Function over Form, Mind over Body, Thought leads Action

While the existence of power may be interesting to some, I’m sure many, if not most, wish for more practical concepts and concrete methods.

Philosophy is a way to train the mind, but many start martial arts or hand to hand training merely for physical benefits. In so far as people obtain mental and spiritual benefits, it is more a direct result of hard exercise and health.

Yet, in order to handle the raw power of this universe through our mortal bodies, thinking and training oneself to think correctly in any circumstance is important. For without thinking, we cannot create what we need to or we may create that which is unneeded or disastrous. A martial artist should not have “accidents” in training. How can you have an accident and hurt someone when you didn’t mean to? Is that like having an accident and killing yourself, because you tried to hurt someone and couldn’t? These types of accidental like behavior are often seen in people who may have exceptional physical abilities, but unexceptional mental strength and concentration. They just happened to use more strength than was necessary, because they have no mental conception of what is “necessary” to get the job done. And if they did, they couldn’t perform to spec either.

People tend to have accidents using things that they are not familiar with or do not totally own. Sometimes it is merely carelessness. Concerning guns and rocket launchers, often it is not so much carelessness as pure ignorance and the inability to comprehend the power invested in the tool by human creation. Children fall down and cannot remain balanced on one leg, often times because their bodies are not yet their own, merely something they were given today, very different from what they are used to yesterday or the day before. It is not theirs. It is unfamiliar. People attempt to mimic, copy, and imitate what they see, thereby making mistakes in the learning process. Those mistakes are merely a result of the copy attempt.

What is the point of being a martial artist if all one does is copy other people’s material? If that is not what one seeks, how do people figure out what is true and false, paving their own path? Therein rests the issue of mental training. For a strong mind can detect truth from falsehood, reverse engineer other people’s concepts into their own personal ideas, and basically get jobs done by their own judgment, not the decisions of their boss or superior.

Function over form, what is the point of a form if it has no function? Is it good merely for cosmetic beauty? I do not think martial capabilities should be focused overly much on external, superficial details. Yet, I often hear from many that they learn martial arts by seeing the techniques and mimicking them. After all, all that is required is to do the movement many times over and one will achieve muscle memory, right? Why do we need this “mental training” and the ability to form independent decisions when our muscles are the one memorizing stuff…

Probably because if you want to become an artist and not just an animal, one might wish for a bit of independent, individual, artistic, “creativity”. Just a bit. Besides, if the entire totality of human knowledge and abilities could be copied by merely mimicking the movements of a skilled user, I could become a surgeon by copying the movements of one and practicing on corpses (After a Holiday Inn stay). After all, it’s not like I need the “mental training to be able to decide what is what” inside the body right? I’m not too sure how many people would trust my expertise though in saving lives.

The function of something in this reality is a test for us. No matter which way we are biased towards the forms, the truth will always be in the function or lack of one. In this fashion, can we detect inconsistencies and falsehoods between the function’s existence and its form. A sword may be rusted yet be a 1000 times stronger than the ceremonial, polished, weak metal. Test it. Humans like to claim many things, but reality has no reason to lie.

Mind over body. While the common wisdom is that our muscles do the thinking for us in getting martial techniques down, it may surprise people to know that all the “autonomic” functions are in two places generally speaking: the spine and the brain. If you get drunk and cannot stand up straight let alone balance yourself on one leg… are you telling me your muscles have forgotten its memory or is it merely that your brain has become polluted by toxins in the blood stream that the blood-brain barrier cannot filter out?

If it happens to be that the brain and the spine is what controls your breathing and automatic functions, then your special “techniques” should be initiated by the same command chain. Yet, why is it so many fighters think they need not develop the control and discipline of the mind over the body, in order to fight? Is pure instinct so beneficial and easy to use that it is merely too convenient to let the body do its own thing after a fashion… whether it is or it is not, what a martial artist should seek is even more power, even more control over it, even more conscious awareness of it. Automatic instincts are best left for the survival of animals and computers. The proficient fighter can accomplish much relying on mere instinct and reactions, yet the fighter with full control of his mind and thus his body, will be a harder entity to defeat: strategically and tactically. Most species in the animal kingdom are far better physically and instinct wise than humans, yet it is humans that seem to be at the top of this food pyramid. Why is that? Is it because of technology that humans were born with, instinctively? I doubt a newly born human in a contest of instincts would win out against even a pack of wolves, let alone the hunter killers of a lioness pride. All that humans have, was created by human thought and imagination: child or man.

Thought leads action because until the neurons fire, the body has nothing to do. Until the order is given by the chain of command, the soldiers at the bottom do nothing and know nothing. This is also why people freeze up in battle, for their brain cannot decide on the proper action or perhaps to them the proper action is to do nothing, but deciding to do nothing is still doing something. The body has been ordered to maintain and hold itself. The faster you figure out what you are supposed to do, the faster the body will do it. Yet many people expect themselves to judge the right action immediately in a life and death battle, merely by training repetitious physical movements. As if this will enlighten them as to the purpose and reason of martial power. Unfortunately, I doubt that has ever been the case, where merely worshipping an idol of power has given us greater understanding of the universe.

Make techniques yours, your own idea and execution not the copy of something else that even monkeys can do. Do not allow your body to do whatever it wants to do based upon the influence of fear, anger, or any other emotion, for the more power you have, the more you will regret letting something else decide what to do with that power. Figure out, clean out, your own mind of doubts, hesitations, questions, and desires. The body will not immediately obey a hesitant, vicefull, corrupt, stupid, greedy, ignorant, foolish, commander. In other words, that part of your brain/spine that likes to go on instinct in survival situations will start making decisions for itself and you will have a rebellion on your hands. You may be able to fool other people and even yourself, but there are hidden parts of your mind that only cares about the truth when it comes to survival (after all, it’s why our genes still exist) Yet, afterwards, it’s going to be you that has to face the court martial and the board of inquiry as to your actions, not your muscle memory. Not your instincts. Not your spine.

Emotions, adrenaline, neurons, reflexes, logical and instinctive brain functions, all were designed to help you, the human, survive. Yet it is rather sad that many choose not to utilize such tools and instead rely on merely the form, the repetition of what they’ve seen done by others. It should not need to be said that a human who wishes to wield such abilities, on top of the powers of creation and destruction, needs to be a bit more in control, knowledgeable, and “competent”.

Bouncing/Doormen tips

I am a 24 year old bouncer at a local club. I work with 7 other bouncers. I am rather a buff looking guy but I’m only 5’10. I am currently studying Kempo. I was just rewarded a purple belt last Monday. At the club, I have realized that I intimidate some people but not everyone. I don’t attempt to intimate anyone, I just do my job and try to tell you what you cannot or kick you out if told to by my boss. Sometimes, thugs come into the club “repping” their gang or acting ignorant and if I attempt to tell them something, most of them do it. Saturday night, one guy (blood gang) had been drinking quite a few beers and kept setting his beer on the pool table. I calmly told him the first time not to do it and he jerked the beer out of my hand when I went to take the beer off of the table. I let that situation go and continued doing my job. This time I saw him do it again, he stepped up to me (he was a tab bit taller). I believe his intention was to challenge me. So I told him that he had to leave the club. He told me that he’s not going anywhere. So, I grabbed him by the arm and told him that he had to leave. He pulled away and then his other arm began to swing as he was attempting to throw a punch. And I believe the alcohol in his system slowed down his body because I saw the punch coming and by that time I duck the punch and punched him in the rib with my left fist. I think I was supposed to get in trouble because I wasn’t supposed to punch him but I was forgiven by my boss. I am so nervous about really fighting someone because I don’t believe they would be that sluggish with swinging. When I go to the dojo, my sensei teaches me moves, but I don’t really get to see a REAL punch in the dojo. Me and my sensei never sparred. I am my sensei’s only student right now. As a purple belt, am I supposed to have been sparring and how can I know for sure that I will be able to see a punch coming?

My answer:
1. Don’t ever touch someone or get in range to touch someone, to talk to them. If you are touching them, assume it is on, and you are either in the process of locking them with a joint manipulation or have broken something in their body anatomically, or are in the process of putting him to the ground or out, with the help of the other bouncers on your team.

2. Logically, that also means you should never allow someone in range to touch or hit you. Always put your hand out to hold them back and prevent them from moving forward. This is the non-aggressive, defense you use when talking and you don’t want people to get close enough to attack you pre-emptively without you seeing it. If they are really trying to charge forward and body rush you, force your hand under their chin/jaw and make it go left or right. This tends to make people unbalanced and unable to attack effectively.

3. If you want to see punches, have someone throw punches at you, and you just stand there and observe. Best used when the person attacking has 100% control and can stop his punch 1 centimeter from the target (your face, body, neck, etc). This allows you to “see” the speed and flow of hand strikes, so your brain can more quickly recognize and react. Second step, would of course be to move your body to block. I favor a segmented training, however, where a person first focuses on their observation skills without the distraction of controlling their body. Then moving to controlling their body now that they can recognize what a strike looks like.

4. Body evasion such as stepping out of the center line of a person’s attacking force, or going into grappling distance, will effectively negate an enemy’s hand strikes.

5. Next time you see them on Saturday, make sure you have a team of bouncers ready to arm lock both the leader’s hands and arms, then just drag him out using either carrying force or more subtle joint locks. This can be done with 1 person, if he is good, or 2 or 3 bouncers working together on one person, while others body block the gang guy’s friends until gang leader is out the door and barred from entry. If he tries anything to get in, that’s when it is time to call the police .Then if things get violent, you can go all out and you have a record with the police to attest to your actions.

That’s how a proper strategy is developed: to foresee all circumstances and plan for the worst, not the best scenario.

Personally, I don’t need to see a punch coming to be safe. All I have to do is to stay out of range or get too close to the target. Or pre-empt violence by escalating or de-escalating the emotions of the persons involved. It is very easy, once you know what to look for, to understand what can set people off or what can calm them down. For example, in your story alone you’ve mentioned 4 things that were precursors to someone getting violent. 1. You touched his beer. 2. You were telling him what to do and thus it started getting personal. 3. You touched his arm. 4. Alcohol ingested.

Those 4 things when added up, spells out “high potential for anti-social expressions of violence”. It doesn’t matter whether you are right or he is right, since from his perspective those 4 things are “triggers”. All I have to do is to figure out how many triggers are present and I’ll be able to see who will or will not blow up. Then you just observe his body language and his body will not lie once he gets to a certain point emotionally. EDIT: Most people require an excuse to use violence. Even if they take a day or two to come up with one and come back tomorrow with a gun or knife against you, they had to have that excuse first. Remove the excuse and you remove the fuel for their use of violence. Dealing with serial killers and other higher caliber enemies, is something best reserved for battle and war strategy. What is most likely to kill or injure a doorman or security guard is something a lot lower level in terms of threat potential. That is what they need to train to deal with.

P.S. http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com has a good primer on these issues relating to interpersonal contact and behavior.

I thought this was an interesting look at the job from both an insider’s perspective as well as someone who only thinks of bouncing as a fighter’s role. The best bouncer is actually a good warrior and a greater diplomat.

Muv Luv Alternative Review

In reply to this post.

Alternative is really a test of how much your heart can withstand. Visual novels often seek to put you in the protagonist’s shoes and this one certainly does a great job of it given the amount of time they had to “educate” you, the reader.

Of course the ending is sad. But it’s also a testament to not giving into despair. I’ve already integrated most of the lessons Alternative had, but until you really accept in your heart what the various characters are saying, your emotions will not be moderated or balanced out.

For example, one of the most effective ways to fight despair at the loss of a loved one is to overcome it with positive emotions and memories. Pride in what they had achieved. The happy memories you shared with them. Such will provide the will to live on.

That’s the whole point of why fighter pilots and small unit infantry tell jokes when faced with death. Many people assume that they don’t take it seriously because they don’t care, but the opposite is true.

Leaders must radiate supreme confidence and optimism, regardless of what they believe or feel inside. That is part of the duty and responsibility of being given authority, for authority has its perks because it has its costs as well. Human emotion is infectious. If you start feeling sad, soon enough everyone around you will as well. And when it comes to fighting in battles and wars, that kind of thing will kill people. When they lack the will to live, when they stop caring, they will also stop caring about the mission. They won’t pay enough attention in combat to survive. They will get themselves killed. That’s why leaders project an optimistic and positive aura. To defeat despair before one can defeat the enemy.

To a commenter there: Check all torrent tracker sites as well as hongfire forums which posts torrents, file server links, and various other download sources.

Continuing on more issues with MLA.

As previously mentioned, I finished reading ML Extra/Unlimited and Ml Alternative. It’s a combination of many different things such as a thriller, science fiction, military war drama, romantic love triangles, and so on. When I say war drama I also mean a life and death drama: one that focuses on the meaning of life and death. A military war drama can be about the military or the war, but it doesn’t necessarily touch upon the concepts behind the meaning of living.

One of the things I’ve heard mentioned a lot is the dramatic dichotomy between chick flicks and movies suited more towards a male demographic. Unmarried single women under 30 in a career. Married women with a family. Teenagers and those in college. Demographics can tell much about a group trend, hence the whole importance placed on age and demographics in marketing. Insurance companies also charge teenagers (15 year olds) much greater premium rates. Regardless of the individual variance in your demographic, the demographic itself is a very accurate portrayal of what the group is trending towards. Thus chick flicks have lately become specialized only for certain demographic groups of women, to the point where it turns off any other demographic. This is, in fact, an indication of plagiarism, un-originality, and a degradation in artistic talent. True artistic talent allows dramatic moments to touch any human, regardless of barriers. That is true artistic skill. There can be no art without a human utilizing artistic skill. When I see movies that have skewed positive reactions amongst a certain demographic, yet the format and themes are so derivative and unbalanced, this is a sign that they are specializing not because they are good at making movies that appeal to women but because they need that kind of specialization to cover up their own incompetence.

That being said, ML Alternative is such a hybrid of so many different other things, which is in fact usual not unusual for the Japanese, that it becomes a stark contrast. In chick flicks, the focus is mostly on relationship issues and on guys apologizing. There’s no war to portray manly virtues or courage. There’s no external enemy or even competent rival. When the Japanese does love triangles, they make it as complex as humanly possible. Such things as two best friends falling in love with their childhood friend, while the childhood friend loves both girls, makes for interesting drama. There is more emotional bonds connecting all 3 together, so the pain or the joy becomes higher in nature. On the other hand, Hollywood does love triangles in a superficial sort of fashion. Either it’s a competition between boys and immature males or it’s a case of Pearl Harbor. There’s rivalry between friends, but they stop being friends for some reason when they compete against each other. There’s no such thing as a friendly competition or the old line “may the best man win”. Meaning much of Hollywood’s love triangles are backstabbing, deception orientated. Such negative emotions tend to affect everyone in a love triangle. It’s not as simple as conservatives prefer positive and happy relationships and LibProgs prefer backstabbing deceptions, but that’s how it tends to turn out given what I have read in America. I do not claim Japan is conservative by the measures Americans can judge, but the culture has several points of compatibility with American conservative culture.

To get back to the main point, Alternative has many things women and men would find captivating. Relationship difficulties are present. Victory and defeat in war are also present. I’ve watched the last Pearl Harbor movie out of Hollywood. Could have been worse. Doesn’t compare to Alternative. If Alternative is the sun, Pearl Harbor is a beach. Both are hot and shiny. What makes Alternative extremely appealing to many demographics is simply the skill with which it has produced the hybrid intermingling of different characters, themes, concepts, and events. Instead of feeling like a jumbled up puzzle, it is a very clear and comprehensive picture. Almost a visual illusion.

One core example I can give is this. Hollywood treats death as either a convenient plot point or as a convenient way to support the main characters. They do not and cannot do what Serenity or the Japanese do, which is bitter-sweet moments. Sanctifying the importance of life, yet serene in the acceptance of dying for something of great importance. That’s because those who value their lives the highest, have a hard time understanding why anyone else would risk theirs for abstract ideals. Patriotism, love of country, is taught as being a bad thing that leads to wars. Such is true especially in Germany and Japan. The Japanese love of tradition and family values has allowed them to retain much of their history in societal sub groups. Their history is replete with warfare and tragedies, thus they can draw much from it even though they lack modern day experience. Our Civil War happened only recently in the eyes of world history, and we aren’t even over it. Japan’s last great civil war happened in 1600 at the battle of Sekigahara. Americans have not had enough time to see things as they really were. And for wars fought in other countries, that is even harder to comprehend for the ordinary citizens of America. It is hard enough to attempt to understand your mortal enemy that speaks another language, but if they are all fighting thousands of miles away from your peaceful life, how much understanding can you really obtain given the normal disinterest civilians have in such affairs?

In an interesting state of affairs, the Japanese have better literature on the topic of war sacrifices and patriotism even though the US has a much higher institutional knowledge in patriotic parts of America and in the US military. Such is life, an infinite amount of contradictions.

Some here may have read David Weber and may recall me mentioning him. Weber does war drama quite well and goes to great lengths to attempt to portray human factions honestly and as they truly are. Instead of the cookie cutter, absolute black and white, portrayal of reality by Leftist ideologues.

This is why I laugh whenever Leftists say that we are parochial and mired in tradition and old ways. The Left is so bigoted, arrogant, and intolerant of other beliefs, so reactive, and so regressive that they don’t even have the right to call anyone else “traditional” to begin with. They have no such right. They have no power to generate such a right. They have nothing to deserve power or rights. All they can do is to beg other people to sacrifice for them. They don’t work. They don’t contribute to the community. They suck off of other people’s wealth. They damage the common good for selfish greed and arrogance. And yet they believe they should have rights?

Violence Peddlers of the Left (verbal)

In direct reply to this topic by Danny L.

I feel that, should they ever be given the power to act out what they verbalize, they would unleash great evil on humanity.-Danny

Putting on my “violence studies” ( like, you know, gender studies) hat to address this issue.

If they had the power, say give them a gun, they would still need the correct social justifications for them to use it.

Meaning, human beings require some kind of justification to do almost anything, but violent actions have an entirely different bar in terms of how strong a justification it requires.

For them to talk about doing it, all they need is a few things.

1. Social opprobrium (people around them not shunning them or treating them like cannibals or serial killers if they say it)

2. Some kind of internal or external reward for saying it.

For them to do it, they need a strong internal justification for why using violence is right. It can’t just be “they said it was right”. They have to believe it is right. In most cases, it has to be personal. From the saying “murder in cold blood”. The hot blood must run. The more extreme the violence, the more hot blood is required.

This is literally true. The blood is going to run warmer and you’ll be able to see it under their skin, if their skin is pale and the light is good.

Now, if your question is, would they not make good storm trooper materials since their peers would praise them and they would get paid to boot? Well, the thing is, here’s the little problem the Left has set up for itself.

The Left has generically, two faces. 1. The “Hope and CHange” face that makes itself look like mainstream America. Save the Children. Don’t let people die in the streets. You know, something akin to common decency and goodness. Except you know they have nothing to do with decency or goodness. You know that, but they don’t know that.

Then there’s the second face, that does know it, and still chooses to ally themselves with the Left. 2. The SS (social security) brigade, their political/spiritual leaders (Obama/Rev Wright), and their intellectual thinkers (Chomsky, he literally does the Left’s thinking for them). The Left started from an extremely top heavy structure in the old Communist funded wings and platforms. They’ve started branching out into more “grass roots” territory lately with the union expansions and what not. But socially, they are still very “top heavy”. The bottom cannon fodder don’t do things until they are told to do things. The “quickness” of Leftist propaganda to new events is heavily based upon the uniformity with which the orders are carried out by the underclass. The speed isn’t due to their having a de-centralized authority system in working order.

So, in order to “create a justification” for a Leftist to use violence, they are basically going to have to get rid of 1. Hope and Change entirely and go for 2. Evil without Limits. The issue is, most members of the Democrat party are in 1, not 2. And they have never even SEEN 2. They don’t believe TWO exists. For them to come up with a hot blooded reason to lunch Clarence Thompson and DO IT personally, they will have to accept that they are “bad” and start to take pride in it. This, to many Leftists, is like putting a six shooter to their head and playing Russian roulette.

This is where knowledge of actual violence comes in handy. In order to do violence, you need to think of only two things.

1. How to hurt the other person.

2. How to hurt the other person really fast.

That is it. Finito. You cannot be allowed to think of anything else or else you are not going to be able to conduct violence effectively given your available (or limited) resources.

The whole mental circle of “Clarence Thompson needs to die because….” is only required to make up enough justifications so that the person can, afterwards, say “he got what was coming to him”. During the violent act, that’s not really what’s going on in their heads. This is why a lot of goons, called muscles or whatever new age term there is that applies to them, aren’t known for “thinking”. They are known for busting in skulls with their hands, not thinking. Because most people who are good at physical violence, are very limited in what they think about in order to maximize the effectiveness of violence. It just became rather convenient for the low level thugs to be stupid at the same time. Better for their job and for the people ordering them around.

Why do you think there are no treatises written on violence, like there are thesis written on wars and politics and medicine? It’s because most of the people who are good at “doing violence” aren’t busy “thinking about it” and writing down their thoughts. Even in the military war college, you do not get such an influx of personal experience when it comes to H2H violence. Firearms and JDAMs violence, yes. Air to Air combat violence in OODA, yes. H2H or social violence, no. A lot of the LEO community’s “knowledge base” is passed on sort of like from master to apprentice (Traditional martial arts in Asia), rather than written down in a form and then passed on.

To get down to the point, these people in the video you see will only become violent under 2 conditions.

1. They come up with a personal justification why the use of violence is “right”, while not contradicting their whole “peace” or “hope” or “everybody else is evil but me” shtick. That takes intelligence, btw. Most dumbtards in the Democrat party can’t think that fast to delude themselves. You got to be smart, remember that, to delude yourself from any and all interaction with reality.

2. A cult orders them to do it under social rules and demands (as well as punishment if they don’t succeed or obey).

SEIU thugs fall into the Second category. While murderous, rampaging Leftists or crazies fall into the First Category. In order to fall into the first category, a Leftist has to have a personal motivation overriding their “social rules”. Given the over emphasis on “social rules” on the Left (they use SS for everything part of their philosophy. TO each according to their needs, from each according to their ability to be leeched), most members will find it particularly hard to come up with a reason for violence, especially murderous violence. This when it comes to them doing it personally, not approving the use of violence by others. Approving the use by violence is very easy. Sort of like approving a Hollywood director’s rapine campaign. So long as you didn’t do it and you don’t get slapped on the head for it, it’s okay from the Left’s point of view.

Number 2 is restricted by the US Constitution and, of course, America’s 2nd Amendment, backed up by 250 some odd million guns. Give or take a couple hundred million.

Great evil, from the LEft, happens. But not because of what you are worried about, Danny, that they would personally pick up arms and be able to defeat us. For one thing, they can’t defeat us man to man, on any fair contest or battlefield. For another thing, they got problems just picking up arms, let alone learning how to use them.

The Left reminds me of those snot nosed kids an associate of mine said kept going past the sparring rules set in the Jeet Kun Do training session he was participating in. On All 3 occasions my associate had to injure the 3 kids to get them to stop. First one, got hit in the solar plexus, never got back up, so they called in an ambulance. He didn’t come back to training for a couple of months after that. Second guy, knee injury, tore some I don’t remember what it was called ligament or something. Wasn’t seen in training for many months after that happened. He was medic vacced as well. The third guy, he received broken ribs from my associate. (probably the floating ribs or what they call the baby ribs. Lightest injury of all 3)

You see, all 3 of them were males in their early 20s or so, thought they were hot stuff cause they had like black belts in TKD or high belt colors in BJJ and thought they had “something to prove” in sparring. So they exceeded the limits that the spar set down, partially because their “skills” were lacking against my associate and they felt “embarrassed” to be performing so poorly in front of an audience against my associate (who had no belt rank at all). The peanut gallery comments about how the “black belt” sucked, of course, egged them on. So ignoring verbal warnings from my associate to stop (2/3), they were put down quickly as a result.

For those unfamiliar with sparring in TMA or MA, it’s not usually done at full power or speed. Full contact, full power, is usually only allowed when wearing armor and a full body suit. This was supposed to be a “light spar”, so they weren’t wearing vests or gloves. My associate’s background is of a Navy submariner. He went into security and was taught some CQC tricks from the SEALs. Nuclear submarines usually have very tight security vs a much more open situation on something like a carrier or destroyer. Nobody is allowed into the warhead or nuclear reactor, for example, that isn’t supposed to be there. Somebody could really blow up the sub that way if you just let anybody in that wanted to get in. Or could not employ lethal force if they tried to force their way in. Hence the CQC. No threat of blowing a hole through the submarine walls or causing a sonar echo, if you use H2H only to deal with security breaches. This “background” was unknown to the JKD trainers and trainees. Also, he had to do it “three times” cause he kept moving. His reputation didn’t follow him. So people kept trying him out whenever he moved somewhere new. Hence the THREE incidents, rather than one.

So, yes, the Left reminds me of the snot nosed punks who think they are hot stuff, but can’t bring it to the table when their cards are called. And that includes most of the people in Danny’s video.

On Conservative brains vs Liberal Progressive Smart Power

To explain Grim and BillT’s observation, the Left creates social and class constructs in order to foment disorder and chaos. Thus the rich become “evil” and thus a threat. But it’s not a real threat, meaning if you point a loaded gun at your head, it’s a real threat. It’s not a real threat if you take a paper airplane and point it at your head instead.

Rather than saying that liberals have less of an ability to recognize threats, thus they have lower true positives and lower false positives compared to conservatives that have a heightened perception of potential threats: the truer statement is that the Left disregard real physical dangers in place of imaginary, socially constructed ones, while conservatives focus a lot more on physical dangers and less on imaginary, socially constructed dangers.

This is consistent with both behavior from the Left and the Right. Christians don’t erupt in violence when you insult their religion. Leftists, erupt in violence all the time, especially when “marching for peace”. Islam is even more critical in this venue, as they erupt in violence, at anything. Islam reacts to everything strange as if it was a physical threat, employing massive violence and ruthlessness. Must have been a great help when conquering Persia and Arabia.

It’s why Republicans, who seem to recognize foreign dangers from North Korea or Iraq, act like they are buddy buddy with the likes of Robert Byrd, George Soros, Ted Kennedy, Obama, or the Clintons. They don’t treat their domestic insurgency as if they are real enemies, real threats, while they do treat foreign insurgencies as real threats.

I think both states of mind are unnatural. One should have a proper balance between taking care of social/anti-social threats and asocial threats. One should not disregard the social for the asocial or vice a versa.

The background discussion and scientific research available at the link on top.

Insightful Relationship Details

Now that’s interesting.

Husband Bashing

Is that like human hunting?

Proof that no person is an island unto themselves alone. Every action has a reaction. And every person can, through their action alone, mitigate or escalate a negative situation.

Round Up

And that brings us to the point of this … well wait, I must admit, where I got this idea from first … Dr. Kevin Menard and I were discussing the differences between how men and women think and he supplied me with this analogy. It had me laughing at its simplicity. And since that time, every male I have told it to has said “Yep.”

Ya know how women often accuse men of having one track minds? They’re right.

See as near as I can tell, women’s minds are like train stations. There are lots and lots of different tracks running off in all kinds of directions and running lots of different trains of thought. Also of note is the fact that a lot of trains are running at the same time on these various tracks.

Men, on the other hand, pretty much only have one set of tracks.

Now on the surface, this might make us look like morons (which face it, we can be). However — and this is what is the source of so much confusion to women — while men may only have one set of tracks, we have DIFFERENT trains.

These different trains run on those same tracks at different times. Add to this that how big, complex (i.e. how many cars and what they are carrying) also varies. If you’ve ever sat at a RR crossing and seen a single locomotive go by vs. waiting for a three mile long train to pass, you’ll understand this analogy.

And quite frankly, there are times that nothing is on the tracks. I know this is hard to believe ladies, but when you ask your man “What are you thinking” and he says “nothing” HE ISN’T LYING! There ain’t nuthing on the tracks at that moment. Or if it is, it’s one of those little two man lever-operated handcars.

Once you understand this idea, a great deal of the confusion of male behavior clears like fog being burned off by the sun. How can a man who is so sensitive and understanding one day be totally blind and oblivious the next? Simple, a different train is now occupying the tracks. How can a man be a total horndog one day and yet when he is watching the game (or involved in a conversation with his friends on a stupid topic) you could walk in naked and say ‘Do me now’ and he’ll say “Later baby” and return his attention to what he was doing?

Helloooo, different trains! While small individual locomotives can be easily diverted, the bigger ones won’t be. Yes, sex is a big train, but as we mature (and yes, we do, really) it isn’t the only train anymore. That’s why the walking in naked trick sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.

Let me take — if you’ll excuse the pun — a side track for a moment. I am a firm believer in the theory that if it weren’t for women, men would still be living in caves. (As in “I’m sick and tired of living in this cave, go out and build a civilization” “Yes dear.”) The reason I mention this is if you stop and think about it, this core difference between men and women is not only a critical survival attribute, but a complementary one as well. Ever notice, when too many factors are involved, nothing gets done? That is a potential weakness of multitrack thinking. It is male ability to blindly focus on one thing that overcomes huge obstacles. Granted it often makes him a shallow, insensitive and myopic jerk, but that is the weakness of the other way of thinking. So together these different ways of thinking really do compliment each other. As long as you both recognize the difference.

The interesting thing to note about this one track/different train idea is that different men have different trains as well. For example, I do not have a “football” train. This excludes me from a lot of male conversations. But, despite the fact that particular choo-choo doesn’t run down my tracks doesn’t mean I don’t recognize what a huge train it is for other men. And by huge, I mean the same detail, depth and knowledge on the subject as Mr. Hotwheels had (in case you hadn’t guessed his initial surliness was in expectation of his ‘big train’ being rejected by me). I tell you this because to a person who has a particularly large and complex train, there is NO such thing as “It’s just a …” on that particular subject. Nor is it stupid, no matter how uninterested you personally may be about the subject. Seemingly banal subjects reveal themselves to be incredibly involved, complicated and deep if you’re willing to investigate the subject. That’s why it is such a big train to the guy.

And here is where we get to the coping strategies of living with a man who has a train that is ‘just a…” subject to you. Going back to Dr. Menard, he told me about how his wife handles shooting … she takes her knitting. Now mind you she LIKES shooting. (BTW, they live in Texas). Standing on the range and blasting away is indeed a fun thing to do. However, what bores her to tears is the ook-ook-slobber-drool -goes-on-for-hours -about-minutia conversations that guys have about the subject when they aren’t actually blasting away. When that part starts, she pulls out her knitting because she knows that train is on the tracks for the men folk. And it is a big train for shooters.

Believe it or not, this tendency to run single tracks might have a basis in the evolutionary development of mankind. It is a pretty well established theory in anthropology that back in the caveman days the men were hunters the women were foragers. Whether your man hunts or not, this one track mind is very much a hunting attribute Ever seen a cat zero in on prey? When that mode kicks in, everything else falls away. Believe it or not, you can use this to your advantage. A bit of advice I got from a fellow by the name of Gary Smiley (who I prefer over John Grey) explains this hunter/forager idea in another way.

Let’s talk about ‘shopping.’ More specifically, how to keep your husband out of your hair while you are shopping. See shopping is basically a foraging expedition, a ‘this one isn’t quite right, maybe something else.’ Whereas most men’s attitude towards shopping is more hunting oriented. ‘Tag, bag it, drag it home’ to be more precise. To the common male mind, the idea of shopping drives him nuts. Foraging drives men nuts. That is until you turn it into a hunting expedition for him. The words “Honey, I’m looking for a blue blouse, find me one” will put him into liver quivering joy.

Zoom! He’s off on a hunting trip and he’ll bring one back.-No nonsense self-defense

Here’s an interesting quiz about one’s personal capacity for survival. The former something women find interesting but over a subject men usually find interesting.

A sort of omni post about Michael Yon. It doesn’t have the links to TC override or Blackfive posts during the same time period, but the comments are comprehensive.

A not so quick perusal of internet attention deficit disorder and the patience required for novels and Japanese visual novels. Well, just novels but doujin soft would also apply to the thesis.

War of the Sexes

First it was the Two Americas. Then it was race warfare. Then it was class warfare between the poor and the rich. Now we get to see gender conflict. Of course, it all started with one thing: Leftist Ideology.

Neutral in Bias more or less

http://www.city-journal.org/2008/18_4_darwinist_dating.html

Advocate for Men’s Rights and some have resentments against Women.

http://www.venusianarts.com/

the-misandry-bubble.html

how-game-secured-american-independence/

http://www.inmalafide.com/2009/10/06/eternal-solipsism-of-the-female-mind/

The Rebuttal

http://www.villainouscompany.com/vcblog/archives/2010/01/fact_checking_t.html

http://www.thedonovan.com/swwbo/2010/01/the-futurist-is-apparently-the.html

http://www.bookwormroom.com/2010/01/11/the-need-for-an-honest-21st-century-debate-about-abortion/

On a related note, there’s book’s narration of the abortion history.

There’s a lot to read, so skim the longer posts. You’ll get the tone right off.

Here’s some fire in the sky and ice on earth.

Psychological Warfare

Haven’t had the requisite inspiration to write anything worth posting here. But I have made some, perhaps, interesting comments on the topic of our day, dark as it is with Our Big Ass Mistake America in power.

First, a little comparison of therapy and non-therapy that Book was gracious enough to let me guest blog.

Then there is Book’s “How to Talk to a Liberal”, which addresses certain communication and propaganda methodologies to employ against our arch nemesis, the cannon fodder and true believer.

And as a bonus, here is a link courtesy of Neo-Neocon concerning a Berkley operator and stealth conservative and her travails amongst enemy territory.

Hope you enjoy. I am sure there will come a crisis soon enough that I cannot prevent myself from writing an analysis about here.