Quick Update

Blogging has been sparce, been on the road, and work is nuts. Hopefully it will calm down.

I am going to train today, so that's good.

Air Travel Public Service Announcement

If you can't control your kid, don't get mad at me when little precious trips over my bag while running and yelling at the gate seating area, and I laugh out loud at him when he cries.

If you are unable to meet this simple suggestion, don't fly with him until you have figured out how to make him sit still.

Enjoy your flight

Root Cause

Over the last day, I've seen and heard a number of supid things with respect to the horrific shooting at Virginia Tech. 32 kids killed for what appears to be no reason, by a freaking lunatic with a couple of guns.

Why is it everyone has to harp on security on campus, or that he could legally buy guns. And how Virginia isn't good when it comes to gun control...

Under Virginia law, state residents can only buy one handgun in any 30-day period, suggesting Cho had bought his second weapon after April 13, or sometime over the weekend.

It is not clear yet whether the gun connected to the receipt was used in the shooting.


However, gun control advocates generally give Virginia poor marks for its gun laws. The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence gives Virginia's legislation a C-minus.


Among the deficiencies the campaign cites:


No requirement for gun safety training


No child safety lock requirement.


No background checks for gun shows and other secondary market sales.


No pre-sale ballistic fingerprinting requirement.

None of which would have stopped this.

On the other side, however, could we maybe stop trumpeting the 'if students could carry guns someone could have stopped him'? Maybe?

The root cause of this tragedy isn't guns, it isn't a lack of gun rights, it isn't campus security.

It's one insane student.

Workout B, the second.

Had to back it down a little today - squatting 3 times a week is going to take some getting used to.. plus, I think I probably should have started my squat poundage lower, anyway.

Warmup: Dynamic stuff

Squat
45x10,10
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x1
275x3
3x5 @ 225

The 275 just felt heavy today. Backed it down to 225; each rep was perfect.

OH press
45x10,5
95x5
3x5 @ 120

Bent Row
45x10
135x5
185x5
3x5 @ 230

Hammer strength shrug, seated
2pps x 8
2plates + 25 per side, 2x8

Lots of streching.

Training on Saturday afternoon/evening is fantastic.

No kidding.

Kids in abstinance only education programs are just as likely to have sex than those who did not take part in the programs.

Wow. Would have never seen that one coming.

They were also just as likely to use contraception, which isn't suprising, either.

I wonder if it's because they're kids, and they're horny. And sex is fun! And it doesn't take a genius to know that babies at 16, not so much fun.

What I did find a bit troubling is the median age kids are having sex - 14 years and 9 months (that's the midpoint, not the average...) Seems a little young to me.

Something else that's funny: the Administration's response.

Bush administration officials cautioned against drawing sweeping conclusions from the study. They said the four programs reviewed—among several hundred across the nation—were some of the first established after Congress overhauled the nation’s welfare laws in 1996.

Officials said one lesson they learned from the study is that the abstinence message should be reinforced in subsequent years to truly affect behavior.

“This report confirms that these interventions are not like vaccines. You can’t expect one dose in middle school, or a small dose, to be protective all throughout the youth’s high school career,” Harry Wilson, the commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in an interview with the Associated Press.

Read another way, this says "Maybe since this didn't work, we need more of it."

Been hearing that for years from the Left, haven't we?

Chip, chip, chipping away

That pesky Constitution.

The Administration, lead by that small government champion of Conservatism George W. Bush, wants to expand the ability of the Federal government to listen to conversations of non-citizens.

The proposed revisions to FISA would also allow the government to keep information obtained "unintentionally," unrelated to the purpose of the surveillance, if it "contains significant foreign intelligence." Currently such information is destroyed unless it indicates threat of death or serious bodily harm.

And they provide for compelling telecommunications companies and e-mail providers to cooperate with investigations while protecting them from being sued by their subscribers. The legal protection would be applied retroactively to those companies that cooperated with the government after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

I have just one, very simple question:

Where in the Constitution does it say that the rules by which the government must play do not apply when non-citizens are involved?

If you want to wiretap someone, get a warrant. PERIOD.

Workout 'A'

It's harder than it looks. Boy am I out of shape and weak - but I'm pretty sure if I stick with this, in 6 months I'll be stronger than ever.

Warmup: Singing and dancing

Squat
45x10
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x1
275x5,5,4

Bench Press
45x10
95x5
135x5
3x5 @ 185

Deadlift
135x5
185x5
225x1
275x5

Pulldown
3x8 @ 150

Lying leg raises
2x12

Lots of streching.

I hit the weights right to start on the bench, but squat and dead I think I started too high. Oh well. Post workout meal: Spinach salad, 2 hamburgers, and a Smithwicks.

Mission Accomplished (?)

According to the Leftist group The International Red Cross, the situation in Iraq for civilians is dire, and worsening.

Across a range of services, the government's ability to provide for its citizens is declining, it says.

Healthcare is "stretched to the limit" because of the daily violence, and food shortages have led to an increase in malnutrition.

Power shortages are increasing and vital repairs to the country's infrastructure are hampered by security constraints, the report adds.

It says that around one third of the population lives in poverty, while more than 5% live in extreme poverty.

"The conflict in Iraq is inflicting immense suffering on the entire population," the report says.

"Civilians bear the brunt of the relentless violence and the extremely poor security conditions that are disrupting the lives and livelihoods of millions.

"Unemployment and poverty levels are rising and many families continue to rely on government food distributions to cover their immediate needs.

"Much of Iraq's vital infrastructure is in a poor state of repair, owing to lack of maintenance and because security constraints have impeded repair work on electrical power grids, water and sanitation systems, medical facilities and other essential facilities."

Four years in. Hundreds of thousands dead. This is, by far, the largest blunder in the history of the United States Government.

Oh, by the way, catch Osama yet?

Maryland: On the leading edge of destroying freedom. Again.

This time, they have voted to drop out of the Electoral College by giving all electors to the Presidential candididate with the most votes Nationwide.

By not understanding why there is an Electoral College, O'Malley and his minions continue to do everything they can to destroy what's left of the Classical Liberal foundation of this Union.

But the new rules would also disconnect a state's voters from its electors. Maryland voters could vote 100 percent Democratic, but if the Republican won the national vote, Maryland's electoral vote would go to the Republican. "It's based on the proposition that, say, those of us who live in Maryland care more about the national outcome of the popular vote for the president across the country than we do for our own particular state," Mann said.

Die, Federalism. Die.

Of course, in typical Maryland fasion, they don't actually have the stones to do anything... the bill just says if other states do this, we'll do it.

Connections

Friday night, we did the Fells Point Art Loop with a group of friends, and came back to La Casa de Stagg for a dinner of lasagna and shrimp scampi (depending on your diety affiliation, as it was Good Friday).

What was cool about it? That all of the people there, we met through J's business. That says a lot, not only about how she runs her business, but how cool it is to live in an urban area like this.

Where else but in Baltimore, would you have:

A realtor
A fat guy with a goatee and an MBA
An undercover vice cop
A salon owner
A teacher/do-gooder/runner of non profit
A printing company owner
A sex toy marketer
A commercial real estate expert

All in one place for dinner, all connected via someone who sells houses.

Dissapointing

J and I have season tickets to the Hippodrome, where Broadway Across America runs a 6 show season.

This season, we've really enjoyed the tickets and the shows.

Unfortunately, next season just doesn't look very good. Not a very good mix of shows, there.

Altering your diet DOES work!

In spite of this report coming out of the University of California.

This is one of the gems in the story:

Dr Mann said: "We decided to dig up and analyse every study that followed people on diets for two to five years. We concluded most of them would have been better off not going on the diet at all.

"Their weight would have been pretty much the same, and their bodies would not suffer the wear and tear from losing weight and gaining it all back.

"The benefits of dieting are simply too small and the potential harms of dieting are too large for it to be recommended as a safe and effective treatment for obesity."

So a safe and effective means of fighting obesity is What? Invasive surgery that removes 80% of an internal organ?!?! Maybe some drugs?? How about we quit giving those folks credit for having such an incredible lack of willpower that they had to have a doctor make it physically impossible for them to overeat instead of actually eating less. (And they still never get svelte!)

How about we wake up and realise that anyone telling you this stuff is probably trying to sell you something (like surgery or drugs). Your doctor doesn't make any money if you figure out how to eat well.

This kind of thing really does drive me a bit nuts. Let me give you a couple of bits of clarification, brought to you by the Groovy Uncle Pauly School of Common Freaking Sense (tm).

1) Diets do not fail. People fail at diets
2) Long term health is directly related to the development of long term habits.

So if you go on a diet for 3 months, drop 20 pounds, and then 3 months later you are heavier than you were when you started, you screwed up. Not the diet.

Buried in the story is this:

Last night, British experts said that fad diets do not work and that the key to maintaining a healthy weight is making gradual, long-term changes.

Dr Beckie Lang, of the Association for the Study of Obesity, said: "Maintaining a healthy weight isn't about going on a diet and coming off a diet when you reach your target weight. It is about adopting skills that change your eating habits for life."

This really isn't that tough to understand. Eat less food, move a little more. Go to Precision Nutrition, buy the package, read it, and implement it. Get on a bike, go for a walk, join a gym.

And if you are physically unable to do those things, figure out a way to change that. Quit coming up with excuses, and find what you can do that works.

Workout B

Trying something I should have done years ago - getting back to the very basics. Today would have been workout 'A', but I'm a contrarian.

Plus, it's National Bench Press Day (Monday), and there were no benches. Plenty of squat racks though.

Warmup: Stuff

Squat
45x10
95x5
135x5
185x3
225x1
275x5, 4, 3

Standing OH Press
45x10
95x5
3x5 @ 115

Bent Row
45x10
135x5
185x5
5x5 @ 225

Hammer Strength Shrug (Seated)
115 per side 2x6

45 degree hypers
2x10

Lots of stretching.

Man Laws

I've always thought that people who drink Miller Lite shouldn't get to make man laws, because it's not really a manly beer. Maybe Bud or Miller Highlife, but honestly, it takes a man's man to put down some Spaten Optimator

Dan the Bar Man makes an even more salient point about people with facelifts and wigs developing man laws, along with a very effective photo comparison.

Pushin and tuggin

Yes, it's another training post. Look out, y'all.

Warmup - lots of stuff

Bench
2x12 @ 45
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5

Oh Press
45x10
95x5
115x5
135x3

Bent Row
45x10
135x5
185x5
225x5

Pressdown
4 sets of 12

face pull
4 sets of 12

Slow and steady is the route.

This is Tyrrany.

I'm astounded stories like this one don't get more attention. This is exactly why the government can't regulate speech or the press, yet the only place you see it is Reason.

"They love green technology - as long as we buy it from them, and pay too much."

Typical government environmentalism.

Traditional incandescent light bulbs use up more electricity than energy-efficient bulbs, yet many consumers still just buy the incandescent ones because the up-front cost is less. And why are the energy-efficient ones more expensive initially? Because in 2002, the European Commission, after lobbying by candlemakers, er, I mean the EU's energy-efficient lightbulb makers, imposed a 66% tariff on Chinese-made energy efficient bulbs. The justification was the claim that China engages in "dumping", by which they mean China can produce bulbs more cheaply.

According to the Financial Times, "Ending the duty would cut prices to the level of conventional bulbs." The tariff is due to expire in October but European manufacturer Osram wants to have it extended. As the Swedish commentator Johan Norberg puts it: "They love green technology - as long as we buy it from them, and pay too much."

The first real day.

Today was the first real training day of what will be many, strung in a row, towards a meet or something. Not happy at all with where I am, and I still have some nagging back pain, although I'm pretty sure I figured out it's from some tight muscles.

Warmup: 5 mins elliptical, some dynamic stretching.

Squat
45x8
95x5
135x5
185x5
225x5
275x4
Strength was there, but broke form on rep 5.

Good Morning
45x8
135x5
185x1
This was really uncomfortable. I may take these out and try SLDL. I need to get my back healthy.

45 Degree Hypers
3x12

Bench situps
2x15

Neutral grip pulldowns
2x15 @ 100

Shrugs
2x8 @ 3pps

HS leg curl
2x7 @ 90

Lots of stretching.

Trained from 3:30 to 4:30. Wiseblood never gets old.

A fantastic post on income inequality.

At Coyote Blog, Warren Mayer has an outstanding post on the Zero Sum Fallacy.

We are all richer than the richest people from 100 years ago.