Woman on Woman Crime!

Yesterday a story was released on TV  about eight mis-guided Florida teens, including six females and two males, involved in the filming and beating of another teenage girl. According to reports, “the teens’ motivation for the attack was to produce a video that would become popular on YouTube.”

The victimization of women by other women has sadly always been par for the course when it comes to young social groups, but this truly displays a whole new level of awfulness. While Mean Girls may have made this phenomenon funny, it’s incidents like these that remind us that real-life mean girls are nothing to laugh about.

Though I hope that many of these young women will grow up and realize the nature of their shameful deeds, I can’t help but wonder what happens if they don’t. Do you think this behavior is something girls can grow out of or do you think they just become adult bullies? Since workplace bullying has come under scrutiny, tell me ladies, have you experienced bullying from another woman as an adult?

Florida Woman Survives Gunshot Between the Eyes

Emergency room doctors apologized to the 42-year-old woman who had come in for treatment for staring at her in disbelief. It wasn’t every day – in fact, it was never – that they saw somebody with a large-caliber gunshot wound between the eyes who not only was alive, but wasn’t even unconscious or seriously injured. http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/23914454/from/ET/

Indeed!  Here’s a good reason why I always use “semi-jacketed soft tips” in my .357 / .44 revolvers.  What a HARD skull she has – calling for controlled expansion – not immediate fragmentation, which a “too hot” or “underweighted bullet,” in a “semi-jacketed hollow point” gives you – leading up to situations like shooting this large woman and splattering “around” her skull instead of boring a small red dot on both sides of it – well about the size of a quarter on the exit!

I discussed this with a fellow handgunner who joins our discussion: “I’m a fan of heavy bullets, too.  That particularly goes for handgun rounds.  You’ve got to get the bullet where it belongs to get the job done.  The most extreme example I’ve heard of, aside from the lady bouncing the .44 off her noggin, was the woman whose husband chased her down in their yard and shot her point blank with a .45acp Glaser Safety Slug.  It blew her breast off but didn’t penetrate her chest cavity.  So he shot her in the head with a solid bullet.  So much for lightweight, high speed frangible slugs!” 

Have any of you folks ever read “Karamojo” Bell’s books on his life and times as a “turn of the century” ivory hunter?  He get’s deep into bullet weights, length to width ratios for optimal results, etc.  He took thousands of Big Bull Elephant with a .256 (a little on the light side but adequate), a 7mm Mauser (his favorite), and a .303 G.I. Enfield, (he liked the 10 shot mag for cornering small herds in a marsh for e.g and taking every one in the group) all brain shots and taking the nearest one, ran up it’s leg and rained down destruction on the rest, from his elevated perch.  He said that if it was quivering, it was good – if not he’d put in another and to settle him down before beginning the massacre. 
 
He believed that shot placement was the most critical aspect of killing any dangerous game.  He shot “solids” or “ball” ammo in all of his rifles, believing that any projectile of adequate length, decent cross-sectional density and proper shot placement would kill any elephant or smaller – stone dead.  He died of old age having accounted for the death of thousands of elephant (ivory) rhino (horn) and lion (pelts). 
 
He was diametrically opposed to the “use as much gun as you can shoot without flinching” crowd.  The proof was in the putting!

I Agree to Disagree

Topping the list of a slideshow presentation, there were 10 still shots, each representative of the movie in the top 10.  Starting in the number one position was “Seven Samurai” a 50’s tale of seven samurai warriors who are hired by a village who’s crops are plundered nightly, every harvest season by bandits.  Now this isn’t a bad movie and it’s done in the true chop-socky genre but it still can’t hold a candle to the real world’s greatest Martial Arts movie.

That spot would belong to the second selection, “Enter the Dragon”, Bruce Lee’s finest moments as a fighter, in a believable plot and released just after his death.  As the evil rogue Shaolin monk hisses down at Lee after Lee fights his way through a 100 nameless, evil henchmen, only to be led into a pit and trapped.  “Your skills are truly extraordinary.”  Duhh, that was an understatement to us martial artists in the audience who had never before witnessed such a high degree of skill and such ferocious intent.  We were on the floor and actually sat through two more matinee screenings before we finally left that evening.

From the opening fight against his fellow Shaolin monk to the final fight scene against Han and his whole crew.  We were literally on our feet at times witnessing “near perfection” in Lee’s fighting skills.  No one or movie can ever overshadow the Little Dragon.

There are a couple movies with Jet Li who albeit a real badass, doesn’t have anywhere close to Lee’s skills.  His movie credits listed in the “Best of All Time” were ”Fist of Legend” a remake of Bruce Lee’s “Chinese Connection” and “Hero” a glimmery, shimmery martial arts movie filled with flying fighters and all of that good, cinema, artsy fartsy stuff.  Loads of imagery and a plot to forget, Lee kills the bad guys of the empire in a forgettable plot (sorry I already said that!).

Two good entries were “Karate Kid” which anyone can identify with.  New kid in town bullied by the locals, happens to meet the building’s janitor Pat Morita who turns out to be a real Okinawan Karate master.  He takes Daniel (Ralph Macchio) under his wing and teaches him karate by non-traditional yet effective lessons.  The interaction between these two actors is infectious and we learn that there is more to karate than whipping butts.  It’s about respect, discipline, honor and hard work.  Fighting is always the last resort and not the first.

Also listed and deservedly so is Steven Seagal in “Marked for Death”.  His character has retired from the service of our government – CIA, DEA, FBI (you name it?) and won’t be dissuaded from getting out of “the game”.  Only he finds out quickly upon his return home, that the Jamaican drug dealers have taken over his city and are loading everyone up on good weed and crack cocaine.  He and his family are marked for death by a voodoo priest (Screw Face) and Seagal teams up with an old Viet Nam buddy and a  Jamaican cop to form their own team and fly to Jamaica to take down his organization.  After manhandling and literally beating some of the bad guys to death, Seagal’s team invades the drug lord’s home and the slaughter begins.  It ends with Seagal smoking the Voodoo Drug Lord, who just happens to be a set of twins!   No matter, Steven has plenty more left for both of them.  He actually brings the head of one of the twins to his home town and throws it into the dealers’ midst.  Only then does the twin emerge and recoup the awe of his posse.   Steven makes short work of him as well by quickly dispatching him with his own sword.    Another classic martial arts movie. 

Out of the top 10 - I’ll go with about 5 of their picks, but no martial arts movie is better than “Enter the Dragon” and the “Seven Samurai” know it too!

Crimes in High Schools and Colleges Rising Dramatically

Our daughter is graduating from High School in about 6 weeks and the thought of “my baby” away from home and far away is very frightening at times.  Of course, our children will be amongst those who are included in the next 5 year study.  I’d like readers to know what I’ve discovered in Government Studies, think things over a bit and by all means discuss this information with our children who are now embarking on a new life as High School and College students.  Hopefully you can, at the very least, arm them with information on the many faces of crime that our youth will possibly exposed to across the nation.  These are some figures of those who’ve already been victimized and it’s our hope that some parents will see that life in High Schools and Colleges can be hazardous to the uninformed and naive.  Forewarned is forearmed as the old saying goes.

In a study put out by the FBI crime is rising in this sector and keeping pace with rising crime rates in all segments of our population as well.  I will highlight some but not all of them which are available here – http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/schoolviolence/2007/appendixa.htm

There’s three categories and some figures to illustrate how things have changed over a 5 year span from 2000 to 2004 (what do you expect from a Government report?)  That it would be up to date – 2007?  This will give you an idea and you can see that it would be even worse than that now.

Just look at the figures doing a steep uphill climb, remembering these are only for crimes perpetrated on High School and College students! 

Wow, there’s not much listed that won’t affect our kids.  Please sit down with your student and discuss these crimes and make them aware that they must be on their guard against criminal behavior or become another victim.

These are some pretty ugly statistics.  We no longer live in a society where high schoolers and college students could just kick back and enjoy the safety and sanctity of Academia.  These figures show that violent crime rates in categories of the most violent type are also those in the highest rate of incline. 

Good parenting demands that we make our kids aware of these statistics and talk to them about the crimes listed.  One way I’ve found that is easy to get your child to sit down and have a great face to face discussion about this material is to – ask them to sit with you for a few minutes. Have a printout of the FBI charts linked above, or whatever works for you and:

1.) Don’t start preaching to them! 

2.) Voice your concerns and ask them if they’ll talk with you for a few minutes.

3.) Ask them if this happens in their own schools or those of their friends. 

This will usually get your child to become proactive in the conversation and they’ll probably shock some of you by recounting what really goes on around them while they’re at school.  Well, it works for me and  my kids.  I let them tell me rather than doing the “boring lecture from Dad” method.  They are much sharper than what some of you would ever believe!

If you see crime or have suspicions about serious crimes that you think merit a “look see” from the Nation’s “Top Cops” then by all means don’t hesitate to report it to the FBI using this form – https://tips.fbi.gov/  Help them take a bite out of crime!

Mastering The Basics

Pardon me if you are an experienced martial arts practitioner, then you should already know this, if not read on.  It takes years of training to become proficient in a martial art.  The training is like the construction of a beautiful home.  The contractor doesn’t build the roof until the structure of the home is roughed in.  Also, the foundation is the beginning of any good home, we all know that.  This same mindset carries over to many disciplines in life but tonight we’re talking about martial arts, as applied to defending yourself from attacks.  With a solid foundation in martial arts, one can avoid the use of guns, and other self defense products such as pepper sprays or stun guns.

Every martial art I have trained in and I would venture to say “all” fighting arts, begin with foundational teaching.  I am referring to proper stance, footwork, blocking applications that cover the levels of the body and of course strikes from the hands and feet.  Of course that is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many other things one must train, such as breathing, meditation, and thousands of variations of self defense applications.

It has been repeated to me via oral recitation and reading materials, that the founders of martial arts suggested that a man who truly mastered “a single technique”, was an unbeatable opponent.  There is a ring of truth in hearing this.  Since the most advanced self defense applications are nothing more than variations of one or two basic white belt techniques.  In our rush for the prize, we Americans worry about gaining a Black Belt and fulfilling the requirements for that rank as quickly as possible.  This is counterproductive to good martial arts.  Like a fine vintage wine, each technique should be learned, tasted, savored and as it ages it becomes much more than the rough and rudimentary technique that we learned as a white belt – to a lover of the martial arts it evolves into something beautiful.

We learn to step forward and block then strike, as we progress, we learn to do it stepping backward and over years of practice we learn to do all three things at once.  In the external portion of our training we are taught to do such a sequence with so much speed and power that one could advance right through a plaster board and not notice it’s existence.  As we advance to the internal focus of the same techniques, we learn to achieve greater speed and more explosive results by the use of proper timing, footwork and intent.

One example – an opponent attacks with a right handed punch while stepping toward you quickly.  The basic defense could be – step forward with your left leg and defend the punch with a left handed block, followed by a right handed counterpunch.  This a good, basic response.  But when mastered, a better response would be to allow the opponent to advance and throw that haymaker, committing his forward momentum via his footwork and reinforced by the punch he is trying to land.  All one would have to do is to “yield” and slide the right foot 45 degrees and back.  This movement has already defeated his attack, by removing yourself from the targeted area and by making use of his extreme forward momentum, you can simply grab a bit of sleeve, jacket, hair or simply wrap the neck gently (in the case of bare chested encounters) and give a short downward pull as they roar past.  This will actually “launch” the attacker into space or “spike them” face first into the deck behind you as you turn to assess the damage and consider a follow-up if needed.

Sounds hard?  Sounds like a high degree of difficulty?  Not really, it’s what you’ve been taught since your first white belt – with just a little understanding of body mechanics added is all.  If you hate “repping” basics, try to see them as your foundation and do them well and thoughtfully.  They won’t let you down!

Steel Batons Can Maim or Kill

I don’t ordinarily recommend a telescopic steel baton to most people for self defense.  Yes they are lightweight.  Yes they are very easy to carry holstered and open for use quickly.  Are they the best self defense product for John or Jane Doe?  No, in my opinion they aren’t.

A steel baton is an effective and potentially lethal self defense weapon in the hands of a skilled user.  This would be a person well versed in Kali/Eskrima/Arnis, a trained Police Officer or just an ordinary Joe, who has taken the time to learn how to use one by continuous swinging and fooling around with the baton.

For the average person, they can easily lose control of one during the stress and adrenaline rush brought on by an encounter that they feel, requires one’s use.  Sure you can get lucky and smack someone in the ‘noggin’ with one and beat a hasty retreat.  But odds are that your attacker will still be standing and fighting after that swing.  Unless your strike was a one shot disabling blow – get ready to keep swinging.  Chances are that your attacker will be a better fighter than you and may wrestle it from your grasp and use it on you!  That’s a bad strategy.

For those well versed in using a baton, they can be deadly – which is another concern for the Doe family if they end up in jail for battering an unarmed man/woman with a steel baton and happen to cripple or kill the attacker.  I think these are best suited for law enforcement and skilled fighters who know where to strike and how hard – to achieve the desired result.

Tonight there was a clip on TV showing a So. American Security Guard who became distraught while arguing with a photographer outside a building, when out of the blue, he beat this poor fellow half to death before members of his own team came and stopped him.  They were last seen running from the scene of the uncalled for “beat down” and out of the view of cameras.  Nice job there cool breeze!  He almost killed an Asian photographer 1/2 his size because he lost his temper and was armed with a telescopic steel baton.  He could have simply grabbed him under the armpit and ran him off on his tip-toes but he lost his cool and someone nearly died for that lapse in self control.

If you have one, use it wisely - they are great weapons, but only in the hands of someone who is properly trained and certified to use it in an appropriate fashion!