Monday, July 29, 2013

USA Military Adventurism Makes For Isolation

What are the chances Russia will invade USA in the next 20 years?  Zero.  How about China?  Zero.   Canada?  France?  Costa Rica?  Zero.

What will happen if USA withdraws it forces from the 210 countries we have soldiers, and cuts back taxes equal to the cut in costs?  Country'll grow.

Right now China and Russia are playing it exactly right:  stand back and let everyone hate USA as USA becomes isolated worldwide for its military adventurism.  This military adventurism hurts business prospects as we spiral downward.

If we were to put our swords away then the Chinese and Russians would have to deal with their own policies, and not let our worse policies make USA the target the #1 threat to peace and prosperity.

The problem with democracies is they make it too easy to get into war.

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Sunday, July 28, 2013

When Seconds Count, The Police Will Be There In About Ten Minutes

So gal makes her own felony stop...



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Saturday, July 27, 2013

Indonesian Truth Commissions

In the 1960s there were anti-communist murders widespread, in which over a million people died, usually in a grizzly manner.  Usually there is no statute of limitations for murder, but maybe in Indonesia.  Fifty years later, we have a sort of "Truth Commission" set on film:
Mr. Oppenheimer’s camera observes the rehearsal and shooting of scenes that matter-of-factly evoke unspeakable moments of cruelty and that occasionally arouse powerful emotional responses in participants. At one point, a younger man who has been enlisted to play a torture victim relates the gruesome story of his stepfather’s abduction and murder by, one suspects, his fellow cast members. He tells the tale as if it were a joke, chuckling and assuring the others that he isn’t blaming or criticizing them, and he goes on to give a performance that is almost unbearably credible. Other re-enactments are so intense and realistic that they terrify the participants and cause some of the Pancasila Youth old-timers to marvel at their own sadism.
I doubt I'll watch it, but it does suggest possibilities.

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Friday, July 26, 2013

First Rate Propaganda

When the Nazi's were losing the war, they took the time to make a movie about the German ability to pull victory from the jaws of defeat.  It is an excellent example of first rate propaganda...  scene by scene it seamlessly answers all of the doubts Germans might be having.  And you don't need to speak German (or French) to get it.

The other part is it had to appeal to both the martial Prussians and the Catholic Bavarians.  The scene where the fraulein visits the queen is pure Marian Apparition iconography.  An amazing piece of work.





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fcl order

british vs french colonial

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Ki-Aikido Bokken/Bamboo Cut

Kashiwaya Sensei starred in a video on ki-aikido in Brasil in which he makes several interesting   assertions.  Part of the video involves an exercise I recall fondly:


In essence you cut a piece of bamboo with the bokken.  In this instance he has balanced the bamboo on two students' heads, demonstrating the cut does no damage to the bamboo holders.  Earlier the same technique is executed with the bamboo held by paper supports, and the paper is not disturbed.

Impressive.  Hirata Sensei had us all do this back in '71 or so, and it was quite exciting to perform.  There are some technical aspects, so absolutely do not do what he is doing in this pix.  Some serious injuries if you do not know all the preconditions.  You'll lose friends, or students.  The whole video -


While Tohei sensei was still the Chief Instructor at Hombu Dojo, Kashiwaya sensei was sent to Seattle to teach under Hirata sensei, and Hirata sensei made me assistant instructor to Kashiwaya sensei. I recall between practices trying to wrestle Kashiwaya, I perhaps eighteen and he maybe 25.  He was a solid rock.  No doubt he still is.

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Friday, July 19, 2013

If Trayvon Was Armed He'd Be Alive Today

There are countless clear cut cases of outrageous injustice, racist killings, but in the Trayvon case it is not possible to know what happened.  Only two people know, and one is dead.  For what it is worth a jury said no foul.

But let's take the opposition's word for it:  Zimmerman murdered Trayvon.    If so, had Trayvon been armed, he could have protected himself against Zimmerman.  It would mean Trayvon would have to train to be competent with a gun, but that is the price of self-defense with a gun.

If there is, as the opposition to the jury claims, an open season on young males of some African heritage, then they should arm themselves.

All hail young armed males of African heritage.

Why not?

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Thursday, July 18, 2013

Another Conscientious Objector

The time to look at the facts is BEFORE you spend ten years doing something you regret...
At the time of my enlistment, I believed in the cause. I was ignorant, naïve, and misled. The narrative, professed by the state, and echoed by the mainstream press, has proven false and criminal. We have become what I thought we were fighting against.
Well, better late then never...


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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Sheer Joy of Judo

Judo is so beautiful!



I did some training over the years with judoka after explaining I wanted help with my koshinage, etc.  sort of "remedial aikido."  Many top aikido players came out of judo.  The instructors were welcoming.  With aikido you can hold your own against a judoka of your own weight and class, if

A. You do not try judo-style techniques

B. You do not try to defeat him.

Here is the kind of fraud that gives aikido a bad name.  No idea who this is, but I've sparred with judoka.  They come at you like in the video above.  The aikido man below has grabbed the judo man judo style.  Never do that.  The judo man will try to take you off balance as he goes off balance. One tactic is to never let the judo man go off balance.  As you keep your balance (one point, weight underside, complete relax, extend ki) just counter every time the judo man begins to position for a throw.    If your question is how to defend yourself against a judo attack, I'd asked how come you pissed off a judo man?  If your going to make a aikido vs video, bring in a real "vs".



Incidently, all judo moves, such as in the video above, are legit aikido moves, although not all aikido moves are legit judo moves.

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Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Instructor Downward Spiral

There is a downward spiral among some instructors.  For lack of practice under others, their oeuvre narrows and within that narrowed oeuvre the quality slips.  Nonetheless, the promotions continue.

No superior aikidoist will embarrass an inferior aikidoist who is instructing (or it is extremely bad form to do so).  And no inferior aikidoist will challenge what the instructor teaches.

The downward spiral continues when potential students come in and see risible aikido, and become disinterested.   A sort of least common denominator sets in.  Too bad.

This is no "fake aikido master" because the "master" in this instance has nothing to do with aikido.  Apparently he is the leader of some group of some "martial" art.  The lesson is an entire group of people can come to believe their system "works."  The other victim in this video is the fellow who won the match.  He too believe the guy could defend himself.    And it is very sad to see him regretfully attending to the loser at the end.




A simple corrective would be for people who only instruct to take lessons elsewhere and submit to correction.  Let them try what they have convinced themselves works in a learning mode, not a teaching mode.  Aikido'll grow.

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Monday, July 15, 2013

Killing Trayvon

A Seattle lawyer mentioned that trials are just morality plays, meant to instruct the faithful.  A jury ruled that Mr. Zimmerman was not guilty of murder or manslaughter.  (I wonder how many murderers call the police and THEN commit murder?) They arrived at this verdict by studying the fact of the case.  Mr. Zimmerman has an articulate brother who defended the verdict. Trayvon's parents called for respecting the verdict.

The news media insists USA is "gripped by a second night of fury."  Hmmm... must have missed the first night.    Maybe cooler heads are prevailing, but does not push ratings.

This was a polarizing case, apparently (I haven't followed it), proposing on one side self-defense and on the other racial profiling that turned lethal for a child.  One side has called it a lynching.

For my part I think verdicts tell us nothing, but what we do see is the case being used by people of some African heritage to highlight an endless train of abuses they experience.  Indeed, we have a system that does not punish doctors for running cruel and deadly (as well as pointless) medical experiments on people of some African heritage.  We flood the neighborhoods of some African heritage with welfare and crack.  We make crack a bigger crime than the cocaine lawyers, cops and judges use.  We can keep at this train of abuses all day.

I would go farther, those liberal powers that be that enforce the racial classifications such as "black" and set up programs which move to the head of a line (not THE line, just a line) the best "black" vs the best candidate, and at the same time make sure architects and other professions are strictly limited.  They advance people of some African heritage who are actually quite odious while jailing massive amounts of nonviolent criminals.  The liberals did decide long ago they would advance their agenda against people of some African heritage by recruiting preachers of some African heritage.

I attended a three day seminar at the University of Washington this Spring that detailed how the Nazis, among other items,  used the Jews to round up the Jews.  There is nothing unique in an elite cooperating in the elimination of their own.  It is not the hand you are dealt, it is how you play the cards.  This starts, as in Germany, with racial classifications.  We are supposed to say "black" when referring to people of some African heritage.  It is an act of conscientious objection to limit oneself to the term, when referring to Americans of some African heritage, as Americans.

Another frank discussion was on the topic of the use of the holocaust as a sort of currency in politics.  There is much empty value in claiming victimhood, even if true.

The help people of some African heritage get from progressives is no help at all.  What people need is freedom, that ether in which God resides and mankind experiences in exercising his will.  What is terrible is when the freedom is circumscribed in law and in social conditioning.

USA has a dual original sin of racism and violence.  The target is people of of some African heritage.  This leads to people of of some African heritage acting out, or feeling justified in giving tit for tat, violence and racism in return for violence and racism.    (In these scenes, there were many police standing by, doing nothing.  Anyone who believes police will help you if it means the slightest risk to themselves are delusional. You are on your own.)

That is bad enough.  But even before that, we are denied the good of the creativity of those whose prospects are circumscribed by the progressives projects.  Every country plays this game, in USA the target is people of some African heritage.  Yes, we are all denied the good of the contributions of many people, especially people of some African heritage.  Racial identification and socially conditioning the discussion as whites vs people of some African heritage, then the game is on.

Having said that, now that the elite is clamoring for violence, there will be many instances in which random, pointless violence will occur.  If you believe the police should meet the violence, well, look how long they took to get to the scene of the Trayvon killing after the first call.  Some eight minutes.  Trayvon was dead by the time the cops got there.  If you believe violence is appropriate, then you need to get a gun and train with it.

If not, then practice a nonviolent martial art.  Because like that girl in the video above, citizens are taught to let the police handle it, and the police are taught "officer safety" above all things.  You are on your own.

The powers that deny people the freedom to act are presently fomenting violence.  At which point, people need to be willing to act.  Because of the killing of Trayvon, there will be more killings.  But maybe that is the point.

Racial politics is a tremendous money maker.  It is a terrible thing for the targets.  The targets are being incited to take revenge.  You need to be ready to not be a target of a target.

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Cui Bono?

See, this is the problem....
"Snowden has enough information to cause harm to the U.S. government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," Greenwald said in an interview in Rio de Janeiro with the Argentinian daily La Nacion.
"The U.S. government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happen to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare."
If true, then USA enemies will want Snowden whacked so USA is harmed.  These assertions do not protect Snowden.

Other observations:

1.  I don't doubt Snowden has USA's Best Secrets.

2. If Snowden had ANYTHING that China or Russia did not have, they would be sweating Snowden for it presently.  His personal well-being is a tribute to the fact he has nothing new.  Therefore, we can know Russia and China has USA's best secrets already, and our maintenance of secrecy is nonsense.

3.  Neither Russia nor China is about to make too big a deal of this, because they no doubt do the exact same thing.

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Saturday, July 13, 2013

USA Anti-war Movement Started

And it is bi-partisan?!  This is wonderful.

An estimated 200 Oklahomans put aside their political and philosophical differences Friday night to join together to oppose U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war.
For an hour Democrats, Republicans and Libertarians, conservatives and liberals, hawks and doves didn't seem to mind the nearly triple-digit temperatures during the anti-war rally on the south steps of the state Capitol.

I hope it is not this:

American troops are exhausted after fighting the past dozen years in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.
“We have spilled enough American blood in the desert sand,” Wesselhoft said. “This civil war is not our business.”

The motivations for anti-war have to be right.  No war because it is wrong, not because we are losing.
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Thursday, July 11, 2013

Solution to the Snowden Mess

The Vatican had its own version of the Snowden mess...

Gabriele, who said he wanted to expose the "evil and corruption" that plagued the Holy See, was convicted of aggravated theft and sentenced to 18 months in the Vatican's police barracks. Benedict eventually pardoned him and he is now a free man.

There you go... convict of any crime, then pardon him.  Machine Gun Calley was convicted in the My Lai massacres, and then pardoned by Nixon, so why not a whistleblower?


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Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Get Thee to Vladivostok

This looks like the good old days...



Look at the blue belts practicing in the background... USA sandan should look so good.

 

It seems this fellow is the one responsible for Russian aikido excellence.

 

He was O Sensei's last uchideshi...

 Vladivostok here I come!

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Monday, July 8, 2013

Abusing Power

Every time you demand your rights, you reinforce your rights. To make cops exceptions to the law means we do not need laws, or for that matter, cops. If cops can make up rules as they go along, then why not cut out the middleman and each of us do that?



Also, note this K9 officer suborns perjury from his dog.  So we now know it happens, the next question is how often?  Feel Free To Email This To Three Friends.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Just War

Here is Obama on the intelligence scandals:



Here is one of those actors in the war on terror:

He could decline his pension.  He could go to Afghanistan and all of those countries and turn himself in to stand trial. He could have resigned 3 months in.
Bryant is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after his five years as a drone operator. He said he sought help for the emotions he was experiencing on his job but 'one of the weird things about the whole drone community is you don't talk about anything that you've done. You just don't,' he told NPR.
He could work at repentance.  So far he is just telling people about how he feels bad.  How about how bad the families of those who died at your toy feel?

But he does make clear, the military lied to him.  Why there is no prosecution of recruiters who lie, I don't know.  Perhaps he should visit that recruiter, and take it up with him.

A police officer gave me a very extensive overview of how police violate rights constantly.

The fact is, we are crazy to trust out security to a executive, judiciary and legislative branch.

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Thursday, July 4, 2013

Too Much Government

Anarchists love government, as long as it is voluntary.  Therefore, The Government, with its monopoly on violence and coercive power, is anathema to anarchists.

People say, "no government, then you will be in Somalia!"  No, Somalia had a Government, and then came the Italians, Russians, USA, etc, and were overwhelmed by too much government.

There is a continuum of The Government, which runs from more to less.  At any point in a crisis, people can go either way, more government or less government.  History shows that when we ever go for more government, things get worse.  When we go for less government, things get better.

Less government is not "closer to Somalia" it is closer to Hong Kong.

When the Trotskyites say "Never waste a crisis" they mean take the opportunity to run toward more government.

Today let's juxtapose two crises.  Portugal and Egypt.  Portugal, as you see in the article, has leaders calling for more government (by submitting to the IMF).  Egypt has ousted its president and has the Chief Judge holding down two jobs.  Net less government.  Jubilation in the streets.

Now, either can go bad at any time.  C'est la vie.  But remember the continuum, less Government, the more peace and prosperity.  The more government, hello Somalia.

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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Letter from a Dead Soldier

About a day after my posting of the "just following orders" paragraphs below, comes a letter form a soldier who committed suicide.  I'll let him tell his own story, but with an average of one Sandy Hook every day, his story is hardly unique.  Funny, his arguments as a soldier parallel mine as a conscientious objector.

When I was a teenager, the concept of conscientious objector was widely known.  Today, it is pretty much a secret, like jury nullification.  Fellows like this need to hear about it earlier.  Ain't gonna happen as long as we have an"all-volunteer" army.

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