User:Swmirsky

I'm a writer, author of three books, including an historical novel about Vikings in 11th century North America and a novelized memoir based on the true story of a young girl who escaped the Nazis during World War II. Most recently I've written a work of philosophy (in the Anglo-American Analytical tradition) addressing questions in moral philosophy. It's called Choice and Action and has only recently become available through Amazon here: http://www.amazon.com/Choice-Action-Stuart-W-Mirsky/dp/1495321851/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_img_5. I'm also a martial arts aficionado though over the hill now, I suppose, as I don't do it like I used to (nor can I).

My area of study in college was philosophy and I'm still enamored of it (the writing of Choice and Action was urged on me by my son who thought it a shame if I were to leave this world without having added my two cents to the philosophical discussion -- or at least that's what he told me). I spent the better part of my working years in municipal government, going from a low level fieldworker until, climbing laboriously up the ladder of bureaucracy, I retired from my last position as Assistant Commissioner for Operations in one of our city agencies -- during which time, toward the end of my stint, I was very much involved in the response to the 2001 terrorist attacks. My interests remain history, philosophy, fiction and martial arts -- though not necessarily in that order. The order changes, I guess, with the times.

As someone involved in the martial arts, I have some background in judo as well as in Shotokan karate and Moo Duk Kwan taekwondo, before having finally settled on Yun Mu Kwan karate as my style of choice. The Yun Mu Kwan I practiced is a hybrid system reflecting a melding of classic pre-taekwondo Korean karate with the Chinese martial art of t'ai chi ch'uan, one of the three "internal" styles of kung fu native to China. However, there are many today who practice the older, purer form of Yun Mu Kwan which is largely the same as modern taekwondo.