Le Colonel Neville s’habille Tojours Pour le Diner. Semper Fi. Thomas Sowell: "There are three questions that I think would destroy most of the arguments on the left. The first is compared to what? The second is at what cost and the third is what hard evidence do you have?” Live free or die or both. Satirical empirical conservative. No, really.
Pictured above, James T. Meggesto was famous for his party trick of 'eerie' Saul Alinsky impressions, unless of course there was a lampshade handy. “The first time he did an Alinsky I thought it was Alinsky!” says a friend who wished to remain anonymous and would only give the pseudonym of ‘Barry O’. Said the friend: “Oh yeah, I remember ‘Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it’. Jimmy used to get us all to sing chorus after endless freakin’ chorus of that song. It used to drive Hillary nuts. She'd just sit there all in a funk alone in the corner with a lampshade on her head.”
Dear James T. Meggesto:
Washington D.C. T. [1] 202.887.4147 immeggesto@akingump.com
Having read your masterpiece statement regards Paul Mirengoff’s post at the Powerline blog via Mark Steyn and legalinsurrection, I must inform you that your use of the phrase “shocked, appalled and embarrassed” is also the title of the famous Spaghetti Western of the same name by Sergio Leoni: “The Shocked, The Appalled and The Embarrassing”, starring Clint Eastwood.
In the film, Clint plays "The Man With No Identity Politics” who makes the mistake of riding into the town of ‘Socialist Shakedown’, a long-term Democrat voter base and thus largely welfare dependent and vice ridden, and run by Madoff Manson Hyde Alinsky and Goebbels, a notoriously corrupt gang of lawyers who feign outrage on behalf of the Raquit Indian tribe, all in order to silence and extract money from any objecting local townspeople, and anyone else who happens to innocently wander into their own 'personal' town.
Of course in the film it’s Clint who rides into this very town or as he calls it: "a liberal shithole", while coolly ignoring the sign at the city limits that menacingly reads “WELCOME TO SOCIALIST SHAKEDOWN. IT’S A PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRAT KINDA PLACE AND WE WANT IT TO STAY THE SAME WAY! FOREVER!!”
Clint enters the saloon where everyone is singing an ode to Raquit Indians with a chorus that goes “Oh great wise and superior to all are the Raquit Indian ways! None can come close to their brilliance, fun and advanced laughter techniques! All bow down before The Great Raquit!”
While Clint orders his drink at the bar he’s approached by a stranger who asks him to remove his hat and why he alone is not joining in the group praise. “Mebbe I don’t want to” answers Clint. “But everyone wants to! I got their written confessions that they do right here!”, says the stranger.
Eastwood as “The Man With No Ideology” looks him right in the eye and drawls, “All I see is a bunch of pathetic yellow belly Yankees scared of their own shadows. ‘Sides, there ain’t no money in it fer me. Now if you’ll be so kind..” Clint puts his drink to his lips just as the stranger knocks it from his hand, spilling Clint’s tumbler of 'That Old Bastard Owl Whiskey’ on the floor.
Clint squints hard at the stranger and reaches for his Colt Equaliser as the entire room of people including the stranger, run out the door crying like the yella bellies they are. The stranger then peeps through one of the saloon doors and says in a high pitched voice, “You’ll be hearing from Socialist Shakedown’s lawyers!”, before scampering down the street like a polecat.
Boy, what a coincidence, eh?!
Now the problem I have is that I feel that your statement “shocked, appalled and embarrassed” is I feel, perhaps even for arguments sake, allegedly but not necessarily so, aimed at insulting my Down Under tribe known as The Bullshit Detectors. I feel that allegedly YOU think, I feel, that people would naturally be “shocked, appalled and embarrassed” by us! I feel. Allegedly. What do I know...
Yet we’re a grand bunch from an ancient culture steeped in recognising bullshit as a basic mechanism to maintain our universal and unalienable Creator Endowed First Amendment Rights. [Our mortal enemies The Bullshitter’s are a swarming sort of tribe, marked by their deceptive and naturally thievin’ big government and downright dangerous to liberty ways, but I digress.]
Now I feel this must be an insult allegedly, I feel, squarely aimed at us because no-one honest and NOT for example only, not a sanctimonious, self-serving, phony shakedown artist would think, say or much less write such a steaming pile of logical fallacy buffalo pies, I feel. Allegedly. Whatever. Real baloney perhaps entirely coincidentally like that, can even cause us existential pain! It’s as if someone wants to destroy our liberty and thus our very life, much like those awful Bullshitter's!
I felt for example and just throwing it up in the air here, how could any non-rent seeking lawyer for arguments sake, for example, I feel, make such an allegedly insensitive and wholly inappropriate slanderous drivel blizzard I feel, for example, against say the use of an honorary Bullshit Detector's Constitutional right to free speech, which empirically critiqued the recent hijacking of a service held in Tucson, Arizona. But not necessarily, for example. I feel.
As soon as I and the rest of my tribe became aware of your alleged posting, we took immediate action to deal firmly with this unfortunate situation. Accordingly, after sniffing the air to gauge the size of your alleged excreted poundage, the Bullshit Detector’s Big Kahunaroonie, John Adams [no relation] issued the following statement:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
We liked it so much that a couple of us guys got into an old Time Machine we had just lyin’ around and travelled back in time! We gave John Adams idea to the actual second American President of the same name. How cool is that?!
Everything we have we owe entirely to the men and women of our military and the sacrifice of their families. Support the troops and we support our own continued existence. Those who do not, are merely part of the equation of the defeat, death and dishonour of the free Western Canon, and their own suicide at the hands of a more confident and determined mortal enemy. It's as simple as that. God bless our troops.
"So tenderly your story is nothing more Than what you see or what you've done Or will become standing strong Do you belong in your skin Just wondering
Gentle now the tender breeze blows Whispers through my Gran Torino Whistling another tired song
Engine hums and bitter dreams Grow heart locked in a Gran Torino It beats a lonely rhythm All night long It beats a lonely rhythm All night long It beats a lonely rhythm All night long
Realign all the stars above my head Warning signs travel far I drink instead On my own oh,how I've known The battle scars and worn out beds
Gentle now a tender breeze blows Whispers through a Gran Torino Whistling another tired song
Engine hums and bitter dreams Grow heart locked in a Gran Torino It beats a lonely rhythm All night long It beats a lonely rhythm All night long It beats a lonely rhythm All night long."
My dear friends of the still Free Western Canon, I just watched Clint Eastwood’s masterpiece Million Dollar Bay for the 9th time I believe. Great film and art always reflects some greater truth, eh? I have Gaelic family. My darling. My blood. Mo Quish. All we have and the thought of it being infiltrated, Taquiyaa'd, blasted and beheaded... How do you really feel about that? Don't wait for it to come alive as some horrible movie that won't end, like 9/11.
The enemies of humanity and values can rationalise ANYTHING to oblivion. Step into them, deflect and counter-punch, baby.
Their milk is treason, thus the endless Hollywood slander junk against our great serving troops that bomb consecutively. Lionel Chetwynd on Woody’s latest tedium and Hollywood Liberal dystopian nightmare as dreams.
But let me say this, I’m not going to let all that I value to be touched and destroyed from within and without, whatever form censure might take. Not while I’m alive. Yeah, I'm gonna do something really er...ineffective!
“Courage is not merely one of the virtues, but the virtue at the testing point”.C.S. Lewis.
“You’ll be damned in Hell before I’m gone”.Jim Morrison.
I digress. All us conservative libertarian rational hipsters can peruse the MSM anytime and be soiled with their standard acceptable bigotry, fraud, mediocrity and genuine heartfelt incompetence. Thus the wifey puts on the largely pointless 60 Minutes where a local hack is reporting on the US elections. I’ve seen this format a hundred times since I was twelve.
You know the drill. Discredit Republicans by going South, mid-West or Texas to interview the working-class or wrong kind of middle-class white people and then make them look as bad as possible. Reminds me of a sub-genre of how Goebbels the Nazi vampire stick insect, filmed the Slavic races and the Jews.
The average MSM hack never interviews black Republicans or Latino Republicans, or Asian Republicans or show an ounce of honest respect and decency to white Republicans. But the MSM always remember the two-faced condescension, while feigning "I'm listening to you, so please, take me into your confidence".
This monstrous manipulation and out and out bigotry would never be tried on black or Asians, black Republican groups or individuals of which there are many. Hell, the MSM ain't gonna interview them. They assume that all blacks are Democrats. Unlike the fabulous Alfonso Rachel.
“Boxing is about respect: getting it for yourself and taking it from the other guy”.Million Dollar Baby.
“Some people think a fighter is all about heart. Show me a fighter that’s all heart and I’ll show you a man waiting to get beat”.Million Dollar Baby.
As in Londonistan, in Australia too we have Police, government officials and many others so incompetent, retarded, deluded, suicidal and wilfully disingenuous, made plain stupid on multi-cultism, that they can say crap like the following via the relentlessly fake Al Age newtpaper:
“Assistant Commissioner Stephen Fontana said Victoria Police was developing a new set of terms to describe terrorist-related crime and planning to drop words with religious connotations from official statements. He said it was important to emphasise the criminal nature of terrorist activity and not link the action with a specific community or religion”.
Colonel Neville: Yes, definitely not linked to Islamic religion based on eternal warfare, mass murder and deception founded by a psychopathic bandit, pedophile, rapist and Jew hater called Mohammad. Yep, nothing to do with the fact that Muslims commit 95% of all global violence and terror acts. Amazingly cowardly, intellectually bankrupt and lying bastards, ain’t they?
“Since 2002, 29 people have been charged with terrorism offences in Australia, with nine convicted and a number of cases still pending. An opinion poll last month showed 72% of Australians rank combating international terrorism as a top priority.
Mr McClelland said recent cases in Melbourne — with seven men convicted of terrorism-related offences in September — should give the public faith in the legal process. "The fact the jury didn't carte blanche convict all defendants on all charges should reassure the Australian community that the way the laws are framed does have appropriate balance," he said”.
Colonel Neville: Funny, but it gives me the opposite feeling to er, “confidence” in any system. Perhaps in part because with all the accused being total Islamists, they were by default, intent, nature and actions all as guilty as Islamic Hell.
“If she keeps hitting like that, she’s gonna break her wrist”.Million Dollar Baby.
“Hes constantly moving, moving towards you. He’s moving around ya, and movin’ away from you”.Million Dollar Baby.
“Winners are only willing to do what losers won’t do”.Million Dollar Baby.
“In a prelude to the largest criminal trial in Sydney's history, Commonwealth Crown Prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, told potential jurors the case was against a group of men who allegedly "strongly adhered to the Islamic faith and were each motivated by a particular religious, political and ideological cause - that being the pursuit of violent jihad.
Each wore a full beard and they were dressed in plain shirts with the exception of one, who was wearing a green prison tracksuit”
Colonel Neville: Full weirdy beards? Ya don’t say?
News com: “Mr Maidment said the act of terror the men were allegedly planning involved the detonation of an explosive device or devices and the use of weapons.
He said between July, 2004, and November 8, 2005, the men allegedly sought to obtain large quantities of firearms, ammunition and chemicals, including acetone and hydrogen peroxide, which would have enabled them to build devices "capable of causing substantial damage and loss of life."
Mr Maidment also said written instructions on how to build explosives and a large amount of literature supportive of Osama Bin Laden was found in their possession. He said the accused men allegedly believed jihad - holy war - was founded in the teachings of the Islamic faith.
"That meant that each of the accused men were motivated to carry out violent activities against members of the Australian community in pursuit of their ideals."
Colonel Neville:The mens “ideals” eh? Funny how few Buddhist, Taoist, Anglicans and Animists have the same “ideals”, innit?
News com: “Justice Anthony Whealy emphasised the mens' right to a fair trial and urged potential jurors with prejudices against Muslims not to participate: "If any of you feel that you in any way are biased towards Muslims, there is no place for you as a juror in this present trial.
"Similarly, if you are of the Muslim faith and harbour resentment towards non-Muslims, you shouldn't offer your services." News com.
Colonel Neville: So you want beyond belief pig ignorant Infidels or Muslim apostates. Gotcha. Check. Nuance. Still, Amrozi the wonderful smiling Indonesian Muslim fuckwit leaves little room for shades of grey. Though for many of our Head Police, authorities and MSM, living in a grey and fuzzy PC idiots fantasy land is automatic and no trouble at all.
Here's the Bali loons: “Amrozi declared in his letter that every "fellow Muslim" needed to raise his hands "to offend the infidels and Thagut [non-believers] that wronged the Muslim, by cutting their necks [beheading]".
This, he warned, would be the only way to stop "their cruelty to us".
Samudra directed his letter to people in the West, suggesting they should not be surprised "if America, the so-called superpower, is beaten, almost dying," and it would lose "the war against the mujahideen".
"You, the little people, will be easy to 'smack down' by the mujahideen." "You will be defeated in this world and will be taken to hell."
"Who doesn't know that the toothless giant, the US infidel and their allies, are now dying.
How can it be, Andi Matalata [Indonesia's Human Rights and Law Minister] … and all the judges from Bali do not understand this? Don't understand that America is 'klepek-klepek' [a slang word used to describe the death throes of an animal as it is slaughtered]...
I feel that killing infidels isn't a mistake because they don't pray."
Colonel Neville: There’s the short and tall of it. And here’s the core of it. Islam is the psychopathic way.
“...what Islam advocates and its attitudes is a very streamlined way of behaving in a psychopathic way. I say 'psychopathic way' because in reality, the brains of psychopaths are different from those of others - in not responding to emotion, not having a conscience, not having empathy, not showing remorse, enjoying the thrill of creating havoc and destruction. The thing is, that brain scans show that those areas of the brain which should function when matters of emotion, empathy and conscience are concerned - simply do not do so, or do so minimally.
Psychopaths are more or less born that way and can do no better - they have some excuse for their appalling behaviouurs.
Now where Islam is concerned - you have the actual teaching of a lack of empathy to Jews, Christians, non Muslims and so on - you have an inculcation of a lack of fundamental moral norms in regard to those one designates as enemies and then you get people cheering in the Muslim world at the site of wanton destruction initiated by suicide bombers.
Actually, while I have used the word psychopathic here - there is a case for using the word 'sociopathic'- something very similar to psychopathic - in relation to Muslims - the sociopath has all the psychopathic features listed above but tends to acquire them through validation of a soial group - i.e. may not necessarily be born with them. It is a vexed question.
However, in Islam we have a global belief system that has institutionalised sociopathic/psychopathic behaviours towards those it designates enemies - and has even claimed Allah told them to behave this way’. Wendy Larkson via Islam Monitor.
Colonel Neville: As you know, all these collections of Islamic crimes du jour, could be replaced with another soul searing collection, or another and another and all from among millions more. So dig the randomness of the deliberation of pure Muslim hatred .
Around a year ago Walid Ali said the Maldives were a great example of a Muslim”Paradise!” Naturally he lied. The Maldives are a typical and natural Islamic shit pile. A lot of that merde came out of our Wal.
Police raid uber creeping out child wedding. Guess which er, "religion?" Angican? Watusi Orthodox?
More wonderful and beyond belief details on Khalidi and Obama via FOX & Daniel Pipes.
Now this is so insane it's almost beautiful. Scumbag Obama adviser calls for military invasion of um, Israel. No, really.
Eleven year-old Indian Muslim girl set on fire by kindly old Muslim Uncle for wearing lipstick.
Great piece on Irfan Yusuf, the pineapple headed Islamist phony. His pro-Islamist lies about Daniel Pipes in the Australian. Retracts! PLUS links & numbers to Hindu Lawyer fighting in an Indian court for his book exposing Islam via outrageous FACTS.
Another non-story in our MSM, because they’re only white people.
“Loving Dad Muslim” in Sydney shootout crossfire. One of the few of the enormous list of Muslim crime that goes largely unremarked and unreported in Australia.
“If there’s a magic in boxing, there’s magic in fighting beyond endurance, beyond cracked ribs, ruptured kidneys and detached retina’s. It’s the magic of risking everything for a dream that nobody sees but you”.Million Dollar Baby.
"Boxing is an unnatural act, cos everything is backwards. You wanna move to the left, you you don’t step left, you push on the right toe. To move right, you push on your left toe. Instead of running from the pain like a sane person would do, you step into it”.Million Dollar Baby.
One of our great SAS heroes. Without these men and women of the military, we would have nothing.
“How to fight back in a huff so the other guy doesn’t want to come after you”.Million Dollar Baby.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/latest/5095439/returning-soldiers-hit-30000/ Australian Army Pay Master says thankyou to troops for only $30,000.
“To make a good fighter, you gotta strip them down to bare wood”.Million Dollar Baby.
"Nothing human can be alien to me. Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto. I am a man, [a human being] [therefore] nothing human can be foreign to me". Roman writer Terence [Terentius] [c. 190-160 BCE] Sheridan Conlaw.
Dear sports, I know you too may be feeling a little stressed, under pressure, frustrated or plain old sickened. I know I do.
Which is rather surprising, considering I thought I was one of the minor Gods. Sadly, I was rather rudely mistaken. Would a God feel pain from a six year old fist in the groin? Or would “You suck Dad!” elicit “Thanks for the endorsement, kid”. Nope. Or would they? Tah dah! What the Hell do I know?
Why the Hell ain’t I in America making money for my wonderfully feeble and almost writing? Ah, the Hell with it. When do I get that call from Clint Eastwood? Or Roger Eastwood, the fruiterer? Or Mark Steyn, the non-fruiterer? Or even that nice old Mrs Freeblemeister from downstairs. Sure, she smells like mothballs and sardines, but she always has those fabulous Madeleine Cakes...I'll never forget them.
So what went wrong, kids? Well, a man can only make so many mistakes of judgement...
Ah, thus the philosophical consolations of Alain De Botton, Bruce Lee and The Three Stooges. I hope you dig this. These are a few of my favourite things among many I guess. Hey, philosophy...it's a kick. Use some today! Colonel Neville.
“In Ancient Greece or Rome, philosophers were seen as natural authorities on the most pressing questions. However, since then, the idea of finding wisdom from philosophy has come to seem bizarre. Enter a university department today and ask to study wisdom, and you will politely but firmly be shown the door.
The Consolations of Philosophy sets out to refute the notion that good philosophy must be irrelevant and gathers together six great philosophers who were convinced of the power of philosophical insight to work a practical effect on our lives.
Socrates, Epicurus, Seneca, Montaigne, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche are read for the light their work can shine on certain great universal problems, among them, unpopularity, poverty, inadequacy, lovelessness and timidity. The book amounts to a guide to wisdom - as well as to the practical utility of philosophy”. From The Consolations Of Philosophy by Alain De Botton.
Status Anxiety by Alain De Botton: “...is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser. This is a book about status anxiety.
We care about our status for a simple reason: because most people tend to be nice to us according to the amount of status we have (it is no coincidence that the first question we tend to be asked by new acquaintances is ‘ What do you do?’). With the help of philosophers, artists and writers, the book examines the origins of status anxiety (ranging from the consequences of the French Revolution to our secret dismay at the success of our friends), before revealing ingenious ways in which people have learnt to overcome their worries in their search for happiness. It aims not only to be entertaining, but wise and helpful as well”.
Al on why authentic philosophy always considers the value and meaning of love: "Love...interrupts at every hour the most serious occupations, and sometimes perplexes for a while even the greatest minds. It does not hesitate...to interfere with the negotiations of statesmen and the investigations of the learned. It knows how to slip its love-notes and ringlets even into ministerial portfolios and philosophical manuscripts...It sometimes demands the sacrifice of...health, sometimes of wealth, position and happiness."
Why should such deception even be necessary? Because, for Schopenhauer, we would not reliably assent to reproduce unless we first had lost our minds.
The intellect understands only so much as is necessary to promote reproduction - which may mean understanding very little.
6. The analysis surely violates a rational self-image, but at least it counters suggestions that romantic love is an avoidable escapade from more serious tasks, that it is forgivable for youngsters with too much time on their hands to swoon by moonlight and sob beneath bedclothes, but that it is unnecessary and demented for their seniors to neglect their work because they have glimpsed a face on a train.
By conceiving of love as biologically inevitable, key to the continuation of the species, Schopenhauer's theory of the will invited us to adopt a more forgiving stance towards the eccentric behaviour to which we are so often subject". Alain De Botton.Philosophy.
Maverick Philosopher. "I don't endorse the following example, but it is worth thinking about. Suppose we want to explain why the universe exists, and we want to do so without recourse to anything transcendent of the universe: we seek a satisfactory immanent explanation.
Suppose further, contrary to current cosmology, that the universe always existed. Let's also assume that to explain the parts of a whole is to explain the whole. To adapt an example of Paul Edwards, suppose the Three Stooges are hanging out at the corner of Hollywood and Vine on a certain afternoon.
To explain why the boys are there at that time it suffices to explain why Larry is there, why Moe is there, and why Curly Joe is there. Having explained why each is there, one has explained why the trio is there. It would be senseless to demand an explanation of why the trio is there after one has been given satisfactory explanations of why each member of the trio is there. The trio is not something over and above its members.
Applying this Hume-Edwards principle -- the principle that to explain the parts of a whole is to explain the whole -- to the universe, one could say that to explain why the universe exists it suffices to explain why each phase of the universe exists, so that, if each phase of the universe has an explanation, then eo ipso the universe has an explanation. Now if the universe is temporally infinite in the past direction, and each phase of the universe is caused by an earlier phase, then every phase of the universe has a causal explanation in terms of an earlier phase.
Since no phase, no temporal part, of the universe lacks an explanation, and since the universe as process just is the whole of these temporal parts, and since to explain the parts of a whole is to explain the parts, it seems to follow that the universe is self-explanatory, that its existence can be accounted for in wholly immanent terms. It looks as if a beginningless universe could be causa sui. Let us assume arguendo that this very bad argument I have just inflicted on you is not bad.
In this argument it appears that the infinite regress of causes does positive explanatory work. For if there were a temporally first event, or a temporally first phase of the universe, then one could demand an explanation of it, and this demand could not be immanently satisfied. But if every event or phase has an explanation in terms of an earlier event or phase, then this demand cannot be made. What we have then is a putative example of an actually infinite regress that is not merely harmless, but positively helpful unto explanation".
"Gung fu is so extraordinary because it is nothing at all special. It is simply the direct expression of one's feeling with the minimum of lines and energy. Every movement is being so of itself without the artificiality with which we tend to complicate them. The closer to the true Way of gung fu, the less wastage of expression there is.
Gung fu is to be looked at without fancy suits and matching ties, and it remains a secret while we anxiously look for sophistication and deadly techniques. If there are really any secrets at all, they must have been missed by the "seeing" and "striving" of its practitioners (after all, how many ways are there to come in on an opponent without deviating too much from the natural course?). Gung fu values the wonder of the ordinary, and the idea is not daily increase but daily decrease.
Being wise in gung fu does not mean adding more but being able to remove sophistication and ornamentation and be simply simple, like a sculptor building a statue not by adding, but by hacking away the unessential so that the truth will be revealed unobstructed. Gung fu is satisfied with one's bare hands without the fancy decoration of colourful gloves, which tend to hinder the natural function of the hands. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity while halfway cultivation runs to ornamentation.
There are three stages in the cultivation of gung fu: namely, the primitive stage, the stage of art, and the stage of artlessness.
The primitive stage is the stage of original ignorance in which a person knows nothing of the art of combat. In a fight he simply blocks and strikes instinctively without concern as for what is right and wrong. Of course, he might not be so-called scientific, but he is, nevertheless, being himself.
The second stage, the stage of art, begins when a person starts his training. He is taught the different ways of blocking and striking, the various ways of kicking, of standing, of moving, of breathing, of thinking. Unquestionably he is gaining a scientific knowledge of combat, but unfortunately his original self and sense of freedom are lost, and his action no longer flows by itself. His mind tends to freeze at different movements for calculation and analysis.
Even worse, he might be "intellectually bound" and maintaining himself outside the actual reality.
The third stage, the stage of artlessness, occurs when, after years of serious and hard practice, he realises that, after all, gung fu is nothing special and instead of trying to impose his mind on the art, he adjusts himself to the opponent like water pressing on an earthen wall, it flows through the slightest crack. There is nothing to "try" to do but be purposeless and formless like water. Nothingness prevails; he no longer is confined.
These three stages also apply to the various methods being practiced in Chinese gung fu. Some methods are rather primitive with basic jerky blocking and striking. On the whole, they lack the flow and change of combinations. Some "sophisticated" methods, on the other hand, tend to run to ornamentation and get carried away by grace and showmanship. Whether from the so-called "firm" or "gentle" school, they often involve big, fancy movements with a lot of complicated steps toward one single goal (it is like an artist who, not satisfied with drawing a simple snake, proceeds to put four beautiful and shapely feet on the snake).
When grasped by the collar, for example, these practitioners would "first do this, then this, then finally that", but of course the direct way would be to let the opponent have the pleasure of grasping the collar and simply punch him straight on the nose! To some martial artists of distinguishing taste, this would be a little bit unsophisticated; too ordinary and unartful. However, it is the ordinary that we use and encounter in everyday life.
Art is the expression of the self; the more complicated and restrictive a method is, the less opportunity there is for expression of one’s original sense of freedom. The techniques, although they play an important role in the earlier stage, should not be too complex, restrictive, or mechanical. If we cling to them we will become bound by their limitations.
Remember that man created method, and method did not create man, and do not strain yourself in twisting into someone’s preconceived pattern, which unquestionably would be appropriate for him, but not necessarily for you. You yourself are "expressing" the technique and not "doing" the technique; in fact, there is no doer but the action itself. When someone attacks you, it is not which technique that you use, but the moment you’re aware of his attack you simply move in like sound, an echo without any deliberation. It is as though when I call, you answer me, or when I throw something, you catch it. That’s all.
After all these years of practice in the different schools I have found out this: that techniques are merely simple guide lines to tell the practitioner that he has done enough! Of course, different people have different preferences and therefore I will include different techniques of both the Northern and the Southern schools of gung fu. Observe closely the differences as well as the similarities of utilisation". An article written by Bruce Lee that was never published written on December 21th 1964 to illustrate the different techniques used by the different schools of Gung Fu.
"It may surprise those who think of Bruce Lee primarily as a martial artist that his true passion was philosophy. Even more surprising is the extent of his knowledge of both Eastern and Western philosophy".
Bruce Lee: "If I tell you I'm good, you would probably think I'm boasting, If I tell you I'm no good, You KNOW I'm lying.
Be Formless, shapeless like water. Now if you put water into a cup it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle, you put it into a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash, be water my friend. If there is a God, he is within. You don't ask God to give you things, you depend on God for your inner theme.
Before I practised the Way, A cloud was just a cloud and a mountain was just a mountain. After I'd studied the Way, a cloud was no longer a cloud, a mountain was no longer a mountain. Now that I understand the Way, A cloud is again just a cloud, a mountain is just a mountain. (The clouds and mountains are simply kicks and punches).
The mind is like a fertile garden in which anything that is planted, flowers or weeds, will grow. Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it. The more relaxed the muscles are, the more energy can flow through the body. Using muscular tensions to try to "do" the punch, or attempting to use brute force to knock someone over, will only work to opposite effect.
Mere technical knowledge is only the beginning of Kung Fu, to master it, one must enter into the spirit of it. There are lots of guys around the world that are lazy. They have big fat guts. They talk about chi power and things they can do, but don't believe it.
I'm not a master, I'm a student-master, meaning that I have the knowledge of a master and the expertise of a master, but I'm still learning, So I'm a student-master. I don't believe in the word master, I consider the master as such when they close the casket.
Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.
Jeet Kune Do, It's just a name, don't fuss over it. There's no such thing as a style if you understand the roots of combat.
When I look around I always learn something, and that is to be yourself always, express yourself, and have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate him. Now that seems to be the prevalent thing happening in Hong Kong, like they always copy mannerism, but they never start from the root of his being and that is, how can I be me?
Put every great teacher together in a room, and they'd agree about everything, put their disciples in there and they'd argue about everything. By adopting a certain physical posture, a resonant chord is struck in spirit. Wine may become so dilute that few will drink of it.
Eventually, you learn to read groups of words. Where a student will see three motions, the experienced man will see one, because he see's the overall energy path. The void is no mere emptiness, but is real, free and existing. It is the source from which all things arise and return.
It cannot be seen, touched or known, yet it exists and is freely used. It has no shape, size, colour or form, and yet all that we see, hear, feel and touch is "it". It is beyond intellectual knowing and cannot be grasped by the ordinary mind. When we suddenly awake to the realization that there is no barrier, and has never been seen, one realizes that one is all things, mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, sun, moon, stars, universe are all oneself.
There is no longer a division or barrier between myself and others, no longer any feeling of alienation or fear. Realizing this, results in true compassion. Other people and things are not seen as apart from oneself, on the contrary, as one's own body".Via bruceleedivinewind com
