Blinge wrote:My martial arts eye is admittedly limited, a white belt for life. How is yours, MintyTheCat?
kendo, jodo and a tiny bit of aikidou.
Blinge wrote:
I won't pretend to know what you're on about while dropping words like fourth dan and Kihon to sound impressive, MintyTheCat.
I'm also not sure how plenty of cops learning "jujutsu" is relevant to the discussion either.
Yes, you find that the terms used across japanese arts are pretty much standard but yes, it would be odd. They are technical terms that work world-wide. I learned originally in England but over here in Germany we all still know what the terms are so so long as you know the japanese terms you are fine pretty much anywhere.
The cops learning jujutsu, judo, kendo is to give a bit of perspective.
Blinge wrote:
I simply enjoyed the following statements in the article and think ol' Putine would find them hard to refute.
Quote:
I don’t pretend to have seen all of Putin’s martial arts videos, but I’ve watched a bunch of them, and they seem to follow a similar pattern: they involve some shots of Putin and others doing warm-ups, and then they involve a sequence of short clips, in each of which Putin throws someone who is prepared to take the throw; then there are warm handshakes and photo ops. At least in the videos I have seen, there are no committed attacks on Putin, and I see no evidence that his opponents are ever trying to get the better of him. The videos are demonstrations in which he shows off his masculine prowess with them taking what the Japanese call ukemi (defensive falls) for him.
I realise that judo is an olympic sport and all that but I dare say they have to show the public something a bit more dynamic - it is PR after all and I cannot think that there would be any other reason that they'd have that sort of display but only for the public.
Blinge wrote:
Well I wouldn't seek to defend tossers like Boris but at least they aren't dictators by any other name, who have people arrested for insulting them and run a homophobic mafia state.
ex- secret service is precisely the qualification I would not want in a leader.
I can't understand the follower mentality of people impressed by macho photos either, MintyTheCat.
A lot of this is down to perspective: in his system, and it has had its upheavals, revolutions and such: joining the KGB, studying law and all that was just the path he took career wise. Back in the old days I dare say that most of them had a handful of career options open to them and often people just find themselves doing things as they go along with it. But in his it looks like he wanted to take that path and wanted to join the KGB early on.
For most of them it is a power game; it matters not that Boris is into it in the UK and Vlad did it in Russia, it's really all a power game for that lot.
You may not want a leader to have had secret-service time on the clock, Blinge. But you'd pretty much 'see the ropes' from the inside working in that capacity which I'd imagine would be some what useful running the show in Russia - only guesses here though, Blinge
Many of the ambassadors study law not to practice it but to kind of work their system out as each system of law is tied to its country and quite different.
I think some people respond to power - images are a big part of that. Body Builders sometimes meet people who are impressed with what they have achieved physically.
I can tell you though that a judo grade is not easy to get as far as I can comment. I do not believe he is some kind of 8th dan god as they say he is though - that's most likely PR representation once again and makes the public over there feel 'safe' that a macho, no messing guy is handling things
On the homophobic front: again, image: it is a pretty orthodox society in Russia still from what I can tell and well, the church, least of all the Orthodox Christians really handled homosexuality well. You'd get less hassle over here but still people get hassled by a few people. I once lived with a Russian eons ago at Univ. and she was saying that they never trust the news papers and have to read about what is going on from foreign papers - still pretty closed.
Blinge wrote:
Not really sure what he's doing though is he doing a slow clap or trying to grab boob - his hands seem to be coming together too much.
I think he's waking his guards up to handle it for him or he's channelling some inner power - maybe charging up and getting ready for a massive hadoken - who knows?
Seeing Angela freak out and try to escape is amusing though. I think he handled it fairly well and it just looks ludicrous. I mean, making a statement by baring all - well, fine for Wimbledon and let's have more of it
Actually sounds a bit self-loathing tbh, and that's never good! 
