It's Over

I can say with almost a touch of relief, IT'S OVER! After 6 years, the Coup d' Etate is finally over. Obama has done it. He's won! He has now successfully bypassed the will of the people, the consequences of a major election defeat, the Supreme Court and the Congress to assume the mantle of KING of America. Stand aside Kim Jong Un. A new supreme being has arisen.

Obama's Legacy

Here it is folks in full Techni-color, the image of Obama’s tenure as POTUS. It doesn’t need a title. It could be Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya, the Sudan, Iraq, Benghazi, Somalia, Yemen, or coming to a town near you, like Ferguson, Missouri. His color may be black but his legacy will be remembered as fire orange.

Knife class

My Work keeps getting in the way of my teaching knife fighting. I’d love to retire and just teach Japanese swordsmanship and knife fighting but my Social in-Security and my tiny work Pension won’t cover the bills. Somehow my employer can support 17 vice presidents globally and only fund me for $239/month after working for them 35 plus years. Maybe the socialists are not completely wrong after all? While I was in Houston teaching compressors and engines my heart was in practicing knife techniques. I took along a bunch of Pete Kautz and James Keating DVDs and a Bowie Knife and Trainer. I also laid out a plan for our next class and it is advanced and comprehensive. Now I hope we get a Friday to work on it. The holidays are upon us and free time will be even more stressed. Well we do what we can and hope for the best. I have picked up a couple really nice Bowies and sold a few other knives to help finance them. My most recent purchase is an Iron Mistress style by Voorhis. He makes very nice knives for a reasonable price. Of course I bought it off Ebay™. Hopefully it will be here next week. Voorhis’ knife work reminds me a lot of the knives made by DeLeon. Both make quality knives that are well designed and constructed.

So, in our advanced class I want to cover the “basics” of George Silvers Small Sword techniques. Also included I have plans to introduce some Filipino concepts and terminology. It is not necessary to one’s survival to remember the words, but it sure makes for a more educated fighter. It’s easier to work together if I can tell the student to perform a “punta mandrita” instead of “ you know, the high sort of round house thrust coming from your right shoulder to your opponents left side.” Or if I can tell him to assume a “seconda” guard instead of “place your knife held parallel to the floor, out to your right side, with your palm facing downward.” If you are learning an Art why not learn the language? We will work some more on the different modes of stepping and the male and female triangles used by escrimadores and other fighters.

Consistently I hear the concern about carrying a large (ie illegal) knife for defense. I base what I carry on three things:
1. Probability of getting stopped and checked
2. Probability of being attacked, hi or low
3. The practicality and comfort of the knife I plan to carry

Anything you can do with a small knife you can do with a large one, often better. The opposite is seldom true. A small knife gives you some advantage over empty-hand but also sometimes gives a false sense of security. If you are attacked, and end up cutting or stabbing someone, you are most likely going to end up in court. Why not show up with fewer wounds than your attacker?

black helicopters?

"You know the NSA monitors all of the products you buy from Amazon.gov don't you?" My wife said to me as I opened one of my latest packages to reveal a copy of "Total Resistance" written by H. Von Dach. Yeh so what I replied? The book is a reprint of a classic on guerilla warfare against an invading army. The print is poor and the images small and dated but the concepts are timeless, well almost. In his time Von Dach did not have to concern himself with satellite snooping, thermal imaging, night vision, predator drones, and Blackhawk helicopters. But what the hell where is your patriotic fervor? Oh heck that word is going to ring someone's bell at the NSA and other snooping susies in the government. You notice I said "THE" government, not our government. There is a huge difference today between them and us. If they are worried about this 66 year old veteran then they ought to be ashamed of themselves.

The spooky part is that as I lie reading the book one night I had this queer feeling of having been there in Von Dach's imaginary conquered Switzerland. Why was that? The deeper I read the deeper the sensation of deja vu. Stupid. Of course. The light went on in my feeble brain and I realized with stunning clarity that all of the tactics Von Dach said the enemy would use, were the policies being levied by the Obama administration. We are living in Von Dach's dream, or is it his nightmare. I cannot explain it to you. Read the book. Learn the tactics. Someday you may need this knowledge to preserve your freedom, even your survival. We are living in sad times folks. Long live the king.

Mayberry RFD

It’s November fourth. I started out for Houston on the first. I just could not face another fight squeezed into a commuter jet, pasted against the inner fuselage with some 300 pounds guy sitting beside me and my shoulders up around my ears. I came down here to teach a gas engine school. Yes I would rather be teaching kenjutsu, Iaido, or knife-fighting. But this is what pays my bills. I was in, even if only for a few hundred miles, eleven states getting here. New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland. West, Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and finally the Grand Republic of Texas. I covered over 1800 miles in two and a half days. I saw some beautiful country and some god-awful traffic. Doesn’t anybody stay at home? Gas prices in New York were about $3.70 and in parts of the South as low as $2.32! Good old New York and taxes go together like Cuomo and Corruption. As I was traveling I was mindful of what states are gun-friendly and what ones definitely are not. What is scary is that there is any difference in the “United” States of America. The second amendment is regarded completely different from state to state. Now I am a States Rights sort of person but not when that right in any way disallows my basic inalienable rights as guaranteed under the US Constitution. This leads to the second part of my posting. We are god given the right to self-defense but we are being governmentally stripped of our ability to provide for our own defense. HOW CAN THAT BE? Despite the un-natural laws of some states I carried my little SIG right on through them. I wasn’t about to keep checking state laws and jumping in and out of my car to hide my pistol in the trunk in one state, hide my ammo in a separate place in another state carry open here, concealed there. The Second Amendment is the only true gun law, and all of the rest are unlawful. Part three of my posting. So what did worry me? I am not afraid of storms (Ice, Snow, Rain) although I do not enjoy them. I am 66 years old and know how to drive in adverse weather. I am not afraid of car-jacking or some idiot with road rage. Getting off in the “wrong part of town” is troubling but that’s why I had Sigmund (my 938 SIG) with me. Car breakdowns? No I don’t worry about breakdowns, I have AAA and I drive rental cars. What I fear is those sworn to “serve and protect.” That’s right I fear the lone wolf COP. The trooper in a bad mood or who hates Yankees with a long pony tail. That’s who worries me. I am intimidated by the local small town gestapo cop, the one who got stale donuts, cold coffee, and a ration of shit from his old lady that morning. I nearly wore out the cruise control on my rented Impala in East Texas. They must have had a humungous road sign budget and a cop behind each one. The speed limits plummeted from 75 mph to 30 mph, on hill crests, turns in the roads, hidden behind overgrown tree branches and rocketed right back up again often for no apparent reason. Oops here we go again from 75 mph to 65, to 60, to 55, to 40, to 30, faster than I could cut back on the cruise so it was hammer down on the brakes and look for the cop. Yup there he is behind the chick’ filet or Bubbas BBQ. I nearly got whip lash from the deceleration and acceleration. In east Texas alone I counted nearly twenty cops on route 59. That was more than all of the other 10 states added together. In fact it was at least 5 times more. Is crime that rampant in east Texas these days? Seriously folks I am not joking when I say police state. But the topper was when I was nearly to my destination travelling on the infamous parking lot known as the Sam Houston Parkway. Travelling in the other direction were two motorcycle cops, side by side, doing maybe 30 mph or less. They were at that almost gonna tip over if I go any slower speed. Now there was no funeral. There was no accident because I just came from the other direction. They were creating a huge traffic jam for no obvious reason other than because they could. They were creating a big opportunity for an accident to happen. Houston ought to be proud of them. Yes folks that is what I am afraid of police with unlimited power and us peons with no recourse, And as they become more and more militarized we become more and more vulnerable to the rogue cop with a bad temper. I’m telling you true i passed through a lot of small towns but there aren’t any Andy Taylors of Mayberry RFD Police anymore. So watch your six!