Monday, May 30, 2011

I broke my rib

I broke my Rib. It hurts. I mean really hurts. I broke it almost four weeks ago and it still hurts.  I am not a wimp mind you.  I have had Five major surgeries that I can remember. Most of them for stupid stuff. Several knee surgeries, a hernia; I am a frequent guest of the emergency room. When they get to know you by first name its a sign that you may be doing something wrong.  I picked this subject to talk to you about because it brings to mind how much those who are currently suffering at our VA  hospitals have given for our freedom.  Some are alone and some have family. Please keep them in mind. Go by a VA hospital and bring some gifts of magazines or maybe donate an old playstation or xbox. Maybe just pray for them and their family. But please be mindful that our freedom is not free.  For some the pain may never go away.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Have you made a difference?

What have you been doing?  Has it made a difference?  Was the difference with the intent of "Good" or "Bad"?  Was it for selfish reasons? Was it without a thought to your self interest? Has it made "the world" a better place or worse?   I find myself asked daily to "Save the Planet".  Can I destroy the planet?  Would I destroy my home? I would find it difficult to have a place for all my stuff.  Who exactly starts their day out and says: "I am going to destroy the planet"? I don't know how you would "Destroy the Planet".  Maybe I could start by destroying the family? That would be a good start. Then I could destroy people's belief in themselves?  How about destroy a person's belief that they matter as an "individual"?  How about destroy a group of people's ability to uplift each other?  Hey I know, religion!!! It must be destroyed!  That way there are no moral absolutes! No right, no wrong; and no one to judge me!  That would leave me free to destroy the planet. Then would just be your perception that I am doing something that destroys the planet or not?  Besides if it helps me then who cares anyway?  That is your version of the truth.  There would be no ultimate good or bad, only what benefits my selfish self interest!  Hug a child.  Go to your religious group of choice. Enjoy your freedom.

Have you made a difference today?

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Christian Ninjutsu and other non sequiturs: Pelosi Relieved that none of the terrorists were w...

Christian Ninjutsu and other non sequiturs: Pelosi Relieved that none of the terrorists were w...: "Nancy Pelosi expressed 'Relief' that none of the terrorists we shot in the head had been water boarded. Ok. Let that sink in just a second..."

Happy Mothers Day (brought to you by Hallmark)

Hallmark did not invent "Mother's day"!
I spuriously stated that this was a Made up holiday by Hallmark. I am wrong.

Modern antecedents and founding
One of the early calls to celebrate a Mother's Day in the United States was the "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe. Written in 1870, it was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
In the years after the Mother's Day Proclamation, Ann Jarvis founded five Mothers' Day Work Clubs to improve sanitary and health conditions. In 1907, two years after Ann Jarvis' death, her daughter Anna Jarvis held a memorial for her mother and began a campaign to make "Mother's Day" a recognized holiday in the US. Although she was successful in 1914, she was already disappointed with its commericalization by the 1920s.
Spelling

In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and created the Mother's Day International Association.
"She was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world."
This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in the law making official the holiday in the U.S., by the U.S. Congress on bills, and by other U.S. presidents on their declarations.
Common usage in English language also dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Mother's Day" is the preferred spelling, although "Mothers' Day" (plural possessive) is not unheard of.

So There.  Sorry Mom.

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Why I believe in God. From my upcoming book.

When I had my complete loss of faith, I started from ground zero.  I came up with the following litmus test:  What is real and observable.  I feel pain. I irritate people; they irritate me, therefore existentially we are not a dream. You are not my dream and I assure you that I am not yours.  We are.  We are someplace that exists. Our stuff is here. We have the expectation that it will continue to be there tomorrow.  Therefore, we have an expectation of consistency of reality.  That being the case we have but three possible choices existentially: 1) Atheism or no God (Zero)  2) Polytheism or many gods (Two)  3) One God (God) (One) 

1) Atheism would be equal to random chance creating everything.  A study of ninjitsu does not allow for this. We know that there is no random-ness in nature.  It is all a pattern.  Chaos becomes a fractal at the proper vantage point. If we expect a continuation or consistency in the outcome of our training then there must be a rule to which each outcome can be attached or measured.  Random chance does not allow for an expectation of consistency.  Why study a fighting style 2000 years old. It should have evolved past it’s relevance.  But yet it is still here.  Still relevant today.  
2) Polytheism:  This brings with it the concept of many gods with disparate goals and desires.  Once again we are faced with the nagging problem of  the expectation of continuity of reality.  We do not wake up to find that one god has decided to make everything taste like liver because he/ she /it is in a foul mood. 
3) One God.  To me this is the most likely case.  One God give us the expectation of continuity of reality.  One God who made: Sex, Chocolate, Beauty, Art, Music, etc..  The absence of these things I would say would be “human free will”.  We have the ability to destroy.  The ability to build.  Some people express control or “ownership” of a thing by destroying it.  By destroying it they make the statement that “this was mine to destroy”.  We see this plainly in Shiriah Law. Sharīʿah (Arabic: شريعة‎ šarīʿah, IPA: [ʃaˈriːʕa], "way" or "path") is the code of conduct or religious law of Islam. Most Muslims believe Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Qur'an, and the example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of Sharia to questions not directly addressed in the primary sources by including secondary sources. These secondary sources usually include the consensus of the religious scholars embodied in ijma, and analogy from the Qur'an and Sunnah through qiyas. Shia jurists prefer to apply reasoning ('aql) rather than analogy in order to address difficult questions.
Muslims believe Sharia is God's law, but they differ as to what exactly it entails. Modernists, traditionalists and fundamentalists all hold different views of Sharia, as do adherents to different schools of Islamic thought and scholarship. Different countries and cultures have varying interpretations of Sharia as well.
Sharia deals with many topics addressed by secular law, including crime, politics and economics, as well as personal matters such as sexuality, hygiene, diet, prayer, and fasting. Where it enjoys official status, Sharia is applied by Islamic judges, or qadis. The imam has varying responsibilities depending on the interpretation of Sharia; while the term is commonly used to refer to the leader of communal prayers, the imam may also be a scholar, religious leader, or political leader.
The reintroduction of Sharia is a longstanding goal for Islamist movements in Muslim countries. Some Muslim minorities in Asia (e.g. in India) have maintained institutional recognition of Sharia to adjudicate their personal and community affairs. In western countries, where Muslim immigration is more recent, Muslim minorities have introduced Sharia family law, for use in their own disputes, with varying degrees of success (e.g. Britain's Muslim Arbitration Tribunal). Attempts to impose Sharia have been accompanied by controversy, violence, and even warfare (cf. Second Sudanese Civil War).
Max Tegmark’s 1998 sole postulate is: All structures that exist mathematically also exist physically. That is, in the sense that "in those [worlds] complex enough to contain self-aware substructures [they] will subjectively perceive themselves as existing in a physically 'real' world”.The hypothesis suggests that worlds corresponding to different sets of initial conditions, physical constants, or altogether different equations should be considered real.
Tegmark claims that the hypothesis has no free parameters and is not observationally ruled out. Thus, he reasons, it is preferred over other theories-of-everything by Occam's Razor. He suggests conscious experience would take the form of mathematical "self-aware substructures" that exist in a physically "'real'" world.
The hypothesis is related to the anthropic principle and to Tegmark's categorization of theories of the multiverse.
Andreas Albrecht of Imperial College in London called it a "provocative" solution to one of the central problems facing physics. Although he "wouldn't dare" go so far as to say he believes it, he noted that "it's actually quite difficult to construct a theory where everything we see is all there is".
I would characterize it thus: X= reality  Zero= no reality  Two= confused realities co-existing simultaneously with no expectation of reliable observable consistency.  One= stable reality.

 My personal belief is in the Christian expression of God. 

Friday, May 6, 2011

uss michael murphy ddg-112 christened tomorrow, 7 May, 2011

uss michael murphy ddg-112
By AW1 Tim Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized
USS Michael Murphy, DDG-112 will be christened tomorrow, 7 May, 2011 at Bath Iron Works, in Bath Maine.  Adding to the significance of the date is that this was also his birthday. Lt Michael Murphy would have been 35 years old. Instead, he gave his life during Operation Red Wings at the age of 29.  He gave his tomorrows for our todays, and his memory will live on in nearly 9000 tons of US Navy warship.

More on USS Murphy here:

More on Operation Red Wings here:

More on the christening here:

From the article:

Engaged in a frenzied firefight and outnumbered by the Taliban, Navy Lt. Michael Murphy made a desperate decision as he and three fellow SEALs fought for their lives on a rocky mountainside in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province in 2005.
In a last-ditch effort to save his team, Murphy pulled out his satellite phone, walked into a clearing to get reception and called for reinforcements as a fusillade of bullets ricocheted around him. One of the bullets hit him, but he finished the call and even signed off, “Thank you.”
Then he continued the battle.
Dan Murphy, the sailor’s father, said it didn’t surprise him that his slain son nicknamed “The Protector” put himself in harm’s way. Nor was he surprised that in the heat of combat his son was courteous.
“That was Michael. He was cool under fire. He had the ability to process information, even under the most difficult of circumstances. That’s what made him such a good SEAL officer,” Murphy said.


Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

Keel Laid for USS Michael Murphy, DDG-112
Lt. Michael Murphy – Mann’s 3 Month Milestone Challenge
Salute to Lt. Michael Murphy

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

I am glad no UBL PHOTOS

Hey,
I was there on a building September 11, 2001. I was waiting for another plane to hit a major city in a non-disclosed location.  Looking back, probably not the best of plans. I did have a high-powered "publicly offensive" weapon.  I was acting as a Government Sanctioned Agent.  I still would have been splattered all over the building had the trend continued.  Not sure what I could have done with a Sniper rifle against a Plane, but there you go.  That being said, I feel the need to weigh in on this one. I don't feel seeing Usama porn is of any real benefit to the public. It can only harm us as individuals. It hardens the heart.  MLK said it best:

(I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. -Jessica Dovey) Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that ~Dr. MLK Jr.

That being said: "I salute the shooters and looters who whacked UBL".  I am sure that they did it without malice of forethought and were true professionals. So go easy on the whole deal, you lazyboy quarterbacks. Really.  Chill. 

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Pelosi Relieved that none of the terrorists were water boarded prior to execution


Nancy Pelosi expressed "Relief" that none of the terrorists we shot in the head had been water boarded.  Ok. Let that sink in just a second.  She is relieved that the people we shot in the face *to death* were not made to be in convienienced or upset.  Hmmm.  I would just say (were I asked) : "Nancy you have my permission to force feed me pork, put a gallon of sea water up my nose, but please do not shoot me in the head face or extremities with a .40 sig."  My human dignity can slide just this once...  What planet are the people from?   Here is what I have found about Pelosi's historical "hand wringing" on the (W) word....
Here's what we know. On Sept. 4, 2002, less than a year after 9/11, the CIA briefed Rep. Porter Goss, then House Intelligence Committee chairman, and Mrs. Pelosi, then the committee's ranking Democrat, on EITs including waterboarding. They were the first members of Congress to be informed.
In December 2007, Mrs. Pelosi admitted that she attended the briefing, but she wouldn't comment for the record about precisely what she was told. At the time the Washington Post spoke with a "congressional source familiar with Pelosi's position on the matter" and summarized that person's comments this way: "The source said Pelosi recalls that techniques described by the CIA were still in the planning stage -- they had been designed and cleared with agency lawyers but not yet put in practice -- and acknowledged that Pelosi did not raise objections at the time."
When questions were raised last month about these statements, Mrs. Pelosi insisted at a news conference that "We were not -- I repeat -- were not told that waterboarding or any of these other enhanced interrogation methods were used." Mrs. Pelosi also claimed that the CIA "did not tell us they were using that, flat out. And any, any contention to the contrary is simply not true." She had earlier said on TV, "I can say flat-out, they never told us that these enhanced interrogations were being used."
The Obama administration's CIA director, Leon Panetta, and Mr. Goss have both disputed Mrs. Pelosi's account.
In a report to Congress on May 5, Mr. Panetta described the CIA's 2002 meeting with Mrs. Pelosi as "Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on [legal] authorities, and a description of the particular EITs that had been employed." Note the past tense -- "had been employed."
Mr. Goss says he and Mrs. Pelosi were told at the 2002 briefing about the use of the EITs and "on a bipartisan basis, we asked if the CIA needed more support from Congress to carry out its mission." He is backed by CIA sources who say Mr. Goss and Mrs. Pelosi "questioned whether we were doing enough" to extract information.
We also know that Michael Sheehy, then Mrs. Pelosi's top aide on the Intelligence Committee and later her national security adviser, not only attended the September 2002 meeting but was also briefed by the CIA on EITs on Feb. 5, 2003, and told about a videotape of Zubaydah being waterboarded. Mr. Sheehy was almost certain to have told Mrs. Pelosi. He has not commented publicly about the 2002 or the 2003 meetings.
Get rid of these people.  They will get our children killed. 

Sunday, May 1, 2011

OBL meets with tragedy at the hands of Obama Administration.

OBL is currently residing in the either plane.  Hurrah!  Well done boys and girls. I can only sigh with relief. I am still unsure as to whether this was  something that the Obama White house actively pursued.  I would like to think so.  It sounds like SAS folks in CIA were earning their haz duty pay. ( that 25% doesn't go to far, so don't blow it all in one place). It seems like only yesterday when my buddy Tim was telling me about leaving one of OBL's houses that Dynecore had set up shop in. Only to be rocked with an explosion killing all inside.  Death is bad. Really.  I can only think of one person to come back and that was kind of a big deal.  Hopefully we can all sleep just a bit safer?  The west is not the enemy. Muslims are not the enemy. Hatred is the enemy. Lust is the enemy, Pride is the enemy, and lack of forgiveness is the enemy.  Before you set your heart against someone; please try to walk a mile in their shoes.  you might find them to tight, or maybe just maybe just right.
Peace on earth Good will toward all men. *women are also men for the purpose of this missive*.

Saturday, April 30, 2011

How Not to Defend Yourself as a Jew at Yale

DAVID HOROWITZ: How Not to Defend Yourself as a Jew at Yale | FrontPage Magazine

APRIL 30, 2011

How Not to Defend Yourself as a Jew at Yale

By David Horowitz
Apr 29th, 2011
At Yale the other week, Students for Justice in Palestine, one of the most aggressive and vicious supporters of Palestinian terrorism, conducted a stunt to dramatize their anti-Israel agenda. Members of the SJP put “Eviction Notices” under the dorm room doors of Yale students, which warned them that their rooms were going to be “demolished in three days” for no reason. According to a report of the action in the Yale Daily News, the Eviction Notices were designed “to raise awareness about the plight of Palestinians whose homes are being demolished by the Israeli government.” In a sane world such a claim would have zero credibility. Why would any government, let alone one as humane and democratic as the government of Israel, go around randomly demolishing people’s homes? What agenda would be served by that?

In fact the homes that Israel has demolished belong to terrorists who blow up Pizza parlors and buses and Passover services, hoping to kill as many innocent Jews as possible. It is all part of a 60-year unrelenting war Arabs and Muslims have waged against the existence of a non-Arab, non-Muslim state in the Middle East. This is a fact overlooked not only by terrorist support groups like Students for Justice in Palestine but by the editors of the Yale Daily News. Naturally, Yale students ignorant of this 60-year history and bombarded by Palestinian lies spread by left-wing faculty and student organizations to the effect that Israel is “occupying” a mythical entity called “Palestine,” Palestinians are oppressed by Israelis (rather than the Palestinian Authority and Hamas), Israel is an “apartheid state” and so forth – are unable to distinguish reality from fiction.

Monday, April 25, 2011

New Light on Possible scientific basis for the existence of Chi or Key


Article submission for Shinobi no Mono Magazine.
By Andrew Pearce

New Light on the possible scientific basis for Chi or Key energy phenomenon.



Tachypsychia is a neurological condition that alters the perception of time, usually induced by physical exertion, drug use, or a traumatic event. THEORY: Time and Gravity have a specific juxtaposed relationship.            Specifically one in which Gravity is found as the constant, and time being a function of Gravity.
Time dilation is a phenomenon (or two phenomena, as mentioned below) described by the theory of relativity. It can be illustrated by supposing that two observers are in motion relative to each other, and/or differently situated with regard to nearby gravitational masses. They each carry a clock of identical construction and function. Then, the point of view of each observer will generally be that the other observer's clock is in error (has changed its rate).
Both causes (distance to gravitational mass and relative speed) can operate together. All matter vibrates at the same rate. I.E. You cannot put the molecules of the hand thru the molecules of the table in front of you. Speed overcomes mass. Think of bullet mass experiments conducted on Gelatin; bullets overcome the mass of ballistic gelatin if it is traveling fast enough.            A slow moving bullet transfers it's mass/force into the ballistic gelatin. The bullet represents matter, where the gelatin represents this current vibration rate being equal to what we perceive as reality.


Tachypsychia is a neurological condition that alters the perception of time, usually induced by physical exertion, drug use, or a traumatic event. Martial arts instructors and self-defense experts sometimes incorrectly refer it to as the Tachy Psyche effect. For someone affected by tachypsychia, time perceived by the individual either lengthens, making events appear to slow down, or contracts, objects appearing as moving in a speeding blur. It is believed that tachypsychia is induced by a combination of high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, usually during periods of great physical stress and/or in violent confrontation.

Adrenaline response
Upon being stimulated by fear or anger, the adrenal medulla may automatically produce the hormone epinephrine (aka adrenaline) directly into the blood stream. This can have various effects on various bodily systems, including:
Increased heart rate and blood pressure. It is common for a tachypsychia subject's pulse to rise to between 200 and 300 beats per minute (bpm). Increased heart rate (above 250 bpm) can cause fainting, and the body may adduct all limbs, adopting fetal position, in preparation for a coma.
Dilation of the bronchial passages, permitting higher absorption of oxygen.
Dilated pupils to allow more light to enter, and visual exclusion—tunnel vision—occurs, allowing greater focus but resulting in the loss of peripheral vision.

Release of glucose into the bloodstream, generating extra energy by raising the blood sugar level.

It is common for an individual to experience auditory exclusion or sensitivity. It is also common for individuals to experience an increased pain tolerance, loss of color vision, short term memory loss, decreased fine motor skills, decreased communication skills, or decreased coordination.

Psychological response
The most common experience during tachypsychia is the feeling that time has either increased or slowed down, brought on by the increased brain activity cause by epinephrine, or the severe decrease in brain activity caused by the "catecholamine washout" occurring after the event.
It is common for an individual experiencing tachypsychia to have serious misinterpretations of their surroundings during the events, through a combination of their altered perception of time, as well as transient partial color blindness and tunnel vision. After the irregularly high levels of adrenaline consumed during sympathetic nervous system activation, an individual may display signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is common for the person to display extreme emotional change and fatigue, regardless of their actual physical exertion.

It is possible to manage the "adrenaline dump" still occurring after the event, and it is common for soldiers and martial artists to use tachypsychia in order to increase their performance during stressful situations.



            Tachypsychia (literally: the speed of the mind) -- the distortion of perceived time. In a life-or-death situation, the mind kicks into overdrive, perceiving orders of magnitude more information than is customary. This causes the perception that things are happening in slow motion, even though you -- and your opponent -- are probably moving faster than you ever have. Tachypsychia can also work in reverse ("it all happened so fast"). Ayoob's experiences lead him to observe that the more experienced and highly trained a person is, the more likely that person is to experience tachypsychia. That is, a person who knows that "trouble happens" is less likely to be surprised by it, and more likely to respond with super-heightened awareness. A concrete upshot of tachypsychia is that one should not speak with responding officers on the question of how long an encounter took. 

            Tunnel Vision -- the mind focuses on the deadly threat to the exclusion of much of one's ordinary peripheral vision. It appears as if one is looking at the threat through a tube (or tunnel, precisely), and it requires conscious effort to see more than a few degrees to the right or left, or up or down. This can be a problem if you're dealing with multiple opponents. 

            Auditory Exclusion -- could also be called "tunnel hearing." Like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion is largely a function of the brain's cortex. That is, the brain has kicked into fight or flight reflex, focusing on the threat and screening out everything extraneous to immediate survival. One is still -- physically -- seeing and hearing as usual, but the brain is screening lots of things out. Tunnel vision and auditory exclusion appears larger, therefore closer, often by as much as a 3-to-1 ratio. A man with a knife five yards away appears to be five feet away; .22s look like .44 magnums. You may not hear the officer behind you yelling: "don't shoot;" you may not even hear your own shots (rest assured however that 'clickers' will the loudest sounds you've ever heard). If you experience such physio-psychological aspects in a violent encounter -- and don't recognize them for what they are -- and recount your (distorted) perceptions to police, you can be in world of trouble when your case goes to court. 

            Precognition -- commonly called a "sixth sense" (a good phrase to avoid). Precognition has to do with having seen something so many times that you "see it coming" before the unthreatened observer -- such as a witness -- does. The connection with fight or flight reflex is that, in a deadly threat situation, the mind draws on memory resources that are not typically used. Precognition is a response to a subconsciously perceived queue, and has successfully been used in criminal defense (Miami policeman Luis Alvarez, 1982). 

            Denial Response -- On an otherwise normal day, you get a call out of the blue telling you that your mother has died. Your first response? "No! Mother can't be dead!" Another common example is people yelling "no" at a car that's about to hit them, or hit someone else. 

           
            Psychological Splitting -- the more highly trained a person is, the apt more he or she is to experience this. When you have trained in something to the point that you can do it by reflex -- coupled with stimulus which triggers fight or flight -- the body moves so fast that the prefrontal cortex can't keep up. This can result in the perception of watching oneself do something. 

            Excorporation -- out of body experience, the highest manifestation of psychological splitting. This is most commonly seen on operating tables after clinical death, and is often combined with a white tunnel of light (see items 2 and 6 above). It is also seen in gunfights with persons who think they are about to die. Its cause is that survival instinct is taking all the senses into overdrive, into hyper-perception one might say. In this state, the mind can generate 3-D images from sounds and recollected sights. Even when the body is unconscious, the ears still hear and -- if they are open -- the eyes can still see. Even at clinical death, the brain lives for another 8-10 minutes (ask any EMT). 
           
            State of Fugue -- somnambulant, zombie-like state. Seen occasionally. 

           
            Cognitive Dissonance -- or confusion, is more common. Common manifestations include remembering things out of sequence, trivial things looming large in the mind immediately after the incident, and important things being lost to short-term memory immediately after the incident. 

If trained properly by repetition, a person can learn to function for an extended period in this state. There is an increase in Tachypsychia (literally: the speed of the mind): the distortion of perceived time. In a life-or-death situation, the mind kicks into overdrive and transfers into the sub-conscious (which operates much faster than the conscious) so your perception of time becomes altered. This causes the observation that things are happening in slow motion (a.k.a "Bullet Time"), even though you (and your opponent) are probably moving faster than you ever have. Tachypsychia can also work in reverse ("It all happened so fast"). Observations have been made that the more experienced and highly trained a person is, the more likely that person is to experience tachypsychia. That is, a person who knows that "trouble happens" is less likely to be surprised by it, and more likely to respond with super-heightened awareness.


Time perceived by the individual either lengthens, making events appear to slow down, or contracts, objects appearing as moving in a speeding blur. It is believed that tachypsychia is induced by a combination of high levels of dopamine and norepinephrine, usually during periods of great physical stress and/or in violent confrontation. They are not the same. No one can tell you what causes tachypsychia to occur. They can only tell you when it is likely to occur. They don't know if it is caused by chemicals and if so, which. It could totally be a perception or state of mind/level of consciousness issue. The only thing anyone can say for certain is that it occurs and that you can train to reach a state where it is likely to occur. Yes, athletes do experience it fully. From my own experience, I have had it occur in armed confrontations, an automobile accident and in competition. Every time I have experienced it, it occurred absent of fear or any other noticeable effect of fear. Events happened with crystal clarity, but without conscious thought. It happens in an area of the brain that is still not understood. That is why no one can say "if we inject you with "X", you will experience it. So far, the only success has been through hypnosis and visualization (sports psychology). That's why you are starting to see a slow shift in LE training to incorporate some of the proven sports psychology techniques. 

While Laur's articles are good, Dr. Lewinski at the Force Science Institute has done studies that show elevated pulse rates (by themselves) have no effect on fine motor skills. *"Chemical Cocktail" released by the body:
-Adrenaline
-Cortisol
-Dopamine
*Blood diverts from extremities to large muscles.
-Loss of Dexterity and fine Motor Skills

*Tachypsychia
(Distortion in the perception of the passage of time)

*Other Physical Changes:
-Eyes Dilate
-Tunnel Vision
-Auditory Exclusion
--Blood Vessels in Ears dilate

*Nausea
*Time/Space Distortion
-Things Slow Down

*Heart Rate:
-60/80 BPM is Normal
-300 BPM has been recorded
-200 BPM has been recorded sustained

-115-145 BPM is Optimum Combat Performance
-At 145 BPM Complex Motor Skills Go Down
-At 175 BPM Gross Motor Skills Go Down

*Heart Rate of 175 BPM
-Fore Brain Shuts Down and Mid Brain Takes Over
-Mid Brain does only four things: Fight/Flight/Eat/Sex
-Mid Brain sends signal works (NSR)
-All senses but vision shuts down
--(Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, ESP??)


Some athletes are born with a big advantage: their hormonal and concentration systems are set up differently, says cardiologist Arnold Fox. They are allowed to take in greater detail, and perhaps are offered more room in time, because their visual and hormonal systems are different, and/or are better developed. It’s been said that Ted Williams could see the seams on a 100-mph fastball, although part of that was his intense concentration of pitchers’ habits while he was sitting in the on-deck circle. 

"We know that people who are able to ’flow’ have a greater ability than others to screen out irrelevant information," says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. "It could be the way their brain is put together, but I think it’s something that people can learn through technique." Like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, inability to focus concentration, etc. Tachypsychia occurs separately from all of those. In fact, it is the antithesis of some. When you experience it, you typically will not necessarily have any of the other phenomena (athletes for example). During tachypsychia you have crystal clarity and focus without tunnel vision (some describe it as "hyper-awareness"), auditory exclusion or shaking. Most will tell you that they felt calm and focused, no shaking, no inability to focus. 


Briefly, the brain uses about 20 different chemicals/compounds in its normal function. Right know, doctors recognize changes and alterations in two of them.

As a patient is treated with meds from these two groups, dramatic changes occur in the levels of the other 18, and they don't know why--or how to effectively modulate them to treat certain conditions. One med elevates of diminishes levels, another med does just the reverse, or a mixed response.

So, a psychiatrist might experiment on several meds, even a cocktail. And since a "ramp up" requires about six weeks to effectively observe a positive therapeutic level, the patient goes through a rollercoaster of emotions.

It is not surprising that during the instantaneous chemical dump of an attack a combatant endures numerous changes in perceptions as well as dexterity.

My advice is to learn and investigate stress as it relates to defense just like you would do research on any other aspect of safety and security.


Sayoc Kali Transition Drills Distortion of Time Perception during Tactical Encounters By Stephen Chrusciel

The third phase in the OODA Loop is Decision-making. This is where the efficiency of process is critical because of the role time plays in the interaction. Tactical training expert Ken Good of the Sure-Fire Institute refers to tactical situations as taking place in a “compressed time frame”, because a correct response to a situation delivered at the wrong time (typically late due to an overextended decision-making process) will now be ineffective because the situation has changed while the initial decision was being reached. A simple analogy is a distance shooter continually missing a moving target because he is aiming right at it without allowing for its motion by leading it. The question becomes “How do we install the decision-making process on the subconscious level to take advantage of the resulting increase in processing speed?” The answer is again in the training. Regular, rigorous exposure to the decision-making process under the stress of realistic training, where there are immediate ramifications for bad choices, gives the student a consistent progression by which he is able to internalize this process. Too much time spent training “in the fire” can be just as ineffective as no time at all; it is the application of the correct ratio of technical and tactical training on a subjective basis that produces the best practitioners.

In summary there is ample evidence to show that Key or chi force exists and can allow a martial artist to function at "higher than normal" levels. 


Sunday, April 24, 2011

Dirty rotten sinner music: Easter Astronomy

Dirty rotten sinner music: Easter Astronomy: "For those who have seen the Bethlehem Star Presentation, you know there is a surprise ending related to Easter. That ending reveals the litt..."

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

House passes Ryan's '12 budget; conservatives want more cuts


House passes Ryan's '12 budget; conservatives want more cuts

By Erik Wasson and Pete Kasperowicz 04/15/11 02:26 PM ET
The House on Friday approved a fiscal year 2012 budget resolution from Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) that seeks to drastically limit government spending next year and in years to follow. 

But the vote on the measure — which imposes $5.8 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade — came after a clear sign that at least half of the Republican Caucus supports even tougher spending cuts.
The final tally was 235-193, with four Republicans opposing it. They were Reps. Ron Paul (Texas), Denny Rehberg (Mont.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and David McKinley (W.Va.).
Rehberg, the appropriator in charge of health spending, is running for Montana's Senate seat.
Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said listening sessions with Republican members made it the strongest vote of the year.
"This is the process we should follow on all votes," he said.
Every Democrat voted "no."
Democrats in a press conference after the vote made much of their unified opposition to the bill, saying that in defense of Medicare the party speaks with one voice. "The battle lines are drawn," Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) said.
The bill will now be considered by the Senate, where it is considered dead on arrival.
The White House responded to the House vote with a statement from press secretary Jay Carney.
"The President agrees with House Republicans that we must reduce our deficit and put our country on a fiscally sound path, but we disagree with their approach," it read. 
Carney pushed for the plan President Obama unveiled earlier in the week.
"The President’s approach ensures the nation lives within its means by cutting spending and bringing down the debt, while supporting our economic recovery and ensuring we are making the investments we need to win the future," the statement read.


Earlier in the day, the House rejected an alternative budget that would have made even deeper cuts than Ryan's proposal, but only after a chaotic scene on the House floor. 
In an effort to embarrass Republicans by having them approve a budget that makes deeper cuts than Ryan's proposal, Democrats voted "present" on the Republican Study Committee bill. Initially, 124 Republicans were prepared to support the measure offered by the conservative RSC, but several switched their votes when it appeared the bill might pass. 
In the end, 119 Republicans voted for the RSC budget, with 120 Republicans voting against. The bill failed in a 119-136 vote.
Closing debate on the Ryan plan was about as chaotic as the RSC vote, as Republicans and Democrats were interrupted eight times by protesters in the gallery. The House appeared to be considering closing the gallery, but after one six-minute delay continued on.

Republicans closed their arguments for the Ryan proposal by saying that the government is broke and that the $14 trillion government debt must be brought down in order to assure companies, families and the world that the government is taking steps to manage its finances and reduce the risk of higher inflation in the future.

"Will we be remembered as the Congress that did nothing as the nation sped toward a preventable debt crisis and irreversible decline, or will we instead be remembered as a Congress that did the hard work of preventing that crisis, the one that chose this path to prosperity?" Ryan asked during the debate. 

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) added that the GOP plan would keep alive entitlement programs like Medicare; however, he said these entitlements must be addressed if the larger fiscal situation is to be resolved.

"While it may be seen by some as politically risky, we Republicans are willing to lead because, to be frank, complacency is not an option," Cantor said.

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) added in his closing remarks that Republicans would hold the line against Obama's request for a clean bill to extend the debt ceiling.

"The president wants a clean bill, and the American people will not tolerate it," Boehner said. "Let me be clear: There will be no debt-limit increase unless it's accompanied by serious spending cuts and real budget reforms."
Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) countered by saying both parties want to cut spending but that "the question throughout this debate is not whether, but how we do that." House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated that point by saying the GOP plan should have reduced defense spending rather than cut aid to middle-class Americans.

"I urge a 'no' vote on the Republican plan," Pelosi said.
The GOP resolution won’t be approved by the Senate, and budget resolutions do not go to the president or hold the force of law.
Still, the resolution is important in laying down a marker for House Republicans. Ryan has said that the GOP will deem his budget as the ceiling for spending for 2012.
For this reason, the most important aspect of the resolution is the allocation it gives to the Appropriations Committee for next year: $1.019 trillion in non-emergency spending. This number will play a big role in a looming spending fight in the fall.
It also means that the GOP will be demanding a further cut of at least $31 billion in September from levels set by the White House budget deal that passed the Congress on Thursday.
If Republicans and Democrats cannot agree on appropriations spending by Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year, the government will shut down.
Ryan’s resolution would balance the budget by 2040 without raising tax rates. Instead, the budget calls for the corporate and top individual tax rates to be lowered from 35 percent to 25 percent.
The budget’s provisions on Medicare brought tough criticism from Obama this week.
To rein in costs, the program coverts Medicare to a type of voucher system for those currently under 55 years of age. Instead of government-run Medicare, seniors would buy private insurance plans and the government would foot some of the bill.
The savings comes from the fact that the “premium support” is capped, something the Congressional Budget Office says will result in seniors having to pay much more out of pocket for healthcare as costs rise faster than inflation.
Obama this week called for wringing savings from Medicare by giving new powers to the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) to limit Medicare payments. He said Ryan’s plan would end Medicare as it is now known.
On Medicaid, the Ryan budget converts the federal share of the program into a block grant, which is also capped. Democrats have pointed out that the very elderly often rely on Medicaid once nursing homes have drained their savings.
The House also rejected three other alternative proposals. One, from Van Hollen, was defeated in a 166-259 vote. A Progressive Caucus budget was rejected in a 77-347 vote, and one from the Congressional Black Caucus was rejected 103-303.
A fifth proposal that would have implemented the recommendations of Obama's debt commission was not offered. Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) withdrew his proposal Thursday night, indicating that a House vote against it might spoil efforts in the Senate to reach an agreement based on the recommendations of the president's fiscal commission.

"I do not think it is wise to risk doing anything to derail or impair those behind-the-scenes negotiations, which I am told by key senators in both parties could be the result of a premature House vote," Cooper said.