Friday, February 24, 2012

Look at it this way

Some people say abortion should be allowed for women who are raped.


So let me get this straight, because the crime of rape was committed against you, you now want to be allowed to murder a completely separate human being?

Speaking in Tongues

Tackling another tough one here. Speaking in tongues (also known as Glossolalia).

Simply put, some Christians believe in speaking (and/or praying) in tongues. For some, this appears as mindless babbling; for others, it is a direct communication with God. So lets look at the different aspects of it, as well as what scripture says:

Language of the Angels
There is no doubt that God and the Angels have a language of communication. There is also no doubt that God and the Angels know and understand perfectly all of man's languages. It is highly unlikely that God's language is one that we know.

Reasons for speaking in tongues:
Those that speak in tongues give several reasons. This article explains it from the source. Generally speaking, those that speak in tongues will give one or more of a few reasons:
- Direct communication with God.
- Prayer for the unknown.
- Edification of the Believer.

Funny though:
When Jesus referenced tongues, the more literal translation of Mark 16:17 is "...they will speak in previously unknown languages..." See this article for more. Proper definition here.

Other references:
Several times in Acts, the Apostles spoke in unknown languages. Each time, it was to witness to others present who had different native languages than the speakers. 

Other references in the New Testament of speaking in tongues (which should really be said: "speaking in unknown foreign languages") were made by Paul, and it was indicated to be a gift of the Spirit.

Think about it - how could you possibly speak suddenly in an unknown language without God's help?

The sad truth:
Having attended many pentecostal and "charismatic" churches, 99% of the time I've seen people "speaking in tongues" it was to get attention... not to give glory to God, and certainly not as the gift was used in the New Testament.

Conclusion:
Worship as you will, but the Gift of Tongues as introduced by Christ Jesus and expanded upon by the Apostle Paul was simply a gift to allow someone to witness to others in a language they hadn't previously learned.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Male interaction

So a recent blog post was written that had the effect of pissing off some females, so let's do the same with the guys. Lets talk about pecking order.

Most people are familiar with the concept of the Alpha Male, and consequently, the Beta Male. This is where things get fuzzy. Some authors assign the term "Gamma Male" to those males that otherwise exhibit lower social skills than even Beta males - what is on this chart a "Beta with beta tendencies."



As you can see, the x-axis (East-West) is increasing or decreasing levels of Self Confidence. The y-axis (North-South) is increasing and decreasing need to prove things.I was inspired from past training to categorize these by obvious traits.

ALPHA - Alpha with Beta tendencies - α(β)
Pros: Generally a well-liked person. Good confidence. Able and willing to do things.
Cons: Flair without substance.

BETA - Beta with Alpha tendencies - β(α)
Pros: Capable. The need to prove himself provides motivation.
Cons: Plays second-fiddle so much that he will snip at the Alpha. Undercuts and challenges Alpha.

TOTAL BETA (GAMMA) - Beta with Beta tendencies - β(β)
Pros: A good friend to all. No need to prove anything leads to reduced competition.
Cons: Low self esteem. Often plays the doormat. Can be a social outcast.

TOTAL ALPHA - Alpha with Alpha tendencies - α(α)
Pros: Where the Alpha (with Beta tendencies) talks, the Total Alpha does. Inner confidence is superb.
Cons: Quiet exterior leads others to mis-presume them to be a Beta. Conflict with the Total Alpha won't end well for the other male.


Conflicts
α(β)  vs.  β(α)
Alpha vs. Beta: The most common conflict. The Beta snips at the Alpha and undercuts him. The Alpha puts the Beta in his place and comes out on top the vast majority of the time.


α(β)  vs.  β(β)
Alpha vs. Total Beta (Gamma): This one doesn't happen often. Gammas would never confront the Alpha, and the Alpha would never pick on the Gamma as beating him wouldn't increase standings among peers. When it does happen, the Alpha wins in convincing manner.


α(β)  vs.  α(α)
Total Alpha vs. Alpha: This is the one conflict that the Alpha doesn't want. The Total Alpha is smarter, more decisive, and a better fighter. Alphas will pretend after that this was a fight "between two tigers - where one is killed and the other seriously injured." Reality is not so kind to the Alpha. The Total Alpha never wants to fight, but when he does, he fights decisively, and ends the Alpha quickly and overwhelmingly.


β(α)  vs.  β(β)
Beta vs. Gamma: This is the conflict the Beta wants. Often happens when the Beta is in a group of Betas and wants to appear the Alpha to impress the womenfolk.

α(α)  vs.  β(β)
Total Alpha vs. Total Beta (Gamma): This conflict happens when a Gamma mis-perceives the Total Alpha - thinks he's another Gamma, a weaker Gamma. Much like the Beta wanting to appear the Alpha in a room full of Betas, the Gamma will do the same occasionally with an Total Alpha. If it comes down to conflict, the Total Alpha wins hands-down. However, from time to time, the Total alpha perceives what is going on and "yields" to the Gamma for other reasons.

α(α)  vs.  β(α)
Total Alpha vs. Beta: This conflict, like Alpha-Gamma, rarely happens. The opposite ends of the spectrum rarely collide. Betas need a group for attack, and Gammas do not need a group. In the rare instances there is conflict, it resembles the Alpha-Total Alpha conflict, and favors the Total Alpha by a wide margin. Often, people on the outside will mistake this for an Alpha-Beta conflict.


In Sales
Having had a long, successful career in sales, I have been privy to numerous sales training. Among the more notable:
- Sales Excellence (Tom Vishia and Associates)
- Integrity Selling by Ron Willingham

In Integrity Selling, the student is made aware of four broad personality styles - The Talker, Doer, Supporter, and Controller. Interestingly enough, the four male types fit these perfectly.

Doer = α(β)
Talker = β(α)
Controller = α(α)
Supporter = β(β)

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Liberal mindsets

I've observed liberals for a very long time. As such, several main mindsets keep repeating themselves.

Entitlement mentality:
This is by far the most common mentality. I've met only a very few liberals that did not express it. The sense of wanting what someone else earned is strong in them.

Also included in this mindset is the attitude of greed and/or envy.

Class warfare is a common technique, and a common rallying cry.

Double standards:
Liberals abide by a set of double standards. Something they want to prevent you from having, they feel they should still be able to have. In other words, they feel they shouldn't have to abide by the same set of rules.

Lack of forethought:
This is the one that gets me. Many liberal ideas are not, in themselves, necessarily bad. However, liberals often fail to see (or outright ignore) the logical outcome.


Feel, don't think:
Liberals often prefer to feel about something rather than thinking about it. That's fine, but then they try to back-fill logical reasons. Many times, it looks like they completely are off their rocker with such poor logic.

In arguments / debates:
Because the logic is not there, when debating a conservative who uses logic, the liberal will quickly run out of options and emotions to talk about. That's when it starts: the liberal counter-argument to nowhere. They use the following tactics:
- Lie
- Deny
- Make counter accusations.
Beware! Most of the counter accusations will be true of the liberal himself. See: Projection


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Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Chronically unmarried

Just putting some thoughts down about observations I've made over the past few years. My sister and I were discussing this about a mutual acquaintance, but these observations have been made in many others as well.

Abstract:
It is a well discussed case that chronically unmarried women over the age of 30, are not married for a reason. Usually because there is something about them that makes them undesirable for  Beta males, much less the Alpha males.


Caveats:
I am going to talk about chronically unmarried women. These are women over the age of 30, broadly speaking, who have not been married, or are not married any more after a short failed marriage (or two... or three... or more!) while they were still in their twenties.
Naturally, these observations may not hold true for gay women (lesbians) who are prohibited by law from marriage in most states.
Nor would these things be true of a woman who had a longer marriage (3 years or more, usually) even if it did end in divorce.
Naturally, these observations might not be true in the case of a young widow, either.
Also, these observations may not be true for a chronically unmarried female who is morbidly obese. As much as people might not want it to be the case, looks matter. 

Clarifications out of the way, lets offend some people:


Chronically unmarried women are almost always very liberal. 
Specifically, they seem to be wanting a handout in life. You see things like continuous complaints of lack of child support if they have children.

Chronically unmarried women are almost always very selfish.
Their first thought is of themselves. Their second thought is of themselves. They relate everything back to themselves.

Chronically unmarried women and jobs:
Some cannot hold a job. Some have had stable careers. Broadly speaking, the ones who stay with a job fall into one of two broad categories:
A) those who can sleep their way to the top (i.e. - many sales jobs);
or
B) those that hold state jobs such as teachers or working for the government directly (hard to get fired from these jobs, so performance doesn't matter).

The problems:
Because chronically unmarried women are selfish to the point of repelling males, they often wind up turning bitter. In this category, you might also find married women who were forced to marry Beta Males and resent that fact.

Also, chronically unmarried women are also often quite rebellious. They often keep rebelling against parental advice even beyond the time when they are under parental care.

Chronically unmarried women often have self destructive tendencies beyond simple rebellion and selfishness.

Chronically unmarried women have a tendency toward the "why me" mindset. They do not or cannot comprehend that it is their own actions that make them unmarriageable. They learn to place blame very well.

more to come...


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Monday, February 20, 2012

Abortion is murder

Here is some proof. A doctor who performs abortions gave sworn testimony that sometimes, aborted babies don't die immediately, but are delivered in a toilet, and "are delivered alive and left 'wiggling around in the toilet,' where they are allowed to die."

In the linked story, the abortion clinic gave the mother RU-486 at 22 weeks! This is astounding, as I know someone in extended family who just gave birth at 25 weeks. The baby is alive and well and has been for over seven weeks now!

The baby survived, and is now 10 years old, but has severe birth defects from the botched murder. The jury awarded the mother over $36 million in damages.


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Democratic Party is Communist

But don't take my word on it. It seems the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) has sued the Democratic Party for theft of their platform.

From the article:
“They stole our entire platform, rebranded it ‘progressive’, and claimed it as their own,” declared a CPUSA spokesperson at a press conference in San Francisco.

Also interesting from the article:
According to the article, CPUSA lawyers presented documents to the press showing that the Democratic platform of 2010, almost line-for-line, reiterates the CPUSA platform of 1963.  In other words, the Democrats of today are the Communists of yesterday.
(emphasis mine)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Truth about bias

Liberals are quick to say that the Democratic party is the "party of women/minorities/poor, etc."

Let's talk about that. (Props again to Pastor Haden for that catch phrase)



Women's rights:
Once referred to as "Women's Suffrage" - it was the Republican party that overwhelmingly voted to enact measures such as right to vote, as well as getting the 19th Amendment going.

Democrats filibustered the move!


Minorities rights:
Again, Republicans were more heavily in favor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than were Democrats. Some try to say that the so-called "Southern Democrats" of the day were what Republicans are now. Not true - the main Southern Democrats that were against civil rights were Robert Byrd and Al Gore, Sr. Neither of which is anywhere near conservative.

The fact that Kennedy was in favor of the measure was a point of conflict within his own party!

Also, Martin Luther King, Jr. was Republican!


Poor:
Democrats and liberals espouse programs like welfare, WIC, and others. They claim it is to help those in need. While that might be the goal of a minute minority of them, those social programs only serve to keep poor people poor and dependent on the government. This is why we get vicious cycles of dependency, and welfare generations.

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TKD moms

Last weekend, my son attended the Winter Battle. Well, there was at least one funny thing that happened. During his second match, my son was going strong as his opponent tired. Of course, I was cheering from the side, along with my dad and sister.

As his opponent tired, his defenses dropped. As his defenses dropped, Cael's coach started calling for a head-kick. I followed suit. Head kicks (permitted with light contact only to the helmet) score two points as opposed to a single point scored from hogu kicks.

The other boy's mother was sitting next to us. She called out, with obvious annoyance: "There's no call for that. These boys are seven years old."

"Well within the rules, ma'am." I responded quickly.

"Well there's no need when you are leading 9-2."


(in fact, my son was leading 9-2 at that moment... but he hadn't been prior to that flurry - when I'd called out)

So, I decided to take the high road. I waited several 20 minutes or so... after my son won his subsequent match. At that point, I approached the mom of the other boy.

"I beg your pardon, ma'am," I said. "Seems we got started out on the wrong foot. My name is [Usagi] and I currently hold a 6th degree black belt. When our sons were competing, your son dropped his defenses, so I called for a head kick. You see, head kicks score two points instead of just one. There is no danger, as the kicks must be delivered with control and light contact only. It is basic strategy of Olympic-style Taekwondo.

"Understand, I was not cheering on for harm to your boy," I continued. "Much the opposite, I was calling for good strategy. I'm sure, since your son is a green belt, his Sabumnim, advocates simple strategy like that, too. Along with sidestep and counter-kick, as well as body-body-head, and kick on separation, no?"

She stood there, mouth agape. Clearly, she was unsure of what to say.

"Well, better luck to him at your next tournament." I said with a smile.


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Early voting

So the wife and I went and voted yesterday in the TN primary - early voting edition.

For Republican candidate for President, we both voted Santorum. Gingrich would have been OK, but he hasn't any steam left lately. Besides, in the general election, Gingrich would make it about Gingrich, and not about Obama. Whoever wins needs to make this election about Obama.

I predict now many people asking why not Ron Paul. That's an easy one. I've two main reasons:
1. Ron Paul supporters.
2. Foreign policy. We don't need to police the world, but neither do we need to back down from the bullies that arise.

An interesting side note, I got to vote for Senator Stacey Campfield as a delegate. I do not live in his district, so I cannot vote for him in local level elections, so this is the first time I was able to vote for my fellow blogger.

Friday, February 17, 2012

The worst sin

This is an opinion piece. Easy to tell, since sin is sin, and no one sin is worse than another - any of them will condemn a person to eternal damnation.

However, I believe that today, there are sins that have a worse effect than others. The simple answer to this is things like murder and rape - which are universally accepted as really bad. However, I'm going to go a bit deeper.

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians.
Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."


The way I see it, Gandhi was right. Jesus stated the most important commandment is: “ 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

Christians today so often do not do that. You look all around, and see pastors filled with greed or arrogance, churchgoers present only to increase their social standings, self-proclaimed Biblical scholars seeking to show the rest the errors of their ways. None of these actions show love - for God or for one another. 

All these actions do is drive others AWAY from Christ by driving them away from Christianity.


So in my mind, the greatest sin is one committed the most by Christians themselves: failure to show love - to God or to others. 


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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

It didn't happen that way-

In November of 1993, UFC I took place. I was recently re-watching some of the action when something curious came up. Another video on the side featuring participant Ken Shamrock was advertised, and so I watched that video.

In the video, Ken Shamrock claimed that Royce Gracie choked him with the gi - a sleeve choke called "sode-guruma jime" in Judo. Though sode guruma jime would have been perfectly legal under the rules of the UFC at the time, Shamrock likens the use of the gi to choke him as being unfair since he couldn't wear shoes (shoes were seen as a potential weapon).

In reality, Gracie choked Shamrock with a rear naked choke (RNC), also known as hadaka jime.

In the UFC match, the camera angles are not perfect, and some of the action can be hard to see - especially for an untrained eye. However, I saw it immediately, as did others. Interestingly enough, Bill Wallace, commentator, immediately spotted the hadaka jime. Wallace, a black belt in multiple disciplines, including Judo (which uses hadaka jime), observed correctly.

Interestingly, Wikipedia lists the victory for Gracie as being via RNC.
Sherdog also lists the submission as RNC.
So does this source.
In fact, I could not find anybody not associated with Shamrock who says the win was via the sleeve choke - sode guruma jime.

Here is a nice breakdown by Rener and Ryron Gracie on how the entire fight played out.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Move & counter-move

So a short while ago, the National Gun Victim's Action Council declared a boycott on Starbucks due to the company's policy on guns.

Starbucks' official policy is to "abide by local laws." This means in places where carry is banned (IL only), then customers are not permitted to carry in their stores; and in places where carry is legal (49 states), customers may carry in accordance to the law.

In light of this, many guns rights groups declared countermeasures. Today, we went to Starbucks. Those of us most vocal paid and/or tipped with $2 bills. I paid forward the car behind mine, and tipped a $2 bill on that one, too.

Seems there was a net zero effect on business today.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Be careful what you ask...

Another Pops-ism:


At the same restaurant, the poor waitress takes our orders.



Waitress: "Sir, how would you like that steak prepared?"

Pops points to the kitchen.

Pops: "On that grill back there."


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Winter Battle Wrapup

This past weekend, my son (front row, kneeling, right side - green belt) competed in the Winter Battle VIII in Ringgold, GA. Over 200 competitors from no less than five states competed in Olympic Taekwondo sparring. There were no forms competitions at this tournament. My son's school - Spirit Martial Arts - fielded six competitors ranging from white belt to black belt.

I was thankful - my father and sister were able to attend and my sis snapped some great pics and vids of the action. Both were really impressed by the level of competition. Also, my wife's sister was present for much of my son's part of the competition. The boy enjoyed having a cheering section.

Competition:
The competition itself was intense: Two rounds - 1-minute each. Thirty second break. Three judges on corners scoring points (two of three must call a point for it to count) with electronic score keeping. 1 point for kicks to the hogu, 2 points for kick to the helmet (light contact to head only). Punches to hogu are permitted, but score no points.12-point margins will end the match. Double-elimination formats.


My son's day:
My son lost his first match 9-4. He danced around the first 45 seconds, and his opponent made her way around his defenses to score a few points to take an early lead. He chased her around the remainder of the match, and she kept picking spots to score. He finally cornered her and a flurry at the end prevented him from losing 9-1.

Second match was against a boy taller and larger than himself. This time, my son listened to his coach and stayed out of range, then maneuvered in close when the boy closed, used his strength to land powerful punches to knock his opponent backwards, then kicked the hogu upon separation. He built a 4-2 lead by halftime. In the second half, the other boy got very tired from chasing my son and from my son's superior strength, and his defenses dropped. My son moved in and scored in flurries - ending the match with an 11-2 victory.

Third match was almost boring. My son used the same strategy as above to pick apart a different girl. He also added (at his coaches urging) a ploy whereby he would wait for his opponent to lead in with a kick - my son would use footwork to sidestep the kick and would counterkick as the missed attack sailed harmlessly by. Final score was 7-3.

Fourth match was a rematch with the first girl. My son stuck to his strategies - kick on separation, and kick after a sidestep - and won 8-3. This put him in the championship round.

Fifth and final match was against a boy who had not been defeated all day. He was a bit older and larger, but Cael had faced that many times before. This time, though, his opponent was using the same strategy as he was, and was a bit quicker with the kicks on separation. Leo was his name, and he built a 6-2 lead on Cael at the half. Some coaching, and the second half saw a different boy. Where Leo was wearing down a bit, Cael seemed to get stronger. A few flurries and the score was tied 6-6.

Another flurry: 7-7. By this time, the entire crowd in this section was hooting and hollering and generally enjoying the come-from-behind action. Two proud warriors, only 7 years of age, had shown the people in this gym what was by far the best match of the day so far.

Another flurry with less than 15 seconds left, and Cael backed off. He had landed three kicks, and felt he had a lead, but the scoreboard showed Leo with an 8-7 margin. Cael saw this and moved in. Another flurry with no points scored. Cael moved in again, but time expired.

He was very happy and stood very proud when receiving his Silver Medal.
We talked afterwards about how he left everything on the mat. He was exhausted, sweaty, and had a grin that could not have been surgically removed.

Austin:
Austin is a newer boy to classes. He has a white belt with a yellow stripe - indicating about 4-6 months of experience. This was his first tournament. He competed in the 9-10 year old division, and was the junior most rank. Poor guy caught a kick to the mouth 20 seconds into his first match. Still, he pushed forward, and fought bravely. Austin didn't win this time... but with the kind of perseverance he showed, next tournament will be a different story!

Kaylee:
Kaylee is 8 and a yellow belt with orange stripe indicating about a year of experience. She fought hard and was very brave herself. She took home a Bronze Medal. She gets shy when you mention she is Cael's girlfriend!

Sadly, I did not get to see Kaylee's matches, as they happened at the same time as Cael's!

Tyler:
Tyler is 11 and like his sister, Kaylee, is a yellow belt with orange stripe. He is a very solid build (NOT fat), and is extremely powerful. Tyler had the match to end all matches with another powerfully built boy in the opening round. Tyler was down by 4 points at the half, but roared back to tie the match at 7. The two rounds ended with a 12-12 tie.

In sudden-death overtime, Tyler went for a helmet kick against a tired opponent and scored - half a second after being kicked in the hogu. In baseball, they would have called it a "bang-bang" play, as the action happened so close together. Glad I wasn't a judge trying to decide who scored first!

Tyler fought well in his subsequent matches, and even beat the boy who had edged him out in the first match. Tyler fought in the championship match and lost to the AAU regional champion by a slim margin in another exciting match. Though frustrated by losing, he showed great spirit and was a clear cut Silver Medal winner.

Laura:
Laura fought in the teen black belt division. Funny thing - she had been away from Taekwondo for two years, and had only been back a few months. She took Silver!

Sadly, I only saw parts of Laura's matches as they also coincided with Cael's. However, I am told that a secret to her success was the glitter eye shadow.

Mr. Newman:
Mr. Newman, one of the assistant instructors at Spirit Martial Arts, competed in an advanced black belt division. He fought well, but he had to leave shortly after the competition, so I am unsure how it turned out exactly.


Summary:
All in all, a great day of Taekwondo action. A lot of fun, a lot of character building, and a fair share of winning and losing. Can't think of a much better way to spend the weekend.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Funny stuff from the homefront

Going to start a new topic - "Pops-isms"
My dad has been known to have a funny word or two.

For the inaugural post: setting was at a restaurant. The waitress is taking drink orders shortly after we all sat down.




Waitress: And sir, what would you like to drink? 

Pops: Sour Tea


(as opposed to sweet tea)


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False Prophets

Thanks to Right Minded for the inspiration on this one.

Several months ago, in Sunday School, Right Minded asked the question: what is a prophet?
I had always held that a prophet was one who had been given divine inspiration of events that would come to pass - events in the future. This was an incorrect position to hold. As was pointed out, a prophet is: "A person regarded as an inspired teacher or proclaimer of the will of God." (Definition #1 at this link)

A False Prophet is, therefore, by definition: one who is either not inspired by God, or is not proclaiming the will of God. Included herein would be proclaiming something that is not God's will.

Similar to this is heresy: "Belief or opinion contrary to orthodox religious (esp. Christian) doctrine." OR "Opinion profoundly at odds with what is generally accepted" (Definition from this link). The singular difference in the terms revolves around whether the concept is against God's will, or against generally accepted doctrine. There exists the possibility that accepted doctrine might be contrary to God's will.

A false prophet would include anyone who teaches something in direct contrast to God's will, as found in the Bible. This would include those who teach:
- Islam (Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."), and other false religions.
- Calvinism (Jesus said: "I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness. ... He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day."), and other false doctrines and teachings not supported by the Bible.  
- Atheism (Jesus said:  "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.")
- Agnosticism (Jesus said:  "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."), specifically agnostic theism
- Christians or those claiming to be, that teach things contrary to scripture. 

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Anybody else in 2012

From the article - 35 reasons why not to vote for Obama in 2012.

All of the reasons are based on facts, not ideology.
Of course, what Obama says and does (facts) give clear evidence of his ideology.


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Saturday, February 11, 2012

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Good suggestions for life

I was recently reminded of the following suggestions. Most of them originated as military doctrine for battle. They apply also to business, personal communication (including verbal conflict), and other aspects of life.

Always have a plan.
Always have a backup plan (the first one won't always work)

Flank your opponent.
Protect your flank.

Liberals, politicians, car salesmen, and other people that want you to believe a lie will follow the following guidelines:
- Lie
- Deny
- Make counter accusations.

Never do battle on your opponent's terms.
Set the time and place yourself.

Never wrestle with a pig - you both get dirty, the difference is that the pig likes it.

Understand (and use) the difference between cover and concealment.

Don't bring a knife to a gunfight.
Bring a long gun. Bring friends with long guns.

Never underestimate your opponent.

When victory is certain, give your opponent an honorable way out.

Understand your opponent's motivations, and you will know what he will do next.

A man that understands himself and his opponent will not have to fear the outcome of 1000 battles.

more to come...

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Fail on both sides of the coin

Link to article where Eric Holder explains that the Obama administration is in favor of reenacting the "assault weapons ban."

Now, we all know already that there is no such thing as a semi-automatic assault weapon. But let's gloss over that for a moment.


Fail #1:
Such a ban is simply a ban due to appearance of the firearm. Not because of any additional lethality.
But Democrats are always biased on looks. Particularly when it comes to people.

Fail #2:
It was Holder's Justice department that funneled thousands of guns to foreigners and illegals in an illegal manner - which resulted in the death of at least one Border Patrol agent, as well as hundreds of Mexicans.

Good Advice 2

Part 2 of an article I recently blogged on.

Where I blogged on part 1.



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Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Oh so Appropriate

Saw this earlier: "Living in a drama free bubble today. Respect the bubble."


This is so appropriate for right now, it's not even funny.


:)

Monday, February 6, 2012

Just sayin' - Feb 2012

It has come to my attention that some folks need a real problem in life.

This is why votes matter

SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg stated that if she was drafting a constitution, she would not look at the US Constitution as a template. The tone of her comments clearly suggest she feels the document is old and outdated.

Link to article.

This is why votes for President count. The President nominates SCOTUS appointments.



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Friday, February 3, 2012

Prices

When I started the Usagi Dojo, I checked local martial arts school prices before setting my prices.
To this day, I still check periodically - at least annually.

My objective in the martial arts has never been about money.
That said, I've made interesting observations in over 25 years of professional instruction:
- People who do not pay never wind up feeling the value.
- It's hard to say you are not about the money when you have the highest prices around.
- Teaching for free is a guarantee of a short-term student.


So I made the conscious decision several years back to have some of the least expensive instruction around. Currently, I charge $80 per month for tuition. The next least expensive in a 5-mile radius charges $89 - and is actually a good friend.

That way, students feel there is value.

Cons:
Still, the drawback, as I knew it would be, is that I attract those trying to "save a buck" (read: someone who really cannot afford martial arts instruction). I find that a little kind firmness goes a long way, and they eventually realize this is not for them.

Pros:
The plus side is much bigger. As students get more ingrained into the dojo, they sense the value of what I teach, and they realize they are learning more than most. They also realize I am not doing this for the money - and then they appreciate what they have learned that much more. My hope is that one day, my students will have the same love and appreciation of the martial arts as I do.


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Thursday, February 2, 2012

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

ATF gets sued

A murdered border patrol agent's family has sued the ATF for the wrongful death.

I think the $25 Million isn't even enough.

How embarrassing

A high school basketball player makes the winning bucket... for the other team.

Neat to hear

Precept Ministries has announced that Co-CEOs Jack and Kay Arthur will be stepping down and their son David will be taking over as CEO.

My home growing up was about a quarter-mile from Precept Ministries. We would play there growing up as kids. I remember when it was called "Reach Out Ranch." My parents were friends with the Arthurs.

It was funny when Precept would have a seminar or other gathering. The small road in front of our house would be lined with cars when it let out. Often, when this would happen, it was on a Wednesday night. My room was at the front of the house, and I would watch the hundreds of cars go by.

Good news

Gallup polls show Obama losing the general election this fall based on approval ratings.

Just hope we can get a good replacement, not Romney.

Proof of the elitist mindset

Congressman Jane Harman (D) - California - expresses outrage that she was wiretapped.
Yet she voted for the Patriot Act  extensions - which allowed just that type of wiretapping to happen.

Funny to hear her "demands" to have transcripts released.

Sad that this happens to her - but she helped keep those unconstitutional measures in place!

Amazing how folks in Congress often think they are above the laws they pass to rule We the People.

Post-Edit: For the record, the use of the term "Congressman" for a female member of Congress is correct usage.


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