"Saudi ‘censored’ swimming pool ad turns woman into inflatable ball."

RT Viral: "An advertisement for a Saudi Arabian hardware giant promoting swimming pools has galvanized the Twitteratti after it replaced a woman in the photo with an inflatable ball. 

The image was tweeted by Saudi retail company SACO on a Twitter page highlighting its latest offers. The tweet states that the store has a large range of swimming pools on promotion and is accompanied by a photo of a family in the pool. The man and three children appear fully clothed in the pool with their faces pixelated while the position of the woman is replaced with an inflatable ball and its reflection."

Canada might be losing its mind.

Man Forced to Give Up 'Offensive' Star Trek License Plate:

"Trump Voter Feels Betrayed By President After Reading 800 Pages Of Queer Feminist Theory."

"Political correctness does not legislate tolerance; it only organizes hatred." - Jacques Barzun

"Gay men who refuse to date women are being discriminatory."

Through the looking glass.

SJWs at Yale - "You'd be creating a space for violence to happen."

"We run all decisions past the squash team."

"It's the differences, of which there are none, which makes the sameness exceptional."

"Choker Necklaces Trend Offensive to Switzerland."

I, for one, wholly endorse the return of 90's fashion.  The ripped up jeans are a nice surprise as well.  High waisted jeans and shorts, otoh, are an abomination before the Lord, and should all be killed with fire.

College Student: Choker Necklaces Trend Offensive to Switzerland | National Review: "If we have to do research on the cultural legacy of every item we wear, we’ll never get dressed. According to a Western European student at the University of Washington, the choker-necklace trend in the U.S. is cultural appropriation, and girls should learn the history of the necklaces before wearing them.  In a piece for the school’s newspaper, The Daily, Joy Geerkens writes that she’s been seeing Americans disrespect the the cultural traditions of her “home countries,” Switzerland and Germany, since she left them for the United States last year . . . by doing things like wearing chokers without knowing that chokers are “part of traditional dress of Switzerland.”  “The history behind [chokers] is really complex and fascinating; women used to wear them because the severe iodine deficiency in the high altitudes of the Alps would cause them to have goiters,” Geerkens writes. “In order to hide these lumps or the scars they would receive from having them removed, they adorned their necks with chokers.”"

Colleges now have facecrime. Orwell got it.

White, female student 'glares' at peers, gets reported as bias incident - The College Fix: "Gone are the days when saying something that hurts another’s feelings is a bias incident. Now just looking at someone funny can get you reported to the campus Thought Police. It happened at the University of Wisconsin Madison, where an unnamed “white, female student” was reported to the university’s bias incident reporting system. Her crime? Glaring at two female peers. 

 According to a university document obtained this week by The College Fix through a public records act request, here’s what happened, according to the complainant: There was a white female student that kept making glares at me and another student. She would glare at both of us and then continue to proceed on her phone. This proceeded for 2 hours. Both me and the victim were Asian American women. I don’t know if race plays a part in it. Though this event was small and seemingly insignificant, it made me and the other victim feel unsafe, uncomfortable and paranoid. We did not approach this person. 

The incident location was reported as a campus library. The complainant seems unaware that the woman with a piercing stare might be deep in thought as she studies, or is troubled by something she is reading on her phone. Nevertheless, she reports to campus authorities she is downright traumatized. “I don’t feel safe on campus,” she continues. “I don’t feel safe studying in an environment that should be inclusive and welcome to all. … I wouldn’t report this if it didn’t have a significant impact on me.”"

List of Newspeak words - Wikipedia: "facecrime: An indication that a person is guilty of thoughtcrime based on their facial expression."

Classic IT Crowd.

"Cultural appropriation = all races must only utilize things their ethnic group has created..."

The Rogan Board: "...and any cross-cultural exchange is prohibited on moral grounds."

In Defense of Cultural Appropriation - The New York Times

"Remember when gender identities were simply called "personalities"? I miss 2015."

via The Rogan Board

Well, it figured me out pretty easily.

8values "...is, in essence, a political quiz that attempts to assign percentages for eight different political values...

What are the eight values? There are four indendent axes - Economic, Diplomatic, State, and Society - and each has two opposing values assigned to them. 

They are: Equality (Economic) Those with higher Equality scores believe the economy should distribute value evenly among the populace. They tend to support progressive tax codes, social programs, and at high values, socialism. Wealth (Economic) Those with higher Wealth scores believe the economy should be focused on rapid growth. They tend to support lower taxes, privatization, deregulation, and at high values, laissez-faire capitalism. 

Might (Diplomatic) Those with higher Might scores believe in an aggressive, or hawkish, foreign policy. They tend to support high military spending, nationalism, rivalry with other countries, and at high values, rapid military expansion. Peace (Diplomatic) Those with higher Peace scores believe in an peaceful, or dovish, foreign policy. They tend to support low military spending, international aid, cooperation with other countries, and at high values, pacifism. 

Liberty (State) Those with higher Liberty scores believe in strong civil liberties. They tend to support democracy and oppose state intervention in personal lives. Note that this refers to civil liberties, not economic liberties. Authority (State) Those with higher Authority scores believe in strong state power. They tend to support state intervention in personal lives, government surveillance, and at high values, censorship or autocracy. 

Tradition (Society) Those with higher Tradition scores believe in traditional values and strict adherence to a moral code. Though not always, they are usually religious, and support the status quo or the status quo ante. Progress (Society) Those with higher Progress scores believe in social change and rationality. Though not always, they are usually secular or atheist, and support environmental action and scientific or technological research. 

What's the "Closest Match" mean at the bottom of the results? In addition to matching you to the eight values, the quiz also attempts to match you to a political ideology. This is a work in progress and is much less accurate than the values and axes, so don't take it too seriously. "

"Box yourself into good choices."

How to Encode Better Choices | Mark's Daily Apple: "We have three main options really for shifting our decision-making processes to maximize our likelihood of making good choices. 1. We can simplify our lives and choice environments. 2. We can hone the ways we judge (or redirect) options. 3. We can cultivate the associations with these choices. The question for these proposals becomes—how? 

 Simplifying As Much As Possible (a.k.a. Box yourself into good choices.) 

 I’ve written before about selection fatigue. The more choices we have in making a decision, the more mental resources we use. It’s why a variety of options don’t always make us happier but just add more static to the day. Simplifying our choices means simplifying our choice environments—cutting out as much of that extraneous static as possible. Likewise, the more decisions we make in a day, the more mental resources we use. The more we do in a day (particularly if we attempt to multi-task), the more run down we’ll be. The key is to conserve mental energy by establishing rules, times, and parameters...

Simplifying your choice environment in this case can mean setting hard and fast parameters around your evening. Set an alarm for bedtime. But also set another for the end of all work time—maybe an hour to an hour and a half before bed. After that point, your computer and T.V. are done for the night as is your smart phone...

Now let’s say you’re trying to eat better. Simplifying your choice environment might mean shopping at smaller stores/markets or minimizing actual shopping trips by ordering from direct-to-consumer farms or from online stores... It can mean packing your lunch and bringing more or less the same thing every day. It can mean scheduling time each week to make a few large meals you eat as leftovers for lunches/dinners. In short, it’s deciding ahead of time to reduce the number of choices you perceive yourself as having—and making it easier to choose what is already in front of you."

"You grew up in freedom and you can spit on freedom because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom."

Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  I think that its highly exaggerated that Muslims in America, in the west are  under siege.  If that were the case, we know of groups in history who were  under siege and what they usually do is leave.  I don’t see any American Muslims leaving and going back to any Muslim country. 

\

 Avi Lewis: Your faith in American Democracy is delightful. Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  Its the best Democracy.  Its the best place to be. 

 Avi Lewis: Tell that to people that believe there have been a couple of stolen elections.  That Democracy is completely broken. 

 Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  I do tell them.   You shouldn’t have stood by and watch for the Democracy to be stolen.  My point not so much that when the Democrats are in office everyone is happy or when the Republicans are in office,  everything is bad.  Its that both Republicans and Democrats and the majority of Americans fortunately, feel that they can run for office, they can get power. . . 

 Avi Lewis: As long as you’re staggeringly rich.  Totally connected and the pockets of your donors, you can do anything you want in America. 

 Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  In America you can come with no penny, nothing, no money and you can become very wealthy. . . 

 Avi Lewis: Is there a school that teaches you American cliches?  Is it part of your application process that you have to –  I’m so upset that I’m losing my cards here.  I can’t believe you just said that. 

 Ayaan Hirsi Ali:  I’ve read Alex De Toqueville and I’ve read about Democracy and lived in countries have no Democracy – that have no founding fathers, that could not, have not invented, could not resolve. . .  and so I don’t find myself in the same luxury you do.  You grew up in freedom and you can spit on freedom because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom.  I haven’t.  I know that there are many things wrong with America.  And I know that there are many things wrong with Americans, but I still believe that its the best nation in the world. 

"Vegetable oil is liquid age."

Fat-Burning Man: "...it is that toxic; it is that unhealthy. The kind of toxic effect it has is called “oxidative stress.” That’s what it promotes. It’s got to do with free radicals. Smoking causes oxidative stress, and we know smoking has effects on the skin and the lungs that essentially accelerate your aging. Well, vegetable oil doesn’t just affect your skin and your lungs; you take it into your body and it becomes you. It becomes every part of your body and every tissue in your body. So every tissue in your body is essentially going to be subject to an accelerated aging process. And how exactly that manifests is different in every genetically unique individual, somewhat defined by family history. So exactly what will happen is somewhat unpredictable, but it is predictable that something bad will happen, and conversely, when you get it out of your diet. So I think of this now as though 60 years ago, Americans entered unknowingly into a massive medical experiment where we started eating the cheapest possible food. Vegetable oils are very cheap to produce, cheap to manufacture, long shelf life. They make everything you put them in have a long shelf life. So they’re used in every processed food and lots of blood sugar-raising food, and carbohydrates, and high-fructose corn syrup, and all this. And this was an experiment. Actually, it was a literal experiment called the Minnesota Coronary Experiment that started in Minnesota in the late 1950s by a man named Ancel Keys."

"Need a self-esteem boost? Do something worthy of esteem. Do work."

4 Politically Correct Fitness Lies | T Nation: 

"PC Lie: Body love is crucial. You should praise yourself every time you look in the mirror. 

Do this instead: Love effort, love achievement, and stop being so self absorbed. 

 "Body love" is a term used mainly by people who fixate on their bodies, feel like crap about their bodies, and then broadcast to the world the exact opposite. They want you to believe that THEY believe every dimple and crevice of their flesh is attractive, so they've created a movement to make it socially acceptable to shove their belly rolls in our faces. 

 But talking about how much you love your body means you're probably trying to convince yourself of something you really don't believe. The problem isn't a lack of self-love; it's a lack of effort, action, progress, and achievement... and overwhelming self-obsession. "Body love" is code for this self-obsession. It's forced narcissism, which is now encouraged and applauded these days. What ever happened to humility? And when did body love become a greater virtue? 

C.S. Lewis once said, "Humility isn't thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less." Yet it's seemingly more important to put yourself on a pedestal for no reason than it is to place your focus on things outside yourself. 

 If you think about it, insecurity and narcissism aren't really opposites. They're both the result of fixating on yourself too much. Body love is how people rationalize that fixation. Incidentally, whenever people broadcast their love for their bodies, I'm always reminded of the guy or gal who gushes all over Facebook about how much he or she loves their significant other when their relationship is on the rocks. Is it denial? Compensation? Or maybe they're doing the reverse of what's expected (overkill, really) to try and "be positive" about a bad situation. 

 The Alternative to Pretend Body Love: Achievement 

Need a self-esteem boost? Do something worthy of esteem. Do work. Choose something hard, uncomfortable, and outside your current skill set. Put yourself in a situation where you have to suck for a while because it's that difficult. This is especially valuable for those with body image issues. Why? Because when you try something for the first time you're going to have to focus on the craft rather than yourself. This will give your mind a reboot. 

As you become more competent, you'll develop REAL satisfaction, not the contrived, "I love myself for being me" bullshit. That stuff is a facade, plus nobody believes you when you say it. Achievement always trumps words. And learning to do a new skill when you're surrounded by people better than you is a reminder of what you CAN achieve with the right work ethic. Just get your mind off yourself. Connect. Make actual friends, and not the kind who are also insecure narcissists because they'll convince you that body love is good, but only because they're in the same situation – totally compensating for a belief that's not there."

Reading - Feb through Jun '17.

Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach

Kettlebell Simple & Sinister by Pavel Tsatsouline

Keto Clarity: Your Definitive Guide to the Benefits of a Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet by Eric Westman MD, Jimmy Moore

Unsettled Matters: the Life and Death of Bruce Lee by Tom Bleecker

Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers by Timothy Ferriss

Wired to Eat: Turn Off Cravings, Rewire Your Appetite for Weight Loss, and Determine the Foods That Work for You by Robb Wolf

Next by Michael Crichton

Star Wars: Guardians of the Whills by Greg Rucka 

The John Matherson Series: One Second After, One Year After, The Final Day by William R. Forstchen

Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn 

Winner Lose All--A Lando Calrissian Tale: Star Wars Legends by Timothy Zahn

5/3/1 Forever by Jim Wendler

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton 

Omega Men: The End Is Here by Tom King and Barnaby Bagenda

Wolverine: Weapon X by Barry Windsor-Smith

Deadpool Minibus by Cullen Bunn & Others

Colonial Comics: New England, 1620 – 1750 edited by Jason Rodriguez

Training - "Winners focus on winning. Losers focus on winners."

6/16 - wmup, throws, press, weighted chins, dips, cg chins, xpushups, situps, hip thrust, speed bag, stretch
6/15 - stretch
6/14 - wmup, jumps, power clean/push press, squats, stretch

Haven't posted training in forever.  There have been workouts, you'll just have to trust me and use your imagination.  (Not like that.  Pervert.)  Life got in the way of blogging, switched notebooks (and those are lost to time.)  Seems like a good day to get back to doing it, as I just got back on Wednesday after a 4 day sickness induced sabbatical.  Onwards.

I Am Living Proof—Change Your Diet, Change Your Life! | Mark's Daily Apple: "February 2, 2016 was it…….while working nights I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast, and he had on Mark Sisson……holy s@#$% Batman, the light bulb went off….like fireworks in my brain. This was the spark that was going to light the fire in my soul! When he compared a bowl of pasta to a bowl of Skittles…..it was like magic….omg, what had I been doing to my body? 

That morning I called the wife and was all excited, telling her I was going paleo…. She did not share my excitement…maybe because it was 6a.m….. I was hyped and she was just waking up. Where the lines of fate crossed was she had just had a blood test done, looking for allergies and signs that would point her to possible causes of her severe migraines. Well, a few days later her results came back, and they aligned with a paleo approach as well. BOOM…..paleo family here we go…..head first! 

My life is very different than the average person…I work in the Arctic Circle oil field. I fly up to the middle of nowhere for 3 weeks at a time. I work 12-15 hours a day for 21 days straight. All our food is provided for us. So the only choices I have are what is put out in front of me. Since I could not know everything in each dish, I just stayed on the paleo basics. It was not easy in the beginning, choosing paleo foods was easy, but I have a sweet tooth and to walk past the dessert bar day in and day out was a challenge. Some days I won, some days it won. I dove deep into reading, listening, soaking up as much knowledge as one could absorb on this lifestyle change. I want to know not just the rules, but why, how. First month was rough in swimming through it all. Energy levels up and down….endless hunger.. 

As the months rolled on, the weight melted away. I was seeing results pretty quick. Few pounds here and there. Energy levels started to max out. Sleep was great. I started to dabble in working out. My wife and I signed up for a spartan race, then the day after that was complete we signed up for an ultra half marathon mountain run….. Omg, who the hell have we become….lol. We were now running and training for fun. My wife’s migraines had all but gone away. My pains were less and less. We were becoming the people we were meant to be. Fast foward to today. I am now sitting here writing my 1 year story. I have lost 70 + pounds. I train jiujitsu 3-4 time a week while I am home. I still don’t do crazy workouts…. I personally don’t feel it’s needed. I plan on doing more running events once the snow melts. I am paleo/Primal for life. I believe in this lifestyle 100%…. I am living proof. CHANGE YOUR DIET….CHANGE YOUR LIFE"

Before After Female Muscle Bodybuilders and Weight Loss: "Hayley Hirschland"