The Constitution lives!

Judge rules Constitution applies to Prisoners in Cuba!

To the drug warrior, evidence has a higher value than people's lives.

I live in Baltimore, and didn't hear a peep about this. I'll have to check out the weekend paper.

Nice quote in the writup, though.

Bury me in smoke

Stuff I'm spinning

At home

Dream Theater - Awake
Corrosion of Conformity - Wiseblood
Down - NOLA
NWA - Straight Outta Compton
Monster Magnet - Powertrip

In the car

Cake - Pressure Chief
Mudvayne - The End of All Things to Come
Hatebreed - Perserverance
Slayer - God Hates Us All
Slipknot - Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses
Corrosion of Conformity - Blind

In the MP3 player (in the gym)

COC - Wiseblood
Down - NOLA

Just thought you should know. Plus, it embarrasses my wife.

Training: 16 Weeks Out, Dynamic Effort Bench

Maybe I should just be a bench specialist. :)

Warmup: 5:30 treadmill
stretching, shoulder work

Bench press
2x20 45
1x8 @ 95
2x3 @ 135
8x3 @ 185 3 grips, Speed awesome
1x3 @ 225
1x3 @ 245
1x3 @ 265 (lost speed)
1x1 @ 275
1x1 @ 285
Heavier sets were cake

Close grips
3x5 @ 225

V grip pulldowns
1x12 @ 100
160x 12,10,7,6

Face pull
5x10 @ 70

Cardio: 20 mins treadmill, fat burn setting, 120 bpm, 1 mile, 140 cals. Woo.
10 mins stretching

Workout time 1:30

I think my bench is much higher than last tested. Need to try out my bench shirt.

Training: 16 weeks out, DE Squat

Let's try this again. The meet is 16 weeks away, and my SI joint isn't quite ready for serious training yet. Ultrasound and chiro is helping, and I continue to take lots of anti-inflammatories. My plan is to do 3 weeks of rehab training, then get into a lactic acid tolerance cycle.

So...

Warmup -
5 mins treadmill, bw squats, dynamic stretching

Box Squats
45x8
95x8
15 sets of 2 @ 135, under 60 secs rest

Stepups
2x15

HS hamstring curls
1x20 @ 45
3x10 @ 70

Situps
2x15

Hypers
3x12

Leg raises
2x10

10 minutes of stretching

Total workout time: 55 minutes

Back felt OK.

Overall, good work.

Republicans = Democrats

What part of this reduces the size and scope of the Federal Government? How about the medical community incurrs all the costs, and those who use the system pay for it.

Federal War on Porn

The War on Porn takes a blow, thank goodness.

Why we continue to spend tax money violating the Constitution to protect children (and or adults) from material deemed objectionable boggles my mind.

The porn in question apparently contains scenes of simulated rape and killing. I'd guess graphic. Certainly not something I want to watch, but who am I to tell YOU what you can watch? And who is the Federal Government, bound by the Constitution, to tell ANYONE?

So long as the participants in the film are willing participants and no crime was really committed or individual injured, I really just don't see the point. Do we need a national morality policy?

If so, I propose we examine the morality of incarcerating people who smoke pot and bombing sovereign nations who haven't attacked us. But that's just me.

Marriage only for procreating couples?

This article on the Gay Marriage court battle says the court's position is as follows:

The purpose of Indiana's marriage law is to encourage responsible procreation and the rearing of children in a stable environment, Barnes wrote in the 42-page decision. Because same-sex couples can't naturally reproduce, they don't need or deserve the same legal protection, even though the court acknowledged they can adopt or have children by assisted reproduction.

Granted, I don't live in Indiana, but what business is it of the state? Marriage is a simple contract between two parties, not some deal with the government to provide more subjects.

Gay Alert!

Cartoons involved in gay plot to take over planet. Or something.

Does anyone take this stuff seriously? Does the cartoon video with this song also contain some sort of deviant message designed to transform schoolchildren into raging decorators and fasion designers with lisps?

Are any of these cartoons inappropriate for kids?

I'm suprised there is even such a thing as a 'Gay Alert'.

Required reading.

Click above, and read about freedom.

Then think about the behavior of the US Government with respect to the Constitution and individual rights.

Charge prisoners with a crime and give them a trial, or let them go. The fact that they are brown people is not enough.

Where is the outrage?

Agitator Index

The Agitator index.

Funny, yet sad.

Balistic Fingerprinting

Yet another unessessary gun law is exposed for what it is, just another way to increase the cost of a handgun.

Of course, no one will be able to get a comment out of the gun control supporters on this, and I'd be very suprised to see any action taken to repeal the law.

Training: 18 Weeks out, ME Squat/Dead

On orders from the Chiro, skipped it. Also skipped my DE day last Friday, and DE benching on Sunday. This is what happens - I really have trouble with anything in between no training at all and balls out.

Did ultrasound on the hip today, and it does feel a little better. Still on 800mg of ibuprofin 3 times a day.

I got the Parisi video - good stuff. I'm going to do at least the stretching stuff every non training day (I might go outside and do the running).

This is extremely frustrating, to have an injury and not really be able to do anything to get better. I do need to refocus on getting in the gym every workout even if I can't squat or pull, to at least do some training.

Conservative priorities

Harry Browne tells it like it is in this article on how screwed up our priorities are.

To my pro war friends and family - I told you so.

50,000 dead people. For what? All because you got lied to, and didn't listen to those of us who don't trust the government to tell us the truth. (And then you RE-ELECTED HIM!?!)

WMD? We don't need need no stinkin' WMD!

NO WMDs, and we quit looking.

Yet the war party continues to say (with ever changing justification) that we did the right thing invading Iraq. They are just as wrong as those from the previous administration who argued the ends justified the means.

'The workd is better off without Saddam'. So lying about WMDs, misleading the public regarding terrorists, well, that's all OK.

Face it. We were wrong.

Canadians move toward understanding Economics

They don't quite get there, but some are actually suggesting a private health care system might have benefits over a government run one.

My favorite quote:

Public Health Minister Carolyn Bennett said she's concerned over possible violations of the Canada Health Act, the Toronto Star's Tonda MacCharles reports. "I don't think it's an idle threat at all," she said on her way into a cabinet meeting. "I think that there is an ideology at play that has this idea that the private sector can do things that government can't."

Can you believe it?!?! The evil private sector can do something government can't? Next they'll be saying the private sector can do things better!

I think they need to look at their tax bill, and include that in the 'cost' of healthcare, as well as the wait time for 'elective' procedures.

US Customs keeping the seas safe...

From the likes of these terrorists, true threats to the Republic.

Training: 19 Weeks Out, DE Bench

Fantastic session today. Felt great.

Warmup - 3x20 front and side raises with 5 pound plates

Bench press
2x20 @ 45
95x10
3x3 @ 135
9x3 @ 185, 3 grips
225x1
245x1
265x1
275x1
Speed awesome, felt great. The heavier sets were cake.

Close grips
3x5 @ 225

V-grip pulldowns
100x12
4x12 @ 150

Face pull (lat pulley)
5x10 @ 70

Hammer curl superset with rope pressdowns
2x12

Cardio - 20 mins treadmill, about 3mph, random setting level 5.

There is absolutely no excuse for playing Britney Spears in a Powerhouse gym.

Training: 19 weeks out, DE Squat

Getting back to some lower body training with a Dynamic Effort Squat/Dead workout. I'm using a 3 week cycle from the EFS Dynamic Squat manual called the 'Rookie' cycle, which is very light, high set count. I'm using it is a rehab routine, hoping to get over this SI joint strain/sprain.

Overall, the workout went OK.

Warmup:
7 mins treadmill
2x20 squats w/ bar

Box Squat (Week 1 of rookie cycle from EFS Dynamic Squat manual)
45x8
95x5, 3
15setsx2reps @ 135
Back bothered me a little

Seated Hammer Strength Leg curls
25x20
45x20
2x8 @ 90

Hypers
4x12

Leg raises
4x15

Lots of stretching
Beck feels OK, very tight, I can feel the source is the SI joint.

Felt great to get back in the gym.

This is fantastic

A great read over at Lew Rockwell's site

Alexander the Gay?

Oliver Stone cries blames everyone else for poor box office showing.

It absolutley couldn't be that it just didn't look like a very good movie.

Another Training Update

Sometimes things don't go your way, and sometimes lots of things don't, all in succession.

Wednesday is usually a Maximum Effort Bench Press day. Since that is generally not goign to be an issue with my back (SI joint, methinks), I was looking forward to getting in the gym and getting some good work done.

Alas, it was not to be.

I was a victim of an adware/spyware attack, and spent 45 minutes on the phone with my help desk, and then another hour waiting for my antivirus program to scan everything on my computer.

So I didn't get out of work until after 7pm, which was just too late (and too long a day) to then go to the gym. Today I'm going back to the chiro, so unless I' scramble out of work early (doubtful), today isn't going to work, either.

We'll try for a DE Squat workout Friday.

As an aisde, I'm going to get the Parisi Warmup DVD from Elite Fitness.

Perfect timing...

This study will be released tomorrow, detailing the success of people using 4 different 'fad' diets.

"In an accompanying editorial, Robert Eckel of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver says people need to realize that both "quality and quantity of the diet are important, and that sustained weight loss may be possible with the addition of physical activity and behavioral change strategies to a modest but persistent caloric restriction — the 'Low Fad' approach."

Eat less, move more.

Simple. Instead of watching infomercials and buying diet books, do a little reading on how the body works. What you'll find is there are some different methods of body recomposition that will work for different people with different goals, but it all comes down to:

Eat less. Move more.

Scrap Social Security?

This is an update on the much awaited, much debated, and much hated (by the left, at least) possible 'overhaul' of Social Security.

My suggestion? Scrap it. At a minimum, let me opt out. Hell, you can keep all the money you've already got, just let me have the 12% of my income. I'll buy something, or I'll save it, regardless, it's not any business of the federal government what I do with it. I promise not to ask for anything when I retire. OK? Deal? I dont want to have 4% of it available to go into another retirement account of the government's choosing! If I want to buy a custom circus clown outfit, let me do it!

That, of course, isn't possible, because contrary to what everyone says about 'paying in' and 'getting out', Social Security is nothing more than redistribution of wealth from those who are working to those who are not. And it's a negative sum game, because there is a huge cost associated with the program, sucking those dollars out of my pocket, and putting them in the pockets of government employees and people who may or may not have planned properly for their own retirement (of course, it isn't their fault, since they had to pay SS for the generation before them).

Still can't catch Osama bin Ladin...

But the FBI got this guy.

Time well spent.

Thank goodness...

Cavanaugh is gone!

A couple of years too late.

One of the things my Dad taught me a long time ago about coaching - get the best players you can, and mold your system to take advantage of their abilities.

Not the other way around.

Jaguar Woes

The story linked above shows the continuing slide into the abyss for one of the words most storied automakers.

My interest is cursory, I just happen to own a Jag. There are a couple of things I've noticed since Ford's involvement with the marque.

• Shared platforms: The X-Type is a Ford Contour (no longer sold in the states), the S-Type is a Lincoln LS.
  
• Sub par materials: Using Ford parts in a Jag is going to devalue the Jag, regardless of the quality of the parts.
  
• Price vs. Performance: The S-Type competes with the likes of the BMW 5 series and the Mercedes E class. There isn't really any comparison, though.
  

Don't get me wrong - I love my S-Type. I think the design sets the car apart from the herd, and no other car says 'I'm successful' quite as well as the Jag does. But from a drivers standpoint (as well as a perceived value standpoint), it can't keep up with the Germans, and neither can the X-Type. The reason I have a Jag is because it didn't hold it's value as well as a comparable German on the used car market (for less money spent, I got a car that says more money spent - go figure).

They are relying on the X and S for revenue, with the truly wonderful XJ and XK lines, which really do compete with the Germans in their classes, representing what Jag is all about. Unfortunately, the X and S (especialy the X) are devaluing the brand.

Ford - you can't compete with BMW for the Yuppie money - why try?

Training Update

Training has been sporadic of late due to my hurtin' back, and that effect on my general attitude. Hopefully that will improve. I'm 20 weeks out from the meet, so I do need to get on the ball if I'm going to have a good showing.

Normally, Sunday is Dynamic Effort Bench day, but today I had too many things to try to get done around the house, and football to watch.

Tomorow is normally a Max Effort Squat/Dead day, but I have to go to court (as a victim/witness, not a defendant) and I have an appointment with my chiropractor.

Generally, the next month to six weeks is a rough one for regular gym goers, as there is the annual influx of resolutionists (90% of whom will give up after that time period). I'm getting more used to my new job and the freedom it allows me to manage my schedule, so I may play around with getting to the gym at times other than my usual after work (between 6 and 7 pm) time.

Expect to see my training log here. I may start getting my diet stuff in Fitday, if I do, I'll link to it.

By the way... not much cooler than having the top down on the annual ride up to visit my parents on January 1.