The First Rule of Fight Club is…

…you do not blog about Fight Club.

Oh well.

If nothing else, it looks like we at least have the freedom to beat each other up. From CNN:

They may sport love handles and Ivy League degrees, but every two weeks, some Silicon Valley techies turn into vicious street brawlers in a real-life, underground fight club.

Kicking, punching and swinging every household object imaginable — from frying pans and tennis rackets to pillowcases stuffed with soda cans — they beat each other mercilessly in a garage in this bedroom community south of San Francisco.

Then, bloodied and bruised, they limp back to their desks in the morning.

There has been some crackdown on juvenile “fight clubs” and clubs where fights turned vicious and personal and people died… but overall, it looks like the cops aren’t all that interested in stopping the activity of consenting adults.

Earlier this month in Arlington, Texas, a high school student who didn’t want to participate was beaten so badly that he suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken vertebrae. Six teenagers were arrested after DVDs of the fight appeared for sale online.

Adult groups are more likely to fly under the radar of authorities.

Menlo Park police hadn’t heard about the local club and said they wouldn’t be likely to take action because the fights are on private property between consenting adults. That could change if someone complains or is sent to a hospital, police said.

Score one for voluntary association and consenting adults

posted May 30th, 2006 by Stuart Richards
  • http://thatsridonkulous.blogspot.com/ Rob D.

    Tyler Durden would whoop your ass if he knew you posted this. :op

  • Stuart Richards

    I’m not unfathomably blond, though.

  • vforvandyke

    It’s all fun and games until someone spouts socialism and blows up a credit agency building. Maybe they’ll be smart and go after an IRS building or three instead.

  • http://warcriminal.freeservers.com Sol

    Hah! So this is what the Stephens do when they aren’t blogging – beating each other to a bloody pulp with frying pans and pillow cases stuffed with soda cans.

  • Stephen Gordon

    Good one, Sol! :)

  • Stuart Richards

    Single serving cigar, single serving Flash animation, single serving job in DC…

  • http://360.yahoo.com/gladiator_economist daniel

    i am jack’s complete lack of surprise.. i saw this on a mma forum that i visit often, then on the fitness forum and added it to my blog.. searching for more on the story i saw, its all over the freakin blogosphere.. all sorts of blogs added it.. funny the kind of stories that call our attention..

  • Scott

    In Arizona, mutal combat is legal. While it is shady ground when a firearm is involved, everything else is fully allowed.

    I was surprised when I can to Illinois that this common-sense approach to a victimless action was not used in all (or even most) states.

  • http://www.gabejohnson.org Gabe J.

    Fight clubs are good and fine, in fact I’d join if i knew of one, but some of us prefer to abuse our bodies in more experimental ways, when is someone going to stand up and shout that I can do as I please with reguards to sexual activity, drug use, or even the operation of a small business within the confines of my own property?

    I am jacks utter sense of outrage at the concept that it is completely permissible for one man to strike another man in the head with a sack of soda cans, while i face constant harassment at the hands of the government machene should I smack myself in the brain with a dab of this or that.