Amazing post. Thoughtful and with terrific photo illustrations...

Hehe, nicely done, Nez! You're right, of course, about there being a right way to fight, to win, and to lose. In the end, martial arts is really more about mental training and character than anything physical. I really like the Judo and Tae Kwon Do images; admittedly, I'm not so big on the vibe of most MMA dudes, but anyway, I guess I'm just old school. All this reminds me of the gold medal match in the Athens Olympics between 6' 7" Greek giant Alexandros Nikolaidas (Clinton?) and 6' 3" Korean champ Moon Dae Sung (Obama?), ending in a spectacular knockout (at 3:32 in the clip) from a jumping spinning hook kick to the temple which thoroughly rang Greek dude's bell. Notice from the get-go the tremendous respect that is paid to the mat, to each other, to opposing teams, to the sport and the Games. That's how it's done.

Peace.

Saludos Nezua,

I just found out about your site and agree with your article on HRC's non-concession.

I look forward to future articles and dialogue.

kai, i actually agree with your "old school"ness. i'm not a fan of "ultimate fighting," there's not enough art in it for me. i applaud it on a purely pragmatic sense, as it may actually resemble the potential of a street fight, but i dont follow it. and i don't have the respect for it that i do for martial artists. and i mean artists. i went more for the feel of each foto when i was looking through. for what purpose i wanted to use it narratively.

coming back for your link (tweaking weekly mtv submission ...).

saludos, el chuco, gracias bro. glad you found your way over here. seeya around!

I think it's a good thing that Obama ran against Hillary in a very serious fashion so we could see what she was all about. She almost became # 44 if not for the Obama Wagon. One has to ask the question: doesn't she have anyone on her team that will tell her she's naked?
I CAN understand why she's upset though. The New Guy completely crushed the Clinton Brand for good, and even though the fight was close, most are, but someone advances and someone doesn't.
I am also wondering just how widespread the rabid sector of the Hillary backing public is, and how much of her support is really press anecdotes and YouTube moments related to a tiny group.
I'm also praying that the utterly bizarre possibility that she will run as VP fails to happen.
I am thinking that it might be a smart move for McCain to ask Hillary to be HIS vice president. I'm sure she would coyly accept. And we already know she can find the jugular. I guess she just didn't bite down hard enough.

Wow. When I wrote last night stating that there should be an Obama/Clinton ticket, I hadn't actually seen her speech yet. Just watched it and you're right. Bad form. It's making me re-think that position. Maybe it's time for me to be a little less generous in giving folks the benefit of the doubt too.

rc, I think her rabid sector isn't as wide and deep as she wants people to believe. Why is her campaign 30 or 40 million in debt? Even her blue collar hard working whites could send in 10 or 20 dollars a paycheck if they believed in her that strongly. Where were the tens of thousands of protesters at the RBC meeting? They predicted 30,000 and instead got 300, including the racist Ms Christian of YouTube fame.

Polls showed that Hillary Clinton had the support of black voters something like 75% last fall, it was only once Obama had won Iowa that black people could believe that he even had a chance and started switching. I'm not black, but I am a WOC and my husband told me last fall that Obama is the one, he will be our next president. I told him to shut up, that there is no way a black man will be president in racist America. So I know that I barely paid any attention to him then. She could have pulled out a bigger margin of the black vote if she didn't abandon them in favor of the "hard working white" (racist Archie Bunker/Ferraro) voter. It might have made the difference between winning and losing. My point is that she got more "shallow" support with her race baiting, sure it won her Appalachia, but lost her supporters who were with her since the 90's the ones who would have been with her through thick and thin, because they already had been. People saw who she and Bill really are, and didn't like what they were seeing. Her shallow supporters are willing to give a vote, but no money, and no campaigning, not only that, but racists tend to be sexist too. They will choose the white man, McCain, over either a black man or a white woman, she got them in the primary but she would not hold those Reagan dems in the general.

The other thing, since Feb 5 she had gotten less than 40 superdelegates. This indicates that the Clintons had lost their grip on the Democratic party too. I think that just like her early black support where they didn't believe that Obama had a chance, so the Clintons were the next best choice; the party bigwigs assumed that everyone in the party supported the Clintons and respected and feared their power. When they found out different, they saw the party and country headed in a new direction, and thats why she couldn't get the superdelegates to back her. I also see her superdelegates like Rendell and Rangel coming around now, they know it isn't all about her, no matter how much she wants it to be. I think they can bring alot of her voters to Obama with or without her.

Alot of people are backing away, alot of people are seeing them more clearly than they ever have before. So sure, it appears that she has half the Democratic electorate on her side, but just because someone has a preference for one candidate doesn't mean they will not vote for another. I think the vast majority of her supporters will vote for Obama in the general and I don't take the rabid ones too seriously.

Thank you very much Donna for letting me know.

My pleasure. You just know I wanted a chance pop off about all these ideas stuck inside my head. lol

Kai, I'm so glad I came back for that YouTube. Wow...how sweet was that? And I just LOVE how the announcers are tooting Nikolaidis' horn right up until he gets tagged and clunks OUT hard. Suddenly they are all like "I have been loving Moon all DAY!" when in reality it was all "Moon Dae Sung is really going to have to pull something special to beat this greek superman" type shit. I guess they don't really play back their talks to notice how funny this switch sounds.

Damn!!! That was beautiful. Moon Dae Sung represented everything my teacher taught me about TKD, even in that short time. (Don't know that I came to embody even half of it, but) that's the best of the art right there. Nikolaidis came on like he was looking for a knockout, charging in and even using the same move twice in a row, that Axe kick from the getgo. You could see he was all about mashing MDS. He thought he'd run him right into the ground. His crowd, his announcers, sort of like Clinton. Presuming from the start. He didn't dance at all, didn't take any time to feel Moon out, nothing. A true Aggressive fighter, perhaps displaying very little restraint. Or maybe that criticism wouldn't have mattered in another moment. If he had won, he would have looked like the greek god that the announcers were anticipating.

Moon Dae Sung didn't spook at all, just watching Nikolaidis make his moves, anticipating, on the balls of his feet, dodging, countering, and then after a few missed charges by N., unwinding on dood and making him look clumsy. I sure love watching fighters in that zone that Moon Dae Sung was in. That trained, graceful, watchful, quick, fluid ZONE. You love watching it because you konw what it feels like. And because that is what it's all about right there.

Great display of reflexes, too, by Moon. At about 2:36, they are facing off ad N. steps in (not sure what he thought he was going to do, it was way too slow a move to not be striking by the time he landed) and as he steps, MDS tags him, right leg to the head...looks like a roundhouse or a front hook. then N. reacts with some weird sloppy roundhouse-ish type kick (that he twirls himself around/behind in a most unTKD like fashion) but MDS ducks right under his leg! He's just moving all around him. It's as if N. fights like most tall people fight...a bit slower and a bit less nimble. (Though clearly still dangerous.) But even at a tall 6' 3", Moon Dae Sung fights like a smaller, quick person. Of course I'm oversimplifying. But that's what occurred to me.

And then when Moon rightfully nails Nikolaidis the announcers suddenly explode with amazement!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 all this stuff about how the Little Guy (at 6' 3", but everyone's little next to 6' 7" i guess) beat the big bad greek fellow. They were all like 'HE LEAPT SIX FEET IN THE AIR!!" Made me feel like they were used to covering boxing or something. But the enthusiasm was cool, I can dig it. I felt it, MDS looked so happy, it was great. Running around with the flag (used to have that sticker on my bumper!) And NikoDude was just trying to shake the birdies off his forehead. Ouch. His eyes were rolling good. Most of the angles of the replay don't catch the impact well...that last one does. He nailed his temple hard.

And of course, much bowing and respect, yes. Although to follow the post's narrative, I have to say. Nikolaidis only did his bowing before hand. At the end, he almost reminded me of Clinton's loss. He only held his hands up to the crowd's noise at the end. No bowing then! But I think that thunk we heard was his bow.

Anyway, yeah. Didnt mean to write all that. But you know. Gotta love a good fight!