Fitness Tip

As is everyone currently employed on the planet, I'm pressed for time, and seldom have enough for a thorough workout. Rather than be disappointed regularly, what I've done is slow it down a little. Now I'm not talking about Super Slow--that has serious limitations and will result in a plateau just like every other workout program performed too long without change.

Here's what I've been up to

2 exercises per body part, 3 body parts per day, 1 set per exercise, reps to failure.

Example: Monday = Pecs, Biceps, Traps

1) Chest Press: 125 lbs. 7 seconds eccentric (down), 3.5 seconds concentric (up). Reps until you want to cry, then just try to wiggle the weight until you actually DO cry.
2) Leg Press: 200 lbs. 7 seconds down, 3.5 up. Make sure the guards are in place, because you want to do this until your legs actually shake and you are unable to move the weight at all.
3) Shrugs: 60 lb dumbells, 20+ reps.
4) DB Fly: 7 seconds down, 3.5 seconds up. Reps to failure. Again, your hands should be shaking horribly before you're done.
5) Prone Leg Curls: 60 lbs. 3.5 seconds up, 7 seconds down. Go until you get a charlie horse or weep uncontrollably.

Rationale
Who has time for 3 or more exercises? This whole program takes about 15 minutes, and believe me--you'll be more sore than if you did 3 sets of 8-10.

And the less time you spend training, the higher the intensity needs to be. The weight is necessarily lighter, but slowing it down forces more fibers to contract, and causes longer contraction times overall. And when you go to failure--actual failure, not just "it really really hurts"--you teach your mind and your muscles to be able to push farther.

More Rationale: Concentric vs. Eccentric

Your concentric contraction (against gravity) should be more rapid than eccentric (with gravity) for a couple reasons.

1) The bulk of strength is built when resisting gravity (eccentric). Most people, when performing standard, up-and-down weight training, don't consciously think about resisting gravity slowly, and lose valuable strength-building opportunities.

2) The concentric contraction should be faster than the eccentric, contrary to Super Slow preaching. You want to train your body to resist gravity quickly. This trains your muscles better for jumping, lifting things up, etc.

More Environmentalism Kool-Aid Being Drunk

I installed a sweet Google gadget that helps me in several ways, and it had a CNN news feed in it. One headline that popped up caught my attention: Soil study hints at climate model revision. The word "revision" mean instinctively, to me, that it likely helped disprove man-made global warming.

Sure enough, six paragraphs down, it reads:
The study's findings are significant because annual emissions of CO₂ from soils -- through photosynthesis and respiration -- are ten times greater than the ones created by burning fossil fuels.

So let me get this straight. The earth gives off ten times more carbon dioxide than we do. True environmentalists would try to cover every inch of earth they could with tarps if they really cared for the planet!

Of course, with "environmentalism," we're not dealing with intellectually honest people; we're dealing with people who are either trying their darndest to get government grants by capitalizing on pop (and flawed) science and a cause du jour.

If releasing CO2 is bad, that means the earth is 10 times more bad than we are.

How could the planet be so stupid? Doesn't it know that's evil? CO2 is evil! I can't believe the earth would do such a thing to itself. Why, that might, over time, raise CO2 levels to nearly 382 parts per million. (We're currently at 380!)

The story quickly pointed out, though, that we're still evil, and the author made it clear he intends to keep drinking the Kool-Aid on man-made global warming.

Here's the new plan, greenie-weenies: Tarp the earth! It can't be trusted to keep itself in balance--we need to do it for the planet. If it weren't for us, the planet would be a mess. Let's have a rock festival: Rockers for Tarps. Tarp Aid. Tarpers for Tapirs. Shut the Tarp Up.

Go Gore Green: Just lie!

More classic Gore blunders. In the "hottest" October on record, record snowfalls were reported globally. Turns out that instead of using actual October temperature numbers, they just used September's numbers instead.
That's the trouble with being Gore Green--it's hard to come up with data to prove you right--it's easier to make it up!

Mea culpa

Previously, in anger at an outrage so vile against a young girl, I may have blogged faster than my brain could thoughtfully or artfully articulate.

In doing so, I gave the impression that I was calling into question her family's loyalty. So that the information does not ever reach the girl, I removed the blog entry.

I typed after speaking with a number of others who were close to the event, all of whom voiced loud reaction to the act, and all of whom would be happy to pull the switch; perhaps I should have tempered my anger with thoughts of what would happen if the girl read the blog, however unlikely, and let the matter drop.

This blog will self-destruct in 30 days.

Bailing out the UAW, NOT Ford, GM, and Chrysler

The Big 3 should be called the Bloated 3. Bloated by payrolls that are way too high, with the health care costs of people who don't even work for the company anymore, and shackled by the history of giving the UAW the ransoms it demanded.

Ford & GM average $73 per hour to build a car. Toyota averages $48. Why? Mostly by unions blocking capitalism and economic impetus.

As president of the UAW, Ron Gettelfinger's "Letter from the President" is available on the UAW web site. Let's look at a couple of his praises for obama:

First, you'll see a line indicating what Ron said. That's in red, out of his obvious respect for the tenets of socialism. Then you'll see what the business translation [BT] is.

Ron: He’s pledged to renegotiate NAFTA to make it fair for American workers.
BT: He'll pretend economic rules don't apply to overpaid workers

Ron: Obama is a co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), a vital reform which will limit employer intimidation during union organizing drives.
BT: obama will take away secret ballots, allowing for union intimidation, encouraging businesses to close and reopen with brand-spanking new employees

Ron: He [obama] opposes the use of replacement workers during strikes...
BT: He won't mind if businesses lose transactions to non-union competitors

Ron: Can seniors trust their retirement years to a man who wants to gamble Social Security on the stock market? Or their Medicare to McCain, who voted to cut the program’s funding while raising premiums for seniors?
BT: People aren't responsible for their lives--government is. And businesses will be taxed to pay the bill.

In fact, the entire newsletter reads embarrassingly as a list of whines as to why union employees can't do anything for themselves--that they're too stupid to handle their own financial affairs, and too lazy to make enough money in a real market.

And that's not the image I have of a guy who builds a car. I typically think of a muscular, hard-working person. Why would such a guy tolerate that sort of patronizing? In the real world, he'd meet Ronnie in a bar, get into an argument, and punch his lights out for insulting him, his work ethic, and his family.

Get this for another waste of money: Until last year, there were union employees vacuuming, cleaning toilets, and pushing mops around. If Ford is paying them top wages to wipe urinals, they're wasting money that could go into research and development, or into the reduction of prices for current vehicles.

"But the retired UAW workers were promised free health care insurance forever!" What if I promised you the moon? How could you, in any sort of real world, expect me to deliver on that?

That's not to say the Big 3 don't have room to change. When Mullaly took over at Ford, I was pretty excited about the changes he should be able to make, having worked under him at Boeing. Nothing much so far.

Here's an example of where the Big 3 are falling behind. If the market is leaning more toward the Honda Civic than the Pilot or the Element, the Honda plant can convert its entire floor to making the Civic instead of the CRV in exactly--get this--TEN MINUTES. It takes the Big 3 months or years, and millions of dollars to reconfigure their production lines.

What? Why hasn't Ford kept up? What about GM? Could it be less net profit put into R&D, instead of being put into old employees who didn't plan for their own health care?

Obama Supporters, Revisisted, & Digression on Weeniosity of Moral Relatvisim

Last month, I blogged about going toe-to-toes (and loving every minute of it) with 6 in-law family members on object d'politique. I mentioned that the discussion ended when I pointed out that they were one and all, without exception, on the government dole.

UPDATE
One of those is currently teaching advanced science courses at a local college. Another retired within the last few years from that college. I sat quietly as they discussed current collegiate affairs, and how the coffers were running dry.

Now, despite record attendance at the college, statewide supply seems to have dwindled, and cutbacks are the order of the day. Reduced or eliminated travel, reduced excess spending here, hiring freezes there, etc.

Most interesting to me is that the president of the college is making noises of taking deparments' individual budgets and putting in one pot, and doling it out as needed.

As you can well imagine, the professor could see countless problems herein; his lab supplies, TA budgets, etc. could all be affected detrimentally. And how could the president of a college know better than the department heads and deans where the money should be spent?

IRONY
However, he didn't see the irony in the situation. He voted for obama, a man who believes in exactly that: Taking from everyone's budget, putting it in a bucket, and doling it out as he sees fit.

Since it was my son's 2-year birthday party, I laughed hilariously at his intellectual hypocricy, and went on my merry way, knowing that he'll probably never realize at a conscious level how he lies to himself and justifies socialism on one scale, but not another.

P.S.: I DIGRESS
Intellectually weak persons do this every day: They justify one action or belief to help build a castle out of it, fortified by thousands of other similar voices.

Case in point: Moral Relativism. If you can say Mother Theresa is better than Adolf Hitler, you must have a measuring device that is distinct and separate from either person. This completely does away with the idea of moral relativism.

If you indicate that Mother Theresa is better, you must say by what rationale, by what standard. But how can there be a standard without insulting personal belief systems of those who believe the life of a fish is just as important as the life of a human? To that person, Mother Theresa can be no better than Hitler. Yet each of us knows this is not true--we know that at some level, Mother Theresa was definitely better than Adolf Hitler.

To take the argument farther in the mind is to admit to an unchanging, objective standard that by definition, cannot change.

That is why I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Moral relativism is for weenies.

Ahh, Public Education

Another fine example of the wonderful advantages of socialized education where parents aren't free to send their kids to better schools.

Fast forward past the Germans to about 22 seconds into the clip.



Of course there's no indoctrination. She was just, well, helping that little girl to see how stupid she is for having a different opinion. There's actually plenty of room in liberalism for alternative opinions. It's just a good thing this "teacher" was there, to help her see the truth early on.

Applause for Obama = Applause for Socialism

As I watch thousands upon thousands of publically-educated, mind-numbed people cheering for barak obama, I'm reminded of the famous words of Amidala:

So this is how a democracy dies: to the sound of thunderous applause.

Almost Over, Quick Refresher

I'll be parked in front of FoxNews tomorrow watching the results of the election tomorrow evening, with fellow blogger, Paul Zimmerman.

Hopefully, we won't elect a man who

1) Berates the troops
2) Does nothing to help his destitute brother and aunt, though he says we should be our "brothers' keepers."
3) Pals around with terrorists.
4) Loves socialized medicine, which will reduce the quality across the board.
5) Wants to penalize success by taxing anyone who earns $250k, no, $200k, no, $150k, no...
6) Is supported by people who claim to hate. They hate Bush, hate Conservatism, hate Capitalism.
7) Uses government resources to research those who question him (Joe the Plumber) and will shut out news agencies who ask tough questions.
8) Thinks it's okay to let babies die of exposure in abortionists offices.
9) Thinks as do the socialists.
10) Believes he can lower ocean tides
11) Believes you should pay for everyone else's health care, mortgages, retirement, add-your-favorite-socialist-program-here
12) Wants to bankrupt the coal industry