Dog Brothers Public Forum
DBMA Martial Arts Forum => Martial Arts Topics => Topic started by: Crafty_Dog on January 29, 2009, 09:12:16 AM
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Helio Gracie is Dead:
Helio Gracie : Dead at 95 years
"The day on January 29 morning more sad for lovers of art soft. Creator of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu along with his brother Carlos, Master Hélio Gracie, who had completed 95 years in 2008, died in Rio de Janeiro. The tatami not have details about the death of the Master, but the death is confirmed."
RIP Helio
http://jbonline.terra.com.br/nextra/...e290126426.asp
in english vis a vis google translator: http://translate.google.com/translat...istory_state0=
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Helio will go down as one of the greats in MA of the 20th century, easily.
GJJ/BJJ revolutionized the MA world and he was, arguably, the single greatest factor in that.
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We have lost a pioneer of NHB fighting, RIP Master Helio.
An english article at Sherdog: http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/helio-gracie-dead-15977
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RIP
No doubt MANY will be heartbroken to lose a man whose life's work influenced whole generations of martial artists.
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Two days before Royce was to fight Matt Hughes, I went to pick up someone who was a BB under Royce for a private. He was from out of town and asked me to pick him up at Hennesey's in Redondo Beach. It turns out he was having lunch with Royce and Helio Gracie.
I was flattered that Royce remembered me from our previous meeting (an introduction by Rigan Machado) and told him that he would establish guard on MH, and when MH went to hit him he would get past his elbow, slither to his back and choke him out. He and Helio both laughed and Royce said to me "From your lips to God's ears!"
I liked very much the enthusiasm for Life I sensed in Helio in that moment.
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On Tuesday morning Grand Master Helio Gracie was tanning at his ranch
in Brazil, and on Thursday morning at 9:15 he passed on due to natural
causes. His legacy will survive forever in all members of the Gracie
Family, jiu-jitsu practitioners around the world, and all those who
have benefited from the revolution he began.
In his final years, the creator of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu often spoke of his
satisfaction with his life's work. He openly stated that he had
accomplished everything he had set out to do, displaying his
preparedness for the transition into the afterlife.
The Grand Master believed that such a transition should be seen as a
positive step in one's spiritual evolution. In a recent interview he
declared: "I've already told my sons that when I die I want there to
be a party. No drinking, no debauchery."
To honor his request and his legacy, the Gracie Academy will host a
celebratory gathering/slideshow presentation on Saturday, February 7,
2009. In anticipation of a large turnout of friends and family, we
intend to have three showings starting at 4:00pm, 5:00pm and 6:00pm.
If you can't make it to the party, but would like to express how the
Grand Master has affected your life, please send your story to
heliogracie@gracieacademy.com so we can post it on the Gracie Academy
website.
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Surf Dog tells me he was swarmed by a large group.
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ESCONDIDO ---- A 17-year-old died Sunday after being stabbed during a fight at a house party on Felicita Road, officials said.
Julian Austin Rodriguez of San Jacinto was pronounced dead at the scene, the medical examiner's office said.
Escondido police Lt. Bob Benton said police were called to break up the fight in the 2000 block of Felicita shortly before midnight.
Officers found Rodriguez on the ground near the party, suffering from a stab wound, Benton said.
Police and paramedics were unable to save the boy's life, he said.
On Sunday afternoon, police were still interviewing people who were at the party, Benton said.
They did not yet have an estimate of the number of witnesses to the stabbing because they believe many people fled when police arrived, he said.
Benton said it remained unclear what started the fight. No information was available about possible suspects.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Police Department at (760) 839-4722, or call the department's anonymous Tip Line at (760) 743-TIPS (8477).
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Rest in peace man!
http://sherdog.com/news/news/tapout-owner-dead-in-car-crash-16532
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Rest in peace man!
http://sherdog.com/news/news/tapout-owner-dead-in-car-crash-16532
More news http://www.tmz.com/2009/03/11/tapout-owner-dies-in-horrific-ferrari-crash/
The crew just wont be the same....
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Was standing five feet from the guy at the Arnold expo here in Ohio this past weekend.
Truly a man that made the American dream happen.
At the expo the crowd was going nuts, when they showed up. What a damn shame :-(
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GM Roland Dantes passed away this weekend. I met him at a BBQ years ago.
He was handing out food and making sure everyone had enough to eat when it should have been the other way around.
Aloha GM Dantes, till we meet again.
Robert
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Hoping GM Dantes and GM Presas are together doing Tapi-Tapi in heaven.
My sincerest condolences to GM Dantes' family, friends, and students.
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"Hoping GM Dantes and GM Presas are together doing Tapi-Tapi in heaven"
That made me think back when I trained with GM Presas back in 96, just a couple of months prior to my first DB gathering.
Such a kind and carring man he was. GM Dantes is in good company if your hopes are true!
My condolences to the Dantes family. Dog Tom
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Saw this post earlier by Pat O'Malley on Martial Arts Planet:
It is with my heart and sould that I unfortunetly have to inform you that that on April 1, 2009 at 10:59am Cebu time, Mrs Vicenta Ong Canete died. Mrs Canete is the loving wife of GM Dionisio Canete.
Our thoughts and prayers are with GM Dionisio Canete and his family at this sad time. We will miss Mrs Canete's kind hospitality and presence at the Doce Pares HQ. We are very grateful to Mrs Canete's hard work and help with many things over the years and we will never forget the extra mile Mrs Canete went to make our wedding day so special. Wishing a lovely lady well on her journey.
The O'Malley Family xx.
My sincerest condolences to GM Dionisio Canete and his family.
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It is with a heavy heart that I must convey this message to the Martial Art Ohana's around the World.
I received a phone call this morning from Grand Master Greg Harper of Harper KAJUKENBO.
"SIJO passed away last night, around Midnight"
Sijo will be missed by all but his "Legend" will forever be immortalized by those he touched.
Sincerely and with respect always,
Kajukenbo SIFU Dean "C-Kaju Dog" Webster
Sijo Emperado, GM Gumataotao, GM Harper, ME....
Ps.
More news to follow as information becomes available.
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It is with a heavy heart that I must convey this message to the Martial Art Ohana's around the World.
I received a phone call this morning from Grand Master Greg Harper of Harper KAJUKENBO.
"SIJO passed away last night, around Midnight"
Sijo will be missed by all but his "Legend" will forever be immortalized by those he touched.
Sincerely and with respect always,
Kajukenbo SIFU Dean "C-Kaju Dog" Webster
Sijo Emperado, GM Gumataotao, GM Harper, ME....
Ps.
More news to follow as information becomes available.
http://www.kajukenbocafe.com/smf/index.php?topic=4949.0 (http://www.kajukenbocafe.com/smf/index.php?topic=4949.0)
:cry:
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I'm saddened to read about the passing of legendary Sijo Adriano Emperado. Your Art lives on in thousands around the world, as well as little ol' me, who will pass it to his sons.
With respect and gratitude,
Gints Klimanis
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Allmighty and eternal God, protector of all who put their trust in thee,
accept the humble homage of our faith and love in Thee, our one true God.
Bless our efforts to preserve the integrity of our United States, a nation
founded on Christian principles.
Enlighten our rules, guide our lawmakers, protect the sanctity of our homes,
and bless our efforts in these exercises, whose sole purpose in developing our
bodies is to keep others mindful of thy commandments.
Give us perseverance in our actions so that we may use this as a means to keep
closer to you, our one true God.
Amen.
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RIP: 15 June 1926 - 04 April 2009
Adriano D. Emperado was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 15, 1926. He was born to Filipino-Hawaiian parents in the poor Palama section of Honolulu.
He started his self defense training at the age of 8. At this time in his life both his father and uncle were professional boxers, so of course he was taught how to box.
His next training came at the age of 11 while he was living with his older brother in Kauai. There he learned the basic 12 strikes of escrima.
At age 14 he found himself back in his old Palama neighborhood. There he trained in judo under Sensei Taneo at the Palama Settlement Gym.
A few years later at the age of 20 Emperado undertook the serious study of kenpo at the Catholic Youth Organization in Honolulu. These classes were taught by the legendary Professor William K.S. Chow. Professor Chow had been a student of kenpo jiu jitsu instructor James Mitose, and also held a 5th degree black belt in judo. Emperado trained daily with Chow and soon became his first black belt. Emperado spent years with Professor Chow becoming his Chief Instructor and attaining the rank of 5th degree black belt.
During the developmental years of Kajukenbo Emperado would train with the 4 other co-founders during the day and then teach classes for Chow in the evenings.
After the other 4 went off to war, Emperado started the first Kajukenbo school at the Palama Settlement Gym in 1950. The workouts that took place there are legendary for their brutality. Emperado has been quoted as saying that a workout wasn't over until there was blood on the floor. He felt "that you have to experience pain before you can give it. You have to know what your technique can do. "We lost a lot of students in those days, but we also got a lot from other schools, including black belts. He then described how his first black belt Marino Tiwanak joined his class after being soundly defeated by him in response to Tiwanak's challenge. What makes this such a astonishing story is the fact that Marino Tiwanak was the flyweight boxing champion of Hawaii at the time of the challenge.
With the success of the Palama Settlement school Emperado started expanding. He left the teaching at the Palama school to his brother Joe while he started classes at the Kaimuki Y.M.C.A. and the Wahiwa Y.M.C.A.. Soon the Kajukenbo Self Defense Institute of Hawaii, Inc. was the largest chain of karate schools in Hawaii. Emperado also became instrumental in the development of tournament karate in Hawaii. He sat on the Hawaii Karate Rules Board, which established standards for competition used throughout the islands. A lot of Emperado's knowledge of street fighting came from his many years in law enforcement. He had spent 14 years as a harbor policeman for the Hawaii Department of a Transportation, and a year with the Hawaii Attorney General's Office. While with the Attorney General's Office he served as a body guard to the governor. He then entered the private sector as the security director for a large company. He worked in the corporate security field until he suffered a heart attack in 1982.
All of his life Emperado has studied various martial arts. In his 30s he expanded his knowledge of escrima by training with his step father Alfredo Peralta. Peralta taught him a method using the single stick. Emperado described how they would take 2x4s and taper down handles and then train with them. He said that "after a workout with the 2x4 you could make a rattan stick go like lighting".
About the same time he started a serious study of various kung fu systems. He studied under Professor Lau Bun of the Choy Li Fut system and Professor Wong of the Northern Shaolin system. Several years later these professors and the Hawaii Chinese Physical Culture Association awarded Emperado the title Professor 10th degree. Also at this time he was awarded a certificate by Grandmaster Ho Gau of Hong Kong appointing him as a advisor and representative of the Choy Li Fut system. This certificate was signed by Grandmaster Ho Gau, Professor Cheuk Tse, and the directors of the Hawaii Chinese Physical Culture Association. This was truly an accolade when one considers that the Hawaii Chinese Physical Culture Association was the first kung fu school outside of China.
Because he had been exposed to many fighting systems Emperado has always been one to welcome innovation. Unlike most of the traditional systems, his Kajukenbo evolves constantly. To date there are 4 systems within then kajukenbo style.
The first of course is the Original Method, sometimes referred to as the kenpo karate branch. This is the system that Emperado, Holck, Choo, Ordonez, and Chang formulated between 1947 and 1949. The original method uses kenpo karate as a base and adds selected techniques from the tang soo do, judo, jujitsu, and sil-lum pai kung fu systems. The second system is the Tum Pai branch. This system was in development from 1959-1966 by Emperado, Al Dacascos, and Al De La Cruz. Development was suspended in 1966 when Dacascos moved to the mainland. Its development was then re-activated in 1984 by Jon Loren. The Tum Pai system incorporates the original kajukenbo techniques along with tai chi chuan elements. The third system is the Chuan Fa branch. This system started development in 1966. Again this was a collaboration of Emperado, Al Dacascos, and Al De La Cruz. This system incorporated the Northern and Southern styles of kung fu with the original method of kajukenbo.
The result was a blend of soft and hard techniques. The Chuan Fa system also opened the door to the richness and unlimited techniques that the Chinese arts had to offer. The last system is the Won Hop Kuen Do (combination fist art) branch. This branch was the brain child of Al Dacascos. When he moved to the San Francisco area in the early 60s Dacascos supplemented his kajukenbo training with an extensive study of the Chinese and Filipino arts. In 1969 he saw that his kajukenbo was becoming a blend of the various systems that he was learning. This system that he named Won Hop Kuen Do contained the original kajukenbo forms and 25 exclusive fighting principles. Like all of the systems, Won Hop Kuen Do is in a constant state of evolution. Although kajukenbo has 4 systems Emperado has always stressed that no system is superior to another and that they are not improvements on the original method. They are just kajukenbo expressions that emphasize different techniques.
In his lifetime Emperado has seen his kajukenbo style grow into a major martial art that is practiced all across the United States and in several countries.
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GM Allen Abad passed away today: 06 April 2009
Grandmaster Allen Abad is an 9th degree black belt under the founder of Kajukenbo Sijo Emperado. He is an international acclaimed instructor of the Kajukenbo system for over the last 30 years.
Grandmaster Abad has over four decades of martial arts training and expertise. He began training at the age of nine in Hawaii under notable instructors like Walter Aiona (Judo) Ernest Rodrigues, Larry Kawaauhau, Marce Totor (Kenpo), and Sifu James Ibrao (Kung Fu).
Grandmaster Abad has been recognized with many awards and magazine articles. In 1994 he received the Golden Master's Martial Arts Instructor Award. This award recognized Grandmaster Abad for teaching and sharing at the highest standard of martial arts at the mental, physical and spiritual levels. He also appeared in such publications as Secrets of the Masters and Blackbelt Magazines.
As of 2002, Grandmaster Allen Abad has been awarded the highest rank of Golden Dragon by Sifu James Ibrao. Grandmaster Abad's patience and wisdom make his classes both fun and educational.
(http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb35/Webster-KajuPit/Webster%20Branch%20KajuPit/UncleAllenAbadKajukenboGM.jpg)
Uncle Abad, you will be missed. :cry:
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My goodness...
3 Titans of Kajukenbo in the same month...
My heart goes out to our MA brothers in the Kajukenbo clan.
Keep the fire alive !
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Man its getting to the point where I am afraid to pop on the internet. Seems like someone is always dying.
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Someone always is.
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:cry:
Fact Box
Adriano Emperado
June 15, 1926 - April 4, 2009
* WHAT: Adriano Emperado funeral service
* WHEN: 10 a.m. to noon visitation; noon to 1:30 p.m. service; lunch to follow at Maui Waena Intermediate. A second service will be on May 30 at Nu'uanu Mortuary on Oahu.
* WHERE: Ballard Family Mortuary, 440 Ala Makani Place in Kahului
* DETAILS: Call 205-4765 or e-mail kawahinekoa2004@yahoo.com
Kajukenbo
A rough-and-tumble martial art has lost legendary street-fighting man and beloved teacher, Adriano Emperado
By LEHIA APANA, Staff Writer
Sijo Adriano Emperado was a true product of his environment. Growing up in Oahu's rough Palama Settlement neighborhood where brawls and confrontations were a daily reality, the young Emperado learned firsthand what it meant to fight for survival.
That fierce little boy grew up to become one of the best-known figures in the martial arts community. Considered the granddaddy of kajukenbo, his teachings are revered by diehard fighters throughout the world. On April 4 the art form lost its icon when Emperado, 82, died in his sleep at Hale Makua.
"Everybody who does kajukenbo knew who Sijo was," says Sigung Kailani Koa, his former student and caregiver. "He's the root of everything and he really started it all."
Fighting was literally in his blood, with both his father and uncle professional boxers. Emperado's early training included basic escrima techniques, a Filipino martial arts using stick and sword fighting. He later took up kempo under the legendary William K.S. Chow.
In 1947, Emperado combined his own street-fighting styles with four peers to create the Black Belt Society, proving that when it comes to fighting, the sum is greater than its parts. Peter Choo was a champion boxer and black belt in tang soo do; Frank Ordonez a black belt in se keino ryu; Joe Holck a black belt in kodenkan; Clarence Chang an expert in kung fu; and Emperado a black belt in kenpo.
Together they created a deadly kajukenbo system that combined each person's expertise: Korean karate (KA), Japanese judo and jujitsu (JU), Okinawan kenpo (KEN) and Chinese boxing (BO). This chameleon of the martial arts world was meant to adapt to any situation.
The men perfected their techniques during secret meetings in abandoned buildings during the late 1940s. When the Korean War broke out, all but Emperado were drafted into service, leaving him to carry on the system. He did exactly that by opening the first kajukenbo school in 1950 at the Palama Settlement Gym.
"He's a legend and he's the one who really started mixed martial arts," says Grandmaster Gary Forbach, who studied under Emperado. "He was so far ahead of his time in the 1940s by putting together all these martial arts and mixing them into one."
Forbach describes Emperado as a "generous, loving man who accepted everyone." While Emperado was a master at his art, Forbach says his greatest legacy is his acceptance of those around him.
"I can talk about how great he was at martial arts, but it was more than that," explains Forbach. "It didn't matter if you were rich, poor, black, white, green, purple ... He was never prejudiced and never turned anyone away."
Kajukenbo has come a long way from its scrappy beginnings and undercover training sessions. From its Hawaii roots, the style spread throughout the world and today students spanning all ages and backgrounds are picking up where Emperado left off. It's a movement not even Emperado expected.
"Never in his wildest dreams did he think kajukenbo would be worldwide like this," says Koa. "He just thought it would be this small thing in a garage."
But its growth has also brought about various technical changes, causing some confusion and disagreement among its membership. The Black Belt Society was revived in 1978 in an attempt to reunify the system, bringing together top kajukenbo instructors to share their knowledge. Today many kajukenbo students use their skills for tournament competition or mixed martial arts matches; however, the basic goal of kajukenbo remains: survive a street fight. It's a style where points don't matter and the winner is the last one standing.
"It's a true street-fighting art where you can put somebody out on the street and they'll be able to defend themselves," explains former student Sigung Henry Aiau Koa.
Emperado's early workouts were notorious for this kind of no-nonsense brutality that routinely left fighters with broken bones and bruises. During a 1992 interview, Emperado was quoted as telling his students, "I'm not satisfied until I see blood on the floor." The mentality being you have to know how to take pain to give it.
That intensity was keenly evident at a recent training session in Wailuku, where one student limped off the mat with a split knee cap. Next stop, emergency room.
"(Emperado) would always say, "Make pain your friend,' " Koa explains.
Hearkening back to its street- fighting roots, true kajukenbo is executed with an "anything goes" mentality. Nothing is off limits, including scratching an opponent's eyes or kicking a person's groin. Despite its renegade reputation, kajukenbo students say it's a form of protection rather than aggression.
"It means that I can go on the street and I know I can defend myself - that's what Sijo taught us," Koa says.
"As a woman I know I can walk down the street by myself and be ready for anything."
Forbach credits his kajukenbo skills to saving his life on several occasions, adding that he's been shot at and stabbed.
"In those kinds of situations it's either you or me, so there's no limits," he explains. "But at the same time the idea is that when you take control you stop, so there's no overkill. (Emperado) never told anyone to beat the ---- out of someone."
Kailani Koa points out that younger kajukenbo students learn differently than the adults. They are still taught self-defense techniques, although with slightly subdued intensity.
"The martial art that I teach the kids is self defense," she explains. "So say they're walking home from school and somebody comes up and grabs them, they'll be able to protect themselves."
Like many martial arts, respect and discipline are equally important as learning the techniques. She points out that she has turned away students who she felt "weren't ready, weren't pono" to learn the lethal art.
"Students have to have the right attitude and they gotta have the right heart," explains Kailani Koa. "You don't want to teach something like this to someone whose heart is dark and evil."
Emperado's family, friends and former students will gather for a memorial service Saturday at Ballard Family Mortuary in Kahului to bid a final goodbye a true legend. A second service will be held May 30 at Nu'uanu Mortuary on Oahu.
"He's gonna live forever in history and I'll never ever forget that man," says Forbach.
"If you met him one time you'll never forget him."
(http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb35/Webster-KajuPit/Webster%20Branch%20KajuPit/KAJUPITROOTS.jpg)
Back row: GM Larry Gumataotao & GM Greg Harper (aka) Kajupit
Front row: Kaju Dog, Sijo Emperado, Sifu Mikel Harper
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Kaju:
Nice piece. Nice picture.
All:
I regret to inform that Poi Dog's uncle has died in a motorcycle accident. Our prayers to the family and Poi.
TAC,
CD
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All:
I regret to inform that Poi Dog's uncle has died in a motorcycle accident. Our prayers to the family and Poi.
TAC,
CD
Woof Guro,
Big Mahalo for the best wishes. I just returned from Wisconsin where the family had a fitting ceremony for my uncle. It was a jarring reminder that there are no guarantees in life and to take advantage of the opportunities I have and to appreciate the present.
Aloha, Poi
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http://movies.yahoo.com:80/news/movies.ap.org/actor-david-carradine-found-dead-bangkok-ap
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I found this article on bulshido. It sounded at first like a suicide rumor was started. dunno
David Carradine Dead at 73
The Kill Bill and Kung Fu actor was found dead in a hotel room in Bangkok Thailand, where he was on location to shoot an upcoming film.
Carradine, according to his agent, had been feeling fine and was in good spirits.
It is believed he died of natural causes.
Thai police spoke with the BBC, telling them the 72-year-old was found this morning by a hotel maid sitting in a wardrobe with a rope around his neck and body.
There are reports coming out of Thailand this morning that David Carradine was found, "hanged in his luxury hotel room and is believed to have committed suicide."
The report cites "police sources" who are connected to the investigation.
http://perezhilton.com/2009-06-04-not-a-suicide
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dayum...
Shek Kin dead at 96
http://www.kungfucinema.com/martial-arts-actor-shek-kin-dead-at-96-7734
http://stickgrappler.blogspot.com/2009/06/news-martial-arts-actor-shek-kin-dead.html
My sincerest condolences to his family, friends and students. RIP Shek Kin
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I am informed through multiple sources that highly regarded and well-liked savateur of the Inosanto Tribe Tony Adams has committed suicide. :cry:
I saw him at the IAMA last Saturday. I do not claim to have known him well, but always liked him a lot. We chatted a bit about some new ideas I was working on in my Kali Tudo. I cannot claim that I was alert enough to have spotted anything unusual-- maybe he seemed a little down, but nothing that really caught my attention.
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http://inosanto.com/?p=1163 on Tony Adams
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Services for Tony Adams
Sunday June 14, 2009
11:00 am
Royal Palm Beach
DIRECTIONS
Take 110 Freeway South Until it Ends on "Gaffey Street"
in San Pedro
Exit Left onto Gaffey Street
Follow Gaffey Street till it ends and veers right at Paseo
Del Mar
Turn onto Paseo Del Mar and Travel about a Mile and a
Half till you see an Entry Point to White Point / Royal
Palms (There's a Guard Shack there and Gate).
Pay for Parking and Proceed all the way Down the Hill.
When you reach the Bottom - Turn Right and Park all the
way at the end.
Remembering Tony Adams
For further information please contact:
Zeke Rodriguez
zekeiii@hotmail.com
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off topic (i.e. not MA-related):
RIP Farrah Fawcett
62 ... lost her bout with cancer
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/06/25/obit.fawcett/index.html
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off topic (i.e. not MA-related):
RIP Michael Jackson
50 yrs old... icon of the 1980's
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_michael_jackson
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Ed McMahon of the tonight show died June 23. When celebrities die, They say it usually comes in groups of three..
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Neither FF or EM were really on my radar screen, but please forgive me my curmdgeonly moment. Why is the fcuk is MJ here?
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Q: Why does Michael Jackson have a tough guy reputation?
A: He has licked every kid possible.
Q: Why did Michael Jackson get food poisoning?
A: He ate a nine year old wiener!
Q: Why were Michael Jackson's pants so small?
A: They belonged to somebody else.
Q: What do Michael Jackson and Walmart have in common?
A: They both have small boys pants at half off!
Q: How many Michael Jacksons does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: None. Michael Jackson only screws little boys!
Q: What did the man on the beach say to Michael Jackson?
A: Get out of my sun!
Q: What do Michael Jackson and zits have in common?
A: They both wait till your 12 to come on your face!
Q: How do we know Michael is guilty?
A: Several children have fingered him.
Q: Why does Michael Jackson like to lose foot races to little boys?
A: He likes to come in a little behind.
Q: How do you know when it's bedtime at the Jackson residence?
A: When the big hand touches the little hand...
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Billy Mays, The Oxy Clean infomercial guy, died this morning at 7:45 am at his home in Tampa Florida. He was 50.
Hopefully, he saved his best pitch for St. Peters gates.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROqzBCHAr3Y
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Hall of Fame boxer found dead; reports cite suicide
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Alexis Arguello, who fought in one of boxing's most classic brawls and reigned supreme at 130 pounds, was found dead at his home early Wednesday.
Coroners were conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death. Sandanista Party's Radio Ya and other local media were reporting it appeared to be a suicide.
The La Prensa newspaper reported that Arguello — elected mayor of Nicaragua's capital last year — was found with a gunshot wound to the chest.
The 57-year-old Arguello retired in 1995 with a record of 82-8 with 65 knockouts and was a champion in three weight divisions. He was perhaps best known for two thrilling battles with Aaron Pryor and fights with Ray Mancini, Bobby Chacon and Ruben Olivares.
"I'm kind of in a daze right now. I can't believe what I'm hearing," Pryor told The Associated Press. "Those were great fights we had. This was a great champion."
Nicknamed "The Explosive Thin Man," Arguello was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1992, where flags were flying at half-staff in his honor Wednesday.
In 1999, a panel of experts assembled by The AP voted Arguello the best junior lightweight and sixth-best lightweight of the 20th century. He never lost at 130 pounds, and his popularity in his own country was so great that he carried the flag for Nicaragua at the Beijing Olympics.
"Not only was he one of the greatest fighters I've ever seen, he was the most intelligent fighter," Bob Arum, who promoted some of his biggest fights, told The Associated Press. "He was a ring tactician. Every move was thought out. And he was a wonderful, wonderful person."
Arguello turned pro in 1968 and promptly lost his first bout. He didn't lose much more, and six years later knocked out Olivares in the 13th round to win the featherweight title.
Arguello went on to win the super featherweight and lightweight titles, his 5-foot-10 frame allowing him to move up in weight without losing his tremendous punching power. At the time, he was only the sixth boxer to win championships in three weight classes, and was considered for a while the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
He moved up in weight again in November 1982 to challenge Pryor for the 140-pound belt, a match billed as "Battle of the Champions." More than 23,000 fans packed the Orange Bowl in Miami, and the two waged an epic battle before Pryor knocked out Arguello in the 14th round.
"It was a brutal, brutal fight," Arum said. "That was something I will never, ever forget as long as I live. That was one of the most memorable fights I ever did."
The bout was named "Fight of the Year" and "Fight of the Decade" by Ring Magazine, but was shrouded by controversy. Pryor's trainer, Panama Lewis, gave him a water bottle after the 13th round that many believe contained an illegal substance — an accusation Pryor denied.
A rematch was ordered and they met again a year later at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. This time, Pryor knocked out Arguello in the 10th round.
"We always talk to each other about that first fight," Pryor said. "I never went into the fight knowing I could beat Alexis, I just went into the fight to beat Alexis."
Arguello announced after the fight that he would retire from boxing, but as so often happens in the sport, Arguello couldn't stay away from the ring.
He returned to win two fights in 1985 and 1986, then didn't step in the ring until 1994, when he made a brief comeback. He retired for good the following year.
"Alexis Arguello was a first-class fighter and a first-class gentleman," said Hall of Fame executive director Edward Brophy. "The Hall of Fame joins the boxing community in mourning the loss of a great champion and friend."
Arguello fought against the Sandinista government in the 1980s after it seized his property and bank account, but later joined the party and ran for mayor of the capital last November. He defeated Eduardo Montealegre, though opponents alleged the vote was fraudulent.
Arguello had returned Sunday from Puerto Rico, where he honored the late baseball Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente. His death prompted Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega to announced he was canceling a trip to Panama for the inauguration of President-elect Ricardo Martinelli.
"We are upset," presidential spokeswoman Rosario Murillo said. "This is a heartbreaking announcement. He was the champion of the poor, an example of forgiveness and reconciliation."
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He was one of my favorite boxers of all time. I was sad to here he went out like that. The boxing world will never see another quite like him again. A true class act! :-(
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ugh... boxing lost another.
Arturo Gatti... dead at 37.. foul play suspected
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/boxing/news/story?id=4321150
my sincerest condolences to the Gatti family.
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July 27, 2009
Forrest, Ex-Boxing Champ, Is Killed
By DERRICK HENRY
Vernon Forrest, a former middleweight boxing champion also known for his charitable work, was shot and killed Saturday night in Atlanta. The police said that he had apparently been robbed and then exchanged gunfire with his assailant.
Forrest, 38, is the third prominent boxer to die this month. Arturo Gatti, a super featherweight and light welterweight, was found dead July 11 at a Brazilian resort. Alexis Argüello, a champion in the lightweight divisions, was found dead on July 1 at his home in Managua, Nicaragua. He had been elected mayor of Nicaragua’s capital last year.
Last September, Forrest reclaimed his World Boxing Council title at 154 pounds by beating Sergio Mora, an opponent 10 years younger. Forrest, who had a 41-3 career record with 29 knockouts, had been sidelined by injury and vacated his crown. In 2002, he twice defeated Shane Mosley and was named Ring Magazine’s Fighter of the Year.
Forrest, who lived in Atlanta, had stopped at a gas station on Whitehall Street in central part of the city to put air into the tires of his Jaguar when a man robbed him at gunpoint, the police said. Forrest, who also was armed, chased the man several hundred feet, toward a nearby intersection. The two exchanged gunfire, Atlanta Police Det. Lt. Keith Meadows told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Forrest suffered seven to eight shots to the back, the police said. Lt. Meadows said there was evidence that Forrest had used his weapon, but the police did not know if the assailant had been shot.
An 11-year-old boy who was in Forrest’s vehicle gave police a description of the assailant. The boy, the son of Forrest’s girlfriend, did not witness the shootings, the police said.
An autopsy was planned for Sunday, The Associated Press reported.
Forrest, a former W.B.C. super welterweight champion, was just as noted for his work outside the ring. In 1998, he started Destiny’s Child, a foundation for people with mental disabilities in Atlanta.
Forrest said he thought of starting the foundation after seeing an autistic child struggle to tie his shoes. “If you sit there and watch a person take about an hour to tie his shoestrings, then you realize that whatever problems you got ain’t that significant,” he said in a 2006 New York Times interview. “A light just turned on in my head.”
The foundation set up group homes in the Atlanta area.
“We teach mathematics and how to count money,” Forrest said in a 2003 Times interview. “We had this one 18-year-old boy to whom all money looked the same. He had trouble with quarters and nickels. Then one day, he said, ‘Uncle Vernon, I got it, I got it.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/sp...7boxer.html?hp
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http://blip.tv/play/AYGJ5h6YgmE
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What do you think? Was it the smartest thing to go after the guy. Should have called the police first, what a loss.
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http://www.michaelyon-online.com/colr-robert-l.-howard.htm
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Someone had called to say the Ku Klux Klan was coming to bomb Robert Hicks’s house. The police said there was nothing they could do. It was the night of Feb. 1, 1965, in Bogalusa, La.
Associated Press
Robert Hicks in 1965, the year of a sit-in by blacks at a cafe in Bogalusa, La., where he lived.
The Klan was furious that Mr. Hicks, a black paper mill worker, was putting up two white civil rights workers in his home. It was just six months after three young civil rights workers had been murdered in Philadelphia, Miss.
Mr. Hicks and his wife, Valeria, made some phone calls. They found neighbors to take in their children, and they reached out to friends for protection. Soon, armed black men materialized. Nothing happened.
Less than three weeks later, the leaders of a secretive, paramilitary organization of blacks called the Deacons for Defense and Justice visited Bogalusa. It had been formed in Jonesboro, La., in 1964 mainly to protect unarmed civil rights demonstrators from the Klan. After listening to the Deacons, Mr. Hicks took the lead in forming a Bogalusa chapter, recruiting many of the men who had gone to his house to protect his family and guests.
Mr. Hicks died of cancer at his home in Bogalusa on April 13 at the age of 81, his wife said. He was one of the last surviving Deacon leaders.
But his role in the civil rights movement went beyond armed defense in a corner of the Jim Crow South. He led daily protests month after month in Bogalusa — then a town of 23,000, of whom 9,000 were black — to demand rights guaranteed by the 1964 Civil Rights Act. And he filed suits that integrated schools and businesses, reformed hiring practices at the mill and put the local police under a federal judge’s control.
It was his leadership role with the Deacons that drew widest note, however. The Deacons, who grew to have chapters in more than two dozen Southern communities, veered sharply from the nonviolence preached by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. They carried guns, with the mission to protect against white aggression, citing the Second Amendment.
And they used them. A Bogalusa Deacon pulled a pistol in broad daylight during a protest march in 1965 and put two bullets into a white man who had attacked him with his fists. The man survived. A month earlier, the first black deputy sheriff in the county had been assassinated by whites.
When James Farmer, national director of the human rights group the Congress of Racial Equality, joined protests in Bogalusa, one of the most virulent Klan redoubts, armed Deacons provided security.
Dr. King publicly denounced the Deacons’ “aggressive violence.” And Mr. Farmer, in an interview with Ebony magazine in 1965, said that some people likened the Deacons to the K.K.K. But Mr. Farmer also pointed out that the Deacons did not lynch people or burn down houses. In a 1965 interview with The New York Times Magazine, he spoke of CORE and the Deacons as “a partnership of brothers.”
The Deacons’ turf was hardscrabble Southern towns where Klansmen and law officers aligned against civil rights campaigners. “The Klan did not like being shot at,” said Lance Hill, author of “The Deacons for Defense: Armed Resistance and the Civil Rights Movement”(2004).
In July 1965, escalating hostilities between the Deacons and the Klan in Bogalusa provoked the federal government to use Reconstruction-era laws to order local police departments to protect civil rights workers. It was the first time the laws were used in the modern civil rights era, Mr. Hill said.
Adam Fairclough, in his book “Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915-1972” (1995), wrote that Bogalusa became “a major test of the federal government’s determination to put muscle into the Civil Rights Act in the teeth of violent resistance from recalcitrant whites.”
Mr. Hicks was repeatedly jailed for protesting. He watched as his 15-year-old son was bitten by a police dog. The Klan displayed a coffin with his name on it beside a burning cross. He persisted, his wife said, for one reason: “It was something that needed to be done.”
Robert Hicks was born in Mississippi on Feb. 20, 1929. His father, Quitman, drove oxen to harvest trees for the paper mill. He played football on a state championship high school team and later for the semi-professional Bogalusa Bushmen.
He was known for his generosity: at the Baptist congregation where he was a deacon, he bought new suits for poor members. As the first black supervisor at the mill, he helped a young man amass enough overtime to buy the big car he dreamed of. Children all over town called him Dad, his son Charles said.
A leader in the local N.A.A.C.P. and his segregated union, Mr. Hicks was the logical choice to head the Bogalusa Civic and Voters League when it was formed to lead the local civil rights effort. He was first president, then vice president of the Deacons in Bogalusa.
Besides Valeria Hicks, his wife of 62 years, and his son Charles, Mr. Hicks is survived by three other sons, Gregory, Robert Lawrence and Darryl; his daughter, Barbara Hicks Collins; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
By 1968, the Deacons had pretty much vanished. In time they were “hardly a footnote in most books on the civil rights movement,” Mr. Hill said. He attributed this to a “mythology” that the rights movement was always nonviolent.
Mrs. Hicks said she was glad it was not.
“I became very proud of black men,” she said. “They didn’t bow down and scratch their heads. They stood up like men.”
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THE CONSIDERATE BAGPIPER
As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a
grave side service for a homeless man.
He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery
in the Kentucky back-country.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost; and being a typical man
I didn't stop for directions. I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy
had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight.
There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly
and apologized to the men for being late. I went to the side of the grave and looked
down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and
soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.
And as I played 'Amazing Grace,' the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all
wept together. When I finished I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car.
Though my head hung low my heart was full.
As I was opening the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I never seen nothin'
like that before and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years.
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It is with a heavy heart that I inform you of the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry who was shot and killed during an encounter with armed subjects. Agent Terry was working in the “Peck Well” area near Rio Rico, Arizona when he was fatally injured.
During the encounter, one assailant was wounded and immediately taken into custody. Three additional suspects were apprehended shortly thereafter. Border Patrol agents are currently tracking a fifth suspect and I assure you that every effort will be expended to bring this remaining suspect into custody.
Agent Terry entered on duty with Academy Class 699 on July 23, 2007. He is survived by his parents and sister in Detroit, Michigan. Please keep Agent Terry and his family in your thoughts and prayers as they have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country.
This is a stark reminder of the realities we face in our mission to protect our borders and our communities. We will continue to stand firm in our commitment to that mission.
In difficult times like these it is important that we turn to and support one another. Peer Support members, the Tucson Sector Chaplaincy Program, and the Employee Assistance Program are all available to any employee who may need them. Updates will be provided about this tragic situation as soon as information becomes available.
Respectfully,
Richard A. Barlow
Deputy Chief Patrol Agent
Tucson Sector Headquarters
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Woof,
His blood and the blood of countless other American citizens is on the hands of our politicians and bureaucrats that put ideology and votes above doing their sworn duty. I hope they rot in hell for it! And for the people who keep putting them in office, shame on you, the families of these innocent people that are murdered by illegal aliens should spit in your face when you leave the polling place. :-P
P.C.
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Woof,
His blood and the blood of countless other American citizens is on the hands of our politicians and bureaucrats that put ideology and votes above doing their sworn duty. I hope they rot in hell for it! And for the people who keep putting them in office, shame on you, the families of these innocent people that are murdered by illegal aliens should spit in your face when you leave the polling place. :-P
P.C.
While I am against illegal immigration and my heart goes out to the family of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, I think your comments are a bit absurd, virulent and over the line towards illegal immigrants. Most illegal immigrants come to America because they simply want a job. Hardly an offense for a politician or bureaucrat to "rot in hell".
Was Agent Terry even killed by illegal immigrants?
"Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot and killed near Rio Rico, Arizona, while attempting to apprehend a group of armed subjects. The suspects had been preying on illegal immigrants with the intent to rob them.
Agent Terry and several other agents were attempting to arrest the group when shots were exchanged between the suspects and agents. Agent Terry was reportedly struck in the back by rounds fired by a suspect armed with an AK-47."
http://www.odmp.org/officer/20596-border-patrol-agent-brian-a.-terry
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Woof,
Yeah it's absurd
www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims_2.html (http://www.immigrationshumancost.org/text/crimevictims_2.html)
Listen, I'm all for immigrants coming to our country but they need to do it by our laws; the laws are there for a reason and the reason is to prevent the F'ing chaos we have now. So, yes it is on the people that are suppose to secure our border and enforce our laws. I hope you or some of your family don't end up on this list but unless we citizens wake up to the reality, the list will continue to grow and that is unacceptable to me and these sorry sh#theads in our government need to be held accountable; they are complicit with every one of these murders. I know it sounds harsh but how harsh were these needless deaths?
P.C.
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JDN:
Forgive me, but the point is NOT "most illegals/most immigrants". The point that when we do not control our border SOME illegals will be doing what we saw here and responsibility for that DOES fall on those who are not defending our borders. IMHO first and therefore foremost, that would include our current Commander in Chief.
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JDN:
Forgive me, but the point is NOT "most illegals/most immigrants". The point that when we do not control our border SOME illegals will be doing what we saw here and responsibility for that DOES fall on those who are not defending our borders. IMHO first and therefore foremost, that would include our current Commander in Chief.
Why exactly are the "illegals" responsible?
"If initial police reports are accurate, Terry wasn't gunned down by the immigrants who travel the same dangerous paths as Border Patrol agents in search work north of the border, but by violent criminals who set out each day to profit from the misery of others."
Therefore what happened could have been done by violent legal immigrants or citizens. Yes? And almost anywhere inside our borders.
As you know in Los Angeles we have many "violent criminals"; most are here legally and/or are citizens. A violent death happens nearly everyday. Two LAPD Officers are killed in the line of duty every year; a much greater death rate than Border Patrol Agents. Is our Mayor to "rot in Hell" and I to be shamed because I voted for him?
As Commander in Chief, I agree, the buck stops on his desk, as does the deaths and blood of American's fighting our cause in Iraq and Afghanistan (which most American's 60%+ do not agree with). As well as the deaths of various Federal Agents including our Border Patrol fighting violent crime world wide. Is the Commander in Chief to "rot in hell" and and are those who voted for him to be shamed? I think not.
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So, since we have US born criminals, we shouldn't complain about those invading our country and committing crimes?
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Nope; a criminal is a criminal. I am grateful to law enforcement for doing whatever they can to stop anyone from committing violent crime,
whether they are here legally or illegally.
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RIP Grandmaster Ernesto Presas
http://www.fmapulse.com/content/grandmaster-ernesto-presas-1945-2010
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http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/8/12/II/VIII/1325
8 U.S.C. § 1325 : US Code - Section 1325: Improper entry by alien
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;
misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States
at any time or place other than as designated by immigration
officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration
officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United
States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the
willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first
commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or
imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent
commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or
imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
**Just being an illegal alien IS a crime, despite what some claim. Of course, most go on to commit additional crimes while here.
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http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/8/12/II/VIII/1325
8 U.S.C. § 1325 : US Code - Section 1325: Improper entry by alien
(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;
misrepresentation and concealment of facts
Any alien who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United States
at any time or place other than as designated by immigration
officers, or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigration
officers, or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the United
States by a willfully false or misleading representation or the
willful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the first
commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 or
imprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequent
commission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, or
imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.
**Just being an illegal alien IS a crime, despite what some claim. Of course, most go on to commit additional crimes while here.
It is a crime. I have never liked "undocumented alien". What is this that a euphemism for "illegal" alien?
Illegal means illegal.
That said, it is a crime; similar to smoking a joint is a crime. And a DUI's penalties here in CA are worse.
However I do not agree that "most go on to commit additional crimes while here."
Do you have anything to back that wild statement?
But my purpose here was not to debate or defend illegal immigration. Just don't blame illegal immigrants for everything going wrong with our country.
For example you are a police officer. You see someone smoking a joint. You stop to arrest them and suddenly
out of the bushes jumps the big bad dealer who shoots your partner dead. The meek guy with the joint is harmless; albeit illegal. He is just buying a joint
and plans to go back to the office. He takes cover on the ground whimpering.
Now in the above scenario do you blame the guy who bought the joint? Probably..., a little. I would. But you probably really hate
the violent criminal who shot your partner. But do I think our President or our former President should "rot in hell" because they can't solve the drug problem?
No.
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There is a major difference from failing to solve the problem and rewarding those that break the law. See the "DREAM" act they are trying to ram through. Do you doubt that Obama will sign it if given the chance?
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=196
ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION: COSTS, CRIMES, & RELATED PROBLEMS (U.S.)
See also: Illegal Immigration: Trends, Historical Perspectives, & Related Issues (U.S.)
Illegal immigration imposes enormous costs -- monetary as well as crime-related -- on American society. As regards criminal activity, Manhattan Institute scholar Heather MacDonald describes one small slice of a much larger problem:
* In Los Angeles, 95 percent of all outstanding warrants for homicide target illegal aliens, as do approximately two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants.
* More than 60 percent of the Hispanic gangs in Southern California—whose membership is in the tens of thousands—is illegal. These gangs involved withdrug-distribution schemes, extortion, drive-by assassinations, assaults, and robberies.
In a 2006 study, Deborah Schurman-Kauflin of the Violent Crimes Institute in Atlanta estimated, conservatively, that from January 1999 through April 2006 approximately 240,000 illegal aliens had committed about 960,000 sex offenses in the United States.
The fiscal costs of illegal immigration are also very high. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, in 2002 illegal-alien households imposed, in aggregate, costs exceeding $26 billion on the federal government while they paid $16 billion in federal taxes -- thereby creating a net fiscal deficit of $10.4 billion per year at the federal level, or $2,700 per household. Among the largest components of this deficit were Medicaid ($2.5 billion); medical treatment for the uninsured ($2.2 billion); food-assistance programs such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches ($1.9 billion); the federal prison and court systems ($1.6 billion); and federal aid to schools ($1.4 billion). A major reason why illegal aliens are, on balance, such a drain on the American Treasury is because approximately 60 percent of them lack a high-school degree.
The National Academy of Sciences has estimated that the average immigrant without a high-school degree will, over the course of his or her lifetime, impose a net cost -- above and beyond any taxes he or she pays -- of nearly $100,000 on U.S. taxpayers; this cost does not include the cost of educating the immigrant’s children. Based on that figure, the estimated 6 million legal immigrants lacking a high-school diploma and residing in the U.S. today, will cost taxpayers more than a half trillion dollars over their lifetimes.
_________________________________________________________________________
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d02830t.pdf
IDENTITY FRAUD
Prevalence and Links to
Alien Illegal Activities
I am pleased to be here today to discuss the significance of “identity
fraud”—a term that encompasses a broad range of illegal activities based
on fraudulent use of identifying information of a real person or of a
fictitious person. A pervasive type of identity fraud is identity theft, which
involves “stealing” another person’s personal identifying information—
such as Social Security number (SSN), date of birth, and mother’s maiden
name—and then using the information to fraudulently establish credit, run
up debt, take over existing financial accounts, or to undertake other
activities in another’s name. Also, another pervasive category is the use of
fraudulent identity documents by aliens to enter the United States illegally
to obtain employment and other benefits. The events of September 11,
2001, have heightened concerns about the contributory role that identity
fraud plays in facilitating terrorism and other serious crimes.
In this statement, I make the following points:
• The prevalence of identity theft appears to be growing. Moreover,
identity theft is not typically a stand-alone crime; rather, identity theft
is usually a component of one or more white-collar or financial crimes,
such as bank fraud, credit card or access device fraud, or the use of
counterfeit financial instruments. Since 1998, the Congress and most
states have enacted laws that criminalize identity theft. The passage of
federal and state identity theft legislation indicates that this type of
crime has been widely recognized as a serious problem across the
nation.
• According to Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials,
the use of fraudulent documents by aliens is extensive. At ports of
entry, INS inspectors have intercepted tens of thousands of fraudulent
documents in each of the last few years. These documents were
presented by aliens attempting to enter the United States to seek
employment or obtain other immigration benefits, such as
naturalization or permanent residency status. The types of false
documents most frequently intercepted by INS inspectors include
border crossing cards, alien registration cards, nonimmigrant visas, and
passports and citizenship documents (both U.S. and foreign). Also, INS
has reported that large-scale counterfeiting has made fraudulent
employment eligibility documents (e.g., Social Security cards) widely
available.
Page 2 GAO-02-830T
• Federal investigations have shown that some aliens use fraudulent
documents in connection with more serious illegal activities, such as
narcotics trafficking and terrorism. This is a cause for greater concern.
• Efforts to combat identity fraud in its many forms likely will command
continued attention from policymakers and law enforcement. Such
efforts will include investigating and prosecuting perpetrators, as well
as focusing on prevention measures to make key identification
documents and information less susceptible to being counterfeited or
otherwise used fraudulently.
_______________________________________________________________
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2006/03/hidden_cost_of_.html
Hidden cost of illegal immigration: ID theft
Posted: Friday, March 31 2006 at 07:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
In the noisy immigration debate raging in Washington, there is one voice NOT being heard.
The voice of identity theft victims.
Behind many of the nation’s millions of undocumented workers are someone else's documents. To get a job, illegal immigrants need a Social Security number, and they often borrow one. As victim Melody Millet is fond of saying, U.S. citizens are being forced to share their identities with undocumented immigrants to give corporate America a steady supply of cheap labor.
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GM, GM: Lets take it to Homeland Security, US-Mexico, or the Immigration threads please.
Grayson: I had not heard about GM Presas. Thank you for the sad news.
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[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXm3lX19nQg[/youtube]
Singer and composer Debbie Friedman, one of the most important figures in contemporary Jewish music, died Sunday morning.
The Jerusalem Post reported her death, citing sources with the Union for Reform Judaism.
Debbie Friedman
Rabbi Paul Kipnes of Congregation Or Ami in Calabasas wrote on Twitter: "I am saddened to inform you that Debbie Friedman died this morning at 5:49 a.m. PST. The family has asked for people to respect their time..."
Jewish media outlets reported that Friedman had been in a medically induced coma at an Orange County hospital, which was not identified.
"She is the voice of the Jewish people of the 20th century," said Yaffa Weisman, a member of the faculty and director of the library at Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles, where Friedman also taught. "Her music has transformed the world of Jewish prayer."
Weisman, who said Friedman moved to Orange County about a year ago to be closer to her family, is the one composer whose songs are known by almost all Conservative or Reform Jews in the United States. As an example she described a Sabbath service she conducted for a small group on the coast of Alaska about 15 years ago.
"Forty people came to the services from all over the United States," Weisman said. "The only music that we all knew was Debbie Friedman's music, and I'm sure my story is not unique in that way."
Friedman, who was in her late 50s, took the accessibility and contemporary elements of the '60s folk movement and blended them with traditional melodies and prayers, had released more than 20 albums and performed throughout the world. The New York Times once wrote that Friedman "has created a powerful and euphoric body of work." The Los Angeles Times called her "one of the foremost figures in contemporary Jewish music."
A healing service previously scheduled for 5 p.m. PST in New York, will now be a memorial service. The service can be seen at www.ustream.tv/channel/service-at-the-jcc or jccmanhattan.org/livestream.
Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, called Friedman one of the most influential voices in Reform Judaism.
"Twenty-five years ago, North American Jews had forgotten how to sing," Yoffie said in an announcement. "Debbie reminded us how to sing, she taught us how to sing. She gave us the vehicles that enabled us to sing. What happens in the synagogues of Reform Judaism today – the voices of song – are in large measure due to the insight, brilliance and influence of Debbie Friedman."
Memories and condolences were offered on a Facebook tribute page.
"Debbie Friedman, may your music and memory live on forever," one person wrote. "You will be missed."
"May her memory and music be a blessing for all; and may we all continue singing the songs," wrote anoth
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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/23/fitness-guru-jack-lalanne-dies/
Fitness Guru Jack LaLanne Dies at 96
Published January 23, 2011
Feb. 20, 1980: Jack LaLanne pumps iron in the gym in his home in Hollywood, Calif.
LOS ANGELES -- Jack LaLanne, the fitness guru who inspired television viewers to trim down, eat well and pump iron for decades before diet and exercise became a national obsession, died Sunday. He was 96. LaLanne died of respiratory failure due to pneumonia Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay on California's central coast, his longtime agent Rick Hersh said.
LaLanne ate healthy and exercised every day of his life up until the end, Hersh said.
"I have not only lost my husband and a great American icon, but the best friend and most loving partner anyone could ever hope for," Elaine LaLanne, LaLanne's wife of 51 years and a frequent partner in his television appearances, said in a written statement.
He maintained a youthful physique and joked in 2006 that "I can't afford to die. It would wreck my image."
Former "Price is Right" host Bob Barker credited LaLanne's encouragement with helping him to start exercising often.
"He never lost enthusiasm for life and physical fitness," the 87-year-old Barker told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I saw him in about 2007 and he still looked remarkably good. He still looked like the same enthusiastic guy that he always was."
LaLanne (pronounced lah-LAYN') credited a sudden interest in fitness with transforming his life as a teen, and he worked tirelessly over the next eight decades to transform others' lives, too.
"The only way you can hurt the body is not use it," LaLanne said. "Inactivity is the killer and, remember, it's never too late."
His workout show was a television staple from the 1950s to the '70s. LaLanne and his dog Happy encouraged kids to wake their mothers and drag them in front of the television set. He developed exercises that used no special equipment, just a chair and a towel.
He also founded a chain of fitness studios that bore his name and in recent years touted the value of raw fruit and vegetables as he helped market a machine called Jack LaLanne's Power Juicer.
When he turned 43 in 1957, he performed more than 1,000 push-ups in 23 minutes on the "You Asked For It" television show. At 60, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco -- handcuffed, shackled and towing a boat. Ten years later, he performed a similar feat in Long Beach harbor.
"I never think of my age, never," LaLanne said in 1990. "I could be 20 or 100. I never think about it, I'm just me. Look at Bob Hope, George Burns. They're more productive than they've ever been in their whole lives right now."
Fellow bodybuilder and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger credited LaLanne with taking exercise out of the gymnasium and into living rooms.
"He laid the groundwork for others to have exercise programs, and now it has bloomed from that black and white program into a very colorful enterprise," Schwarzenegger said in 1990.
In 1936 in his native Oakland, LaLanne opened a health studio that included weight-training for women and athletes. Those were revolutionary notions at the time, because of the theory that weight training made an athlete slow and "muscle bound" and made a woman look masculine.
"You have to understand that it was absolutely forbidden in those days for athletes to use weights," he once said. "It just wasn't done. We had athletes who used to sneak into the studio to work out. It was the same with women. Back then, women weren't supposed to use weights. I guess I was a pioneer," LaLanne said.
The son of poor French immigrants, he was born in 1914 and grew up to become a sugar addict, he said. The turning point occurred one night when he heard a lecture by pioneering nutritionist Paul Bragg, who advocated the benefits of brown rice, whole wheat and a vegetarian diet.
"He got me so enthused," LaLanne said. "After the lecture I went to his dressing room and spent an hour and a half with him. He said, 'Jack, you're a walking garbage can."'
Soon after, LaLanne constructed a makeshift gym in his back yard. "I had all these firemen and police working out there and I kind of used them as guinea pigs," he said.
He said his own daily routine usually consisted of two hours of weightlifting and an hour in the swimming pool.
"It's a lifestyle, it's something you do the rest of your life," LaLanne said. "How long are you going to keep breathing? How long do you keep eating? You just do it."
In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons, Dan and Jon, and a daughter, Yvonne.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/23/fitness-guru-jack-lalanne-dies/#ixzz1Bvfo4J3u
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http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/01/23/fitness-guru-jack-lalanne-dies/
Fitness Guru Jack LaLanne Dies at 96
Gents.... I'm moved by this. I recall him in the same way that I recall Bruno Sanmartino and the early "studio" wrestlers. Sort of off the radar but never-the-less had a place of inspiration in my soul. In terms of accessibility and visibility he definitely changed things and made his mark. Nice to recall and give credit where it is truly due.
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Sifu Mark Gerry wrote:
"It is with great sadness that I must report Professor Wally Jay has passed away after suffering from a stroke. He has touched the world and will be sorely missed by everyone. May God strengthen his family to endure such a loss as we all thank God for him having been born."
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Sad news, but at 93 years old he certainly had a good innings. Sonny and Wally were good friends and lived down the road from each other, often getting together to exchange ideas. RIP
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"The wood is consumed, but the fire burns on."
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RIP Wally Jay
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Another legend is gone: RIP Professor Wally Jay.
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He was a great man. I had the honor of training with him in the late 80's and early 90's when I too was doing Danzan Ryu Jujitsu. He will be missed.
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RIP, Datu Manny Nitullama, my first instructor in the FMA. You will be missed. Mahalo for starting me down this path some 20 years ago, I owe you so much.
Aloha nui loa, Poi
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Woof Datu (http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/DignityMemorial/guestbook.aspx?n=manuel-nitullama&pid=153277287),
It is so hard for me to believe that it was 20 years ago that I began my journey with you into the world of the Filipino Martial Arts. Though now I walk the journey without you, I know that you are the reason I have never swayed from the path, that I continue to find joy in the beauty of this movement and that I will love the art until my final day. I've always felt your guidance, your presence and your love on every step, and I continue to feel you in my heart and at my side, protecting me and leading me through my trials and growth. All my thanks and all my love, Datu, you are the reason I am the Poi Dog.
Eternal Aloha, Kalani
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"The wood is consumed, yet the fire burns on."
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RIP---
woof!
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/sports/joe-frazier-ex-heavyweight-champ-dies-at-67.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=joe%20frazier&st=cse
November 7, 2011
Joe Frazier, Ex-Heavyweight Champ, Dies at 67
By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN
Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion whose furious and intensely personal fights with a taunting Muhammad Ali endure as an epic rivalry in boxing history, died Monday night at his home in Philadelphia. He was 67.
His business representative, Leslie Wolff, said the cause was liver cancer. An announcement over the weekend that Frazier had received the diagnosis in late September and had been moved to hospice care early this month prompted an outpouring of tributes and messages of support.
Known as Smokin’ Joe, Frazier stalked his opponents around the ring with a crouching, relentless attack — his head low and bobbing, his broad, powerful shoulders hunched — as he bore down on them with an onslaught of withering jabs and crushing body blows, setting them up for his devastating left hook.
It was an overpowering modus operandi that led to versions of the heavyweight crown from 1968 to 1973. Frazier won 32 fights in all, 27 by knockouts, losing four times — twice to Ali in furious bouts and twice to George Foreman. He also recorded one draw.
A slugger who weathered repeated blows to the head while he delivered punishment, Frazier proved a formidable figure. But his career was defined by his rivalry with Ali, who ridiculed him as a black man in the guise of a Great White Hope. Frazier detested him.
Ali vs. Frazier was a study in contrasts. Ali: tall and handsome, a wit given to spouting poetry, a magnetic figure who drew adulation and denigration alike, the one for his prowess and outsize personality, the other for his antiwar views and Black Power embrace of Islam. Frazier: a bull-like man of few words with a blue-collar image and a glowering visage who in so many ways could be on an equal footing with his rival only in the ring.
Ali proclaimed, “I am the greatest” and he preened how he could “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Frazier had no inclination for oratorical bravado. “Work is the only meanin’ I’ve ever known,” he told Playboy in 1973. “Like the man in the song says, I just gotta keep on keepin’ on.”
Frazier won the undisputed heavyweight title with a 15-round decision over Ali at Madison Square Garden in March 1971, in an extravaganza known as the Fight of the Century. Ali scored a 12-round decision over Frazier at the Garden in a nontitle bout in January 1974. Then came the Thrilla in Manila championship bout, in October 1975, regarded as one of the greatest fights in boxing history. It ended when a battered Frazier, one eye swollen shut, did not come out to face Ali for the 15th round.
The Ali-Frazier battles played out at a time when the heavyweight boxing champion was far more celebrated than he is today, a figure who could stand alone in the spotlight a decade before an alphabet soup of boxing sanctioning bodies arose, making it difficult for the average fan to figure out just who held what title.
The rivalry was also given a political and social cast. Many viewed the Ali-Frazier matches as a snapshot of the struggles of the 1960s. Ali, an adherent of the Nation of Islam who had changed his name from Cassius Clay, came to represent rising black anger in America and opposition to the Vietnam War. Frazier voiced no political views, but he was nonetheless depicted, to his consternation, as the favorite of the establishment. Ali called him ignorant, likened him to a gorilla and said his black supporters were Uncle Toms.
“Frazier had become the white man’s fighter, Mr. Charley was rooting for Frazier, and that meant blacks were boycotting him in their heart,” Norman Mailer wrote in Life magazine after the first Ali-Frazier bout.
Frazier, wrote Mailer, was “twice as black as Clay and half as handsome,” with “the rugged decent life-worked face of a man who had labored in the pits all his life.”
Frazier could never match Ali’s charisma or his gift for the provocative quote. He was essentially a man devoted to a brutal craft, willing to give countless hours to his spartan training-camp routine and unsparing of his body inside the ring.
“The way I fight, it’s not me beatin’ the man: I make the man whip himself,” Frazier told Playboy. “Because I stay close to him. He can’t get out the way.” He added: “Before he knows it — whew! — he’s tired. And he can’t pick up his second wind because I’m right back on him again.”
In his autobiography, “Smokin’ Joe,” written with Phil Berger, Frazier said his first trainer, Yank Durham, had given him his nickname. It was, he said, “a name that had come from what Yank used to say in the dressing room before sending me out to fight: ‘Go out there, goddammit, and make smoke come from those gloves.’ “
Foreman knocked out Frazier twice but said he had never lost his respect for him. “Joe Frazier would come out smoking,” Foreman told ESPN. “If you hit him, he liked it. If you knocked him down, you only made him mad.”
Durham said he saw a fire always smoldering in Frazier. “I’ve had plenty of other boxers with more raw talent,” he told The New York Times Magazine in 1970, “but none with more dedication and strength.”
Ali himself was conciliatory when Frazier’s battle with cancer became publicly known. “My family and I are keeping Joe and his family in our daily prayers,” Ali said in his statement over the weekend. “Joe has a lot of friends pulling for him, and I’m one of them.”
And when word reached him that Frazier had died, Ali, in another statement, said: “The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration.”
Billy Joe Frazier was born on Jan. 12, 1944, in Laurel Bay, S.C., the youngest of 12 children. His father, Rubin, and his mother, Dolly, worked in the fields, and the youngster known as Billy Boy dropped out of school at 13. He dreamed of becoming a boxing champion, throwing his first punches at burlap sacks he stuffed with moss and leaves, pretending to be Joe Louis or Ezzard Charles or Archie Moore.
At 15, Frazier went to New York to live with a brother. A year later he moved to Philadelphia, taking a job in a slaughterhouse. At times he battered sides of beef, using them as a punching bag to work out, the kind of scene used by Slyvester Stallone in the film “Rocky,” though Stallone said that he drew on the life of the heavyweight contender Chuck Wepner in developing the Rocky character.
Durham discovered Frazier boxing to lose weight at a Police Athletic League gym in Philadelphia. Under Durham’s guidance, Frazier captured a Golden Gloves championship and won the heavyweight gold medal at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
He turned pro in August 1965, with financial backing from businessmen calling themselves the Cloverlay Group (from cloverleaf, for good luck, and overlay, a betting term signifying good odds). He won his first 11 bouts by knockouts. By winter 1968, his record was 21-0.
A year before Frazier’s pro debut, Cassius Clay won the heavyweight championship in a huge upset of Sonny Liston. Soon afterward, affirming his rumored membership in the Nation of Islam, he became Muhammad Ali. In April 1967, having proclaimed, “I ain’t got nothing against them Vietcong,” Ali refused to be drafted, claiming conscientious objector status. Boxing commissions stripped him of his title, and he was convicted of evading the draft.
An eight-man elimination tournament was held to determine a World Boxing Association champion to replace Ali. Frazier refused to participate when his financial backers objected to the contract terms for the tournament, and Jimmy Ellis took the crown.
But in March 1968, Frazier won the version of the heavyweight title recognized by New York and a few other states, defeating Buster Mathis with an 11th-round technical knockout. He took the W.B.A. title in February 1970, stopping Ellis, who did not come out for the fifth round.
In the summer of 1970, Ali won a court battle to regain his boxing license, then knocked out the contenders Jerry Quarry and Oscar Bonavena. The stage was set for an Ali-Frazier showdown, a matchup of unbeaten fighters, on March 8, 1971, at Madison Square Garden.
Each man was guaranteed $2.5 million, the biggest boxing payday ever. Frank Sinatra was at ringside taking photos for Life magazine. The former heavyweight champion Joe Louis received a huge ovation. Hubert H. Humphrey, back in the Senate after serving as vice president, sat two rows in front of the Irish political activist Bernadette Devlin, who shouted, “Ali, Ali,” her left fist held high. An estimated 300 million watched on television worldwide, and the gate of $1.35 million set a record for an indoor bout.
Frazier, at 5 feet 11 1/2 inches and 205 pounds, gave up three inches in height and nearly seven inches in reach to Ali, but he was a 6-to-5 betting favorite. Just before the fighters received their instructions from the referee, Ali, displaying his arrogance of old, twice touched Frazier’s shoulders as he whirled around the ring. Frazier just glared at him.
Frazier wore Ali down with blows to the body while moving underneath Ali’s jabs. In the 15th round, Frazier unleashed his famed left hook, catching Ali on the jaw and flooring him for a count of 4, only the third time Ali had been knocked down. Ali held on, but Frazier won a unanimous decision.
Frazier declared, “I always knew who the champ was.”
Frazier continued to bristle over Ali’s taunting. “I’ve seen pictures of him in cars with white guys, huggin’ ‘em and havin’ fun,” Frazier told Sport magazine two months after the fight. “Then he go call me an Uncle Tom. Don’t say, ‘I hate the white man,’ then go to the white man for help.”
For Frazier, 1971 was truly triumphant. He bought a 368-acre estate called Brewton Plantation near his boyhood home and became the first black man since Reconstruction to address the South Carolina Legislature. Ali gained vindication in June 1971 when the United States Supreme Court overturned his conviction for draft evasion.
Frazier defended his title against two journeymen, Terry Daniels and Ron Stander, but Foreman took his championship away on Jan. 22, 1973, knocking him down six times in their bout in Kingston, Jamaica, before the referee stopped the fight in the second round.
Frazier met Ali again in a nontitle bout at the Garden on Jan. 28, 1974. Frazier kept boring in and complained that Ali was holding in the clinches, but Ali scored with flurries of punches and won a unanimous 12-round decision.
Ali won back the heavyweight title in October 1974, knocking out Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire — the celebrated Rumble in the Jungle. Frazier went on to knock out Quarry and Ellis, setting up his third match, and second title fight, with Ali: the Thrilla in Manila, on Oct. 1, 1975.
In what became the most brutal Ali-Frazier battle, the fight was held at the Philippine Coliseum at Quezon City, outside the country’s capital, Manila. The conditions were sweltering, with hot lights overpowering the air-conditioning.
Ali, almost a 2-to-1 betting favorite in the United States, won the early rounds, largely remaining flat-footed in place of his familiar dancing style. Before Round 3 he blew kisses to President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, in the crowd of about 25,000.
But in the fourth round, Ali’s pace slowed while Frazier began to gain momentum. Chants of “Frazier, Frazier” filled the arena by the fifth round, and the crowd seemed to favor him as the fight moved along, a contrast to Ali’s usually enjoying the fans’ plaudits.
Frazier took command in the middle rounds. Then Ali came back on weary legs, unleashing a flurry of punches to Frazier’s face in the 12th round. He knocked out Frazier’s mouthpiece in the 13th round, then sent him stumbling backward with a straight right hand.
Ali jolted Frazier with left-right combinations late in the 14th round. Frazier had already lost most of the vision in his left eye from a cataract, and his right eye was puffed and shut from Ali’s blows.
Eddie Futch, a renowned trainer working Frazier’s corner, asked the referee to end the bout. When it was stopped, Ali was ahead on the scorecards of the referee and two judges. “It’s the closest I’ve come to death,” Ali said.
Frazier returned to the ring nine months later, in June 1976, to face Foreman at Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. Foreman stopped him on a technical knockout in the fifth round. Frazier then announced his retirement. He was 32.
He later managed his eldest son, Marvis, a heavyweight. In December 1981 he returned to the ring to fight a journeyman named Jumbo Cummings, fought to a draw, then retired for good, tending to investments from his home in Philadelphia.
Both Frazier and Ali had daughters who took up boxing, and in June 2001 it was Ali-Frazier IV when Frazier’s daughter Jacqui Frazier-Lyde fought Ali’s daughter Laila Ali at a casino in Vernon, N.Y. Like their fathers in their first fight, both were unbeaten. Laila Ali won on a decision. Joe Frazier was in the crowd of 6,500, but Muhammad Ali, impaired by Parkinson’s syndrome, was not.
In addition to his son Marvis and his daughter Jacqui, Frazier is survived by his sons Hector, Joseph Rubin, Joseph Jordan, Brandon Marcus and Derek Dennis; his daughters Weatta, Jo-Netta, Renae and Natasha, and a sister. His marriage to his wife, Florence, ended in divorce.
Long after his fighting days were over, Frazier retained his enmity for Ali. But in March 2001, the 30th anniversary of the first Ali-Frazier bout, Ali told The New York Times: “I said a lot of things in the heat of the moment that I shouldn’t have said. Called him names I shouldn’t have called him. I apologize for that. I’m sorry. It was all meant to promote the fight.”
Asked for a response, Frazier said: “We have to embrace each other. It’s time to talk and get together. Life’s too short.”
Fascination with the Ali-Frazier saga has endured.
After a 2008 presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, the Republican media consultant Stuart Stevens said that McCain should concentrate on selling himself to America rather than criticizing Obama. Stevens’s prescription: “More Ali and less Joe Frazier.”
Frazier’s true feelings toward Ali in his final years seemed murky.
The 2009 British documentary “Thrilla in Manila,” shown in the United States on HBO, depicted Frazier watching a film of the fight from his apartment above the gym he ran in Philadelphia.
“He’s a good-time guy,” John Dower, the director of “Thrilla in Manila,” told The Times. “But he’s angry about Ali.”
In March 2011, however, on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the first Ali-Frazier fight, Frazier said he was willing to put the enmity behind him.
“I forgave him for all the accusations he made over the years,” The Daily News quoted Frazier as saying. “I hope he’s doing fine. I’d love to see him.”
But as Frazier once told The Times: “Ali always said I would be nothing without him. But who would he have been without me?”
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That was a pretty good article.
Frazier was a warrior.
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Ximena Osegueda was married to Jacy Wright (student of Guro Tricky Dog and Guro Sled Dog) for twelve years. She was murdered in Mexico by a knife to the jugular and her body was found by Jacy.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/01/06/bc-student-slain-mexico-husband.html
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http://durangoherald.com/article/20120203/NEWS01/702029898/-1/News01/Sheriff’s-deputy-dies-snowmobiling
Sheriff’s deputy dies snowmobiling
Holland suffered heart attack on Molas Pass
By Shane Benjamin
Herald Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: Thursday, February 02, 2012 9:25pm
Keywords: San Juan County, La Plata County Search and Rescue,
• A longtime employee of the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office died of a heart attack Wednesday while snowmobiling southeast of Molas Pass, at about 10,500 feet in elevation.
Hollis Holland, 57, was reported missing Wednesday evening by his wife, Patricia. His snowmobile and body were found about 8:30 p.m. by an Air Care medical helicopter based in Farmington.
He had no vital signs and no apparent injuries, said Dan Bender, spokesman with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office.
“My understanding is it wasn’t something involving an avalanche,” Bender said.
Holland began working part-time for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office in 1991 and became a full-time deputy in 1992.
He received numerous honors, including two merit badge awards: one in 2002 for leading an investigation that resulted in the arrest of a woman who was intentionally starting fires during the Missionary Ridge Fire, and another in 2010 after rescuing a woman who was inside a burning house.
Holland and his wife moved to the area in the 1970s. He worked in a Silverton mine, led the San Juan County Search & Rescue team for 10 years and was an active member of the Silverton Avalanche School in the 1980s.
He helped start the deputy-ski program at Purgatory ski area, which put deputies on the slopes to improve security and response times at the mountain.
He also worked part-time for the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in Silverton.
Holland was off-duty Wednesday when he went snowmobiling south of Silverton in the area of Molas Pass, Bender said.
He told his wife where he was going and when he expected to return. When he failed to return as planned, his wife reported him overdue.
His body was found Wednesday night near his snowmobile southeast of the summit of Molas Pass.
The medical helicopter was equipped with night vision and communicated his location to ground crews.
“The ground teams succeeded in a difficult recovery just as a major snowstorm moved into the area,” Bender said. “Without the search teams’ timely actions, the family could have been faced with an extended time of not knowing where their loved one was or what his fate was.”
Other agencies participating in the search included the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, Silverton Snowmobile Club and search-and-rescue teams from La Plata and San Juan counties.
“We greatly appreciate all of their assistance,” said Kristine Burns, undersheriff with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office.
Bender, who has known Holland since the 1980s, said Holland played Santa Claus and liked to laugh.
“(I) don’t ever recall being with him without hearing him laugh at least once,” Bender said. “He is missed.”
Deputies with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Durango Police Department will wear shrouds on their badges for the next seven days in remembrance of Holland.
In addition to his wife, he had two adult sons and two grandchildren.
Memorial services have not yet been announced.
Burial is expected to occur in Silverton when weather conditions allow.
shane@durangoherald.com
A longtime employee of the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office died of a heart attack Wednesday while snowmobiling southeast of Molas Pass, at about 10,500 feet in elevation.
Enlargephoto
Holland
Hollis Holland, 57, was reported missing Wednesday evening by his wife, Patricia. His snowmobile and body were found about 8:30 p.m. by an Air Care medical helicopter based in Farmington.
He had no vital signs and no apparent injuries, said Dan Bender, spokesman with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office.
“My understanding is it wasn’t something involving an avalanche,” Bender said.
Holland began working part-time for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office in 1991 and became a full-time deputy in 1992.
He received numerous honors, including two merit badge awards: one in 2002 for leading an investigation that resulted in the arrest of a woman who was intentionally starting fires during the Missionary Ridge Fire, and another in 2010 after rescuing a woman who was inside a burning house.
Holland and his wife moved to the area in the 1970s. He worked in a Silverton mine, led the San Juan County Search & Rescue team for 10 years and was an active member of the Silverton Avalanche School in the 1980s.
He helped start the deputy-ski program at Purgatory ski area, which put deputies on the slopes to improve security and response times at the mountain.
He also worked part-time for the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in Silverton.
Holland was off-duty Wednesday when he went snowmobiling south of Silverton in the area of Molas Pass, Bender said.
He told his wife where he was going and when he expected to return. When he failed to return as planned, his wife reported him overdue.
His body was found Wednesday night near his snowmobile southeast of the summit of Molas Pass.
The medical helicopter was equipped with night vision and communicated his location to ground crews.
“The ground teams succeeded in a difficult recovery just as a major snowstorm moved into the area,” Bender said. “Without the search teams’ timely actions, the family could have been faced with an extended time of not knowing where their loved one was or what his fate was.”
Other agencies participating in the search included the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office, Silverton Snowmobile Club and search-and-rescue teams from La Plata and San Juan counties.
“We greatly appreciate all of their assistance,” said Kristine Burns, undersheriff with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office.
Bender, who has known Holland since the 1980s, said Holland played Santa Claus and liked to laugh.
“(I) don’t ever recall being with him without hearing him laugh at least once,” Bender said. “He is missed.”
Deputies with the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office and officers with the Durango Police Department will wear shrouds on their badges for the next seven days in remembrance of Holland.
In addition to his wife, he had two adult sons and two grandchildren.
Memorial services have not yet been announced.
Burial is expected to occur in Silverton when weather conditions allow.
shane@durangoherald.com
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http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2012/06/jesse-glover-bruce-lees-first-student-dies-at-77/
Jesse Glover, the first student of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, died on Wednesday at age 77 after a battle with cancer, according to close friend and past student Steve Smith.
Glover, a lifelong Seattlite, used what he learned from Lee and his days as a judo champion to become a prominent leader in the martial arts community himself. While developing a method called non-classical Gung Fu, he worked as a private martial arts trainer in Seattle and eventually taught across the nation and as far as Germany, according to Glover’s training website.
Lee and Glover met in 1959 while attending Edison Technical School, now Seattle Central Community College. Glover had already seen Lee demonstrate Gung Fu on stage when he ran into him on campus and asked to be his first student. They became good friends and trained together for four years.
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I read his "History of Warfare" and found it quite erudite and insightful.
John Keegan 1934-2012
A Scholar of Soldiers in Battle
By STEPHEN MILLER
John Keegan was among the pre-eminent historians of war. His many books brought new perspectives to bear on armed conflict from ancient times up to the Iraq war.
Readers flocked to his work, starting with "The Face of Battle," his 1976 best-seller that focused attention on what it was like to be in a battle rather than on generals and their strategies.
His death on Thursday at age 78 was announced by The Daily Telegraph, the London newspaper where he served as defense editor.
Mr. Keegan was for many years a lecturer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and over the decades counted many of Britain's future military leaders among his students.
He joined the Telegraph in 1986, in time to cover the breakup of the Soviet Union and later conflicts that the British became involved in, from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf War to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
But it was his histories that made the deepest impression on American readers.
In "A History of Warfare" Mr. Keegan presented swaths of military history, reaching back to prehistoric times to put war in cultural context. Controversially, he rejected Clausewitz's dictum that war is politics by other means, insisting that war is even more integral to civilization.
With "Fields of Battle" Mr. Keegan narrowed his focus slightly, to North America, with special attention to how the continent's landscapes have shaped warfare there.
"It is not accidental that Champlain, the founder of French Canada, was a skilled mapmaker or that George Washington, the victor of the War of American Independence, was by profession a surveyor who had recorded the topography of wide areas of the back country over which he was later to campaign," Mr. Keegan wrote.
He also produced histories of the First and Second World Wars and the American Civil War, as well as "The Mask of Command," about how leaders from Alexander the Great to Ulysses S. Grant to Hitler managed to inspire the men under their command.
Though born in London, Mr. Keegan was evacuated for the duration of World War II and had little direct experience of hostilities. A persistent case of tuberculosis kept him bed-bound for most of his teens, an experience he credited with encouraging a scholarly disposition. He studied military history at Balliol College at Oxford University.
In 1960, Mr. Keegan was hired at Sandhurst, where he began his research into the battlefield experiences of soldiers. "The Face of Battle" described how British soldiers acted in three important battles: Agincourt, Waterloo and the Somme. Drunkenness, mayhem and earsplitting noise were rampant, he found. This was military history in a new key.
Deemed a classic, the book and highlighted more than once in The Wall Street Journal's weekly "Five Best" book feature,is still in print more than three decades later.
Mr. Keegan followed up on the same theme in "Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle," a 1985 companion to a BBC television series.
Mr. Keegan described himself as "95 per cent pacifist," but thought war was inevitable.
"I don't think you can run this wicked world without armed force," he told the Los Angeles Times in 1990.
—Email remembrances@wsj.com
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This is a major loss. Not only from the history of warfare, but also the history of warfare strategy. There is a major and important difference, and his contribution to second area may not be equaled again.
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Reports of Bob Bremer's passing... :-(
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Reports of Bob Bremer's passing... :-(
I've read the same.
RIP Bremer sifu
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Legendary boxing trainer Emanuel Steward dies at 68
By Lance Pugmire
October 25, 2012, 2:42 p.m.
Hall of fame boxing trainer Emanuel Steward, who directed the careers of several champion fighters including Thomas Hearns, Lennox Lewis and current heavyweight champion Wladimir Klitschko, has died.
Steward’s executive assistant, Victoria Kirton, reported the trainer’s death at a Chicago hospital to the Associated Press on Thursday afternoon. Steward’s family has not identified a cause of death.
The personable Steward, 68, was one of his sport’s greatest resources of information, and served as an analyst on HBO’s most significant fights since 2001.
According to the boxing statistician company CompuBox, Steward trained 41 world champions, and his heavyweights accumulated a remarkable record of 34-2-1 in title fights.
“The depth of his knowledge was unsurpassed,” said HBO’s lead boxing announcer, Jim Lampley. “He was just as involved in amateur boxing as he was professional, so almost every time we’d start covering an American fighter, Emanuel had seen him at the start.”
HBO Sports President Ken Hershman said the network feels an “enormous degree of sadness and loss.”
“For more than a decade, Manny was a respected colleague who taught us so much not only about the sweet science but also about friendship and loyalty. His energy, enthusiasm and bright smile were a constant presence. Ten bells do not seem enough to mourn his passing. His contributions to the sport and to HBO will never be forgotten."
Steward’s reach to boxing stretched to the mid-1950s, after he left his hometown of Bottom Creek, W.Va., following the death of his father.
“To get out of the coal-mining lifestyle,” Lampley said. “His father died in his 40s from the sheer physical beatdown of mining.”
Steward moved to Detroit, where he worked on auto industry assembly lines as a teenager and trained as a fighter at the city’s Brewster Recreation Center, where former heavyweight champion Joe Louis worked out and legendary Eddie Futch trained.
Steward was a Golden Gloves champion, but his family’s need for financial support led him to sacrifice a professional career for work as an electrical lineman.
As a trainer, Steward presided over a “168-hours-a-week” program in which he’d often sleep in the same room and share meals with his fighters, then train, watch film and engage in “talking, talking, talking,” Lampley said.
“If you had any personal difficulty with him, you couldn’t work with him, because you had to be in his life,” Lampley said. “Those guys loved him … Emanuel knew, with the deep personal bond, the learning curve goes up.”
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http://hawgwashbbq.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-bodybuilder-to-beat-schwarzenegger.html?m=1
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I have heard that Guro Lindsay Largusa has passed away at a relatively early age but do not have any details.
I met him in Las Vegas many years ago and enjoyed the day we spend together.
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I always find the part of the Academy Awards where they review those who have passed in the preceding year to be my favorite part- not in any morbid sense but because of the memories of great movies and performances that are always triggered by those montages. It seems in 2012 we lost some notable figures. This year-end montage from Yahoo news is done pretty well I think. Here's to those we lost in 2012.
http://news.yahoo.com/farewell-to-those-we-lost--2012-173224063.html
C Dr Dog.
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What a extraordinary character JG created in Tony Soprano, truly some of the deepest acting I have ever seen.
WSJ
James Gandolfini Redefined the Mobster Role and Cable-TV Drama
By BEN FRITZ and ERICA E. PHILLIPS
James Gandolfini played the hulking and violent, yet neurotic and vulnerable embodiment of Mafia bravado for the 21st century as the namesake of HBO's landmark series "The Sopranos." Mr. Gandolfini died unexpectedly at age 51 while on holiday in Rome, his managers said.
View Slideshow
[ SB10001424127887323393804578556143765082284]
HBO/Courtesy Everett Collection
"The Sopranos," debuting in 1999, is widely credited with helping to begin an era of high-quality dramas on cable television. It was also the program that made Time Warner Inc.'s TWX -1.78% HBO a powerhouse in prestige programming, a position that it enjoys to this day.
Playing a mafia boss in therapy to deal with panic attacks, Mr. Gandolfini created a celebrated role that put a new spin on a show-business chestnut. A traditionalist in a world where the mob no longer wielded the clout it did when he was growing up, the character didn't receive absolute respect in his home either.
"He is one of the greatest actors of this or any time," David Chase, creator of the Sopranos, said in a statement. "A great deal of that genius resided in those sad eyes."
His ability to capture Tony Soprano's many layers earned Mr. Gandolfini three Primetime Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe in addition to several more nominations. At the height of his "Sopranos" fame, Mr. Gandolfini appeared in mainstream Hollywoodfilms such as "The Mexican" with Julia Roberts, "Surviving Christmas" with Ben Affleck and "The Last Castle" opposite Robert Redford. More recently, he focused on darker roles in independently financed movies such as "Zero Dark Thirty" and "Welcome to the Rileys." He recently starred in the pilot for a new HBO series, "Criminal Justice," playing an attorney.
Of Italian heritage on both sides, Mr. Gandolfini grew up in a blue-collar home in the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. He studied communications at Rutgers University, andworked as a bouncer at Manhattan clubs before taking classes at the Actors Studio.
James Gandolfini, the star of "The Sopranos," has died at the age of 51. Watch some moments of Gandolfini as Tony Soprano over the course of the show's run. (Photo/Video: HBO)
Early in his acting career, Mr. Gandolfini played Steve Hubbell in a 1992 Broadway production of "A Streetcar Named Desire," with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. In 1995 he played Charley Malloy in "On the Waterfront." He returned to Broadway in 2009, after "The Sopranos," in the Tony-winning play "God of Carnage." In an interview that year with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Gandolfini said it was a nice change of pace: "['The Sopranos'] got pretty dark at the end there."
Asked what he would be doing if he weren't an actor, Mr. Gandolfini, who had spent spells in rehab, said, "Probably drinking."
In 2012, Mr. Gandolfini portrayed another Mafia character, a hard-drinking, whoring hit-man, in "Killing Them Softly." Of that film, he said, "It is a different kind of gangster movie, one that I found more appealing," he said. "Because God knows you've seen the other kind a million times."
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I feel I would be less than candid to fail to note that Glenn Beck once reported that JG was a really rude dick to him in front of his (GB's) young son at some Broadway show.
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The Chinese martial arts world and movies world lost a great martial artist. Lau Kar Leung was probably best known as the director of 36th Chamber of Shaolin aka Master Killer here in the West.
Doh jeh for the inspirations and memories.
RIP Lau sifu
http://www.stickgrappler.net/2013/06/in-memory-of-lau-kar-leung-july-28-1936.html
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The MA world as well as the Movies world lost a martial artist/actor/cultural icon yesterday.
http://www.deadline.com/2013/06/jim-kelly-dead-enter-the-dragon/
My sincerest condolences to the loved ones, friends, associates and students of Jim Kelly.
He is in Heaven now training with Bruce Lee.
RIP Jim Kelly
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Woof:
Last Saturday marked the 30th anniversary of the passing of the great and popular Shaw Brothers star, Alexander Fu Sheng.
Always gotta wonder what could've been had he been alive? Team up with Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan? My guess would be that BL would've not costarred with Fu in a movie. Wonder about Jackie though.
I made some animated GIF's from Fu's The Chinatown Kid. Gotta love sleeveless denim vests! *looks at Guro Crafty* :-D :-D :-D
Here are 2 of the GIF's:
Love this one
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-b83tmUpHP8o/UdOy9BThCjI/AAAAAAAADBg/wuCl3yUE5MI/s400/ChinatownKid-0-400-sg.gif)
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YZP-vvkC7G0/UdOzopjf_jI/AAAAAAAADB8/g_55ne-_-80/s400/ChinatownKid-1-400-sg.gif)
3 more here:
http://www.stickgrappler.net/2013/07/alexander-fu-sheng-gif-set-1-chinatown.html (http://www.stickgrappler.net/2013/07/alexander-fu-sheng-gif-set-1-chinatown.html)
More Alexander Fu Sheng GIF's to come.
Enjoy!
Very truly yours in the MA,
~sg
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R.I.P. Pendekar Paul de Thouars
Some of you may have heard me tell this story of a moment of satori for me:
I remember being in Pdkr Paul's Bukti Negara class at the IAMA around 1988.
"I need a volunteer! Marc, come up here!"
As I stood there he got nose to nose with me and said "Do something."
In that moment I came to understand that there are many fighting paradigms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch...
https://www.youtube.com/watch...
https://www.youtube.com/watch...
https://www.youtube.com/watch...
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http://www.foxsportswest.com/fox-sports-networks/story/Former-heavyweight-boxer-Ken-Norton-Sr-d?blockID=941465&feedID=3707
I met him briefly one time in Palm Springs when I was the assistant stage manager for some championship fights (Donald Curry and Meldrick Taylor were on the card, George Foreman was color commentator). He still had the amazing build-- he seemed huge.
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R.I.P. Pendekar Paul de Thouars
Some of you may have heard me tell this story of a moment of satori for me:
I remember being in Pdkr Paul's Bukti Negara class at the IAMA around 1988.
"I need a volunteer! Marc, come up here!"
As I stood there he got nose to nose with me and said "Do something."
Two questions:
- What did you do?
- What did he do to you?
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1) I realized I had no game for that distance that would compare to his;
2) I understood the value of what he was teaching in a way that I had not;
3) I sought to create space to where I felt comfortable; and
4) He took me in less than one second. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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http://www.stickgrappler.net/2013/10/in-memory-of-great-grandmaster-antonio.html
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Simo Paula Inosanto has informed me that class mate Mike Wise has died. He was a good man, a quiet man, and a very good martial artist.
In Loving Memory
Mike Wise
September 1, 1954 - November 15, 2013
"The wood is consumed, but the fire burns on."
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My condolences, Guro.
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Antonio Diego of Kali Ilustrisimo passed Aug. 25 2014.
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Dang! How old was he?
Who is the heir to the system now?
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A one Mr. Bowfa.
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https://www.stripes.com/news/us/lt-gen-hal-moore-dies-depicted-in-film-we-were-soldiers-1.453672
http://americanprofile.com/articles/leadership-lessons-list-from-vietnam-veteran/
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A hearty howl of respect!
"The wood is consumed, but the fire burns on!"
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https://www.stripes.com/news/us/lt-gen-hal-moore-dies-depicted-in-film-we-were-soldiers-1.453672
http://americanprofile.com/articles/leadership-lessons-list-from-vietnam-veteran/
My dad credits part of his survival of 3 combat tours in Vietnam as missing his deployment that would have placed him at the battle of Ia Drang valley. He was a radio operator. Every radio operator in that battle was KIA or WIA, as the NVA specifically targeted anyone wearing the big backpack sized radios.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsls5_jnHrU
"The wood is consumed but the fire burns on."d
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Trey Gowdy
Yesterday at 7:11 AM ·
Elijah Cummings was one of the most powerful, beautiful & compelling voices in American politics. The power and the beauty came from his authenticity, his conviction, the sincerity with which he held his beliefs. We rarely agreed on political matters. We never had a cross word outside of a committee room. He had a unique ability to separate the personal from the work. The story of Elijah's life would benefit everyone, regardless of political ideation. The obstacles, barriers, and roadblocks he overcame, the external and sometimes internal doubt that whispered in the ear of a young Elijah Cummings. He beat it all. He beat the odds. He beat the low expectations of that former school employee who told Elijah to abandon the dream of being a lawyer, that he would never become a lawyer, to settle for a job with his hands and not his mind. Elijah loved telling that story because that school employee wound up being Elijah's first client as a lawyer. We live in an age where we see people on television a couple of times and we think we know them and what they are about. It is true Elijah was a proud progressive with a booming, melodious voice who found himself in the middle of most major political stories over the past decade. It is inescapable that be part of his legacy. But his legacy also includes the path he took to become one of the most powerful political figures of his time. It is a path filled with pain, prejudice, obstacles and doubt that he refused to let stop him. His legacy is perseverance. His legacy is fighting through the pain. His legacy is making sure there were fewer obstacles for the next Elijah Cummings. His legacy to me, above all else, was his faith. A faith in God that is being rewarded today with no more fights, no more battles, and no more pain.
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https://raconteurreport.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-net-iq-of-congress-just-went-up-ten.html
Trey Gowdy
Yesterday at 7:11 AM ·
Elijah Cummings was one of the most powerful, beautiful & compelling voices in American politics. The power and the beauty came from his authenticity, his conviction, the sincerity with which he held his beliefs. We rarely agreed on political matters. We never had a cross word outside of a committee room. He had a unique ability to separate the personal from the work. The story of Elijah's life would benefit everyone, regardless of political ideation. The obstacles, barriers, and roadblocks he overcame, the external and sometimes internal doubt that whispered in the ear of a young Elijah Cummings. He beat it all. He beat the odds. He beat the low expectations of that former school employee who told Elijah to abandon the dream of being a lawyer, that he would never become a lawyer, to settle for a job with his hands and not his mind. Elijah loved telling that story because that school employee wound up being Elijah's first client as a lawyer. We live in an age where we see people on television a couple of times and we think we know them and what they are about. It is true Elijah was a proud progressive with a booming, melodious voice who found himself in the middle of most major political stories over the past decade. It is inescapable that be part of his legacy. But his legacy also includes the path he took to become one of the most powerful political figures of his time. It is a path filled with pain, prejudice, obstacles and doubt that he refused to let stop him. His legacy is perseverance. His legacy is fighting through the pain. His legacy is making sure there were fewer obstacles for the next Elijah Cummings. His legacy to me, above all else, was his faith. A faith in God that is being rewarded today with no more fights, no more battles, and no more pain.
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I shouldn't laugh , , ,
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Paul Volcker Was Inflation’s Worst Enemy
As Fed chairman, he shored up the dollar and set the stage for decades of economic growth.
By John B. Taylor
Dec. 9, 2019 7:26 pm ET
Paul Volcker with President Reagan in the Oval Office, July 26, 1981. PHOTO: APPLEWHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Paul Volcker, who changed the course of economic history dramatically for the better, died Sunday at 92. He was appointed chairman of the Federal Reserve Board in 1979 by Jimmy Carter and was reappointed in 1983 by Ronald Reagan. But his influence on policy wasn’t limited to his chairmanship of the Fed. In a public career spanning seven decades, he served the Nixon administration as undersecretary of the Treasury for international monetary affairs and advised President Obama during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
With his 6-foot-7 frame, his big cigar and his candid assessments, Volcker was one of the most colorful characters in American government during the latter half of the 20th century. Graduating summa cum laude from Princeton in 1949, he learned early on how to get things done—very big things—and get them done he did.
Volcker was at the August 1971 Camp David meeting where President Nixon decided to impose wage and price controls and abandon the international monetary system by closing the gold window. Soon after that meeting, Treasury Secretary George Shultz assigned Volcker to work out a strategy to fix what had been done to the monetary system. Milton Friedman’s ideas about flexible exchange rates were to be part of the plan: Countries would allow the value of their exchange rates to depreciate when they had a trade deficit and let their exchange rates rise when they had a surplus. The U.S. had an economic strategy, but Volcker implemented it by making other countries think it was their idea.
The approach worked, and the international monetary system was on its way to restoration. The course of economic history had been changed.
The job Mr. Carter gave Volcker in the late 1970s was even more important and more difficult. The wage and price controls imposed in 1971 had led to an inflationary monetary policy at the central bank under Chairman Arthur Burns. Inflation and unemployment skyrocketed and economic growth fell. That was the state of the economy when Volcker took the reins at the Fed in the summer of 1979.
Financial markets welcomed his appointment. Volcker’s Treasury experience was well known, and he convincingly argued against the view espoused in many academic circles that higher inflation rates would reduce unemployment. He said he wanted lower inflation. He said that monetary policy could do it. And he meant it.
Nevertheless, on Sept. 18, 1979, he only narrowly got support from his Fed colleagues for a decision to change monetary policy by raising the interest rate by a relatively small amount. This created doubts about his ability to change the Fed’s inflationary ways. Markets appeared to lose confidence.
So, reflecting on his experience at Treasury, he designed a whole new monetary policy aimed at marshaling consensus among his Fed colleagues. The policy was to raise the discount rate by 100 basis points, impose new reserve requirements on banks, and create a new procedure for setting interest rates that emphasized the money supply. His approach was to get buy-in from everyone on the Federal Open Market Committee. And he did. The FOMC approved the new policy unanimously, and it was announced Oct. 6, 1979.
With his emphasis on the money supply, Volcker could say that it was the market that determined the interest rate, and thus he could allow the interest rate to go higher, which he did. The federal-funds rate reached 20% in 1981.
In an off-the-record conversation I had during the early 1980s with Volcker and James Tobin, the Nobel laureate economist from Yale, Tobin asked Volcker to lower the interest rate. Volcker answered that he didn’t set the interest rate, the market did.
The higher interest rate did slow the economy, but Volcker showed a great deal of courage. Construction workers sent him two-by-fours in the mail. Farmers circled the Fed building. Yet Volcker stuck with it. He appeared on “Face the Nation” and was asked when he would stop fighting inflation. He simply answered that he couldn’t stop fighting inflation until he ended it. Volcker won Reagan’s support, and his efforts paid off. Inflation fell dramatically and created conditions for a quarter-century of strong economic growth. His successor at the Fed, Alan Greenspan, maintained Volcker’s focus on keeping inflation low.
Volcker deserves credit for slaying inflation in the early ’80s, and he was later called on frequently to serve in government. He worked hard to document and weed out corruption at international institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations’ oil-for-food program in Iraq. He weighed in on the causes of the global financial crisis, arguing for higher capital requirements and for what would be called the “Volcker rule” to curtail proprietary trading.
“While zero interest rates may be necessary at the moment, they lead to some dangerous possibilities in terms of breeding more speculative excesses,” he told attendees at a Stanford University conference in 2009. He became an outside adviser to President Obama although, as his own experience had shown, change often comes from knowledgeable policy-making leaders on the inside.
The American economy still needs change. Despite tax and regulatory reforms, the federal deficit remains large and the federal debt is rising. The answers are as simple as they were in Volcker’s time: Get back to sound and predictable budget policy. Paul Volcker’s career shows the way. Good economics leads to good policy, which leads to good results.
Mr. Taylor is a professor of economics at Stanford, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and co-author, with George P. Shultz, of “Choose Economic Freedom: Enduring Policy Lessons From the 1970s and 1980s,” forthcoming next month.
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https://bestclassicbands.com/jerry-slick-great-society-3-19-20/
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http://suffrajitsu.com/in-memoriam-honor-blackman-22-august-1925-6-april-2020/