All the News That's Fit to Fake - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "They expect news stories to look like the movies or TV shows that they're familiar with. Even if they're regular journalism consumers, the stories they remember best are these well done stories that tell a compelling narrative and make them feel like they're watching a movie or TV show.
In reality, stories are messy and have real loose ends. That's the real bias that readers have to combat, and it's something that people in the media have to think about. Because, on the one hand we want to provide good, compelling narratives, but on the other hand, we don't want people to think they live in this world that's made up of these easy, compelling narratives. They don't."
RAWIllumination.net: "I'm dreadfully sorry for the people who are living in naturalistic novels in the James T. Farrell tradition; you know, where everything comes to a bad end, and all there is is injustice and stupidity in the world. People are living in that tunnel-reality because artists created it for them. And they were good artists, in that they were strong, they were powerful, they were influential, and so there are millions of people living in that reality. Then there are people who are living in the heroic Hemingway tunnel-reality still, and there are a lot of timid academic people living in a T.S. Eliot tunnel-reality. Most of the country is living in a television-tube reality. I'm delighted to be living in science fiction. It's one of the more open and exciting tunnel-realities to be live in."
"I think government should be treated like religion, everyone should be able to pick the kind they like. Only it should be contractual not obligatory. I wouldn't mind paying tax money to a local association to maintain a police force, as long as we need one. But I hate like hell paying taxes to help the US government build more nuclear missiles to blow up more people I don't even know and don't think I'd hate them if I did know them."
I, too, side with the gay immigrant of Jewish descent who dates black guys. Instead of anti-free speech violence & thuggery. And Gay Jewish immigrant who dates black dudes is the weirdest definition of Nazi White Nationalist ever. The mental gymnastics required to even make the claim is mind boggling.
UC-Berkeley Protesters Set Campus on Fire, Shut Down Milo Yiannopoulos Event - Hit & Run : Reason.com
Berkeley and Hitler | Scott Adams' Blog: "Speaking of Hitler, I’m ending my support of UC Berkeley, where I got my MBA years ago. I have been a big supporter lately, with both my time and money, but that ends today. I wish them well, but I wouldn’t feel safe or welcome on the campus. A Berkeley professor made that clear to me recently. He seems smart, so I’ll take his word for it.
I’ve decided to side with the Jewish gay immigrant who has an African-American boyfriend, not the hypnotized zombie-boys in black masks who were clubbing people who hold different points of view. I feel that’s reasonable, but I know many will disagree, and possibly try to club me to death if I walk on campus.
Yesterday I asked my most liberal, Trump-hating friend if he ever figured out why Republicans have most of the Governorships, a majority in Congress, the White House, and soon the Supreme Court. He said, “There are no easy answers.”
I submit that there are easy answers. But for many Americans, cognitive dissonance and confirmation bias hide those easy answers behind Hitler hallucinations."
Thugs Indulge Their Weimar Dreams and Become the Totalitarians They Claim to Hate - Reason.com: "Well, that's how they imagine it in their fever dreams, anyway. In reality, the Nazis didn't show up and the protesters themselves were the only totalitarians in sight. The Black Bloc thugs—"about 150 masked agitators who came onto campus and interrupted an otherwise non-violent protest," says UC-Berkeley—seem to imagine themselves as stars of a Weimar Germany reenactment. In their minds, they march through the streets as the phalanx of the center-left Eiserne Front (or, more likely, the communist Rotfrontkämpferbund), battling their deadly enemies in the Nazi SA between sessions at the beer hall. But the anti-fascists couldn't find any Nazis at Berkeley.
So instead "[t]hey shattered the glass of our Amazon Pickup Center, one of the few places Berkeley students can receive packages without fear of them getting stolen. They created a bonfire of trash in the center of the chaos, picked up barricades to drive through the building's glass walls, set off fireworks, and left a trail of rage-filled destruction in their wake as they stormed the very streets we call home," in the words of a student who saw a peaceful anti-Trump protest hijacked by visitors from 1930. Oh, and they sold a whole lot of books for Milo, who is less a Nazi than a professional troll and self-promoter who has tied his personal brand to that of Donald Trump. Brownshirts also missed the date at Gavin McInnes's speech at New York University. Anti-fascist crusaders had to settle for pepper-spraying McInnes himself before he'd even opened his mouth, and cursing out cops for not beating up McInnes and his supporters. And they got themselves arrested for disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and criminal mischief. McInnes, by the way isn't a Nazi either. The co-founder of Vice and serial hipster's major "offense" seems to be that he's a Trump supporter; he's also a self-described "Western chauvinist," seemingly a male chauvinist, and no fan of Islam.
Arguably, a Nazi did show up for the very first act of anti-Nazi direct action of the Trump era, when avowed racist Richard Spencer was violently attacked the day after the new president took office. Ironically, he was giving a TV interview at the time, during which he denied being a neo-Nazi—he's just awful in so many other ways. But that's close enough for the incident to have sparked a Nazi-punching craze, with allegedly serious articles in major publications pondering the ethics of committing battery against people for their political views.
Curiously, each major target of violent anti-fascist ire has actually been further and further from an actual Nazi, from Spencer, to Yiannopoulos, to McInnes. This suggests that the threshold allegedly justifying physical assault is movable, making anybody at the outer edge of the shifting acceptable realm for speech eligible for a punch. If it's Nazis all the way down, ultimately, only two black-clad douchebags will be left standing in a basement somewhere, fists clenched, glaring at each other with each wondering about the other's anti-Nazi bona fides. Which is a big part of why it's not OK to punch Nazis..."
One thing that bugs me in the wake of the violence was the "denunciation" by some on the left of how the Black Bloc protesters invaded the march and weren't emblematic of the movement as a whole. The weren't "real" Democrats or Leftist or whatever. They were *anarchists*! [See also, No True Scotsman fallacy.] Maybe. But this is from the sidebar of UC Berkeley News after the riot:
No mention of the students and other people who were pepper sprayed and beaten for having different political opinions...
Answer: That would be short for “vagina.” While some may see North of Vag as a misogynistic term, I can only shake my head and hope they were not publically educated; I’d hate to see tax dollars being wasted that way. It is simply a rallying cry to not be a pussy. And if one can’t see past the simple and obvious point I am trying to make, I can only hope they never vote or procreate. The ego behind adults telling other adults what words they can say or not say is amazing. I never trust these people as they clearly have nothing going on in their lives and instead, spend time policing the world. No Man (or Woman) of Action would ever bother with this. They are simply too busy getting shit done than weeping like a martyr. Being a victim is not sexy."
Curapupas — Eight years ago my journey began with a feeling. ...: "Eight years ago my journey began with a feeling. It was a feeling that I need to take care of my body. That feeling slowly became a desire and a passion, not only to exercise and be healthy and eat right, but a hope to celebrate my body in a way I had only ever seen others do."
Why Men of Action are Better – Jim Wendler: "...it didn't strike me until recently WHY people with passion are so much better. Of course, you have the general attraction to them; everyone who has it, can appreciate/respect what others' are doing. Your interests can be polar opposites yet two people can have an admiration for the other. But there is another thing that makes a person with passion so damn awesome: They tend to stay the hell out of your business. This is because they are too damn busy to gossip, to force their shit down your throat. Their ego isn't so big that they claim to know what to do with your money, your time, your beliefs. Hell, there are actually adults out there telling OTHER ADULTS what words they can or cannot say. The ego on people these days. Unbelievable.
...for those of us that love to do stuff, love what we do, are "People of Action", understand that life is fleeting and should not be wasted being a busybody - you are who I admire. You are what makes the world better. You are who gives others' inspiration. So play your music, feed your garden, rebuild your engine or do whatever action gets your eyes wide and your heart moving. You are what makes the world better and keeps the earth spinning in the right direction. You are what is right."
With school, life, work, and training, I always had goals, and still do. But I see now what Darren was doing. As you get older, you become a different person. Your body changes. Your life changes. The weights I once did and the goals I once had are no longer "me." It's okay to let that part of you go and move on. You don't have to be hung up trying to recapture the weights that you once did when you were 21. I can't be that person that carried the ball 20-30 times a game in high school, played both ways and never came off the field. Chasing those dreams or those weights is a fruitless and scary pursuit that only leads to disappointment. But I'm a new person and can adjust the goals. There's tremendous freedom in not adhering to other's standards and expectations to what you should be. Rather, the goals you set are yours and should follow your mind and heart. Lesson: Your goals and your life are your own; true freedom is not allowing others to make them for you...
Even today, I remember things and quotes that he told me and help me every day. "Put your hand in a bucket of water. Take it out and the hole that you leave is how much impact you will have on the world. But the drops of water that are on your hand; those are the parts of your life that you need to worry about. Those belong to you.""
Be Your Own Leader – Jim Wendler: "Replace the silly "motivation" for some discipline - motivation is a buzzword by people that don't understand what it takes, day in/day out to succeed. I think it's time you adopt the attitude that I like to call being a Personal Leader. A Personal Leader is someone that takes responsibility for every area of his life and doesn't need someone to hold his hand. Yes, we all need support and you must look for help when needed, HOWEVER, at the end of the day, everything is on YOU. So you need to develop yourself into being the leader you need - if that means waking up early, you do it. If that means you have to take extra time for work/job to prepare, then you make it happen. If that means you have to make certain sacrifices that many other don't have to, then do it. People need to understand that to be a leader doesn't mean you have the physical and emotional presence to lead others. It may be as simple as you not being a follower. And if any time in this world we need people to not be blind followers to ignorant leaders, it is now. The thing is this: it's rare to find anyone in the world with the same goals as you. So while it may be nice to find that someone, waiting around for someone to help guide you will result in a waste of a life. This life is all you got - you'll be dead before you know it. Take what you have and squeeze all the life you can out if it. Be your own hero. Lead yourself to greatness. And greatness is not measured in medals, money or public opinion - it is measured in happiness and freedom. And when you strip all the crap away, the noise and bullshit of a fucked up, commercialized world that makes you constantly bow and suck at it's sick, diseased teat - you will have found freedom and happiness. This is turning into something more than you probably asked but I HATE when people waste their one life. Your "gut" check is here and now - mold yourself with your own hands."
Constant Gym-Goer Ditched Her Cardio Workouts for Powerlifting and Lost 37 Lbs.: "For years, Alice Fields was a cardio queen, who would toil away on the treadmill in the hopes of slimming down. But her weight wouldn’t budge — until she started powerlifting. “I was getting up before sunrise and was running 5Ks every morning. It was torture. I wasn’t something I enjoyed at all. But I thought it was what I had to do to lose weight,” Fields, 24, tells PEOPLE, adding that she would heavily restrict her diet. “I’d run until I couldn’t run anymore, and I’d barely eat a thing. Yes, I might have lost 5 kilos in 2 weeks. But once I consumed a normal amount of food again, I’d put 7 kilos back on. It was the classic yoyo effect. There was no consistency.” Fields tried this weight loss method unsuccessfully for around five years, and says she “felt trapped in my own body,” until a friend introduced her to powerlifting 18 months ago. “I fell in love with the sport instantly,” she says. With help from a coach, Fields learned proper form and started on a nutrition course that focuses on your daily protein, fat and carbohydrate intake. “I started noticing changes with my body within about a month,” she says. “Not only had my strength increased dramatically, but my whole body composition changed. My bum was perkier than ever and my clothes were getting loser.” Now, 18 months later, Fields has lost 17 kg. — about 37 lbs. — that she was never able to drop with cardio workouts alone. While she still looks at her total weight, Fields focuses more on muscle gains and lost inches. “I’m always noticing my body change in positive ways, even if the scales stay the same, because I’m losing weight in some places and gaining muscle in others,” she says. “I definitely thought doing only weights would just make me heavier, but I quickly realized, the more muscle I had, the faster my body burnt fat. Not just that, but having more muscle gives you that ‘toned look’ a lot of women want.” “You have a bigger, perkier bum. Your shoulders and arms look leaner and stronger. Powerlifting changes your whole body composition.”"
becoming-meaghan: Two years ago vs today. Almost...: "I had attempted to lose weight countless times before but going into it this time my mindset was a little different. I had always thought “do it for the ‘oh you got hot’ or as revenge for all the people that called you nasty names. Instead, this time I decided to do it for me, for my physical and mental wellbeing and to be taken seriously in my future career (w.e that may be). That shift in thinking made all the difference! Had you taken this #transformationtuesday pic and showed it to the me on the left I would have looked at you in both disbelief and estacy. But I would have said something along the lines of “I will never look like this” because my self confidence was non-existent. Fast forward to today… I’m prepping for my first bikini show, live to help and share my passion for health and fitness with others. I’m ready to take on the world. As impressive as my physical transformation may be, I believe the emotional one to be WAY greater."
Finally Off the Sugar Roller Coaster! | Mark's Daily Apple: "Back then, I was about 25 pounds heavier than I wanted to be, completely addicted to sugar, experiencing food cravings or food comas almost constantly, and living in my head where daily battles occurred regarding the food that I had eaten or wanted to eat. At that time, I was 42 and had spent my years since age 15 obsessing over food. Nutrition and fitness had fascinated me in a healthy way during this time, but a powerful sweet tooth combined with a persistent vulnerability to self-sabotage caused my twenties and much of my thirties to be mostly wasted. At different points during this time, depression and bingeing caused me to live in a bubble. I kept people at arms-length and let very few people into my world. At my lowest point, when friends would ask me to come out with them socially, I would lie and say that I already had plans even though my “plans” consisted of buying a lot of unhealthy food and eating it – stuffing all the feelings that had come up during the day — and then wallowing in my self-hatred. My overeating was so out of control that I attended Overeaters Anonymous meetings. And even though alcohol has never been a problem for me, I attended one Alcoholics Anonymous meeting out of curiosity just to see how similar it might be to my problem. It seemed exactly the same; I used food as a drug in the same way that alcoholics used alcohol...
Now, at age 50, because of the Primal Blueprint and the Primal lifestyle “laws,” I feel healthier, fitter and stronger than I’ve ever been, including high school when I was thin, healthy and played sports all year. My energy is off-the-charts—not in a hyper, bouncing-off-the-walls way but just feeling incredibly clear-headed and alert. No more brain fog! I feel like a machine running on the cleanest fuel, like there’s no sludge in my veins, and everything I eat is being put to good use. I look forward to and enjoy working out. I’ve finally gotten rid of the excess fat that made me feel self-conscious for my entire adult life. My moods are steady, and I feel peaceful. I face my problems now rather than stuffing them with food. And, most importantly, I don’t live in my head anymore. The daily internal battles are gone, freeing up my thoughts so that I can actually engage with and enjoy other people."
2/6 - power cleans, squats, Power Half Hour Stretch, 5 Minute Flow
2/4 - Power Half Hour Stretch
The Ultimate Guide to Building Any Physique (or Skill Set) | Nerd Fitness: "For most people, training in a way that you enjoy will get you 90% of the way there (with a good nutrition strategy). However, if you want to LOOK or perform a certain way, how you train IS crucial... it may not fit your typical idea of what fitness is. Instead, you’ll be deliberate with your daily choices, training and eating in a way to build the body (and physical performance) you want...
Know this: the path to that success is dependent on knowing the TYPE of physique or skills you’re looking for, and then training, eating, and acting like the people who have that particular physique or can do those particular things. (It sounds simple, but nearly everyone misses this point in how they decide to train. Most people have training ADD and don’t focus on nutrition.) Here’s why this methodology is so important. Your body responds to every piece of stimuli it receives and adapts accordingly. The more signals you can send it to adapt in a certain way, the more likely it will be to adapt to handle that stimuli. This means it’s time to start hitting your body with the right stimuli immediately and frequently: You don’t need to lose weight before you train like a gymnast. Start training like a gymnast NOW so your body starts to develop like that of a gymnast from day one. You don’t need to lose weight before you train like a parkour traceur or a marathon runner. Start training like a traceur or go for your first long walk or 10 second jog NOW and your body will start to adapt over time to look like your heroes. You don’t need to become more bendy before you can try Yoga. You become more bendy BY trying Yoga. The more you do, the more your body responds accordingly. Want to get bigger and build muscle? Don’t run just because you think fitness = running (this path will never get you where you want to go!). Start hitting your body with strength training and barbells and bodyweight movements and tell it “better get used to this by getting stronger!” Every meal, every push-up, every step walked, every mile run, every second practicing a handstand, every second doing ANYTHING is sending tiny signals to your body “change and get better at this thing.” THAT’S how you get started building a body to be proud of, and that’s how you end up building a body that looks like the body you want to have!
...this doesn’t mean doing the workout of the most elite people you can find. Jumping into the Octagon and fighting an MMA bout tomorrow if you’ve never thrown a punch is bad news bears. Going from your couch to running the Boston Marathon next week is a recipe for disaster. Instead, start with the basics for the TYPE of person you want to be. But START TRAINING LIKE THEM IMMEDIATELY. That’s the most important part. Here’s what this looks like in real life: Want to look and perform like a marathon runner? Get started with long walks and small jogs. Want to look and perform like Georges St. Pierre or Ronda Rousey? Find a beginner Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class and show up. Want to look and perform like Usain Bolt? Try your first hill sprint and see if you can find a beginner sprinters program. Also know that strength training will be crucial for you. Want to look and perform like NF Team Member and deadlift hero Staci? Try your first barbell deadlift or bodyweight squat. But start. Want to look and perform like NF Yoga instructor Kate? Do your first downward dog today. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Whenever I’m faced with a decision of what I need to do, if I should workout or skip it, if I should eat this or that, sleep in or get up, etc., I ask myself “What would future Gymnast Steve do?” And then I do that thing. Remember: if you just want to lose a few pounds and not hate exercise, pick something you love. If you’re looking to build a certain type of physique, make sure you are training and eating in a way that lines up with those goals and forget the rest!
REGARDLESS OF WHERE YOU ARE IN LIFE, I guarantee we have somebody in our community who has it worse, is older, has the same injury you do, has more children, less money, and has found a way to succeed in the way you want to succeed. This realization leaves you with two choices: Rationalize why you don’t look like that person, why you’re a unique snowflake with unfixable problems for whatever reason, and go back to Netflix. (I get it. So many good shows!) Get EXCITED: if they can do it, so can you! Yes. Even you. Even in that situation. I promise. Learn from them. And then do what they do. Once realized, this is amazing: … that you AND YOU ALONE have the ability to do and become whatever you want. But it starts with personal responsibility, the GREATEST skill you can learn if you want to live better. Wherever you are right now– age, money, family size, waist size — is your place in life at this moment. Some of those things are things that you chose, other things have been thrust upon you (genetics, etc.)...
It might not be your fault, but it’s your responsibility to accept it, and take action with it...
Don’t overthink it, just ask yourself with each meal: “is this what a [what you want to be] would eat?” Ask yourself this with EVERY nutrition decision you make every day. The more times you can answer yes to that question every day, the faster you will see results. To show how important your training signaling is to your diet: Imagine two identical twins eat the exact same food for 3000 calories a day. Twin 1 lifts heavy weights every day. Twin 2 sits on his ass every day. 12 months later, one will have used those extra calories to build muscle and more closely resemble King Leonidas. The other will have used those extra calories to store more fat and resemble Jabba the Hut...
What are you going to do today? Which brings us to TODAY. Start by asking yourself: “Am I training like the person I want to be? Am I eating like the person I want to be? Am I making decisions like the person I want to be? Am I recovering like the person I want to be? Am I working towards goals that help me become the person I want to be?"
