Michael Sternbach

Sounds interesting, but it's just conjecture without reliable sources.

The victims on both sides are most of all civilians who have nothing to do with the orchestration of war. Fact is, the Western countries hit by terrorism - more precisely, their governments - made themselves targets by intervening in the Middle East without necessity. It's too bad that the responsible people, while they may have studied The Art of War, don't care for the Dao De Jing. "Weapons are the tools of violence;
 all decent men detest them.
 Weapons are the tools of fear;
 a decent man will avoid them 
except in the direst necessity 
and, if compelled, will use them 
only with the utmost restraint. Peace is his highest value. 
If the peace has been shattered, 
how can he be content?"

Enlighten me rather than quizzing me?

Do you really think that will keep the terrorists away? Their organizations seem to be quite resourceful. The root of the problem should be sought in the efforts of various Western governments to wage war in order to 'democratize' Middle Eastern countries - which they would never care about, if the latter didn't have any precious resources - especially oil -to offer, and which aren't really better off after Western intervention. Focus most of all on the causes of war, rather than on its symptoms.

The reactions to my post confirm what I said in the first place: This is about politics, not about science. Final certainty regarding the relationship between CO2 emission and climate change is hard to come by lest we just continue this global experiment and see how it ends, but given the catastrophic magnitude of the potential fallout, it would be wise to err on the 'safe' side. And any efforts in that direction, insufficient as they may be, should be supported, IMO. Instead of insisting on destructive and eventually unsustainable technologies, why not greatly intensify research into alternative energy sources asap?

I think this discussion somewhat misses the mark. Sure enough, there are all kinds of debates going on between scientists, and Trump isn't even one of them. The real issue is that the Trump administration shows scant respect to the international community, as its imperialistic mottos clearly express. And that's what currently makes the US indeed a rogue state, at least to some degree. "Melania, there's no more paper. Bring me some more international agreements!"

And stop exploiting Daoism!!!

Should have considered that mentioning sombreros and tacos would be an offense under Trump's government.

I'm LSHMSFOAIDMT.

Most of all, I'm learning lots of new words here. Until now, all I knew was

There are cases where one's statements are technically truthful, yet designed to hide what really matters. And there are statements in which a truth that would be hard to communicate has been modified, yet the intention behind them is honest and good.

A Chen Tai Chi practitioner taking on a Kyokushin full-contact fighter. And he looks anything but silly.

I think what is really needed is both doing and non-doing, activity and passivity, self-assertion and letting go, expansion and contraction - in alternation. This is the secret of inner Alchemy.

The guy who assists me with my Kenpo just introduced me to some knife techniques. Applying them in real life would be rather messy, but it's just like with condoms... Better to have them and not to need them, than to need them and not to have them. Of course, the ultimate 'weapons' are awareness and a peaceful mind.

He is minimizing resistance, while the others increase it the faster they drive.

Adding a link to a relevant article: https://phys.org/news/2015-03-particle.html

The thing is:

It can be a natural reaction for somebody trained in an art that teaches this particular technique. That there is a similar move i.e. in Aikido doesn't diminish Taiji at all. In fact, you will be hard pressed to find any technique that is unique to a particular art.

Well, like every person of renown, Erle had both supporters and opponents, of course. But it's very easy to say that 'his theories on Dim Mak and vital point striking (why 'and'? What's the difference between the two?) were laughable', and to mention 'valid reasons' against them, without explaining what those were. What is it that, in your opinion, we know better today?

If you say so.

Alien

While the individual traits of a fighter matter more than anything else, there are differences between styles to be factored in. Some styles are more practical than others. Not only as far as the way they are fighting, but also regarding training methods.

Depends on what you are referring to by 'mysticism'. If you mean the idea that the practice of these arts will make one invincible, then yes. That depends on the school. Many people practice an internal art just as a form of meditation and/or health practice rather than as a system of fighting, and that's okay, as long as the practitioner doesn't think this will turn him into Bruce Lee. Actually, what I observed in a number of Chinese and Japanese is rather the opposite: The most effective stuff has been taken out of the system and is no longer taught (or at best marginally) - usually as part of an endeavour to turn these warrior arts into socially more acceptable sports.

Talking about Taiji for realistic fighting, that was a main focus of Erle Montaigue: Erle always emphasized that you must move into the attacker; once you start moving backwards, you will probably keep doing so, while the opponent keeps coming after you and might very well get you eventually. As the video which is the topic of this discussion demonstrated nicely.

Yes, tournament fighting is always a different beast, no matter how liberal the rules. Taiwanese Kung fu guys got their butt kicked in open Karate contests because they were not allowed to do what they were best at - gouging eyes, kicking groins, ripping ears off, etc. I'm pretty sure that on the street, they would have had the edge over the Karate sportsmen though. And yes, one of the differences between MMA and real fighting is that, in the former, you can safely go to the ground with the opponent without his buddies stomping your head into the floor. It's good to have some ground fighting skills even for the self-defence oriented fighter, however, because real fights sometimes just happen to end up on the ground too.