From: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com To: eskrima-digest@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Subject: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #249 Reply-To: eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Errors-To: eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com Precedence: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest Wed, 17 May 2000 Vol 07 : Num 249 In this issue: eskrima: The Founding Fathers were right! Re: eskrima: Tale of the 4 Datus eskrima: hello list [none] eskrima: Re: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #248 eskrima: Weapon philosophy and FMA [none] ========================================================================== Eskrima-Digest, serving the Internet since June 1994. 1100 members strong! Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry, the Martial Arts Resource, Inayan Eskrima Replying to this message will NOT unsubscribe you. To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe eskrima-digest" (no quotes) in the body (top line, left justified) of a plain text e-mail addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. To send e-mail to this list use eskrima@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com See the Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) FAQ and online search the last five years worth of digest issues at http://www.MartialArtsResource.com Mabuhay ang eskrima! ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Marc Denny" Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 16:52:17 -0700 Subject: eskrima: The Founding Fathers were right! A Howl etc: > From: Rocky Pasiwk > Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 16:29:41 -0400 > Subject: eskrima: Crafty say it ain't so > > Crafty Dog a liberal!!!! No way he has more class than that, say it > ain't so Crafty, please say you have given Top Dog permission to "Put > you Down" if that ever happens. > > I told you before its the Libertarian thing, people who don't know > confuse it with being a liberal. ( I feel all dirty just typing that > word ) > > I have to go shower now. > Rocky ROTFLOL. Forgive him Rocky, he's new to things! For those new to the ED, the seemingly strange montage of my political views most closely falls under the heading "Libertarian". Free Minds and Free Markets Crafty Dog ------------------------------ From: "billlowery" Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 00:34:12 +0100 Subject: Re: eskrima: Tale of the 4 Datus Hi Chad, In the UK we also have Datu David Hoffman. He has trained with Remy Presas for 18 years, and I will be bringing him up to the North east at the end of September to do a seminar (the first in the NE concerning Modern Arnis and Filipino Jiu-Jutsu). Bill Lowery ------------------------------ From: "Phil Tong" Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 18:28:03 -0700 Subject: eskrima: hello list Just joined the list and wanted to say hi! My name is Philip and I've a growing interest in stick fighting (rank beginner). There will be alot more to say later once I figure out this NG stuff :) re: biting and possibility of self-contamination is a real risk. if the fighting is in that close you have pressure point alternatives, locking and/or grappling if your limb(s) are free? but I personally would not rule it out depending on situation. especially since I'm short and usually outweighed. before all these std's the biter had more of a chance infecting the bitee but now not so sure who gets the worse end of it. not the concern if your life is in *immediate* danger though? re: use of sticks illegal here in SF just like nunchaku under baton laws. I can totally imagine the legal quagmire using these for self-defense vs. a "legally-owned" firearm. Weird. I believe it is my right to use any implement in self-defense ie. keys, comb, phone cord, piece of broken glass, whatever. The courts may later decide the fate if response was in accordance to threat. My wife defended herself with a broom against an attacker one time. Thank God someone later came to her aide. I could be in jail for extracting my own revenge on the perp if I ever found him (bad thoughts I know). Tough topics. Please trust that I strive to use my good judgement and that instilled upon me by my parents and teachers. PEACE Phil ------------------------------ From: Luis Pellicer Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 10:17:34 +0800 Subject: [none] >I am just the opposite. Knowing that I have at least a basic weapon to >use to defend myself and those around me makes me far more relaxed. To add to this. If people know you carry a gun they will call you paranoid. Hell, I carry a gun, what do I have to be paranoid about? (Or something like that)-Clint Smith LPIII ------------------------------ From: Taojen1@aol.com Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 22:28:48 EDT Subject: eskrima: Re: Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #248 In a message dated 5/16/00 7:16:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, eskrima-digest-owner@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com writes: << I told you before its the Libertarian thing, people who don't know confuse it with being a liberal. ( I feel all dirty just typing that word ) >> Hmmm. Rock there are more than one stripe of Libertarian. I'm on the leftern side of that fence. There is more than just highways and National defense. Hell, it's a complex world. as Ben Franklin said (probably not the Libertarian than Jefferson was) if we don't all hang together, we will surely all hang separately." I say clean the sewers, as well. Buddy ------------------------------ From: "BILL MCGRATH" Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 00:19:36 -0400 Subject: eskrima: Weapon philosophy and FMA I spent last evening catching up on my email and saw all the recent firearms related posts. I am still a bit surprised that we martial artists (especially practitioners of FMAs) would be involved in arguing over the pros and cons of gun ownership. Perhaps it's because from the time I started with Tuhon Gaje you were equality likely to find him with a gun as a knife. This seemed to be true of many of the owners of martial arts schools we met. I grew up assuming that most martial artists owned firearms. It seemed like a natural and logical thing for them to do (we are learning a warrior's art, are we not?). At seminars we would bring out our different weapons, some knives some guns, and while we might argue which weapon was the best, we never argued about whether to carry one in the first place. I always felt that a firearm was just another tool in the warrior's tool box. Once you have made the decision to use a weapon to defend yourself or your loved ones, I really don't see any other distinction among weapons other than their level of effectiveness. I would warn my follow martial artists that the reverse holds true among those who would ban guns as well. The same people who would ban firearms are the same people who would ban knives and the teaching of any "offensive" martial arts. It is all part of the same mind set. In the posts I saw that things got a little hot between the U.S. list members and our friends in Europe. I can see how Americans can come across as a bit over-zealous when it comes to our Constitution. In our defense, I feel that to be an American is not a nationality, but a philosophy and that philosophy is defined in our Constitution. (bear with me a moment and I'll show how this relates to weapons and martial arts). There are two foundational concepts the Founding Fathers were aiming at in the Constitution. These can be found in the document that was the formal announcement of the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence which reads: 1. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal", All men are equal under the law, but this will do you little good if the law treats everyone equally badly therefore: 2. "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new Government." This was a pretty radical concept at the time. The government (the king) is not the final word on what is right and wrong. There is a standard by which the people can judge the government. From ancient times the king was viewed as the "father" or "god" of the people and should be obeyed as a small child obeys his parent. The men who wrote the founding laws of the U.S. believed that the government should be the servant of the people, but it was not a servant that could be trusted. One of the Founders wrote: "Government is not Justice, it is not Reason, it is Force and a force that, like fire, makes a dangerous servant and a terrible master." Back to martial arts: Why are we studying martial arts? Is not the foundational reason to defend ourselves and our loved ones? If you have an "unalienable" right to life and therefore a right to defend that life, then you also have a right to the tools necessary to that defense. To deny you the right to possess those tools is in reality denying you the right to that self defense. The mindset that would deny you the right to defend yourself or your family with a firearm is the same mindset that would like to ban all "dangerous" knives, it is the same mindset that would like to regulate to death all "offensive" martial arts, it is the mindset that wants to return to the days when the "king" was the "father" or "god" of the people and whose word was absolute authority over every aspect of their lives. It is the mindset of the aristocracy that says the very few should have absolute power over the many. During the days of the Spanish occupation of the Philippines eskrimadors where always on the "cutting edge" of the resistance to tyranny. They used bolos when they had to, but firearms when they could get them. The goal of the warrior in combat is to win. As technology changes, so should our technique. I teach a verity of firearms related techniques, from disarming to retention to extreme close quarters shooting techniques; all under the category of Pekiti-Tirsia (ask me about "Gun Seguidas" some time). I consider firearms use to be a legitimate and logical addition to any combat realistic martial art. If we are going to keep the "martial" in martial arts then firearms should be a legitimate field of study and a legitimate subject for discussion on this list. Regards, Tuhon Bill McGrath Life Member NRA NYS Police Firearms Instructor P.S. If you would like to read a U.S. Federal Court case that gives a clear history of the right to keep and bear arms in the U.S. go to my web site's contents page (www.pekiti-tirsia.com) and scroll down to "U.S. vs. Emerson". ------------------------------ From: Ray Terry Date: Tue, 16 May 2000 21:43:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [none] ------------------------------ End of Inayan_Eskrima/FMA-Digest V7 #249 **************************************** To unsubscribe from the eskrima-digest send the command: unsubscribe eskrima-digest -or- unsubscribe eskrima-digest your.old@address in the BODY of an email (top line, left justified) addressed to majordomo@hpwsrt.cup.hp.com. Old digest issues are available via ftp://ftp.martialartsresource.com. Copyright 1994-2000: Ray Terry and the Martial Arts Resource Standard disclaimers apply.