Palin: Brilliant Republican Strategy Or Imploding Failure?

The answer is --both.
The last-minute pick of Sarah Palin by McCain's handlers has turned a feature-length drama of "Grumpy Old Men" (you don't have Joe Lieberman to kick around anymore) -into a disfunctional episode of "Father Knows Best".
Let's face it; the Palin pick is nothing but a cynical appeal to the Evangelical Christian Reich, it has rallied voters long disenchanted with McCain. They love the fact that she would outlaw ALL abortion, even in the case of rape and incest. They love that she believes the occupation of Iraq is GOD'S WILL. They love that she is a follower of Armageddon-End-Times-Rapture theology, That her Pastor says Jesus is ON A War Footing, and that Alaska will be a Christian refuge in the final battle between good and evil. Imagine if Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden bit the heads off chickens, spread their entrails out and devined prophesy from the bloody patterns? I consider that the same as believing in the Rapture, which theologins correctly point out is not found anywhere in the Bible and is a fabrication of an Evangelical sect from the ninteenth century.

---- Lipstick on a pig?
Palin LIED about saying "no" to "The bridge to nowhere". Congress turned her down and she kept the money instead.
Palin LIED when she implied she sold the Governor's airplane on E-Bay. How cute. Instead, she sold it through an aircraft broker for a $600,000 loss.
Palin faced a citizen voter recall after attempting to fire the Librarian in Wasilla - for refusing to ban books in the public library.
While Holy-Roller Palin stands at the pulpit of her church, casting doubts on the moral integrety of Non-Evangelicals, her own kids are getting high and getting pregnant. But isn't that the true nature of American kids? So why deny State funds for special education and care for unwed teen mothers?
Management skills? How about loyalty oaths, or the fact that she took a budget surplus in tiny Wasilla, and turned it into a Twenty-million dollar debt?
How about Palin saying we may have to go to war with Russia?
Nominating Palin to be the Republican V.P. candidate is the equivalant of John McCain throwing sand in our eyes before a beach fight. Can't see me now!
Palin is the new roll-out of a female clone of George W. Bush, a malable dunce with a "Good Old Gal" image.
If, as Barack Obama said -John McCain's Policy is "The Pig", this mercifully unprepared "Caribou Barbie", is nothing but "Lipstick On A Pig"

Further reading:
Palin's Church
and Paul Krugman "A Blizzard of Lies"

Mike Martello On Locking And Throwing

Since Mike was in town last week, we'll take a look at some more of his work. Here is his description of this practice, some of the comments refer to parts one and two of this three part series:

(Mike): Yuejia Sanshou, Qinna, Small Shuai and Fun...

Some basic practical ideas with my students...

Again, these ideas here are very raw in approach and energy, as I am refining via the practical practices. I use my students in a raw approach so they can get the basic foundations of the ideas and connected flow of the two people, by simple transmission through the playing. I allow them to use power and force if they catch me then great, its a learning process after all...
I use my students as training partners (not students with no skill) and as myself practicing ideas so i can learn deeper of the internal mechanisms and connections. What looks subtle, soft and flowery is nothing of the kind. I am around 5ft1 and 135 lbs, I cannot use power to do what I show, its logistics, size and strength, all which I just don't have...
Here is a great comment, translated from a chinese forum...
"Good, it really shows how Taiji can make the small overcome the strong. In the first clip, the foreign students use physical force, dumb strength against their teacher. They have not grasped Taiji's usage of smart power; their waists and upperbodies are too stiff, they don't have twisting and turning, their centers move along with their strength, once their teacher dissolves their power they will immediately lose their balance. They have not yet understand the theory of the necessity of having both Yin and Yang, upward and downward powers, left and right movements etc. In the second clip is all pushing exercises, to test the Zhanzhuang/stances. We welcome Mike Laoshi to Beijing this summer for cultural exchange."
I want to share because it explains exactly what I am trying to achieve myself and to teach the foundations to my students...
It is hard ideas because one needs to be soft but not empty, relaxed and full as to be able to allow someone else's force to be placed on our body for feedback... If the force causes the muscles, tendons to get stiffness's then more relaxed practicing conditioning is needed... Conversely when is able to have a huge a force on them relaxed then one needs to play with the force softly to exercise the inner connections to build stronger... Yin reinforces Yang, without Yang getting stiff and so on....
Of course these are all training methods that allow two people to play soft or strong, but not get to hurt and explore methods and train the IMA...

I hope all enjoy objectively.
mike martello

Yin-Style Bagua With Mike Martello

Mike Martello made another trip to Seattle last week, and I and one of the young Dojo Rats attended the Yin-style Bagua session. The seminar, sponsered by Jake Burroughs, was well attended. Many of the participants had also been to Sun-style Bagua seminars taught by Tim Cartmell, so most people were familiar with the material. Below is a video of Mike teaching a similar class in Europe:

As you can see in the video, Mike takes the class through many fundemental yoga-type movements. These postures teach correct body alingment and the hour-or-so of straining to achieve correct position results in the foundation for a short Bagua training form. This form, Xaio Kai Men, or "small opening door" Is a beautiful linear form that prepares the body for the more advanced circle-walking palm changes.
Mike explained how the power in Bagua comes from the coiling, "spring loaded" natural compression and release of these postures. Once the torso can be held in the correct position, there is inherent energy ready to be released.
As I've mentioned before, Mike is one of the absolute best instructors I have met. His wirey five-foot-two-inch body is deceptively powerful, and his ability to communicate difficult concepts are outstanding.
We concluded the seminar with two-person circle walking. In this Bagua form of "push hands", both people assume the circle walking posture with the wrists of the extended guard arms touching. The circle is walked in this fashion for eight steps, with a single palm change of direction. In freeplay, one partner at a time will attempt to grab, push, slap or sweep the opponent in a non-competitive manor. The defender responds accordingly, moving with the attack and not against it. This adds a nice new approach to the more linear and fixed-step Taiji push hands we have been previously doing. All-in-all, we came back from the seminar with some nice new tools for the toolbag!
For further information on martial arts seminars and classes in the Seattle area, contact Jake Burroughs at Three Harmonies Martial Arts Center , and Mike Martello's website can be found here.

These Guys Got Balls: Part 3

Now this is a true expression of the "Art" in Martial Arts.
It's hard to describe what I feel as I watch this Master's performance: Will genetic differences between my hulking Western-European/American body type - and the supple Asian body of this master prevent me form ever achieving this level of technique?
-Ultimately, I suppose so. But that doesn't mean I can't take the cards I've been dealt with and come up with a better hand.
As a training tool, the ball does not cheat. The ball does not lie. The ball is unforgiving in forcing the body to move in constant circular flowing arcs. I feel the ball should have a little bit of weight to it, to provide a little resistance. In the last post, reader Hand2Hand wrote that he was using old bowling balls in this kind of training. That might be a little on the heavy side, but a variety of weighted balls might be very interesting to experiment with.
-- All-in-all, this is one of the most beautiful demonstrations I have seen lately...

These Guys Got Balls; Part 2

Here's another Stability ball drill I am going to try; I really like the theme in this video as well as the previous Jujitsu video of constant contact with the training ball. The nature of the ball is to roll in circular motions, so it also helps the Taiji player move in circular motion. Stick to the ball, test compression, move in a circular fashion. Great for Push Hands, I'm gonna get one of these...

These Guys Got Balls; Part 1

The next couple of posts we will take a look at how people are using training balls to improve their martial arts. I picked up some smaller kids beach-balls last year and had students hold them to their body in the "peng" or ward-off position. This helped them keep the proper arm shape in simple push hands drills, when their structure was collapsing before.
Now I really like how these jujitsu guys are using the stability ball. If you listen to the descriptions of the practice, they talk about "Whole-body connectivity" and "taking away the space (between body and ball)". These are concepts that are used in Internal Martial Arts practice, such as push hands in Taiji and joint-locking and body manipulation in Aikido and other arts.
--Stay tuned for a couple other ideas...

September: Cute Hippie Chick Of The Month

Woah! What the... how did that picture get in there?
That's our buddy Bob, from over at "Striking Thoughts". This being an election year and all, Bob has nominated himself to the official "Committee to Elect Hippie Chicks" (CEHC) here at Dojo Rat. Check out Bob's dynamic presentation of Hillbilly Martial Arts at this link!

But now, Here's the picture I was looking for; September's "Cute Hippie Chick Of The Month"


*** And lastly; I've been a little short of posts lately, I've been working on a very big project that will be detailed later in the week-- Keep checking back!