Hi all
This is my first post here, so being the FNG, I guess I should introduce myself. I am an American ex-pat living in London. I am also a long time fan of the Dog Bros. and had the opportunity to train with Marc a few years back in the UK when he was over doing a seminar in Warwick, England with Krishna. I had studied Krishna's system, Warriors Escrima, with the very formidable Doug Tucker who was Krishna's number one guy in London for a while. Aside from that I have trained JKD Concepts, PFS, Silat, BJJ, WT and the SFC. I have gone through Hock's Pacific Archipelago Combatives and have trained with some of the old timers who trained with Remy and Ernesto in the old days (pre-Tapi Tapi era). I hope to get into some good conversations here and share some of my views with you all.
Politically, I am pretty much on the same page with most of you guys and am currently working in a very political environment here in London, UK. I was gutted with the election results and although McCain wasn't my first choice, I am a Republican through and through. Although for some strange reason the majority of people fell for Obamasteria, I feel that McCain got a bad rap and overall would have been a better President than Obama.
What I personally found interesting about this election is that most of the people that I spoke to had no idea what McCain, or Obama for that matter, was campaigning for and the resounding resolve from the pundits seemed to be that McCain was just like Bush. McCain wasn't a bad guy and had disagreed with Bush's strategy in Iraq, immigration, earmarking and pork barreling spending, education policies, Homeland Security issues, tax and finance problems and views on controversial subjects such as torture. As a state Senator, McCain proved himself to be prolific as an independent in Congress crossing the Democratic lines frequently unlike Obama who comfortably sits on the fence that leans towards the left.
I hope that this presidency doesn't have us seeing strong American values dissolving, like putting our hands on our hearts while reciting the pledge of allegiance or listening to our anthem. I believe we have a dark 4-years ahead of us. I hope I am wrong. The future is suddenly not bright. The future is Obamamania- welcome to the new America!
http://www.joehubbard.typepad.com/Out
Joe