54 percent of americans trust Barack Obama with national security – maybe we can have girls with the Iranian and Syranian leaders named tatooed on their behinds in their own videos as well. As a show of good faith. Just forgot what I wanted to add. Millitary Issues in Leadership I was disappointed with the performance of the nominee for the jont chiefs of staff during the Senate hearing. He appeared to moderate his views and try not to challenge public conventional wisdom and the Senator from Michigan. Even with a friendly Senator from South Carolina he did not want to say anything in support of the military- my biggest issue – is that that did not appear to be his real opinion and he would not tell off in particular the Senator from Michigan when he thought the Senator was wrong – and what he did at first with - “all this political – and look at the situation in Iraq” - that was a paraphrase – the correlation from this statements – is that he did not believe that all the political pressure in Washington was helpful to the mission as he was seeming to say it hasn't changed a darn thing on the ground. - he then caught himself and wouldn't say the words – this I was very disgusted with – he leaves the president alone as the only one who will take on the powerful Senators and Congresspeople trying to tear down the war – I have trouble respecting this man after this – Daily by people who appear adversarial to me at work - I am put through a gambit of answering difficult questions truthfully where it would be easier to lie in attempt to break my will – I do not think these people are actual customers, but are plants there for that purpose. Having to go through tis – if it is real – it is hard to have a potential commander he did much more poorly than I can afford to do on a daily basis. - The Senate is more intimidating – but that isn't a complete excuse – what happens to me is not innocent and appears adversarial as well and possibly coordinated by one of those cats. ---------------------------------- I hope the marine who recently got off with just a demotion for murdering an Iraqi really deserved that sentence – I should not and will not judge the person without reading his case – but to the Iraqis, that verdict will not appear fair and I do worry about a US jury not allowing justice because “we protect our own” - corruption in favor of US soldiers – in long term will hurt US Iraqi relations – be used in recruiting for Al-Qaeda and make Iraq more unfriendly and a place for more revenge killings now justified possibly against other US soldiers – that's the long term problem. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's something I wrote that might be of interest Letter to International Fight League (that also went to others) To whom it concern - I recently acquired stock in your company - I may be known to the Pittsburgh Steelers and several others who I have had run-ins with - market manipulation in the short term is a popular hobby of certain people. There has been a nasty tendency in the US military in history that draft picks for the NFL who go into the military and turn down the draft wind up dead - Cpl Pat Tillman is an apparent example of this where it does look like murder. The Buffalo Bills in Vietnam have another example. I have had my own issues with the Pittsburgh Steelers apparently when I resided in Pittsburgh - On myspace I go by the name Frederick Andrew Horrigan - also have www.wildmeld.com - and an interesting fictional story - A few Odd Coincidences that set about a Maelstrom - 600 or more page book - unfinished and of course completely "fictional" with no basis in reality. Many kids worship the NFL and the WWF - neither of which likes nerds, like me - although I am a 6' 2" nerd who runs 4 miles a day and looks like a football player and hates professional football - Much of professional sports likes its fans to stay stupid and open to buying a lot of beer and wasting their money on stupid marketing ploys. The professional sports games encourage people to overeat, drink alcohol, and look down on the educated. Very few of these activities are desirable in a workforce in the coming century. There is a need in society to bridge the gap between jocks and nerds - those small labels from junior and senior high school have become job descriptions - this is not a good thing - higher level degrees are given as excuses to why high-tech companies can only have certain people to work in them. I do believe with a Bachellor's in Computer Science (one of my five current degrees) that this is incorrect. People with less skills could be given jobs in high tech, but that maybe certain accommodations may have to be made at first and a different way of developing the workforce and putting in more skills into it, instead of relying on education from high level institutions to teach those skills- that might be needed. I tend to believe that part of what goes on a little is a bit of revenge on the part of the nerds – We don't want those people -jocks- sports people- anywhere near our workplace after the problems in our earlier life. The MIT model is a socially disfunctional misfit that you lock in a tower somewhere to do their work, while jocks are left compeletely out of it. That type of person is encouraged to have little interface with even being healthy and is also encouraged to be a primadona- many computer people consider themselves elite and very special and become very difficult to work with. Sports appears to teach a very different value set, but because of the way – MLB, NBA, and NFL, and WWF instill many negative values with that – people who like sports and sports culture with nerds is frowned upon as aggreessive rowdy bunch of people who are intellectually and socially lazy – professional sports – encourage a lot of time off to enjoy oneself at a bar – which is good for beer companies- going to a bar never solves anyone's problems in the end – and in certain circles bars don't even exist and you spend all your time working on solving problems and curiosity about odd things is helpful and encouraged. This is another unnecessary disconnet between jocks and nerds – martial artists aren't going to be binge drinkers in general. Increasing the high tech labor force – biotech and computer science and many other industries would have some very positive effects on society – one of the major steps is getting nerds to stop being the but of the professional sports culture of jocks who fill roles in security, industry – factory based work, and traditional blue-collar labor. In addition, for US society and world society it would be nice to see a paradigm where a person isn't a jock or a nerd, but just develops everything they have – socially that is very hard currently – it's hard to be a computer engineer if you go to a “non-white collar professional gym” – because people in your social circles and at work won't understand the second activity, nor will it be encouraged. Likewise many jocks are discouraged from reading and being curious about science and art. I don't expect the international fight league to change US society overnight, BUT I see several interesting little details. You can take young men and get them interested in what you have to offer and in particular you may have the ability to influence young men who are more physical and make up the stock of traditional jocks whom right now major league sports gets a hold of and teaches all sorts of negative values too. - Winning is everything -even if you cheat to win - is one real problem among the others listed. Martial arts have a great deal of philosphy and self-discipline associated with them, as does wrestling. Wrestling is all about self-discipline – never wrestled in my life – have read about it recently – and it looks like something I missed out in childhood that perhaps in the near future will be something that is corrected. - You also advertise many of your athletes have college degrees – there won't be a perfect match yet- but if your league were to gain popularity and weaken major league sports, its athletes and culture could shape the next group of young people in a much more positive way. Where discipline and respect for a person developing both the mind and the body were valued as a warrior and the mind wasn't frowned upon. One part of culture, particularly in the higher echelon likes the idea of controlling the masses with bloody sports and getting themselves to think of themselves just as replaceable units that are used to obeying the orders of those higher up in the culture as the major league sports teach that through their players where that baseball stary is under the owner's thumb and is expected to obey orders and not question the owner. For many rich people and the professional class which is not all nerds – doctors, high level stock brokers and lawyers want the factory worker and the jock not to ask questions and accept their authority – which is not good for society. (High tech has its certification process started by Microsoft – this is unique and an opposing approach to the way Medical Doctors and others are trained.) There are many problems in medicine where patients should accept the doctor as smarter than they are, the stock brokers also wants their world to be nebulous so they don't get questioned about what they do and banking fees can stay predatory on the poor and middle class. The NFL encourages its followers to be stupid sheep in the hands of much of professionals like that and not think for itself because that is the model of the pro-football hero – an unthinking guy who is just a physical brute. That does not appear to be your model which why I am interested in you. The military may not love the NFL model these days because people who are not encouraged to study and be strong together are not as useful to the military as both components are becoming more necessary. THE NFL in the end discourages its own fans from exercising because they have to frequent beer companies. Another issue is the gambling and the fixing of games – there is no protection on why you will be better here – though a disciplined martial artist will really hate to throw games one could presume – but one can hope that with smarter players encouraged – gambling might be discouraged. Getting to be a rather long discourse – apologies – but I was wondering if maybe several companies like Microsoft and Redhat and Google and maybe some biotech companies might want to fund you as a way of changing the general culture and creating more acceptance for nerds and perhaps making the nerds of tomorrow have a little more pleasant experience growing up by changing the culture of the dominant sports. The negative values that middle school jocks take out on nerds are not inherent in physical sports – they are inherent in the professional sports culture of NASCAR, NFL, MLB, WWF, Soccer, and NBA who develop that in their culture. Random violence is tacitly encouraged as fans are encouraged to be rowdy – a disciplined wrestler or martial artist in particular would frown on this as lack of self-control and would look at this as a sign of weakness in an opponent – to engage in the stunts of the WWF for example would not work with you. I doubt you will be perfect but see many positive possibilities if you become a stronger sport and perhaps one day few people follow the NFL, MLB, and the WWF. It would be nice if you didn't develop the betting culture as well or the beer and tailgating culture or the other destructive sides of major league professional sports. That part is up to you. But your ability to channel men in even a slightly more positive manner would be of great help in reshaping US society – many will want to stop this – and several whose power rests with stupid followers are included in that camp – but in the coming years merging jocks and nerds may be very desirable and necessary – police have to catch hackers and those cultures don't mix so easily at first. I may not have been perfectly direct. Look at a few unconventional business partners in the areas mentioned and try to keep your sport away from some of the negative things other sports have done and it would be nice if you didn't take out contracts on stars who didn't sign with you, unlike what the NFL and possibly the MLB apparently do with their stars who say decide to enter the military. You could do a much better job helping to raise and channel the next generation of young people in a positive direction. Which is why I would support you. - fah Franz Arthur Harter --------------------------------------------- I didn't add and should have that the NFL and WWF also help in the exploitation of woman and the sexual harrassment of women and they support that in the culture. Stupid bimbo for sex only – isn't she cute – The Pittsburgh Steelers have Steeler Babe – or that's on several radio shows. - I am not as sensitive to this issue as I should be – or I still find it hard to spot unless hit over the head about it. I was wondering if sports contracts could be less geared to mega -salaries and more geared to long term payout over 20 years – and maybe close to life-time health care – for long-term injuries sustained in fightin or sports. You have to take side on abortion – whatever federal government does – even not taking a side – is taking a side – there is going to be some sort of reulatory policy – and ultimately the federal can be blamed for not setting state policy – mayor – you can't really honestly dodge the question. - You're letting the state do it for you.