We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
"... 18 girls in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School’s International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, ranked and rated on the basis of their looks, from 5.5 to 9.4, with decimal points to the hundredth place."
" Part tirade, part confessional from the celebrated Rolling Stone journalist, Hate Inc. reveals that what most people think of as "the news" is, in fact, a twisted wing of the entertainment business"
That principle even applies to progressive types too. Some examples:
- People demand that their own kids go to school every day and learn things. - People demand that their kids work and become independent - People force themselves to conserve assets and not to be reckless - People do not welcome strangers into their homes - People demand that their families be law-abiding and respectful - People demand perfect behavior, appropriate dress, and positive achievements of their kids
I guess I could go on and on, but it's interesting how our conservative, bourgeois expectations can dissipate the further people are from us.
"How does it happen that even today a couple of ordinary French stonemasons, or a carpenter and his apprentice, can put up a dovecote or a barn that has more architectural perfection than the piles of eclectic stupidity that grow up at the cost of millions of dollars on the campuses of American universities?”
Not my Gym Boss who ain't going anywhere, but the guy who runs the athletic training classes that I like to attend at my second gym. We have had 35-40 people who follow his classes. He made it fun to experience pain and as a result there was some good group bonding.
It's an American story. He's about 30, with a wife and 2 little girls. Until yesterday with his announcement, I just thought he was just a regular trainer and class instructor - and a fine one, but during all this time he had been living in poverty and spending half his days in classes. He announced that this would be his last class, that he had completed his degree to be a Physical Therapist, and was moving to Texas for a great new job.
His two classes I usually took were mixed cardio/balance/athleticism/calisthenics things, lots of variation, with 6-second rests between items and most items 60 seconds. Kept us moving and sweating. Old and young, fit and unfit, guys and gals. Some cute gals. After an hour, everybody was happily done in.
For his good bye exercise, he put on some 6-minute hip hop thing with a strong beat and about 40-second bridges. He had us do body weight squats to the beat, and squat-and-holds during the bridges. Burn.
I was surprised by how saddened I felt by his announcement. We all clapped and wished him luck, and he insisted on giving us all a hug. A great moment. It's always amazing to me how we humans make attachments. He will have a fine new career, because he knows how to push people with good cheer and attentive correction.
Each morning at 6 he would run in, take off his motorcycle helmet and jacket, and "Good morning, wake up everybody, let's get moving! Gimme some jumping jacks to wake up. Here we go, let's go, it's a beautiful day." And then the terrible music began that you never really heard because all you wanted to do was to survive the hour with a trace of dignity.
Sometimes my gym boss wants me to do 8-12 reps per powerlift set. I hate that. I like 5 reps/set and 5 working sets. That's 25 tough efforts.
Since powerlifts (more or less including deadlift, barbell squat, military press, bench press, pullups/pull downs, dumbell or barbell row) are the core of any strength-building or strength maintenance program, approaching them right is critical for effectiveness.
Generally speaking, high rep exercises of any sort are more aimed at muscle endurance and maintenance than at strength-building. Of course, we want both, but it's a matter of emphasis and there are plenty of ways to build muscle endurance other than heavy powerlifts.
So for pure strength (bone and muscle), I want to push to my limits and show some improvement each month. So, for each powerlift session, I want to do one warm-up set then 5 sets of 5 reps ramping up in weight to finish at my absolute limit of 5, or just past it (thus needing a spotter just in case). Pushing the envelope.
I understand that my boss sometimes likes to push the powerlift reps with lesser weight, but 5s feel right to me. With 8-12, I just find myself wanting to get it over with. That's not the right attitude.
To use the example of chest strength, if I do bench 5X5 one day, and a few sets of 30 pushups on another day, the former is 100% strength, and the latter 20% strength and 80% endurance. All good for fitness.
He calls for a special counsel re FISA and Clinton-Russian collusion. The scrutiny of the other side is coming. A good American with good advice for Trump.
"These people who are already insecure about losing their job switch on the TV, look at the newspaper and hear that they are being described as bigots, racists... and they resent it."
The Clinton-purchased Steele Dossier was the encephalitic virus that infected the entire Washington establishment between 2016 and 2019. Without it, there would have been no such thing as “collusion,” much less a Mueller investigation.
Instapundit has this meme: "If you consider reporters as Democrat operatives with bylines, a lot of things make sense."
Has it become a new normal that "journalists" have come to view themselves as advocates rather than as reporters? In some ways, Trump has removed the veil. I recall how the press protected Obama and Hillary from all of their errors and misdoings, while anything Trump does is wrong.
Maybe you can say that "journalists" see their role as "to make the world better" - by shaping opinion to fit their own. That is fake news, not reporting. Historically, we view it as propaganda.
The arrogance is mind-boggling. My suspicion is that journalists suffer from inferiority feelings because their role is essentially to be observers of things rather than actors, but if you can see yourself on a noble mission to fix the world in your own image, you can feel heroic instead of passive. You not only have the power to frame reality - you have the power to shape it. Bringing down a President would be a great coup.
Trump's public life will never be free of a Russia taint regardless of reality.
Given that “collusion” has turned out to be dry well, to the ordinary viewer it will look a hell of lot like the MSNBCs of the world humped a fake story for two consecutive years in the hopes of overturning election results ahead of time. Trump couldn’t have asked for a juicier campaign issue, and an easier way to argue that “elites” don’t respect the democratic choices of flyover voters. It’s hard to imagine what could look worse.
For the commercial press to recapture any dignity after this collusion debacle, it has to at least start admitting to its role in artificially raising expectations in the last two years. It’s hard to imagine them doing that, however. This story has been so enormously profitable for cable stations, in particular, it will be hard for them to let go of this narrative. What are they going to do, go back to just reporting the news? One can almost feel how depressed network executives must be at the thought. They’ve trained audiences to expect bombshells. What will they sell now?
This is not a great moment for Trump's critics. We can see that he is a bad president and to watch his defenders proclaim him exonerated is frustrating and troubling. The work to hold this president accountable for his behavior isn't ending, though. Someday — sooner or later — the truth will at long last catch up to Trump. That too might be a painful moment. In the meantime, those who pursue that truth should keep working — and never apologize.
“Intercept” co-founder Glenn Greenwald said that MSNBC deliberately lied to its viewers about the credibility of the charges that the Trump campaign colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election, claiming he and other left-wing journalists were banned from appearing on MSNBC due to their skepticism on the issue.
Talking to Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, Greenwald said that MSNBC “should have their top host on primetime go before the cameras and hang their head in shame and apologize for lying to people for three straight years, exploiting their fears to great profit. These are people who were on the verge of losing their jobs. The whole network was about to collapse. This whole scam saved them. Not only did they constantly feed people for three straight years total disinformation, they did it on purpose.”
Greenwald explained that “There was a whole slew, not just me, of left-wing journalists with very high journalistic credentials, far more than anyone on that network, like Matt Taibbi and Jeremy Scahill and many others… who were banned from the network because they wanted their audience not to know that anybody was questioning or expressing skepticism about the lies and the scam they were selling because it was so profitable.”
There will soon enough be an effort to memory-hole it, but the media coverage of the Russia investigation was abysmal and self-discrediting — obsessive and hysterical, often suggesting that the smoking gun was right around the corner, sometimes supporting its hoped-for result with erroneous, too-good-to-check reporting. Never has so little come of so many screaming chyrons. Every mini-scooplet was played up like major news, and if you went on air and said that collusion was unlikely and we should wait for the evidence, you were often treated like you were in the tank for Trump. The last two years have been a disgrace, and no one should forget it.
You've got tens of thousands of stories from the press with this allegation that turns out was completely false. So, my prediction to you, Stuart Varney, is this is going to mean nothing to them. They are simply going to continue. Now it's obstruction and I love this one. Now they're looking to the fact that he obstructed into an investigation of his innocence. That's what we’re going to talking about here. Though pushed the idea of obstruction. They’re going to say Mueller can go right to hell. He wasn't investigated this correctly. We’re going to do this ourselves. And they think that Trump people are going to say to themselves, “Suddenly this campaign is ours to lose.”
Yesterday morning I did a free-wheeling workout day. I just felt like it. (And this morning, just an hour of "cardio" - stair machine, HIIT on treadmill, and elliptical because I do heavy tomorrow morning.)
Yesterday morning I had no time constraints for my free-wheeling: 10 min ellip warm-up (needed warm-up), then a 3X rotation of 20-pushups, 10 (assisted) pullups, 30 kettlebell lunges, rower 60-sec sprints; then a 4X rotation of 100 mixed jump rope, heavy ball squat- and- wall throws, and kettlebell swings; then a 4X rotation of kettlebell Farmer Walks, Roman Chair leg raises, overhand curls, and 60-second planks.
Once in a while it feels good to throw away your game plan and just have random fun with all the toys in the gym. You know - masochistic fun. It feels good at the end.
If you are fatter than you want to be for appearance, functionality, energy, joint health, or fitness, you can fix it. However, it can be as challenging as quitting smoking or quitting excess booze. Deprivation of greedy impulses takes character strength, the building of which is good and a wholesome exercise in itself.
Exercise is great for vigor, strength, and general fitness for life, but it is no good for fat loss unless you are hiking the Appalachian trail 7 hrs/day for a month or two.
If serious about it, you should aim to lose 2 lbs/week. More than that is unrealistic and too painful. Here's the easy way: Eat less food and drink water instead of other stuff. Set a limit to beer and cocktails. Less food? Cut your normal food portions in half. Quit almost all carbs. If you exercise hard especially with weights, try 4 small meals/day with 20 gm of protein in each and vegetable carbs. Remember, excess protein, like excess carbs, go to fat. Volume control!
Remember: If even 5# overweight, your hunger is mainly false hunger. You have plenty of fuel on board to keep you going for days or weeks. Some people, months.
When you arrive at your target, you should be able to figure out a good maintenance plan. It's not rocket science.
8 Fun (and Possibly Dangerous) Activities Enjoyed by Past Generations 
"How does it happen that even today a couple of ordinary French stonemasons, or a carpenter and his apprentice, can put up a dovecote or a barn that has more architectural perfection than the piles of eclectic stupidity that grow up at the cost of millions of dollars on the campuses of American universities?”
If you are fatter than you want to be for appearance, functionality, energy, joint health, or fitness, you can fix it. However, it can be as challenging as quitting smoking or quitting excess booze. Deprivation of greedy impulses takes character strength, the building of which is good and a wholesome exercise in itself.