Ting! A Pro-Peace Phone?

I have written here many times about the way things were, and resuming those practice is a path to escaping the terrors upon us.  I was thinking small business, but here comes Ting using precisely what I am arguing to take on "too big to fail" phone companies.

Why I came across Ting, I am not kidding, is because AT&T just made it too hard to pay.  Their websites are tedious junkyards of whiz-bang coding ostensibly designed to get me to upgrade.  Trying to figure out the path to pay a bill was so onerous I took to simply paying in their stores at a payment kiosk (so it seems I am not alone) while I was running errands.  Then they required a password and login to pay, even with a debit card, at the kiosk!  I complained, and a clerk advised me to contact "customer support."  I advised the clerk I had come to make a payment, not chat with customer support.  I was miffed.

So I began to search for the phone company with the easiest payment method.  It was never about the fees, which I assume you get what you pay for, VOIP being cheap but sounding like a car radio at 3am in the High Sierras.  Ting jumped out as the easiest pay method.  Their billing system is old school benecredit, they bill you at end of month for usage, what you used...

Nope. No plans here. Rather than asking you to pre-pay for a portion of your usage, we decided to keep things simple. Just use what you need and we'll settle up at the end of your billing cycle.

Well, I don't use much at all. My bill:

Hi John Spiers,
Thanks for continuing to be a part of Ting!Here are a few details for your Ting bill, which was for Apr 20 through May 19, 2016...
-------------------------------------------------------------------Activation Fee                 2069150337                     $0.00 Plan Data Usage XS->XS plus... 1 MB                           $0.00 Plan SMS Usage S               24 messages                    $3.00 Plan Minutes Usage M           426 minutes                    $9.00 Line Fee                       2069150337                     $6.00 Apr 20 - May 19 -------------------------------------------------------------------
And here were the taxes we collected for Uncle Sam...-------------------------------------------------------------------Utility Users Tax - Wireless                                  $1.54Sales Tax                                                     $1.97E911 (Wireless)                                               $0.95Fed USF Cellular                                              $1.00FCC Regulatory Fee (Wireless)                                 $0.01-------------------------------------------------------------------Total comes to:                                              $23.47

You should see a charge for 23.47 on your card ending in 4XXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX  from Tingin the next day or so (if you don't already). That's us..

I like their humor: Uncle Sam.  Note that the taxes are more then 30% of the bill.  That is wealth transfer from me to the bankers.  There were no telephone taxes before the Vietnam War.  Then Johnson laid them on to help pay for the war, and the war ended, but the taxes never went away, they just went up.

We had a pro-peace/anti-war movement back then, and most of us just refused to pay that part of the bill.  The phone company never cut anyone off, you were just not paying Uncle Sam.  The amount, a few dimes back them, a couple of bucks in today's world, was too small for Uncle Sam to come after you.   With larger amounts, and computerization, now Uncle Sam can strike an individual quite easily.

Sadly, with the poverty draft and deep-state perpetual wars, the American people have come to accept war as a given, even if the people of Vietnam, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc, themselves have never abandoned their anti-war/pro-peace aspirations.

With all of this in mind, here is what I will do. If you have any of the biggy phone company services, dump them now and move to Ting. 

Sign up with Ting, I get $50 or $25 (at some point, depending on how much you spend). (Apparently, at this time, you get $25 off, too!) What I will do is bundle up any and all remittances to me and donate them to one of the land mine removal charities, with a request they get it to SE Asia.  (Not sure which charity yet, I'll have to check the various ones for legitimacy).  There is a symmetry that telephone revenue would be directed to remove UXO in SEAsia delivered in part with funds from telephone taxes.  I like it!

(If remittances are in the form of deduction from my phone bills, then the money I would have put on the phone will be what is bundled and remitted to the charity.  Whatever, we'll make it work.)

It will be delightful to report say quarterly how much we have directed to war reparations.  To sign up with Ting in which kickbacks are directed to me, click here: https://z32i345idje.ting.com/

And by the way, I've experienced zero difference in call quality.

So right now, click on the Ting link above, sign up to save money (and ease of payment!) secure your credit and mine, and let's do good while doing well.

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Hong Kong: Where the Cops Keep Cool

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The Hegemon and the Unspeakable Horrors

It's the way of the world that any given hegemon adopts bad ideas as policy, once that aggregate power to the hegemon, and people then fall in line.  As Eisenhower warned, this leads to powers sought and unsought, and inevitably horrors unspeakable.

It's when the hegemon begins to lose his mandate of heaven, and people begin to admit those unspeakable horrors maintain, that their minds turn to violent reaction.

One of the problems of being a conscientious objector, a nonviolent pacifist, is one's reaction is expressly to reject violence in response to the unspeakable horrors.  We exercise quite effective challenges to the hegemon.  There is this strange thing, then, we conscientious objectors see all the unspeakable horror all the time,  work against it nonviolently, which is the only effective means, but then comes a time when the masses begin to accept the reality of the unspeakable horrors.

Most people will overlook the unspeakable horrors when times are good, for one reason is that they believe the only rational response to unspeakable horror is violence.

Think of all of the people who tried to assassinate Hitler.  Each was a Hitler supporter at one time, but only when Hitler was losing did they make their attempts (Canaris is an exception to this, but he never tried.)

The awakening of the masses to the unspeakable horrors is most unwelcome to the conscientious objector, since the violence of the masses just sets everything back.  Also, those who want to overthrow the system never care about making things better, they only care about being in charge.

Russian literature knows this, the Russian writers all complained the put-upon masses wanted nothing to do with the change programs of the progressives.  People who actually work for a living are the ones who suffer.

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Aikido & Tai Sabaki

Tai sabaki is just the core movement skills of any martial art.  O Sensei had some role in codifying the modern versions and Tohei Sensei as aikido chief instructor emphasized it in his classes and seminars.  Indeed, for the first four or five years I was in aikido tai sabaki exercises, that is movement, silent moving, breathing, ki testing, even misogi, first aid, and I am not kidding "invisibility" along with the aikido four principles took up at least the first 1/2 hour of a ninety minute class.  I rarely see it today.

The skills are fundamental to aikido, indeed any martial art, and it may just be that people no longer know how to teach them.  Doing aikido well, especially aikido, depends on tai sabaki.

With strong tai sabaki, one can experience the something liberating in the realization you need not match punch for punch, reaction for action, as is usually taught in other arts.  Indeed, there is literally no contest, no match, you need only, more or less, avoid the damage from your opponents first move; now chaos.

At this point you are close to your opponent and you need only direct his force where he next elects to direct it, along where h wants to go anyway, and yet you at the same time have decided where he goes thereafter: down.  No match, no contest, just co-operation.

Martial arts outside of aikido wants a respectable showing, if not a decisive victory.  The ego, indeed no doubt the Id, demands at least that, in return for all that training. With aikido, your opponent fell down.  That's about it.  Not very exciting, is it?  And to get best at that, tai sabaki exercises are key.

And since I brought it up, invisibility is achieved by simply not allowing your attention to reach your target.  As your attacker approaches, you look at something else and send your energy and concentration there.  As you thrown him you are looking around, not at him. You are already dealing with what is next.  If you decide you'll take out Person B while dispatching Person A, then you are focussing on Person C or the telephone pole, not your target, Person B.  Your target never sees you coming.  This is part of tai sabaki training in ran dori.

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More on Matirossian

Much of Matirossian's credibility is his speed and power.  Striking arts depend on it.  In aikido, we use the other persons speed and power.  And old lady or little kid is met with their speed and power.  Aikido gets a bad rap from so much practice being equal to the speed and power of the attacker.

Aikido is a martial art that depends on speed and power, but only that presented by the attacker. Aikido has explosive speed and power as well, but only when warranted.  I will admit I no longer see much practice at that level, and too bad for everyone involved.

Ran dori is the opportunity for speed and matching power, and for innovation and creativity.  I rarely see ran dori, and when I do, rarely is the opportunity taken.

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Martirossian's Interesting Aikido/Jeet Kune Do

In Seattle we have probably the highest concentration of students of Bruce Lee in the world, and indeed, Bruce Lee is buried in Seattle.  I've met several and practiced with some of his ex-students, and have pictures thereof.  As I watched this fellow, who claims to have studied under a couple of Bruce Lee's Seattle students, I can believe it.  His natural talent is apparent, but he also "gets' Jeet Kune Do and Wing Chun.

His natural talent is shown in his speed, accuracy and power.  His training is shown in his technical excellence.  One of his videos is on JKD and Aikido, which has perplexed some of the viewers of his videos.  Perhaps they came hoping to see Jeet Kune Do Vs Aikido, but no, they see a JKD grand master doing aikido, as well as JKD.  And not only doing aikido, but the kind that looks most ridiculous!  "I am kneeling, grab my wrist!"  The mind boggles.  But but but... aikido is BS, and it does not work!

Juan RDZ1 month agoDoes that Aikido shiit really work ?? Or is bunch of bologna ??
why MMA/UFC don't use Aikido ??

How can this grand master be using it?!?! Commenters are openly agog.

Sifu Emil Martirossian is a talented Martial Artist, Instructor, Actor and Fight Choreographer. He specialises in street self defence training, Jeet Kune Do, unarmed combat and close quarter techniques.

And here is the video in question:



What's up with the aikido?  Is he for real here...?  Sure, why not?  It is what aikido looks like.  He is also adding it to the end of JKD moves.  Indeed, the stepping on the toes is pure Bernie Lau Sensei.

Martirossian Sifu seems to be a beginner at the aikido as aikido, but his application in JKD is world-class.  Perhaps this is merely documenting how he is weaving in what he can use from classic aikido into JKD, rather the selling point of JKD... "what works..."

Jesse Glover, who wrote a book on his training with Bruce Lee in the early days used to come by our aikido dojo at 306 S Main and watch us for hours.  Some of his students joined us, for the intensity level at which we practiced and the principles which were taught were useful.  I would never say aikido had a lot of influence on any of these people, since most of aikido, as a martial art is nothing new to most martial artists.  Just interesting differences, and maybe some clearly stated principles.

Aristotle said to be interesting you had to be different.  Just so.

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Aikido and Hard Falls: The Earth is Your Partner

What few people understand about aikido, and I am afraid too many aikidoka, is that it is not about how hard you can hit or how cleverly you can pin for submission, but how hard you are attacked.  Your defense is to simply send the attacker on his way, usually the way he was going.  The end is the ground.  The energy of the attacker misses you and becomes one with planet earth, and as much energy as your attacker has for you, it is passed on to the planet.  Those two become one, advantage planet earth.

This is not only aikido, but also judo, although judo much includes submission.  I was offered this revelation by a judoka half my size who drilled me into the mats and literally took my breath away.  (Since the top aikido teachers came out of judo, I consider judo remedial aikido especially for koshinage). Later a fellow half again my size did it as well.  I watched a young man go into convulsions who was slammed into the mats in a practice.  I much prefer submission to ippon, a clean smack to the mats.

With the ground as the end, your attacker is given condign response.  At the same time, this unique aspect makes sparring a challenge since few people in other styles have the aikidoka skill in falling.  Judo people do of course, but not the striking arts or other submission arts.

Something I see atrophying as I travel and practice is this very aspect of aikido.  Clubs more and more are very careful about anyone rolling into another or a wall.  This is the same impulse that declaws a pet cat so no one gets scratched.  Cats come with claws, so we need to learn not to piss off a cat.  One scratch ought to do it.

Aikidoka need to learn that the hard fall is a safety technique, when nage slams uke down rather than let uke hit another falling uke, or a wall.  At the same time uke needs to learn to see what is happening around him as he attacks, and take steps to preserve himself, such as grab nage's gi on the way down and take a hard fall.

Indeed, ran dori is effective only if nage is throwing people into each other and walls, otherwise the swarm will get you.  All practice should be dynamic in which all students are constantly adjusting to the chaotic conditions of combat.  The paradox is the less rules the more safe practice and the better the aikidoka.

At least one third of all aikido falls ought to be hard on any given practice.

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