Great Week of Judo

On Monday at the Jiu-Jitsu School in Columbia Maryland where I train we had a Judo seminar with 2012 Olympic hopeful Nick Delpopolo and Jiu-Jitsu & Judo Black Belt Dan Simmler. The seminar centered around how Judo is applied to Jiu-Jitsu. We went over some very good throws and learned a lot about gripping. Over the past few days we have spent a lot of time drilling the techniques. I cant wait to put them to use in a tournament situation.
Nick's Judo was awesome. He is the top rated judo practitioner at his weight in the U.S. and rated 15 in the world. Below is a video of Nick winning Ippon of the day at the 2012 World Cup in Portugal.

that ain’t my America... or is it?

I often joke around with a few of the guys at the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school in Columbia Maryland were I train about who is to blame for things in the news that we don’t like. Usually us older guys say things to the younger guys like, “that ain’t my America”, “Don’t be mad this is the America you wanted” or “don’t blame me this is your America”. We are almost always joking and I rarely give much thought to the quotes. However occasionally I do encounter things that make me feel like the America I once knew is truly gone or at least fading. This Christmas Eve was on of those times.

On Christmas Eve I was driving with my family to visit my mother. To get into the Christmas spirit we decided to put on some Christmas music.

I went station by station until I finally found a song that sounded like a Christmas song. After listening to the words for a short time I realized that the song was actually an environmentalist song about how bad Christmas was. Saying things like how bad it was that we cut down trees to make cardboard Rudolph’s to put in our yards. I immediately changed the station and once again started the station-by-station search.

After going through many station I once again found what sounded like a Christmas song. Again I listed for a short time. The song started out saying nice things about Christians but then started talking about pagans. I was a little confused so I listened a bit longer. The gist of the song ended up being that Christians needed to be more sensitive to pagan views during Christmas. What the @$#%! At this point I was starting to get a little angry.

I continued once more through the channels. As I was looking for the music I starting to think that maybe I am getting old and out of touch with the new generation of Americans. Maybe this isn’t my America anymore. It was very depressing. Finally I reached another Christmas sounding song and literally only a few stations from where I started. I thought to myself “Please, please, please don’t be more liberal garbage on Christmas. I want to be happy!” The song that came on is below. I never heard this song before, nor is it the greatest thing in the world but it was just what I needed to get back in the Christmas Spirit!

I listened to Christmas music for the rest of the weekend on this station. It was a very nice holiday. I still didn't get to hear my favoit song (Oh Holy Night), although I did get listen to many classics and the entire family was happy!

Freedom!

Why are we so willing to allow the government to take are rights away?

Over the past year alone the federal government has been very aggressive in trying to limit our freedom. I have written several blogs about these issues. I have talked about the expansion of the “Obstructing a Police Investigation charge”, the new laws outlawing the video taping of police so no one can document their corruption, The Obama administrations attempt to read and confiscate private e-mail, and the regulations on what food we can and can’t eat. There have even been attacks on the toys in Happy Meals.

This administration has taken control over the auto industry and is fighting to mandate what heath care you buy.

We already have red light cameras everywhere and over the last year or so we have seen the rise of speed cameras. If you have ever been to Britain (where you do no have the right to privacy, or any rights for that matter) there are literally cameras everywhere. There, Big Brother is always watching and now he will be watching us a well.

When we go to the airport we get the option of letting them see us naked or having them feel us up. This has got to at least be a unreasonable search... right?

In more recent news there is a push by the feds to mandate blood test if you are suspected of drinking and driving. If the officer has no proof of a crime they say he should be able to force you to submit to a blood test to prove your innocence. Wow…

And now that the “Wikileaks” scandal has gotten all over the media you can rest assured that the feds will be placing heavy regulations on the internet.

The problem is that any one of these issues by themselves is not enough to get people mad. Also there is always a good face put on it weather its to make your life easier or to protect you from something. Big Brother only wants to take care of you! Politicians always use incrementalism when taking freedoms. If your rights are slightly taken away a little at a time there is no outrage.

It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.
- David Hume (1711-1776)

People often forget that the Boston Tea Party was over a small tax of a good less then our sales tax here in Maryland. Now we pay 30% of our income, an additional 6% sales tax, plus tariff taxes on many goods, gas taxes, property taxes, etc. The point being this did not happen all at once but slowly over time.

The loss of liberty is a very slippery slope and unless we are willing to stand up for our rights we will continue to slide down that slope right into a totalitarian regime. If we do not stand up for ourselves who will? This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.

In the beginning of a change the patriot is a scarce man and brave, and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. - Mark Twain

Recently I was talking to a very close friend of mine that I train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Columbia Maryland with. After discussion one of these issues, he started aggressively asking me questions about my thoughts on other issues like death penalty, abortion, etc. (maybe a topic for another blog). The thing is that I don’t know everything nor do I protest to but when I take a step back and look at all of the liberties the government has seized and/or is trying to seize it makes me very sad. Not just for my on freedoms but for the future of this county.

It seems like now days freedom is a foreign concept. I can only pray that they next generation wakes up. I will leave you with one last quote.

“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
- Francois Voltaire

FamLI

This past weekend was very exciting. I got to go down to Virginia to see one of my close friends and teammate, Jon Delbrugge, fight in his second MMA Fight.
It was total domination from the very beginning. Jon came into the fight 1-0 and was facing an opponent who was 2-0 with decent stand up. Jon took him down almost immediately and ground and pounded him with devastating blows for the knock out in less then two minutes

I have been training Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in Columbia Maryland with Jon for a couple of years now and it is amazing how close of a bond you develop with your teammates. When you train hard every day for a long period of time the people you train with become your family. I cannot describe how excited and happy I was for him.

McDonalds Still Under Siege!

Back in early July I posted a blog about a “Nanny State” liberal organization called the CSPI (The Center for Science in the Public Interest) called I'm Lovin' it. The CSPI threatened to sue McDonalds if they did not remove the toys from there Happy Meals. They were arguing that McDonalds shouldn’t be allowed to put toys in meals that are not healthy (healthy as deemed by them) because then their children would want to eat the unhealthy food. Look everyone knows that McDonalds isn’t the healthiest place to eat but it should be up to us what we and/or our children eat. Heaven forbid they have to say no to their children. McDonalds isn’t doing anything misleading by giving a toy.

When word of this reached the public there was a huge backlash in support of McDonalds. After this McDonalds’ CEO Jim Skinner sent a letter to the CSPI basically informing them that they would continue to include the toys and would fight them in court if they choose to do so. In light of McDonalds calling their bluff, the CSPI backed down. Or did they….

Now it would appear that the liberals have decided if they can’t beat McDonalds head on they use a back door. They have been spending a lot of money lobbying politicians to get the toys outlawed. Yes outlawed!!

Last week with an 8-3 vote the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a law banning toys to be given with Happy Meals. Mayor Gavin Newsom promised to veto this measure. However, if the 8-3 vote holds it will be enough to override his veto. They is expected to go into place in December 2011.

So it would seem that the new goal for the Nanny State wackos is get as many cities and towns to outlaw the toys as possible and then possibly a nation wide ban. What gives them the right to dictate to us what we eat? Allowing big brother to tell us what we can and can’t eat is a very dangerous and slippery slope. We cannot keep giving away our rights as individuals and parents.

For me personally I very rarely eat fast food. I train Brazilian Jiu-Jistu in Columbia Maryland and I am always watching my weight for tournaments. Because of this I know I can’t have a lot of fast food. However there are times when you are in a rush or traveling with the family and need to get some quick food at a low price. I see absolutely nothing wrong with getting fast food once in a while. It will not hurt you or make you obese to eat fast food one time and what is wrong with seeing your child’s face light up when they get a little toy. You can say that my family is the exception and that too many families eat it regularly but how is that anyone’s business but their own.

I know that many people look down on McDonalds and may not care about this but I guarantee that if we allow the government to regulate businesses in this manor it will only be a matter of time before more and more is taken away and who knows for what reason. There is already a large assault on personal freedoms from political correctness to smoking to snacks, trans-fats, salt, etc. What will be next and for what reason? You never really even know what the reason behind this is. Sometimes it’s an excuse to raise taxes and other times it might be a crazy vegetarian group much like a new report put out by the Nanny State liberal group PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) that list milk as a junk food. Yes that’s correct they listed Milk as a junk food! The PCRM is a front for a radical vegetarian group (not a Physicians group at all) bent on scaring people away from dairy.

The bottom line is that we must do more to take on personal responsibility and stop the over regulation by our government. If you don’t want your child to eat a happy meal don’t buy it. We can’t rely on the Nanny State to protect us from everything, even ourselves.

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety" - Benjamin Franklin

Personally I believe that the larger problem of obesity in America comes from lack of exercise but I should be careful saying that because they might mandate that next…

Big Brother is at it Again, Again!!

Obstructing a Police Investigation? Believe it or not this is actually a charge and it is being used to skirt the bill of rights. This is just another way Big Brother is trying to limit your rights and freedom.

In resent years we have witnessed time and time again people being arrested for crimes and then going to jail for obstructing an investigation rather then what they were arrested for in the first place. Most notably Martha Stewart, no she was not convicted of insider trading, and Scooter Libby, no he did not leak the name of a secret agent (that was actually a democrat named Richard Armitage who was never charged with anything). In Martha’s case she was charged and convicted of lying to the investigator. I am not sure what she lied about exactly but it obviously had nothing to do with insider trading since she was found innocent of that. Libby’s case on the other hand was a little more public. The worst part about Libby’s situations was he was forced to testify by a Grand Jury which is fact finding and you are not afforded 5^th amendment protections (you must answer although you can say you don’t recall). When he missed stated a date of a phone call he made a year before he was charged for lying and trying to mislead the investigation. During the investigation Richard Armitage admitted to being the leak but for some reason the grand jury proceeded.

The reason for bringing this up is I was talking to a good friend of mine that I train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu with in Columbia Maryland, Dave Zwanetz. He is a criminal defense attorney and today he had a client come into his office with one of the most egregious abuses of power I have heard of in recent times by a police officer. This is even worse then the motorcyclist being arrested for video taping a traffic stop (as talked about in my blog back in July Big Brother is at it again!) Dave makes a lot of videos to help inform the public of their rights and here is the one he started for this incident.

I cannot believe that this happened and can only hope that Dave’s client sues the crap out of this officer once the case is thrown out. Or even better I hope that this leads to the officer being fired for his criminal abuse of power. This needs to be fought all the way. If we let one officer get away with this what will stop others from doing the same!

“Well the election didn’t go that well for me here in Maryland but nation wide we did pretty well. We took the house...” was the response I gave when my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor asked me about the election results at my Mixed Martial Arts School in Columbia Maryland. He then asked, “Why do you say WE when the republicans do well, when you say you are a Libertarian?”

The simple fact of the matter is that when I say we I mean we as a nation, including my instructor who is neither a Republican nor Libertarian. It is no secret that I am a conservative Libertarian. So from my prospective the closer the country pulls to those views the better for everyone.

On the ballot in my district there were only two Libertarians both of which I voted for and both of which lost. I do vote for a lot of Republicans but that’s usually only when the alternative is the Fascist that call themselves Democrats or when they are more like a Libertarian then a Republican. I have even been known to vote for the constitutional party as well (which I did and he also lost. lol). However nation wide a lot of libertarians and Libertarianesque Republicans won. A lot of new school small government Libertarianesque republicans also took seats in the house (Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Ken Buck, & Ron Johnson to name a few).

For this election even if no small government Republicans had been elected it still would have been good for all Americans. Currently the Democrats have been running amuck in DC. Controlling both houses and the presidency is never good (just look at the Bush years). There needs to be checks and balances. One party cannot be in total control.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.” John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834-1902)

If we can get gridlock in DC it would be a very good thing for everyone. The only fear is if the two parties start working together. There is an old saying that I am not exactly sure of its origin but supposedly was told by a republican staffer to a group of Russian legislators.

“In America, we have a two-party system. There is the stupid party and there is the evil party. I am proud to be a member of the stupid party. Periodically, the two parties get together and do something that is both stupid and evil. This is called bipartisanship.”

So yes we did do well nation wide, at least seemingly so. Only time will tell. But… no my political party did not…