Control: Exposing the Truth About Guns
This brief book by newly converted libertarian, Glenn Beck (I far prefer this version of Mr. Beck, no surprise there) is broken into two parts. The first takes the form of a point-by-point de-bunk of commonly spouted anti-gun talking points. He exposes some of these assertions to be mere rhetoric with no basis in reality, and in other cases provides detailed factual counterpoint where issues have been made less savory than they might actually be.
The overall stance is undoubtedly pro-second amendment, as am I--so one must always adjust for confirmation bias. I was mighty impressed by this first section.
The second section feels a bit disposable to me. It veers into speculation about "why" the recent spate of gun violence may be occurring. I am always leery of motivation-musing and psychological probing, I find these discussions more often than not cause-confusion arguments or "just so" stories to fit pet theories.
Even with the reservations regarding the second half of this book I heartily recommend it to both the pro-gun and anti-gun contingents. The pro-gunners will find much to, well, arm themselves in friendly discussions with those who dissent from the 2nd amendment, and the honest ant-gunners will at least find some intriguing food for thought.
Kind Words from Our New Friends in Bavaria
The realm of the Martial Arts is a real huge one. In Germany the influence of the so called classical or traditional Martial Arts mainly comes from eastern arts like Karate, Judo, Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Jiu Jitsu, Kung Fu and its derivatives etc., most of them preparing for sporting competition. On the other hand are the sports of western boxing and wrestling. But where are their real roots, their origin they were initially created for: surviving the unconditional attack? Our research for the answers lasts a quarter of a century. Many people we met, giving us answers, some of them very honest and open minded, lots of them wheeler-dealers teaching dead patterns ignoring the important meaning of aliveness but cultivating their cults. Many things we saw, bunches of books, DVDs and internet sources we studied, always testing the ideas hand to hand in close to reality scenarios and mucking out the frills and furbelows. Many Holy Cows had to be slaughtered. One reason for our long time research was the missing of real open minded teachers having reality based experience. The other reason was the concentration of the "Arts" on the sports, even BJJ, MMA etc. do so. Years ago some guy made us aware of Mark Hatmaker's collection of books. Dang! No "eastern magical mystery tour" but western based stuff written in clear words shattering the so called "secrets" and myths based on real experience of generations of hand to hand hardened fight experts. Our understanding of this quote of Bruce Lee became a much deeper one: "Someone with only a year of training in boxing and wrestling could easily defeat a martial artist of twenty years of experience." And then -for us- THE BOOK: "No Second Chance"! Everybody interested in real self-defense under unconditioned horror scenarios has to know this awesome manual! We run our club concentrating on functional self-defense for 25 years now. This had to be celebrated. The idea grew to invite a special guest who influenced our research a lot. Decision was made to invite Mark to Germany without ever having any personal contacts with him. But his books, DVDs and internet stuff made us so curious about meeting him personal. What kind of a guy would we meet? Some days ago we welcomed Mark and his wife Kylie here in Bavaria and had the chance to train and discuss with them for about one week. What should we say? A reality based encyclopedia of the science of fighting, unconditionally open minded and sincere, of open hearted reliability with excellent teaching abilities practically and theoretically! Although being no JKD practitioner Mark is closest to Bruce Lee's famous words "Absorb what is useful and reject what is useless". He is it absolutely without any guru preciousness, no mystery-mongering but humble and point-blank. Both of them, Mark and Kylie! Great thanks for sharing your fabulous experience with us! We had amazing days of common spent times, not only in the gym! We received someone just knowing from afar, we had to say good -bye to new friends: "Habedere!"
Places to Go, People to See
As some of you know I try to leave the homestead as little as possible, but this year is an anomaly as we have upped our seminar/playtime. Below you will find a listing of some of the most recent additions to the schedule.
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Of course we'll be at the Annual Karate College in Radford, VA on June 28th & 29th. We'll teach 3 general sessions + 1 certification course. To register for Karate College http://www.thekaratecollege.com/TheKarateCollege.com/Karate_College.html
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We'll be on the roster at Martial Arts on the Mountain--September 19 (5PM start) thru September 22nd (11AM).
Myself, Boyd Ritchie, Carlos Cummings, and John Miller will be presenting classes in MMA, Boxing, Catch Wrestling, Sambo, (and if time permits) an optional Challenge/Obstacle Run.
Four days of training, feel free to room on the campground (rooms and meals provided, crew--beat that).
Cost: $250
To register or for more details contact Coach John Miller
coach@grapplingsports.com
540-354-9356
http://www.facebook.com/events/126726897501640/
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Of course, we'll also offer our Annual Tennessee Boot Camp in November-details to come.
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We hope to see you at one of these events--if you'd like to have us come to you, check out our Pitch An Adventure info in the side bar and if you've got some adrenaline in your neck of the woods that strikes my fancy we'll be there.
RAW Subscription Update
For our current and considering RAW Subscribers, beginning with volume 123 (January 1st, 2013) we will begin unveiling The Combination Man Home Study Course in which we (finally) present in an ABC/1-2-3 manner the steps from, 0-120 MPH how to become the best Boxer-Pugilist, Shooter-Stuffer, Par Terre Wrester-Submission Technician you can be.
Each volume will tied-in to the inTENS PREMIUM CONDITIONING SERVICE (free to subscribers), will be accompanied by a printed syllabi of drills for gym use, and will then be keyed to a foundation text (The Combination Man) that will be released at a later date. In other words, some good methodical let's get better stuff coming your way.