Time to Chill Out a Bit

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!

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

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

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

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

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?

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.