Training.

It'll keep your ego in check/your nose to the grindstone when one of your Jr High students pokes you in the stomach and says "huka-huka." Which means "soft/fluffy." Bastards :)

Miles to go...

AM - 5 Tibetans x 12, Atlas L1
PM - 20m intervals/kickboxing - hindu squats, hindu pushups, bridging, chins, pullups - JG rows, rv flyes, squat+ovrhead ex - round of isometrics/upper body - Atlas L1

When they said he was in advertising, I got suspicious, but this was actually rather genius.

Funny too.

YouTube - Rory Sutherland: Life lessons from an ad man:

"Advertising adds value to a product by changing our perception, rather than the product itself. Rory Sutherland makes the daring assertion that a change in perceived value can be just as satisfying as what we consider real value -- and his conclusion has interesting consequences for how we look at life."

Nobody likes to hear the truth.

Overheard in the Office | You're Just Fantastic At...Whatever It Is You Do Here.:

"Female sales director: So let me get this straight, you're asking me to look as slutty as possible for the event?
Male VP: Well, that is why I hired you, after all.
Female sales director: Wow! Did you really just say that?
Male VP: What? Okay, okay... you're good at your job too. Happy?

California"

Matt Taibbi rakes traditional economic reporting over the coals.

Matt Taibbi - Taibblog – Good News on Wall Street Means… What Exactly? - True/Slant:

"It’s literally amazing to me that our press corps hasn’t yet managed to draw a distinction between good news on Wall Street for companies like Goldman, and good news in reality.

I watched carefully the reporting of the Dow breaking 10,000 the other day and not anywhere did I see a major news organization include a paragraph of the “On the other hand, so fucking what?” sort, one that might point out that unemployment is still at a staggering high, foreclosures are racing along at a terrifying clip, and real people are struggling more than ever. In fact the dichotomy between the economic health of ordinary people and the traditional “market indicators” is not merely a non-story, it is a sort of taboo — unmentionable in major news coverage."

In 2009, with a black President, America still full of racist idiots with too much power.

Un-freaking-believable.

The Associated Press: Interracial couple denied marriage license in La.:

"A Louisiana justice of the peace said he refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children the couple might have.

Keith Bardwell, justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish, says it is his experience that most interracial marriages do not last long.

Neither Bardwell nor the couple immediately returned phone calls from The Associated Press. But Bardwell told the Daily Star of Hammond that he was not a racist."

Perks of the Job.

Students give me little gifts, like origami, for example. It's the little things...

From 2009-10-15

Training.

10/15 - AM - 5 Tibetans x 12, Atlas Lesson 1
PM - Rutten MMA wkout/boxing 3m rounds - Pullups, chins, hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge, air squats - Timed holds, wall squat, handstand, hang, DB hold - Upper body isometric circuit - Atlas Lesson 1

10/14 - AM - 5 Tibetans x 12, Atlas Lesson 1
PM - Rutten MMA wkout/boxing 3m rounds - PHA weight circuit x2 - squats, situps, curls, side bends, neck work - pushups, leg raises, chins, seated twists, calf raises - sldl, situps, shoulder press, bnt fwd twist, french press - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge - Atlas Lesson 1

I would totally be this guy.

Oh. Yes.*

Stallone. Statham. Li. Lundgren. Rourke. Couture. Crews. And more...
*the powers that be are playing whack-a-mole with trailer... take 2.

"Sell the Vatican, Feed the World."

Yes.

[Sarah Silverman. Well done.]

Via I love you, Sarah Silverman | The Good Atheist

"TOBAL" - the crux of American political stupidity.

Radley Balko disintegrates the reasoning behind "texting while driving" laws. More at the link. For increased laughter, hyperbole, vague statements and political nonsense, read the counterpoint linked at the end of the article. At your own risk, of course.

There's No Way to Enforce a Texting While Driving Ban - US News and World Report:

"...TOBAL is short for 'There Oughtta Be a Law.' Here's the progression of symptoms: Wrenching anecdotes about the effects of some alleged new trend make national news. A panic takes root in the media. Earnest editorialists scrawl urgent pleas for action. Politicians grandstand. Soon enough, we have our new law or regulation. It doesn't matter if the law is enforceable or may have unintended consequences. Nor does it matter if the law will have any actual effect on the problem it was passed to address. In fact, it doesn't even matter if the problem actually exists. The mere feeling that it exists is sufficient.

And so it goes with the panic over texting while driving. I'm not going to defend the act of clumsily thumbing out an E-mail while guiding a 2-ton, gasoline-loaded missile down the highway at 70 miles per hour. That's foolish. Nor will I argue there's some right to drive while iPhone-ing tucked into a constitutional penumbra. I will argue that we need to get over the idea that we can solve every bad habit with a new law. We can't, and this issue illustrates why.

...There are countless other driver distractions that we'd never think of banning, from having kids in the back seat, to eating or drinking while driving, to fumbling with the radio. Certainly, it's foolish to type out text messages behind the wheel, but what about merely reading from your phone?

Are you more impaired following MapQuest directions from your Palm Pre while driving than reading them from a sheet of paper? What if you're looking at a GPS navigation device that's only slightly larger than your cellphone? What if the GPS system is on your cellphone?

That brings us to the enforceability problem. Maryland just passed a texting ban, but state officials are flummoxed over how to enforce it. The law bans texting while driving but allows for reading texts, for precisely the reasons just mentioned. But how can a police officer positioned at the side of a highway tell if the driver of the car that just flew by was actually pushing buttons on his cellphone and not merely reading the display screen?

...We've seen similar nonsense on display with the general use of cellphones while driving. Though several states have passed bans, all make exceptions for hands-free devices. But we know the level of impairment of drivers using hands-free devices is essentially the same as that of drivers holding a phone. These laws aren't about safety; they're about symbolism.

Here are two things these bans will do: They'll give police officers another reason to pull people over, and they'll bring in revenue for the municipalities that aggressively enforce them. I think both are arguments against a ban. You may disagree, but the one thing these bans aren't likely to do is make the roads much safer. And if they won't accomplish that, there's no reason to enact them.

Read why a law is absolutely necessary, by Rep. Carolyn McCarthy of New York."

High school has changed since I was a kid.

texts from last night:

"(502): I really need to stop carrying a flask around with me in my backpack at school..
(1-502): Aren't you in 8th grade?
(502): 9th, but that's not the point."

Applying logic to the stupidity of the national discourse.

Much more at the link...

The Heart of the Matter: More Signs of the Creeping Militarization of US Society:

"...recent items that strike me as all being evidence (along with, say, the bizarre and unconstitutional reverence for "our" Commander-in-Chief) of the creeping militarization of American society.

1. On Fox News Sunday, Liz Cheney offered these thoughts on Obama's Nobel:

Well, I think what the committee believes is they'd like to live in a world in which America is not dominant. And I think if you look at the language of the citation, you can see that they talk about, you know, President Obama ruling in a way that makes sense to the majority of the people of the world. You know, Americans don't elect a president to do that. We elect a president to defend our national interests. And so I think that, you know, they may believe that President Obama also doesn't agree with American dominance, and they may have been trying to affirm that belief with the prize. I think, unfortunately, they may be right, and I think it's a concern.

Here are the main premises in the paragraph above:

A. America should dominate the world.
B. The president "rules" America.
C. Americans elect a president exclusively, or at least primarily, to "defend" our national interests.
D. The defense of America's national interests should not, and indeed cannot, make sense to the majority of the people of the world.

Let's examine the premises Cheney regards as axiomatic.

A. Is it necessary, desirable, or even possible for America to dominate the world? What are America's national interests, and is world dominance necessary for their defense? Do all countries require world dominance to defend their national interests, or is America unique in this regard?

B. Does the president "rule" America? (Hint: the president's job description is helpfully laid out right in the Constitution. Very handy document.)

C. Is it true that Americans exclusively or primarily elect a president to "defend" our national interests? What else do we want a president to do? What does it suggest when someone mentions "defense" as the only, or even the primary, role Americans expect in a president (as opposed to, say, advancing interests, or continuing to form a more perfect union... that kind of thing)? Especially when the same person suggests the president "rules" America?

D. Is it true that when the president defends America's national interests, his actions cannot and should not make sense to the majority of the world? Is a decent respect for the opinions of mankind incommensurate with the defense of our national interests, or a part of that defense?"

Matt Taibbi nails the Nobel Prize stuff.

Matt Taibbi - Taibblog – On the Nobel Prize for Occasional Peace - True/Slant:

"...You never, ever get a true dissident from a prominent Western country winning the award, despite the obvious appropriateness such a choice would represent. Our Western society quite openly embraces war as a means of solving problems and for quite some time now has fashioned its entire social and economic structure around the preparation for war.

...This is what Barack Obama did to “earn” the Nobel Prize. He put the benevolent face back on things. He is a good-looking black law professor with an obvious bent for dialogue and discussion and inclusion. That he hasn’t actually reversed any of Bush’s more notorious policies — hasn’t closed Guantanamo Bay, hasn’t ended secret detentions, hasn’t amped down Iraq or Afghanistan — is another matter. What he has done is remove the stink of unilateralism from those policies.

They’re not crazy-ass, blatantly illegal, lunatic rampages anymore, but carefully-considered, collectively-run peacekeeping actions, prosecuted with meaningful input from our allies.

You see the difference? The Nobel committee sure did!

There’ve been some dumb Nobel Peace Prizes before. Giving one to Gorbachev in 1990, sandwiched right in between his invasions of Azerbaijan and Lithuania, comes immediately to mind. Giving one to Henry Kissinger, a man responsible for the bombings of millions of Indochinese (and who consistently favored the use of increased bombing runs to force the other side to the negotiating table) is another. The award to Arafat, Rabin and Peres likewise seems humorous to me. The Al Gore award, I don’t even want to go there. I went years thinking that the Al Gore prize was a joke someone was playing on me..."

Nah... miles to go, actually.

texts from last night:

"(941): i am pregamming alone in my car. scale of 1-10 how alcoholic is that
(850): im pretty sure thats an 11"

Training.

AM - 5 Tibetans x11, Atlas Lesson 1
PM - Rutten MMA/Boxing 3m rounds - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridging, pullups, chins, air squats - Jungle Gym rows, flyes forward and rev, curls, tri x, hamstring curl, Asomov squats - Atlas Lesson 1 - tennis ball gripwork

My modest talents...

...on occasion, I impress myself.

Homemade burgers - ground beef, chopped onions, chopped red peppers, salt, pepper, garlic, turmeric, 2 eggs, dash of hot sauce - with melted cheese and homemade guacamole - avocados, tomatoes, onions, salt, pepper, garlic.

From 2009-10-10

Awesome. Though I probably shouldn't have eaten four in one go.

From 2009-10-10

OTOH, I may have too much time on my hands. [Only my wife will get this one.]

From 2009-10-10

Training Week.

Need to start posting these more often, or they turn into humonginormus things to write up...

10/12 - AM - Atlas Lesson 1 - 5 Tibetans x 10
PM - Rutten MMA Wkout/Boxing 3m rounds - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge, pullups, chins, air squats - Atlas Lesson 1

10/11 - AM - Atlas Lesson 1 - 5 Tibetans x 9
PM - Rutten MMA wkout/Thai Boxing 3m rounds - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge - back stretch - Atlas Lesson 1

10/10 - AM - Atlas Lesson 1 - 5 Tibetans x 8
PM - Rutten MMA wkout/Boxing 3m rounds - dislocates, wall slides, facepulls - pullups, hypers, supermans, chins, rows, hindu pushup, hindu squats, bridge - Atlas Lesson 1

10/9 - AM - Atlas Lesson 1 - 5 Tibetans x 7
PM - Rutten MMA/Boxing 3m rounds - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge - JG flyes, rows, curls, tricep X, squats, pistols - Atlas Lesson 1

10/8 - AM - Atlas Lesson 1 - 5 Tibetans x 6
PM - Rutten MMA/Boxing 3m rounds - swings, snatches, dl, alt curls, overhead tricep x, calf raise, hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge, pullups, chins, air squats - Atlas Lesson 1

10/7 - AM - Atlas Lesson 1 - 5 Tibetans x 5
PM - Rutten MMA/Boxing 2m rounds - hindu pushups, hindu squats, bridge, dislocates, pullups, chins, wall squat, handstand, hang, db hold, air squats - Atlas Lesson 1

Watched 10/4 - 12.

Lie to Me, House, Dollhouse, SNL, Parks and Recreation, Modern Family, The Colbert Report, Bored to Death, TUF, NCIS, Community, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Mentalist, The Office, some old Simpsons episodes.

Rome - watched both seasons of the HBO series. Quite excellent. Highly entertaining and recommended to anyone who thinks they might have the slightest interest. Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson were outstanding.

Cathouse - another HBO show. Docu-series of the life at times at the brothel the Bunny Ranch. Equal parts intriguing, fascinating, goofy and ridiculous. Watched both seasons. Gotta admit, the psychology of legal sex workers in a culture like the U.S. is pretty illuminating. And there was lots of nakedness.

Wonder Woman - the recent DCU Animated features are surprisingly awesome. This one had some very mature humor, not to mention crowds of Amazons cheering multiple beheadings and the TOTAL WIN of Nathan Fillion voicing Steve Trevor. Recommended for anybody with the geek gene.

Smallville - you know... I try to like this show. I generally check out the season premieres and finales, and the "special" eps, like last year's Legion ep. The Metallo ep wasn't bad, with Brian Austin Green turning in a nice performance [yes, Brian Austin Green.] But god this season is full of suck. Not only do they have an emo Clark [still] decked out like Neo from the Matrix - 10 years after that design scheme was remotely interesting - but this week's episode was a zombie-28 Day Later riff. Turned it off after 15m. If you're trying to be relevant to the cultural mileu, stop aping stuff from 5-10 years ago. Or at least bring something interesting to it. Jesus.

FlashForward - fascinating concept, but having a hard time investing in the characters. John Cho goes from being maybe the most interesting the first week to the most annoying, whining and in denial moron in the second. 3rd ep was interesting though. I'll keep checking it out for a bit...

The Daily Show - Larry Wilmore doing magic was awesome. And the SECNAV was pretty funny, as far as government types go.

Zach Galifianakis - Comedy Central Presents and Live at the Purple Onion. Galifianakis is hilarious. Zach Galifianakis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

"Galifianakis performed in episode 15 of season 5 of Comedy Central Presents, first aired 17 September 2001, including stand-up jokes, a segment with a piano, and concluding with an a cappella group (The Night Owls, introduced as his '12 ex-girlfriends') singing 'Eternal Flame' by The Bangles while he made jokes with flip charts and pranced around in tights."

DREAM.11: Feather Weight Grand Prix 2009 Final Round - outstanding fight event. The Tokoro, Kawajiri, Aoki-Hansen matches all rocked. I always enjoy watching Sakuraba fight, even if they put him up against a scrub of a boxer with no shot in hell. But the fight of the night for me was easily Hong Man Choi VS Minowaman. A lot of fans these days decry the "freak show" aspect of fights in Japan, as opposed to the "sport" direction it's taken in the US under the UFC, but you know what? I enjoy the hell out of both. Here you got to watch a normal dude take out a 7 foot, 300 pound behemoth. It was the definition of brilliant.

Camp FEMA: American Lockdown - Hat tipped to me by a buddy, so I felt obligated to check it out. Decent production values for a conspiracy doc, but if you read, seen or watched anything by Alex Jones, this was all pretty much old hat. Jones was actually featured fairly prominently in this one as well, but it wasn't one of his.

It was totally worth it to watch all the way through to watch Jones bitchslap the hell out of Glenn Beck at the end. Beck is a crocodile-tear shedding fear monger who's such an obvious fraud I have no clue how's he caught on. Odd... Jones really believes [I think] some of the same stuff Beck pretends to - and it's all kinda crazy [sometimes] but I have all sorts of respect for Jones and wouldn't piss on Beck if he were on fire.

But as to the documentary itself... here's the thing...

Yes. The US has a history of interning its own citizens [WWII] - and yes, they used census data, so it's not all insano - the government reserves the right to label anyone they want as a "terrorist" including militias, anti-abortionists, animal rights activists, environmentalists and basically anybody they don't like. They will torture as a matter of policy. They will render you to other countries so that you can be tortured while keeping their hands clean. They have implemented laws that basically do away with Posse Comitatus and let them deploy U.S. troops - NorthCom - on American soil in the event of "civil unrest" and they have plans for martial law and "continuance of government" that pretty much uses the Constitution as a dishrag.

But.

Here's the thing... the government has also had Operation CHAOS, secretly brought Nazis to work in America - Operation Paperclip - wanted to pull off Operation Northwoods to attack its own citizens and scammed the whole world with the Gulf of Tonkin. Amongst a lot of other scandalous shit. And things survive. People persevere. Conspiracies never last.

Ultimately, complex conspiracies don't make it because people are too dumb, venal and complicated. Or, I don't know... too good, maybe. And every conspiracy group has at least 5 other conspiracy, uhhh... I mean affinity, ummm... lobbyist groups, working to oppose them.

I don't for a second buy that anybody at FOXNEWS authentically gives a shit about Obama's big government, not after falling in lockstep the last 8 years of the Bush administration, while he exceeded his office's authority almost daily, blew up the budget and blew up the world. But Obama can't sneeze without them making a big deal out of it, so I don't think he's gonna manage a ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT anytime soon.

Here Robert Anton Wilson tells you everything you need to know about conspiracies.

Ah, Facebook...