Did you hear the latest from John Kerry? That man must wn more votes for Republicans than any GOP efforts ever have. Anyway, in some press conference or other activity where he was behind a podium with microphones in his face, Kerry said something along the lines of, "If you work hard and get a good education, you can have a nice career, otherwise you get stuck in Iraq."

So basically he's insulting enlisted men as being uneducated ignorants. I think many of them, including my college buddy who is in the reserves, would heartily disagree. It's these sort of thoughtless comments that lost Kerry the election in 2004, and will drive some fence sitters to the other side. Many Americans do not take kindly to people insulting those who join the military, myself included.

It seems the ACLU has dropped their several years long lawsuit against the government regarding the Patriot Act. They realized that 1. It's not really a horrible piece of legislation, and 2. The government has not been abusing it by stretching parts to non-terrorism related investigation, as had been predicted by many opponents of the Act.

So a lot of people are upset with CNN for showing videos of bad guy snipers shooting American soldiers in Iraq. Lynne Cheney even chastised Wolf Blitzer on the air, calling it terrorist propaganda and asking if he even wanted the U.S. to win. Blitzer responded that it was not terrorist propaganda. Let's examine that point.

What is the purpose of something that is undoubtedly terrorist propaganda? To both strengthen the resolve and purpose of one group while disheartening the other group. Just like in sports, war can be all about the positive or negative mindset of the players, in this case the terrorists versus the American people.

In the stock market, there is a very important concept called equillibrium. What this basically means is that two different assets, or sets of assets, that give the same payout in the same circumstances are equal, and should be valued equally, as well. You could buy a stock, or you could buy a combination of a bond and a call option on that stock, and it should cost the same whichever you choose. If it doesn't, the market is not in equilibirum. Someone could buy the cheap asset and sell the overpriced asset, and make a killing. That's called arbitrage, and it wouldn't matter what the price of the stock does, the arbitrager would still be making the spread between the two unequal prices on equal assets for as long as the assets are out of equilibrium.

Actual terrorist propaganda and and what CNN showed have equal results, and thus should be valued the same. They are both propaganda that favors the enemies of the United States. Of course CNN could balance this by showing videos of Americans killing Iraqis, but that would be spun by them to make it seem like evil Americans shooting people. Heck, they wouldn't have to spin it, much of the Arab world would start rioting without any supporting voiceover from CNN.

CNN may be an international agency, but most of its decision makers are American citizens. Shame on them.

Right up to the start of hurricane season, we were inundated with warnings about how this year will be worse than last year, how global warming is going to make the destruction of New Orleans an annual event, that sort of thing. Now that there have been basically no hurricanes worthy of worry this season, I have yet to hear a single person so "Oh, I was wrong." And when it does get mentioned, it's surely with the caveat that this year is obviously an aberration. Perhaps someone will pipe up with the nonsensical platitude "It's the exception that proves the rule." I've yet to find an instance where an exception to a rule proved a rule, and think that people who use that phrase also say things like, "It's literally raining cats and dogs." But I digress.... Back hurricanes. Where are they? Perhaps last year was the aberration?

Blogger Tim Blair had a funny note on the issue. Meteorologists freely admit the difficulty in predicting the weather even for the next day, and are wrong almost as often as they are right, yet people are staking their reputations on predicting weather for the next 100 years. Seems like a bad bet to me.

Terrence Moore, one of the AJC's always controversial sports columnists, had a little bit today about the failure of Georgia Tech's coaching staff to fully utilize Calvin Johnson. He had several quotes from Lou Holtz, former coach of Notre Dame and South Carolina, about making sure a star player with Johnson's capabilities gets at least 15 touches a game, whereas in the Clemson game Calvin was thrown the ball all of four times.

I would like to blame the coaching staff, but at the same time, I just have this strange feeling that Reggie Ball is to blame most of all. One, he sucks and can't ever seem to throw the ball accurately to Calvin's position. Two, I can't believe the coaching staff has been telling to Ball to ignore Calvin when he's open, yet it seems like Reggie looks to Calvin 3rd or 4th, if at all, before deciding to throw the ball away or make a run for a yard or two. I think that Ball is jealous of Calvin and the attention he gets, and so Reggie is trying to win without involving Calvin too much, thus taking more credit for himself.

It's really a shame. Reggie should have been dumped a year or two ago when it became obvious that he would never be the sort of passer that could really take advantage of having the best receiver in the game. They should have brought up one of the young guys like Taylor Bennet, who supposedly can pass accurately, and revamped the offense to focus on Calvin. Better than now where it's focused on a quarterback who sucks.

The AJC had a big front page article on the Libertarian Party candidate for governor in the state of Georgia. The crux of the article is that dissatisfaction with the two major parties is giving a lot of impetus to the Libertarian campaign. The candidate could very well be the spoiler, forcing a run-off, though winning is very unlikely.

While reading the article, I thought I would write a blog entry about the Libertarian guy's platform and views on various issues, but the AJC was up to its usual high standards of reporting and neglected to talk much about the guy's opinions, but instead just focused on how he might screw over the Republicans.

I'm going to seek out third party candidates for elections I get to vote for, and find out what they are about about. I hope everyone else will do the same. That does not mean vote for the third party candidate, it means learn about them, and then vote for them if you think they would fill the position well. Never vote for someone just because of their party affiliation.

Instapundit had a link to a survey of Mexicans showing that over 50% of respondents want stronger border security on their southern border. And their government is going to give it to them. Damn hypocrites. I wonder when the pro-immigration forces in this country are going to wake up and realize they are naive idiots and the Mexicans are taking advantage of them every step of the way.

Why is it ok for the Mexicans to want to stop immigration from Central America, but it's racist if we want to stop immigration from Mexico?

This is pretty interesting food for thought. Mike Wallace asked Peter Jennings what he would do if he were an embedded reporter with a foreign military, and he realized they were about to ambush US soldiers. Jennings said he would warn the US soldiers, and Wallace was taken aback, saying that as a journalist Jennings should remain detached in such a situation, and Jennings backed down without further disagreement.

Bullshit! Jennings gets off, I guess, because he's really a Canadian citizen, but if a US citizen is a journalist embedded with Middle East terrorists, and he neglects to warn the US military about a plan he discovers that ends up killing lots of US soldiers, he's a traitor and should be tried as such. Citizen first, journalist second. Above and beyond our daily lives and jobs, we have obligations to this country that allows us to live our lives the way we want to. I'm disgusted at Mike Wallace's view on the subject.

Most people are aware that apes and chimpanzees and other monkey-like creatures are our genetic ancestors, and that they are much stronger than we are. Apes are masters of their own bodyweight, able to swing from limb to limb or climb like it's nothing. Most humans, even ones in great shape, have trouble doing more than a few pullups. After watching the Thug Workouts (google Thug Workout, watch a couple of videos), I've decided to somewhat refocus my energy to bodyweight exercise. My muscles are about as bulky as I want them to be, and from a bodybuilding perspective, I'm satisfied (except for some fat still over my abs... time...). I want to be able to do tons of pullups wtih different grips, hanging situps, dips with massive reps, etc. Most gyms just won't carry simple straight bars bolted to the wall, so we have to look elsewhere. In the thug videos they use scafolding, and I don't have that available. What I do have is monkey bars. Not in my yard, but in the playground at the nearby elementary school.

Not wanting to be thrown in jail simply for being a strange man hanging around in an elementary school playground, I emailed the principal and asked permission to use the playground after hours and on weekends. She agreed with the proviso that I don't start until 6 on weekdays. I noticed that my odometer says it's about a half mile from my driveway to the school, so once spring comes around, my every other day routine will be a half mile jog to the playground, 15 minutes of various hanging, pulling, and pressing exercises using my bodyweight, then a half mile jog back home. On the opposite days I will probably go to the gym and do squats, overhead press, and some other stuff that's better to do with gym equipment. So we're talking at most 45 minutes a day, 6 days a week, and after 6 months of that I will be as in shape as anyone I know, and much stronger in functional strength.

I just had to share this because it's so damn stupid. I saw a letter to the editor where someone said that it was ok that Democrats have molested Congressional pages in the past, because the Democrats don't harp about family values all the time.

Ummm... I think someone is way too caught up in partisanship.

I did front squats at the gym today, no backs. Front squats are tough on my arms, wrists, shoulders, and neck, but its only a matter of time before I loosen up enough to make it feel natural. The actual squatting movement is easy, and I pretty sure I'm getting perfect form without even having to really work at it. And my back is much more upright, making it feel more balanced than the back squat. I never once felt like I was doing it wrong, whereas nearly every time I try a back squat, I feel like I did this or that wrong, so I'm gonna stick with fronts and overheads for a while. Still working on the pistols, too.

You know, it amazes me that I see so little overhead pressing in the gym. It seems like the most obvious of movements. Hold a weight, put it overhead, lower it to your shoulders, repeat. But all you ever see are people doing lateral raises, which is where you hold a dumbell and raise your arm outwards at the shoulder, then lower it back down to hanging position, without slacking the shoulder muscle. When would you ever have occassion to move in that manner in real life? I can see having to put something up overhead, but raising your arm outwards (or forwards) from the shoulder? No sport, no activity that I can think of.

Do some pullups. You never know when you might be hanging off the edge of a building. If you've done some pullups, you'll just pull yourself up. The best way to train for pullups, far better than any other method, is to do pullups. If you can't do any, jump yourself up to the highest position in a normal pullup, and let yourself down slowly, then repeat. Do that until you can do a pullup, and do it at the end of each session when you can't do anymore pullups.

Here's a good article on the fallacies of the new internet gambling law. The main point within that has not been focused on much elsewhere is the incentive created by this law. Before the law, people had no problem using relatively transparent eWallets like Neteller. Now there will be incentive for people to come up with much safer, much more private means to transmit funds online. Schemes that could, potentially, be used by terrorists where before they would not have such a private avenue.

This is an example of the problems inherent in regulation. For every good intention, there are ten far worse unintended consequences.

It's so tiresome to see the same old canards day after day in the papers and in blogs. One thing that bugs me is the use of the term neo-con. Poeple seem to want to associate it with everything evil. Right wing religious types are neocons. Neocons want to keep women in the home raising kids. Neocons want to take over the Middle East and steal all the oil.

Sorry people. None of that is what a neocon really is. And just because you decide someone has a particular motivation for doing something doesn't mean that that is their real motivation. There is no disconnect between thinking invading Iraq was a good idea, and genuinely wanting all of humanity to live in peace in prosperity. And most neocons are not religious nuts, if anything a real neocon feels a sort of disdain for very religious types, as that sort of extremist tends to make decisions based on the Bible instead of the more grounded reality a neocon lives in. In fact, I would go so far as to say that neocons, at their core, are people who apply logic instead of emotion to the issues confronting us in the world today. A neocon supports free speech, a strong military, and a government willing to use that military to make the world a better place. What defines better? How about the rule of democracy, the felling of murderous despots, and keeping nukes out of the hands of people who either imply or state directly that they would be more than willing to use the weapons to kill lots of people.

I've got at least two Halloween parties to go to this year, so for the first time in many years, I have out actual thought and effort in to my costume. I'm going to keep it a secret for now, but I will definitely put some pictures up on here afterwards. I'm pretty excited about it, plus it should give me the chance to show off all my fancy new muscles that I have gotten since I started working out again.

Speaking of working out... Overhead squats are the most incredibly awesome exercise ever. Heck, even with just a towel instead of weights, they are awesome. Please, do yourself a favor, google overhead squats and try to learn them. You don't need a gym or anything, just enough room to stand and squat down, and if you never do any other exercise, you will still find tremendous gains in strength, stamina, and flexibility, as well as overall muscular integration (i.e. getting all your body parts working together instead of isolating them like bodybuilders do).

According to the New York Times, John Hopkins has completed a study in which they estimate that 600,000 people have died as a result of the war in Iraq. The methodology used in this study makes it meaningless, as they included natural deaths (like heart attacks), accidental deaths (like car accidents), and criminal deaths (like homicides) in the numbers. Why not just throw in deaths on US soil, too? We're in the war, too, so if Bush causes heart attacks in Iraq, isn't he also responsible for heart attacks in the US?

I made this point to a friend of mine who is very anti-Bush. She responded by attacking my character and saying I had blinders on, when she is the one spouting 600,000 dead Iraqis and believing it without even examining it further. I won't deny a lot of people have died as a result of this war, but including natural deaths in a study like this does nothing except make people distrust studies.

The new internet gambling bill was signed in to law yesterday. Party Poker, Paradise, Fortune, the OnGame Network (Pokerrom) and several others have pulled out of the US market. Ultimate Bet's software provider has also pulled out, so I don't know what's up with them. Thankfully Pokerstars, Bodog, and my favorite, Full Tilt, have said they are staying, but that could change as the actual method of enforcement becomes clear. I do have a feeling that Bodog will stay no matter what. Pokerstars seems on the edge where they might skip out at any moment, and FTP will most assuredly stay at least until the end of the 270 days the bill allows for enforcement to begin.

There's barely any shared views left that keep me favorable to the Republican party, and there's even less in the Democratic Party. The Libertarians are crazy, and the libertarians are never going to start a party of their own (the difference between L and l is that L is the actual political party full of people who are closer to anarchists than I prefer, the l is for people who are like me, fiscally conservative, socially liberal, yet still want the U.S. to act like the responsible and powerful world leader it should be, instead of the whiny approval seeking loser the far left seems to favor). Anyway, I don't know who to vote for party-wise, but thankfully my oldest voting philosophy still rules my decisions. That is to vote based on my knowledge of each individual candidate, and ignore their party. If the country votes in the best candidates, regardless of their party.... Well in many cases there are no great candidates, and the lesser of two evils rules the day. I think there may be a big shakeup in the next 10 years which will change our party system, hopefully for the better. A split in either party, or maybe both, creating a new and powerful centrist party. One of the current big two will become marginalized, the other will survive, and we'll be right back to two parties, but the new one won't be beholden to extremist interests, as the Dems and Repubs seem to be now. Maybe that's just a pipe dream, but it's a good one.

One of ESPN.com's college football writers also does a mail column where he answers letters from readers. Last he had mentioned that Calvin Johnson, Georgia Tech's all universe receiver, was the best, most talented player in college football, despite not being the leader in the Heisman race. What was more amazing is that he said this week that the response from readers was 4-1 in agreement with him.

Reggie Ball, Tech's QB, has grown up and is a lot more competent than he used to be, but one still wonders if there would be any question on the Heisman race this year if Calvin had an accurate passer throwing to him. On the rare occassions the ball is passed to him in stride, he scores. But because Ball isn't very pinpoint, Johnson often has to show off his athleticism by breaking stride and reaching behind to catch a ball, losing all momentum and allowing the lesser men on the field a chance to tackle him.

Wars are no longer won on the ground, they are instead waged by the P.R. spin that accompanies them. In the case of the recent Israel/Hezbollah conflict, Israel won by the facts on the ground. They killed a lot of their enemies, destroyed much of their fighting capability, and stopped the rockets from falling. Unfortunately the Muslim P.R. machine combined with left-leaning U.S. press turned this into a victory for Hezbollah. It wasn't. It also wasn't the resounding Israeli victory I had hoped for, but it certainly wasn't a loss. Unfortunately much of the world seems to be acting like it was a loss, and reality no longer seems to matter in our virtual age. While the facts on the ground are that Israel won, for all intents and purposes they lost.

I joined a gym and started working out again. God, how I missed it! At first I just went right back to the things I used to do, bench press, squat, pullups, overhead press, rows. The gym I'm at, Gold' Gym in Marietta, is definitely not hardcore. Too many machines, not enough free weights, only one squat rack, no power cage, no straight and thick pullup bar, no old skool dip rack, and nowhere to deadlift, or even think about trying an olympic lift. Although now that I think about it, they have a room for aerobics that is almost always empty, maybe they would let me set up a deadlift area in there, that would kick ass. Of course there are no bumper weights, so no power moves or Olympic lifts, regardless. Those lifts usually involve dropping the weight when you finish the lift. Not going to work with standard metal plates on the bar, so people use weights with really thick, dense rubber rims that actually make hundreds of pounds bounce.

Anyway, they still have most of what I need to do the above workout, but I decided that something is wrong with my squat. I know I'm getting the form wrong somehow, and I don't want to keep raising the weight if I'm doing it wrong, even if I can handle more. Out of every 10 people that lift weights, probably 3 squat, and probably at least 2 of those aren't getting the form right. Back arched and it must be locked into that arch with no change. Knees not extending past the toes. It's more of a sitting motion than an accordian motion. You aren't supposed to lean your back way forward to keep the same center of gravity. Try facing a closed door and hold on to the doorknob with both hands and lean back, shoulders back, chest forward. Lower yourself down, still hanging on to the doorknob. Your shins will stay almost straight up. This very nearly simulates a correct squat and will get you going in the right direction.

So anyway, I decided my main problem is flexibility and balance. Then I read about one leg squats (google it and watch a video). These things are crazy! To learn them, I also need more flexibility and balance, and a lot of core strength. That has moved me to my new favorite exercise, the overhead squat. Hold a towel up in the air stretched between your clenched fists that are at least shoulder with apart straight over your head. Squat down, still with arms straight up, and try to keep your back vertical. Go all the way down, ass to the grass, then stand back. Very hard, even harder when you graduate from bodyweight to holding a barbell. And it adds flexibility to parts people don't stretch a lot, like hip flexors.

The other exercise I have added is the bent over row. I started out doing it a little too heavy, and like most exercises, have realized the way to go is super light, to the point where some people would be embarassed to be seen bothering to lift, until you have the form down perfectly. The best way to get your form down for any exdercise is to read a whole bunch of different websites describing and showing the form until your research has shown you which one seems right. Honestly. There's so much crap out there, and few ways to know what's what. Your average personal trainer at Gold's Gym doesn't know shit. I'd have to guess that people who do Olympic lifts are probably going to know the best form for most multi-joint exercises (I rarely waste my time on single joint lifts like curls), as Olympic lifting is so technical that to be good, you really have to pay attention to strict form. It can make a huge difference in your weights. But bent over rows are pretty easy to do anyway, but still good to start light. Helps you get the full range of motion.

You know, I know a lot about this stuff. If anyone wants to get in to lifting, it's great for people of any age. Even little kids can learn bodyweight exercises, though weights are not advised for pre-high schoolers. So if anyone wants some advice, feel free to ask. Heck, I'll come to your gym and help you out if you pay me :)

If it ain't one thing, it's another. I just realized that my car is past due for a timing belt change. Not the sort of thing you want to put off too long, unless you want your car to die, and I'm not quite ready for that.

Arggh!! I try to get out, and they just suck me back in!

This Mark Foley thing.... The Republican Congressman sending innappropriate messages to a male page.... If you didn't see the text of any of the messages, they are definitely creepy and inappropriate, and Foley should definitely not be in office.

A couple of point, though. As far as we are aware at this point, there isn't even the allegation of him actually touching anyone or molesting anyone, and, last time I checked, we don't send people to jail for really creepy emails.

Two, we also don't send people to jail for being gay. Nor are we supposed to crucify them in the public square, though for all their supposed support, the Democrats seem to spend more time publicly "discussing" someone's homosexuality than Republicans. I think of gay marriage and tolerance of homosexuality in general as different issues (for the record, I am fine with gay people marrying, though I think the government should only recognize civil unions, not the religious institution of marriage), so I don't see any hypocrisy in Republicans not condemning Foley for being gay. Is it hypocritical for the Democrats to make a huge deal out of it?

Ok, before you attack me for being soft on Republicans, it seems that some party people knew about the messages before they came out in the press. Foley, btw, asked a kid in one of them if he [Foley] made him [the kid] horny and if the kid could send him a picture. Yechhh! Makes me want to take a shower. So Foley was warned. I'm not sure if more messages were sent after that, I need to read up on it. Still, is there anything illegal about asking for a picture? He didn't ask for a nude picture, you know. He didn't touch the kid, or rape the kid, or anything like that, as far as I have seen. I'm not understanding why anyone besides Foley should punished for this.

EDIT: After more reading, I'd like to scratch the homosexuality section up there. It seems to not really be an issue except with Conservatives looking to blame the left. And supposedly some GOP leaders knew about the messages much longer than originally revealed. Is it ethically wrong that they didn't do anything about it except warn him to stop? Yeah, but I just can't get over the fact that it was just really creepy sex-related emails. I'd have to think that if someone had actually been molested by him, the press would have dug it up almost immediately. I'd bet every single page that might have had contact with Foley has already been interviewed by one arm of the press or another.

I'm reading The Long Tail, by Chris Anderson. The underlying concept is that the internet has changed the retail market from a hit-based structure to a system where niche products make a much more significant portion of a company's sales. Amazon and Netflix are perfect examples. They sell the blockbusters, what you would find in a video rental store or a local bookstore, but they also offer a catalog of millions beyond that. One or two sales spread over a million products can now be as good as selling one millions units of one product, thanks to the internet and improved supply-chain and delivery capabilities.

Now Netflix is taking the next step, offering their dataset of movie recommendations to the public, sans any personal information, of course, along with a million dollar prize to whoever comes up with a system that improves on their current one by 10% or better. They are taking advantage of the long tail of brainpower spread across the planet, and I hope it works, because it would neat to see this sort of thing more often.

I was thinking I would start writing more about things other than politics and poker, and I still mean to do so. Ironically, however, the two topics merged into a hypocritical mess this weekend. Bill Frist added a little online gambling legislation to the Safe Ports act, and who could vote against something called Safe Ports?

This little rider makes it illegal for financial institutions to transfer money to gambling related organizations. That means, among other things, poker sites. They did manage to take the repugnant moral stance that lotteries and horse racing are A-OK. Apparantely you can buy a year's worth of lottery tickets all at once online, and we wouldn't want to mess with that, now would we?

The hypocrisy obviously belies any supposed anti-gambling morals in the passage of this bill. Two explanations come to mind. A sop to conservative Christians in the run-up to the midterm elections and/or a heavy lobbying campaign by brick and mortar casino conglomerates like Harrah's that feel threatened by the online game.

What this will do is make it harder to deposit money to play poker. It won't be illegal to play, just hard to do so. I like my poker, and I will still be able to play, I will find a way. Maybe an egold account, maybe illegal home games. What this will do is remove a lot of the bad players from the pool, leaving a higher good player to bad player ratio. Take my word that I'm at least a breakeven player, which is better than most people. But the people who will go through extra effort to play are probably better than average. This will make the game itself much tougher, and when the US comes to its senses and regulates poker, the rest of the world will be far better players and will take all of our money! Yeah, that last part probably won't happen.

After several years of being too lazy to click on the "template" tab and change the template for this blog, I finally did it. I hope you like it.

Also, the blog has actually been down for a month or two since my gracious host, cousin Mike, changed ftp servers or somesuch thing and I needed to change some of my settings. There are several posts I wrote over that period that you haven't read yet.