RECCE ROOM

There is good news for Kristen here: 1. Background checks are already the law.  Now, there are no background checks mandated on a private transaction face-to-face. That would be unenforceable. Also, no background check must be passed prior to a thief stealing a gun. That, too, would be impossible to enforce. And the majority of "gun-crimes" are committed by persons who illegally obtained (i.e. - STOLE) the gun.  2. Women already have full reproductive rights.  Presuming a woman is capable of having a child, no law in the US prevents her from having one. Presuming a woman does not want to have a child, she has many methods of birth control from which to choose, including abstinence. Now, because the SCOTUS decision in Dobbs v Jackson, each state controls whether and to what extent abortion - the killing of an unborn child - is legal. Of course, abortion is not a reproductive right, nor is it health care .  3. We already have a ban on state-mandated religion (It's the ...

Every Time Not sometimes, not most of the time.  Every Time.  Every time I make an exception for a friend , it backfires. They stab me in the back. People act the fool. Some weird shit happens.  Every time.  One of these days, I'll not only take a stand, but keep it. 

Insomnia.  It strikes us all at some point.  Laying in bed late Friday evening / early Saturday morning. As my son graduated high school less than a week ago, I, too, have been nostalgic from my high school days.  Recollections of  a friend.   That friend introduced me to the song   Straight to Hell  by Drivin' N' Cryin' circa 1990.  So I look up the song on YouTube.  Listen to it. Look for covers, not expecting anything, but I'm always up for a good cover of a song.  And what do I find? Darius Rucker of all people not only covered this song, but also   made a video . Say all you want about some of the performers he chose to do the video with. The cover was excellent.  And that reminds me of the time I met Darius Rucker, when delivering a rental car to his road manager at Lowe's Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville back in 2005.  He was pleasant to speak with and seemed genuinely impressed that I: 1. Did not nerd-out when mee...

This past weekend, #FakeNews reports that there was a " White Supremacist March on the Capitol ." There was a problem - it did not pass any sort of smell test. How, you say? There were no Left-Wing counter-protestors.  Where was the police presence? Why weren't members of this group arrested? Where were the fat guys? So, since it was clearly a setup and at least 90% of the "members" of "Patriot Front" were either Feds or paid actors, here are some memes to celebrate the illusion:

A few days ago, I was scrolling social media for reconnaissance, and an article came to my attention: Australian father sets world record with more than 3,200 push ups in an hour Naturally, I was more than a bit curious, as I had witnessed the record set back in 2003 (gosh, has that been 20 years ago now!?!?). Tim Sikes performed 3669 push ups in an hour at Bill Taylor's Bushido School of Karate in Murfreesboro in 2003. I was one of the official counters. Heck, I went to dinner with Tim and his family & friends after the event. The links in this blog's 2009 article are all still active, and even more are available online with Tim's record.  On the other hand, it was easy to find a Sports Illustrated article about the Australian man, and a few others.  Make no mistake, what Helmke did was not easy. A definite accomplishment. And even the official  Guinness World Records  site lists Helmke as the record-holder. However, 3206 in an hour is not as many as 3669 in a...

In the martial arts world, there was major headline news recently. A jiu-jitsu student was awarded $46 million in damages. In writing and on YouTube, the jiu-jitsu community is apoplectic. Mr. Iturralde, the man who caused the injury, stated that Rener Gracie gave false testimony when serving as an expert witness. As of the publishing of this article, it has not been easy to track down what part of Gracie's testimony was considered false by Iturralde.  Gracie put out a video , explaining what he testified to, and correct application of the technique in question.  YouTube personality and MMA coach Ramsey Dewey put out a video in which he decried what he stated were Gracie's claims, and made some other observations, as well. However, the video is chock-full of inaccuracy about Gracie's testimony, claims, and also relies heavily on assumption of things not stated. This is not typical of Dewey. Dewey is usually right on the money and very accurate. Here are the more erroneou...

New Label: "Misleading Slogans" Some years back, this author read a book, and there was a line in the book that was very poignant. "It is a slogan, and is misleading, as all slogans are." The irony is the statement is, itself, a slogan of sorts. Nevertheless, it is true.  As an example, this blog has an article from 2013 on whether to cross the feet when applying an arm bar. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ("BJJ") circles, there exists a slogan, "don't cross the feet!" The article from this blog goes into detail about why that slogan exists, and how it can be faulty.  As research was being done for future blog articles, it became painfully clear that many "known truths" in our society are deeply flawed. Since so many of these had slogans attached, the need for this new label became evident.  Some of the misleading slogans being worked on for future blog entries: Women communicate better than men.  Police / Military have a corner on firearms...