The Other Name for Krav Maga?

Thanks to my barber for this one!

Woman Tells Legislators Purpose of 2nd Amendment

RPC sent me the link to this video last week. I see that it's also posted over at "Iron at 500" as well.

Very few men would have the testosterone to sit before public officials and lay it on the line as Suzanna Gratia-Hupp did. May her tribe increase, and may our civil authorities get the message.

Beware the Food Police

In my post, "The Food Riots of 2009?", I dealt with the advisability of having an emergency food supply, in case disruptions occur in production or channels of distribution.

After what happened last week, I feel a need to warn you to be discreet in any preparations you may make. There are bureaucrats out there who would like to control every bite of food you put in your mouth.

The incident-in-question took place in rural Ohio, where a SWAT team descended on a homeschool family that operates a food co-op. An op ed article by Paul Mulshine tells what happened:

On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized.

Police seized their records, two computers, over $10,000 worth of co-op food, and their personal food supply for the coming year.

The issue may be over whether or not a co-op needs a retail license, or it may have been over a small amount of non-institutional meat found in a freezer at Oberlin College. And, of course, the proper response to these technical infractions in the minds of bureaucrats is a full-blown SWAT raid.

The storm troopers did not inform the family of what crimes they were charged with, nor have any charges been brought yet, as far as I know. The police are evidently acting under provisions of homeland security that allows them to detain suspected terrorists with no fourth- amendment restrictions.

In point of fact, who are the terrorists, here? We know well that the Hitlers, Stalins and Maos of the world routinely used terror to gain compliance to their regimes. It has begun under "Christian, conservative," Republican GW Bush. What lies ahead under President-elect Obama?

Read more about the food co-op raid here and here.

Gary North has said, "Keep your convictions visible and your assets hidden." Good advice, perhaps, in these times.

There is more info on this topic in the post "Food Riots and Food Police Update"

James Cagney Does Judo

Hope you enjoy this.

It's a Hollywood fight scene from "Blood on the Sun" that goes on much longer than a real one would. (That hasn't changed, has it?) It's interesting to see screen legend James Cagney & opponent using real judo (or jujitsu) moves, though. Great fun, & thanks to my barber for sending me the link.

Did you notice the use of the judo chop (edge of hand blow) by both actors?

Defining Terms, 3

Continued from "Defining Terms, 2"

The second influence on me in molding my concept of Christian Martialism is a lifelong interest in the combat arts. Guns, martial arts, hand-to-hand combat.

As a child, I was looking for a magic bullet to protect me from bullies. As I became older, I was impelled to look for how these things fit together with my faith. Did the Word of God speak to these issues?

I did not begin formal training in the martial arts until I was 48 years old. By this time, I had the perspective to examine the philosophy behind the practices common to both the Eastern arts as well as the practices of their Americanized permutations. (See "Martial Art as Way")

At this time I also began to look for the simplest, most effective skills for defense and combat. These have become the core of WARSKYL. But more on that, later.

Continued in "Defining Terms, 4"

Defining Terms, 2

Continued from "Defining Terms"

My concept of Christian Martialism comes from at least three influences in my life. First, I have for much of my adult life had loose connections with the patriot movement.

The patriot movement is a very broad agglomeration of organizations and individuals that includes tax rebels, conspiracy theorists, survivalists and militia groups. There is just enough truth in some parts of the movement to be interesting, but enough racism and just plain weirdness to discredit any valid information you might find there.

You hear the term Christian patriot bandied about in these circles, but a lot of that "Christianity" would seem rather strange and foreign to Bible believers.

In the late 1980's (or early 1990's), I attended some "patriot meetings" where various people took turns presenting their theories & ideas (black helicopters and Chinese troops training in the USA were hot topics at the time). It gave me the idea of holding Puritan meetings at the small, rural church where I was pastor.

Here, we would discuss some of the issues that drew people into the patriot movement, but we would do so from a strictly Scriptural perspective. No UFOs or aliens, no humanism in populist garb, no claims based on "secret" or unknown sources.

I called them "Puritan meetings" because I intended them to help others see the world's conflicts and problems from the worldview perspective that arose out of the Protestant Reformation. They did not last long, for they attracted one particular patriot-movement man who tried to hi-jack the meetings for his own purposes.

The meetings stopped, but the idea of a coalition of Christian men looking for Biblical ideas and explanations as alternatives to the Establishment line stuck with me.

Continued in "Defining Terms, 3"

Defining Terms

It occurs to me that there may be those who recently became readers for whom it would be beneficial if I defined some basic terms that I use here on the blog. So, let's talk organization, philosophy & lifestyle, and skills.

In my last post I talked about my dream of a Cherethite Order. If it existed, it would be the organizational expression of Christian Martialism and of WARSKYL.

Christian Martialism is a philosophy and a lifestyle. It is my understanding of the motives, values and beliefs of the warrior who submits to the authority and discipline of Jesus. Christ is the great warrior King who has definitively vanquished evil and who will press that victory until every knee bows and every tongue confesses Him as Lord.

Christian Martialists, then, are men in training "for the King and by the Book." There are Christian martialists (lower case "m") who are not Christian Martialists (upper case "M"). I'm talking about Christian men who know they are warriors and who prepare themselves to protect the weak, even though they may never have read this blog.

Many of you, I'm sure, fall into that category. Then, after reading this blog awhile, you find that your beliefs and values are in accord with what you read. You realize that you are part of something larger than yourselves. You are not my followers; you are my brothers and fellow-warriors.

You have become (capitalized) Christian Martialists.

Continued in "Defining Terms, 2".