RECCE ROOM

10 years ago, I went to an Appleseed clinic. I wrote much about this - both pros and cons of the program.  But I didn't write nearly as much as some of their folks wrote in retort. Many tried to defend the cons in many ways.  Therefore, I was curious what, if any updates the program had made to its curriculum. Back in the early part of the year, a friend had told me she and her family were thinking about attending an Appleseed and she asked my thoughts.  I told her to try it. I also said I'd go and shoot, as well.  But, I needed a goal above and beyond just being there for a friend.   So, I made my personal goal to be this: I wanted to earn the Rifleman patch with my M16A4 rifle. With a government profile barrel and bulk ammo, my task would not be a guarantee. My technique would have to be true. Gear My rifle is free floated, so I attached the sling swivel to the Midwest Industries free float rail.  This would prevent POI shift. The rifle uses an A...

Seen on social media - Just one problem - Women are well known for having an entire make-believe world in their heads.  This includes being in relationships with men.  And being out of the relationships, as well.  So, as usual, there is no way for a man to correctly answer this.  

Once you get your rifle zeroed, one of the best things you can do is work on your marksmanship. Being able to hit targets at distance - 100, 200, and even 300 yards is certainly attainable for any rifleman who has just a little bit of self-discipline. Once your marksmanship is in order, the next thing you need to work on is what is called presentation. Presentation is the act of bringing the rifle to bear in a situation where there is an immediate threat. This can also be called an "up drill," or a "ready-up" drill. Many instructors teach this from a "low ready," or "challenge" position. Although you are less likely to use the rifle in this manner, it is a great place to start. I'm more likely use would be from a "patrol ready" or muzzle down position. These soldiers are patrolling with their muzzles down. Hence, it is sometimes called the "patrol ready" position. The rifle is slung, but not put away. Muzzles are pointed...

Recently, I received a call from a Yelp Account Executive.  His purpose was to sell me advertising for my martial arts studio. I've received several such calls over the years. My studio has never - not once - had a prospect call that came from Yelp. If none call naturally, then paying extra probably won't generate much better results. I surmise that people do not venture to Yelp to find Martial Arts instruction in these parts.  As a side note, Google and Facebook ads yield 8:1 returns on investment (ROI) and can be had for as little as $50. Yelp is far more expensive - $15 per day to start, from what I was quoted.  All that said, Yelp does some things well. Particularly, if you wish to look up food places, Yelp is the place to go to do that.  Folks just don't go to Yelp to look up martial arts schools. The account executive was relentless.  I like that.  He sent me via email an example of a success story.  He told me the success story was from a ma...

The Transformed Wife   has an article out about the topic of co-sleeping. Co-sleeping is the act of children sharing the bed with Mom and Dad. The block author points out that this became popular in the US when a book about it was released in the 1970s. Since then, a number of marriages have been ruined due to the wife's insistence on co-sleeping. Co-sleeping is an integral part of attachment parenting. Yours, Truly, has so thoroughly thrashed attachment parenting in the past, that you can already guess where I'm going to go with my thoughts on the idea. An anecdote that I can share comes from a family I know. Their eldest child was born just a few weeks before my own daughter was born. The mom decided to co-sleep with the baby. Fast forward a couple of years, and mom wanted another baby. The dad put his foot down and said that if she wanted that, then the eldest would have to learn to sleep on his own first. Evidently, they desire to become a mom again outweighed the desire...

On social media, I recently witnessed the friend of a friend state that clean shaven men are perceived as more trustworthy. Of course, he was in sales, and he felt that trustworthy equals a better salesman. While it is true that people tend to buy from people they Trust, that does not mean that they do not trust people with beards. In fact, most of the successful sales people I know are men with beards. So why the disconnect? Simple. It is a faulty premise. Go online and you will see dozens of resources stating that women prefer men that are clean shaven. The primary problem with those surveys is the fact that women don't know what they want. A study by Meredith chivers conclusively proved two things - that a woman is not aroused by the sight of a man, shaven or unshaven; and, two, a woman is aroused most by watching bonobos mate. Now go and ask any woman on earth, and she will tell you that she is not attracted to bonobos mating. Women honestly don...

This is not a repo story, however there is quite a bit of humor. Working at Enterprise Rent-A-Car in Memphis was an eye-opening experience, to be sure. One of my first days on the job at the largest location in the entire state at that time provided a bit of humor, as well as insight. A female rental return a car, and had the audacity to ask if she could get $100 off for rental for flashing her breasts. A fellow employee grab the spare clipboard behind the counter and showed her the pre-printed page which read: Want to trade "services" for all or part of your rental bill? * Flash = $20 Feelski = $40 "The whole shebang" = $100 * Qualified applicants only.

This story was recounted to me - I was in my first apartment. My wife and I have been married a short while. I come home one evening, and the apartment next door is hosting a party. This was not unusual. However, I see my wife hearing out the blinds. She was not happy. When I walked in and asked her what the problem was, she told me that one of the partygoers had opened her car door into my wife's car door. Sure enough, there was a ding in my wife's car door. At that time, I was having to work with my wife showing her how to handle many situations in life. She was too quiet to ever be considered confrontational, even to a fault. And this was one such situation. She had not confronted the person who dinged her car. I decided to lessons would be learned. Taking my wife by the hand, we went outside and confronted the young lady who had dinged my wife's car door. She didn't know what to say so she asked for help from a friend, whom she called "Mister." "...

What Percent Of Fights End Up On The Ground [2019 Research] This is a very interesting article.  Using videos of street fights, the author of the article calculated how many fights go to the ground.  It's not the 90%+ we have been told for years.  Roughly 30% of fights end up on the ground.  This is not to say grappling and takedowns are useless - far from it.  Read the article and you'll find that when takedowns are employed, the takedown resulted in a major advantage 96% of the time.  However, more people fell down than initiated a takedown. This is probably due to the fact that there are just not many skilled grapplers as a percentage of the general population. Most notable point of the article - Most fights start with someone who’s unprepared getting punched in the face… even though there‘s lots of indicators it’s about to happen The aggressor then gains the initiative with a flurry of punches… and often wins with...

Seen online - I accidentally knocked out another white belt with a rear naked choke. He never tapped. He said he never felt it coming.  This from a site where the white belt was asking for advice. It would seem the two white belts had less than one month of training each.  So here is some advice: Two new white belts should never be training partners if it can be avoided. The rear naked choke (RNC) does not hurt. Many people do not tap, because they do not feel pain.  There is a faint numbing feeling and most get a bit of tunnel vision as indicators.  A competent instructor will advise you of this.  Getting choked unconscious like this is no big deal. 

  Pops would say  this bathroom is bisexual.

From Twitter  - I considered selling my weapons “back” to the government, but after a background check and thorough investigation into the buyer, I determined the buyer has a history of violence and is mentally unstable. Big risk to everyone around it.

I have been debating whether to write a post on some silly things that Baby Boomers say. To be certain, I have received "advice" from Baby Boomers over the years that was exact opposite of what the truth was. Seeing this meme prompted me to go ahead and write down some memories. Boomer advice - "stay with this company (to earn more)." I was fresh out of college. I had taken my first job. It wasn't minimum wage, but it wasn't much more, either. Being a young man, and hearkening unto the wisdom of the Bible, I asked an elder for advice. This Boomer suggested that I stay with that company as long as I could, and that one day I "might be able to make enough to get by." When I took a job just six weeks later, making nearly double, the Boomer looked very disappointed I have not stayed with the company. Of course these days I make almost triple what a manager with that company makes - which is commensurate with the experience, had I been there the whol...

Beto O’Rourke vows mandatory buyback of assault weapons if elected president . I only see a few problems with that: 1. Mine are not for sale.  2. Neither are millions of others.  3. To "buy back" indicates they once belonged to the government to begin with.  Not true.  4. Use my tax money to disarm me? Nope.

From a social media post passive-aggressively attacking my classes (this is nearly 2 years old) - "Respect is earned not given. You know who you are, not naming names, stop leading people along like you are giving value for their training, you are not. Your misgivings will get people killed or leave them in a bad way when survival needs come along.  Nothing, absolutely nothing is worthwhile if easily obtained." Naturally, this individual had never taken a class with me - that's why he was too chicken to leave this review on my Facebook business page or my Google review page.   Of course, this person unfriended me right around the time he made this post.  Not surprisingly, the person in question trains Krav Maga. Nothing wrong with that, per se ; but I will quote   Ramsey Dewey  here: "most Krav Maga practitioners I have met cannot fight their way out of a wet paper bag." This person also had attended two non-gun classes with constant statements to the ...