Month: February 2013

Should ignorant people be allowed to make laws and policy?

/ hsoi / 6 Comments

I have a serious question.

Should ignorant people be allowed to make laws and policy?

I’m sure to some it seems like a stupid question to ask. But I have to ask it, because I see so many people permitting the ignorant to make laws and policy, and I don’t understand why.

Noted firearms specialist and personal-safety expert “Shotgun Joe” Biden continues to dole out firearms and personal safety advice:

I said, “Well, you know, my shotgun will do better for you than your AR-15, because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door.”

Full story (h/t TexasCHL). Emphasis added.

There’s more to the transcript, but I want to focus on the last part of Mr. Biden’s statement.

I’d like to hope one doesn’t need to understand the fundamental rules of firearm safety to understand how dangerous, reckless, careless, and potentially tragic Mr. Biden’s suggestion could be. If you have no idea what’s on the other side of that door, you have no business shooting through it.

Right now we have a terrible shooting story in the news, of Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius being accused of killing his girlfriend. Apparently he shot through a closed door without knowing who was behind it.

*sigh*

There’s tons of other things wrong with Mr. Biden’s comments, both the current ones and ones he’s made in the recent past. I’m at a point where I just don’t know if Biden is that ignorant of firearms and personal safety, or if he’s that smart and is trolling.

Either way, is this a person that should be in charge of making policy? That should be in charge of writing laws? Even if he is that smart and is trolling, is that how a politician should behave?

There are those who claim men cannot speak about abortion because, as men, they cannot understand women’s health issues. There are those who would find it ludicrous for climate-change deniers to set our environmental policy. Or that fundamentalist Christians should have any say over public school science curriculum. If such demonstrable and obvious ignorance on a topic is so unacceptable, why is it acceptable here?

If we seek true experts, people truly knowledgable in the field, when it comes to solving problems… why aren’t we doing that here? I don’t think Mr. Obama nor Mr. Biden has called Massad Ayoob or Tom Givens. Why would that be? Why wouldn’t actual public safety experts be consulted here?

Just because the end may wind up meeting your agenda, I cannot see how you can condone the means for getting there. For if you set the precedent that it’s OK for the ignorant to mandate policy when the policy serves you, just remember… karma’s a bitch.

2013-02-28 training log

/ hsoi

Enter. PR. Exit.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

  • Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 365#)
    • 1x5x150 (warmup)
    • 1x5x185
    • 1x3x225
    • 1x5x275 (work)
    • 1x3x315
    • 1x5x350 (PR)

I have an early meeting this morning. So I did jack shit.

That’s a nice PR. Last cycle was 5 reps at 340#, so to get 5 reps and 10# increase? Hell yes I’ll take it. Plus, I’m really beat up. My left shoulder has been bugging me as it is, and I think when I dumped/rolled the bar off my shoulders/neck on Monday’s squat session, I must have aggrevated something because my body has been unhappy with me in the shoulder/neck region ever since. It’s better, but constantly aches and is tough to even lift my arm. Won’t keep me from deadlifting. 🙂 But tomorrow’s Pressing? We’ll see how that goes.

Given that, next week is deload week and I think I’m going to do a serious deload. I might hit the gym only twice, and do like a Monday squat/bench very light and minimal, Thursday deadlift/press light and minimal. Else rest rest rest and basic recovery work, like rolling, stretching, etc..

Oh… my new belt from BestBelts came in, and I used it this morning. It’s the Athlete belt, single prong, royal blue, 36″. Of course it’s a little stiff, but today was a good way to start the break-in. 🙂

Hooray for Government – keeping the homeless fed and safe

/ hsoi / 5 Comments

Louisiana’s State Health Department forced a homeless shelter to destroy $8,000 worth of deer meat because it was donated from a hunter organization.

[…]

“We didn’t find anything wrong with it,” Rev. Henry Martin told KTBS. “It was processed correctly, it was packaged correctly.”

[…]

“They threw it in the dumpster and poured Clorox on it,” Martin told KTBS. “Not only are we losing out and it’s costing us money, the people that are hungry aren’t going to get as quality of food, the hunter that’s given his meat in good faith is losing out.”

[…]

“While we applaud the good intentions of the hunters who donated this meat, we must protect the people who eat at Rescue Mission, and we cannot allow a potentially serious health threat to endanger the public,” the Health Department stated.

 Full story

1600# of venison.

Accounts vary, but it seems a “serving of meat” is considered to be 3oz. So that’s 8533 servings that were destroyed.

Let that sink in for a moment.

More than 8000 servings of food.

If you divided that by 3 meals a day, that’s 2844 days.

Can you see how many people who meat could have fed?

Meat is expensive. And hell, venison is lean and high quality protein. We complain about the poor food choices that people make, the poor food choices available to people. And when it comes to charity food donations, people aren’t always going to be donating organic canned goods from Whole Foods, y’know? But here you’re getting high-quality, free-range protein… and you’re destroying it.

Under the guise of “protecting people”?

What about the hunters or other folk that would have otherwise eaten the meat? Why aren’t they being protected? Why is their consumption of the meat OK? If the meat is unsafe to eat, it’s unsafe to eat — period; thus no one should be eating it. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, does it?

None of this makes sense.

You’re not helping.

2013-02-26 training log

/ hsoi

I felt like I was in a Tex Avery cartoon. *sigh*

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

  • Work Set – Bench Press (working max: 230#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x95
    • 1x5x115
    • 1x3x140
    • 1x5x175 (work)
    • 1x3x200
    • 1x5x220
  • Assistance – Bench Press
    • 5 x 10 x 135
  • Assistance – Pendlay Rows
    • 5 x 10 x 115

You ever watch those Tex Avery cartoons where you see the line of army men marching in precision? Then the camera pans down to their legs and it looks like a drunken octopus orgy? Yeah, that’s what I felt like today. 🙂

I just didn’t have my legs under me today, figuratively and literally. I thought I had figured out my leg position, but alas not. I did find myself pushing into the pad differently, mostly because I’m trying to have a good arch without lifting my butt, shoulders locked in, etc.. I thought this was foot position? Do a set… no, that wasn’t right. Tweak feet. Set. No. Tweak. Etc.. Finally on my last set, it felt like that Tex Avery cartoon with my legs not giving me anything: no stability, no drive, just flailing around on their own looking stupid.

WTF?

Back to the drawing board.

I will say I felt one thing. I have a little more external hip rotation than normal. Thus, I want to “point in” a little more to help leverages naturally negate that. Well, I think I took too narrow a stance, and in trying to point my toes forward to get better drive, I lost that natural negating and thus a bunch of stability. I may need to actually pigeon-toe myself slightly. Will have to play with this and see.

I’m not unhappy with 5 reps @ 220, but I had problems. Must do better.

2013-02-25 training log

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

A PR, a miss, and I think I learned more from missing than PR’ing.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 3

  • Work Set – Squat (working max: 295#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x120
    • 1x5x150
    • 1x3x180
    • 1x5x225 (work)
    • 1x3x255
    • 1x2x285 (PR)
    • Hold 315 for 10 seconds
  • Assistance – Squat
    • 5 x 10/10/8/8/8 x 150
  • Assistance – Leg Curls
    • 4 x 12 x 60
  • Foam Rolling

I PR’d. I hit 285#, for 2 reps. Never done that weight (or reps) in my life. How cool! 300# is within reach, and 315# before the end of the year looks do-able.

But I only got 2 reps.

255 felt heavy. I think it started there… in my head. Seeds of doubt sown. *sigh*

I told myself all I need is 1 rep with 285.

I put the bar on my back, deep breath, tighten everything, lift out of the rack…. shit, that’s heavy — another seed.

I go down, and stand up. It was tough, but it was there. Yes! Set a PR. Everything else is gravy.

Go again… but this was much harder to get up. It was a struggle. But I got up. Stood there, got my wind. Fuck it… let’s try for 3, what’s the worst that can happen? I don’t come up.

And sure enough, I go down, and I didn’t come up. I tried, instant-fail. Couldn’t get out of the hole.

The only thing that caught me? How to get this off my back? Roll down my back or over my head? Well, gravity and the physics of my position dictated over my head. So I dropped down as much as I could, curled myself into a ball and let the bar roll over my head onto the rails.

And I didn’t care.

In fact, one thing I’m starting to do, at least at the end of my 5/3/1 work sets, is to put a larger weight on the bar and then just hold it. Just put it on my shoulders, unrack, walk out, hold it for like 10 seconds, then rack it. Just feel that weight, and realize that the weight you just did was lighter, and the weight you’ll do next is also lighter.

And I made sure I still did this. Still get up. Still get back under the bar. Keep moving forward.

It’s interesting to me because squats have been my least favorite movement. I still can’t say I love them, but I cannot deny I’ve spent the past few days looking forward to today’s effort. There’s been a lot of baggage to overcome, fears, stupid shit in my head… of getting hurt, of failure, of whatever. But some months ago I started to realize it didn’t matter because the worst thing is that you miss… and so what? And that’s exactly how it happened today. I missed, so what. It was truly no big deal. I didn’t quit, I didn’t give up, the bar was just too heavy, it didn’t happen.

Oh sure, I think I wasn’t quite in the mental groove, but even then I’m sure I would have only gotten 3, maybe 4 if I really was on fire. And that mental is something that will take nothing but time under the bar to improve upon.

But today’s miss was my first squat miss — ever. I never allowed myself to miss in the past, for whatever reason…. fear of failure, fear of injury, fear of pushing myself that hard, fear of the opinions of others, whatever reason. But today? I missed, and it didn’t matter. All it means is for cycle 18 I’ll stay at this work weight and work towards rep PR’s. No big deal.

OK… there is one big deal. My ribs hurt, from when I got bent over so much and my belt dug into me. It might be a 2-Advil kind of day. 🙂 and yes, I really would love it if the gym would buy a proper power rack and not what it has… could have set the catch-pins at a proper height (for me). Oh well, I won’t complain too much.

Otherwise, just continuing my “regression” back to a pure BBB template and enjoying that.

Already starting to plan out cycle 18.

Gun Control = Elitism ? racism? classism?

/ hsoi / 7 Comments

In some areas, ordinary people of the wrong color, people who live in the wrong neighborhood and have the wrong kind of job — well, those folks are out of luck, and cannot legally own effective tools they might use to protect themselves and their families. They are priced out of the concealed carry market by abuses of “may issue” laws, or by the cost and difficulty of meeting the law’s training requirements, or by high bureaucratic fees. A fee that seems reasonable to a middle-class individual often falls far outside the reach of someone below the poverty line. A training requirement that can be easily met by someone with a high-status, 9 to 5 weekday job might be utterly impossible for a single parent working erratic hours at a low-status job. To put it bluntly, I oppose “reasonable” restrictions in this area because every law that increases the regulatory burden on good people, also creates unavoidable racist and classist effects in actual use.

– Kathy Jackson, on “reasonable” restrictions

It’s curious because many of those who seek “reasonable restrictions” and other sorts of “gun control” tend to also be those that are against racism, classism, and other sorts of social divide.

Then they promote it, through measures like this.

If there’s any one thing I value it’s consistency (which overlaps with integrity). I really don’t care what your political leaning is, your social leaning, just as long as you’re consistent about it. I don’t like bigotry, but I can respect a consistent and honest bigot more than someone who is selective, holds double-standards, and denies or is blind to their own bigotry. Yes, we all want answers, we all want solutions, but you have to think things through else those “unintended consequences” will bite you in your ass.

2013-02-22 training log

/ hsoi

Less continues to be more.

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

  • Work Set – Press (working max: 150#)
    • 2x5x45 (warmup)
    • 1x5x60
    • 1x5x75
    • 1x3x90
    • 1x3x105 (work)
    • 1x3x120
    • 1x8x135
  • Assistance – Press
    • 5 x 10 x 75
  • Assistance – Pull-ups (band assisted)
    • 5 x 7 x BW

Less is more. Continuing the pullback to a strictly BBB approach. I like it… tho I still cranked out just a single high-rep set of the shoulder pulls and tricep pushdowns at the end… like 20+ reps, just to get some blood in there. But otherwise, pull back to BBB strictnesss.

So with that, I felt fun about getting the 8×135. Last week I did the same, tho I was only supposed to do 130. But these reps were better.. a little less “body english” on the last couple reps, and I just felt technique and form locking in place here. Full body, all tight, all pushing… my form is starting to come together here.

So all is good. Just enjoyed the workout today.

I am looking forward to next week… PR time!

2013-02-21 training log

/ hsoi

More simplification

Wendler 5/3/1 program, cycle 17, week 2

  • Work Set – Deadlift (working max: 365#)
    • 1x5x150 (warmup)
    • 1x5x185
    • 1x3x225
    • 1x3x260 (work)
    • 1x3x295
    • 1x6x335
  • Assistance – Deadlifts
    • 5 x 5 x 185
  • Assistance – Hanging Knee Raises
    • 3 x 5 x BW

I don’t know what to make of it, but I feel so damn strong when I lift. My lifts are just going up up up… if you compare them against last cycle and cycles before, there’s just big improvements in both weight lifted and reps lifted. Like last cycle, one month ago on “cycle 16-2, week 2” I did 325 for 6… now I did 335 for 6. I don’t know what to attribute it to, but I’m kinda leaning on Carb Back-loading. Having enough energy from the evening’s load, then in the morning it’s a fasted workout: just some water and 200mg of caffeine. Huzzah.

I feel well on track for a nice PR next week.

As for assistance work… again, because I called that audible and am trying 4x week, I’m reverting back to a more BBB-stricter template. My deads today? For some reason I just opted to do them explosively.. like I was trying to jump. That made a big difference. I felt it a lot in my posterior chain (my glutes felt things I haven’t felt before), and my posture and form was kinda cool. I think it’s the cue… instead of “pick this thing up off the floor”, I’m thinking more about jumping and trying to touch the ceiling. It’s different cues, different body positions and body response. I kinda like how things went and am going to explore this more. Probably read some more about Westside, deadlifting, and dynamic effort to try to refine this a bit. Not that I’m trying to do Westside or ME/DE, just maybe to help find some cues, find what weight I should use for optimum results, etc..

I also tried Hanging Leg/Knee Raises again… I referred to the Wendler book. And I knew that wasn’t a wise choice, what with my shoulder issues. I did a few, stopped before my shoulder hated me too much. I need to find something else.

I can’t wait for next week. I will set a true PR, and very much looking forward to that. I hope I’ll have my new BestBelt as well!

Why Colin and why not Evan?

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

Colin Goddard was shot four times during 2007 Virginia Tech massacre that left 32 people dead. He now works with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Full Story

We are supposed to listen to and revere Colin Goddard because he survived the Virginia Tech massacre. That because he survived, he’s now to be considered an authority on gun violence and his opinion and angle is to be given (more) weight. Because he survived.

Evan Todd survived Columbine.

Why isn’t he considered an authority, especially since he was there at the watershed?

Why isn’t his opinion given weight?

Evan Todd and Colin Goddard are both survivors of similar horrific events. A big deal is made out of the appeals of survivors. So why is Evan Todd’s appeal ignored? And does that perhaps speak louder about the mainstream media and many politicians? Do they really care about the survivors? or do they only care about what they can leverage for their agenda?

FWIW, the above link to Colin Goddard came from the HuffPo, because it was a top result in the Google search. I plugged “Colin Goddard” into HuffPo’s local site search and received hundreds of results. I plugged “Evan Todd” into the HuffPo’s site search and received zero results.