Today's Internets - "Nothing exists except atoms and empty space, everything else is opinion." - Democritus

Well played, Kim Kardashian.

Kim Kardashian At Oscars: Glowing In White | WebProNews: "Though lately I’ve been watching shows like I’m Pregnant and Addicted to Meth. It definitely makes me feel better if I’m wanting one sip of Diet Coke or, you know, too much sugar. I’m like, This woman is on meth.”"

Hawaiian libertarian: Heart Check: "I finally paid a visit to an establishment I saw featured on the Tell-A-Vision a couple of years ago - The Heart Attack Grill. Love that place. It is the only burger joint for which I've eaten at in the past 4 years or so. It was quite the entertaining dining experience, and one for which I enjoyed completely...

"Wait, isn't this the guy telling all of us we should quit eating at McDonalds, Burger King and Jack in the Box?" Yup, that would be me. But this place? I love the entire theme. It essentially sticks the middle finger at the conventional wisdom of the modern health and medial fields entire set of dietary guidelines THEY would have us all follow...

...fries, deep fried in lard, like they typically used to be before the federally subsidized, Big Ag's round up ready vegetable and grain oils became ubiquitous? YESSSS! A quadruple bypass burger stacked with 4 1/4 lbs. patties of beef, tomatoes, onions, bacon, and cheddar cheese? Oh yeeeeaaaah baby!! Heart Attack? Not from the food... I broke the whole mound apart and ate everything except for the bun, Atkins-diet style (not because I wanted to eat low carb, but rather because I know that most commercially baked hamburger bun products are made with white flour and hydrogenated vegetable oils -- aka margarine). Unless the lard used to make the french fries was hydrogenated, I am almost certain that the hamburger bun was probably the only truly unhealthy component of the whole meal.

The entire raison d'etre of the H.A.G. is to flaunt the dietary health and nutrition recommendations of the establishment. It's the literal manifestation of some of the more intense Western allopathic medicine detractors: Go to the Doctor's, listen to their recommendations, than go home and do the exact opposite. That's not too far off from the truth."

Ha.  Ha.

Don't Expect That Orson Scott Card Superman Story Any Time Soon - Bleeding Cool Comic Book, Movies and TV News and Rumors: "Yesterday Chris Sprouse announced that he was no longer willing to draw the Superman story by Orson Scott Card appearing in the upcoming Superman Adventures. DC stated that they were pulling the strip until they could find a replacement artist. I understand that this may never happen. That, basically, there is no “hurry” to find a replacement artist… and that the people involved with putting the comic together simply weren’t aware of Orson Scott Card’s activist membership. I mean, I was. I’m sure you were. But, it seems not everyone was. They are now, obviously."

Our brains, and how they're not as simple as we think | Science | The Observer: "Neuroscience has entered the public consciousness, and changed the way we talk about ourselves. But much of what passes as knowledge is inaccurate...

... a great deal of psychology research has shown that we tend not to have a good insight into why we make certain choices. In one of the many studies in the area, Lars Hall and colleagues gave people a survey about their moral beliefs but used sleight of hand to change the choices they had originally made. When asked to justify the beliefs they hadn't endorsed, more than two-thirds of people didn't notice the switch and happily gave reasons for why they supported the opposite of their original position. Folk psychology tells us that we can accurately explain our actions and, consequently, many people think that these well-validated psychological effects never apply to them or simply don't exist. Suggesting that someone may not fully know their own actions and that their post-event justifications might be improvised simply won't wash in everyday conversation.

...Brightly coloured brain scans are a media favourite as they are both attractive to the eye and apparently easy to understand but in reality they represent some of the most complex scientific information we have. They are not maps of activity but maps of the outcome of complex statistical comparisons of blood flow that unevenly relate to actual brain function. This is a problem that scientists are painfully aware of but it is often glossed over when the results get into the press...

FOLK NEUROSCIENCE 

Popular misconceptions 

■ The "left-brain" is rational, the "right-brain" is creative The hemispheres have different specialisations (the left usually has key language areas, for example) but there is no clear rational-creative split and you need both hemispheres to be successful at either. You can no more do right-brain thinking than you can do rear-brain thinking. 

■ Dopamine is a pleasure chemical Dopamine has many functions in the brain, from supporting concentration to regulating the production of breast milk. Even in its most closely associated functioning it is usually considered to be involved in motivation (wanting) rather than the feeling of pleasure itself.

■ Low serotonin causes depression A concept almost entirely promoted by pharmaceutical companies in the 1980s and 90s to sell serotonin-enhancing drugs like Prozac. No consistent evidence for it. 

■ Video games, TV violence, porn or any other social spectre of the moment "rewires the brain" Everything "rewires the brain" as the brain works by making and remaking connections. This is often used in a contradictory fashion to suggest that the brain is both particularly susceptible to change but once changed, can't change back. 

■ We have no control over our brain but we can control our mind The mind and the brain are the same thing described in different ways and they make us who we are. Trying to suggest one causes the other is like saying wetness causes water.

APE IN A CAPE

A First Draft of the Third War - By Micah Zenko | Foreign Policy: "...in general, there is relative indifference to the history of America's Third War -- the 10-year campaign of over 400 targeted killings in non-battlefield settings that have killed an estimated 3,500 to 4,700 people. And that is puzzling, particularly since they have become a defining feature of post-9/11 U.S. foreign policy."

SO.  MUCH.  THIS.

I am a creationist. God was created by man.:

Fuck the NYPD, basically.

Carrying Condoms is Evidence of a Crime, Says NYPD - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "The NYPD will arrest you for carrying condoms, but that depends entirely on who you are. If you're a middle-class white girl like me, you're probably safe. But say you're a sex worker or a queer kid kicked out of your home. Say you're a  trans woman out for dinner with your boyfriend. Maybe you've been arrested as a sex worker before. Maybe some quota-filling cop thinks you look like a whore...

And yes, arrest is always a big deal, even if you don't end up convicted: Arrest is always violent. The NYPD may or may not break your ribs, but the process of arrest in America is still a man tying your hands behind your back at gunpoint and locking you in a cage. Holding cells are shit-encrusted boxes, often too crowded to sit down. Police can leave you there for three days; long enough to lose your job. If this seems obvious, I say it because the polite middle classes trivialize arrest. They talk about "keeping people off the streets." They don't realize that the constant threat of arrest is traumatic, unless it happens to them or their kids."

Richard Kadrey's Damn Tumblr: 

"I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room." -  Ray Bradbury

Details at the links...

9 Reasons You're Not Losing Weight | Mark's Daily Apple:
1. You’re engaging in too much mindless eating.
2. You’re eating too many “pleasure foods.”
3. You’re eating too little.
4. You’re under “hidden stress.”
5. You’re too focused on diet to the exclusion of all else.
6. You’re getting too much exercise.
7. Your macronutrients and training are mismatched.
8. Your eating schedule is too disordered.

9. You’re actually at a healthy weight and your body is “keeping” you from dropping any more.

17 Reasons You’re Not Losing Weight | Mark's Daily Apple:

1. You think you’re eating healthy, but aren’t.

2. You’re under too much stress.

3. You need to watch your carb intake.

4. You’re adding muscle.

5. You’re not active enough.

6. You’re lapsing into Chronic Cardio.

7. You still haven’t tried IF.

8. You’re eating too much.

9. You haven’t overcome bad habits or developed good ones.

10. You haven’t purged and Primalized your pantry.

11. You’ve reached a healthy homeostasis.

12. You’re low on willpower.

13. You’re full of excuses.

14. You haven’t actually gone Primal!

15. You’re not getting enough sleep.

16. You haven’t given it enough time.

17. You’re eating too much dairy.

Bonus Reason: Sprinting is not part of your fitness routine.

On The Job Training: "Rooney Rule:  Success in life can be measured as the amount of time you spend doing what makes you happy with people that make you happy."

Taylor Swift Said Tina Fey & Amy Poehler Are Going To Hell For Making Fun Of Her. They Responded. - The Superficial - Because You're Ugly: "Tina and Amy each responded with two to three sentences that are way more entertaining than anything Taylor Swift will ever write about getting dumped again. So here’s Amy who was reached for comment first by The Hollywood Reporter: “Aw, I feel bad if she was upset. I am a feminist, and she is a young and talented girl. That being said, I do agree I am going to hell. But for other reasons. Mostly boring tax stuff.” And Tina who Entertainment Tonight got a hold of: “If anyone was going to get mad at us, I thought it would be James Cameron. I did not see that one coming. It was a joke. It was a lighthearted joke.”

And while both of those responses were awesome (Who doesn’t enjoy a quote that suggests James Cameron is more likely to burst into tear than Taylor Swift?), I like how neither one pointed out Taylor Swift thinks making a joke about her serial dating should damn a person to burning in eternal hellfire."

I am not smart, because even after researching all these, I still don't quite understand them.

kateoplis - 11 Emerging Scientific Fields That Everyone Should Know About: 

"1. Neuroparasitology 

2. Quantum Biology 

3. Exo-meteorology 

4. Nutrigenomics 

5. Cliodynamics 

6. Synthetic Biology 

7. Recombinant Memetics 

8. Computational Social Science 

9. Cognitive Economics 

10. Organic Electronics 

11. Quantitative Biology"

Good primer here - 11 Emerging Scientific Fields That Everyone Should Know About

WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR, Only Obama can enact the shit GOP ideas that the public just rejected. Austerity now. Insanity later: "But this guy, who refuses to hold the torturers and Wall Street criminals accountable (but punishes whistleblowers) claims the right to assassinate any American, anywhere, without due process (but won’t tell Americans why), and cares more about making a deal with  a party that refuses to accept anything other than what a Romney presidency would have given us (something resoundingly rejected by voters)? This guy sucks. At this point, Occam’s Razor says that Barack Obama isn’t getting rolled or negotiating against himself. Occam’s Razor says that he is this guy, and that’s a profound disappointment."

IN.

All religions are like this, basically.  Looks like a fascinating documentary.

George Carlin, nothing but truth.

"Swearing on the bible.  You understand that shit?

...Suppose they hand you an upside down backwards Chinese Braille bible with half the pages missing.  At what point does all of this stuff just break down and become a lot of stupid shit somebody made up?  It's fucking make-believe.

...What is the big deal about swearing 'to god' in the first place?  Why does swearing to god mean you're going to tell the truth?  Wouldn't affect me.  If they said to me, 'Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you god?"  I'd say, "Yeah.  I'll tell you about as much truth as the people who wrote that fucking bible.  How do you like that?"  Swearing on the bible doesn't mean anything...

Bible or no bible, god or no god, if it suits their purpose, people are going to lie in court.  The police do it all the time.  Yes, they do.  It's part of their job.  To protect, to serve and to commit perjury whenever it supports the state's case.

Swearing on the bible is just one more way of controlling people and keeping them in line and it's one more thing that holds us back as a species."

"Here's one more item, the last in our civics book - RIGHTS...

Folks, I hate to spoil your fun but there's no such thing as rights.  They're imaginary.  We made 'em up...

Rights are an idea.  They're just imaginary.  They're a cute idea.  Cute, but that's all.  Cute and fictional.  But if you do think you have rights, let me ask you this, where do they come from?  People say "Well, they come from god.  They're god given rights."  Oh, fuck, here we go again.  The god excuse.  The last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument - "It came from god."

...If you think you do have rights, one last assignment... in Wikipedia I want you to type in 'Japanese-Americans 1942' and you'll learn all about your precious fucking rights.

...110,000 Japanese-American citizens in good standing, law abiding people who were thrown into internment camps simply because their parents were born in the wrong country.  That's all they did wrong.  No right to a lawyer.  No right to a fair trial.  No right to a jury of their peers.  No right to due process of any kind...

Just when these American citizens needed their rights the most, their government took them away.  And rights aren't rights if someone can take them away.  They're privileges.  That's all we've ever had in this country is a bill of temporary privileges.  And if you read the news, even badly, you'd know that every year the list gets shorter and shorter and shorter.

Sooner or later the people in this country are going to realize the government doesn't give a fuck about them.  Government doesn't care about you or your children or your rights or your welfare or your safety.  It simply doesn't give a fuck about you.  It's interested in its own power, that's the only thing, keeping it and expanding it wherever possible.

...I lean toward unlimited rights.  I feel, for instance, I have the right to do anything I please.  But, if I do something you don't like, I think you have the right to kill me.  So where are you gonna find a fairer fucking deal than that?"

Today's Internets Shenanigans.

History is instructive.

Blood eagle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "The Blood Eagle was a method of torture and execution that is sometimes mentioned in Nordic saga legends. It was performed by cutting the ribs of the victim by the spine, breaking the ribs so they resembled blood-stained wings, and pulling the lungs out through the wounds in the victim's back. Salt was sprinkled in the wounds."

What do you know about grass fed steaks, deep squats and deadlifts, son!?

"

God. Damn.

World Record Deadlift 1128 pounds- World's Strongest man - YouTube:

Ah, romance.

Craigslist-post-of-the-day - BroBible.com: "‘You Blew a Load On My Face and Stuck a $100 Bill On It’: The Best Craigslist Missed Connection Ever -- Here at BroBible we always try to help people find love, especially if one of those people is a down-on-her-luck chick who is searching high and low for..."

APE IN A CAPE:

Constitution? Due process? Rule of law? Posse Comitatus?

I give it 6 months before we learn of an "extraordinary circumstance" and drone assassinations being carried out in America. Or, you know, 'America.'

Obama Administration Says President Can Use Lethal Force Against Americans on US Soil | Mother Jones: "Yes, the president does have the authority to use military force against American citizens on US soil—but only in "an extraordinary circumstance," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday.  "The US Attorney General's refusal to rule out the possibility of drone strikes on American citizens and on American soil is more than frightening," Paul said Tuesday. "It is an affront the constitutional due process rights of all Americans.""

March 2013 Beta Of The Month | Chateau Heartiste: "Hi, My wife of 12 years and mother of 4 told me she wants a divorce because she has “fallen out of love” with me and can “never love me again.“ 

Where have we heard this before… oh yeah, everywhere. 

Last night she explained her life plan, that I would buy her a car and two condos so we could be divorced and neighbors. She said her online friends are doing it that way. 

...This “life plan” is a tidy encapsulation of the desire of women to extract emotional and financial resources from doting beta males while being free to pursue sexual resources from sexy alpha males. I love the “all our friends are doing it” appeal to popularity. Men use arguments to win the crowd. Women use the crowd to win arguments."

So close.

Sprouse Exits Orson Scott Card's "Adventures of Superman" Story - Comic Book Resources: "Orson Scott Card's digital-first "Adventures of Superman" story from DC Comics has sparked since its announcement -- and the latest developments are likely to cause even more discussion. According to USA Today, Chris Sprouse, the artist announced as drawing Card's Superman story, has chosen to exit the title due to the increased media attention surrounding both the author and his Superman story"

Truth.

Fit Girls Oh Yeah, Tumblr: Great Exercises for Toning........ Me:...: 

"Tumblr:Great Exercises for Toning........ 

Me:the fuck is toning?"

The Democracy Boondoggle in Iraq - By Christian Caryl | Foreign Policy: "The U.S. spent billions promoting democracy in Iraq. Now the official verdict is in: It was all for nothing."

...Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki now runs a staunchly authoritarian state that, while not quite as vicious as Saddam's old dictatorship, certainly doesn't hesitate to crack down on its opponents. The media are largely under government control, and the government is happy to swoop down and make its opponents disappear on the pretext of a vaguely defined "war on terror." And yes, the local al Qaeda franchise is still active, blowing up people at random -- mostly, it would seem, for sectarian reasons: Maliki's ham-fisted rule is based on his roots in the country's Shiite majority, while al Qaeda still draws upon radical elements within the disenfranchised Sunni minority.

...As Carothers notes, though, "even occupying a country doesn't give you as much influence as you think." This error was compounded by the devastating American inability to comprehend Iraqi society in all of its complexity -- or to comprehend why the occupation was so despised. A common view holds that you can't "install democracy at gunpoint." The Iraq War's defenders contend that the West succeeded in doing just that that in occupied Germany and Japan in the wake of World War II. What this argument usually overlooks is that post-1945 efforts were meticulously planned, took place under good security conditions, and marshaled the expertise of an entire generation of administrators and social scientists -- factors that certainly didn't apply to the U.S. state-building exercise in Iraq after 2003."

Adaptation is specific.

T NATION | Knocks to the Weightlifting Head: "Want to see a bodybuilder's functional strength at work? Let's look at what happened in 1993 when Tom Platz and his epic quads had a friendly test of strength against Fred "Dr. Squat" Hatfield. Platz was well-known for his phenomenal leg development built by heavy squats, high-rep squats, and heavy squats for high reps. Hatfield, who earned the nickname "Dr. Squat" by successfully squatting well-over 1,000 pounds in several competitions, was clearly no slouch in lower body strength.

Yet, when the two legends had a "squat off" and each squatted 505 for max reps, Platz came out the clear winner, racking up 23 reps to Hatfield's 12. That, my friends, is why you don't challenge a bodybuilder to a weighted "max reps" contest. It's where their functional strength shines – performing multiple repetitions with a moderate to heavy load – and it's no coincidence that it also happens to be an ideal way to build muscle. However, earlier that day, when the two men compared their max squat for a single rep, guess what happened? Hatfield dominated by lifting 865 to Platz's 775 (supposedly with a spotter giving him more-than-a-little help out of the hole). Again, challenging a powerlifter to a one-rep max contest is not a good idea. Functional strength, fully demonstrated."

Awesome.

Richard Kadrey's Damn Tumblr:

Watching House of Cards, I could not help but think, "This is how politicians wish they were.  None of them are this competent."  Glad to see I wasn't alone.

Washington, DC: Capital of The Absurd - Reason.com: "Like most of this company town, I'm addicted to Netflix's Beltway "telenovela," House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey as a conspiratorial House majority whip. But the show unwittingly flatters D.C., depicting a city of ruthless, steely competence. The real thing is a clown show consumed by trivialities."

ECCC 2013 Photo Parade - Comic Book Resources:

Secretary of State Kerry: You Just Can't Expect the U.S. to Not Start Another War Forever - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Not content to further dig us into a Syrian quagmire, Secretary of State Kerry yesterday made it clear that the world can't reasonably expect us to avoid war with Iran forever if it doesn't do everything we want, according to this Reuters report.

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday there was "finite" time for talks between Iran and world powers on its disputed nuclear program to bear fruit, but gave no hint how long Washington may be willing to negotiate.  Israel, Iran's arch-enemy and convinced Tehran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, has grown impatient with the protracted talks and has threatened preemptive war against Tehran if it deems diplomacy ultimately futile...

When you are the hyperpower, "diplomacy" means "you do what we want without making us kill a bunch of people." The mad, backward Iranians, Kerry seems to worry, might not fully understand this.  See also Vice President Biden yesterday assuring the world that Obama is not bluffing with Iran, and Obama's ominious "We will do what is necessary" during his State of the Union speech last month, and, well, get ready for the mighty stimulating powers of war in the Middle East that made the '00s a happy dream for those of us stumbling though the '10s."

ECCC 2013 Photo Parade - Comic Book Resources:

Truth disguised as lulz.

Why So Ugly?: 

"So…why so ugly? First, let’s put aside the 1% on each side.  Hitting the genetic lottery for better or worse (deformities on one hand, and the model/beautiful types on the other) is not something you can control.  Once you accept that, the answer should be obvious.  It’s laziness.  The difference between an undateable and an average, and for that matter an average and an above-average, is lack of effort — not caring or doing enough with respect to your appearance.

Eat well?  Fast food is easier.  Go to the gym?  Nah that’s for vain people.  Dress nice?  My 12-year-old sweatshirt is just fine.  I simplify as there are other factors but the main culprit is laziness.  If a girl is out of shape she’s too lazy to exercise.  When a girl talks about chopping her hair off it’s because long hair “is just so hard to maintain!”  A guy has bad breath because he’s too lazy to floss and brush. These causes lead to certain effects.  Unhygienic men do not hit trendy bars on a Friday night.  Most girls sporting fat rolls do not have their iPhones blowing up with multiple gentlemen callers trying to connive themselves into their sweaty panties.

If you want to be desirable, all hope is not lost.  These categories are fluid and movement from one to another is common, absent the 1% mentioned above.  I will readily admit I’ve been undateable three separate times in my life, but after I ceased my laziness I escaped and now for good.  There are plenty of articles around on how to improve one’s looks and style, so I won’t comment much on it.  You can basically transform yourself in a day with some hygiene, decent clothes and a stylish haircut."

Mila Kunis confirms her cool chick status.

Ashton Kutcher Didn’t Drain All The Awesome Out of Mila Kunis. Yet. - The Superficial - Because You're Ugly: "Press junkets for movies are incredibly bland and boring, so here’s Mila Kunis promoting Oz The Great And Powerful on BBC Radio 1 where she finds out it’s her interviewer’s first time with a celebrity – Or a “famous,” in the Queen’s tongue. – and literally jumps at the chance to bail this kid out instead of doling out canned answers about the movie. In fact, at one point, her publicist tries to steer the conversation back to just that, only for Mila to rattle off her pre-written talking points and go right back to discussing steak pies and Jagerbombs with Hugh Grant Jr."

Training.

3/6 - Russian Pullup Program D14 16/14/12/10/10 -- dips 3x10, glute bridge 5x20 -- P90X2 D24 X2 Recovery & Mobility

Awesome - | Meet Ben. Ben is 72 years old and the sole...: "Meet Ben. Ben is 72 years old and the sole caretaker of his disabled adult son. He started attending Crossfit in order to build & maintain the strength he needed in order to be able to pick his son up out of his wheelchair regularly. Everyday he is in the gym cracking jokes and attempting whatever is thrown at him-regardless of his ability. Here he is squatting 115lbs! He is the sweetest man I’ve ever met and my favorite gym buddy. So for all of you thinking “I can’t”, “I won’t”, “Its too hard” or “What’s the point?” - Find a reason. Find a reason to live the best life that you can. Your health is more important than simply looking good in a bikini. Your life, and in some cases the lives of others, depends on it. If Ben can do it, than so can you!"

Training.

3/5 - Russian Pullup Program D13 16/14/12/10/8 -- P90X2 D23 Plyocide -- gtg/glute bridges & COCT grip work

Inspiring/dude is shredded.

Today's Internets - "Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious." - Rumi

FML: "Today, I found out that my wife makes mashed potatoes by using her dirty feet to crush the potatoes because apparently this is a "healthy, natural" way to make them, and it also cleans her feet. I've been eating her mashed potatoes at least once every week. FML"

You don't say.

As church attendance drops, Europe's most Catholic country seeks modern pope - World News: "“Well-educated young people from the cities are leaving the church,” said Marej Zajac, a writer for the Polish Roman Catholic weekly magazine Tygodnik Powszechny."

Scott Adams Blog: Market Manipulators - Clarification 03/04/2013: ""I'm glad you had the wisdom to get a cartoonist's opinion on global financial markets.    The 20% estimate is based on the fact that 20 is a big round number and more likely to happen than 30%. I don't like to over-think these things.    My reasoning is that the people at the highest levels of finance are brilliant people who chose a profession with the credibility of astrology. And they know it. Then they sell their advice to people who don't know it. So that's your cast of characters.    Now consider that the characters - who are literally geniuses in many cases - have an immense financial motive, opportunity, and a near-zero risk of getting caught. How do you think that plays out?"

Fat Head » Two Studies of hearthealthywholegrains: "The reported increase in celiac isn’t due to better diagnosis, however.  As Dr. William Davis explained in Wheat Belly, the rate of celiac disease really and truly has gone up – it’s quadrupled, in fact.  We know that because researchers found blood samples taken from soldiers 50 years ago and compared them to blood samples taken from soldiers today.  Sure enough, today’s soldiers were four times more likely to have celiac antibodies in their blood. As for the argument that gluten intolerance is all in our heads, perhaps a double-blind study would answer that.  You know, feed some subjects foods containing gluten, feed other subjects similar foods without gluten, with neither group knowing which foods they’re eating.  If only someone had conducted such a study…

… oh, wait.  It’s been done, as reported in a New York Times article about gluten sensitivity: Crucial in the evolving understanding of gluten were the findings, published in 2011, in The American Journal of Gastroenterology, of an experiment in Australia. In the double-blind study, people who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, did not have celiac and were on a gluten-free diet were given bread and muffins to eat for up to six weeks. Some of them were given gluten-free baked goods; the others got muffins and bread with gluten. Thirty-four patients completed the study. Those who ate gluten reported they felt significantly worse."

...Every time I tracked down a study purporting to prove the benefits of whole grains, the comparison was between people consuming whole grains and people consuming white flour.  All we can determine from those studies is that whole grains aren’t as bad for us as white flour.  To prove whole grains have real benefits, we’d have to compare people who eat whole grains to people who eat no grains."

Mitt Romney's still an idiot and a hypocrite.

Mitt Romney Thinks He Lost the Election Because of ObamaCare - Hit & Run : Reason.com: " former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that his campaign “underestimated” the attractiveness of ObamaCare, particularly among people with lower incomes. Given the health law’s sagging poll numbers, it’s hard to make a strong case that ObamaCare helped seal the deal for the president...

...More importantly, Romney has long viewed ObamaCare as basically a good idea. He passed its state based predecessor in Massachusetts, and he repeatedly touted it as a model for the nation. He also chose his top campaign adviser, Stuart Stevens, in large part because Stevens broke from other GOP consultants in telling Romney that he didn’t need to disavow the Massachusetts health care plan.

...You can imagine this frustrating Romney. When RomneyCare passed back in 2006, a lot of folks in Massachusetts viewed it as a bid for the presidency: Romney was going to run as the Republican who made health care reform happen. It was going to be his signature achievement. Instead, it turned out to be Obama's, and Romney was stuck in the deeply awkward position of defending the Massachusetts overhaul while taking a hard line against the president's."

Pizza Level: Asian.

LOL.

» The War On Pubes - Unleash The Beef: "The article, aside from expressing the pseudo-shock of its author, recounts the shock one mother experienced upon catching sight of her fifteen-year-old daughter’s fully-shaved baby-station, despite the fact that Mommy had, for years, taken the same newly-pubeless daughter along with her to have professionals wax out her own giney town. “[T]he fact that a significant number of girls barely past puberty think going ‘bare floor’ or even Brazilian is desirable just kills me,” cries the bush-cherishing Ferrier. Well, if it kills you, good riddance...

The inability of others to differentiate between your genitals and a muskrat is not desirable in 2011. Hell, most males are rocking a high and tight cock-fade these days, never mind the absence of pubes on the fairer sex. 

...We’ve long since established, as a society, that a hairy female body is not desirable. You shave your legs. You shave your armpits. Why? Because you want to be desired. And men don’t desire hairy legs and armpits. If you’re really unfortunate, you also shave your moustache. These behaviors, designed to attract mates, are perfectly acceptable, but shaving one’s vajeezy – the most desirable spot – is horrific? That is insane!"

Not to mention bathing, perfume, clothing, cutting hair, hairstyle and and all the other "unnatural" things we all do to make ourselves more attractive, in one way or another...

"Another point that bothers me, besides everything, is the mentioning that this pube-shaven teen’s mom, regardless of whether or not her daughter is actually sexually active, is “appalled” that her daughter is “thinking of that area in that way.” Holy parental mindfuck. Are we serious? A mother of a teenage daughter – a woman this world (mistakenly) considers an adult – is appalled that her ovulating daughter thinks of her own sex organs sexually? Why do people kid themselves this way?"

A Lion in Iron: Women—Be More, Not Less: "I’m tired of it. I’m tired of women thinking they are supposed to be weak. I don’t know who taught them this. I don’t know if it was their mothers, the media, and/or their friends. I don’t know how this started or who started it, but I do know that it needs to end. Whatever it was, whoever it was, it needs to be killed. You are not supposed to be weak. You have the right to be strong. The body you want is more than what you are, not less. You have the right to make progress. You have the to right to have muscles. Your training is not confined to counting how many calories two hours of cardio can burn. You have the right to add plates to the bar. You have the right to use something heavier than 10s. You have the right to be strong."

Crony capitalism, lobbying and scare mongering at its worst.

WIL WHEATON dot TUMBLR: "The Results of Drug Tests on Welfare Recipients in Florida: Drug testing only benefits the testing company. Typical on conservatives to waste time and money trying to stop a fake issue. You have to love how they pander to the “everyone on welfare is a mooch and a druggie” types in order to get public support for such a wasteful program - that did nothing but line the pockets of the owners of drug testing facilities."

The Running Of The Moms - Unleash The Beef: "From my initial vantage point, it looked to be mostly females. I thought to myself, “Hmm, probably some nonsensical cancer marathon where everyone fails to see the irony of the fact that distance running destroys fast twitch muscle, weakens the immune system, and increases susceptibility to cancer. Oh well.

...The fact of the matter is that jogging/distance running, much like whole grains and ritual human sacrifice, is bad. Slow, plodding, aerobic exercise is not a sweet idea. Given the choice between jogging and complete motionlessness, just sit still. You’ll be much healthier for your choice. I’m not spelling out the scientific points as to why these things are true, but follow the pretty blue links if your interest is piqued. There’s also the likelihood that your running form is horrendous, which only serves to further cripple you. If you’re confused, I’ll make it easy. Walk, sprint, or sit on the couch. Forget the carb-loading. Forget whole grains. Forget the whole of what you’ve “learned” about exercise and nutrition. It’s all wrong. Every. Last. Bit."

Long, slow running sucks.  Do sprints.

I voted last fall.  This still makes more sense to me.

» Voting: Act Of The Proud Slave - Unleash The Beef: "“Exactly. I don’t vote because voting is the ultimate exercise in futility. It’s begging a master to whip you more or less aggressively. It’s propping up an institution I don’t feel should exist – government – and consenting to your status as property of the ruling class. It’s a mechanism for legitimizing illegitimacy. Why would I participate in a system I wish to eliminate when all it takes to eliminate that system is non-participation?”"

» That Shortsightedness Looks Good On You - Unleash The Beef: "“Hey, make sure you get lunch today! They provided a whole spread in there! It’s really good! Have you gotten any yet?” “Nah.” “Well, whatcha waiting for? Go get something to eat! They’ve got this chocolate éclair cake for dessert; it’s incredible. You better hurry up ‘fore it’s all gone!” “I’m good. I’ll check it out later.” “When do you eat? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat here. Do you ever eat anything?” “I eat every day.” “What are you, watching your figure or something? You watching what you eat? You don’t have to worry about what you eat – you’re young!” Wow. Thank you for enlightening my life with your well-reasoned nutritional acumen, hefty 54-year-old lady that I work with. Why must the humans around me constantly say such dumb, dumb shit? I suppose it’s because I respond with whatever half-hearted statement gets me away from them the fastest...

Now, you say I don’t have to worry about what I eat because I’m young, right? Interesting. Amazing that, with everything else you do around here, you’re weaving the role of volunteer nutritionist into your agenda. Do you think, though – just maybe – that if you had started worrying about what you ate when you were young, you might not now look like 250 pounds of walking éclair cake stuffed in a blouse and set atop a pair of asinine “rock and tone” platform sneakers? Do something with those horrible shoes. Please. Eat them if you’d like. Just don’t wear them. The last thing you need is more distance between yourself and the surface of Earth. Or more fucking éclair cake. Or to continue standing here interrogating me, rocking and loafing, critiquing my mysterious dietary habits."

Dear Mark: Obesogens, Tots Who Hate Veggies, and Pregnancy Recovery | Mark's Daily Apple: "...youngsters (babies and toddlers) are the most intuitive eaters around. They’re unaffected by fast food advertising. They’re not subject to pressure from peers toting bags of Gogurt, chips, and Lunchables. For that reason, I’m not too worried about a little kid who hates veggies.

Look, vegetables are bitter. They contain various toxins, and as adults, we’ve learned to appropriate and appreciate those toxins and turn them into full-fledged hormetic stressor nutrients. All those phytochemicals that abound in colorful vegetation that Primal and vegan eaters alike champion? They’re actually toxins that induce a hormetic response from our bodies and upregulate our antioxidant systems, thereby improving our health. But we’re adults. We’ve been eating these foods for a long, long time. Even if we don’t exactly love the taste – but most of us do learn to love the taste – even if they’re still kinda bitter, we know that it’s for the best. We can rationalize eating something that might not taste great because we know that it will improve our health. Eventually, we might even learn to honestly enjoy the taste.

But a toddler? A toddler just has access to the basic senses, which he’s still figuring out. It’s only been a year or two that he even got a handle on all that sensory data streaming through his eyes or ears, or interacting with his tongue. He’s not going to enjoy a sip of $200 wine, and he’ll probably turn up his nose at the sauteed dino kale you’re urging him to eat, regardless of its freshness. He’s not going to rationalize the consumption of a bitter vegetable for his own good, because it’s icky. Icky trumps all in toddlerland. That’s could be a good thing, too. It may be that small kids are less equipped to deal with hormetic stressors (whether they’re plant polyphenols or light bursts of radiation) than we are, and their tastes are constructed thusly. The hormetic threshold could be a whole lot lower in tots.""

Training.

3/4 - Russian Pullup Program D11 14/14/12/10/8 -- P90X2 D22 Chest + Back + Balance & X2 Ab Ripper  -- glute bridge [gtg] 5x30, hip thrusts 2x20 

RossTraining.com Blog: "In summary, be realistic with your expectations. I’m all for getting beastly in the gym, but there is no such thing as being too good for a bad day. If I find myself stuck in a rut, I do what I have always done. I work, work, and work some more. I continue to grind until I am back on top. Sure, I may trip or fall at times, but I always get up and keep moving forward. My approach may sound a bit crude or archaic, but it’s always worked for me. I’m not about to change. +++++ When in doubt, outwork everyone else."

Pic via http://hellyeahyougotthis.tumblr.com/

Food Log.

2/20 - coffee, milk, water, turkey, onion, bacon, sour cream, guacamole, Diet Coke, chocolate, peanut butter
2/21 - coffee, milk, cream, MP Assault, Monster Amino, water, turkey, onion, bacon, sour cream, guacamole, Monster Milk, Monster Multi, peanut butter, MP ZMA Max
2/22 - coffee, half & half, water, MP Assault, Monster Milk, peanut butter, milk, hamburger, shredded cheddar, bacon bits, beer, MP ZMA Max
2/23 - coffee, half & half, water, MP Assault, Monster Milk, peanut butter, milk, Monster Multi, Monster Amino, strawberry infused water, Coke Zero, salad bar, chocolate chip cookies, Jack & Coke, MP ZMA Max
2/24 - coffee, half & half, cream, infused water/strawberry, pizza, beer, chicken bites, ranch, garlic sauce, Diet Coke, M&M's
2/25 - coffee, cream, water, infused water/strawberry, Monster Amino, MP Assault, water, MP ZMA Max
2/26 - coffee, half & half, cream, QuestBar[s], Monster Amino, water, MP Assault, Chipotle barbacoa bowl/dbl meat no beans/rice w/guac & sour cream, MP ZMA Max
2/27 - coffee, half & half, infused water/cucumber & mint, salad [spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, shredded cheese, ranch], Girl Scout Cookies, milk, Diet Coke, marscapone
2/28 - Questbars, MP Assault, MP Amino, coffee, half & half, water, steak, bacon, peanut butter
3/1 - Questbars, coffee, half & half, water, Monster Multi, Cherry Coke Zero, Greek yogurt, cheeseburgers w/spicy guacamole
3/2 - MP Amino1, MP Assault, coffee, half & half, water, cheeseburger sliders, beer, McDonald's burgers & Shamrock shake, Questbar, peanut butter
3/3 - coffee, half & half, tuna, mayo, avocado, tomato, beer, ice cream, peanut butter cups, pita chips, sour cream, ranch

This.

Today's Internets Mojo.

Brickbat: Neutering the Sheepdogs - Hit & Run : Reason.com: "Officials at Florida's Cypress Lake High School suspended three students who wrestled a loaded gun away from another student. The student with the gun was pointing it at a student and threatening to shoot him when the three grabbed him and took the gun away. A local TV station reports they were given an emergency suspension of three days because they were part of an "incident" with a gun."

The Inside Story of How the White House Let Diplomacy Fail in Afghanistan - By Vali Nasr | Foreign Policy: "Holbrooke encouraged the creative chaos. "I want you to learn nothing from government," he told me. "This place is dead intellectually. It does not produce any ideas; it is all about turf battles and checking the box. Your job is to break through all this. Anyone gives you trouble, come to me."

...But my time in the Obama administration turned out to be a deeply disillusioning experience. The truth is that his administration made it extremely difficult for its own foreign-policy experts to be heard. Both Clinton and Holbrooke, two incredibly dedicated and talented people, had to fight to have their voices count on major foreign-policy initiatives.

Holbrooke never succeeded. Clinton did -- but it was often a battle. It usually happened only when it finally became clear to a White House that jealously guarded all foreign policymaking -- and then relied heavily on the military and intelligence agencies to guide its decisions -- that these agencies' solutions were no substitute for the type of patient, credible diplomacy that garners the respect and support of allies. Time and again, when things seemed to be falling apart, the administration finally turned to Clinton because it knew she was the only person who could save the situation.

...the president had a truly disturbing habit of funneling major foreign-policy decisions through a small cabal of relatively inexperienced White House advisors whose turf was strictly politics. Their primary concern was how any action in Afghanistan or the Middle East would play on the nightly news, or which talking point it would give the Republicans. The Obama administration's reputation for competence on foreign policy has less to do with its accomplishments in Afghanistan or the Middle East than with how U.S. actions in that region have been reshaped to accommodate partisan political concerns.

...Early in the process, Holbrooke came back from a meeting at the White House. "You did a good job," he said. "The secretary [Clinton] was pleased with her material but wants her folders to be as big as [those of Defense Secretary Robert] Gates. She wants color maps, tables, and charts." Clinton, continued Holbrooke, "does not want Gates to dominate the conversation by waving his colorful maps and charts in front of everybody. No one reads this stuff, but they all look at the maps and color charts.""

Battle-Tested | Foreign Policy: "...we never went back to the fundamental choice about what do we really need to do. We hide choices. We never talk about choices because choices are hard and choices mean making a decision. Choices mean taking responsibility for who makes the choice and which choice they take.

...I spent a lot of time in places where we surged troops over the last several years. There is discrete impact. I've seen districts where security has improved. It's incontrovertible. When you send in additional numbers of U.S. troops, good things generally follow -- but for a discrete period of time. We didn't achieve the sort of aggregate impact that we saw in Iraq. And we all know the reasons why. Ultimately, I step back and say it was not a wise expenditure of resources. Stepping back even further, we fundamentally failed to grasp the politics of that country [Afghanistan]. Our solutions were simply not tailored to the environment. And ultimately I think in many parts of the country -- it's already happening -- things will essentially revert back to their natural order.

...We took some of the most decentralized people in the entire world and imposed one of the most centralized constitutions on them. It's ludicrous that President Karzai appoints a district governor and a district police chief. I'm telling you, the people where I come from -- Rome, Georgia -- would rise up if the president appointed the county commissioner. It's crazy."

What Went Wrong in Afghanistan? | Foreign Policy: "Many have argued that the problem with the Afghanistan intervention is that it "wasn't done right": If only we had not been distracted by Iraq, had tackled the right warlords, pursued the correct counterinsurgency strategy, and surged earlier, it would have been fine. But they are wrong. The problem was much more basic: The West was trying to do something it couldn't do, and it was trying to do something it didn't need to do. Its basic assumptions were wrong. Afghanistan did not pose an existential threat to international security; the problem was not that it was a "failed state." The truth is that the West always lacked the knowledge, power, or legitimacy to fundamentally transform Afghanistan. But policymakers were too afraid, too hypnotized by fashionable theories, too isolated from Afghan reality, and too laden with guilt to notice that the more ambitious Afghanistan mission was impossible and unnecessary."

Think Again: The Pentagon - By Thomas P.M. Barnett | Foreign Policy: "The military's Chicken Littles want you to think the sky is falling. Don't believe them: America has never been safer."

Fuck Mother Teresa, basically.  

Mother Teresa: Far from Saintly | ScienceBlog.com: "The problem is not a lack of money—the Foundation created by Mother Teresa has raised hundreds of millions of dollars—but rather a particular conception of suffering and death: “There is something beautiful in seeing the poor accept their lot, to suffer it like Christ’s Passion. The world gains much from their suffering,” was her reply to criticism..."

Yeah, he did.

Stefan Struve Reports He Incurred Broken Jaw in Bout With Mark Hunt | Full Contact Fighter

Cardinal Keith O’Brien Acknowledges Sexual Misconduct - NYTimes.com: "Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Keith O’Brien, acknowledged Sunday that he had been guilty of sexual misconduct, a week after he announced his resignation and said he would not attend the conclave to choose the next pope. The moves followed revelations that three current and one former priest had accused him of inappropriate sexual contact dating back decades."

Community of the Wrongly Accused: Prominent rape victims advocate doesn't want false rape accusers prosecuted: "Longstaff writes: "We are working with three [rape accusers] facing criminal charges. Several others were prosecuted for harassment after their rapists made counter allegations and were believed." Longstaff takes it as a given that any woman who makes a rape accusation should be believed -- even in those cases where police have overwhelming evidence to charge for making a false rape claim, and even when the false accuser is convicted. "Such prosecutions [of false accusers] must be stopped," she once declared. She called such prosecutions "a concerted witchhunt." Longstaff's coddling of rape liars is not something rape victims favor.  Every rape lie diminishes the integrity of every rape victim; every unpunished rape lie undermines the public's confidence in the way rape is handled and makes juries reluctant to convict even those who ought to be convicted. But Longstaff's grandstanding isn't for the benefit of rape victims, it's for Longstaff."

 

Training.

3/3 - Russian Pullup Program D10 14/12/12/10/8 -- P90X2 D21 Recovery & Mobility -- chins x18, pushups x40 

3/2 - Russian Pullup Program D9 14/12/10/10/8 -- P90X2 D20 Balance & Power