Fighting for the values and ideas that this country was founded upon: God, The Constitution, Liberty, Family and the guts to stand up for it all.
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
http://westernrifleshooters.blogspot.com/2010/07/bracken-cw2-cube-mapping-meta-terrain.html?m=1
Saturday, October 13, 2012
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
MICROSTAMPING MAY CAUSE GUN MAKER TO MOVE, SAYS CCRKBA
Monday, October 8, 2012
Thought of the Day
Across cultures and time, honor and manliness have been inextricably tied together. In many cases, they were synonymous. Honor lost was manhood lost. Because honor was such a central aspect of a man’s masculine identity, men would go to great lengths to win honor and prevent its loss.
If we take even a cursory look at history, honor pops up over and over again as a central theme in literature and life. The epic poems of Homer are primarily about honor and man’s quest to achieve and maintain it. If you read Shakespeare’s plays with a close eye, you’ll find that honor and manhood take center stage as reoccurring themes. During the 17th and all the way into the early 20th century, upperclass men in Europe and the United States regularly engaged in duels on “fields of honor” to defend their manhood. When signing the Declaration of Independence, the American Founding Fathers “mutually pledged to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.”
But what exactly is honor?
We throw the word around quite a bit in our modern lexicon and give it a lot of lip service, but if you were to ask someone, “What is honor?” you’ll likely be answered with furrowed brows and head scratches. We think we know what it is, but often find it difficult to articulate when pressed. If you’re lucky enough to get an answer out of someone, they’ll likely say that honor means being true to a set of personal ideals, or being a man of integrity.
Honor=integrity is the point to which the definition of honor has evolved and what it generally means in our society today. In fact, it’s how we defined honor in our book, The Art of Manliness Manvotionals.
That definition of honor, while correct in our modern use of the word, doesn’t really capture the concept of honor that Homer wrote about, that countless duelists died for, and that our Founding Fathers swore upon. Except for a few pockets of society like the military, fire departments, and criminal gangs, honor, as millions of men from the past understood it, barely exists in the modern West. When folks in the mainstream do bring up this type of honor, it’s usually done in jest. (See Man Code or Bro Code).
And while there are certainly some very troubling aspects of honor as it was understood in the past (which we’ll explore), I believe that part of the decline of manhood in America and other Western countries can be traced in part to a lack of a positive notion and healthy appreciation of the kind of classic honor that compelled (and checked) our manly ancestors.
Over the next few weeks, we’re going to explore honor — what it is, its history and decline in the West, and its moral quandaries. We’ll also investigate how we can revive manly honor in a culture that fears, mocks, and suppresses it.
Today, we’ll begin by exploring what honor is. This post will lay the foundation of our discussion over the next few weeks. I’ll be honest with you: once you move beyond surface definitions, honor is not an easy topic to understand and requires you to really get your cognitive gears in motion. Surprisingly little has been written on such an important subject, and the anthropologists, sociologists, and historians who have tackled it have tended to describe various parts and expressions of it, without ever seeming to find its core. For example one of the few books on the subject, Honor: A History by James Bowman, is filled with a ton of fascinating insights into the history of honor, but at the end, one is left with the impression that Bowman himself wasn’t entirely sure what it meant. It is simply extremely difficult to recapture and describe something that was once so intrinsic to people’s lives that they did not feel the need to explain it. I cannot hope to do better than the academics who have come before, but I have tried to synthesize and distill out the most salient and important points to understand about the classic idea of honor and what it means for manliness.
Horizontal vs. Vertical Honor
Anthropologist Frank Henderson Stewart makes the case that honor comes in two types: horizontal and vertical.
Horizontal Honor
Horizontal honor is defined as the “right to respect among an exclusive society of equals.”
Horizontal honor = mutual respect. But don’t let the term “mutual respect” fool you. We’re not talking about the sort of watered-down “respect-me-simply-because-I’m-a-human-being” kind of respect that pervades our modern culture. For horizontal honor to mean anything, it must be contingent upon certain unyielding standards in order to maintain honor within the group.
The existence of horizontal honor is premised on three elements:
A code of honor. A code of honor lays out the standards that must be reached in order for a person to receive respect within a group. These rules outline what it takes to obtain honor (or respect), and how it may be lost. That last stipulation is paramount: honor that cannot be lost is not honor.
Codes of honor often lay out very high standards for the group, but despite their difficulty, codes of honor are always viewed as minimum standards for inclusion. If you can’t meet them, then you’re seen as deficient, even despicable, and are thus shamed.
An honor group. An honor group consists of individuals who understand and have committed to live the code of honor. That everyone in the group has done this is understood by all other members of the group. Because honor depends on respect, an honor group must be a society of equals. Honor is based on the judgments of other members in the group, therefore the opinion of those members must matter to you, and they won’t if you don’t see them as your equals. Respect is a two-way street. While you might respect someone above you in the social pecking order, it’s hard to respect someone you think is beneath you.
Honor groups must also be exclusive. If everyone and anyone can be part of the group, regardless of whether they live by the code or not, then honor becomes meaningless. Egalitarianism and honor cannot coexist.
Finally, the honor group needs to be tight-knit and intimate. A society governed by mutual respect requires everyone in the society to know each other and interact face-to-face. Honor cannot exist in a society where anonymity dominates.
Shame. A person who fails to live up to the group’s code loses his honor — his right to the respect of the other honor group members as equals. A healthy feeling of shame, or the recognition that a person has failed to live up to the honor group’s code is necessary for honor to exist. When individuals stop caring whether they’ve lost their right to respect in the group (i.e. living without shame), honor loses its power to compel and check individuals’ behavior.
Horizontal honor is an all-or-nothing game. You either have the respect of your peers or you don’t. Bringing dishonor upon yourself by failing to meet the minimum standards of the group (or showing disdain or indifference for those standards) means exclusion from the group, as well as shame. Thus, in a tribe/team/group/gang, horizontal honor serves as a dividing line between us and them, between the honorable and the despicable.
I like to think of horizontal honor as your membership card into a club. To get the card, you need to meet a baseline of criteria. When you present the card at the clubhouse door, you have access to all the rights and privileges that come with being a member of that club. To maintain your status and inclusion in the club, you must conform to the club rules. Failure to conform results in your membership card being taken away and exclusion from the club.
This card analogy still resonates today in the few corrupted threads of honor that remain in our culture. Men will talk about taking away each other’s “man cards” — but the violations that invoke this mocking “punishment” are for frivolous things like drinking a fruity cocktail at a bar, and bear only the faintest echoes of the original code of men.
Vertical Honor
Vertical honor, on the other hand, isn’t about mutual respect, but is rather about giving praise and esteem to those “who are superior, whether by virtue of their abilities, their rank, their services to the community, their sex, their kinship, their office, or anything else.” (Stewart p. 59). Vertical honor, by its nature, is hierarchical and competitive. Vertical honor goes to the man who not only lives the code of honor, but excels at doing so.
So, vertical honor = praise, esteem, admiration.
In What Is Honor? Alexander Welsh makes the case that for vertical honor to exist, horizontal honor must first be present. Without a baseline of mutual respect among equal peers (horizontal honor), winning praise and esteem (vertical honor) means very little.
To illustrate this point, imagine you write a novel. Your mom and dad say it’s the best thing they’ve ever read. Two published novelists also read it and say it’s the best thing they’ve ever read. Whose praise means more to you?
The praise from the other novelists, of course.
Sure, kudos from your parents is nice, but their opinion doesn’t mean too much to you because you don’t respect them as fellow writers. Getting praise from your fellow writers? That means a lot.
To add on to my club analogy, vertical honor is like the awards and trophies that clubs bestow on members. To even be considered for the award, you need to be a member of the club; you need the membership card (horizontal honor). But being a card carrying member isn’t enough. To win a trophy, you must distinguish yourself from your peers by outperforming them and achieving excellence according to the club’s code.
Honor = Reputation
So “honor” as our forebears understood it consisted of two parts: respect from the honor group (horizontal honor) and praise from the honor group (vertical honor). Implicit in this bipartite notion of honor is that it depends on the opinion of others. You can have a sense of your own honor, but that isn’t enough — others must recognize your honor for it to exist. Or as anthropologist Julian Pitt-Rivers put it:
“Honour is the value of a person in his own eyes, but also in the eyes of his society. It is his estimation of his own worth, his claim to pride, but it is also the acknowledgment of that claim, his excellence recognized by society, his right to pride.”
Thus, honor is a reputation worthy of respect and admiration.
Manhood and Honor
So we’ve uncovered that honor is a reputation worthy of respect and admiration, and you earn that reputation by allegiance to an honor code. The next questions that naturally arise are: What code of honor must a man abide by to have respect from men, to be thought of as a man, and be included in the group of men (horizontal honor)? And what must he do to win praise and esteem from his fellow men (vertical honor)?
While honor is universal to both men and women, its standards have historically been gendered. While codes of honor have varied across time and cultures, in its most primitive form, honor has meant chastity for women and courage for men. To courage and honor itself, Jack Donovan, author of The Way of Men, convincingly adds strength and mastery to the traits that constitute the most basic code of men.
How did this connection between manhood, bravery, and honor evolve?
During times when the rule of law was weak, and professional military and law enforcement bodies did not exist, honor acted as the moral force that governed the tribe and maintained its survival. Men were expected to act as the tribe’s protectors, a role in which strength and courage were vitally necessary. If they were not strong physically, they were expected to contribute in another way through mastery of a skill (shaman, medicine man, scout, weapons and craft-maker, etc.) that benefited the tribe. Honor is what motivated men to fulfill these expectations. If they showed courage and mastery, they were honored as men (horizontal honor), and with that honor came the privileges of being a full member of the tribe. If they excelled at the honor code, they were granted even more status, and thus more privileges (vertical honor). But, if they showed cowardice and laziness, then they were shamed as unmanly, and lost their access to those privileges.
Defending One’s Honor
This is why defending one’s honor, or reputation, was (in many cases) a matter of success and ruin, life and death, for our manly ancestors. Even as late as 19th century America, maintaining your honor was essential to getting a good job as a lawyer or politician, and moving into good society. Thus in order to continue to enjoy the privileges due the honorable, men were highly motivated and incredibly vigilant about staying on the honor side of the shame/honor line. It was for this reason that in many honor cultures (although not all) any injury or insult to one’s reputation required immediate remedy. If you got hit, you hit back. Saving face was paramount, and retaliation was done to prove you were “game” — you still had the courage that made you worthy of honor and would not be trifled with (think of dueling).
This retaliatory honor, called reflexive honor by anthropologists, was both inspiring and troubling for Western society going all the way back to the ancient Greeks. If taken to extremes, reflexive honor becomes an “irrational pissing contest” that can destroy the community. For this reason, as societies become more civilized, they try to temper man’s base instinct to retaliate when their honor has been impugned by giving reflexive honor a moral and ethical framework, and adding virtues like mercy and magnanimity to the code of honor which had to be kept. This tempering of reflexive honor is what gave us knightly chivalry and Victorian gentlemanliness with its notions of “fair play.”
A Man’s Honor, The Group’s Honor
Concern for one’s honor was both a selfish and selfless pursuit. On the one hand, men wanted to be thought of as men and respected members of the tribe, and desired the privileges that went with that (horizontal honor). Membership in the group also entitled them to the opportunity to gain vertical honor and further status and privilege through their worthy deeds. Their reputation for strength and courage also kept other men within the tribe from messing with them.
At the same time, a man’s honorable reputation benefited the tribe as a whole. Each individual man’s reputation for courage in the group added to the group’s reputation for courage and strength. The more formidable a group’s reputation, the less likely it would have been for other groups to try to mess with it. This is why men who do not care about their honor are shamed by the group — their disloyalty puts the whole group at greater risk. Or as Bowman puts it, “The worst of the sins against honor–culminating in actual cowardice and flight–always elevated the individual above the group.”
Donovan explains this intra/inter group dynamic of honor well:
“Men who want to avoid being rejected by the gang will work hard and compete with each other to gain the respect of the male gang. Men who are stronger, more courageous and more competent by nature will compete with each other for higher status within that group. As long as there is something to be gained by achieving a higher position within the gang—whether it is greater control, greater access to resources or just peer esteem and the comfort of being higher in the hierarchy than the guys at the bottom—men will compete against each other for a higher position. However, because humans are cooperative hunters, the party-gang principle scales down to the individual level. Just as groups of men will compete against each other but unite if they believe more can be gained through cooperation, individual men will compete within a gang when there is no major external threat but then put aside their differences for the good of the group. Men aren’t wired to fight or cooperate; they are wired to fight and cooperate.
Understanding this ability to perceive and prioritize different levels of conflict is essential to understanding The Way of Men and the four tactical virtues. Men will constantly shift gears from in-group competition to competition between groups, or competition against an external threat.
It is good to be stronger than other men within your gang, but it is also important for your gang to be stronger than another gang. Men will challenge their comrades and test each other’s courage, but in many ways this intragroup challenging prepares men to face intergroup competition. Just as it is important for men to show their peers they won’t be pushed around, the survival of a group can depend on whether or not they are willing push back against other groups to protect their own interests. Men love to show off new skills and find ways to best their pals, but mastery of many of the same skills will be crucial in battles with nature and other men. The sports and games men play most demand the kind of strategic thinking and/or physical virtuosity that would be required in a survival struggle. A man’s reputation may keep men in his group from messing with him, and a group’s reputation may make its enemies think twice about creating animosity.”
Conclusion
Hopefully, unless your brain tuckered out halfway through, you’ve now gained a working framework for understanding what honor is, and how it used to operate in the West (and still does in places like the Middle East).
Two weeks from now, we’ll explore the reasons for the decline of honor in the West. Then in my final post about honor, I’ll propose a solution to the modern male honor gap by providing a framework for a positive notion of manly honor that avoids the senseless violence of primitive codes of honor and the farce and inanity of modern Man and Bro Codes, and lays out a framework for a code of honor that motivates men to become the best they can be.
Sunday, October 7, 2012
Patriot PT
For time:
Run 4 miles
200 pushups
Scale as needed
Post time to Comments
Friday, September 28, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
Ok, pardon the print on the vid but this is important to get out there.
If Obamacare is not repealed, at some point the govt will run out of money to fund it and healthcare will given only to those who are deemed worthy by the bureaRATS. This is also a tool that could be used by the UN to institute Agenda 21 which calls for population control.
Yet another reason to vote for Romney in November.
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
Dear Eric,
Seventeen years ago, current U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said government must “brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”
Fast forward to 2009 when he was nominated and confirmed as President Obama’s Attorney General, Holder was unleashed, setting out on a path to do just what he suggested . . .
. . . brainwash the American people into supporting gun control.
In February of that year, after taking over as Attorney General, Holder said the Obama Administration supported a new so-called “assault weapons ban.” Hillary Clinton also publicly stated the administration would “work hard” to pass the UN “Small Arms Treaty.”
At that time, Holder blamed American gun laws for violence occurring in Mexico.
Shortly thereafter, the ATF’s gun-smuggling operation, “Fast & Furious,” began in earnest.
“Fast & Furious” was exactly what Holder needed to convince the American people that gun control laws should be passed and signed into law.
By placing hundreds of weapons into the hands of members of Mexican drug cartels, who would then commit murder with these weapons, Holder had just the evidence to sway public opinion to support gun control.
But when at least two American border agents and hundreds of Mexican civilians ended up brutally murdered with the ATF’s smuggled weapons, Holder’s “Fast & Furious” charade was exposed.
For nearly two years, the members and supporters of the National Association for Gun Rights have led the charge to hold Eric Holder accountable for his role in “Fast & Furious.”
The 1.4-million members and supporters of NAGR made their voices heard on Capitol Hill using email, hand-written letters, petitions and phone calls.
Make no mistake about it, Congress was forced to take action due to grassroots pressure applied by NAGR gun rights activists.
For months, Holder bobbed and weaved his way through Congressional hearings, refusing to turn over papers and correspondence on the issue, even getting caught on at least one occasion with inconsistent statements about his knowledge of “Fast & Furious.”
Ultimately, Holder’s refusal to turn over all relevant documents led to his censure by the U.S. Congress.
Without your consistent application of grassroots pressure, it’s very likely “Fast & Furious” would be nothing more than a blip on the radar of Washington history.
With that said, a new report is out from the Department of Justice’s Inspector General indicating that at least one White House official refused to talk and the White House released ZERO communications related to “Fast & Furious.”
And just this past week, one of Holder’s high-ranking Justice Department officials resigned and one retired, in addition to the head of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, resigning in recent months.
Holder’s “inner circle” was intimately aware of “Fast & Furious,” and, quite clearly, a number of them have become the fall-men.
The fact is, despite your enormous grassroots pressure to investigate and fire Eric Holder, the whitewash of his involvement in this deadly scandal is in full effect.
Not only has Mr. Holder managed to stay in office as Attorney General but he and the Obama Administration will be emboldened -- win or lose on November 6 -- to seek a new so-called “assault weapons ban,” ammo ban, magazine ban and other direct attacks on our gun rights.
The gun control threat will become even more dangerous when Congress reconvenes after the election.
Your continued involvement and activism is vital to protecting our right to keep and bear arms.
Patriots, we must sty vigilant if we are to maintain our gateway freedom, the right to bear arms....
Please share...
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
Patriot PT
Lifting: Deadlift 5-5-5
Main event: 5 rounds for as quickly as possible of
10 box jumps or 20 tuck jumps
15 steps of walking lunge with 95# in front "rack" position
Friday, September 7, 2012
Patriot PT
For time:
Run 1.5 mi then complete 50 of each if the following:
Benchpress bwt
Deadlift bwt
Pullups
Boxjumps (24"/20")
Steps of walking lunge
Situps
Post time to comments
Scale as needed
Paul Revere's Ride
GHEI: ATF's latest gun grab - Washington Times
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
Why is the FBI Keeping Track of Apple Device Users? : Political Outcast
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Thought of the Day
Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs (From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman)
"Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for?"
- William J. Bennett In a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997
One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: “Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident.” This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another.
Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.
Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.
I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin’s egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators. “Then there are the wolves,” the old war veteran said, “and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy.” Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.
“Then there are sheepdogs,” he went on, “and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf.” Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, “We intimidate those who intimidate others.”
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath--a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.
The gift of aggression
"What goes on around you... compares little with what goes on inside you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everyone has been given a gift in life. Some people have a gift for science and some have a flair for art. And warriors have been given the gift of aggression. They would no more misuse this gift than a doctor would misuse his healing arts, but they yearn for the opportunity to use their gift to help others. These people, the ones who have been blessed with the gift of aggression and a love for others, are our sheepdogs. These are our warriors.
One career police officer wrote to me about this after attending one of my Bulletproof Mind training sessions:
"I want to say thank you for finally shedding some light on why it is that I can do what I do. I always knew why I did it. I love my [citizens], even the bad ones, and had a talent that I could return to my community. I just couldn’t put my finger on why I could wade through the chaos, the gore, the sadness, if given a chance try to make it all better, and walk right out the other side."
Let me expand on this old soldier’s excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial; that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids’ schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid’s school. Our children are dozens of times more likely to be killed, and thousands of times more likely to be seriously injured, by school violence than by school fires, but the sheep’s only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their children is just too hard, so they choose the path of denial.
The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.
Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn’t tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports in camouflage fatigues holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, “Baa.”
Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog. As Kipling said in his poem about “Tommy” the British soldier:
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind," But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind, There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.
The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door. Look at what happened after September 11, 2001, when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero?
Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed right along with the young ones.
Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, “Thank God I wasn’t on one of those planes.” The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, “Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference.” When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warriorhood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.
While there is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, he does have one real advantage. Only one. He is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population.
There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory acts of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself.
However, when there were cues given by potential victims that indicated they would not go easily, the cons said that they would walk away. If the cons sensed that the target was a "counter-predator," that is, a sheepdog, they would leave him alone unless there was no other choice but to engage.
One police officer told me that he rode a commuter train to work each day. One day, as was his usual, he was standing in the crowded car, dressed in blue jeans, T-shirt and jacket, holding onto a pole and reading a paperback. At one of the stops, two street toughs boarded, shouting and cursing and doing every obnoxious thing possible to intimidate the other riders. The officer continued to read his book, though he kept a watchful eye on the two punks as they strolled along the aisle making comments to female passengers, and banging shoulders with men as they passed.
As they approached the officer, he lowered his novel and made eye contact with them. “You got a problem, man?” one of the IQ-challenged punks asked. “You think you’re tough, or somethin’?” the other asked, obviously offended that this one was not shirking away from them.
“As a matter of fact, I am tough,” the officer said, calmly and with a steady gaze.
The two looked at him for a long moment, and then without saying a word, turned and moved back down the aisle to continue their taunting of the other passengers, the sheep.
Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I’m proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.
Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, “Let’s roll,” which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers--athletes, business people and parents--from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.
“Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?”
"There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men." - Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France
Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn’t have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision. If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior’s path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.
For example, many officers carry their weapons in church. They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to slaughter you and your loved ones.
I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, “I will never be caught without my gun in church.” I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a police officer he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas, in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down 14 people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy’s body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, “Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?”
Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for “heads to roll” if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids’ school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them. Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, “Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?”
The warrior must cleanse denial from his thinking. Coach Bob Lindsey, a renowned law enforcement trainer, says that warriors must practice “when/then” thinking, not “if/when.” Instead of saying,“If it happens then I will take action,” the warrior says, “When it happens then I will be ready.”
It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up.
Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: You didn’t bring your gun; you didn’t train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by fear, helplessness, horror and shame at your moment of truth.
Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot and first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, says that he knew he could die. There was no denial for him. He did not allow himself the luxury of denial. This acceptance of reality can cause fear, but it is a healthy, controlled fear that will keep you alive:
"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." - Brigadier General Chuck Yeager Yeager, An Autobiography
Gavin de Becker puts it like this in Fear Less, his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation:
"..denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn’t so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling. Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level."
And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes.
If you are a warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be “on” 24/7 for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself... “Baa.”
This business of being a sheep or a sheepdog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-grass sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other. Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.
Monday, September 3, 2012
Survival 101
Today, a look at dealing with sprains, Strains, and fractures
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Ramblings from the Range
The above link is to an article from suvival blog. We find his reasoning sound and encourage you to read the article.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Cold Hard Truth
Troy, you are right. It is all steps toward globalisation. The onslaught is woven all throughout our society. News networks, Hollywood, the music industry, the education system, etc are all polluted. They are all in the business of trying to tell us what to think say and do, and its NOT toward a Godly end which brings freedom. For example, in a STATE run system of education, it is easy for them to enforce conformity and erase individuality. It is also easy to enforce acceptance of lifestyle CHOICES that were once thought of as abominations. Yet when a child wants to bring a Bible to school or pray, it is discouraged or worse. They are told to conform to ideas that are for the good of many at the expense of individuality. While I know many educators in Oklahoma are Christian and see what is happening, there are many others the follow along without taking a moment to consider what is happening is inherently wrong. It is a case of the proverbial "not being able to see the forest for the trees".
All of this is a small part of a deeper, darker agenda. If things continue, we will slide into a socialist society where govt will held out to be a deity which we will all be expected to give our allegiances to.
Are all of these things obvious to the masses...NO. Many accept what they see as normal because they allow themselves to be programmed by the media, now a pawn of those who are behind all of this. They follow like sheep...hence the term "sheeple". Let's not forget the first thing God tells us about Satan's character in Genesis 3:1:
"And the Serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field". We are also told that we are not to be ignorant of his devices.
Those of us who are in the know must continue to educate those we come in contact with.
**I would also like to note that many just simply do not want to know. They are comfortable and the thought of anything making them "uncomrtable" is scary, despite its reality. Like I said, we must educate those around us for their sake. I truly believe that things in this country can be turned around. It will begin with a turn to God and continue with a re-embracing of traditional values.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Pic of the Day
Fellow American Patriots, we must strive to educate those around us as to what is going on in our country. If we do, we can successfully thwart attempts to change our nation for the worse. The above picture is what the radical left is bent on doing. Arm yourselves with facts and spread the word.
Paul Revere's Ride
Obama Adds Military Heroes to 'Enemies List'
What Intel does Mr Revere have for us today, patriots? Looks like our own military has become an enemy of the state. Looks like Obama campaign is in self-destruct mode.
Monday, August 20, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
Interesting how the media went all out to talk about Aurora, CO and other events but they tried to let this slide under the radar.
Thought for the Day
First and foremost we must pray! see 2 Chronicles 7:14; Philippians 4:6-8; James 5:16
We believe our greatest weapon against the far left radical socialist agenda is our intellect. Reason and logic support none of the policies that the "current administration" is trying to implement. We must attempt to educate those we come in contact with, particularly "sheep" (those who easily buy into what they are told without thinking things through). Read and study for yourself and be prepared to answer those who may present ideas contradictory to yours. See 1 Timothy 2:15; 1 Peter 3:15
We agree with being "prepared". Natural disasters are far more common and likely than invasion of some sort. We feel that it is wisdom to be prepared for any number of contingencies. Again, take the time to research these things and implement them. There are so many good resources available. See 1 Corinthians 16:13; Proverbs 6:6-8
While we definitely believe in the duty to protect ourseleves and our loved ones (see Luke 22:36; Proverbs 25:26), we here at the Modern Day Patriot see use of force as the last resort against government tyranny. We hope and pray it never comes to that. We see good days ahead for our country.
Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions: modrndaypatriot@gmail.com
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Paul Revere's Ride
MILLER: Ryan is first on Second Amendment - Washington Times
Paul Revere's Ride is the name of column featuring the current event Story of the Day. We will try to post a story each and every day. We named it for the historical account of Paul Revere riding and spreading important news to the patriots.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Thought of the Day
On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs
This is a really well-written article. To me, it is a must read for all patriots. As men I believe we are called to be sheepdogs. While I know we are to love our neighbors as ourselves, I also realize that part of loving our neighbor is being prepared to defend them from the wolf, or predator when he comes.
Please take a few minutes to read...
Friday, August 10, 2012
Thought of the Day
Editor’s note: This is guest post from Marcus Brotherton. It originally ran on Men Who Lead Well (www.marcusbrotherton.com).
One harmful mindset that can keep a man from fulfilling his calling and potential is self-coddling. This is when he convinces himself he deserves a break, and runs to something that ultimately harms himself.
The WWII Marines of K/3/5 had been fighting on Guadalcanal for weeks. C-rations had run out, and the men ate twice daily portions of coconuts and wormy rice they’d confiscated from the Japanese.
“It was bad,” Phillips reported in an interview with me. “I didn’t think W.O. was going to survive.”
Each day, Phillips carried W.O. to the ocean and helped him get clean. I asked Phillips if he remembered any specific conversations he had with W.O. during these times of carrying him. Here, I was expecting a poignant story. I pictured this young battle-hardened Marine carrying his nearly-dead buddy to the water. “Keep holding on,” Phillips would whisper. “Have courage. Just think of mom and apple pie.” Something like that.
But Phillips just chuckled. “Oh yeah, I remember. I told W.O. to stop being such a faker and take a salt tablet.”
The response threw me. I asked Phillips (who eventually became a medical doctor) what his strategy was.
“Well, it didn’t help a man to overly commiserate with him,” Phillips said. “If you did, it just depressed him. But if you kidded him, it made him smile. The ribbing was all good natured. He’d fire back some wisecrack at you, and soon he’d get to fighting again.”
How does this apply to manhood today?
Phillips respected W.O. Brown as someone who had the capacity to get up and go on. So let’s believe the same about ourselves.
Anytime a man is in a downed place—i.e. he’s annoyed, angry, tired, hurt, lonely, stressed, or frustrated—he is tempted to become overly sympathetic with himself. He gets that insidious, creepy, pampering mindset that tells him he deserves a break—just this once.
I’m not talking about kicking back on the couch with a bag of Doritos. Not that kind of a break.
Get tough with yourself. Knock it off, ya faker. Take a salt tablet, and get back to the battle. Sure, frustrations exist. But you don’t need that bottle. You don’t need that porn. You don’t need to give in to that moment of rage on the freeway. You’ve only convinced yourself you do.
By the way, the strategy works. W.O. Brown survived the dysentery—and the war.
All Photos Courtesy of Valor Studios
____________
Editor’s note: If you want to learn more about Sid Phillips I highly recommend watching this profile that was done of him for HBO’s The Pacific. A really great watch:
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Patriot Workout
For time:
Run 1.5 mi then complete 50 of each if the following:
Benchpress bwt
Deadlift bwt
Pullups
Boxjumps (24"/20")
Steps of walking lunge
Situps
Scale as needed. Post time to comments.
Notes: bwt is the abbreviation for bodyweight
Pic of the Day
2 Chronicles 7:14
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Patriot Workout
2 minutes of heavy bag work
15 sledge hammer strikes/side on tire
5 Thrusters @ 135#
Post impressions to comments
Monday, July 30, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Cold Hard Truth
This video is a MUST SEE! Be warned it is COLD HARD in your face TRUTH.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Patriot Workout
OPERATION: MAN DOWN
While on a FID (foreign internal defense) mission to train Afghani military in patrol tactics, your squad was contacted by a group of armed insurgents, wounding one of the Afghani soldiers. You were able to eliminate the initial threat, but more insurgents are on their way. The wounded man has a life threatening gunshot wound to the leg, and while your medic has stabilized him for transport, he must get advanced medical care immediately if he is to live.
Objective:
Transport wounded teammate to medical aid station approximately 5 kilometers (3 miles) in 30 minutes or less. Repel any enemy attacks along the way as quickly and efficiently as possible.
FMP WORKOUT
Note – This workout is intended to be performed with a partner.
4 Rounds of:
- Man 1 Carry Man 2 – 200 Meters
- Both do 25 Push Ups
- Man 2 Carry Man 1 – 200 Meters
- Both do 25 Push Ups
- Man 1 Carry Man 2 – 200 Meters
- Both do 25 Sit Ups
- Man 2 Carry Man 1 – 200 Meters
- Both do 25 Sit Ups
- Man 1 Carry Man 2 – 200 Meters
- Both do 25 Squats
- Man 2 Carry Man 1 – 200 Meters
- Both do 25 Squats
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Thought for the Day
Courtesy of Steve Roll, Restoration Ministries
July 18, 2012Storms.Residing in Oklahoma for more than twenty years, the Roll family is well acquainted with natural storms. Frequent storms. Huge storms. Monster storms. Tulsa, being the center of Tornado Alley, has experienced EF3’s, 4’s and one EF5 that jumped over the city since we have called Tulsa home. One spring evening, we had a F1 tornado touch down less than one mile from our house! Hair-raising to say the least.I remember well our first storm. Having been in Tulsa only a month, an ominous, foreboding, blackish/greenish, demonic looking, swirling wall cloud hovered over our neighborhood. Curious, I ran outside to check it out. It was awesome, and scary. My spirit man was screaming at me “Thou fool!” Jo Ann thought I had a screw loose or something, and hollered at me to come inside and take cover. I obeyed. We rode out the storm safely.Natural storms can come up suddenly, do damage, and alter life. In Oklahoma, surviving, getting through storms is success.Life storms seem to pop up from nowhere too. Spiritual battles, relational difficulties, financial challenges, illness, accidents, loss…life storms rake across the landscape of our lives. Life storms affect all of us. There is no such thing as a storm free life.Observations About Life Storms
- Life storms appear suddenly, with little prior warning.
- Life storms look scary.
- Life storms tempt us to panic.
- Life storms test our faith.
- Life storms reveal our faith.
- Life storms stretch our faith.
- Life storms try to steal our faith.
- Life storms feel like they will last forever.
- Life storms have a short shelf-life. A limited life span.
- Life storms are meant to be passed through.
- Life storms strengthen our faith.
- Passing through a life storm successfully prepares and equips us for the next storm.
In our word for this week, recorded in Mark 4:35-41, Jesus and His followers experienced two storms. First, a natural storm on the lake. Secondly, a life storm in their heart, a faith storm, a test of their trust in God to see them through a life-threatening storm.As the sea rose, filling the boat, Jesus slept. The disciples panicked. Thinking they were perishing, Peter woke the Lord up. Jesus, got up, rebuked the storm, and then rebuked the disciples. He chastised them for having “no faith”. The Lord expected His followers to exercise their faith to calm the storm while He slept crossing the lake.The disciples didn’t get through the storm very well. Jesus stilled the storm for them, saving the day. Here are a few thoughts from this scenario on the Sea of Galilee.
- It was not God’s will for the ship to sink. He didn’t send Jesus and the disciples across the lake to drown.
- Jesus slept like a baby on a pillow, while the disciples worried about the wind and waves.
- Jesus could sleep through the storm because He trusted in His heavenly Father.
- The disciples had a panic attack because they didn’t trust in God.
- Jesus was full of faith. His followers were full of fear.
- The plan was for Jesus and his shipmates to cross the lake, pass through the storm, and preach the Good News to people waiting on the other side.
How To Survive, And Yes Thrive, through Life StormsContrary winds will blow. Unwelcome waves will crash. Our life boats will fill up with water from time to time.If you are going through a life storm right now, hold on to your faith. Faith in Jesus stills storms. Keep your focus on Jesus who is with you in the storm. Don’t push the panic button…..Jesus is on board.Faith takes us through the storms of life. Boldly rebuke your storm in Jesus’ name. Watch the wind die down and the storm cease. Rejoice in calm life again.Life storms will pass through. So pass through your storms victoriously in the name of life’s storm stiller, Jesus.“For momentary, light affliction (life storms) is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”II Corinthians 4:17-18
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Thought for the Day
By Max Lucado
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Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Patriot Workout
Preparation:
10 each of Then:
side straddle hops triceps stretch
pullups upperback stretch
pushups chest stretch
crunches ITB stretch
lunges hip and back stretch
side crunches modified hurdler stretch
groin stretch
Conditioning: 2 mile run for time (Disclaimer: You assume all risks by participating in this program. Stay hydrated and run in the coolest part of the day, morning, evening or even late night)
Post time to comments
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Ramblings from the Range...
Hey guys,
A lil something different in our Ramblings from the Range Series.
A really good, straight foreTell vid on shooting positions. Enjoy...
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Practical Physical Training for Anything Part 2
In our last installment of The Practical Physical Training Series I introduced the concept of what is called "General Physical Preparedness" aka GPP and some very basic concepts of how to arrive at this kind of conditioning. I CANNOT emphasize enough that routine is the enemy here. For review, please check out that article.
In this article, I will discuss how to implement those principles in your cardiovascular training and also how to carry that over into program design. Here we go...
Cardiovascular Training with a Twist
Keep it simple, keep it varied.
This shouldn't be rocket science. Remember, our bodies improve in form AND function by having to adapt to new stimuli. By varying, longer steady state runs on one day, Sprint work on others and still yet intervals on others, one can achieve a well rounded cardiovascular conditioning base. One of the keys is to NOT put all your eggs in one basket. All of the earlier mentioned modalities of cardio training are important. Additionally, mix in other things besides running where equipment allows. For example, biking, rowing, swimming, and hiking are all great cross conditioning tools.
Program Design
I can't say it enough, ROUTINE is the enemy. Don't sucked into thinking that things will get neglected if you don't train them regularly. There certain movements that can and in some cases should be in a warm up fashion each time, but it shouldn't be the core of your training session.
If you follow my workout postings from the blog site, you probably alread have noticed a trend of combining body weight resistance movements with intervals of running of some sort. Occasionally we throw in external load(weightlifting) into the mix as well. All of this is important as these are all elements of what any given real world situation may throw at us.
We tend to favor a bulk of our resistance training being bodyweight type stuff like they do in the military. One, because it can be done anytime and anywhere and two, it simulates most real world situations. Additionally, recovery is very quick.
Here are some examples:
4 rounds of 1/4 mi run and 25 pushups.
3 rounds of 1/2 mi run and 50 situps
Both of these follow the criteria I have set forth in the above paragraphs and actually are great workouts in and of themselves.
A Word about intensity...
If you follow the Patriot Workout you will notice they have a time element in them. One of our goals is to improve work capacity. By timing the events, keeping track of your results then striving to improve, work capacity increases. I do recommend easing into this, especially if you are new to this type of training. Do not let your ego get the best of you.
In closing, I hope you enjoy this series as I have enjoyed sharing this info with you. Again..please if you are new, don't hesitate to contact me for help.
Til next time, God Bless...
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Patriot Workout
5 rounds:
2 minutes of heavy bag work
15 sledge hammer strikes/side on tire
5 Thrusters @ 135#
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Superior State of Mind
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Mike Inscho.
If you’ve been a reader of The Art of Manliness for more than a day, you know Brett, Kate, and all of the regular contributors do a fantastic job of searching out and relaying habits of great men to us. Men like Ernest Shackleton, Henry David Thoreau, and Charles Atlas, all set examples that every man can follow.
I haven’t attempted to take 27 men to the South Pole, and, after having my ship become stuck in ice, somehow managed to get them all home alive like Mr. Shackleton. But I am part of a small group (.45% of the total American population) that consistently creates great men and demands that its members be constantly improving.
As an enlisted member of the Army, and now an Officer, I’ve gone through what was essentially two separate stints at basic training. The first as enlisted and the second as an Officer. During the training, it’s difficult to see the lifelong lessons being drilled into you. Now, however, years after finishing, it’s easier to put a finger on those lessons and apply them to everyday life.
1. If You Can’t Carry It, Wear It, or Shoot It, Leave It Behind
When I would travel in high school, my bags were packed with everything that I might need in an encounter. It might get cold…throw in a few hoodies. What about rain? Take the rain jacket. Doing laundry sucks…I’d better take 3 pairs of underwear and socks for every day I’m going to be away just in case. Seven days in the Carolinas required the same amount of baggage as moving to a new house.
Drill Sergeant, in his infinite wisdom, was about to teach me a more efficient way to pack my bags.
One day we were told we were doing a ruck march the next day and were handed a packing list. This packing list was mandatory, and everything on it had to be packed in our ruck sacks or worn on us.
“The stuff on the packing list is more than my ruck sack can hold…how am I supposed to bring the extra gear I might need?!”
After that first ruck march with 10 days worth of gear and change of clothes, my ideas about packing changed drastically. If it wasn’t 100%, absolutely crucial to my survival, it wasn’t packed. A uniform, two or three changes of undergarments, a poncho, and some bungee cords were all we used, and therefore, were all we needed. Twelve undershirts is unnecessary when you’re only gone for ten days. Nobody cares what you smell like and that same space could be used for food or ammunition.
How to Apply This Lesson to Everyday Life
Do you need a walk-in closet full of dress shirts if your job requires a hard hat and a tool belt? Do you need six different methods of making coffee when you end up just stopping by a coffee shop anyways?
Take an inventory of everything you use, and donate or sell everything that hasn’t been useful in the last four months. How do you decide what stays and what goes? Do what I do. Twice a year, turn everything you own backwards. When you look in the dresser drawer, you’ll see the backs of your shirts; in the cabinet you’ll see the back of the peanut butter jar. Then, when you use an item, turn it back around so it’s facing you. If you don’t use it, leave it alone. After four months, everything that is still facing away from you is donated or sold…no questions asked.
2. Run, Shoot, Communicate
Every morning we did PT, and every PT session included some sort of running. If we were ever on a real world mission and had to get to the objective, we knew we could run to it.
Next, if we weren’t on a live range, we were practicing basic rifle marksmanship drills. We knew that if we ever got into a real world firefight, these techniques would be second nature and give us the ability to protect ourselves and our teammates.
After that we communicated. Radios, written orders, hand and arm signals…eventually our squad got to the point that our communication was almost telepathic.
Our Drill Sergeant constantly reminded us that all we needed to be a successful Soldier was to be able to run, shoot, and communicate. If you can do those well and your squad can do them well, all of the extra stuff is icing on the cake.
How to Apply This Lesson to Everyday Life
What do you need to do to be a successful husband? Provide care, love, and resources to your family. Nothing else should be your focus until these needs are met.
What about a successful bachelor? Grandfather? Boss?
The type of man you want to be can be simplified to a few basic characteristics that, when done successfully, lead you to success. Prioritize your life and focus on the “need to haves” before you even think about the “nice to haves.”
3. Practice Mindfulness
My second round of basic training granted me a bit more freedom and opportunities outside of training. Still, training was the priority, and one day I found myself back on the range to qualify with my weapon.
“I’ve done this a million times. No sweat…BANG! I wonder what they are serving for dinner tonight…BANG! What about the gym…BANG! Are they even open today…BANG!”
On and on that went for all 40 targets. My mind on the mystery meat that would be served later for dinner. It should have been on the mechanics of marksmanship that were drilled into my mind and body during my first round at basic training.
I finished my ammunition and awaited my score. No doubt it’d be a 28/40…or maybe even a 30/40 because I’d done this a million times, remember?
9. I shot a 9 out of 40. Talk about embarrassing.
How to Apply This Lesson to Everyday Life
Proficiency does not come from one attempt…not even dozens of attempts. To do something well demands your concentration and for you to practice mindfulness, regardless of how many times you’ve done that task before. If whatever you’re doing isn’t important enough to you to demand your full attention…why do it?
4. Outranking Someone Doesn’t Equal Control of Them
One of the Army Values is Respect, and it’s defined as “treat people as they should be treated.” So even if someone outranks you, if he has shown that he can’t keep track of his equipment, you are well within your rights to treat him like someone who can’t keep track of his equipment. Rank does not automatically mean you get to boss around everyone below you.
Case in point, during Officers Basic Training, myself and 39 other brand new Second Lieutenants made up a platoon that was “advised” by a group of Staff Sergeants and a Sergeant First Class. From the standpoint of the military’s hierarchy, we were being led by people we outranked.
This wasn’t an issue until our field exercise. At times like that everyone’s temper is much, much shorter than usual and the easy way out tends to become the trail most taken.
After we came back from a tactics exercise in the woods, someone realized that he had lost an important piece of equipment. Not something important to him, or assigned to him, but something very important to the entire platoon and the responsibility of our Sergeant First Class advisor.
The search for it was half-assed on our part, and the Sergeant First Class decided we needed punishment. Except we outranked him and he couldn’t punish us the way it’s normally done in the Army (mass amounts of push-ups and other exotic, and exhausting, types of physical training).
The one thing he could do to us, was hold us in formation for as long as he pleased and wherever he pleased. It was late June, in southern Georgia, and our base was made up entirely of low tents and gravel. Obviously the best place for him to keep us in formation for the next hour was out in the open as the temperature rose to 100+…and that’s exactly what he did.
How to Apply This Lesson to Everyday Life
If you’re a manager, or a boss, or a leader of any type, you need to realize that your position doesn’t mean your subordinates have to automatically bend to your every desire. They don’t even have to respect you.
You earn the respect you are given.
Wrapping Up
These four basic life lessons are nowhere near a complete guide to being a man. They are, however, things you commonly see many men pay no attention to. Practice these lessons daily, one at a time until each one is mastered, and I’m willing to bet you’ll see all parts of your life from a new perspective, and find yourself closer to winning the battle that every man fights–whether soldier or civilian–of becoming the man you want to be.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Thought for the Day
THIS MAN SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO OUR COUNTRY!
'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable... We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem. We have abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from sin and Set us free. Amen!'
With the Lord's help, may this prayer sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we once again can be called 'One nation under God!'
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Practical Physical Training for Anything Part 1
As a 15 year veteran of the fitness industry I have trained the Corporate Athlete (businessmen on the go),
the Traditional Athlete (mainstream sports from youth to pro), the Industrial Athlete (Police, Fire, EMT/Paramedic, and Military) and of course the Domestic Athlete (stay at home moms, among the highest of callings). I have always leaned toward a no nonsense approach that was designed to improve the trainee's level of "general physical preparedness", aka GPP. As I feel this term is self-explanatory I will move on.
Needless to say, we live in a world of increasing uncertainty. This has illicitated an ever increasing number of people who have taken steps to prepare for the "unknown". Often referred to as "preppers", these people go to great lengths be ready for natural or manmade catastrophic events. Whether you are a prepper or just work out for the benefits of being healthier, chances are you want your program to deliver results "where the rubber meets the road." This article will hopefully turn you on to or further your efforts in an approach that will not just help you look and feel better, but most importantly help you be prepared for anything.
DIVERSITY
One of the first rules in training for GPP is that routine is the enemy. Body part splits (eg chest and back on Monday, legs on Tuesday, etc) will NOT do much to get you prepared for the demands that a economic crash, war, earthquake, or for that matter most athletic events will place on you physically. I have experienced great results in my own training and in training my clients with "mixing it up". A very typical training session may consist of rotations of a weighted movement (barbell, kettlebell, dumbbell, sandbag, or even a tractor tire) with a bodyweight movement (pushups, pullups, situps, etc) followed by a short intense cardio event (400 meter run, approx .25mi). The combinations are endless and while taxing will definetely not become boring. In addition, we very rarely follow a set pattern. Life is random as should be your regiment.
BIG EXERCISES EQUAL BIG RESULTS
Real physical challenges will force us to use full body movements (running, climbing, jumping, lifting heavier objects, and throwing). These are all things we should be practicing. A biceps curl will not even come close to preparing one to move fallen trees, heavy rocks, or clear brush to set up shelter.
We favor a big training movements of both bodyweight and external load variety.
External load movements would be presses (all overhead presses and bench press which is good for overall upperbody strength), deadlifts, squats (all varieties), cleans and throws. While I may occasionally post a video on technique, put YouTube to good use and check some of their vids out on the various lifts. The CrossFit community seems to have the market cornered on technqiue.
Bodyweight exercises would be like those you commonly see in the military: pullups, pushups, situps.
Don't be discouraged if you can't do a pullup. Start with negatives (get your chin up over the bar and lower yourself slowly) and before long you will be getting 3 very strict pullups. They also make resistance bands strong enough to support bodyweight. Simply loop a band around a bar, step in to the bottom of the loop as if you were stepping into a stirrup and do pullups til your heart's content. As always feel free to email me and I help you whatever way I can. Depending on your fitness level, rope climbs are excellent as our box jumps (which can be done on just about any park bench).
In our next installment I will talk about the cardio conditioning end of things and how these exercises can be combined to make a well rounded training system. Til then, God Bless.