able to carry the lowly pocket stick just about anywhere.

First came the cameras everywhere.
Now banning self-defense tools.
Bad news.

These Guys Are Gonna' Get In Big Trouble...

2011-10-14T09:19:00.000-07:00

Phoenix Jones Stops Assault from Ryan McNamee on Vimeo.

From The Seattle Times:

"While self-proclaimed crime fighter Phoenix Jones contends he was breaking up a fight, Seattle police arrested the leader of the Rain City Superhero Movement early Sunday after he allegedly doused a group of people with pepper spray."

Reader Jonathan wrote into the last comment section to let us know "The Superheroes" are in trouble again.
A guy who goes by the name of "Phoenix Jones" has led a merry band of delusional kids that go by the brand "Rain City Superheroes". We wrote about them on Dojo Rat in the past, and predicted big trouble would come to these amateur sleuths.
Sure enough, the video above shows Jones and his sidekicks approaching a couple of girls fighting, and he pepper sprays them.
Well, that didn't work and one of the girls starts pummeling Jones with her high-heel shoes.
Things get worse when before one conflict is resolved, the "Superheroes" mix it up with a gang of Russians before being rescued by Seattle Police as they flee into a ferry terminal.

These guys are nuts. They appear to have incited much of the conflict by inserting themselves and a huge can of pepper spray into the scenario.
The cops have had enough, and Jones is arrested.
He's lucky the cops came, they might not be there next time and the next gang might use guns.

But there's nothing so funny as seeing a "Superhero" getting punched and chased by a drunk Seattle chick.

Saito Sensei: Jo Staff Suburi

2011-10-12T09:27:00.000-07:00

Since we are getting more into weapons forms lately, I pulled out one of my Aikido Jo staffs and started reviewing the 20 Suburi techniques developed by Master Saito.
The beauty of the Jo is that is easily carried as a walking stick in public, and the skills are transferable to a wide variety of improvised tools.
My favorite part of the series are the "Hasso Gaeshi" movements, which involve spinning the weapon and striking. These appear in the last part of the video.
The length of the Jo is said to be best if it reaches your armpit from the ground, but I also have a new Jo that is slightly shorter. It's easier to throw in a car seat and is a pretty handy length.
There are better technical video's available, but Here is the Master at work.

Pat Buchanan's Researcher Karate Chopped A Woman And Called Her The N-Word

2011-10-09T11:28:00.000-07:00

Marcus Epstein

From "Media Matters":

"In the acknowledgements page of his forthcoming book, MSNBC analyst Pat Buchanan gives "special thanks to Marcus Epstein for the invaluable assistance and untold hours he devoted to researching ideas, issues, and anecdotes." Epstein, a writer and activist with a history of inflammatory statements about race and immigration, was previously arrested for attacking a woman with a "karate chop" and calling her the n-word.
In July of 2007, according to a factual proffer by the U.S. Attorney, Epstein "was walking down the street making offensive remarks when he encountered the complainant, Ms. [REDACTED], who is African-American. The defendant uttered, 'Nigger,' as he delivered a karate chop to Ms. [REDACTED]'s head. Ultimately, the defendant was stopped and arrested by Secret Service officers."

More at link above
----------------------

Look, if it's not posters of Obama as a witch doctor or worse, the far right just can't distance itself from it's neo-confederate racist beliefs.

The Art Of Protest

2011-10-07T10:49:00.001-07:00

Street theatre emerging in every major city in the U.S.-

Here's the guy's website with a great short video about his art.

Freaking Out The Corporate Elites: Tea Party Finally Joins Wall Street Protest

2011-10-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

Mario Savio, Berkeley in the '60's

Things are coming full-circle.
With the "Occupy Wall Street" protests finally getting media attention, the message is starting to be honed and focused.
Look, the "Tea Party" started out as an arm of the Ron Paul presidential movement, but was co-opted by big corporate money and re-directed. If they were more educated and less racist, they might have had a chance.
But, as you will see in the next two video's, strange bedfellows are uniting. This first guy shoves his foot right up "Fox News" ass:

Now we see that the "Tea Party" via a Ron Paul supporter gains a sympathetic ear with other young Wall Street protesters:

This is what will freak out the corporate elites the most- a coalition of protesters from both the right and the left.

The message is starting to focus. Everybody knows that Banking Elites on Wall Street and in London have strip-mined the global economy.
Now is the time to set aside differences that the elites use to divide the working class - and as Mario Savio said in the Berkeley speech:

"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!"

A New Tai Chi Chuan Sword Form We Started Learning

2011-10-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

"Tom Cannon and John Zietlow (City of Lakes Tai Chi) perform 2 person Yang style Tai Chi sword form as developed by Sam Masich. Performance as part of Chinese New Year Celebration at St. Paul Student Center."

Saturday we traveled to train with our Tai Chi Chuan instructor Michael Gilman in Port Townsend. On the agenda this time was to begin learning the above two-person sword form. The form was created by Sam Masich, a great instructor we had met in the past.
Like the two-person San Shou fighting form, this one will be tricky to learn. Lots of subtleties and a blade involved. Most of the students were using wooden training swords, but I did get my hair parted by the metal sword of one student.
Got to be careful...
The method of learning is first doing a few moves on the "A" side, then a few on "B". Finally you partner up and combine the two, and progress from there.
If you watch the video above, they start out slow and then reverse rolls and do the form again fast. These partner forms are said to demonstrate the highest levels of Tai Chi Chuan as an art.
----------------------------

Nobody fights with swords anymore.
That's why we consider this training "Art". It's about self-cultivation and stretching your mind to perform in unison with a partner. In learning a form like this, you actually learn two solo forms and put them together.

Before beginning this, I reflected on the over thirty years I have been cramming martial arts forms into my head. Learning a new, complex form is a daunting task.
In Tae Kwon Do I probably learned about twenty forms and twice that number of one-step fighting techniques (Kibone).
When I started Kenpo Karate, I had to toss out the TKD forms and replace them with the same number of Kenpo forms.
Then I moved into the Chinese Internal arts of Taiji, Bagua and Xingyi.
Yup, I tossed out all the Kenpo forms to learn the Chinese arts.

So why go through this?
Well, times change. Our bodies change. Hard-style martial arts are very stressful on the body and injuries occur. I know I caused some hip damage in Tae Kwon Do with extreme kicking techniques. Very bad as you get older.

But also, various friends of mine that used to practice with us have dropped out now. They hit a plateau and never found something of interest to pursue in martial arts.
For me, it's like playing music; there's always another song or chord riff to learn.

So here we go, down another rabbit-hole in the quest for a higher level of martial skill and knowledge. I know some of you are also on the same path.

October Hippie Chick of the Month: Female Cops

2011-09-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

I know, I know, "Cute Hippie Chick of the Month" is a day early - but I'm busy tomorrow and had to put it out today.
This Month we take a look at female police officers from all over the world...

Singapore

Japan

Pakistan

Indonesia

Hong Kong

United States

Warrior Hair: Long or Gone?

2011-09-26T11:13:00.001-07:00

I found this short piece on Warrior Hair at THIS BLOG. There is absolutely no way the information can be verified, it could be complete crap - But here goes:

The Truth About Hair and why Indians would keep their hair long
Reported by C. Young

This information about hair has been hidden from the public since the Viet Nam War.

Our culture leads people to believe that hair style is a matter of personal preference, that hair style is a matter of fashion and/or convenience, and that how people wear their hair is simply a cosmetic issue. Back in the Viet Nam war however, an entirely different picture emerged, one that has been carefully covered up and hidden from public view.

In the early nineties, Sally [name changed to protect privacy] was married to a licensed psychologist who worked at a VA Medical hospital. He worked with combat veterans with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. Most of them had served in Viet Nam.

Sally said, ”I remember clearly an evening when my husband came back to our apartment on Doctor’s Circle carrying a thick official looking folder in his hands. Inside were hundreds of pages of certain studies commissioned by the government. He was in shock from the contents. What he read in those documents completely changed his life. From that moment on my conservative middle of the road husband grew his hair and beard and never cut them again. What is more, the VA Medical center let him do it, and other very conservative men in the staff followed his example. As I read the documents, I learned why. It seems that during the Viet Nam War special forces in the war department had sent undercover experts to comb American Indian Reservations looking for talented scouts, for tough young men trained to move stealthily through rough terrain. They were especially looking for men with outstanding, almost supernatural, tracking abilities. Before being approached, these carefully selected men were extensively documented as experts in tracking and survival.

With the usual enticements, the well proven smooth phrases used to enroll new recruits, some of these indian trackers were then enlisted. Once enlisted, an amazing thing happened. Whatever talents and skills they had possessed on the reservation seemed to mysteriously disappear, as recruit after recruit failed to perform as expected in the field.

Serious casualities and failures of performance led the government to contract expensive testing of these recruits, and this is what was found.

When questioned about their failure to perform as expected, the older recruits replied consistantly that when they received their required military haircuts, they could no longer ’sense’ the enemy, they could no longer access a ’sixth sense’ , their ’intuition’ no longer was reliable, they couldn’t ’read’ subtle signs as well or access subtle extrasensory information.

So the testing institute recruited more indian trackers, let them keep their long hair, and tested them in multiple areas. Then they would pair two men together who had received the same scores on all the tests. They would let one man in the pair keep his hair long, and gave the other man a military haircut. Then the two men retook the tests.

Time after time the man with long hair kept making high scores. Time after time, the man with the short hair failed the tests in which he had previously scored high scores.

Here is a typical test:

The recruit is sleeping out in the woods. An armed ’enemy’ approaches the sleeping man. The long haired man is awakened out of his sleep by a strong sense of danger and gets away long before the enemy is close, long before any sounds from the approaching enemy are audible.

In another version of this test the long haired man senses an approach and somehow intuits that the enemy will perform a physical attack. He follows his ’sixth sense’ and stays still, pretending to be sleeping, but quickly grabs the attacker and ’kills’ him as the attacker reaches down to strangle him.

This same man, after having passed these and other tests, then received a military haircut and consistantly failed these tests, and many other tests that he had previously passed.

So the document recommended that all Indian trackers be exempt from military haircuts. In fact, it required that trackers keep their hair long.”

Comment:

The mammalian body has evolved over millions of years. Survival skills of human and animal at times seem almost supernatural. Science is constantly coming up with more discoveries about the amazing abilities of man and animal to survive. Each part of the body has highly sensitive work to perform for the survival and well being of the body as a whole.The body has a reason for every part of itself.

Hair is an extension of the nervous system, it can be correctly seen as exteriorized nerves, a type of highly evolved ’feelers’ or ’antennae’ that transmit vast amounts of important information to the brainstem, the limbic system, and the neocortex.

Not only does hair in people, including facial hair in men, provide an information highway reaching the brain, hair also emits energy, the electromagnetic energy emitted by the brain into the outer environment. This has been seen in Kirlian photography when a person is photographed with long hair and then rephotographed after the hair is cut.

When hair is cut, receiving and sending transmissions to and from the environment are greatly hampered. This results in numbing-out .

Cutting of hair is a contributing factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems. It is also a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It contributes to sexual frustration.

Conclusion:

In searching for solutions for the distress in our world, it may be time for us to consider that many of our most basic assumptions about reality are in error. It may be that a major part of the solution is looking at us in the face each morning when we see ourselves in the mirror.

The story of Sampson and Delilah in the Bible has a lot of encoded truth to tell us. When Delilah cut Sampson’s hair, the once undefeatable Sampson was defeated.
----------------------

A few people responded with plenty of examples of Bald warriors, you can find them at the Blog linked above.

Of course, Kimbo still has plenty of hair...

More Kids Cagefighting Controversy

2011-09-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

In another instance of self-inflicted damage, the MMA scene is back in the news. This time due to complaints raised about young boys grappling as a demonstration in an adult club before the main events.

Readers may know I have a more nuanced view of the sport after helping train two fighters in our local area. While the crowd at the events I attended were like any other drunken louts at football games, the fighters showed respect for the process, winners consoled loser's and there were bonds between fighters.
While I am steeped in traditional martial arts, I appreciated what I saw and realized the nature of evolving fight-sports.

None of the techniques these kids in the video are using are much different than the wrestling seminars I attended as a youth.
What looks bad is the spectre of adults in a drinking club cheering and raging outside the cage. It just looks bad. I mean we are critical of the occasional little-league parent that acts like this on the sideline, so it's little wonder that the presence of the cage and adult behaviour tainted an otherwise safe wrestling match.

Here's a few snips from "The Guardian":

"Council chiefs have ordered the review of the licence of a Lancashire club after it staged cage fighting using children as young as eight.
Concerns were raised after the boys took part in a fight at the Greenlands Labour club in Preston before a 250-strong adult audience. The city council will be checking to see whether any licence conditions were breached and will ask the club not to stage similar events involving juveniles.
A video of the bout on 10 September, posted on the internet, showed children fighting in a cage without protective padding or headgear.
The deputy leader of Preston city council, John Swindells, said: "I, like many other people, am appalled by the incident of cage fighting involving children taking place in Preston. I am really concerned about the potential of harm to the children who were as young as eight years old."
(snip)
"Police will not be taking action over the event. A Lancashire police spokesman said the force had looked into the matter fully and there were no issues to pursue."

'Nuff said.

Man Escapes Prison With Nunchucks

2011-09-20T09:01:00.000-07:00

From "The Raw Story":

"An inmate in the St. Louis city jail escaped Friday after fighting off more than a dozen correctional officers using a self-made pair of nunchucks then climbing to his freedom over a barbed wire and razor fence, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The prisoner, 31-year-old Lorenzo Pollard, was caught and back in the jail by Sunday night.

Pollard was in a medium-security cell on charges of theft, trespassing, property damage and resisting arrest. On the way to the bathroom Friday evening, he pulled out his homemade nunchucks, pieced together from bedsheets and a chair, and fought his way through a dozen guards, climbed to another level of the jail, broke through two layers of glass blocks and shimmied over two sharp fences.

Another inmate walked out of an open gate and climbed fences to escape in July, and two others broke free in April.

----------

There's some serious security and training issues at that lock-up...

Archery Experts

2011-09-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

From YouTube:
"Hungarian archer and boyer Lajos Kassai shoots 12 arrows in just 18 seconds."

Pretty damned cool.
And dangerous.
It's kind of funny how guys that train together develop the same habits. My brother gave me an English longbow last year and we had a great time shooting it. Recently, three of my training partners have started shooting bows also. This was completely unplanned, just seems to be a natural transition into a deeper level of martial weaponry. One of our guys is making his own arrowheads out of native rock and building a bow from local wood - native style. His goal is to take a deer with his home built rig this fall. These are the kind of survival skills most people never experience.

Check out this shot:

And who doesn't like this view?

Can Intense Exercise Actually Make You Gain Weight?

2011-09-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

Time Magazine has a very interesting article that examines why people can exercise like crazy and still gain weight:

"Still, as one major study — the Minnesota Heart Survey — found, more of us at least say we exercise regularly. The survey ran from 1980, when only 47% of respondents said they engaged in regular exercise, to 2000, when the figure had grown to 57%.
And yet obesity figures have risen dramatically in the same period: a third of Americans are obese, and another third count as overweight by the Federal Government's definition. Yes, it's entirely possible that those of us who regularly go to the gym would weigh even more if we exercised less. But like many other people, I get hungry after I exercise, so I often eat more on the days I work out than on the days I don't. Could exercise actually be keeping me from losing weight?"
---
"The basic problem is that while it's true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn't necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder."
---
"Some of us can will ourselves to overcome our basic psychology, but most of us won't be very successful. "The most powerful determinant of your dietary intake is your energy expenditure," says Steven Gortmaker, who heads Harvard's Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity. "If you're more physically active, you're going to get hungry and eat more." Gortmaker, who has studied childhood obesity, is even suspicious of the playgrounds at fast-food restaurants. "Why would they build those?" he asks. "I know it sounds kind of like conspiracy theory, but you have to think, if a kid plays five minutes and burns 50 calories, he might then go inside and consume 500 calories or even 1,000."
---

And here's the "meat" of the article:

"But there's some confusion about whether it is exercise — sweaty, exhausting, hunger-producing bursts of activity done exclusively to benefit our health — that leads to all these benefits or something far simpler: regularly moving during our waking hours. We all need to move more — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says our leisure-time physical activity (including things like golfing, gardening and walking) has decreased since the late 1980s, right around the time the gym boom really exploded."
------------------------------

(D.R.)- So as modern society has developed, people simply do less work. They sit in an office for hours and hours, take long car rides to work and back and sit in front of the TV at night.
In order to compensate, they hammer it out at the gym with intense bursts of exercise three hours a week.
This dovetails perfectly with an article from "Mark's Daily Apple", and the authors of "The Primal Diet". Here, Mark describes the activity of primitive man:

"We’re talking about a favorite of mine: low level aerobic activity. Sure, it can feel all too relaxed, even indulgent compared to the intense stuff. But don’t be so quick to disparage. Low level aerobic activity, I’m here to tell you, is the crucial base of Primal Blueprint fitness (Rule #3 in my book for those of you who are currently reading it). It’s the base, the foundation, the keystone to the big fitness picture.
After all, it was how our good man Grok and his family spent most of their days. Carrying water from the stream. Collecting fire wood, walking through the forests and meadows to gather greens, berries, and other plants. Working on their shelter. Perhaps migrating to another area because of drought, predators or competing tribes. Butchering, building, washing, cooking, dancing, you name it. Some of it was hard work, but it was mostly just continual – the sheer volume of low level activity that characterized Grok’s existence."
---
"If the human body evolved within these conditions, our lives today often leave us as fish out of water. There’s the joke about old time farmers laughing at people who pay to slog away on a treadmill for hours at the gym. Why would anyone pay to run in place like a hamster when there’s plenty of real, hard, useful labor to be done instead? Of course, not all of us have livelihoods that involve enough physical exertion to constitute adequate exercise, and our modern home lives (with washing machines, electric/gas mowers, etc.) don’t require the same labor as they once did. Unlike Grok, few of us built the homes we live in. Few of us till large tracts of land for planting. We generally don’t spend our days scrubbing, hauling or foraging. But it doesn’t matter, ultimately, what form our low level cardio takes. What matters is what happens on the inside."
---
"As I’ve suggested before, our society has come to worship a chronic cardio model as the beacon of fitness. It follows that low level aerobic activity appears to do nothing but fall short – a weak attempt at the “real” thing. Worse yet, it’s an attitude that makes the fitness quest seem like an all or nothing proposition. No pain, no gain. Total bunkum. Sure, the Primal Blueprint model incorporates low level aerobic activity as part of a larger picture along with strength and “sprint” interval training. The PB fitness model, however, is built upon that low level foundation.
Not only is low level aerobic activity the natural evolutionary expectation of the body, it’s flat out beneficial in its own right. It plays an integral role in maintaining weight and metabolic balance. It also builds your base and makes more strenuous workouts possible by toning all the muscles, joints and connective tissue needed for optimal strength training and high intensity aerobic activity. Low level aerobic exercise engages your energy systems and incrementally improves their functioning and efficiency. And while it does all that, it also physiologically and hormonally counters the effects of stress."

*********************************************

So there you have it;
Our bodies are genetically geared for constant, low-level activity. It maintains our metabolism much better than short, intense bursts of exercise - the kind that tends to make people eat more to store energy.

You can read much more at the links embedded above.

Great Video Interview With Tim Cartmell

2011-09-12T09:47:00.000-07:00

Video Link
Rolled Up Epsiode 27: The Never-Ending Path of a Martial Artist with Tim Cartmell

Here is a really, really good video interview with Tim Cartmell, one of the absolute best instructors I have trained with.
Readers may know I met Tim through Jake Burroughs of Three Harmonies Martial Arts in Seattle. I learned more in a half-dozen seminars with Tim than in any two years of past Karate training. Most of the seminars dealt with application of Tai Chi Chuan, Xingyi and Bagua - with a heavy influence on knock-downs and throws.
As you will see in the interview, Tim was an expert in Chinese martial arts (he trained for years in Taiwan) and has now focused on Brazilian Jiujitsu.
Watch the way Tim moves in the mat work with the interviewer at the end, complete relaxed power.

Tim Cartmell's "Shen Wu" website

Palin' Around With Terrorists

2011-09-08T08:16:00.000-07:00

George W. Bush with Saudi Prince Abdullah

As we approach the ten year anniversary of the 911 attacks, with the successful hit on alleged mastermind Osama Bin Laden, questions abound.
Information is not trickling in, the floodgates have opened and we are witnessing an information dump. None of these revelations seem to be related to the killing of Bin Laden, but more reflections of the guilty consciousnesses of Government investigators and officials.

In a seventeen-page article appearing in "Vanity Fair" titled "The Kingdom and the Towers" Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan detail how the Saudi Royal family clearly funded and provided intelligence to the 911 hijackers. Not only that, but the Pakistani I.S.I. intelligence service was likely involved long before they hid and protected Bin Laden in a comfortable military suburb.

John Farmer, Dean of Rutgers Law School and senior council to the 911 Commission knows the Commission was a cover-up:

"At some level of government,” says Dean Farmer, “at some point in time, a decision was made not to tell the truth about the national response to the attacks on the morning of 9/11." (Rutgers Link)

The Bush family has always "palled around with terrorists". George W's grandfather Prescott had his bank shut down for trading with the enemy (Nazi Germany) in World War Two. George Bush senior secretly funded the Contras in Nicaragua, terrorists by any definition. The Bush family has had long-standing ties with the Bin Laden family.
From "In these Times":

"In 1979, Bush’s first business, Arbusto Energy, obtained financing from James Bath, a Houstonian and close family friend. One of many investors, Bath gave Bush $50,000 for a 5 percent stake in Arbusto. At the time, Bath was the sole U.S. business representative for Salem bin Laden, head of the wealthy Saudi Arabian family and a brother (one of 17) to Osama bin Laden."

The implication is clearly that the seed money for Bush's oil company came directly from the Bin Laden family.

But I digress; In Summers' "The Kingdom and the Towers", nobody is more critical than 911 Commission member and former Senator Bob Graham:

"Congress’s Joint Inquiry, its co-chair Bob Graham told the authors, had found evidence “that the Saudis were facilitating, assisting, some of the hijackers. And my suspicion is that they were providing some assistance to most if not all of the hijackers. . . . It’s my opinion that 9/11 could not have occurred but for the existence of an infrastructure of support within the United States. By ‘the Saudis,’ I mean the Saudi government and individual Saudis who are for some purposes dependent on the government—which includes all of the elite in the country.”
(snip)
"Those involved, in Graham’s view, “included the royal family” and “some groups that were close to the royal family.” Was it credible that members of the Saudi royal family would knowingly have facilitated the 9/11 operation? “I think,” the former senator said, “that they did in fact take actions that were complicit with the hijackers.”
(snip)
And in this bombshell criticism of Bush:

"It was,” Graham wrote, “as if the president’s loyalty lay more with Saudi Arabia than with America’s safety.” In Graham’s view, Bush’s role in suppressing important information about 9/11, along with other transgressions, should have led to his impeachment and removal from office."

----------

Meanwhile, Dick Cheney is making a book tour attempting to re-write the 911 and Iraq war history. Cheney, who throws the rest of the entire Bush administration under the bus, admits he was actually in charge of the country.
Nothing to see here, move along now...

And as one domino tips into the next, toppling the whole series of events, Former National Security Advisor Richard Clarke claims the CIA was trying to recruit several of the 911 hijackers:

Did the CIA cover up its advance knowledge of at least two of the 9/11 hijackers?

"Richard Clarke, the national counterterrorism czar on 9/11, thinks so. In an interview for an upcoming radio documentary, Clarke claimed that top-level CIA officials deliberately withheld from the White House and the FBI knowledge as early as 2000 that two al Qaeda members - Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar - were living in San Diego.
The former anti-terror chief said he believes that the CIA kept the info under wraps because it wanted to recruit the two Saudis to serve as double agents within bin Laden's organization. Instead, the two terrorists ended up hijackers on American Flight 77. George Tenet, who was CIA director, claims that Clarke is "reckless and profoundly wrong."

Tenet, of course, is understandably covering his ass.

And the information continues to pour out. Yesterday's Miami Herald published yet more information linking the Saudi Royal Family to the hijackers and foreknowledge of the 911 attacks:

"Link to 9/11 hijackers found in Sarasota-
FBI found ties between hijackers and Saudis in Sarasota but never revealed the findings"

"Just two weeks before the 9/11 hijackers slammed into the Pentagon and World Trade Center, members of a Saudi family abruptly vacated their luxury home near Sarasota, leaving a brand new car in the driveway, a refrigerator full of food, fruit on the counter — and an open safe in a master bedroom."
(Snip)
"In the weeks to follow, law enforcement agents not only discovered the home was visited by vehicles used by the hijackers, but phone calls were linked between the home and those who carried out the death flights — including leader Mohamed Atta — in discoveries never before revealed to the public."
(snip)
"Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, the Florida Democrat who co-chaired the congressional Joint Inquiry into the attacks, said he should have been told about the findings, saying it “opens the door to a new chapter of investigation as to the depth of the Saudi role in 9/11. ... No information relative to the named people in Sarasota was disclosed.”
(snip)
"The fact that the FBI did not tell the Inquiry about the Florida discoveries, Graham says, is similar to the agency’s failure to provide information linking members of the 9/11 terrorist team to other Saudis in California until congressional investigators discovered it themselves.
The Inquiry did nevertheless accumulate a “very large” file on the hijackers in the United States, and later turned it over to the 9/11 Commission. “They did very little with it,” Graham said, “and their reference to Saudi Arabia is almost cryptic sometimes. … I never got a good answer as to why they did not pursue that.”
The final 28-page section of the Inquiry’s report, which deals with “sources of foreign support for some of the Sept. 11 hijackers,” was entirely blanked out. It was kept secret from the public on the orders of former President George W. Bush and is still withheld to this day, Graham said."

History will not be kind to the legacy of the Bush family.

Two takes on 2-Man Xingyi Drills

2011-09-06T09:27:00.000-07:00

Hal Mosher

Everybody has their takes on the simplistic whole-body techniques of the Xingyi Five-Element Fists.
Above, Hal Mosher (Website Here) demonstrates some attacks and counters, each partner using the same technique. I think Hal has some good ideas, but his video production could be better. (Hal, keep your other hand up!)
I have his Sun-style Bagua video and for the price I paid I got very little. Just Hal rolling through the palm changes one time with no verbal description or application. None-the-less, Hal has some good stuff which stimulates other ideas.

Below is another old favorite, Sifu Rudy and B.T. doing their version of a drill, alternating between fists:

For traditionalists, drills like these help students get a general idea of how the forms they practice can be used in application and as a bridge to some light free-sparring. I like to think about mixing this in with Tai Chi Chuan push-hands, so you get a little standing grappling with hitting and neutralizing an attack.
We have to remember, these are just drills, not actual fight training.

Steven Seagal Denies Killing Puppy

2011-09-04T09:18:00.001-07:00

Steven Seagal with fascist Sheriff Joe Arpaio

In a surprising new low, "B"-grade actor, former martial artist and current "Lord of Pasta" Steven Seagal is denying that he killed a puppy in an Arizona police raid.
Yes, Seagal - a wanna-be spook, army man and SWAT team Nazi played dress-up in Cammie Jammies and raided some dudes home in Phoenix resulting in the death of an 11 month-old puppy and 100 chickens.

From "The Huffington Post":

"Seagal and numerous deputies and posse members were present March 9 during a raid at the home of Jesus Llovera. In the claim, Llovera says an 11-month-old puppy was killed along with 100 roosters.
According to witnesses at the raid, a dog was present on Llovera's property when deputies and SWAT team members, including Seagal, entered the premises with a search warrant to arrest Llovera on cockfighting charges and seize all evidence pertaining to the crime"
(snip)
"Llovera's attorney, Robert Campos, told The Associated Press Friday his client didn't accuse Steven Seagal of killing an animal on his property in a notice of claim filed against the sheriff's office.
"My client never accused Seagal of having anything to do with the death of his puppy," Campos said. "He (Llovera) just wanted an apology from Seagal for his role in the destruction of my client's home, property and animals."
(snip)
"In Llovera's claim, the sheriff's office and Seagal are accused of setting off explosives to create a distraction and confusion. The claim says Seagal was free to commandeer a tank and crash through an iron gate on the southeast corner of Llovera's property in southwest Phoenix.
In an interview with KTAR Radio in Phoenix during the March raid, Seagal said he was there to help guard one side of Llovera's house.
"We're just sort of, you know, trying to guard one side of the house and see if anybody would run out or anything like that or, do anything worse than that," Seagal said. "We're kind of just doing that and I didn't really enter the house today."
----------------------

Hmm. So let's see if we get this right; Seagal really does not participate in any of this wanna-be cop foolishness.
He just stands around the corner eating doughnuts and drinking coffee waiting for photo ops.

Punk.

"Lord of Pasta" credit to our friend Bob at "Striking Thoughts"

For more on Steven Seagal's fantasy life, see my 2008 piece "The Company He Keeps: The Mafia, CIA and Steven Seagal"

and "LeBell vs. Seagal" from 2007

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: The New Gypsies

2011-09-01T08:40:00.001-07:00

From "The Huffington Post":

"London based photographer Iain McKell offers an extraordinary glimpse into the lives of a real and raw group of present-day nomads whose culture is built around ideals of freedom, nature, and simplicity. The New Gypsies are British horse drawn travelers. The movement began in 1986 when a group of Post-Punk Anti-Thatcher protesters headed out of London into the English countryside.
Iain McKell spent the last 10 years documenting and living with travelers of all ages: parents, children, couples and loners."

You gotta' admit, these girls are beautiful and live free. The term Gypsy appears to have lost it's racial stigma, as anyone from any culture is free to join this lifestyle.

I predict we will be seeing a lot of this in America's not-so-distant future.
As large urban areas become more dysfunctional people will begin fleeing back to the prairies and farmland of middle-America. For years those rural farms and towns have lost population as youth moved to urban cities with the promise of jobs and adventure.
Soon, things will become to dangerous and expensive in the city, and a new "back to the land" movement will begin.

Bombs Away!

2011-08-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

"Trebuchet" Catapult

Ah, Island Kids...
My friends kids built this "Trebuchet" catapult for a local science fair. So far they have launched softballs and similar objects, but think what it would do with a Molotov Cocktail!

And for the extra-large version, watch this piano launch from the TV show "Northern Exposure". I was told a local log home builder and his crew built this one:

If you like what these kids built, please go to their YouTube page and leave a nice comment, I'd like to pump up their views. They really worked hard and did all the welding, bolting and assembly of this cool device.

Here's their YouTube page:

Trebuchet catapult link

The "One Class Wonder"

2011-08-27T09:09:00.000-07:00

Instant Success

OMG, ROFL
And all that other teen text stuff...

Jake Says; "Fear The Wristlock, Bitches!"

2011-08-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

Man, oh man.
If BJJ had existed in the U.S. when I was wrestling in the 1970's I would have been all over it. But now I'm just a broken-down old Dojo Rat so I have to enjoy my friends matches.
Here is my Xingyi instructor Jake Burroughs (Black Gi) in a recent Seattle Tournament. I met Jake when he had recently moved to Seattle and began bringing his instructors in for seminars. We trained with the late Mike Martello and Tim Cartmell in Mantis and the Chinese Internal Arts, with a heavy emphasis on throwing. Tim also had a great "MMA for the street" session.
Jake has followed in Tim's footsteps and taken up BJJ to round out his skills, and it's been fun to follow his progress. He is currently training and teaching with Brian Johnson at Seattle's NW Jiu Jitsu Academy.
From what little I know about BJJ, the glamorous techniques tend to involve chokes and armbars. But here in this match, Jake wins with a wristlock which his opponent wasn't expecting. It looked painful enough that the guy tapped immediately.
There's a lesson there: Jake says "Fear The Wristlock, Bitches!"

Here's the links to Jake Burroughs site "The Ground Never Misses" and Brian Johnson's NW Jiu Jitsu Academy.

Economic Depression by Design

2011-08-24T08:47:00.000-07:00

Catherine Austin Fitts

Here's one for the deep thinkers, those who explore the "Realpolitik" behind today's world events.
Catherine Austin Fitts is brilliant. In this brief piece she gives voice to something that we suspect has been going on throughout history, repeating itself in a cyclic continuum.
The key points are that there is a planned economic re-engineering occurring, involving targeted intentional collapse. This has been forced against the third world over and over, with tools such as debt for equity swaps. In other words, sources like the IMF or private banking concerns load the third world up with debt. When the bill comes due and is unpaid, the Banksters come in with a big tow truck and sweep up (privatize) natural resources of the target country.
Fitts calls this "The Central Banking Warfare Model".
The bad news for us is that they're screwing the first world now. We are witnessing the biggest transfer of wealth from the public commons to the global bankers, a staggering amount of wealth flowing upward from you and me to people who consider themselves "The Ruling Class".
As Fitts concludes; "Now that they've got your money, they're going to change the deal".

Here's a perfect example from "The Street":

"NEW YORK (RealMoney) -- The largest transfer of wealth from the public to private sector is about to begin. The federal government will be bulk-selling the massive portfolio of foreclosed homes now owned by HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to private investors -- vulture funds.

These homes, which are now the property of the U.S. government, the U.S. taxpayer, U.S. citizens collectively, are going to be sold to private investor conglomerates at extraordinarily large discounts to real value.

You and I will not be allowed to participate. These investors will come from the private-equity and hedge-fund community, Goldman Sachs(GS_) and its derivatives, as well as foreign sovereign wealth funds that can bring a billion dollars or more to each transaction.

In the process, these investors will instantaneously become the largest improved real estate owners and landlords in the world. The U.S. taxpayer will get pennies on the dollar for these homes and then be allowed to rent them back at market rates
(snip)
Assuming taxpayers don't push back, the next step will be to issue a Request for Proposals (RFP). The RFP will be the bid and plan for these homes by investors.

The way to keep taxpayers from pushing back is to structure the RFI so that the real intention, the bulk sales, is masked by feel-good goals, such as stabilizing neighborhoods and increasing the supply of rental properties.

As intended, the mass media are playing their part in classic style. Every major newspaper in the U.S. has run articles discussing the plan as a rental conversion, allowing readers to assume that Fannie, Freddie and HUD will be renting the properties directly to families who need housing. And although there is an allowance for these kinds of rentals, it is a minor political facade to the obvious true goal of bulk-sale privatization of these homes."

Feel free to discuss...

Bad Kung Fu Series #4: The Principles of Effortless Power

2011-08-22T10:09:00.000-07:00

Author and teacher Peter Ralston

I seem to have a "respect/bewilderment" relationship with author, fighter and teacher Peter Ralston.
Ralston has varied experience in several martial arts, but has narrowed his "Cheng Hsin" down to a blend of Tai Chi Chuan, Bagua, Aikido and Western Boxing. He flawlessly borrows from any given art in his playful movement. I have one of Ralston's best DVD's. It begins with clips from a sensational tournament fight he won in China in 1978, where he works a Chinese fighter over pretty good, finishing with a nasty body slam to the ground.
Tai Chi purists deride his unorthodox methods, but he has an uncanny ability to control opponents with his boxing-push hands-Aiki-Bagua throwing style.
Ralston, who teaches as a Guru (often wearing a monks robe) clearly has the ability to "feel an opponents intent".

With that said, I would like to present a review I did on his first book "Cheng Hsin: The Principles of Effortless Power" , from a post I did in December of 2007:

Peter Ralston winning the 1978 full-contact tournament in China

Several months back, Dave from “Formosa Neijia” wrote about Peter Ralston, founder of the “Cheng Hsin” martial art system. Cheng Hsin refers to “The true nature of being”. The description was very interesting and I checked out Ralston’s website. Along with Ralston’s description of his martial philosophy, there were several clips of him performing various internal martial arts techniques. Ralston is no slouch, he has a varied background and has successfully competed internationally.
With that in mind, I ordered two of his books: “The Principles Of Effortless Power” and “Cheng Hsin T’ui Shou; The Art Of Effortless Power”.
“The Principles Of Effortless Power” is Ralston’s first book, so I started there. It begins with his martial history, and his journeys in spiritual awakening. These were steeped in the self-realization and encounter-group sessions of the 1970’s. These sessions branded Ralston’s first book with the stigma of new-age thought and explanation.
Ralston seems to be attempting to explain Internal Art principles without using any of the Chinese or Japanese terms and thought patterns. In some cases, he re-labels them. I am no stranger to alternative views and esoteric thinking, but in my opinion, Ralston is trying to re-invent the wheel. While westerners sometimes have difficulty with vague terms such as “Peng” in Tai Chi Chuan for example, there is no real need to eliminate the term or replace it.
I see where he is going with his philosophy, and understand much of it, but I have to say I find him explaining things in a circular fashion at times. For example, I book-marked this paragraph on page 90:
Ralston writes:
“ Since we already give BEING to the perception of what IS (in other words, we acknowledge it’s “beingness”), and to interpretation itself, it is necessary to move our cognition-attention and life force into a position of Being in which this can be recognized as already and actually the case. We can then give being to what is not at present occurring”.

--Whew!… this passage is not an isolated case, and I have to admit that twenty pages later I simply set the book down and moved on to his next one, which I’ve just started. That book, “Cheng Hsin T’iu Shou” shows a greater degree of maturity in his writing. While his sometimes-frustrating philosophy is present in the first part of the book, the second half is all applications that demonstrate what he has been prattling on about philosophically. While I have been on the search for concept books, Ralston’s first attempt is pretzel logic to me. I feel I will get much more out of his application book, which demonstrates many internal art principles. I came away from these books feeling that Ralston may be better as a Guru demonstrating direct transmission of knowledge to students in a Dojo format. His knowledge is deep and he is a skilled martial artist. I’ll be interested if anyone else has read his material, and any comments they have.

-----------
Well, that was in 2007.
I would skip "The Principles of Effortless Power". But if you're interested, his second book "Cheng Hsin T'ui Shou: The Art of Effortless Power" presents the same material, along with application techniques in a more sensible, readable way.

Bachmann-Perry Overdrive

2011-08-17T08:42:00.000-07:00

Cornholing Iowa

Hurray-Hurray; step right up and see the show!
Right before your eyes, see Welfare Queen Michelle Bachmann and Brother Perry's Traveling Salvation Show!

Oh, poor Iowa. I'm so sorry you had to be a part of this. Yes, a carnival where candidates Pay each participant $30 to vote for them in the Iowa straw pole.

So far at this point in the National Republican White-Peoples Party it appears that Michelle Bachmann and Rick Perry have wiped the pig shit off themselves and risen to the top of the rabid pack.
Bachmann won the fake straw poll. Ron Paul was 9/10 of one point behind Bachmann and nobody wants to admit it. I'm not a Ron Paul fan but he, Romney and Huntsman are the only sane Republifuks in the room.
Romney can't win the south because he's a Mormon. Same with Huntsman, who was an ambassador to China for Obama. Kiss of death.
So you've got the Reich wing veering madly off into Cristo-fascistland with Michelle and Rick.

Bachmann is a self-loathing anti-government recipient of government money. She received government money for raising foster children. She and her husband Marcus received federal money for a religious clinic they ran to "pray the gay away". She received federal money in farm subsidies. She's an anti-tax former tax collector for the IRS.

And then there's Brother Perry's Traveling Salvation Show:

While Bachmann is an unhinged religious dingbat, Perry is even worse.
In the hellhole that is Texas, "pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role."

According to this article in "The Texas Observer" Perry is involved in an aggressive Theo-fascist movement:

"If they simply professed unusual beliefs, movement leaders wouldn’t be remarkable. But what makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government. The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world. They believe they’re intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an “army of God” to commandeer civilian government.
In Rick Perry, they may have found their vessel. And the interest appears to be mutual."
(snip)
"other movement leaders occupy the radical fringe of Christian fundamentalism. Their beliefs may seem bizarre even to many conservative evangelicals. Yet Perry has a knack for finding the forefront of conservative grassroots. Prayer warriors, apostles and prophets are filled with righteous energy and an increasing appetite for power in the secular political world. Their zeal and affiliation with charismatic independent churches, the fastest-growing subset of American Christianity, offers obvious benefits for Perry if he runs for president.
There are enormous political risks, too. Mainstream voters may be put off by the movement’s extreme views or discomfited by talk of self-proclaimed prophets “infiltrating” government."
(snip)
“The church’s vocation is to rule history with God,” he has said. “We are called into the very image of the Trinity himself, that we are to be His friends and partners for world dominion.”

Perry claims to be responsible for "The Texas Miracle".
He is the head of the most polluted, uneducated state in the country. Texas ranks 42 in states that have home Internet access. 49th in high school graduates. #1 in minimum wage jobs. Some miracle.
Perry called for Texas to secede from the United States.
Now he wants to run the rest of the free world.
Texans who know Perry, like former state agricultural comissioner Jim Hightower say he is dumber than George W. Bush. Perry's college grades were in the C's and D's.

Despite the horrible mess that two terms of George W. Bush left us, with two wars and The Bush Depression, President Obama looks like the only adult in the room.
The Republifuks are intentionally tanking the economy by blocking job-creating legislation. Their only hope is to make stuff so bad for Obama that people will be desperate for a different type of charismatic leader to sweep them away.
So the Reich will get even crazier to rally the knaves in the hustings.

Bachmann is a nobody. She's Sarah Palin with a law degree from Oral Roberts University. But Perry is a re-packaged George W. Bush with better hair. Believe it or not, there are gullible folks out there that long for the day of vacuous Texan swagger.
Republicans like 'em pretty and dumb.
But Perry has a lot of skeletons in his "closet". Get ready for the exposes' and backlash.

Bad Kung Fu Series #3: Mind Over Matter - Higher Martial Arts

2011-08-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Mind Over Matter - Higher Martial Arts by Shi Ming

Well, I have to say I had high hopes for this book.
If you, like me, look for "concept books" over "technical books" this book has the appeal of deep thinking and experimental physiology.
But in the end, it is a continuum of verbose wordiness and partly related ideas. Every page or so there is a clever notion that pops out, but taken as a whole I had to labor through this short book.
Hey, I'm a pretty smart boy. This book wasn't over my head. It's more like a long run-on sentence that seems to present the same concepts in different ways. The translation from Chinese is by Thomas Cleary, who usually provides good text, so I don't necessarily think the re-write went wrong.
Author Shi Ming can be found in YouTube clips demonstrating "empty force" Chi-type techniques on his cadre of willing students, not very convincingly.

Here's a quote from the book to give you an idea where the author is going:

"Martial arts are a total format combining nature, society, and human life, a system with many levels of effective capacity as well as a holistic essence and potential. The purpose of refinement of consciousness through martial arts is to develop the latent abilities of the human body and brain, to cultivate supranormal capacities in the human body and supranormal levels of consciousness."

Bad Kung Fu Series #2: An Obese White Gentleman in No Apparent Distress

2011-08-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

In our continuing series on "Bad Kung Fu" (relating to any bad martial art book) we take a quick look at "An Obese White Gentleman in No Apparent Distress" by Riki Moss.
The book is an attempt at something that should probably never be done; a novel that mixes the life of a real person with fiction.
The target of this misplaced effort is the fascinating and enigmatic Aikido master Terry Dobson. Dobson's lover, Riki Moss penned a grief-stricken tale of the aging Dobson as he battles illness, waxes nostalgically about his dysfunctional upbringing and his time spent in Japan learning Aikido from it's founder, Morihei Ueshiba.
Moss writes in the voice of a distressed lover that can't quite get a rope around Dobson's neck. This is a shame, because Dobson is a larger-than-life character that plows through life smoking weed and womanizing, something that a few of us can relate to.
Looking at Dobson's Wikipedia page I see there are other biographies of Dobson available which may depict a more complete history. But in this case, Riki Moss presents her case as that of a jilted lover, one that can never fully own her man - in part because Dobson is still trying to discover himself.

I am sorry to say that I just couldn't finish the book.

Canadians Struggle With Self-Defense Issues

2011-08-05T10:32:00.001-07:00

David Chen tied up a shoplifter

Canadians are facing legal issues regarding self-defense in these changing times-
From The Montreal Gazette:

TORONTO — A Toronto man escorting his girlfriend to her home Sunday night discovered signs of entry to her house and, fearing for the woman's mother sleeping inside, searched for intruders. A man was found hiding, Toronto police said. An ensuing struggle left the intruder bleeding from stab wounds.
As frightening as the incident was, it is the charging of the boyfriend with aggravated assault, punishable by 14 years in prison, that makes the case stand out in a clutter of urban crime.
It is the latest flashpoint in the debate over self-defence and protection of property after a number of high-profile cases across Canada brought a clamour for clarity and change.
(snip)
"The man was charged because it is alleged the stabbing was excessive," said Const. Tony Vella. "It is alleged that he stabbed the man a number of times. He's fortunate to be alive."
Key to the case is that the multiple stab wounds were inflicted both inside the home and outside, Vella said, suggesting the occupants might have been able to close the door once he was outside and call police.
(snip)
Recent self-defence cases have not gone well for prosecutors.
Last month, Lawrence Manzer, of Burton, N.B., had a mistrial declared in charges stemming from a confrontation with intruders on his neighbour's property. Sloppy paperwork was cited as the reason.
The same month Kim Walker, a Yorkton, Sask., welder, was sentenced to eight years after a jury declined to find him guilty of murder for killing his daughter's boyfriend whom he deemed to be destroying his drug-addicted 16-year-old daughter. He was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
In May, Joseph Singleton, 46, a farmer in Taber, Alta., had his charges — for assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, after he wounded a man who had just burgled his house with the blunt end of a hatchet — referred to an alternative measures program.
In March, prosecutors dropped gun charges against Ian Thomson, 53, of Port Colborne, Ont., who shot at three masked men caught firebombing his home while one yelled: "Are you ready to die?" The Crown said there was no reasonable prospect of conviction.
And last October, David Chen, a Toronto grocer in Chinatown became a celebrity when he was acquitted of charges after he tied up a repeat shoplifter in a citizen's arrest.
(snip)
"The courts have repeatedly said the self-defence sections of the Criminal Code are incredibly complicated. The provisions are really complex and are in need of an overhaul to simplify them,"

Bad Kung Fu Series #1: Tim Tackett Hsing-i Kung Fu

2011-08-03T09:31:00.001-07:00

Here at Dojo Rat, we've had a chance to post reviews of some very high quality martial arts books. Most of the ones that don't quite rate I have avoided reviewing out of respect for the author and publisher.
But that's changing.
Sometimes you pick up a martial arts book and it leaves you scratching your head and going "huh"?
So I'm going to go ahead and review a few books which I will put under the "Bad Kung Fu" banner, regardless of what type of martial art it is.
Today we look at Tim Tackett's 1982 book "Hsing-i Kung Fu, Volume 2: Combat".

To begin with, it's pretty hard to find any literature about the traditional Chinese art of Hsing-i (Xingyi), so I was pretty excited to find this at a used book store. Because it is obviously out of print, I have not gotten a copy of volume one yet.

Tackett trained in Taiwan from '62-'65 and went on to train with Dan Inosanto in Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do method. That's important, because one of the main problems with this book is is not Hsing-i (Xingyi) at all.
None of the nomenclature of the traditional art, the stances, the Five Elements or animal forms are shown.
Most of the postures resemble bad Wing Chun stances and techniques. By that I mean weak, high center-of-gravity stances that are anything but Hsing-i. The punching has that typical off-balence rear-foot tip-toe front leg weighted off-line punching that looks like a grappler could just shove the guy over.
This is a great disservice to what I know off all the Chinese internal arts, let alone Hsing-i.
To his credit, Tackett attributes these modified stances and techniques to his instructor Chen Mei Shou:

"From the basic, formal positions, he encourages whatever modifications that assisted the hand movements and added speed and power to their delivery. Such modifications included transferring the weight to the lead foot to assist the forward motion of a strike, angling the body for better power and accuracy and pivoting one or both feet to "launch" the hands".

To which I say; fine, then the book should have been called "Wing Chun".

But, even a blind pig can find an acorn. I still found the book interesting if somewhat confusing. I suppose in 1982 Tackett was becoming enthused with Jeet Kune Do and wove such details into an art he had been practicing for some twenty years.
Despite being a sad disappointment to traditional practitioners, the book retains value as a period piece in the era of evolving American martial arts.
I'll probably look around to see if I can find a used copy of volume one to see how he presents the basics.

By the way, Tim is still around, giving seminars and working with small groups in California.

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: Asian Girls!

2011-08-01T08:58:00.000-07:00

Worried about the Debt Ceiling deal?
Watching the market or your 401k?
We've got a little breathing room now, so...
-All across America, dare I say the globe, fellow Dojo Rats check in today to find the inevitable:
Cute Asian Girls; Finally!

Time to Chill Out a Bit

2011-07-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

Boy oh boy, things are in full-tilt bat-shit crazy mode in the U.S. and in the world at large. What to do... What to do...

Well, here's what the Space Brothers suggest:

Round-up!

2011-07-28T08:26:00.001-07:00

You poor bastards out there...

Sure, I remember the days when I had to drive miles through traffic to get to a crappy job first thing in the morning. That was for about three years in the late seventies-early eighties. Screw that, I've pretty much lived and worked in the country ever since.
So the other day I loaded up my trusty steed (International Lawn Tractor) and tools and headed off to work at various jobs here on the island, one small and two big mows.
Recently when I passed the cattle ranch I could see all the cattle on the west side of the road bunched up against the hundred year-old barbed wire and hedge-rows.
It later occurred to me that the guys had probably separated some of the half-grown calves from the rest of the herd. The calves were looking across the road at the rest of the herd on the east side of the valley. The fence didn't look like it would hold.
So I come around the corner to see my neighbors on horseback blocking the road, three men and three women and a couple of guys to open and close gates. This is the kind of traffic delay I can live with. It took about ten minutes, but they trotted the herd across the road to join the cows on the east side. The irony was not lost on me as I pulled away with my mechanical horse loaded up for work.

Something to think about next time you're stuck in traffic...

Self-Defense: Extended Guard vs. Close Guard

2011-07-23T10:53:00.000-07:00

I've been giving some more thought to The concept of where to hold a guard position in various stages of an impending fight;
Some arts have a fixed stance that is always used, be it long or short range. Traditional arts use an extended guard, modern fighting styles such as Boxing or MMA tend to use a close guard exclusively.
Here for example is a traditional Chinese Xingyi San-ti stance:

Partly because I am spending a lot of time on Xingyi forms right now, this is my preferred stance when I need to be alert to a confrontation. It has that "Back-off!" gesture and feels good at sensing an approaching threat. The lead hand is held high, the back hand is close to the core ready for protecting against kicks.
But let's face it, a good boxer can hook around the guard in close quarters and in that case we need to close our guard.
I feel that there are varying degrees of pulling the guard in as the situation changes. Here's Loren Christensen in a modified extended guard, pulling back slightly from the traditional stance and perhaps ready to rip, claw and strike.

But if someone is closing very fast, it seems logical to pull back and protect your centerline and head from heavy punches. Here's Ali in a typical boxing posture:

As Tim Cartmell instructed us at a MMA seminar, the modern method is to cover closely and shuck off the strikes with forearms, protecting centerline, head and ribs. Defense from kicks is either jamming them or stepping out of range. As Tim described, the worst thing you can do is reach out away from your centerline and core area, creating an opening for your opponent to punch through.
In summary, I think that the guard can be adjusted according to range and how much time you have as an attack closes in. By the same token, I would not unnecessarily extend a guard unless I intended to use it. No reason to signal or posture, but it is natural to raise your guard if threatened.

Now, here is my ideal of a nice training scenario:

Murdoch's "Tiger Wife" Attacks

2011-07-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

Wendi Murdoch in pink

As the grand political theater, "The Fall of the House of Murdoch" continues, we saw how Murdoch's Ninja wife sprang into action to protect the Fearless Leader.
As a self-described activist and comedian approached the primordial ooze that is Rupert Murdoch with a plate full of foam pie, loyal bodyguard/wife Wendi Deng lept between the two and allegedly broke the attackers nose.
The pie-eyed activist was led away in handcuffs, Prune-Face removed his foam-soiled jacket and resumed his circular arguments with Parliament officials.
Wendi Deng has been hailed as the new model of an Asian "Tiger Wife" for the heroic defense of her paycheck.

Here is her known history, c/o MSNBC:

•Deng was born in Shandong, China, in 1968 to engineer parents. She was named Wen Ge, which is shorthand for "Cultural Revolution."
•She played volleyball in China.
•She married Jake Cherry, who along with his first wife had sponsored her student visa in 1988, The Business Insider reported. They divorced years later.
•She studied at Cal State before earning an MBA from Yale University.
•She worked in Hong Kong at Star Television, which is owned by Murdoch's News Corp
•Deng met Murdoch at a News Corp. party in Hong Kong in 1997. They married in 1999, weeks after his former marriage was dissolved.
•News Corp. paid Deng $92,000 in 2010 for "strategic advice" on MySpace's expansion into China, according to the Insider.
•Deng is Murdoch's third wife, and they live in Manhattan. They have two daughters, Grace and Chloe.
•She is co-founder and co-CEO of the film production company Big Feet Productions.
•She produced the film “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” which opened last week. At a weekend showing at the Southampton UA theater that Deng hosted, guests included Barbara Walters, Rudy Giuliani and designer Tori Burch.

But now for the dark side of Wendi Deng, from the comment section of the above link:

"If you really want to get the conspiracy theories rolling, do a little digging into Wendi Deng's relationship with the PRC's heaviest group of hardline communists.
What is somewhat common knowledge in China and never really brought up in the states (or the western world much at all) is that she wields signicant influence specifically with the worst of the worst Machiavellian element of China's governmental despots and has deep connections with the media control agency as well.
The supposed staunch advocate of the Right is literally married to the darkest heartland of old school Maoist militant thuggery.
Not all of china's government is bad, but the crew she sails with are waist deep in everything from Tiananmen Square to the violent crack downs on Falun Gong. I'm no fan of FG, but I'd set myself on fire before lying down with these guys; they have the meanest hard-on for crushing pro-democracy elements and human rights in their country."

So in the tradition of baseless assertions and speculation that the Dojo Rat Blog is known for, let's trot this one out:

Wendi Deng may be a Communist agent that successfully infiltrated the most powerful media empire in the world.

or:

There is actually no difference between Western Fascists and Eastern Communists. Murdoch only wishes he and his slime-mold could simply roll the tanks into U.S. streets and mow down protests and social unrest like The Communists did in Tiananmen Square.

First Dead Body Appears in Fox / News International / Murdoch Scandal

2011-07-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

Old Prune-Face Rupert Murdoch and Trophy Wife Wendy

I can't help it.
This is the best political theater since the Iran-Contra hearings. By comparison, Clinton's Monica Lewinsky hearings were a big nothing. What we are watching here is the fall of the Murdoch empire.
This includes scores of newspapers, TV shows, and political propaganda units disguised as news services (Fox News).
For those that haven't been following, the parent company of Fox Fake News, News Corp. International is under investigation for a complex series of phone hacking, Police and informant pay-offs, bribes, intimidation and lies.
It has so far cost stock shareholders some ten billion dollars and they are pissed. The corruption has forced the resignations of the head of Scotland Yard, the head of News Corp. Rebeckah Brooks, and the head of The Wall Street Journal Les Hinton.
Rupert Murdoch, his son James and Ms. Brooks are testifying before Parliament right now:

Now, the dead body of the first whistle-blower, Sean Hoare has been found. The deceased is said to have had drug and alcohol problems, yet he was the first employee of "News of the World" that reported on Murdoch's illegal activities.
Here in the U.S., The Justice Department and FBI have begun their own investigation. Reporters here have disclosed information about a secret intelligence gathering operation run out of a secure room in the basement of Murdoch's New York offices.
The implications of this are huge.
In the U.S., Fox News has undue influence over politicians. Rumors of Blackmail and influence peddling are rampant.
This could be the biggest political scandal in thirty years, and it runs very, very deep...

Black Belt Woman Keeps Man as Sex Slave

2011-07-16T11:13:00.000-07:00

Alleged Kidnapper Olga Zajac

From "The Mail Online U.K.":

"Robber who broke into hair salon is beaten by its black-belt owner and kept as a sex slave for three days... fed only Viagra"

"A Russian man who tried to rob a hair salon ended up as the victim when the female shop owner overpowered him, tied him up naked and then used him as a sex slave for three days.
Viktor Jasinski, 32, admitted to police that he had gone to the salon in Meshchovsk, Russia, with the intention of robbing it
But the tables were turned dramatically when he found himself overcome by owner Olga Zajac, 28, who happened to be a black belt in karate.She allegedly floored the would-be robber with a single kick.
Then, in a scene reminiscent of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, police say Zajac dragged the semi-conscious Jasinski to a back room of the salon and tied him up with a hair dryer cable.
She allegedly stripped him naked and, for the next three days, used him as a sex slave to 'teach him a lesson' - force feeding him Viagra to keep the lesson going."
--------------

(D.R.)- Ok, this sounds like a plot for a really bad porn flick.
But I know it's just the kind of article Dojo Rat readers want to see...

A New Superhero?

2011-07-14T10:09:00.000-07:00

First there was Spiderman:

And Batman:

Now; "The Dragonfly"

Look how "human-like" this little guy appears.
We live on the edge of a big swamp and have lots of Dragonflys. A while back, I was sitting on a log in the early evening as the gnats and mosquito's were coming out. In one of those rare moments, a dragonfly caught a mosquito and literally stopped for a split second, suspended in mid-air right in front of me. Very cool.

Dark History: The Muscle That Lifted Soloflex

2011-07-11T07:49:00.000-07:00

Soloflex exercise machine

There is an old saying that's something like; "Behind every great fortune is a great crime".
In the case of Soloflex inventor, designer and CEO Jerry Wilson, that saying is true. Jerry Wilson made his seed money for Soloflex the old-fashioned way; drug running.

Wilson is a fascinating yet enigmatic character who successfully piloted his Soloflex invention as well as the planes he loaded with prime Colombian marijuana.
He is a deep thinker, a man's man who has treaded the fine line between cop and criminal. At his Oregon-based Soloflex factory he's the benevolent cop, but his current standing is a far cry from the man steeped in the drug trade and associating with a cast of characters linked to the assassinations of President Kennedy and a Federal judge in Texas.
I had the experience of touring Wilson's Soloflex factory while on a maintenance crew. The employees looked like they were having a great time at a great workplace. Their break time was spent playing video games in the lunchroom or shooting hoops outside. The factory was spotless and efficient. Wilson hit the big-time when he switched from magazine adds for his innovative machine to full-length infomercials on cable TV. One year he made $98 million in sales with a net profit before taxes of $54 million. At the time, he was producing 900 Soloflex machines a day. The modern era of Soloflex is a model of the perfect workplace, but it received a leg up through the criminal underworld.

Wilson was born to be a pilot; his early boss at Callen's Flying Service near Roswell had a record of shooting 110 eagles in one day from an airplane. Ranchers at the time had bounties on all predators. One of his relatives, "Uncle Dude" was a well-known bootlegger and pimp who died after being shot in the back.
Wilson's mix of good and bad luck began when he was a pilot for The Chagra Brothers.
The Chagra Brothers leaving a courthouse

Lee Chagra was the oldest of three brothers. By all reporting, he was a slick criminal lawyer, cocaine addict, high-stakes gambler and head of a small but powerful criminal organization. Joe Chagra, Lee's law partner was cleaner and slightly more responsible but Jimmy appears to have been the root of a lot of family trouble. Wilson has written that Lee and Joe Chagra offered seed money for Wilson's Soloflex invention.
Wilson was the Chagra's pilot, and was soon incorporated into their drug trade. This of course, was at great risk and peril. When the crew branched out from Mexico to Colombia, Wilson spent a little time in a prison near Santa Marta Colombia. His biography states that the avocados were great and that wives and prostitutes were allowed to visit once a week. The operation fell into disarray when they were busted in Ardmore Oklahoma. Dubbed "The El Paso Ten", they were released with a hung jury. It appeared that the jury found out that the cops had stolen somewhere around 4,000 pounds of the 21 thousand-pound shipment and that was the end of the trial.
Lee and Jimmy Chagra were famous in the southwest. Lee for representing drug traffickers in court, Jimmy for trafficking drugs, and both for their expensive gambling habits. Casino's in Vegas sent airplanes to pick them up when they called. Lee was known to take two or three strippers home at night for cocaine-driven orgies. Jimmy was said to emulate Lee, and Joe stayed fairly clean by comparison.
From Wilson's biography, it's unclear when he parted ways with the Chagra's but he did go on to contract flying services for celebrities and mail shipments. He makes a point of saying that he always paid his taxes.
By 1978 the justice system was closing in on the Chagra brothers again, this time for good. Federal judge John Wood, dubbed "Maximum John" for the lengthy sentences he handed out, had his sights set on Jimmy Chagra. Wood, who had long family ties to Texas law enforcement and a prosecutor named Kerr were poised to give Chagra a life sentence without parole. In a complicated series of events, the once-powerful Chagra network began to unravel. Someone it seems, had positioned a van near the car driven by Federal prosecutor Kerr. The doors flew open and shotgun and rifle fire exploded on Kerr's car. Despite the ambush, Kerr survived.
Meanwhile, Lee Chagra allowed entrance to his fortress of an office to two men who killed him. On December 23 1978, two soldiers from Ft. Bliss were sent by a distant family member of the Chagra's, Lou Esper, in an attempted robbery. David Leon Wallace and Don White shot Lee Chagra and stole around $450 thousand-dollars. An open vile of cocaine was on Chagra's desk and a cigarette was still in his mouth. His boots, where he kept thousands of dollars, were removed. The large amount of cash was looted from the next room. Friends and family said Lee feared he was being stalked, and those fears proved true.
On May 29 1979, a sniper shot Federal Judge John Wood in the back as he was leaving his home. That was the same day Jimmy Chagra was originally scheduled to appear in Judge Woods court. This began the largest manhunt in history at the time. In a secretly recorded jailhouse conversation, Joe and Jimmy Chagra had discussed details of the assassination. Joe Chagra took the rap and was sentenced to ten years. Jimmy was reported to have been released into the witness protection program. The hitman was none other than Charles Harrelson, the father of actor Woody Harrelson.
The signifigance of Harrelson being involved is huge.
Charles Harrelson

Harrelson had also admitted to being involved in the Kennedy assassination. After President Kennedy was shot, three "tramps" were arrested, questioned and released. They are said to be Frank Sturgis, Charles Harrelson and E. Howard Hunt. Sturgis and Hunt were with the CIA.
Sturgis, Harrelson and Hunt

The intelligence connections may run deeper. In reviewing notes from a 1990's interview, a source had named to me the man who claimed to have flown the hit man in the Judge Woods murder from the scene of the crime. He was a CIA contract pilot my source had worked with in Alaska.

Of all this cast of characters, only Jerry Wilson of Soloflex survives.
Wilson went on to sponsor a host of progressive causes. He mounted a campaign to remove a powerful Republican Congressman from Oregon. He funded plans to shut down Oregon's Trojan Nuclear power plant. He ran for Governor in 2010.
Wilson didn't suffer gunshots or lengthy prison time. He could have died dozens of times flying. The only bad news that crossed his radar screen was the arrest of his son Brian for felony gun possession from a previous crime.
Brian Wilson's guns

Jerry Wilson has indeed lived a charmed life. Despite brief incarceration, he used his resources well and built the Soloflex empire.
I'm sure he has a lot more stories to tell.

Isshin Ryu Master Angi Uezu

2011-07-07T08:46:00.000-07:00

I found this great picture of an Isshin Ryu master.
The guy looks tough as nails, I wouldn't want to fight him. After searching around a bit, I found it is Angi Uezo. Here are a few details from this biography:

"Angi Uezu was born January 3, 1935, in Chiyaranka City on the island of Saipan. His first involvement with martial arts came in junior high school where the schools curriculum included Gojuryu. He didn't like Karate because he was very much against fighting of any sort. He thought, why train in Karate and get beat-up everyday learning to defend yourself when the likelihood of getting into a fight was so remote?
In 1956, he met Yukiko Shimabuku, the third daughter of Master Tatsuo Shimabuku, the well-known karate master. After a short courtship and Yukiko's prodding to get married, Master Uezu went to the Kyan dojo to ask Master Shimabuku for his daughters hand in marriage. Master Uezu tells the story of his first meeting with the Master. "As I approached Master Shimabuku's house I could hear some very loud pounding. I walked up to the fence gate and saw Master Shimabuku punching the makiwara. He wasn't smiling and was very intense. I thought he was getting ready for me."

The story continues to say that he avoided practicing Karate for years, even though married to the master's daughter. On advice of a friend, he relented and took up the art. He soon was teaching at nearby military bases:

"Due to his loyalty and dedication, he soon became one of Master Shimabuku's top students. During the early sixties as his skills improved he became one of the top competitors on Okinawa winning many competitions and became highly regarded as an outstanding martial artist on Okinawa. He was an excellent counter fighter with an array of techniques that he worked until he considered them perfect for all types of fighting."

There's a lot to be respected about these austere, traditional forms of Karate.

Jack Nicholson on "Individual Freedom"

2011-07-04T10:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it is fast becoming a July 4th tradition over here at Dojo Rat to play this short scene with Jack Nicholson and Dennis Hopper in "Easy Rider"

I get so frustrated with "conservatives" that have no idea how much people have struggled to have the basic freedoms we experience today.
Sure, they wave the flag and cling to a U.S. Constitution that most of them do not understand and that is in direct conflict with contemporary "conservative" beliefs.

Progressives, or "liberals" if you will, fought against powerful financial institutions with private armies like The Pinkerton's to establish workplace safety regulations.
They ended child labor.
Gave us civil rights.
Women's rights.
The 40-hour work week.
Environmental protection.
Food safety inspection.
--The list goes on and on.

In the folklore of "conservative" mythology, they would do away with all this. They embrace the magical thinking of a non-existent "Free Market".

And as Nicholson says; they'll talk and talk about "individual freedom", but when they see a "free individual", it makes them Dangerous.

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: "Skin Diver" Edition

2011-07-01T08:04:00.000-07:00

July doesn't seem like the time we would look at pictures of the Russian Arctic, but who can resist this from "The Mail Online" (U.K.):

"Braving sub-zero temperatures, she has thrown caution — and her clothes — to the wind to tame two beluga whales in a unique and controversial experiment.
Natalia Avseenko, 36, was persuaded to strip naked as marine experts believe belugas do not like to be touched by artificial materials such as diving suits.
The skilled Russian diver took the plunge as the water temperature hit minus 1.5 degrees Centigrade."

(D.R.): Now, I'm not too crazy about the reason for this. They are trying to train the whales to be used to human contact so they can be delivered to zoos like Sea World.

From the article:
"The average human could die if left in sub-zero temperature sea water for just five minutes.
However, Natalia is a yoga expert and used meditation techniques to hold her breath and stay under water for an incredible ten minutes and 40 seconds."

I couldn't do it. You know what cold water does to guys...

Tao Te Ching #15: "Skilled Warriors of Old"

2011-06-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

"Skilled Warriors of Old", Tao Te Ching - Thomas Cleary Edition

Skilled warriors of old were subtle,
mysteriously powerful,
so deep they were unknowable,
Just because they are unknowable,
I will try to describe them.

Their wariness was as that of one crossing a river in winter,
their caution was as that of one in fear of all around,
their gravity was that of a guest,
their relaxation was as that of ice at the melting point.

Simple as uncarved wood,
open as the valleys,
they were inscrutable as murky water.

Who can, in turbidity,
use the gradual clarification of stillness?
Who can, long at rest,
use the gradual enlivening of movement?

Those who preserve this Way do not want fullness,
Just because of not wanting fullness,
it is possible to use the full and not make anew.

"Striking Thoughts" Has Moved

2011-06-27T10:10:00.000-07:00

My buddy Bob over at "Striking Thoughts" has dumped Wordpress or whatever that template was and moved over to Blogspot.
I am letting everybody know, mainly so I can use this picture of Bob (again) in a very nice apron while he was visiting relatives.
Lookin' good Bob!

Check out the new location for "Striking Thoughts" at this new link

New Training Schedule at Seattle's NW Jiu Jitsu Academy

2011-06-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Over at "The Ground Never Misses", my friend and Xingyi instructor Jake Burroughs announces exciting new changes:

"Brian Johnson is expanding the NW Jiu Jitsu Academy to almost triple his square footage, giving us another matted training floor, and a large workout area that will include various weights and equipment essential to martial arts conditioning and endurance training.
Along with this expansion, I am also happy to announce an expanded training schedule that I will be offering at the NW Jiu Jitsu Academy for those wishing to improve their striking and stand up skills. I will be offering three different formats starting July 2nd:

Kickboxing –
Develop pinpoint accuracy along with devastating power using kicks, punches, elbows, and knees. Whether you are looking for a calorie-burning workout, or you want to learn fundamental striking for self-defense as you are working your butt off this class will address all of your fitness and training goals!

Essential Combatives –
Continuing where kickboxing leaves off, Combatives class uses strikes to enter into clinch range where students train throws, takedowns, ground proofing, and the essentials of self-defense. Ideal for women and those wishing to take a more realistic approach to your self-defense training, combatives will challenge you mentally and physically.

Pekiti Tirsi Kali –
Filling in the final gap in modern day self defense one must address the weapon factor. Pekiti Tirsia Kali is considered the most technical bladed art to ever come out of the Philippine Islands, and it addresses all ranges of combat as well as all types of weapons. Learn a traditional Filipino weapon-based art in a safe and fun environment.

Instructor Jake Burroughs (left), the late Mike Martello, and myself

If you are in the Seattle area and are looking for diverse, efficiant training contact Jake at:

Three_harmonies@hotmail.com

Anybody Worried About This yet?

2011-06-22T08:27:00.001-07:00

Flooded Nebraska Nuke Plant

I am an avid news consumer. Every day I am in my office I have the news on, and at work I listen to news radio most of the day.
Not a single word about a disaster that could be happening in slow motion right now.

Not one, but TWO nuclear power plants in Nebraska are in big trouble. This first report is from "The Business Insider":

"A fire in Nebraska's Fort Calhoun nuclear power plant briefly knocked out the cooling process for spent nuclear fuel rods, ProPublica reports.
The fire occurred on June 7th, and knocked out cooling for approximately 90 minutes. After 88 hours, the cooling pool would boil dry and highly radioactive materials would be exposed.
On June 6th, the Federal Administration Aviation (FAA) issued a directive banning aircraft from entering the airspace within a two-mile radius of the plant.
"No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered by this NOTAM," referring to the "notice to airmen," effective immediately.
Since last week, the plant has been under a "notification of unusual event" classification, becausing of the rising Missouri River."
(snip)
"Asked about the FAA flight ban, Hanson it was due to high power lines and "security reasons that we can't reveal." He said the flight ban remains in effect."
------------

So the Ft. Calhoun plant suffered a fire that disabled the cooling system on June 6th, and is now flooded with water from the Missouri river.
Great.
Worse yet, heavy snows in the Rocky Mountains are melting and the flooding is expected to increase. The Cooper Nuclear Station down river may be at risk also:

"The Cooper Plant is in service and operating at or near 100% capacity. It has not shut down due to the rising flood waters. Cooper is a Boiling Water Reactor, manufactured by General Electric (BWR-4) with a Mark I Containment System. Sound familiar? Think "Fukushima". An earlier "Unusual Event" was reported by the Cooper Plant: "....inability to meet sludge pond discharge permit due to river levels." (NRC # 49941 09 June 2011 ) In the description, the operator states: "uncontrolled discharge ... "low volume' wastewater."

OpEd News reports:

"Ft. Calhoun: (NRC # 46965 16 June 2011) "Additional Penetration Identified For Mitigation During Walkdown" The Event Text states: ""Operations identified a potential flooding issue in the Intake Structure 1007 ft. 6 in. level. The area of concern is a hole in the floor at the 1007 ft. 6 in. level where the relief valve from FP-1A discharge pipe goes through the raw pump bay and discharges into the intake cell. There is one penetration of concern. Flooding through this penetration could have impacted the ability of the station's Raw Water (RW) pumps to perform their design accident mitigation functions."
(snip)
"Should any of the upstream Dams fail (there are a total of 15) there would likely be a catastrophic wall of water rushing all the way to the Mississippi River. Unlikely? Yes. Impossible? Think "Fukushima". As one commentator recently said: "Breaching the spent fuel ponds would make Fukushima look like an X-Ray. The Army Corps of Engineers has been releasing water from the Gavins Point Dam (first Dam upstream from Ft. Calhoun) at 150,000 cubic feet per second and they have said this will likely be increased."
---------------

Is it about time for us to just install hundreds of millions of Solar Panels yet?
Quit mining Uranium and tearing mountains down for coal?
Nukes are clearly not safe.
For those who are interested, here's today's radiation readings c/o the Fukashima Nuclear plant in Japan:

Nuclear power: "Too cheap to meter"...

The Comtech "Fighting Bandanna" Volume Two

2011-06-20T07:56:00.000-07:00

In early June we introduced you to James Keating's "Fighting Bandanna" instructional video Volume One. That detailed basic blocking and entangling lines while using the Bandanna as a flexible defense weapon. You can read that review Here.
In Volume Two, Keating demonstrates more unique and interesting methods, including using the Bandanna as an old style rock-launching sling. The Bandanna adds a degree of safety when confronted with a weapon, increases the defenders leverage, and can clearly be used to slap, trap, entangle and choke. As stated in the last review, the lowly Bandanna can be carried anywhere and is a great improvised weapon. All techniques are demonstrated with empty hands as well as with the added leverage of the Bandanna, which makes applications easier to understand.
Here is a short piece of an article by Keating in Fighttimes.com titled "It's just a piece of cloth, a dirty old rag":

"The Bandanna can be a: distraction, a sling, a sap, it can entangle, provide leverage, works well in all ranges and interacts well w/ all environments and authorities. Gee, for a "low-visibility" personal defense item, does it get any better than this? Your experimentation and diligence are critical components in your path to covert self defense mastery."
(snip)
"In the manifestation of this skill one will study different ways to snap, wrap, trap and entangle the opponent. You are taught both high-line and low-line applications.
You are shown how the bandanna is applied against the body's "lever points". The bandanna and your empty hand arts must work as a team.
How can you make the most out of this humble "Cloth"? How else can this simple, yet highly versatile rag be employed into our service? In this case the survival mind must take the lead. So let's have a look at some of the other applications you might consider when becoming a professional "Bandanna Man". The Bandanna is protection."
-------
And indeed, Keating concludes the video series with some no-nonsense examples of using the Bandanna as an emergency survival tool as well as some not-so-obvious first-aid ideas.

For those interested in practical pocket tools that can be improvised into self-defense weapons, the Bandanna should be one of your first choices. It's inconspicuous and has many, many applications. Most importantly, Keating shows how to marry the Bandanna to skills you already possess in empty-hand combat.

For those interested in taking a look at the many instructional video's James Keating has produced, go to this link for Combat Technologies

Here is the link for the review of Volume One

Assault With a Weasel

2011-06-17T10:27:00.000-07:00

Police: Assault suspect mistook marten for mink
(AP) – Jun 10, 2011

HOQUIAM, Wash. (AP) — Police say a Washington man who was holding a dead weasel when he assaulted his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend was actually yielding a mink carcass.

Hoquiam police said the 33-year-old man had the dead animal with him when he went to the other man's apartment looking for his girlfriend Monday. The victim told police that he was struck after he asked the man why he was carrying a weasel.

He told police the attacker replied, "It's not a weasel, it's a marten," then punched him in the nose and fled.

But police Chief Jeff Myers told KXRO that martens haven't been seen in the area for 50 years, and that the dead animal was a mink. Both minks and martens are members of the weasel family.

The man was arrested later.
------------------------------

(D.R.)- As you can see, things are a little "slow" on the central Washington coast.
No wonder Nirvana's Kurt Cobain moved from there to Seattle...

U.S. Used Bin Laden To Create Unrest In China

2011-06-16T08:53:00.000-07:00

Most of us never realize the "Realpolitik" that goes on around us, and how cynical "The Powers That Be" are in manipulating the world in resource wars.

I came across this article, one of many about FBI translator Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds saw and translated thousands of documents relating to 911 and was interviewed in closed testimony by The 911 Commission.
According to this article, Edmonds describes how the U.S. was using Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban to sow unrest in China, among other places:

"In the interview, Sibel says that the US maintained 'intimate relations' with Bin Laden, and the Taliban, "all the way until that day of September 11."
These 'intimate relations' included using Bin Laden for 'operations' in Central Asia, including Xinjiang, China. These 'operations' involved using al Qaeda and the Taliban in the same manner "as we did during the Afghan and Soviet conflict," that is, fighting 'enemies' via proxies."

The article presents further information by journalist Eric Margolis describing how Chinese Muslim "Uighars" were trained:

(Chinese Muslims) "were being trained by Bin Laden to go and fight the communist Chinese in Xinjiang, and this was not only with the knowledge, but with the support of the CIA, because they thought they might use them if war ever broke out with China."
(snip)
"Afghanistan was not a hotbed of terrorism, these were commando groups, guerrilla groups, being trained for specific purposes in Central Asia."
(snip)
"That illustrates Henry Kissinger's bon mot that the only thing more dangerous than being America's enemy is being an ally, because these people were paid by the CIA, they were armed by the US, these Chinese Muslims from Xinjiang, the most-Western province.
The CIA was going to use them in the event of a war with China, or just to raise hell there, and they were trained and supported out of Afghanistan, some of them with Osama Bin Laden's collaboration. The Americans were up to their ears with this."
---------------------

There is little reason to believe this relationship between U.S. Intel and Islamic extremists has ever ended. In fact, I have seen articles that cynicly refer to Al-Qaeda as "Al-CIAda". It's pretty clear that Bush/Cheney didn't want to get Bin Laden, and that he was being protected in Pakistan. Every Christmas shopping season, every election, everytime something went sour for Bush, they pulled out a "recent" Bin Laden video.

And the unrest spurred on by the CIA and Bin Laden has continued in the Muslim region of China:

Ethnic riots in China's west kill 140, hundreds hurt as unrest spreads to 2nd city

"Riots and street battles killed at least 140 people in China's western Xinjiang province and injured 828 others in the deadliest ethnic unrest to hit the region in decades. Officials said Monday the death toll was expected to rise.
Police sealed off streets in parts of the provincial capital, Urumqi, after discord between ethnic Muslim Uighur people and China's Han majority erupted into violence. Witnesses reported a new, smaller protest Monday in a second city, Kashgar."
(snip)
"Tensions between Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese are never far from the surface in Xinjiang, a sprawling region rich in minerals and oil that borders eight Central Asian nations. Many Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) yearn for independence and some militants have waged a sporadic, violent separatist campaign."

(D.R.)- Please note the reference to "a sprawling region rich in minerals and oil".
In a related article, McClatchy news service obtained a huge data dump of 257,287 documents from Wikileaks:

WikiLeaks cables show that it was all about the oil

"Of the 251,287 WikiLeaks documents McClatchy obtained, 23,927 of them — nearly one in 10 — reference oil."

More at the McClatchy link above

Scenes From Saturday's Saloon Party

2011-06-14T08:39:00.000-07:00

So Saturday was our annual Saloon BBQ party, and the weather was perfect. I've had computer problems so I couldn't load any digital pictures off my camera, a friend took a few though:

There were about forty or fifty people off-and-on, and tons of food. I had a keg of Many's Pale Ale that we finished, and there was plenty more beer, hard stuff and wine.
Here's a different angle, looking toward my equipment shed:

Crap, sometime after 3:30 in the morning I wandered back to the house, and there were still people partying in the Saloon.
I think I finally recovered...
For those who haven't seen the Bar inside, here's a pic:

Woo-hoo! Half-a-million Hits!

2011-06-11T10:31:00.001-07:00

No, I haven't been sitting here clicking the reset button;
Thanks to you guys out there Dojo Rat hit 500,128 hits this morning!

Special thanks to recent viewers from The U.S. Department of Justice, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs and the various other snoops and spooks.

The Beer's on me!

Comtech: "Fighting Bandanna" Volume One

2011-06-09T08:26:00.000-07:00

Looking for an improvised weapon that can be carried anywhere? How about one that can help defend against a knife attack, or provide protection from the elements as well as first-aid use?
Well, the fighting Bandanna might be the improvised weapon for you.
In Volume One of the Comtech "Fighting Bandanna", tactical fighting instructor James Keating introduces us to the use of the Bandanna as a flexible weapon. All the principles apply to similar tools such as belts, short rope, piece of garden hose, etc.
Keating's approach is based on the "Panu" scarf techniques seen in Filipino and Indonesian arts, but with a street-smart western approach. His delivery is very clear and Keating moves with the authority of a well-practiced expert.

In "Getting Started", Keating shows us how to knot the Bandanna and use it in a whip-like motion to attack targets such as the eye. This is clearly more effective than it may sound, as he develops further methods involving weighted Bandannas capable of breaking glass bottles. All striking angles are covered.
We are next introduced to using the Bandanna to assist in stopping knife thrusts and the angles necessary to neutralize the attack.
The knife disarms used will look familiar to weapon-stripping techniques used in other arts, and the use of the Bandanna gives us more leverage and a degree of safety, being one step removed from contact with the blade. Wrapping the blade, joint manipulation and other techniques are employed.

In "secondary attacks", Keating goes beyond a simple thrust and deals with alternative weapons (tomahawk or hammer), reverse grip knife attacks, and dealing with a "one-two" weapon-punch attack with the opponent using both hands. This includes arm trapping methods also seen in other arts. Keating makes a clear point of showing many of the techniques empty handed, which helps us see how the Bandanna supplements the technique. All knives used are large "Bowie" style trainers that are very imposing, and the defense emphasis is on non-lethal control techniques.

In "Further development", Keating concludes with useful methods of installing small weighted objects into the Bandanna, intensifying the striking capabilities of the weapon. Using the Bandanna to conceal weapons and other ideas are discussed.

Keating makes it clear that the "Fighting Bandanna" is a concept video. He reminds us that many of the techniques can be applied with a variety of improvised flexible weapons. It's any one's worst nightmare to be confronted by an aggressor with a knife, and we are advised to run away and live to fight another day.
But familiarity with simple improvised weapons such as the Bandanna could save us from an initial attack, giving us that opportunity to escape.
Having a training partner is essential for learning the concepts in this video. I know I will write down a few notes and take them to the Dojo with Bandannas and wooden knives. Practice is essential.

Here is the Contact information for James Keating and Comtech:

Ph: 541-938-3451
Email: comtech@bmi.net
Mailing address:
COMTECH
POB 142
Walla Walla, Wa. 99362

And here is the embedded link for other products at Comtech

Volume Two review here

The Yoga Militia: This Guy's No Gandhi Pacifist

2011-06-08T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yoga star Swami Ramdev

We live in fascinating times; the "Arab Spring" sweeps across North Africa and the Middle East challenging dictatorships. In Europe, huge protests against austerity measures threaten to topple governments that have mis-invested public funds led by corrupt money managers in London and on Wall Street.
And now in India, a popular television Guru has suggested he will build a militia to tackle government corruption. From "AFP":

"NEW DELHI (AFP) – A television yoga guru who has led protests against corruption in India threatened to form a militia on Thursday as a new demonstration against the government drew thousands in New Delhi.
Yoga star Swami Ramdev, who was evicted from the capital along with thousands of followers at the weekend in a police crackdown, warned of violence if he was targeted again.
The activist, an eccentric figure watched by millions of Indians daily on a religious television channel, called for men and women to join his "army".
"They must be dedicated, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice," he said from his base in northern India in remarks reported by the NDTV news channel. "They will be given arms training. We will build an army of 11,000 men and women."
His spokesman told AFP that the force would have weapons but would act only in self-defence. He said that Ramdev, who has been fasting since Monday, was determined to stand up to police if they again attacked him or his supporters."
(snip)
""In a democracy, everyone has a right to stand up for a cause and no government can stop us from doing so."
Anger about corruption is mounting in India after a series of scandals, notably a telecom licence scam that might have cost the country up to $39 billion.
Some observers predicted the government's heavy-handed treatment of Ramdev, a strict social conservative with radical views on how to tackle corruption, could lead to further protests.
But the guru's call for an army and the threat of violence is likely to alienate many Indians who had previously sympathised with his cause."
--------------------------

(D.R.): All around the world, and partly thanks to Wikileaks and social media, common people are challenging corrupt governments and saying "enough is enough".

Even in the United States, the misguided "Tea Party", a supposedly populist movement that was taken over by the Republican establishment, had it's moment and appears to have run out of steam.
In Wisconsin, thousands and thousands of people have protested the right-wing attempt to break up Unions that bind teachers, firefighters, police and other public employees together.

Let's be clear here; all around the world people understand that elite money managers have robbed them blind. The wealth of nations has been siphoned upward through banking and investment scandals. The wealth did not just disappear, it moved from the hands of the people into the hands of the money managers. The richest corporations in the world pay no taxes while the elite deny the middle class housing and health care.
We need a new "New Deal".

Yesterday on the radio, I heard a guy say that he had been called on the phone by someone from "The Pew Research Center", a polling organization.
After a few initial questions, the pollster asked the man if he had heard of "The Arab Spring".
The man said, yes he had and that he knew about the popular uprisings.
The pollster asked if he thought if similar protests might occur in the United States soon.
The man said "Yes".

I'd like to know who commissioned that poll...

The "Comtech" Stinger

2011-06-05T09:16:00.000-07:00

Last week we introduced James Keating, a tactical fighting instructor that runs "Comtech" and the "MAAJAK" website. That post included video of Keating manipulating a knife from grip-to-grip at one of his training sessions.

Now we take a look at the Comtech "Stinger". As you see above, it's an unusual pocket tool that fits in the hand, with a striking point that protrudes past the fist:

Let me tell you; this thing would hurt, tear muscle and break bones. It's a featherweight in your pocket or hand, but likely indestructible. Even if you don't have knowledge of pressure point or vital point striking, this thing will damage anything it hits. I can imagine it penetrating between ribs or smashing the bones on the back of an opponent's fist.
The Stinger is nondescript, almost resembles a child's toy, is not metallic and is easily concealed. One of the gripping "arms" is curved. This allows the Stinger to point slightly up or down. It also has a hole that a key chain ring can be inserted into if needed.

Here is the contact information for James Keating and Comtech training and products:

Ph: 541-938-3451
Email: comtech@bmi.net
Mailing address:
COMTECH
POB 142
Walla Walla, Wa. 99362

And here is the link for Keatings website "MAAJAK" and his training schedule at "Comtech"

Coming up this week: James Keating's series on "The Fighting Bandanna"

Professor Wally Jay Has Passed Away

2011-06-04T09:55:00.000-07:00

Professor Wally Jay, Remy Presas and George Dillman

It was with great sadness that I was informed about the Death of Wally Jay, founder of "Small-Circle Jujitsu.
As pictured above, Professor Jay traveled and taught with Remy Presas of "Modern Arnis" and George Dillman of Ryu-Kyu Kenpo, and they were known as "The Big Three".

Many of my instructors had trained with these men, who were an incredible resource of self-defence knowledge. My Training partner Corey trained with them, and spent time training with Wally and his son Leon both in Indiana and London England. Many of our lock-flow drills come from the Jay's "Small-Circle Jujitsu".
I was fortunate to have attended a seminar in Portland with Leon Jay. At that seminar he nailed Corey with a "light-force" knockout that put him out cold. Needless to say, I had to drive us back to Northern Washington while Corey nursed a sore head.
The Jay's had their own take on traditional Jujitsu, and were interested in integrating Dillman's pressure-point Karate and Presas' Stick and knife methods into their system.

For those who are interested, here is a link to a piece I wrote in 2006 called "How Small-Circle Jujitsu Changed Everything".

UPDATE: Jason has provided us with this link to the Small-Circle Jujitsu website and many, many remembrances for Professor Wally Jay

Northwest Fighter Tony King

2011-06-02T08:04:00.000-07:00

Back in February and again last Saturday I had a chance to talk with Tony King. King is an up-and-coming pro fighter on the MMA circuit with (I believe) a 5-2 record. We talked at a bar for the "after fight" party, his fighter had defeated one of our Barbarian brothers and we compared notes.
This time we talked about defending against leg dives and a few bits of strategy.
Tony is a hell of a nice guy and his student told me Tony will be in one of the MMA TV reality shows. He's currently working out of Aces MMA in the Beaverton Oregon area.
One thing that clearly stands out about the MMA trend; the fighters conduct themselves like gentlemen, the fans in the crowd do not. I suppose it's no different than soccer, football or pro wrestling fans, they all tend to get drunk and act like hooligans.
But, so far, all the fighters I have met are serious, polite, and focused.
Here's a short promo they filmed at Aces MMA:

Cute Hippie Chick of the Month: Female Dojo Rat Edition

2011-06-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

You know you've been waiting;
You know I couldn't resist...

This Dojo Rat "Cute Hippie Chick of the Month" edition is dedicated to "Rats".

Yes, believe it or not, there are now rat fashion shows. From the "Mail Online, UK":

You flirty rat! New York fashionistas splurge on designer outfits ... for their pet rodents

"First there was doggy dresses, and coats for mini pigs, now trendy pet owners are ordering designer clothing for their rats.
Pet fashionista Ada Nieves is selling rat tuxedos, wedding dresses and bridesmaids gowns among other exclusive designs.
Ada, from New York, said: 'The rats look very cute and seem to like wearing them. Rats are very popular these days and the owners love to dress them up.'
(snip)
"Rat fans gathered in New York yesterday for a rodent fashion show featuring Ada's outifts, which come complete with crystals, feathers and frilly tutus, and sell for around £50 each.
Rat owner Kelly Antonova, 27, said: 'Rats have amazing personalities. They are like a dog, cat and ferret all rolled into one. But each also has its own individual character.
'I've had rats who swim in a little bath, or sleep on the bed. You can train them on a little lease and they will learn how to dance, and how to fetch things like a dog. Rats are very sociable and give you a lot of love. They are very intelligent and share similar characteristics to humans.'
-------------

From the comment section:

"These people need to grow up. Animals are not toys to be dressed up like Barbie dolls."
- SavageSquirrel, Kent, UK, 31/5/2011 01:05
---
"it is totally sad and absolutely scary at the same time to witness whole world going completely insane"
- Joe, Fort Worth, TX, 01/6/2011 10:13
-------

Ok,ok,ok...
Here's what you've really been waiting for, a real female Dojo Rat!

Never again... ever.

Barbarian Brothers Update

2011-05-30T10:39:00.001-07:00

For those who haven't been following our saga of "The Barbarian Brothers", here's some background before the Update:

The brothers came up from the mainland with one of our friends who is a Kenpo and Tai Chi Chuan instructor. They started sometime around last August, and we were mostly helping them with Tai Chi and push hands stuff.
Somewhere along the way, they informed us that they were going to try and enter some MMA (mixed martial arts) fights that are promoted in our area of Western Washington State.
Since we are more of a traditional arts Dojo, we had never delt with this kind of training. None-the-less, one of our guys had fought in national Karate tournaments, another was a Boxer in college, and I wrestled
and fought in a lot of tournaments. Almost reluctantly, we started training them so they would be prepared for ring-fighting.
----

So Saturday, we loaded up in Tom's old cop car with his 120-pound dog and a bunch of Beer and took a boat to the mainland to watch the guys fight again in Anacortes, Washington.
The fights are conducted in an old fish cannery warehouse on the water at the end of town. In February for the last fights, the place was cold as hell and only had two bathrooms for a crowd of 300 Beer-drinking Yahoos.
This time they had brought in three portable toilets, yes three for several hundred people. That mostly ment pissing on the beach behind the building. One of our guys tried to use an indoor toilet, but there was a guy banging his girlfriend inside. Now get this; he then went out to use a portable toilet and there was a guy banging his girlfriend in that also. He overheard the guy saying "We have to be quick, I don't want to miss any fights".
Ah, to live in a coastal seaport.
----
So the Barbarian Brothers prepared to fight. Barbarian #1 is the older Brother, in his mid-thirties and has been very serious about his training and conditioning.
Younger Barbarian #2 has been slacking and not quite as ready for a serious fight.

Young barbarian #2 fought the third fight on an eleven-fight night.
He was matched with a skilled Jujitsu fighter and you can imagine what happened.
A few blows were traded, and then the Jujitsu guy got three good single-leg takedowns. Barbarian #2 escaped the first two, but in round two he couldn't get away.
He took a huge amount of punishment and lost by a TKO in the second round. It's good he bailed before he got hurt too bad.

Barbarian #1 was serious after a narrow loss in his first and only fight in February. He was definitely "in it to win it".
His conditioning was good. his skills have improved and he was ready to kick some ass. It wasn't too pretty, but he won his fight in 43 seconds. His hitting power is now impressive, he hurt the guy and as the guy made a desperate attempt for a leg dive, Barbarian #1 kept laying heavy right hands into the opponent's head- over and over.
The referee stopped the fight because the other guy couldn't defend himself, after 43 seconds.
-------

I think both the Barbarian Brothers are re-assessing their futures in MMA, and if it is worth all the stress, trouble and punishment. They deserve major cred for just stepping up and fighting without any previous martial arts experience.
This is not what our little Dojo would like to focus on, but it's been a fun run. We've had some heavy training sessions and had a couple of big guys that don't mind
getting pounded on. We've been able to test our old Dojo Rat bodies against guys almost twenty-years younger and help them achieve goals none of us had ever thought of.
I think they have another fight or two in them, we'll see what happens next...

Beautiful, Soft Xingyi

2011-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

I have talked to other Tai Chi Chuan people who are both awed by the power of Xingyi and at the same time skeptical that it is an "Internal" martial art.
So often it is performed in a very aggressive "Kenpo" kind of way that people loose sight of the eb and flow and generally meditative beauty of the art.
I'm not sure of the lineage of this form, but I absolutely love it. This is more how my instructor teaches us to move. The problem with those who immediately try to access the power within Xingyi is that they can't feel the subtle "internal" aspects. Tai Chi Chuan forces us to recognize this. But because Xingyi is (As Tim Cartmell tells us) "mass in motion", the subtleties are overlooked by people trying to harness the power.
I just love this form.

Meet James Keating

2011-05-25T09:03:00.000-07:00

Meet James Keating;
Mr. Keating runs the website "Maajak" and "Comtech" training sessions. Every year Keating hosts "The Riddle of Steel", a tactical knife training camp in a remote canyon in Idaho. Keating has a diverse martial arts background and offers instruction not only in knives but also empty hand and improvised weapon training.
One of my favorites is his use of the Bandana, which I hope to explore further in a future post.
This video is part of his "Riddle of Steel" training camp which is produced by Paladin Press. Check out Keating's "Maajak" website for the diverse topics he dabbles in, we hope to see more of Mr. Keating in the future.

Nice Kenpo Flow Drill

2011-05-23T07:53:00.000-07:00

At our Dojo we like to do flow drills, a lot of them with Small-Circle Jujitsu standing joint locks.
Here's a hitting flow drill that uses the Century "Bob" target as a whole-body speed bag. The only slight break in the flow is where he chambers for the reverse elbow strike, but this guy really does a nice hard-hitting demonstration at the end.
Check it out...

Happy Rapture Everybody!

2011-05-20T09:21:00.001-07:00

Well as many of you have heard, some old duffer named Harold Camping has predicted that the world is coming to an end tomorrow.
He is raking millions of dollars into his ministry and "The Family Radio Worldwide" network.

If Mr. Camping was true to his word as a Gawd-fearing minister he should turn all of his assets over to some charity, today.
Of course, you know that won't happen, after all, Camping predicted the world would end in 1994 also.

So I had an idea;
If any of you evangelicals are going for a ride on Jesus's flying saucer, there are a few things ol' Dojo Rat might be able to use:

1. A new propane barbeque- my old one is pretty worn out. I need one that can sit outside and take the weather, the bigger the better.

2. A table saw. I have a lot of building projects and could really use one now.

3. A stereo with a CD player for the Saloon. My old stereo doesn't have a CD player.

4. Hey, there's gotta be a Christian Biker out there that won't need his Harley Davidson any more. Just mail me the keys and the address of where I can come and get it. Please sign over the title, you know that the DMV will still be here and they want paperwork.

So good luck, onward Christian soldiers.
I'm gonna be hanging out with this guy:

We'll be taking shots of tequila and shooting handguns.

If you want a list of Rapture parties around the country, check the link in this article.

Why They Will Never Leave Afghanistan

2011-05-19T08:46:00.000-07:00

Credit to "Cryptagon" and this excellent piece from CNN/Fortune

"Ultimately, victory will mean that Afghanistan becomes pacified in a manner that facilities effortless corporate rape. The purpose of the U.S. military is to tie the victim down. Then, the people in the suits step into the room… — "The Runaway General"

Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on power and on practical and material factors and considerations, rather than ideological notions or moralistic or ethical premises. (Wikipedia)

(CNN)
Meet Ian Hannam:

"To Hannam, chairman of J.P. Morgan Capital Markets, Afghanistan represents a gigantic, untapped opportunity -- one of the last great natural-resource frontiers. Landlocked and pinioned by imperial invaders, Afghanistan has been cursed by its geography for thousands of years. Now, for the first time, Hannam believes, that geography could be an asset. The two most resource-starved nations on the planet, China and India, sit next door to Afghanistan, where, according to Pentagon estimates, minerals worth nearly $1 trillion lie buried. True, there is a war under way. And it's unclear how the death of Osama bin Laden will impact the country's political and economic environment. But Hannam is not your usual investment banker: A former soldier, he has done business in plenty of strife-torn countries. So have all the members of his team, two of them former special forces soldiers who have fought here."
"Hannam's unit, the Artists Rifles, was a part-time regiment akin to a U.S. National Guard special forces unit. The Artists Rifles had a storied past and a reputation for attracting adventure seekers from all social classes. Since then, Hannam has counted his old SAS cronies as his closest friends, often calling on them to help him in the world's tougher places."
(snip)
"Investing in conflict zones is often thrilling, but the great commodities rush that J.P. Morgan and the Pentagon are trying to spark in Afghanistan creates a risk/reward equation of a different magnitude. It's extreme at both ends.
----
During the Cold War, both Soviet and U.S. geologists conducted surveys. The Russians bored thousands of test holes and identified big deposits of copper, zinc, mercury, tin, fluorite, potash, talc, asbestos, and magnesium.
----
The results were stunning: The U.S. Geological Survey identified huge veins of copper, iron, lithium, gold, and silver."

**********

(D.R.)- So we see that J.P. Morgan has hired an entire investment team composed of former SAS soldiers to begin the exploitation of Afghanistan. How fortunate; a lawless impoverished region without environmental laws.

General Smedley Butler

(From Wiki)
Smedley Darlington Butler (July 30, 1881 – June 21, 1940), nicknamed "The Fighting Quaker" and "Old Gimlet Eye", was a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, and at the time of his death the most decorated Marine in U.S. history.

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
---------------------

Butler wrote the book "War is a Racket"

Alex Gillis on The Future of Tae Kwon Do

2011-05-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

After my review of "A Killing Art" by Alex Gillis, Alex and I exchanged e-mails and information that may pave the way to future projects.

Here's a bit of an interesting interview Alex had with "The Martial Edge":

(Interviewer Lesley Jackson, "The Martial Edge")

The Future for Taekwondo

And so we come full circle and where we started at the beginning, when I asked Alex what the thought the future holds for Taekwondo.

“ I fear that the martial art is dying, in both the ITF and WTF. My book explains how corruption and violent conflict started, and shows the massive amount of effort that’s required to get out of the mess. Before solving a deep problem, there has to be a reckoning, a truth and reconciliation phase. You can’t cure an illness without knowing what the illness is. My book helps to identify the illness, the conflicts and dilemmas in both the major styles of Taekwondo.

But it’s possible that we’re too late, that Taekwondo isn’t only dying, that it’s dead, dead in terms of the integrity of its techniques, in terms of keeping the profit motive in check, in terms of admitting to past failures, and in terms of popularity. It’s probable, for example, that WTF Taekwondo will be booted out of the Olympics soon. If you know about the shenanigans with money in the Olympics, all the scandals, then you can imagine how bad it must be in Taekwondo to be kicked out of the Olympic family.

For its part, the ITF continues to break apart; the three main splinter groups have themselves splintered further. Even the North Korean led organization contains fractures.

Still, perhaps enough instructors are quietly passing on the old techniques to keep our art alive. The continuity from generation to generation is what counts in martial arts, passing on the old, difficult techniques that take long years to perfect. I’m compiling a network of such instructors, people who have written to me, and I hope to post the list online one day.”

-------

Here's the website for "A Killing Art", with other links

Alex Gillis; "A Killing Art"

2011-05-15T08:39:00.001-07:00

I am sometimes late to the party, but when I get there I drink my share.
Which is why I am thrilled to review "A Killing Art", by Alex Gillis. This book, which was written in 2008 somehow escaped me until one of my Tae Kwon Do instructors from the past sent me a copy.
And boy did I drink my share; this book is not your typical background of Tae Kwon Do as a contemporary martial art. It is a historical account of The struggle of oppressed Korea, both North and South.
It is the story of the men who fought hand-to-hand in trench warfare against Communist soldiers and returned to refine the Shotokan Karate learned under Japanese rule to a uniquely Korean art that would aid the development of the emerging South Korean industrial tiger. The book is part history, part espionage, and the gradual emerging of western thought in a country that was steeped in stoic Confucian values of the past.
Author Gillis has poured over 4,000 pages of the U.S. Congressional investigation known as "Koreagate", conducted countless interviews and footnoted every reference in the book for further review. This book was researched in the best of journalistic methods and may be the most comprehensive book on the subject.
"A Killing Art" centers on the struggle between rivals to create Tae Kwon Do from the trench warfare era to present time. General Choi Hong-hi was instrumental in molding Korea's martial art from Japanese Shotokan, through the phase where nine separate schools (Tang Soo Do, Chung Do Kwan, Ji Do Kwan etc.), all of which had Japanese or Chinese influence became "Tae Kwon Do", or "foot-fist way".
General Choi, hardened by the war, favored a realistic fighting system and created the International Tae Kwon Do Association (ITF). Choi's art retained killing techniques, but began to be out shadowed by the emerging sport version favored by Korean Secret Service official Kim Un-yong. Here begins the internal war between the original battlefield martial art and Olympic sport Tae Kwon Do under the World Tae Kwon Do association (WTF).
Under treaties between the U.S. and South Korea, money for development flowed into South Korea in the 1960's, and Korea sent 300,000 trained soldiers to aid the U.S. and South Vietnamese in the Vietnam war. Likewise, thousands of U.S. servicemen were trained in using Tae Kwon Do in hand-to-hand combat. Tae Kwon Do became intrinsically linked to war and espionage, with thugs and gangsters enjoying it's use also.
Author Gillis describes how scandals developed involving the Korean CIA, shakedowns and kidnappings in Europe, The U.S. and elsewhere that led to misery and torture under the hands of Korean dictatorships. Gillis himself interviewed some of these agents in researching the book. Here-in-lies the dark side of the martial art known as Tae Kwon Do.
Alex Gillis pulls no punches in describing how Tae Kwon Do fell into decline with Olympic Tae Kwon Do and the shopping mall McDojo era. He describes the scandals revolving around the Olympics, and how the sport was corrupt and too boring for spectators to follow. The martial spirit was replaced with a careful game of tag that was often predetermined by corrupt judging and what is referred to as "branch trimming".
What sticks out most clearly, is that the same issues and criticism of Tae Kwon Do as a sport were played out by a bitter, aging General Choi (who appears to have been a North Korean agent) against his rival, the KCIA-embedded Kim Un-yong.
In "A Killing Art", Alex Gillis has compiled the best history of war-torn Korea and the subsequent dictatorships, the scandals involving espionage, U.S. Congressional members, and the pure athleticism of the men of Tae Kwon Do.
-It's one of my favorites, and has informed me towards future projects of my own.