Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Aikido as a Martial Art

In judo and kendo, there is no pulling punches.  You go all out. In k arate and gung fu, you pull the punches while training.

In kendo and boxing, no pulling punches, but there is protective equipment for training (and they do not use real swords in kendo).

In MMA, they pull punches in training, and there are rules, so it is not really all-in fighting.

Jiu jitsu is all in, no protective equipment.

So judo, aikido and jiu jitsu are common in no "pulling punches" and no protective equipment.

Are there any other martial arts that can make that claim?

The paradox is by having no punches to speak of, within the limits of the art, one is free to go all out.  Aikido excels beyond the others inasmuch as no matter how much you bring to a throw, it will not be lethal, or even cause permanent damage.  (The fall may kill the attacker, but that is another problem.)

For example, an arm-bar is common to all three arts, but only aikido bends the elbow as part of the arm-bar.  Here again, paradoxically, a bar on bent arm hurts more but does little or no damage.

nikyo
http://www.stenudd.com/aikido/nikyo.htm
A broken elbow releases a super dose of endorphins and adrenaline into the injured system, making your opponent with a broken arm even more dangerous.  Ask a combat vet about fighting injured people.

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Monday, November 25, 2013

Cop Impersonates Man, Rapes 19 Year Old

A police officer in uniform, on duty, rapes a 19 year old and gets a paid vacation.  The equipment in his car that would have caught him on tape was malfunctioning which often happens if filming police wrongdoing.

The police chief pretends to be outraged, when in fact this is selective firing.  It must be that this fellow is so odious that event he police don't want him.

Until every police department has an independent civilian review with the power to imprison wrongdoers, none of us are safe.   Cops will always claim a "few bad apples" but odd, it took them eleven years to notice a problem?

Without civilian review with the power to prosecute, it is a rotten core with a few bad apples to dress up the regime.

And what we are always told, just cooperate with the police, and you have nothing to fear.  If you are innocent, you have everything to fear from the police.  if you are guilty, you'll be protected.

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Saturday, November 23, 2013

Who Said This?

Thirty days after Kennedy was assassinated?
    For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the Government. This has led to trouble and may have compounded our difficulties in several explosive areas.
  ...
    But there are now some searching questions that need to be answered. I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the President, and that whatever else it can properly perform in that special field—and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere.
    We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and open society. There is something about the way the CIA has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.
Harry S Truman, in the Washington Post

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Friday, November 22, 2013

Knock Out Punch

Our minimum wage laws assure that the marginally employable are certainly unemployed, where they tend to get into mischief.  I am certain that the tensions rising are being engineered, from Oprah's infelicitous comment about "racists need to die" and Obamacare being a disaster, and so on.  It is classic change the topic and "blame the black guy" all in one.

I like the crisis du jour is called the "knock out game."  In martial arts, we practice in dojos, like a gym, as in any other fun sport.  I think is important on the street is to meet threats with the attitude of "game on."  I think it is important to train with your adrenalin flowing, cause in a real confrontation, the andrenalin is flowing.  And when it is game on, you can play evenly.

Of course in this game we get cold-cocked, so it is not very sporting.  And it does not do much good for me to advise situational awareness since I have the gift of ADD and the situational awareness of a
meerkat.  Offense needs room, so when I feel threat I close in on it because defense works best in a  tight quarters.  I meet many new and interesting people this way.

Racism is ugly, but it can only be supported by th State.  The only place I can recall where I met raw, murderous racism has been in Hong Kong, my second favorite city.  Hong Kong has the same range of people as any other city, including the madly racist.  The difference is in Hong Kong none of them have the power to act on their impulses, so life goes on peaceably in spite of how some people can be.

With power comes the leverage to act on racism, and no place more so than working for the State.  I personally know at least one person who joined law enforcement to "beat the shit out of n------"  Lucky he retired before youtube.

Hong Kong has a State, but it does not haver the power to keep racism alive.

This "knock-out game" is not somewthign new, we have a term for it, cold-cocked.  Old activity.

And a group of people coming at some unsuspecting fellow and doing him wrong is nothing new.

http://www.gateschili.org/webpages/popup_info.cfm?photoslideshow=14136&staffdir=cwhite
We are social beings, but not socialist beings.  If we get rid of too much state we can allow people to flourish and at the same time deny the misanthropists the leverage to do their thing.

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Saturday, November 16, 2013

Shooting Black Women

As if it is not enough that 91% of the life sentences at the federal level for non-violent crimes are issued to males of some African american ancestry, now we add cops firing wildly at non-threatening african american woman.  A confused women in DC was executed, and here a police officer takes his time trying to kill a family.

video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Expect honors.

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Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Aikido Tactics

Offense needs room, defense can be in a tight place.

When someone is attacking you, they need room to move and position themselves for the very risky prospect of doing you harm.  This is why in defending yourself, you best friend is to quickly close in and not give the opponent time or space to optimize an attack.   One rarely considered and counterintuitive move when in danger is to wheel around on your pursuers and close the distance.  Whatever they hoped to do is now compromised.  You bring your defense into a tight place upon the attackers.

Sometimes it is best not to counter attack, because attacks take space, but stay on the defensive.

Think of a home invasion scenario where you might be inclined to push attackers back outside where you'll defend yourself.  May be better to let them in, in to a tight hallway where their options are limited.

When in a scrape, how much space do you have?  So, attack or defend?

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Monday, November 11, 2013

Erasmus of Rotterdam

If you abominate robbery, this is what war teaches; if you abhor murder, this is the lesson of war. For who will shrink from killing one man in hot blood when he has been hired for a pittance to slaughter so many? If neglect of the law is the most imminent threat to civil authority, why, ‘the law says nothing when arms hold sway.’ If you believe that fornication, incest, and worse are loathsome evils, war is the school where these are taught. If irreverence for and neglect of religion is the source of every evil, religion is entirely swept away by the storm of war. If you judge the state of your country to be worst when the worst people in it have the most power, in time of war the lowest kinds of criminal are the rulers; was has most need of those whom in time of peace you would nail to the cross.

More...

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Sunday, November 10, 2013

Sir, I Only Loaded the Jews on the Train

And as a good German, it is not up to me to ever question anyone else, or have curiosity about why we are a loading all of the Jews on trains.



The questions is not whether Obama is another Hitler, but whether any given American is any different than any given German.  The answer of course is no different.

The problem is allowing Governments to have power, because they will ALWAYS abuse it.

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Saturday, November 9, 2013

Standing Military

The president nominates and congress confirms our generals and flag officers.  This was meant to prevent a standing military.  Now it just confirms the worst careerists into office.
Francis sought inside information on ship deployments and pressed at least one commander to steer aircraft carriers and other vessels to ports where his firm could easily overcharge the Navy for services, court documents allege.
So, if a pimp can direct where aircraft carriers dock, then no doubt that pimp might be induced by terrorists to put an aircraft carrier where the terrorists want it, when they want it there.

That this could go on a decade without the NSA, etc, figuring out, a decade where I was searched by my government at least 200 times, shows just how ridiculous the USA has become.

Time to disband the standing military.

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Monday, November 4, 2013

Uh - O! Now What?

The Pope is coming out against slavery.
AFP - Pope Francis wants action against modern forms of slavery including forced labour and prostitution, the Vatican said Monday after a meeting of experts called by the pontiff to debate the problem.
Will the USA have to change its constitution?

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Sunday, November 3, 2013

There Is No Competition In Aikido

I wince when I hear this.  People who make that claim do not understand the plain meaning of the word.  Competition come from the Greek, "to strive with."  The reason they run seven people at a time in a race is each does best when running (striving with) other runners.)

What I think they mean is in aikido there is no conflict.  This too is absurd.  In Japan as aikido was quickening plenty of practitioners were breaking off to do their own thing, like Shioda Sensei and his Yoshinkan style, there are plenty of authentic aikido styles, both associated and not associated with Hombu.

Aikido seems to be pretty good at accommodating splits, but it had a spectacular one when Tohei Sensei split with many top instructors to form Shin Shin Toitsu aikido, which in turn has at least three different groups now.

In the USA alone there are at least three major schools (and countless independent ones) directly affiliated with Hombu dojo:  Birankai, Aikido Schools of Ueshiba and US Aikido Federation.  Everyone one of these fine outfits manifested in conflict.

It is distressing to read a dojo teaches an aikido with no competition.  Either they do not understand the word, or far worse, they do.  In any event, fair warning.

Just as distressing is a dojo that offers no conflict.  Isn't the point of aikido an ethical response to conflict?  Isn't the result of conflict "divide and multiple?"

It seems to me a dojo ought to celebrate conflict, promote competition.

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Saturday, November 2, 2013

The Passivism of Force

Pacifists facilitate peace where conflict is manifest.

I was listening to a liberal go on about guns and force and glorification of violence and how this all leads to war, and it occurred to me how right she was, although she may not have realized it.

Think of the people who join the military or law enforcement, and now increasingly, both.    Without thinking it through, they pledge their lives to an abstract, a state, and accept the narrative that they are taking risks to benefit others.

Now there is no doubt that the deaths and wounds and disabilities to our soldiers and cops are real, but 19 year olds also believe they are bulletproof.

19 year olds are not really in a position to weight the pros and cons of joining up.  The simply accept, unthinkingly, the narrative about the abstract.  This is the essential nature of passivism, to be passive in the face of evil, as opposed to pacifism, which is to be active in the face of evil.

Passivism is violent and leads to a downward spiral.  Pacifism is nonviolent and leads to an upward spiral, although participants get every bit as deaded as passivists.  But then, pacifists are answering to a higher calling, not an abstract.

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