safeism dot com

Via the LPUK Blog I came across this link to a conference taking place in February in London. Supported by the Guardian (Apparently not ironically), and involving a number of speakers from differing groups, the programme looks interesting.

I may well book up, although there do seem to be some rather incongruous elements, such as Ekklesia trying to push the idea that religion has been historically supportive of human rights. There’s also your typical big lump of socialists and the like. However the ORG and NO2ID will be there and there are a few other interesting discussions tabled.

Anyone else fancy it?

written by La Bete \\ tags: Add new tag, conference, liberty

With a hat tip to the Libertarian Party blog, here’s an obituary for British freedom.

BRITISH FREEDOM
1215AD - 2008AD
RIP
“NO Freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or be disseised of his Freehold, or Liberties, or free Customs, or be outlawed, or exiled, or any other wise destroyed; nor will We not pass upon him, nor condemn him, but by lawful judgment of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land.”

It was announced last night that British Freedom had died, aged 797, following an eleven-year battle against cancer.

Despite a valiant struggle, Freedom finally succumbed with the use of counter-terror police to arrest an Opposition Minister for leaking information NOT related to National Security

Born in 1215 with the signing of Magna Carta, British Freedom long stood as a bulwark against totalitarianism in other nations, and was instrumental in the spreading of similar freedoms to other parts of the world.

Since 1997, however, Freedom had become increasingly diseased, with the increasing misuse of power by an authoritarian regime. Symptoms included the encroachment of a Database State, an increase in CCTV monitoring reaching 1 camera per 15 people, the indiscriminate monitoring of communications and a blatant attempt to control the information British Subjects receive.

However, the event that brought about its last breath was the use of our political Police to arrest an Opposition politician, allegedly over the leaking of four pieces of information:

1. Jacqui Smith knew 5,000 illegal workers had been granted licences.
2. An illegal immigrant was employed as a cleaner in the Commons.
3. A list of potential Labour rebels on 42-day detention of terror suspects.
4. A letter from Jacqui Smith to Gordon Brown warning recession could lead to more crime.

This, of course, completely ignores the fact that NOBODY was investigated or arrested for the leaks to Robert Peston which, upon their release, so strongly affected the Stock Market. Or the rampant leaking of the PBR.

The ZanuLabour hand (or, more accurately, the ZanuLabour Stalinist Clunking Fist) is so obviously behind this that their pathetic denials are completely unbelievable. Damian Green is probably the first politically-motivated arrestee outside Wartime in this country since the Civil War.

Freedom has died. Stand by for the imposition of the Civil Contingencies Act and the long reign of President-for-Life Brown.

written by La Bete

I am really very shocked to read about the arrest of Damien Green. It appears he was arrested for “conspiracy to cause misconduct in public office” (According to Guido).

There’s more at the Telegraph, Beeb and Grauniad. Dizzy and Martin @ The Devils Kitchen have interesting posts. There is also a copper’s view from Nightjack.

According to reports the Government is claiming it had no prior knowledge, until it hit the media. Bullshit. Utter, total lies. Are we really supposed to believe the Met just decided to take 9 anti-terrorist officers away from their normal duties, on a day of heightened alertness, and send them after someone who has embarressed the Government? That they managed to inform Boris Johnson, David Cameron, the Speaker and Serjeant-At-Arms but neglected to pass the word to the Home Office?

This is pure, naked use of the police to intimidate political opponents. We’ve seen it being used against protestors and even the slightly silly but this is the first time such blatent pressure has been applied.

The question is, will this be enough to wake the sheeple?

written by La Bete \\ tags: Damien Green, Police State, Political Indimidation, Stasi

I’ve been a fan of Dual Core for quite sometime and their new album is simply great. I can hardly beleive it’s only been about 18 months since I downloaded their first album. Take note rap fans, this is the future of hip hop.

written by La Bete

I have Google alerts set up for a wide range of subjects, but one of the main is Bartitsu. This wonderful Edwardian Martial Art is passion of mine, and I look after another blog on it, on behalf of the Bartitsu Society. Via this alert I today came across this article focusing, as many do, on one of the wackier more unusual part of the art - self defence with a bicycle.

Peter Robins, the journalist of the piece recounts a time he was assaulted whilst riding his bike and 2 things leap out from his account.

It happened late at night. I was cycling slowly up a steepish hill. I passed a shell-suited gentleman - he on the pavement, me on the road - and he mumbled something. I asked him to repeat it, thinking it might be “You’ve got a puncture.” His response was to do nothing for about 15 seconds, then sprint around in front of me, shout at me, and punch me in the mouth.

What was right for me, I discovered, was to wait, stunned, for a couple of seconds until he started to walk away, and then carry on cycling while using my tongue to check whether any of my teeth had come loose. Perhaps if I had studied Bartitsu I might have been able to scare the man away. Or perhaps I would have been empowered to do something really stupid.

The most obvious is the failure in awareness and decision making that lead to a mine on a bike being overtaken by a man on foot and assaulted. The second is the more telling. He wanted to scare the man away. Scare him.

Not defend himself, not fight back. Scare him away.

What Mr Robins seems to want is to be able to protect himself without having to really do anything. To have a magic technique of waving his bike pump like a wand and ‘Muggerio Runawayio’, have him run off with his tail between his legs like a villain from a Harry Potter novel. Sadly this is just not possible. The guy who attacked Mr Robins picked him for a reason. He selected him as the target of his rage because he recognised someone who would not fight back. Someone he could hit without anything happening to him. A clever trick with a bike pump will not change that correct assessment. Some sensible, realistic training would.

Such training would show Mr Robins that the something stupid was not fighting back, as he seems to suggest, but rather the stopping for 15 seconds whilst a thug worked himself up to hit him. It was stopping for a chat with a dodgy stranger on a deserted road at night. With effective training, a reasonable level of fitness (certainly an experienced cyclist would be fit enough) and the right mental attitude fighting back would have been an option, as would the decision making to avoid having to do so. Sadly his incredulous response to this advice would indicate having anything like the willingness to defend himself against attack is a long way off.

If you are accosted, stand firm. Co-operating with a mugger is never going to help. What if they wave a knife under your nose? Well… any idea of what a bicycle pump can do to an eye or throat?

Of course, giving up ones bike, phone or wallet is a far better option than having to get physical, if that option does not seem open to you than I would suggest using a bike pump in such a way would be an excellent idea.

written by La Bete \\ tags: assault, Bartitsu, bicycle, bikes, cycling, peter robins, self defence, self defense, Self Protection

Some accounts of combat and challenges.

NB a case of Falchions is a paired set of these things.

When the bull and bears were paraded in the street, or swordsmen were to fight, bills such as the following were distributed among the crowd:—
“A trial of skill to be performed between two profound masters of the noble science of self-defence, on Wednesday next, the 13th of July, 1709, at two o’clock precisely. I, George Gray, born in the city of Norwich, who has fought in most parts of the West Indies—viz., Jamaica, Barbadoes, and several other parts of the world, in all twenty-five times upon the stage, and was never yet worsted, and am now lately come to London, do invite James Harris to meet and exercise at the following weapons: back-sword, sword and dagger, sword and buckler, single falchion, and case of falchions. I, James Harris, master of the said noble science of defence, who formerly rid in the Horse Guards, and hath fought 110 prizes, and never left a stage to any man, will not fail (God willing) to meet this brave and bold inviter at the time and place appointed, desiring sharp swords, and from him no favour. No person to be upon the stage but the seconds.
“Vivat Regina.”
“At his Majesty’s Bear Garden, in Hockley-in-the-Hole, a trial of skill is to be performed to-morrow, being the 9th instant (without beat of drum), between these following masters:—I, John Terrewest, of Oundle, in Northamptonshire, master of the noble science of defence, do invite you, William King, who lately fought Mr. Joseph Thomas, once more to meet me and exercise at the usual weapons.—I, William King, will not fail to meet this fair inviter, desiring a clear stage, and, from him, no favour. Note. There is lately built a pleasant cool gallery for gentlemen.” (Advertisement in the Postboy for July 8th, 1701.)
“At the Bear Garden, Hockley-in-the-Hole, 1710.—This is to give notice to all gentlemen gamesters, and others, that on this present Monday is a match to be fought by two dogs, one from Newgate Market against one from Hony Lane Market, at a bull, for a guinea, to be spent. Five let-goes out of hand; which goes fairest and farthest in wins all. Likewise a green bull to be baited, which was never baited before, and a bull to be turned loose, with fireworks all over him; also a mad ass to be baited. With a variety of bull-baiting and bear-baiting, and a dog to be drawn up with fireworks. To begin exactly at three of the clock.”
In 1710 the four Indian kings mentioned by Addison came to Hockley-in-the-Hole, to see the rough playing at backsword, dagger, single falchion, and quarter-staff. In 1712 Steele described a combat here, in the Spectator. The result of these fights was, it appears, often arranged beforehand, and the losing man often undertook to receive the cuts, provided they were not too many or too deep. About this time the proprietor of the Bear Garden left Hockley, and started a new garden at Marylebone, and for a time Hockley-in-the-Hole fell into disrepute with “the fancy.” In 1715, however, there was a great backsword player here, who boasted he had cut down all the swordsmen of the West, and was ready to fight the best in London. In 1716 a wild bull was baited with fireworks, and bears were baited to death; and, in 1721, people came to Hockley to see sparring and eat furmenty and hasty-pudding.
In 1735 we find swordsmen having nine bouts with single sword, their left hands being tied down. When a favourite dog was tossed by a Hockley-inthe-Hole bull, his master and his friends used to run and try to catch him on their shoulders, for fear he should be hurt in the fall. Good sensitive creatures! It was also the custom to stick ribbon crosses on the foreheads of favourite bull-dogs, and when these were removed and stuck on the bull’s forehead, the dog was cheered on till he had recovered his treasured decoration. Cowardly dogs stole under the bull’s legs, and often got trampled to death. The really “plucky” dog pinned the bull by the nose, and held on till his teeth broke out or he was gored to death. There was cockfighting here too, and, in 1744, says Mr. Pinks, the prize was a large sow and ten pigs. No game-cock was to exceed four pounds and an ounce in weight.

From: ‘Hockley-in-the-Hole’, Old and New London: Volume 2 (1878), pp. 306-309.

In one of the advertisements from Broughton’s amphitheatre, announcing a trial of skill between two prize-fighters, it was promised that the beauty of the sword should be rigorously displayed, and that there should be no bandage nor wound drest till the battle was over. Rowland Bennet, who frequently fought at Broughton’s, generally made it his boast in his challenges, that the ever-memorable gladiator Timothy Buck (celebrated in the 436th number of the Spectator) fell by his unfortunate hand. Daily Advertiser, July 3, 1745.

From: ‘Marylebone’, The Environs of London: volume 3: County of Middlesex (1795), pp. 242-279.

In a prize fight at the Swan, between two fencers named
Dun and Turner, Dun was killed.

‘Queen Elizabeth - Volume 287: February 1603′, Calendar of State Papers Domestic: Elizabeth, 1601-3: With addenda 1547-65 (1870), pp. 286-295.

With a hat tip to Matt on the Schola forum.

written by La Bete \\ tags: HEMA, pub

Inspired by Jimmy Yukka’s youtube videos, I have recorded a short clip describing my GTD implementation. Let me know what you think:

James’ GTD Description from James Marwood on Vimeo.

written by La Bete \\ tags: GTD, video

Whilst the typical religiot ‘outrage’ is being carefully managed to further limit liberty Mark from London came up with the following gem

I understand the anger of Muslims. I grew up in a family of fundamentalist dental hygienists, and I know how angry I would be if someone wrote such blasphemous lies about the tooth fairy.

written by La Bete \\ tags: BBC, book banning, islam, QOTD

Courtesy of Hervé Dautry and James Farthing of the Yahoo Defence Dans La Rue group the folowing text has become availbale. It is a chapter from Joseph Renaud’s “La Defence Dans La Rue” published in 1912. Particularly interesting are the mentions of unarmed combat being the most important skill, his advice on training and his description of a form of point shooting.

The file can be found here. This is Hervé’s translation, with my only edits being to correct some spelling errors and change the file to a pdf.

written by La Bete \\ tags: antagonistics, DDLR, point shooting, Revolver

Unless you are involved in the HEMA scene this post will be of very little interest to you. Please feel free to ignore it

HEMAboy is a blog, written by an anonymous individual or group, commenting on goings on in the HEMA world. Irreverent and direct, the posts have stirred up some rather interesting reactions. Understandably, some of those targeted by the posts have been offended and huffed and puffed accordingly. Others have thought the blog divisive and I can understand that point of view, even if I disagree with it.

Blogs like HEMAboy, whilst amusing, also serve to surface tension. To show where conflict exists and get people talking about it. For example I was politely critical of the decision of the Hammaborg guys to drop out of the recent Open Championships and then make a point of implying they would have won if they hadn’t. I thought this churlish and unsporting. HEMAboy had similar concerns and took the piss a bit. This got some of us talking more about what happened which has lessened the emotion involved. Once Roland calms down I’m sure all will be well again.

However, in a disappointing move, HEMAboy has responded to the criticsm by taking down his posts. I don’t think that was a positive step, as those offended will still be offended and those who thought him/them cowardly for posting under a pseudonym seemed justified in their opinion. Whilst all of this betrays a lack of understanding of the way the web works (Info once published is permanently available, and pseudonyms are entirely acceptable), it does allow me to show my support for HEMAboy by mirroring the previous posts.

NB, whilst I agree with some, but not all of what is written below, I think having it available and having people saying these things is a Good Thing. Feel free to flame me by comment, email or in person.

03/10/2008 20:47 - HEMAboy Lives

Remember Cityboy? Well perhaps not, but I do. He wrote a column in the daily press exposing what actually went on in the financial world. Well we all know the financial world is screwed now so there’s not much point in carrying on with that. Besides, he’s gone public and recanted all his sinful ways so is now dull as fuck.

This is an insider’s Blog about the international world of Historical European Martial Arts. I’m not planning on being tactful, I’m not planning on making friends. I am however planning on being honest and telling it how it is. You may think you know who I am, you may be right, but then again you may not. I could care less either way. I’ll give you a couple of clues though. I’m a native English speaker and I’ve taught in The States and in one or two places in Europe. That’s as good as you get.

Before I leave you to your frenzied contemplation about my true identity I’d like to offer a thought to occupy your lonely evenings.

A new manuscript has recently come to light. Fabrice Cognot from De Taille et d’Estoc in Dijon came across it on the website of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It turns out that it was only on their website because Ken Mondschein had located it and had it scanned some time earlier. I’d heard on the quiet some time before Fabrice’s announcement that it had been found, but little in the way of details. Had Fabrice? Who knows? Maybe it was a coincidence of truly staggering proportions.

Both of these researchers are “professional” academics, but only one of them is a wanker of truly biblical proportions. One of them diligently searched for years for a manuscript he was sure existed and eventually found it, but kept it to himself. The other found it “by chance” and immediately shared it with the entire worldwide community. One of them searches out knowledge in order to gloat in the darkness of their mind like a bibliophilic golum holding their precious away from anyone who might take it. The other understands that knowledge is power, but you only get to exercise that power by sharing the knowledge.

You guess which one the twat is.

04/10/2008 18:49 - SFI

Many years ago Sword Forum was the place to be. The discussions there were in depth, they were relevant and they involved some of the most educated and experienced practitioners and researchers from around the world. These days it would seem that it is a different story altogether.

If you want to worship at the altar of a select group of “names” (I include the word in quotation marks because it is a word that has been used on that very forum to describe the people in question) and bask in their reflected glory then it is the place for you. If you want to find out what the difference between two almost identical production swords is when used to practice Ringeck’s system as described by Christian Tobler, then it is the place for you. If you want to discuss (at length) what sort of footwear you should be wearing if you dedicate your life to Viggiani’s system then it is the place for you.

If however you want something other than idol worship, or mundane trivia then I’d stay away. Not that there are many better places to be, they all have their clique, but the select group on SFI has had much more time to evolve and become irreversably entrenched. They reflect many different schools and traditions, but together they work as one. It didn’t used to be that way, there were many big names. But they have been whittled away one by one.

First the HACA were removed (now the ARMA for those of us who are new to this game). Almost to a man the SFI clique closed ranks on John Clements, then slowly but surely all his closest disciples were banned. Anyone who vocally supported what the ARMA were doing and stood by the man who started it all for them fell by the wayside. Lots of others followed over the next few years. Matt Easton left with the Schola crowd following on behind him en masse. Bob Charron used to a regular but is now hardly every to be seen. Milo Thurston has vanished, and almost every person who is entitled to the description “Maestro” now stays away. Scott Brown was the latest casualty to fall to this cleansing.

People like David Rawlings, Martin Austwick and Colin Richards still post every now and again, but over the last year they seem to have been effectively sidelined and labelled as trolls who don’t want to be part of the great love-in that is SFI.

So now we just have Greg Mele, the one true authority on all things Italian, or all things renaissance, or maybe just all things period.

We have Christian Tobler. The Lichtenauer guy. A man who is doggedly publishing every manuscript every written.

We have Terry Brown. He rarely posts, but question anything to do with English Martial Arts and his opinion will be stated for you. Normally by Greg.

We have Stephenpaul Wagnerhand, the amorphous Australian duo who have so far managed to get I.33 wrong, Silver wrong and are currently working on getting the collected medieval English manuscripts wrong. Did I mention Page?

There are also a few groupies, hangers-on like Steven Reich and Sean Hayes. They float around and point out that they are cleverer than you, they also like to point out that Guy Windsor is cleverer than you too.

Now I could be doing them an injustice, they could truly be a nice group of guys who have, by a freak of chance, been involved in every major split in WMA since the birth of the internet. They could indeed be the guiltless parties in every falling out that has occured.

Or perhaps maybe not.

06/10/2008 22:48 - Training Weapons

This is going to be a quicky so brace yourself.

All across the internet there are arguments about what the best weapons to train with are. Wooden wasters break all the time and don’t balance properly, modified shinai bounce too much and just look wrong. Nylon won’t bind properly. You’ve seen the posts. You know what I mean.

I have one thing to say to everyone who worries about how they are going to get the perfect training weapon.

You are an idiot.

You are supposed to be practising a martial art. The idea is to improve your own technique and abilities, not simply search for something that is a sharp sword in every respect but the one that matters.

Just fucking train with with what you’ve got and stop ruining our lives by moaning to us about how we’ve all got it wrong.

Is it a coincidence that the only significant injury at Art of Mars’ recent international tournament was caused by someone who claimed the safe tournament weapons weren’t good enough for them to be able to use?

I doubt it.

If you can fight then you can fight with whatever you have got. If you can only fight with your own cunningly modifed Albion Lichtenauer then you can’t fight at all.

11/10/2008 13:31 - Wardrobes And Swords

I bought an flat-pack wardrobe recently.

My wife and I were assembling it together and it caused quite a row. You see I am a man, I don’t do instructions. She on the other hand is not a man and so she likes to follow the instructions to make sure she does it properly.

I tried to explain that I already understood how it worked and I didn’t have to follow instructions written by some mindless cretin in an office somewhere, but she was having none of it.

This of course got me to thinking about swords and HEMA.

Why is it that men the world over are incapable of following instructions when building a piece of furniture, but when it comes to recreating a historical system of combat they will do nothing but repeat what the manuscript tells them?

Let me put that another way.

How many seminars have you been to where the instructor explains what a source says and then proceeds to take you through the techniques as they are described in the manuscript?

A lot I suspect.

How is this a martial art?

It’s not.

It is re-enactment.

It’s not even good re-enactment. There are no well endowed women in dresses that are too small, there are no large bits of pig hanging over fires built in oddly unhistorical metal trays.

What makes a martial art different is that it involves understanding of the underpinning concepts. Not just a rote learning of x technique against y technique. A true understanding of exactly why x technique works against y technique, and conversely why z technique would not be appropriate.

There are plenty of Re-enactors masquerading as HEMA instructors out there, but there are precious few martial artists. Next time you go along to your salle ask your instructor why a technique works. Ask them how it fits within the big picture of the system and ask them about what exercises and drills you can practice at home to help you develop your own understanding of the body mechanics behind the system. If they’re a martial artist they’ll answer without any hesitation. If they can’t then you might want to ask yourself why you’re paying someone to teach you when they are simply reading instructions from a book.

Any idiot can follow instructions, it takes a real man to throw them away because he understands it already.

It’s just a shame my wife disagrees. I have to admit that the wardrobe looks lovely though.

14/10/2008 15:31 - Community

Poteet in Texas is a small rural community in trouble. Its population is 3300 and it has 30 registered sex offenders, that is one for every 110 people. Even the Mayor is a convicted child molester.

Thinking about a community with so much wrong with it got me to thinking about the international WMA community.

There is however a problem with that.

There isn’t an international WMA community.

There isn’t even a national one, whichever country you happen to live in.

Do I really need to explain?

If you’re the leader of a pseudo-medieval “Order of Chivalry” then what the hell do you have in common with Thrusty McDojo rapierboy?

Nothing.

There is no way you and your group in your perfectly authentic wool-effect doublets would gain from being associated with him and his in their matching t-shirts and hero worship training syllabus.

In the same way that there is no reason the academic giants among us (and I use the term with a pinch of irony) would seek to benefit their practise by associating with Sir Rattan of Renfair and his assorted retainers.

So why do people still talk about the worldwide HES (or WMA, or HEMA, or HF, or HWMA depending on which bit of the non-existant community you are in) community?

Because they want to feel that they are part of a giant growing organisation.

I’ve got news for you.

It’s never going to happen. Groups don’t get more cohesive as they grow, they get more divisive and exclusive.

If you need to associate with other people then why not choose people you like? Just do what you do as well as you can and if it’s good enough it will grow.

If it isn’t then it won’t, but at least you’ll have stopped pretending that your Fiore Longsword classes are the same thing as the next town’s Highland Broadsword.

It isn’t all bad news though.

At least you don’t live in Poteet.

written by La Bete \\ tags: HEMA, HEMAboy