"Euthanasia Can Give All People a Satisfactory Ending."

I don't know why I love this essay title [from one of Sandy's students]. It's just so counter-intuitive to the standard Western/Christian mindset and so calmly set forth... I grade this essay as 'Awesome.'

A seven course French meal.

'cause if you can't be extravagant on your anniversary, when can you?

The food was delicious. Probably the 2nd best restaurant I've been too. [The best is still Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant in Philly.]

Poached egg, asparagus and ebi. All the food was incredibly fresh. Awesome.



Tomato covered scallops w/pine nuts.



Curry clam soup w/tomatoes and onion.



Tai fish with mashed potatoes, greens and a cherry tomato [not an umeboshi] on top.



Blueberry sorbet, to cleanse the pallet before the next dish. It tasted, ummm, 'deeply' of authentic, fresh blueberry.



Duck with alcohol soaked cherries, bacon wrapped zuchinni and tomato covered eggplant.



Dessert - a cream cake thing, strawberry sauce, peach, blueberry, cherry, some kind of cracker thing, and the vanilla-iest vanilla ice cream I've ever had.



Our bottle of wine, sitting in isolation at the next table.



Sandy + Wine = Fun.

Who's awesome? You're awesome!

11 years.

Sometimes, I amaze even myself.

Sandy's new 'do.'

C'mon, how cute is this?

Training 96.

PT - Single arm DB swings 15/20/25 x15, Pushups 15x3, Body Row 12x3, Lunges 15x3, Single leg Calf rs 24/15/8, Dislocates/Facepulls 5/5, 5/5

Nutrition - lg coffee w/equal & cream - 3 shakes w/10 eggs, inst coffee, cream, peanut butter, equal, 2 sausage sticks, 1.7L water

Inspiration: Crossfit's Bear Complex. Just awesome.

"Don't Trust Citations" - Everybody makes up most everything... yes, even "scientists."

"What the Believer believes, the Prover proves." - R.A. Wilson.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Don't Trust Citations:

"Andy Guess of Inside Higher Ed writes up a recent study that seeks to quantify errors in citations in scholarly papers. The results are more than a bit disturbing:

...divided into two categories, "incorrect references" and "quotation errors." ..."This problem has been extensively studied in the health literature ... 31 percent of the references in public health journals contained errors, and three percent of these were so severe that the referenced material could not be located."

More serious than such botched references are articles that incorrectly quote a cited paper or, as the authors put it, "misreport findings." For example, in the same study of health literature, they write, "authors' descriptions of previous studies in public health journals differed from the original copy in 30 percent of references; half of these descriptions were unrelated to the quoting authors' contentions.""

Nothing quite like back home in North Carolina.

Overheard in the Office | And Get Yourself Some Therapy?:

"Woman (after manager jokingly pats her on the back): Hey, don't be coming in here hitting me!
Manager: No, no, I wouldn't do that. I haven't hit a woman in a long time. You know when the last time I hit a woman was? It was my ex-wife, and it was goooooood. I spent two days in jail, but it was worth it. It was soooo worth it. They had to wire her jaw shut. Six weeks. Six weeks of silence.
Woman: That's nice, but could you leave now, please?'

Wilmington, North Carolina"

Don't fall for those false dualisms.

Overheard in New York | ...Mr. "I Wear Crocs":

"Guy #1: Are people getting dumber or is it just me?
Guy #2: Both.

--6 Train"

Training 95.

PT - 30m Rutten MMA wkout/boxing 3m rounds
Isometrics, 3x5s, neck-shoulders-bi/tri-chest/back-1m wall sit-20s wall handstand hold

Nutrition - coffee w/cream, equal - 2 shakes w/6 eggs, peanut butter, cream, inst coffee, equal - 1.7L water - 2 diet sodas - chicken burgers w/mayo, cheese - broccoli w/butter, cheese

Inspiration: Bodybuilding.com - Male Transformation Of The Week - Male Transformation Of The Week - Alan Velasquez!:

"The very few times I've cheated... it set me back not just physically but mentally. It screws up your groove! Find people who have similar goals as you to share your progress with and to encourage each other.

I personally don't have anyone in my real life that cares like my friends from the internet... so it has become an invaluable tool for me. Don't let the people around you bring you down.

A lot of your friends and family don't really want to see you do better than them. Those are some harsh words but after talking with a lot of people with similar goals I have seen that it's true for a lot more people than just me. You'll here "You don't need to lose any weight" or "Why care what other people think" or "You got to reward yourself once in a while" and on and on.

You know that YOU WANT to lose weight or gain muscle, it's not about what other people think it's about what you think and how you feel, and as far as rewarding yourself, you don't need to do it with food. The rewards are being healthy and looking better.

The Most Important Thing To Achieving Your Goals Is Consistency."

And what point does a society become too stupid to justify its own existence?

I think I know.

Honestly, you have got to be fucking kidding me.

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Flint, Michigan Battles Crack Epidemic:

"The third most violent city in American had declared war on . . . saggy pants."

"Yes, We Can!" piss all over the Bill of Rights and the 4th Amendment.

Senate approves warrantless wiretapping and telco immunity, throws out the Fourth Amendment - Boing Boing:

"NY Times has reported that the Senate just approved a bill extending the warrantless wiretapping program AND giving the telcos immunity from prosecution for violating the law and the rights of their customers for compliance in earlier illegal warrantless wiretapping. And Barack Obama voted for it!

...That sound you hear? It's the Bill of Rights being torn in half. Talk about losing the war on terror. Who needs external forces threatening your way of life when your elected lawmakers are doing such a good job of it?"

See if you can spot the cleverly subtle, hypocritical, puritanical, authoritarian nonsense.

Just kidding! [Because it's obvious.]

Reason Magazine - Hit & Run > Uncle Sam's Patented Marijuana Medicine:

"August 1996: Federal drug czar Barry McCaffrey tells the San Francisco Chronicle "there is not a shred of scientific evidence that shows that smoked marijuana is useful or needed," adding, "This is not medicine. This is a cruel hoax."

December 1996: Asked whether there is "any evidence...that marijuana is useful in a medical situation," McCaffrey says, "No, none at all."

February 2001: The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services files a patent application for the medical use of cannabinoids, saying they are "useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases," and "are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia."

October 2003: The patent is granted.

...What's going on here? The government wants to draw a distinction between whole-plant marijuana, which it insists has "no currently accepted medical use," and marijuana ingredients, including THC and cannabidiol, that have demonstrated medical utility..."

So. To sum up. The logic goes like this:

"...while it is emphatically forbidden, and not at all helpful, to smoke, vaporize, or eat cannabis as a medicine, it may be acceptable to take isolated cannabinoids as a medicine once they're approved by the FDA, assuming you have a prescription. The FDA already has approved THC (in capsule form) under the brand name Marinol, and it is considering approval of Sativex, an oral cannabis extract spray. At the same time, the government does not want people to believe that anything good could possibly come from cannabis, even when it has successfully argued that very point in its own a patent application."

Cause, see, if you could grow it yourself, say, in closet or the backyard, then pharmaceutical companies couldn't make a profit, and the FDA wouldn't be able to justify its own existence.

False Professionalism and Economic Self Interest.

Increasing cynicism with age, to be sure, but I don't believe for a second that the ADA has anything but their own self serving economic interests, and their sense of professional "aren't we special" ego, in mind.

Reason Magazine - What Are You Smiling At?:

"...Some 60,000 indigenous Alaskans living in villages accessible only by plane, boat, or snowmobile received little dental care until the Alaskan Native Tribal Health Consortium decided to break a few rules. Following a model that is popular in Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, and 42 other countries, the consortium sent tribal members to an accredited two-year dental program in New Zealand, where they learned how to fill cavities and clean and pull teeth.

Upon completion of the program, the members returned to their villages as certified dental therapists, capable of providing basic dental services. The therapists have since helped to bring down a rate of tooth decay that is almost three times the national average. But their efforts were nearly undone by the American Dental Association (ADA), which objected to anyone other than a licensed dentist conducting "irreversible dental procedures," such as pulling teeth and filling cavities. By the ADA's standards, a licensed dentist is one that has completed an undergraduate degree, a doctorate of dental medicine, or a doctorate of dental surgery, and has passed a statewide exam.

...The case received little national attention until the New York Times' Alex Berenson wrote in April that "dentists in private practice consider therapists low-cost competition" because they are only paid "one-half to one-third" as much as licensed dentists. Current ADA President Mark J. Feldman responded a month later in a letter to the Times, denying that the ADA objected to the Consortium's "experiments" out of its own "financial self-interest."

...This wasn't the only time the ADA has attempted to block a newcomer to the dental market. In December 2007, another New York Times reporter, Ian Urbina, wrote about the work of denturists. Denturists develop and install dentures and replace teeth; their inexpensive services are changing lives for the better in Kentucky, where residents, like indigenous Alaskans, suffer from tooth decay at a rate that is much higher than the national average.

...Despite the ADA's best efforts at controlling the cost of dental care, the tide may be turning. In May, reports The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia (whose dental problems rival those of its neighbor, Kentucky) passed a bill that will allow dental hygienists—whose services cost a fraction of those of a licensed dentist—to practice outside of a dentist's office and without a dentist being present. Legislators passed the bill—in spite of loud ADA objections—after journalist Eric Eyre wrote a series of articles detailing the state's abysmal dental care.

Bills like the one in West Virginia create new jobs while lowering medical costs. And there is perhaps a bigger benefit: putting smiles on the faces of millions of Americans who, thanks in part to the monopolistic behavior of the ADA, are literally too embarrassed to open their mouths."

This would be the best answering machine message ever.

Overheard in the Office | Eventually They Just Gave Her a Phone with an Ominous-Music Ringtone:

"Office worker, every time her phone rings: Fuck. What now?

Mississauga
Canadia"

Training 94.

Nutrition - 2 cups coffee w/equal, cream - 2 shakes w/7 eggs, cream, equal, peanut butter, inst coffee - 2.2L water - steak - 2 diet sodas - 2 beef patties w/chs, mayo

PT - Single arm DB snatch 45x8 52.5x8x2 - Squats BW 2x20 105x6 - Pullovers 3x20x20 - Pullups/Chins/Body Row 5/4/8 4/3/8 2/2/8 - Pushup/BW Fly 10/8 x3 - SLDL 105x3x10

"Welcome to the Nanny State Nation."

reason.tv - Videos > Banned:

"Whether you love it, hate it, or have never thought about it, chances are some politician wants to ban it. "Welcome to the Nanny State Nation," says reason.tv host Drew Carey. "Where the government minds your own business."

Saggy pants, fire places, plastic bags, light bulbs, poker—it's all been banned somewhere. Same with owning swine or fowl, feeding pigeons, owning pit bulls, and chomping on trans fats, a naughty little substance that makes food taste better.

Of course, smoking's been banned in all sorts of places—indoors, outdoors, near doors, beaches, casinos, even private homes. America's smoking ban craze began in California. So many bans start there.

"But is New York City the new California?" asks Carey? Smoking, trans fat, aluminum baseball bats, straddling a bike, wearing in-line skates or drinking coffee on a subway—the Big Apple bans them all.

Even if we don't particularly like something we should be wary of banning it because every ban is backed up by the force of law. Plus, would you want to live in a nation that bans everything that offends someone?

Carey wonders when so many of us turned into "ban-happy busybodies," and compliments the British on their more civilized approach to bans. '"

Random JET Rumination.

You know you probably haven't been the paragon of "professional attire" at work when, having tucked in your shirt and worn a belt, more than one student comes up and asks you why...

And they being Jr High kids with limited English, it goes something like this - "Ra-ba-to... shirt-su... in... ?..."

Cracked. Me. Up.

But hey, I'm still consistently better dressed than the teachers who wear sweatpants on the regular.

Man, kids today are lucky.

I would've taken a life for something like this back in the day.

Via the BAT - BLOG : BATMAN TOYS and COLLECTIBLES: Videos: THE DARK KNIGHT 2 New Batman Toy TV Commercials

Where!?

Overheard in the Office | There It Is:

"Sales guy #1: ... or you know it could send to your POP3.
Sales guy #2: Don't pretend like you know what you're talking about.
Sales guy #1: At least I had a term. Where's your term, motherfucker?!

Bonner Springs, Kansas"

On guns.

Fred On Everything:

"...I found a long list of reasons why you should never, ever use a firearm to protect your home and family. No. See, you might miss, or be scared, or the intruders might take it away and shoot you, and they might be all mad and hurt you when all they wanted was your television. No, the best thing is to let them do what they want, and then maybe they won’t do anything bad to you.

This supposedly was written by a retired cop but, if so, he (or quite possible she, judging by the tone) doesn’t sound like any cop I have known, which is whole lots.. Anyway, his, her, or its advice, is “Leave the guns to people who are trained and prepared to use them.” Which he says he is.

Nuts. To begin with, cops usually know little about guns. They get a bit of training in the police academy, and then once or twice a year go to the range to fire a couple of magazines. Being actually good with a pistol requires putting tens of thousands of rounds downrange...

...what I dislike most about Smith’s advice is his advocacy of helpless passivity. It embodies a profound change in American attitudes, which once favored self-reliance. Now it’s reliance on the group. Don’t take primary responsibility for your defense. No, that would be violent, or scary, or macho, and all. No, let the criminals do whatever they want with you, rely on their merciful natures, and call 911 if you survive.

This is exactly what Smith advocates. If I were a criminal, I would love this guy.

...In Virginia to get a concealed-carry permit, you attend a mandatory class on how to use a pistol. One of the instructors when I did it was a (very competent) female agent of the FBI. She talked to the class, some of whom were women, about rape. She made the obvious point that very few women have the slightest chance of fending off a two-hundred pound deviate perhaps armed with a knife. A small concealed-hammer revolver, fired maybe through a coat pocket, can easily be handled by a woman of ninety pounds. Studies show that a rapist who has been shot several times loses ardor. We’re talking way beyond Viagra.

What is true of intruders is that they don’t want a firefight. When you rack a round into the chamber of a semi-auto, the sound is unmistakable and means only one thing: Someone is preparing to fire. You have to want a television very badly to go against someone who audibly is planning to kill you and audibly has the means.

You can do as Smith wants—let them do it, whatever it is, and then call a qualified professional. Or you can shoot the sons of bitches. Your choice. I don’t care."

Yeah, that's fairly spot on.

WorkLoveLife: Career, Relationship & Lifestyle Advice:

"...my problem is not with actually having kids, but that they become an end in themselves and not a side effect of living the life I’d like."

WorkLoveLife: The Subtle Allure of A Life More Ordinary (or the Brainwashing of American Women): Career, Relationship & Lifestyle Advice:

"...this daydream life is about being able to do the things I am passionate about without any compromises or guilt feelings, such as diving tirelessly into my own businesses, having a partner who I still find sexually appealing, coming nowhere close to any variety of poop/snot/vomit, and traveling at will and on whim.

I have nightmare versions of both of my daydreams, too. There’s one that revolves around divorce, debt, failed parenthood and suburbia, and there’s one that mostly involves being alone for the rest of my life realizing at 47 that all I really ever wanted was a family."

Training 93.

Nutrition - 1.7L water, 3 diet sodas, cup of coffee w/equal-milk, ham, grilled chicken, mayo, 1/2 hard boiled egg, mini sausage

PT - 30m Rutten MMA wkout/thai boxing 3m rounds
Isometrics, 3x5s, neck-press-lat raise-bi/tri-chest/lat-1m wall sit

Dolph Lundgren, 51 and still awesome.

I loved Rocky IV. [Even though it wasn't quite Rocky III - c'mon, you know you loved Mr. T.] Lundgren has always impressed me with his attitude and his interviews. If you're 51, and in that kind of shape - You Win.

Bodybuilding.com - Marika Johansson - Action Star Dolph Lundgren Explains Realities Of Training & Hollywood!:

"...Bodybuilding.com organized a rendezvous point with Dolph... so we could provide you with an all access pass to The Universal Soldier, He-Man, Ivan Drago and his workout regime, which at 51 years old, preserves him like a top-shelf vintage wine - getting better with age.


...The towering figure greeted us within the foyer of Equinox wearing a Spanish martial arts tracksuit as it would appear that Dolph is the leader of the national karate team in the country he now resides. Looking like a man in his 30's rather than his 50's, Lundgren is the poster boy of precise nutrition, supplementation and exercise application that he has practiced for over 35 years.

...The pad and punch bag work combined with his routine stretch was to be the perfect warm-up for the resistance regime that ensued before cooling down with laps of the pool. As we sat in the sweltering LA heat, Dolph rehydrated with a protein and carbohydrate drink whilst I interviewed him for your reading pleasure, your curiosity on how he prepared for Rocky IV, and how he still maintains his awesome appearance at 51 years old.

I introduce to you part 1 of our in-depth exclusive interview with Dolph Lundgren..."

Interview at the link, obviously.

On a lighter note, summing up the Christian faith.

Overheard at the Beach | You'd Think If Anybody Was Pro-Life It Would Be God:

"Queer: So, like, let me get this straight. God got this lady pregnant and made her have a baby and then killed it so you could get away with whatever shit you wanted as long as you felt sorry?
Christian guy: Wow... I've never heard it put that way...
Queer: Sorry, I meant he killed him, it was a boy.

--Santa Cruz, California"

Religious and historical ignorance.

This is apparently causing a ruckus amongst some of the religious:

Tablet ignites debate on messiah and resurrection - International Herald Tribune:

"A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time."

Except for the fact that anyone with the slightest knowledge of religious history or mythography knows that the dying and reborn god figure is easily one of the oldest and most common religious archetypes. The "story of Jesus" is neither special nor unique from an historical perspective.

You can even get the bare bones via the bastion of all things internet encyclopedia related - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Life-death-rebirth deity:

"The category life-death-rebirth deity also known as a 'dying-and-rising' or 'Resurrection' deity is a convenient means of classifying the many divinities in world mythology or religion who are born, suffer death, an eclipse, or other death-like experience, pass a phase in the underworld among the dead, and are subsequently reborn, in either a literal or symbolic sense.

Male deities among such figures might include Osiris, Adonis, Tammuz, Zalmoxis, phoenix, Jesus, Baldr, and Odin.

Female deities who passed into the kingdom of death and returned include Inanna (also known as Ishtar) whose cult dates to 4000 BC and Persephone, the central figure of the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose cult may date to 1700 BC as the unnamed goddess worshiped in Crete."

You can find at least another forty gods over at the article with the same essential back story. Education and knowledge is such an anathema to these people.

Training 92.

Nutrition - coffee w/equal, cream - shake w/3 eggs, inst coffee, cream, equal - 3 eggs, cheese, steak - 2 diet sodas - shake w/4 eggs, peanut butter, cream, equal - 2.4L water

PT - Ov Press 50x12 60x10 70x8 80x6x2 60x12 - Up rows 60x12 - 1arm db rows 30x12 35x10 40x8 45x6 52.5x6 40x12 - Body row x12 - Pushups 12/10/8/6/6/12 - Bodywt fly x12 - Squats BW 12/10/8/6 90x6 BW6 - Lunges x12 - Single calf rs 20/16/16 - Core circuit 2x10 situp/superman/vup/back x - Glute/ham bridge 2x10 - Dislocates/face pull 10/10

Heh.

Overheard in New York | From That Day on Conan the Vegitarian Was Never the Same.:

"Guy: Hey, do they have vegan food here?
Girl: No, you have to rip the meat apart with your bare hands and then fuck some bitches.

--NYU Dining Hall

Headline by: Spazzy"

Surreal Shogakko.

Where and how a Japanese elementary school 3rd grader [and all his friends] learns "My name is Obama!" is beyond me. And why they yell it out in response to every question - 'How's the weather?'... 'My name is Obama!' - is also a conundrum.

Though if up to them, clearly we know how the next election will play out. Japan cracks me up sometimes.

Thailand is, apparently, awesome.

Via SlatFatF: If only American Commercials were like this...

Hell yeah.

Overheard in New York | Raise Your Hand If You Wish You'd Been There:

"20-something tall black bellhop: I challenge you, right now, to a salsa dance-off.
70-year-old short Latino bellhop: Go get a radio.

--Peninsula Hotel

Overheard by: Carol"

I occasionally need to cleanse my brain with some Robert Anton Wilson.

Click over to the link to DL an interview...

» Podcast 147 - RAW: "Conspiracies and TSOG" - Notes from the Psychedelic Salon:

""He [John von Newman] realized that most of our perceptions are in the ‘maybe’ mode. They’re not yes or no, they’re not true or false, they’re just ‘maybes’. I think ‘maybe logic’ is probably the greatest invention of the 20th century."

"I regard religion and patriotism as the two major mental illnesses afflicting this planet."

"I would say faith is the chief fomenter of war in the whole history of the world. Even in comparatively secular societies it becomes an article of faith that the government is justified. The other side is all wrong. We’re all right. And nobody’s supposed to think about the question at all. That becomes despicable. I believe we should think about the despicable."

"It absolutely stops thinking entirely if you’ve got enough faith.""

Training 90-91.

90 - Free/Hi Carb/Rest
91 - PT - 30m Rutten MMA wkout/thai boxing 3m rounds
Nutrition - lg coffee w/equal + cream, 3 diet sodas, 1L water, 3 eggs, steak

4th of July/Canada Day Fukutsu JET ALT Potluck - Drinkup - Nintendo Wii night.

Nice folks + good food [+ alcohol] = Good Times.

Heck of a spread... lasagna, shepherd's pie, cornbread, layered mexican dip and chips, salads and pastries...


Mmmmm... pink.


Nintendo Wii is actually kinda cool. And confirms a couple things... One, I still suck at video games.


Which has been true since, um... 1986? The last game I was halfway decent at was Decathlon on the Atari 2600.


And two, it confirmed that people absolutely enjoy shooting things and blowing shit up. That's just a universal truth.



You know, I really need no man's butt in my face as they bowl on the Nintendo Wii. I'm just saying.


But check out the massive forearms on Mike! That's the kind of development you only find from hours and hours of 1st person shooter video games.

As for below, I can't say I'm entirely sure what's happening with Sandy, other than she's stolen and is playing with some of Jon's stuff, but the words "punch" and "drunk" do come to mind.



Click the play arrow below for a short one minute video that thoroughly encapsulates the evening...

What I've Read - fitness, fantasy, comics, religion, Japan...

Haven't done one of these in about 6-7 weeks, as evidenced by my growing stack of "finished" books... so here we go.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow -

"Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems.

But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days.

When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself."

Doctorow is one of the co-editors of the BoingBoing groupblog, which I obsessively read. "Little Brother," while ostensibly a "young adult" book, it's one just about every adult in America should read. Mixing together politics, technology, relationships and ideas, it wast vastly entertaining. It's the only book I've read recently that was able to make me viscerally angry, as it's probably the best written example of how far in the wrong direction the U.S. has gone since 9/11. [That's the antagonists in the book, not the book itself.] And it gave me some hope for the equalizing power of technology to help return life and government to a more positive, open, healthy, and less "fear-mongering" sort. Great book. Recommended highly.

The New Destroyer: Dead Reckoning by Warren Murphy, James Mullaney - Remo and Chiun take on more terrorists! Slam bang [semi-]mindless adventure yarn. Funny. Diverting. A light read and enjoyable.

Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy -

Never been much of a fan of fantasy type novels, even though my precious comic books are tinged with a lot of the same concepts. Never really got into the Narnia stuff [though I do remember, I think, seeing a "Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe" cartoon when I was a kid] and even less interested in it when I'd grasped the goofy Jesus/Aslan metaphor. Thanks, I got enough propaganda from the church itself, already. And I saw the LOTR movies, and they were "okay" but not exactly my "cuppa." My one attempt to actually read the LOTR stuff didn't see me last very long. The language seemed almost intentionally dense and it seemed more interested in world building than telling a good story. But what do I know?

Anyways, that's all prologue to having read this fantasy trilogy by Pullman. I had read it described as the anti-Narnia where the bad guy is "god" and where, as he's said in an interview, almost tongue in cheek, that "My books are about killing God." So I figured anything that subversive was worth checking out. So I ordered it up and hammered through the 900 pages or so.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. At times I thought it ran a little long - but that's probably because it's three books I read in one go - but there were bits and pieces of sheer brilliance in there. Well worth a read.

And of course, the xtian nuts who were up in arms over the movie adaptation of his 1st book last year, remain clueless. The subtext of the book isn't really about "killing god" but about killing the ideas of the autocratic and authoritarian god and his self appointed representatives on earth. I personally found the tale to be quite spiritual with a touch of the profound. But I've zero faith in any religious dogma, or dogmatists, so... like preaching to the choir, to further confuse the situation with a religious metaphor.

Plus, there were armored polar bears who fucked people up. Armored Polar Bears!

"In the epic trilogy His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman unlocks the door to worlds parallel to our own. Dæmons and winged creatures live side by side with humans, and a mysterious entity called Dust just might have the power to unite the universes--if it isn't destroyed first."

Great article released with the movie adaption last year about the book and film here - How Hollywood Saved God

Maximum Strength:
Get Your Strongest Body in 16 Weeks with the Ultimate Weight Training Program! by Eric Cressey and Matt Fitzgerald -

Great book. Requires a lot of equipment that I don't have access to, but if you do, there's probably not a better modern day book out there about improving your strength and health with weights. The joint mobility and warm up section of the book, which I do plan on implementing, is worth the price of the book alone. Author's blog is here - http://ericcressey.blogspot.com/

How to Pick Up Japanese Chicks and Doom Your Immortal Soul by Josh Muggins -

Not an actual "how to" - [I'm married people] but a memoir... the title alone grabbed my attention and I thought it particularly funny. The humor in the book might be an acquired taste, but I dug it. And I like expat-in-Japan stories. Go figure. It veers off into some pathos and twists towards the end, and I don't know that I particularly enjoyed that, but it's a psuedo-memoir, so what can you do? I enjoyed it overall. Author's website is here - http://joshmuggins.com/index.html

Tarnsman of Gor by John Norman -

Controversial for it's supposed misogyny, but still considered a cult classic, I was curious to check it out. Mostly harmless adventure. Reminded me of the old school pulp John Carter of Mars type stuff, in serials and movies. Not bad, but the writing style didn't really do anything for me. I didn't find it particularly misogynistic, just standard chest thumpin' "Me Tarzan, you Jane" "He-Man Woman Hater's Club" fantasy type stuff. Apparently, according to the Internets, it gets worse later, but it didn't grab me enough to want to check out future volumes.

Holmes by Omaha Perez -

Sherlock Holmes as Hunter S. Thompson. I found it pretty funny. Manic writing and art. Lotsa laughs. Clever.

"...This version of the Sherlock Holmes mythos expands on Dr. Watson's revelation that Holmes was a narcotics addict. The World's Greatest Detective is a maniac completely out of his head on drugs at all times and Dr. Watson, his own personal "Dr. Feelgood," isn't much better off! Appearance meets reality as the duo must cope with their handicaps while recovering composer Joseph Haydn's missing skull."

The Invincible Iron Man: Extremis by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov -

I make no bones about digging Ellis' quintessentially British and sarcastic writing style. Add into the mix a protagonist who's a futurist and technologist - Iron Man's Tony Stark - and the combo is pretty much outstanding science fiction. I enjoyed this volume a hell of a lot.


Rex Mundi Volume 3: The Lost Kings by Arvid Nelson, Eric Johnson, Jeremy Cox, Jim DiBartolo, Juan Ferreyra -

Volume 3 in the continuing saga. Still enjoyable, interesting, fascinating, etc, etc. Still onboard for two more volumes to finish out the series.

"...this series continues its epic story of an alternate history Europe in which the Reformation never occurred and the Catholic Church is the most powerful institution in the world. Dr. Julien Sauniere, the hero of the series, is deep into a mystery that involves the "true" nature of the Holy Grail and the lineage of Jesus Christ. At the crux of this alternate history thriller is an almost excruciatingly detailed religious theory involving French royalty, Mary Magdalene and the creation of modern Christianity. Its depth is rare for what is ostensibly a murder mystery comic book, and writer Nelson has clearly done his research."

Everything You Know About God Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Religion by Various -

I've read a lot of the Disinfo anthologies, and enjoyed most all. But like any anthology, there are hits and misses in the volumes. This one wasn't... well, it didn't feel particularly strong, to me. Make no mistake, there were some good essays, just overall, it didn't really fire me up. And I'm always ready for some good blasphemy.

"...Among the dozens of other articles and essays, you'll find: a sweeping look at classical composers and Great American Songbook writers who were unbelievers, such as Irving Berlin, creator of "God Bless America"; the definitive explanation of why America is not a Christian nation; the bizarre, Catholic-fundamentalist books by Mel Gibson's father; eye-popping photos of bizarre religious objects and ceremonies, including snake-handlers and pot-smoking children; the thinly veiled anti-Semitism in the Left Behind novels; an extract from the rare, suppressed book The Sex Life of Brigham Young; and rarely seen anti-religious writings from Mark Twain and H.G. Wells.

Further topics include exorcisms, religious curses, Wicca, the Church of John Coltrane, crimes by clergy, death without God, Christian sex manuals, the "ex-gay" movement, failed prophecies, bizarre theology, religious bowling, atheist rock and roll, "how to be a good Christian," an entertaining look at the best (and worst) books on religion, and much more."

And I reread The Complete Keys to Progress by John McCallum
and Dinosaur Training by Brooks Kubik.
In my ongoing quest to get back into shape, maintaining motivation is sometimes a bitch, and these are two of the best and most inspirational books on training that I've got. Old school wisdom and no-nonsense advice and ideas. Just the kick in the ass I need sometimes.

Awesome-y Parkour/FreeRunning Goodness.

Via Straight to the Bar | all things strength

Darn Librul Media.

Yeah, right.

Balloon Juice:

"“Mr. President, you’ve authorized torture. Over 4,000 men and women have died in a war that most people know was absolutely unnecessary. It is now well known that intelligence was manipulated to get us into Iraq. Are you a war criminal? And should you be tried as one?”

I would love to hear one – just ONE - credible journalist ask him this question. We won’t though because it’s the MSM. And we all know the MSM sucks. MSM bias towards the left? Pleeeeze."