Danielmedley.com

Friday, October 24, 2008

Pushing For Level 2

Next Saturday I’ll be testing for level 2 in Krav Maga. I’ve been trying to go as much as possible in preparation and it’s been kicking my ass which is what it’s supposed to do. Last night we were working on some ground techniques; the kind of thing you might employ if someone has you down on your back, on top of you, and pummeling the shit out of you. We were doing some arm trap techniques—trapping the arm, rolling them over, pound them in the nuts a couple of times and escape. As a result, my shoulders and arms are sore.

The ground stuff in Krav is pretty basic. Against a real good grappler—ground fighter you’d probably be in a world of hurt, but most people aren’t experienced ground fighters. Your average attacker, if he does get you on the ground would be play meat to a knowledgeable Krav practitioner.

A couple of months ago I had surgery on my left elbow and I was forced to take a few weeks off. Just before the surgery I was in decent shape considering the atrocious condition I was in before I began taking Krav on a regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t some overweight couch potato, but I was just not in good shape. When I came back after recuperating from the surgery I thought I was going to die. The first two weeks back I was puking my guts out every time I worked out. However, the last two weeks I haven’t tossed my guts yet. I did come close last night though.

Anyway, it’ll be good to get the level 2 out of the way. Then the fun really begins.

Going Political

Like I’ve said before, I’m hesitant to get political on this blog because of experiences on another site I used to have. People have a tendency to get out of hand. But to hell with it, I’m going to go political. You are welcome to comment as long as it’s not stupidity. If you want to have an intellectually honest discussion, go for it in the comments. But if—when—the comments go stupid, I’ll simply not let them be posted.

I remember, growing up, the old adage of never discussing politics or religion. I’ll agree with the religion aspect because discussing something based solely on faith and belief is a losing proposition. However, as far as politics are concerned, there is no reason why they can’t be discussed. The only people who will get offended are those who refuse to participate in an intellectually honest discussion and those kinds of people usually have other motives in mind. In fact, I believe that politics should be openly discussed and during that discussion, the participants should be willing to change their minds in the face of facts and historical precedent. There have been many times that I’ve altered long held beliefs in the face of a well reasoned, intellectually honest discussion. Changing beliefs does not change the facts and in matters of politics and culture, “beliefs” should play a small role in lieu of empirical, historical facts. 

Sure, to cast aside any form of “gut feeling” or belief would be superhuman, but to let blind ideology stand in the way of reason does no good for anyone or any culture. I believe that any belief that we hold should be willingly held up to scrutiny and that willingness to let it go, no matter how dear we hold it—belief that is—is simply intellectual honesty.

To be sure, this blog is mostly centered on writing, but dammit, sometimes I just gotta vent!

A Campaign Like No Other

Okay, history is replete with shenanigans from both sides of the political spectrum, but this time around it seems to be most evident in Obama’s camp.

It turns out that half of Obama’s haul in 2008 has come in contributions of $200 dollars or less. These small donations do not require public disclosure under FEC guidelines, and the Obama campaign refuses to make public its list of contributors. Obama earlier announced he’d accept public financing if the GOP nominee did the same (and then, of course, broke his pledge in June after realizing he’d far surpass previous fundraising records). So there’s a pattern. By keeping his donor list secret now, the Illinois senator has heightened speculation of financial impropriety.

What strikes me is that the media can go all gaga over Sarah Palin’s wardrobe, yet not even pose a rudimentary question as far as Barack Obama’s questionable campaign contributions.

I mean, this kind of thing is alarming.

the Obama campaign refuses to screen credit card contributions for potential fraudulent transactions, and thus any individual could make unlimited contributions using infinite aliases.

It turns out, for example, that credit card companies deploy a variety of security measures to guarantee the processing of electronic transactions. For campaign giving, the key safeguards are vendor address verification, country of residence, and proof of citizenship. We now know that Obama operatives at the campaign’s website have disabled the security settings on vendor identity to expedite online donations, gifts that then speed through to fund election activities that would be flagged as illegal under normal FEC reporting standards.

Allapundit at Hot Air has shown that, as the news of Obama’s open-access credit card procedures went viral across the conservative blogosphere, readers conducted dozens of “experiments” to see if the Obama campaign would accept their money. In no time, the Obama campaign was accepting money from the likes of “JarackBoe BOamabiden” and “Nodda Realperson.” It’s unlikely that these donations will be flagged as fraudulent once the original credit card transactions clear. Thus, while amassing its illegal campaign-contributions war chest, the Obama campaign brazenly flouts the federal election regulations enacted during an earlier reform era of “hope and change.” Meanwhile, the pro-Obama liberal press looks the other way, partnering with the very corruption and duplicity the media industry has attacked during eight years of Republican power in Washington.

Make no mistake, the Democratic nominee may now be running the biggest underground finance operation since President Nixon deployed the “plumbers” as his key operatives for CREEP in 1972.

What’s particularly ironic is that the door to this form of “change” was opened by McCain himself with the absurd McCain- Feingold campaign finance reform act.