Palin, McCain stir up storm of ugly racism

From Andrew Greeley's piece in yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times...

'South Pacific" is a morality play for our time. Sarah Palin is the Ensign Nellie Forbush -- an All-American girl as racist, this time a racist with her eye on the White House. She can stir up crowds to shout "Kill him!" at the mention of the presidential candidate of the other party a couple of weeks before the national election.

In the restaurant, before I walked over to the theater, all the conversations were about the election -- New Yorkers speak loudly in their noisy city for fear they will not be heard. The common opinion was that they didn't know enough about Barack Obama to make a decision about him -- as if there were not two books about his life. That plea implies that they don't know enough about him to accept his strange name or his skin color. It is, of course, impossible that they could ever know enough. He isn't one of us.

It is all part of a plan cooked up by John McCain to turn the major issue in the election from the economy to the character of the Democratic candidate. At this stage of the contest, I don't think "kitchen-sink strategy" (as in "we'll throw the kitchen sink at him") will change the outcome of the election. I don't believe the polls that suggest a possible Obama landslide. Playing the race card explicitly merely guarantees what I have thought from the beginning -- racism in this country precludes the possibility of a sepia-colored man becoming president. However, the last-ditch attack on him guarantees that McCain and Palin will be blamed as the candidates who were content to hear crowds calling for the death of Obama.

Ensign Nellie Forbush (the incomparable Kelli O'Hara) finds redemption at the end of South Pacific. She turns to her true love and escapes the obligation to wait for the enchanted evening on which he might suddenly might appear across a crowded room. For Sarah Palin, such an easy escape hardly seems possible. How can she ever justify silence when she heard a cry for lynching?

McCain increasingly acts like an angry, befuddled cancer survivor and treats his rival like a field n----- who is just barely human. He does not talk to him, will not shake hands with him, will not even look at him, walks behind him when he is speaking to distract the audience. Obama's languid, legs-crossed security on the bar stool must infuriate McCain all the more. Who does he think he is? He has no right to run for president and McCain does. Has not he served his country all his life? Has not he traveled the whole world? Has not he been involved in every major event of the last four decades? Does he not know everyone who is worth knowing? And what does his rival have to offer besides intolerable arrogance? Black skin and glib language? Is not Obama the one who is playing the race card? Therefore he must be exposed as what he is -- a pushy fellow with a glib tongue who has no right to challenge a great American like John McCain.

McCain has little time left. He has been been cheated in other elections. Troubled and distracted, he has forgotten his strong words about honor. When one is faced with a shallow man who is running on the basis of his skin color, one can hardly worry about personal honor.

Now the furies are gathering.

Rolling with Tom 10/14

Actually a misnomer... I got to roll with a new chick today too! Sidney is taller, longer, and probably stronger than me but she's really sweet and makes it fun. Tom is, as always, bigger-harder-stronger-faster-smarter *and* more experienced. I enjoyed feeling a little more evenly matched the rounds against her. However, I am also enjoying rolling with him more and more each time, because I'm thinking more and seeing more, I think.

Gracie class 10/14

I'm incredibly hard on myself. While I was at the tournament and shortly thereafter, I was high as a kite on endorphins and adrenaline; you couldn't have pried the smile off my face with a crowbar. But once I got home and watched my footage.. and watched it again... and watched it a third time... I crashed. Part of it was fatigue.

Not fatigue from the tournament, since most of my rounds were short (I did tap early and often!) and I'm used to rolling for a longer time than 5 minutes. Tom has told me my cardio is through the roof, so at least I'm good in one area. No, the fatigue was from overcommitting the rest of the weekend. Saturday we had to bail on IHOP with the team and scoot home- shower- drop off Ivelin- and meet Jeff and Lauri for dinner. They came in town to celebrate Jeff's birthday so we met for Tex-Mex. That reminds me, I need to review the Rio Grande restaurant for yelp-- in a word, mediocre. Anyway, after dinner and the strongest margarita, plus a migraine pill, we walked around downtown, sat in a bar to watch a UFC rerun (McDonald-Maia), and people-watched from a coffeeshop. I departed early, around 12:30, and left Mitch at Antone's watching the famous Larry Harlow. Then Sunday morning I got up at the relatively late hour of 7, and spent the rest of the day feeling sleepy.

I skipped class Sunday to go to brunch with our friends. I rolled very lightly for an hour with Zade, he of the screwed-up shoulder. Monday, I skipped crossfit because Robert is on vacation. Honestly, I got into a rut of not working out. I just felt lazy, and what usually prompts me (desire to do jiu jitsu) wasn't working because I felt ashamed of how everything I'd been taught seemed to flit out of my head during the tournament.

But yesterday I did drag my butt over to the academy for the evening class and I'm glad. Christy was teaching, there was no conditioning, and we hopped right into technique. Then during the womens' class, I drilled with Brandy, and we worked sweeps 1-3, two standard guard passes (knee through, and dump) and then a little bit of the triangle.

Watching my footage is painful, but I need to spend some serious time on it and take notes. When Mitch gets it sufficiently compressed to put up here, I will do both, and I'll make it a learning exercise. Last night I showed a little to the gals in my class, and I see myself holding someone in my guard and I even have tricep and head control!! So why I sat there and didn't armbar/triangle him, I don't know.

1-6

That's how I did at the tournament-- I WON A MATCH! hop hop hop! I couldn't believe it!

Me, after all my matches were finished and I literally let my hair down...



The best news is that I am not injured at all and I didn't injure any of my opponents. It was a phenomenal and extremely fun learning experience and will become more so as I spend time on the mats learning from my footage, but I'm still ecstatic to have won one round!

Mitch is working on making my video footage. Here's some pictures...

My team from the Relson Gracie school: Ian, Ulises, me, Scott (my mentor, coach, corner and wing to tuck under, if that makes sense) and Emmanuel...



The rules meeting before it all started...


Scott cornered all my matches and took first place in his division...


The two other ladies-- Sarah and Melissa-- and I all grappled each other *and* the guys in our division, the under-155-lb people.


Don't ask what I was doing in either of these pictures. I can't tell, and I probably had zero clue when I was in the moment, either.

Peaking!

As in, I hope I'm peaking properly for this tournament. I am happy that I took yesterday off too-- I slept about 11 hours last night and genuinely felt "raring to go" today.

I still move a bit too much when I first get guard- he says I need to sit still and think for a moment first. I refreshed my memory on side mount escapes. Worked on getting the back a bit.

Fortunately, my black eye still looks fairly menacing, and I hope it still looks nice and dark tomorrow. I'm taking tonight off of salsa, just going to have a nice dinner with my saintly husband and then go to bed early. I have been watching an excellent instructional on leglocks, again by Stephan Kesting, for most of the day today. Ankle locks are permitted, so I'd like to have that in my arsenal if possible. I started watching Demian Maia's DVDs The Science of Jiu Jitsu today. The language barrier is one thing, but the more annoying is the organizational structure or lack thereof. I don't play spider guard yet, and since this is a no-gi tourney, I'd like to skip through the gi-only techniques, but his menu pages only number the chapters, giving you no choice but to watch at least the beginning of each.

Tomorrow, we leave the house by 6:30, meet the "wrecking crew" (LOL) at Gracie by 7... weigh-in is from 8:30-9:30, and matches start at 10. I expect the tourney to take all day tomorrow. Then we have dinner plans with friends, and Larry Harlow's playing Antone's tomorrow night. A full day of jits may not leave me much energy for salsa dancing but I will give it my best effort.

Sunday I hope to load videos of my matches onto YouTube or at least up here.

Oh, and I got some new shorts! Check them out:




Please, wish me luck.. ideally I win my division, but at a minimum, pray that I come home in one piece, healthy and able to keep training, and with lots of lessons learned.

Overtraining?

Not sure... but in an abundance of caution, I took today off too. Of course, I did roll extremely lightly with Maggie, and took my noon crossfit class.. but nothing else. First it was Chris commenting that he'd never seen me yawn before, and giving me a little guff about training during the two days leading up to a tournament.. then it was me getting snoozy at work after lunch... so instead of my Gracie class I just came home and played hooky. Ate a yummy dinner, baked a batch of cookies just because (shortbread with chocolate chips!) and now, really, I will finish editing the video of my private with Christy from last Saturday. I need to get my DVDs burned and ship them out to Michael, my mentor in SF.

Tomorrow though I am rolling, for sure, with Tom, who wants to work on my guard when someone is standing up in it, and I want to work on my sidemount escapes. Maggie's going to come, but her lower back has been acting up so I don't know how much work she'll get in. I might do an hour of open mat at Gracie in the evening, too. I'm not even teaching salsa tomorrow night, since I have to get up at the a$$-crack of dawn on Saturday.

I liked this video of Marcelo Garcia v. Mike Van Arsdale at Abu Dhabi 2003. Like I told some friends, it gives hope to us little 'uns.

New names for Sarah Palin...

Bible Spice

Snow Billy

--- many thanks to Jamie at Castle Hill Fitness who suggested these!

Stop the presses...

Yesterday I got to help out with the kids' kajukenbo class! I help herd eight kids (all under age 8) through forms and learning right from left and remembering to say "yes sir" instead of "yeah." They're super cute.

Tonight I joined the usual suspects at Hut's for two-for-one burger night... Robert and his wife Narvell, Samir, Zade and I... yum! And I got a great night's sleep last night. I even took off this morning, didn't do the 6am class at the Gracie school. My right elbow is feeling better though the tricep is still a little sore.. my neck/trap issues are getting better thanks to my awesome massage by Spencer... so it was a good rest.

Today, I'm rolling with my girlfriend Maggie. She's freaking gorgeous, smart, and so talented (musically and athletically). This is her, in a publicity shot:



I hope she continues her interest in jiu jitsu. Anyway, I think it's fun to help her, because trying to remember and explain something always cements the knowledge in my head better than just doing. She's learned a guard pass to mount to armbar from Robert and if she keeps up with it she'll be really good.

Tournament Saturday and durnit, my black eye is already healing. How will I win friends and influence people without it? :)

Tuesday afternoon/evening 10/7

It's officially a small bit of purple around my eye.



Rolled two hours with Robert after work, he let me sub him three times! The standard Americana from side; an armbar from mount, and some freaking whacko neck crank thing, my legs were figure-foured around his head, he was on his back, I was in pseudo-side control, and I was trying to make something happen with his far arm. I was surprised when he tapped, because I thought the head control was just that. Probably classic "whitebelt squeeze on whatever's handy" thing.

Then went to the Gracie school.. at 6pm, an hour after class starts, I caught the last 250 crunches, ugh. It was takedown day apparently. Class was taught by an older black belt named Giberson. We started with a variety of paired drills, from turtle to seated "after double leg takedown" to knees to feet, and worked some judo-esque trips and throws. Poor blue belt that got stuck with me, as I was learning how to do a whizzer, I grazed him in the eye.... I hate not knowing what I'm doing.

Then at 7:30 the womens' class started... we worked on escaping back mount when their hooks are in. I got to drill and later spar with Amber which was good-- she's tough, my size, and has more experience than me. She's got the edge in terms of consistent Gracie curriculum. She won't do the tournament this weekend though. Then we did a "round robin" with Shama, 2 min rounds, and of course I felt tooled by Shama. Unfortunately, at one point when I was mounted on her, she bucked me and sat up at the same time, so we totally bonked heads in a really shocking and unpleasant manner.

Got home about 9:30 and ate some yummy lasagna. Tomorrow is Hut's for the two-for-one burger night :)

Tuesday morning 10/7

Did the 6am class at Gracie this morning. After a nice warmup and stretch session, we worked on takedowns. Double-leg with two finishes, a trip and the fireman carry, then single-leg with two finishes, the dump and the hip throw, then a single-leg conversion to double-leg, and finally, the sprawl (which I totally suck at.) Turns out my partner Nick is the uke for the big guy who Tom trains on T/Th at 1pm... he was like aren't you the redhead at Castle Hill who rolls with the big black guy? LOL.

I had to bail at 7:40 to shower and head to work... whoa, their shower needs help. Not just that it looked a little grimy, which I can tolerate, but they don't have a drain in the area where you drip off, so I know water is getting into the building structure and that ain't good. The "bath mat" with little plastic fingers or bumps was squishy with water, there were no hooks for clothes, and I forgot to bring a towel. Eewww all over. Next time, along with a towel, I'm bringing a spray bottle of bleach-water, flipflops, and maybe a towel bar with a screwdriver.