Friday, May 31, 2019

Fellow "Chucker?"

 Arizona has lifted a ban on nunchakus ("nunchucks"). The Okinawan farm implement was banned in the 1970's after lawmakers saw too many movies and became afraid.  Arizona Governor Doug Ducey correctly pointed out that nunchakus pose less of a threat than a common baseball bat.  

Many objects and weapons have been banned out of fear, when there is no valid reason.  The restrictions on silencers is among the most obvious examples. 


Thursday, May 30, 2019

On The Left

If you are still holding out hope for the “left” and “right” to work together for the good of society you don’t understand the left.

The left today is unhinged and has no desire nor intention to meet in the middle ground... whatever that is.

They are playing for keeps.


Wednesday, May 29, 2019

How To Demonstrate

From a reader:
"Would you please elaborate on why not to resist techniques during demonstration? I need to get this point across to some students... and yet still leave then with the impression that the movements do, in fact, work."

Yes. 

Let's start with a premise: any single technique in isolation can be defeated.  To be able to utilize any technique, one must either have surprise on his side, or have another technique (or threat of one) to switch to when the first is blocked.  No move is 100%.

Therefore, logic dictates that there are three primary reasons to go easy with the demonstration partner:

1. Resistance to the demonstration shows complete disrespect for the other students. 
The other pupils are attempting to see and learn a technique.  To force the demonstrator to go to a backup technique to accomplish the task is to disallow them to see the technique in question.  Why would you want to prevent your dojo brothers from being able to learn?

2. Resistance to the technique shows complete disrespect to the demonstrator. 
Usually, the one performing the demonstration is an instructor.  There is a reason to teach the technique. To disallow the demonstration when one has been particularly requested to assist in the demonstration is completely and utterly disrespectful of the instruction and the instructor.  It is akin to saying "no, let's not work on this move - let's work on another."

3. It shows complete and utter disrespect to oneself. 
When you resist a demonstration technique, you are essentially saying "no! I don't wanna do this move!" This is to be expected from a 3-year-old.


There are certainly many more reasons, but these three stick out in my mind the most. 


Tuesday, May 28, 2019

On Abortion





The abortion "rights" issue has cropped up lately as Alabama banned abortions.  Celebrities have thrown their worthless opinions out there, and folks of all persuasions have chimed in.  Make no mistake, abortion is the abomination of our time. 

Among my favorite pro-murder "comebacks" are:


1. What about cases of rape/incest/mother's life in jeopardy?
- Rape is listed as the reason for abortion 0.085% of the time.  Since there is no measure as to whether it was  legitimately rape, this statistic is likely to be much higher than reality. 
- Incest is listed as the reason 0.001% of the time.  Like "rape," the legitimacy is not verified, so the actual number is almost guaranteed to be orders of magnitude lower.  
- Mother's life in jeopardy is listed as the reason 0.065% of the time.  Doctors can be wrong, so again the actual number is likely lower - but probably not as much lower as the prior two. 

So these categories combine for a whopping 0.151% of all abortions. 

This is certainly a case of the exception proves the rule.  Abortion is performed for the "convenience" of escaping consequences of poor decisions the vast majority of the time.  This is the rule.  Your imagined exceptions prove the rule. 

Also - for rape, specifically - why murder a baby for the crimes of the baby's father?


2. Planned Parenthood does so much more than just abortions. 
Planned Parenthood's 3% claim is false - this from the Washington Post... not exactly a Pro-Life outfit!

No matter which source you find, abortion services constitute 20%-25% of Planned Parenthood's revenues annually.  Considering they get roughly 50% of their revenue from government funding and another 20%-23% of their funding from charitable contributions, virtually all of their service revenues come from abortions. 



3. Abortion is a Constitutional right.
Yep... and the same dolts will tell you that ownership of firearms is not a Constitutional right. 

4. You are just pro-birth, not pro-life. Because you don't want to provide [insert free shit here] for the child once it's born.
Distraction.  You are clearly trying to steer away from a pro-murder position. 

Ironically, this argument actually proves the convenience argument from the Pro-Life side. 


5. It can be a hard decision for a young woman. 
Yes. Deciding not to murder someone can be a difficult choice. 


6. Men are responsible for 100% of unwanted pregnancies.
And women are responsible for 100% of abortion infant murders.  Two wrongs never make a right. 


Final thoughts
Alabama didn't restrict women's rights.  They became a sanctuary state for unborn babies. 

Friday, May 24, 2019

Give The Customer

From a reader:

"So you're closing your dojo because of dwindling class size, but you say you might reopen and teach a different art. Why do you think that would make things work out differently?"

Excellent question! 
Here's why:

1. I have limited myself with regards to demographics. In the current jujitsu class, I primarily market two men and women who are business professionals. Contrary to the popular demographic which is 18 to 25 years old, and wanting to do MMA.

Also, I suck at teaching children jiu-jitsu. I can teach them how to do it, but I can't make it fun enough for them to want to come back on a consistent basis. And teaching children the martial arts is the one tried and true method of keeping class sizes up. I am pretty good at teaching kids karate. 

2. Because of part 1 above, I never fully embraced changing my marketing methods. I was content to have the free Facebook page and a half-hearted website and that's all. I failed to look into how to get Google reviews for my studio. That mistake will not be repeated.

3. My market is richer in karate / taekwondo schools, but not so much jiu-jitsu. In fact, a couple of other jiu-jitsu based studios have tried and folded in the area in the past few years.  My market demographics like karate based arts.  Gotta teach what will sell. 


Thursday, May 23, 2019

The Not So Little Things

Today is my daughter's last day of elementary school and my son's last day of middle school. 

I am now the father of a high schooler and a middle schooler. 

Where did time go?


Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Changing Seasons

I made the decision and informed my Jiu-Jitsu students at the beginning of May, that I will be at least temporarily discontinuing classes for the summer. Class size had dwindled to 6 students, and only two of those were even paying regularly. To be fair, one of the ones who was not paying is a black belt, and therefore does not have to pay any more.

Of the folks who were left, the jiu-jitsu class was clearly not a priority for any of them. This is not a criticism of my students, as life can happen to any of us. But the facts were very clear, of the 34 classes offered from January 1 through April 30, here are some statistics:
- 3 times did we have four or more students on the mats.
- 6 times did we have zero people show up.
- 23 out of the remaining 25 classes featured one or two students.

Sometimes in life, we need a nudge to show us the obvious. Yours, Truly, received three distinctive nudges.

1. About two weeks before the decision was made, I was rolling with an advanced student. As is often the case, I allowed him to put me in a compromising position - the mount. He attempted sode guruma jime - the sleeve choke. However, instead of using finesse to work the choke into place, and then applying pressure; he elected to use maximum strength in trying to put the choke in place. This resulted in him trying to apply the choke on my skull. The pressure specifically was on the side of my left eye socket. This is a student who has been coming for years, and knows darn well to not apply full-strength while rolling. Not only did I have to verbally remind him of something he very well knew, the pain from his stupidity stuck with me for several weeks thereafter.

2. The very class before I made the final decision, I had to switch from regular Thursday night, to Friday night class, as I could not make the Thursday night class in time. (Note - Several years back, I used to do Friday classes, and they started at 6:30 pm, instead of the regular 7 p.m. for Monday & Thursday classes.) I specifically texted the entire group, that class would start on Friday at 7 p.m. One student - who, when he actually shows up, shows up 15 minutes late like clockwork - showed up at 6:45 (15 minutes early). I asked him to what we owed the pleasure of him being on time. He replied in shock - he thought the class started at 6:30. Proof he had been coming late on purpose.  When he actually shows up. 

3. A week or two after the decision have been announced, I was demonstrating a technique with a black belt student. My longest tenured student of the current bunch. As I proceeded to demonstrate the technique, he locked down with full strength. This is a man who is much stronger than I, and everyone else in the dojo. This is also a man who knows darn well that any one singular technique can be defeated in isolation. He also knows darn well that we go easy on demonstrations so that students can see how to apply the technique. In fact, he has actually admonished other students of the exact same thing when he was demonstrating techniques.

I could nitpick behavior from each student, both above and not mentioned, but that would defeat the purpose. Some nitwit would read this, and feel like I was bitching about my students. That's not the case. However, it is very clear that would know students who look at this activity as a priority, there is no loss in temporarily closing the classes, until we can get fresh faces in the dojo.

All of the students of asked if we are going to resume later. I haven't ruled out the possibility of resuming later, but right now I am not thusly inclined. I might look into some alternate means of marketing, and start a karate class. Time will tell.

Friday, May 17, 2019

Cobra Kai Season 2

I ordered YouTube Premium in April for the purpose of watching the second season of Cobra Kai. Here is  my review of Season 1.

Ironically, in Season 2, the writers and producers addressed and corrected my only nitpick from Season 1. Evidently, the competitors sent to the tournament simply competed in the black belt division and wore the black belts just to compete. 

On a similar note - through both seasons, the focus of the martial arts portrayed is not on the belts, but on the training and the journey.  And that journey never ends. This is a good thing.  This is how it should be in dojos everywhere. 

Now some reviews have suggested that Season 2 was good, but not as good as Season 1. I think it was better.  Cobra Kai is more entertaining, more detailed, and more nuanced than anything else on TV now.  Johnny Lawrence is the most compelling character to cross the screen (big screen or small screen) in decades. 

The theme I enjoy the most is the recurring "Generation X is there to pick up the pieces from Millennials and show Generation Z a better way of life."


Wednesday, May 15, 2019

Liberal Procreation

Last weekend, Alyssa Milano called on likeminded liberal feminists to stop having sex so they won’t possibly get pregnant.

Stopping the procreation of liberals? This is the one liberal feminist campaign I support 100%!


Tuesday, May 14, 2019

The Left

Right now the democrat party is split into two factions.

1.  The far, far, far, far left socialists. 
2.  The far, far, far, far, far left socialists.


Monday, May 13, 2019

Gun Funny

Seen on social media -

I sat all my guns around the table to have a meaningful discussion. You know see where their headspace is at.

Instantly the AR's are ticked off and agitated. I demanded their magazines immediately. The Remington's laughed, Rugers just sat there with their bolts closed. Glocks were jerks as usual, the shotguns were all too busy arguing who is better pump or auto while the over/under acted like they were to good even to be in the same room...The SIGs joined over/under. The Ak's sat there clueless since they speak Russian, Chinese and Spanish. The 1911's are so old either they can't hear or don't care.....And my 50 BMG just bullied all the 22's. Terrible discussion!!

I'm just so frustrated. I just want good guns not a bad gun like you see in the news.


Wednesday, May 8, 2019

Real Enemy

#Libtards scream about how Trump is the enemy of the press, and is, therefore, "Hitler."

 Obama spied  on the press, and prosecuted them.

Trump simply calls them out for lying.


Monday, May 6, 2019

The Real Chicken

 Congressman Steve Cohen accused Attorney General William Barr of being a chicken.  Cohen suffers from delusions brought on by having lived an easy life.  If the law of nature applied, Cohen would watch his mouth more as his ass might have to defend his words.  And something tells me he is not prepared to do that. 

They say the worst day in a man's life is when he realizes other men no longer consider him to be dangerous.  Steve Cohen had this "worst day" when he turned 18 and it has never improved. 

He calls Barr a chicken and yet he blocked little ol me on Twitter.


Thursday, May 2, 2019

Slave Reparations

Many of the Democrat presidential candidates running in the 2020 campaign have pledged to look into or take action on slavery reparations.

No American today was ever a slave to another American. So what the Democrats are asking for is, specifically, for white people who never owned slaves to give money to black people who were never slaves.

Make no mistake, this is not about slavery, this is about redistribution of wealth.

If this were truly about slavery, the Democrats would address the dozens of countries worldwide where slavery still exists. Furthermore, they would be looking into reparations against black slave owners.


Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Despise Those Who Deceive

Dems,

Suppose you were to hear your spouse is having an affair. You don't believe it, but as more people refer to it, you come to accept that it's true.

Turns out they were all lying - intentionally trying to fool you; there was no affair.

Would you hate your spouse or the liars?

Then why hate Trump rather than the media?


- @FiveRights (via Twitter)