Sorry Ronda

- By Jim Culp

UFC 207 was very built up in the media as the ideal time for Ronda Rousey, a lovely girl of just 29 years, to come back and regain her lost title of Bantam Weight Champion of the UFC.

From 2004 to 2008, she on several Olympic medals in Judo, and was ready for the big rings. We all watched her advance with staggering defeats of opponents (some under a minute), and grew to love her cute smile, her bad-ass moves, and domination of a field that most men cant handle.

In 2015, Ronda was defeated by Holly Holm in Melbourne, Australia at UFC 193.

In my opinion, and as I stated at the time, she was unprepared for that fight.

I know she trained and worked out, but she wasn't ready for Holly's reach, and definitely not ready to get roundhouse kicked in the head (I've been there; it's no fun).

Last night, Ronda faced Amanda Nunes, a badass Brazilian fighter with a 69 inch arm reach. Again, Ronda trained, but she wasn't ready for a constant deluge of solid punches.

In previous fights, Ronda avoided this by successful grapples that resulted in hard take-downs, and quick submissions by arm-bar.

Amanda Nunes, trained in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu by none other than Ryan Franco, was prepared for Ronda, though. She evaded every attempt by Rousey to grapple her, and subsequently landed blow after blow to Ronda's head and face.

48 seconds into the fight, it was stopped because Ronda was barely able to stand, and was visibly hurt.

I always loved and favored Ronda Rousey, but this second ass whipping tells me that she needs to take some time off, then get back in the dojo; and get back to the basics that made her famous in the first place. If she wants to retire, she has many avenues that would keep her well paid for twenty years. Either way, we love you Ronda, and hope you get over this and return if you can. If you cant, we still love you.

Tonight the music seems so loud
I wish that we could lose this crowd

December 16th, 2016

The Rite of Ignorance

-By Jim Culp

It's that time of year again. The holiday season is upon us, and there is widespread gift purchasing, decorating of houses and trees, and food for mile.

Most folks here in Kansas celebrate the Christian version of the holiday we have come to commonly call Christmas. Christians believe that Jesus the Christ was born on December 25th, and it all goes on from there. That's cool. You have the right to believe what you want, and as a soldier, I have laid my life on the line twice for your right to do so. I wont go into a diatribe about my non-belief of that faith; I've already done that in another blog, and my readers have told me that they hate repetition; they get enough of that from CNN or FOX.

In January, the holidays will be over, and a controversial businessman will become the 45th President of the United States of America. I wish him well; he's got one hell of a task to take on. On that note, I've heard very intelligent comments on his candidacy, and some pretty damn ignorant ones.

But yesterday, a very ignorant person made three statements that I feel the need to comment on.

Statement One: "Mexicans rape their babies."

My first question was, "what Mexicans?"

She said "all Mexicans; and all Muslims."

I truly was not fully aware that blatant ignorance like that existed in 2016, but I stand corrected. Some people are simply ignorant, and that ignorance breeds inherent stupidity when it is not cured by research and fact finding.

Statement Two: "Don't let them people out of Syria; they're all ISIS."

I replied with two answers. "Are you really that frickin' stupid?" and... "Really, though. Are you that frickin' stupid?"

Statement Three: "We need to get back to Christmas being about Jesus."

I replied with one statement.

"Enter the word "Yule" into Wikipedia or Dictionary.com."

Lastly, this is the United States of America, but there are literally millions of people walking around saying that "Bob can't say that," or "Mary needs to understand that we don't need any more immigrants."

Again, ignorance. I advise anyone that thinks like that to read the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the USA. Then I advise them to study their family tree and see where their family came from. I assure you, unless you are a Native North American Indian, your family didn't come form "Merca."

Educate yourself.

Merry Yule. May your drink be strong and your love stronger.