Kick Target above Ankle for Self Defense

I believe low kicks are safer than high kicks. Also, they're easier for those of us who do not train as often as we should.

That's why I was interested in the following tip I received in an email from Jeff Anderson of ISQC:

I was talking a little while back with Russell Stutely, Europe's   
leading expert on "pressure points" for street fighting.

I asked him, "What's the #1 spot on the human body you'd hit if 
you wanted to take out a larger, stronger attacker?"

Russell's response was...

     "There's a 'secret pressure point' on the inside of each 
     leg, just a few inches above the ankle bone.

     Stomp on that spot and it will bring ANY man to the ground, 
     screaming in pain."

I was shocked that something so simple could be so devastating!

But I took my boot and lightly struck myself there.  The response   
made me shudder at the thought of someone really nailing me there   
with their foot!

Bottom line...memorize this spot!


I tend to shy away from sweeping generalizations about bringing "any man to the ground in screaming pain. There are always exceptions. 


Nevertheless . . . an ultra-low kick to a painful target . . . sounds good to me.

The Warfare State

If you have an economy designed to run on warfare, you need a war. You can't have a war without an enemy, and you can't have a proper enemy unless he is armed.

The following quote comes from "Obama Arming Al Qaeda?" in the American Spectator:

White House sources confirm that in the run up to the decision to involve U.S. military personnel, President Obama was fully briefed that a large portion of the Libyan rebel forces most active in areas around such critical cities as Benghazi had ties to al Qaeda, particularly Al Qaeda in Iraq, the wing of the terrorist group that killed hundreds of U.S. troops in Iraq. 

"He was warned that should we reach a point where NATO needs to re-arm the rebels -- it appears that time is coming now -- we will be arming the very enemy that we have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan," says a career employee at the State Department. "Secretary Clinton knows it, the White House knows it, but we're working with these thugs anyway because the President thinks it's the moral thing to do in the face of Gaddafi."

The U.S. for decades supported and armed Saddaam Hussein's regime in Iraq. It's always handy to arm your allies, because some day you may need them as enemies -- fodder for the warfare state.

We Are Soldiers of King Jesus

My wife sent me the words to this song. It's one of those simple, yet melodious gospel tunes that come from the Moody/Sankey era.

Ada Blenkhorn wrote the words in 1900, and H.N. Lindsay composed the tune. Here are the words:

We are soldiers of King Jesus,
Clad in armor bright;
And we follow where He leads us,
Fighting for the right.

Refrain

Marching, marching ever onward,
’Neath His banner so bright,
We are soldiers of King Jesus,
Fighting for the right.

We are soldiers of King Jesus,
He’s our Captain true,
And whatever He shall bid us,
We will gladly do.

Refrain

We are soldiers of King Jesus,
We’re a loyal band;
We are bold, and brave, and fearless,
True to His command.

Refrain

We are soldiers of King Jesus;
Tho’ the fight be long,
We shall share the victor’s triumph,
Sing the victor’s song.

Refrain

The Day after Tomorrow Will Be Better

My soul has had her dwelling too long with him who hates peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. (Psalm 120:6-7)

Hitler's hate-filled attacks on Czechoslovakia became more frequent and wounding. Something unpleasant was in the air, but the consensus was that it would never become a true danger. It was hard for peaceful, moderate people to grasp the concrete implications of the thoughts and words of a man like Hitler, whose whole outlook was so different from their own. (Zdena Kapral, Tomorrow Will Be Better, p. 43.)

In a previous post, I have quoted Zdena Kapral's book, Tomorrow Will Be Better, which details her family's suffering and surviving WWII in Czechoslovakia. My wife supplied that quote, but since then, I've started to read the book for myself.

It's one of those books such that, if you don't see a multitude of analogies and applications to the present day situation -- and I'm only 50 pages into its 400 plus pages --, you're either a head-in-sand ostrich or just plain clueless. Assuming you're neither hiding from the truth nor blinded by an evil eye (Matthew 6:22-23), let me point out a self-defense application to the quote above.

Pre-WWII Czechs found themselves in the same position that many potential victims of violence face. They were going along minding their own business, pursuing peace, tranquility and prosperity, when suddenly they became aware of a threatening presence.

I have dealt with the types of threats in a series of posts on confrontational types: the true orc; the raging bull; the big deal; the bantam rooster and the psychopath. Appeasement works with only one of these types. (If you don't remember which one, you probably need to review the whole series.)

Which type or types was Hitler? I'll let you decide. In fact, I hope you'll consider this an exercise in discernment and drawing inferences. Once you decide, please share your conclusions in the comments section.

Church Security: Armed? Licensed?

Sad that the state considers it necessary to license and regulate the protection of innocent lives. In most jurisdictions, you dare not do it -- under penalty of law -- without official sanction.

My barber sent me the link to this thread on the Sigarms discussion forum:

Church Security

In the Barber's Chair: The Model 1911

I have decided to inaugurate an occasional series of posts featuring the wit, wisdom and advice of my barber. I'm calling the series, "In the Barber's Chair."

My barber posted the following on a gun forum in response to the question, "Why do people like the 1911?"

The one uncle sugar issued me got me out of a couple tough scrapes. The one I bought when I got out kept me warm on a lot of cold,dark nights while on uniform patrol. Now that I'm a barber,we spend time together as old,trusted firends. Like me,it's not new,pretty,or cool. Like me,it is old,heavy,has lots of wear marks,and is rock-solid dependable,and most young people don't understand either one of us!

Harry Enfield: Brit Self Defence Video

One of my sons-in-law (not son-in-laws, please) sent me the link to this English self defence video by Harry Enfield.

Warning: Any attempt to use these methods in an actual violent encounter could result in serious injury -- your own. ;-)


Perhaps they were poking fun at "real" self defense videos that present such complex techniques so carefully choreographed.

Tactical Triads

And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

The book Patriots by James Wesley Rawles provides a handbook for surviving TEOTWAWKI in story form. Rawles writes as a Christian, and his novel explores the perils and preparations involved in making it through "the coming collapse" of the economy and social structure.

Near the end of the book, he describes a way an insurgent force might organize itself.

Rather than traditional squads and platoons, the Keane Team was organized into something they called "Thomas Triads." These were mini-squads of three guerrillas each. The philosophy behind the triads was that three men was the minimum number that could be combat effective.

A three-member guerrilla team did not present a signature that was easily spotted, except in the most open terrain. A single triad was used for reconnaissance or sabotage patrols. Two to four triads could be combined to conduct an ambush. Three to twelve triads could be combined for a raid.

Ina defensive mode, or in "laager," one member of the triad was on "guard" while the second was on "sleep," and the third was on "support" -- tending to cooking, fetching water, and/or gathering edibles. Every eight hours thye roles rotated. Thus, each triad provided for its own security, and, depending on circumstances, its own sustenance.

The rule of thumb was: if more than five triads had to be combined for an operation, it was verging on conventional warfare, and that immediately following the operation, it was time to displace, disperse, and go back to low-echelon guerrilla tactics. The guerrillas spoke with dread about "going conventional." . . . . 

The origin of Thomas Triad organization was forgotten. Keane explained "It's just what we were taught by another group. I don't know who the 'Mr. Thomas' who dreamed this up was, but it works. . . . " (Page 373)

I've tried Googling "Thomas Triads" and "tactical triads" with no relevant results. If the name or the concept appears anywhere outside Rawles' novel, I'm not aware.

Actually, that's not quite accurate. It seems the triad concept existed as an organizational principle among David's mighty men. I have previously written about "3 Mighty Men, 1 Daring Deed," although at the time, I did not think of the three in terms of tactical triad organization.

Within the list of David's mighty men in II Samuel 23, you find the first three listed and then their daring deed. Then, in subsequent verses we find evidence that the mighty men -- also known as the 30 -- were organized in teams of three.

And Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, was chief among three. And he lifted up his spear against three hundred, and slew them, and had the name among three. Was he not most honourable of three? therefore he was their captain: howbeit he attained not unto the first three. (2Samuel 23:18-19)

The list of David's mighty men actually contains thirty-seven names, which should not present a problem, as David would probably admit worthy candidates into the elite group if a member died or became otherwise unavailable to serve in his respective tactical unit. For example, when David promoted Benaiah to head his personal guard (the Cherethites), someone would have to take his place within the 30 to maintain troop strength.

Range Report from a Daughter

I received an email from one of my daughters telling me about how she performed on her latest trip to the range. It was the second paragraph that made me smile.

 We did some shooting last Saturday, and I was pleased to discover that I did better with both handgun and shotgun (clay pigeon shooting) than I remembered doing before. . . . [Details about her shooting scores] . . .  but it's a decent place to start improving from, I think.

 I also picked up some spent shells that I'm going to experiment with making earrings out of. The .22 shells are a nice size for that, but I think the nickel plated .38 shells would go better with my skin tone. :-)

Daughters can be so cool.

Flashlights Meet Flash Gordon?

When I was a youngster, one of my favorite Saturday morning shows was Space Patrol. I also loved to watch the old movie Saturday matinee serial broadcasts of Flash Gordon with Buster Crabbe in the title role.

When I was about six, I got a Flash Gordon T-shirt and a "ray gun" -- this was back before space guys discovered lasers -- for my birthday. The ray gun amounted to a flashlight with a pistol grip and trigger/switch. It was so cool!

How much cooler would it have been, if the Wicked Laser people had been around and built the ray gun around their 4100 lumen Torch? Their flashlight actually sets stuff on fire.

No idea how long a single charge of the battery lasts or the average life of the 100 watt halogen bulb, or how hot the head & body of the light get -- all important issues if you're going to sink $100 into a piece of gear. But if I'd had ray gun like that when I was a kid, I might have conquered Mars (after taking over my neighborhood).



Thanks to my barber for sending me the link to this.

Coram Deo

The following message by R.C. Sproul talks about living Coram Deo (before the face of God). He could scarcely address the spiritual essentials of Christian Martialism any better, even if he were to speak at a WARSKYL convention.

Here's the link:

The Goal of Christian Living

Let Tyrants Shake Their Iron Rods

My wife Laura sent me the words to the following song which comes from the era of the American War of Independence. According to Cyberhymnal,

This hymn is of in­ter­est be­cause of its his­tor­i­cal back­ground. Known as the “Bat­tle Hymn of the Re­vo­lution”:

[It] was al­most as fa­mous in its day as the “Bat­tle Hymn of the Re­pub­lic” at a lat­er time. Ev­ery­where, in church and home, by the child­ren and the ag­ed, these words were sung with pas­sion­ate fer­vor. The sol­diers knew them by heart, and to the sound of fife and drum they sang them as they adv­anced to meet the foe. This Bat­tle Hymn con­trib­ut­ed not a lit­tle to the win­ning of the Re­vo­lu­tion­ary War.

Smith, pp. 250-1

It is sung to the hymn tune Chester.

Let tyrants shake their iron rods,
And slavery clank her galling chains:
We see them not; we trust in God:
New England’s God forever reigns.

The Book of Eli: A Review

Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) (2 Corinthians 5:6-7)

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. (2 Corinthians 3:3)

My own DVD copy of The Book of Eli arrived in the mail a couple of weeks ago. I watched it (for the third time), and several previously unnoticed nuances came into focus. One of the marks of a classic is that  every time you go back through it, you see something new (or see something old in a new perspective).

Review:

I first watched the action drama The Book of Eli at my pastor's recommendation. He told me that the Bible was the Book referred to in the title. That's not really a spoiler, because you find it out pretty early in the film.

In the story, Eli is a man with a mission. He lives in a post-apocalyptic America and owns the last extant copy of Scripture, which he protects with a sawed-off Remington 870 and a razor sharp machete.

He has carried his copy of Scripture and read it daily for 30 years as he has carried it westward in accordance with his prophetic calling. As a steward of Holy Writ, he fulfills the roles of  both prophet and warrior.

The film's major point of conflict revolves around Eli's mission vs. the ambitions of another character named Carnegie, who sees the Bible as a means to consolidate and expand power. One of the special features on my DVD relates the background info that before TEOTWAWKI, Carnegie grew up in a home where his parents fell prey to manipulative televangelists and sent off checks they could ill afford to support the glitzy lifestyle of those false teachers.

Thus, he sees the Book as a means to achieving his own goals at the expense of others. Eli, on the other hand, 

 takes the message of Scripture to heart: he walks by faith, and does more for others than for himself.

Gary North has written about the three approaches to religion:

1. Escapist religion -- found in many evangelical churches today (probably what Marx had in mind when he called religion the opiate of the people);
2. Power religion -- not only Islam, but also "Christian" power religionists who exploit the Escapist religion sheeple;
3. Dominion religion -- the true message of Scripture, that God redeems men from sin and sets them to the task of bringing society and the physical realm into subjection to Christ the King.

So a major part of the action and drama depict the conflict between the demagogue who would use the Bible to enslave the people and the prophet who would set them free to exercise dominion over their own lives. As a plus, the movie has no nudity, no depicted sexual activity, and not as much foul language as many movies today.

At this point, I must mention that the film's title has deeper meaning than simply the Book that Eli carries, but to say more would involve major spoilers, so if you haven't  yet watched it, you may want to stop here.

Major Spoiler Alert !!

*****************

*****************

Near the end of the movie, after Eli loses his copy of the Bible to Carnegie, he arrives at his destination -- a museum and archive of pre-apocalyptic knowledge and wisdom. The one major work they lack is a Bible.

It is then that you discover that in thirty years of daily reading and study, Eli has committed the whole of Scripture to memory -- book, chapter and verse -- from Genesis to Revelation. He carefully and deliberately dictates it word for word to the curator of the archive.

So, on one level the Book of Eli is the copy of Scripture that he carried with him for 30 years. On another level, Eli himself is the Book, for he has committed it wholly to memory.

But Eli is also himself the Book in another sense. His life has revolved around his calling and mission, so that you see the message in his actions as well as his words. I believe it is that fundamental integrity that caused Solara to pick up his mantle and carry a copy of Scripture back to her people.

I don't know what the writers and producers had in mind when they made this movie, but I find in it the essence of what it means to be a Christian Martialist: A man with a sacrificial calling and mission who immerses his life and thought in the very words of God found in Holy Scripture.

They Don't Give Guns to Slaves

Now there was no smith found throughout all the land of Israel: for the Philistines said, Lest the Hebrews make them swords or spears: But all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, to sharpen every man his share, and his coulter, and his axe, and his mattock. Yet they had a file for the mattocks, and for the coulters, and for the forks, and for the axes, and to sharpen the goads. So it came to pass in the day of battle, that there was neither sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people . . . .  (1Sa 13:19-22)

The original Magnificent Seven movie has it all over the pilot to the 1997 TV series. The TV version drops the Mexican bandits and replaces them with Confederate holdouts. Politically correct slop!

Nevertheless, there is one part in the remake that I think bears watching. Here it is:


The right to keep and bear arms stands as a distinguishing mark of a freeman.

Christian, Dost Thou See Them?

The Seventh Century (A.D. 600's) saw the rise of Islam and the beginning of its bloody conquest of the Christian Middle East and North Africa. Andrew of Crete (660-732) served the Church in Jerusalem, Constantinople and Crete during the stormy days of Islam's bloody rise.

That background should help you see the significance of Andrew's hymn, Christian, Dost Thou See Them? In it, he clearly identifies the demonic influence that lies at the core of Mohamed's  false religion.

John M. Neale translated the hymn into English in 1862, and John B. Dykes composed the tune, St. Andrew of Crete in 1868. (Thanks to my wife Laura for sending me the words to this great & ancient hymn.)

Christian, dost thou see them on the holy ground,
How the powers of darkness rage thy steps around?
Christian, up and smite them, counting gain but loss,
In the strength that cometh by the holy cross.

Christian, dost thou feel them, how they work within,
Striving, tempting, luring, goading into sin?
Christian, never tremble; never be downcast;
Gird thee for the battle, watch and pray and fast.

Christian, dost thou hear them, how they speak thee fair?
“Always fast and vigil? Always watch and prayer?”
Christian, answer boldly: “While I breathe I pray!”
Peace shall follow battle, night shall end in day.

“Well I know thy trouble, O my servant true;

Thou art very weary, I was weary, too;

But that toil shall make thee some day all Mine own,

At the end of sorrow shall be near my throne.”

If you need some motivation to sing this hymn from the heart, try reading this article:


The Muslim Brotherhood in America

Point Shooting, WWII Style

I have the video below on VHS, but have never been able to find it online -- until now. Thanks to my barber for sending me the link.

The point shooting method taught comes essentially from the Fairbairn method as found in Shooting to Live.

Letter to the Heathen

As quoted at the Christ Church, Moscow Idaho website:

Dear Heathen:
The Lord Jesus Christ hath promised that the time shall come when all the ends of the earth shall be His kingdom. And God is not a man that He should lie nor the son of man that He should repent. And if this was promised by a Being who cannot lie, why do you not help it to come sooner by reading the Bible, and attending to the words of your teachers, and loving God, and, renouncing your idols, take Christianity into your temples? And soon there will not be a Nation, no, not a space of ground as large as a footstep, that will want a missionary. My sister and myself have, by small self-denials, procured two dollars which are enclosed in this letter to buy tracts and Bibles to teach you.
Archibald Alexander Hodge, and Mary Eliz. Hodge, Friends of the Heathen.
(June 23, 1833. A letter to the "heathen" from ten-year-old A.A. Hodge and his sister Mary Elizabeth, given to J.R. Eckard, a Princeton Seminary graduate who was to go to Ceylon. Quoted in Princeton Seminary: Faith and learning 1812-1868, v. 1, p. 193).

When the Hodge children wrote this, they were not thinking of America. Today it applies here and to Europe as well as to Africa and the East (Middle and Far). Thanks to my wife for sending me the link.

Impromptu Test for Christian Martialists

A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. (Proverbs 22:3)

It's Saturday, and you're probably reading this at home. I'm sitting at home in front of the computer, and I'm thinking about preparedness for self/home defense.

Here's a little checklist to test your awareness and state of readiness (and mine!) right now.

1. Mindset: Did you start your day with prayer or a devotional time? Is your conscience clear before God & your loved one(s)/neighbor(s)? (A heart right before God is foundational to everything else the Christian Martialist is and does.)
2. Awareness: Who is in your house right now? Family members, visitors (hopefully not intruders)? Do you know where they are? Living room, kitchen, front yard, back yard, etc.? 
3. Physical readiness: How do you feel? Awake or Tired? Energetic or Listless? Strong or Weak? Loose or Tight? (Your answer here may indicate a need to address your sleep, nutritional or exercise patterns.)
4. Logistic readiness: Do you own a weapon? How accessible is it right now? Within an arm's length? If there are youngsters or visitors in your home, how secure is that weapon from tampering and potential tragedy? 

Clearing Your Home -- Video

On more than one occasion, we have come home and noticed something that didn't seem right. It was my responsibility to go through the house and make sure each room was clear.

It may not be rocket science, but it does require presence of mind and logical progression. Below is a video on the topic.

The video comes from Ruger, and although I have not always agreed with the company's political agenda, I thought you might like to see this.