Kickboxing

Kickboxing is a martial art which was made for beating Muay Thai by Japanese boxing promotor Osamu Noguchi in 1950. Opponents are allowed to hit each other with fists and feet, hitting above the hip. Using elbows or knees is forbidden and the use of the shins is seldom allowed (except in Thai boxing, where the knee is also allowed).

Forms of kickboxing include:

- Pradal Serey (Khmer kickboxing) = A predecessor of Muay Thai

- Muay Thai (Thai boxing/kickboxing) = Strong emphasis on knee and elbow strikes

- Savate (French kickboxing) = Allows the use of shoes

- San Shou/Sanda (Chinese Kickboxing) = Takedowns and throws are legal

- Lethwei (Burmese Kickboxing) = Any part of the body may be used to strike and be struck

- Japanese kickboxing = Similar to Muay Thai, but different point system is taken

- Full Contact Karate (American Kickboxing) = Most of the time padding and in some cases body armour is used

- Shoot boxing = A Japanese form of kickboxing which allows throwing and submission while standing similar to San Shou

by Dancing with Fire January 20, 2011

Tijuana Cartel

The Tijuana Cartel is based in one of the most strategically important border towns in Mexico, and continues to export drugs even after being weakened from a brutal internal war during 2009.

Due to infighting, arrests and deaths of some of its top members, the Tijuana Cartel is a shell of what it was in the 1990s and early 2000s when it was considered one of the most potent and violent criminal organizations in Mexico. After the arrest or assassination of its founding members, the Arellano Felix clan, the cartel is now headed by Fernando Sanchez Arellano, a nephew of the Arellano Felix brothers who once bloodied Mexico and southern California with their brutish and authoritarian style. With the powerful Sinaloa Cartel moving into Tijuana in force, Sanchez Arellano is struggling to keep a grip on this lucrative drug and human trafficking corridor.

by Dancing with Fire July 01, 2011

Hasta luego

(Spanish) See you later.

In isolation, hasta literally means "until" or "to."

Hasta luego compadre.

by Dancing with Fire June 26, 2013

Hamas

Hamas, the main Islamist movement in the Palestinian territories, was born soon after the previous intifada erupted in 1987. The organization opposes the Oslo peace process and its short-term aim is a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories. Hamas does not recognize the right of Israel to exist. Its long-term aim is to establish an Islamic state on land originally mandated as Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948. The grass-roots organization - with a political and a military wing - has an unknown number of hard-core members but tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers.

It has two main functions: 1) it is involved in building schools and hospitals in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and in helping the community in social and religious ways. 2) The military wing of Hamas - known as the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades - has carried out a series of bloody attacks against Israeli targets. In February and March 1996, Hamas carried out several bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis. It was also blamed for attacks in 1997 in Jerusalem which killed 15 people, and brought the peace process grinding to a halt. Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) - the government-in-waiting if a Palestinian state is established - views Hamas as a serious rival, yet the Palestinian leader has tried to co-opt the movement into mainstream politics. But his insistence that Hamas recognize the PA as the only national authority in the Palestinian territories and cease military operations against Israel has been resisted. Hamas argues that to accept the PA would be to recognize the Oslo accords - which Islamist groups saw as nothing more than a security deal between the PA, Israel and the US, with the ultimate aim of wiping them out. Despite a fierce offensive against the group in 1996, when the PA arrested some 1,000 Palestinians and took over mosques in Gaza, the PA has been careful not to drive Hamas underground.

by Dancing with Fire January 21, 2011

Hamas

An organization founded in 1987 with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in Palestine.

In early 2006 Hamas won legislative elections in the Palestinian territories, ending the secular Fatah party’s hold on the Palestinian Authority and challenging Fatah’s leadership of the Palestinian national movement. Hamas continues its refusal to recognize Israel or renounce violence against Israelis and, since early 2008, has conducted one suicide bombing, which killed one civilian, and numerous mortar and rocket attacks that injured civilians. The United States has designated Hamas as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

by Dancing with Fire April 09, 2013

Libertarian

Derived from the word “liberty,” a Libertarian is someone who advocates individual liberties.

Libertarians believe that individuals have the right to make their own choices, as long as it doesn’t harm oneself or other people. Libertarians generally believe in having a small, de-centralized form of government with limited taxation to give the people reign over his or her activities. These types of individuals usually regard issues such as health care, education, etc., as the responsibility of the individual and not of the state. Ron Paul and Gary Johnson are well known Libertarians.

by Dancing with Fire December 10, 2012

Libertarian

Libertarians support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence.

Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

by Dancing with Fire January 04, 2013