Hey look it's Dammit!

love of fate indeed

Good lord! Our CFNYC boys are taking the certs by storm!

As you can doubtless deduce from this interview, Dammit's not only an impressive CrossFitter, but an impressive thinker and writer as well. A prime example of the wonderful people the CF community attracts.

Great interview, Dammit!

Dammit, that was a great showing. I like your perspective. The tattoos are great too.
Nietzsche was a popwerful writer/philosopher whose works will go down in history like Socrates.
We'll party someday, and you can mix the drinks.

YAY for Dammit! Great interview, and so nice to meet you.

As much as our views differ I want to party with CCTJoey as well. KS

nice interview, dammit! hope everything is going well at the black box.

I've been doing CF with my housemates for about a month now and we are looking for some other folks in our area, Chattanooga, TN. Drop me an email and let's see if we can workout sometime.

Nice to meet you CCTJoey and EvaT.

The Oly lifting Cert this wknd was fantastic. Big thanks to Coach Mike Burgener for the excellent and inspiration.

(John from Los Angeles)

Great to see "The Black Box" so well represented by such great, great fellas like Hari and Dammit; nice job guys!

Dammit, great interview. Well-spoken and you're more than "entitled" to an opinion on rest days; most of us are just making it up anyway.

On the Prager interview - interesting, but it seems almost self-evident to me. America has, almost by definition and certainly by its history, been about the American ideal. Nothing else really binds us - the "American Dream", nothing more than words and stories, inspired hundreds of thousands of immigrants to leave their native land and language to come here.

And is it surprising that Zinn thinks we're evil? No nation gives more in charity every year than the US. None. It's not even close.
Here's an article from the 2004 tsunami - and that was to foreigners in Sri Lanka - those people we're always exploiting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57477-2005Jan7.html

I was just saying this morning to my mom that people who live here and talk about how bad the US is are almost inevitably people who have traveled very little. Go to some of the sh*tholes of the world and people are begging to come to our little fascist state for a better way of life.

Prager's final comments were very telling - I agree that the culture war right now is truly about whether we want to abandon the religious ideals that have motivated us in the past in order to become a completely secular state. Books like "God is not great" and "End of faith" seem to be popping up more and more, motivated(IMO) by the "religious right" here. (And I can't say I blame people). But we need to separate the religion from the benevolent ideals contained therein. Whether he was the son of god or not, it's hard to argue with what Christ the Philosopher had to say.

It's late on the east coast, I'm rambling.
G'nite.

Why simplify it all so much?
"Has America been motivated by material gains or by ideological motives?"
Is the assumption always that people are idiots, they need their black or white? Ludicrous..

It's kinda' sick, but I too find myself jumping onto the CrossFit site several times a day, particularly on those days when getting to the gym doesn't sound nearly as good as a couple of pints of McGarvey's Scottish Ale. A couple of motivating WOD demo vids, and I'm generally good to go.

Also, not a day passes that I check to see whether the CrossFit universe is still two hours ahead of the rest of us.

Hey a little off topic, but I really want to try out the Zone Diet but I am too dense and lazy to figure all that stuff out. Seriously I find it very liberating to come to this site and be told what to do day after day. Once I get to a certain level of ability and familiarity with the system I am sure I will start variations on the theme but for right now it's great to give over that responsibility to you guys.

What I am wondering is there a similar site for Zone that just tells you what to eat that day. Like this is the big dumb meat eating guy diet, and vegtarian tofu eating perfect person diet, etc. with recipes and such? Just until I can get a handle on it all.

Thanks

Dammit.... you're a cool cat.. props!
What was your FIGHT GONE BAD SCOORE?

Does anyone have difficulty achieving the full rack position of the clean? I'm working with this guy that can't get his elbows up and he swears it's because his forearms are too long such that when he tries it chokes him. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Mark

Howdy guys!

I'm a bit behind due to a rib cartilage problem - still recovering but I did Grace for the first time today. 6m:33s as rx'd

I enjoyed that interview. It is so refreshing to see how poised and intelligent CrossFit folk tend to be...

My one gentle criticism, Dammit, deals with your feeling like you're not entitled to hold political opinions (or at least qualified to voice them here) because your peers seem more well-informed. The humility is genuine and honest, but no need to be self-effacing!

I do know what you mean with regards to not feeling wholly comfortable posting about politics, though. I feel the same way, though for different reasons. The dominant paradigm here seems to be pro-State, 'War on Terror' conservatism, while I fall more into the curiously similar and yet often diametrically opposite minimal-state conservative/libertarian camp. If I refrain from posting politics, I hope it is out of a desire to avoid flame wars and antagonism on the boards, and not because of paralyzing humility.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, if you have something to say, we want to hear it! :)

Dammit! I've seen Dammit! Hello brother. Post the bar where you work, and when I'm in they city, I'll come by for a cocktail!

Coach, thank you so much for this website. It's my touchstone. Before X-Fit Ohio took off, and it was only me slugging it out with Tony Young in whatever gym hadn't kicked us out yet, I was one lonely little Major. This site was my connection to the fitness community.

Nicole, The Eva and Annie were my proof that there are beautiful she-beasts out there. I would look at them several times a day and try to match their workout intensity when I was on my own. I pretended I was working out with the Grrrls. They are beauties that exceed all boundaries in strength and speed and have inspired me since the first day I saw them. Sometimes, when I'm trying to lift something that's really, really heavy for me, I'll stamp my feet under the bar like "The Eva" does, and think "Eva Strength" over & over again as I pick up something astonishing.

The inspiration I draw from this website's videos such as "Nasty Girls", where Nicole struggles till she's in obvious weeping agony and then she just perseveres and goes on and on till she finishes, well... that was the tipping point for me. Because of Nicole's "Nasty Girl" example, I have never ever quit. What Would Nicole Do?

And, the interviews have been great. I've seen Appolloswabbie, CTCJoey and Hari. Their posts are always worth the read, and now I've can put a face and voice to the name. Ditto Dammit.

Please interview Infidel Six and put him on. His posts are utterly hilarious.

So, thank you. Yes, I do have friends and relationships outside of the X-Fit cyber world. And, CrossFit Ohio now has a gym full of Glamazons, and I'm not alone anymore. But, I really love to brace myself with the CrossFit cyber environment before I go out and face the day amongst the fat and weak carb eaters.

And, today, because of Dammit's suggestion, I'm going to Tabata my work. I'm actually looking forward to it. 3,2,1... Go!

Mark #17. The message board is probably a better place to ask, but: when people first start learning the rack position they almost always complain that it's impossible, the bar is choking them, yadda yadda yadda. Over time, these objections almost always disappear.

Human proportions being as variable as they are, anything's possible, but if this guy doesn't look deformed, my guess is that he'll ultimately prevail.

Blake,

"The dominant paradigm here seems to be pro-State..."

Really, I'm militant libertarian, for instance.

My take is that the limited state, libertarian, AND GWOT committed are here in abundance.

Think of us as libertarians who know where freedom comes from - the willingness to kill for it. There's a foundational difference between knowing where freedom comes from, preserving it, and enjoying it.

#17, Are his arms in too close to the center of the bar? Wondering if he had a wider grip if that would help.

Loved the Dammit interview, particularly the very end with the idea of "Tabata my job". I like the idea of applying crossfit principles into other areas of life.

Great interview Dammit. Seven minutes seemed too short. Maybe you can get your own show.

did Helen today in 15:00

Thanks for the interview!
I would love to read the article "Tabata your job"

If possible, could someone please post a link to it?

Dammit, very please to meet you. In the unlikely event that I am ever interviewed I don't see how I would be able to answer "who do you most want to meet?" After I shake Coach's hand it would be like being a kid in the Boston Celtics locker room in 1970!

just got to watch the Buddy Lee video from the other day. He is rediclious!!!! what a great addition!

Wow Kelly, really? Dune? What a dork :D

Great interview.

23/m/162

CFWU

then: 5 rounds for time
500m row
25# DB trusthers, 15 rep
pull-up, 15 reps

46:29.68'

killer work out after that week end

wou'ha

#20 Spider Chick

Nice hearing rgrds from you from Hari and my fellow CFNYCers! Its been a while since Raleigh.

Dammit, way to go. I can read the headlines already: "NY takes over the CF world by storm..."

45yof/138#
Rest day shenanigans (sp?)
As many rounds as you can in 20 minutes:
5 Kb Snatch L
10 Overhead Walking Lunges
5 Kb Snatch R

5 rounds w 12kg KB
Rnds 3-5 knee pushups (I forget how awful they hurt the knees but aft 120 yesterday, I didnt have it in me)
10 Overhead Walking Lunges
15 pushups

The author's points of view were very poorly supported. I expect his book has much more support for the notion that Idealism is the main driving force of American foreign policy. Still the interview made me question the above stated notion more than support it due to the minimal time afforded the author to elaborate his views.

As a side comment to Dennis Prager: When asked if the world would have been better of were America to never exist, Howard Zin did not have an opinion either way. He did not answer yes, which is what Prager paraphrases him as saying in today's interview.

nice to have a context for the laughs elicited at the pdx cert whenever one of the trainers said dammit.

and, dammit, tell me getting paid to be a messenger wasn't one of the best gigs going.

Hear-Hear Coach!

Great interview Dammit. Tats in Latin are sweet.

Great interview of ..hopefully a future Pulitzer Prize winner

#17 Mark

Could it be wrist flexibility? Here's a picture of Casey Burgener warming up her wrists before some Oly lifts, it might help: http://crossfitflood.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/09/16/crossfitbackrack.jpg
I didn't get the full rack position on cleans until I was in the middle of a workout and was so fatigued that the "faux rack position" wasn't cutting it. I was literally forced to get my elbows up and let the weight roll back onto my shoulders/chest. It was the only way I could catch the weight, and I was amazed at how much easier it made the clean! Maybe you just need to get him tired.

Used my new weighted vest (20#) yesterday for the 120 / 120 pullups-dips.

Increased my time from 18:30 to 26:50, and wow what a struggle. The weighted vest will become pretty standard for bodyweight stuff for me for a while. Hopefully it will improve my times when I go back.

#15, Randy,

I recommend reading CF Journal article "Getting off the Crack" by Nicole:

http://www.crossfit.com/journal/2007/02/getting_off_the_crack_by_nicol.html

There are also several other good articles you can find by clicking on the CF Journal link.

28/f/113#

made up yesterdays WOD

no rings, subbed:

30 jumping bar muscle ups on smith machine

5:39

today is day 1 on the zone. weighed in at 113#, breakfast at 6:30am starving by 8am. this is going to be a long process. woke up 5x last night starving, ate and ate and ate and could not get full.

#20 spider chick-

I find myself doing the same thing re: Nicole, Annie, Eva T. I can't tell you HOW many times I watch those videos for inspiration. I probably spend my first 1-2 hours of the morning downloading the vids (sadly nasty girls won't download on my computer, maybe because it's a mac?). Everytime I feel like slacking, I remember how hard those girls work and am inspired to go balls to the wall.

randy #15- try the CFJ #21. I just finished putting my meal plans together based on that CFJ, well laid out and lots of info. good luck!

#17 Mark

Note in the photo (it's Sage actually) that Adam linked, the bar is BEHIND her neck. At that point, the idea is to do some progressive stretching, working the elbows higher.

Another great one: Have your client hold an empty bar in the rack position w/ elbows as high as possible. Stand in front of him/her & put your palms under their elbows (adjust elbows inward if necessary). Now ask them to push down hard w/ their elbows. Hold it for 3 secs & have them relax. When they relax, push the elbows up as far as they'll go & repeat 2 or 3 times.

CFWUx1
DU practice
30 MU 6:30:51
Snatch work 45x5 95x5 135 4x5
All of the videos are fantastic keep them coming.

Posting a day late, 7 flat for 30 jumping bar mu's. Way to go Dammit, and hats off to Hari (sounds a little like the old Del Shannon song, no?)

41yo/f/163#
making up Grace
CFWU x1 3 pu 4 dips unassisted!
jumprope 5 min
Grace mod
65# 3:04
CFWU x1 3 pu 3 dip
row interval 60'work 30' rest 17min, 3930 meter

I thought it was great in the video when he was talking about the "religious zeal" when he sees people doing typical Bodybuilding. I can COMPLETELY relate. I'm in college and I see guys left and right in the fitness center comprising workouts of 3 sets of 8 bench presses and bicep curls. ugh...If only they knew of the time they're wasting.

i'd like to thank all the little people...actually, dr. starrett and tony b. are some pretty big dudes. nadia is little, but she's tough, man, got a muscle-up on her very first try! thanks to them and everyone else at the portland cert for an amazing, life-changing weekend. hopefully it came through in my videotaped blather: i feel blessed to have found this community. it feels like home. thanks, coach!

ps: cct joey, the drinks will be on me, man.

Yeah... Sage, that's what I meant. Who's Casey anyway?

It's cool putting faces to names you read on this forum all the time.

Hey Nadia, try out VLC player:

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

It's a free player, has a Mac OSX download, and can run various media files, including WMV. I'd be surpirsed if Nasty Girls didn't play through it.

#17 Mark

Forearm length does indeed affect the rack position of the clean. Visualize this by imagining an exaggeration of the humerus/ulna proportions, and you can see how it works. If the guy has long forearms, the only way to accommodate him is to widen his racking grip. Many lifters learn to pull with a narrower grip and then rack the bar with a wider grip, performing the shift as they go under the bar. A little practice makes this work nicely.

Dammit: You are welcome in my mead hall any time.

Congrats, Dammit! Great interview. Way to represent.

decided I needed pull-ups so did a WOD from march 06'
:30w/:30 rest 15 rounds pull-ups
18-15-15-14-14-13-13-12-12-11-11-10-10-11-11

190 (139 w/20#vest last time)

Dear Dale Saran,

A couple of your comments got me to thinking, in particular your comment about US charitable giving.

Americans, as you say, are far and away the largest givers to charity, not only in total but also in percentage terms. This paper gives a good international overview: http://www.cafonline.org/pdf/International%20Comparisons%20of%20Charitable%20Giving.pdf However, what is interesting is that if you look at the level of taxes levied in different countries, in particular those levied for social security (or, broadly speaking, welfare purposes) there is a strong inverse correlation between private charitable giving and taxation levels: people who pay more welfare taxes are less personally generous, while those who pay less to government welfare are more personally generous.

Similarly with overseas aid: the US gives a high amount privately to charity overseas, but a relatively low amount of Government overseas aid (on a GDP per head basis, although recent US figures have been highly dependent on aid to Iraq), while other countries give less privately, but greater amounts through government aid.

While my view would be that private giving would tend to be more efficient than government giving, with less wasted and better targetting, I have not been able to find anything giving any meat to that argument nor whether, aggregating private and public giving, the US still gives more money for charitable purposes (per capita) than other countries.

The other comment that got me thinking was your view that people who live in the US and diss the US tend to have travelled little, and that residents of the world's sh..holes tend to want to get to the US. I have no view on that in particular, but did wonder how people living overseas who had travelled a lot (residents of said sh..holes presumably have travelled less than residents of, say, G8 countries) viewed moving to the US. According to the OECD International Migration Outlook 2006 report, while more people migrate permanently to the US than to any other country (not sure how the Mexicans are included in this), on a per population basis New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the UK are more popular destinations.

Another view of it is to look at where G8 type people living overseas say they would like to emigrate, given a chance. In the UK (a friendly English speaking place), the most popular declared destinations to emigrate to are Australia, Spain, Canada, New Zealand and the US, in that order source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2006/08_august/03/emigration.shtml

Faithfully,

Hamilcar Barca

#46:

> Who's Casey anyway?

Casey's the huge guy with half a ton or so on the bar in most of the pictures, who holds all of the Junior superheavy records at the moment, including a 493# clean & jerk (which unfortunately was not counted due to a technicality regarding prep):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ahNq8N6WZo

Possibly useful link for others:

http://www.mikesgym.org/qanda/qanda.php

Robzilla #47-

Thanks for that link! I downloaded the player and I can hear nasty girls, just can't see the video! I'll keep messing with it and see if I can get it to work. Thanks again for the help!

Dammit-

I've been practicing the pull-ups you showed me. Thanks so much. I also forgot to metion in my first post that I loved the part in your interview where you talked about how you felt like you must have been the only person in NYC doing crossfit! :-)

I Stomp b/c of Annie. I'm totally inspired by the she-beast, I love that. You guy's, all, move me to achieve higher heights.
Ditto to all said by Spider chick comment #20.

I did Isabel today (couple of days behind) and I am humbled yet again by Crossfit. First time doing snatches, as rx'd 7:28. Didn't really try for speed, just trying to keep from falling backwards. I have some serious balance/form issues on the snatch.

Haven't posted in a while
Did 30 MU workout today
15 x kipping (broken into sets of 5 or less)
15 x jumping (tried to minimize jump)
4:40
25m 195# 6'0

Neil(50) & Ellie(52)

Partner training session

4 min x/trainer
4 min power clean + press: Neil/32.5 kg x 45. Ellie/20 kg x 45

3 min x/trainer
3 min sit up to stand up: Neil/46. Ellie/ 64

2 min x/trainer
2 min burpees: Neil/25. Ellie/27

1 min x/trainer
1 min squats: Neil/50. Ellie/57

Total reps: Neil 166 Ellie 193

Ellie kicks my butt again (somethings never change).

30 sec transition time between rounds.

Have a good one.

Neilfit

Coach,

You wrote, "Think of us as libertarians who know where freedom comes from - the willingness to kill for it."

You won't find any disagreement from me on that point!

Indeed, I'm as revolutionary and liberty-loving as they come, believing Thomas Jefferson that 'the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants', and more than willing to follow Patrick Henry in saying 'Is life so precious or peace so sweet as to be purchased by the chains of slavery? Give me liberty, or give me death!

Unfortunately, we need to direct these questions more to the largest and most powerful state in the history of the world - our own - far more urgently than we must pose them to Iraq and the Middle East , who have absolutely nothing to do with any of this. Republicans try and tell you otherwise, but it's pure rhetoric. (Democrats, well... yikes!) 'Our' freedom does not come from over there, and we needn't invade other nations to fight for it. Homeland Security, the TSA the Fed, the CIA, and myriad others aren't about freedom or defending it, regardless of what the talking heads say.

In my view, a true libertarian is anti all wars that are not strictly defensive, and with U.S. Military (many of our best men and women!) sadly stationed in 100+ countries and bombing several dozen since war was last declared, defense is not the name of the game. We ought to be more like the Swiss in this regard - decentralized and defensive.

To he or she who comes back at me with the claim that Iraq and even al-qaeda constitute substantial threats to Americans, I have little more to say than I have arrived at the opposite conclusion from my inquiry on the matter, and would be happy to discuss why at the appropriate juncture.

Instead of me harping on about my own politics, let me ask you and other x-fitters a question. What do you think of Ron Paul?

Of course, I'll stress that I have no idea what your own politics are, outside of the militant libertarian description you provided.

I hope that in light of this, the post above doesn't seem pedantic or like I'm trying to put words in your mouth! That was not my goal at all. I just wanted to explore and give my take on the gulf between to "pro-liberty" camps that I see here on the boards. :)

#15 Randy -

Go straight to the source itself and click onto www.drsears.com. This really has all the information you need as well as providing you with an example day in the zone. Dr Sears is the guy who actually wrote the The Zone Diet.

RUN: 5.5 miles Time: 47min

15X One Arm Snatch 60lbs/Arm
20 Pull-ups
10X 95lbs Barbell Snatch
20 Pull-ups
10X 115lbs Barbell Snatch
10X 115lbs Barbell Snatch
20 Pull-ups
10X 125lbs Barbell Snatch
20 Pull-ups
10X 115lbs Barbell Snatch
20 Pull-ups

SWIM 950 Yards Crawl & Breast 200 yar Alternating.

Nadia, WTG on the MU. I would love to work out with you when I get up to NYC for a visit. The zone can be hideous at first, if you're carb addicted. But, imagine what you'll be like when you are off the crack? dang... formidable isn't a strong enough word. you'll be impervious. Keep at it. OCD zone eating gets you to the promised land. Still impressed by your MU. Went to gym and practiced them on my day off. They still elude me.

Sarena- hello there! I've heard how extremely well you're doing and am absolutley delighted. I think of you often, and sometimes tell people what you told me about your amazing year of X-Fit transformation. Huge inspiration!

Hari, Dammit.. well, I'd love to work out with you gents too. When I move to DC in November, I'm only a train ride away and will certainly get up there a great deal to visit friends. So, get ready to move over on the pullup bar.

Blake,

The U.S. is not the largest state in the history of the world. Canada is larger than the U.S. The former USSR was far bigger. Most powerful is surely debatable as well. Nevertheless, what kind of tyranny are you facing in you day-to-day?

I don't believe any pure ideology works. They all fail due to human weakness. Balance is much better approach IMO. For example: We'd have dangerous pollution without OSHA and the EPA. You could argue for the "efficiency of markets" to self correct these issues, but Warren Buffet said “I’d be a bum on the street with a tin cup if the markets were always efficient.”

So I have to ask the obvious question - If you are a true libertarian who is "anti all wars that are not strictly defensive", then can I conclude that you would have been opposed to WWI & WWII?

RP? He's non-electable. A+ for fiscal responsibility. F for National Security. He's associated w/ the 9/11 truthers (is he a proponent of that conspiracy?)

InfidelSix,

I wasn't talking about geography. When I say State, I mean State, not nation or country. The U.S. government is indeed the largest and most powerful ever assembled, in terms of both tax revenues, expenditures, debt, and military power to name just a few.

"I don't believe any ideology works." This is a common statement from 'moderate' and 'issue by issue' voters. Well, what about the ideology that says that all humans have natural individual rights, and it is wrong to initiate violence on others? We can't snap our fingers and make the world perfect, but we can hold up an ideological standard of right and wrong. I think you're conflating principle with reality here.

Yes, I am vehemently opposed to U.S. involvement in WWI. Actually, I wrote an article about it here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/masters1.html

As far as WWII goes, same deal, although this one is harder to argue because of the hot button issue of the Holocaust (nevermind that our friend Stalin murdered over twice as many as Hitler...why do we gloss over that in schools?). It used to be that the Democrats were the War Party, and I would fall into what is known as the anti-interventionist Old Right, who, with members such as John Flynn, Albert Jay Nock, and Frank Chodorov, were perhaps the last true defenders of the American Republic. I recommend Flynn's expose of New-Deal/WWII American Fascism, "As We Go Marching": http://www.mises.org/books/aswegomarching.pdf.

The very manner in which you asked for my opinion on these two conflicts seems to illustrate not only your disagreement, but even a degree of amazement that a rational American could believe as I do. Therefore, I hope you don't take offense to my posting the following links to the wiki entry on the Old Right ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Right_(United_States) ) or Murray Rothbard's excellent article on the anti-interventionist movement ( http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/rothbard25.html )

I agree that Ron Paul is non-electable. People do not seem ready for his message, and in my view will continue preferring security instead of liberty until some ideological movement - an intellectual 1776, if you will - takes hold. To my knowledge, Paul never questioned that 19 Saudis and Bin Laden were responsible for 9/11, and if he is accepted by truthers, it's only because he is sensible enough to read the 9/11 Commission Report and try to educate folks about the decades of American meddling in mid-East affairs which naturally results in blowback. Giving him an 'F' for national security seems reactionary, unless you subscribe to the 'they hate us because we're free doctrine'.

Infidel,

What kind of tyranny do we face today?

Well, for starters, anywhere from 25%-50% of our money is confiscated/stolen/taken involuntarily from us every year, and often redistributed to causes, programs, and/or special interests with which we may or may not agree and over which we have little or no control.

Our money is being debased systematically by the inflationary fractional reserve banking system and the semi-private banking cartel called the Federal Reserve Board. Legal tender laws monopolize currency and provide a sure-fire way to loot from an intellectually (economically speaking) ignorant public.

Then there are the little things: the War on Drugs and police vice patrols spend billions against non-violent 'offenders', allegedly trying to clean up the streets. Gang violence and black markets result.

Gun control laws abound, and the 2nd Amendment encounters fresh assaults, often unsuccessfully, with each new convention of a legislative assembly.

Air passengers are treated like criminals by the Federalized TSA. On the local level, smoking is persecuted, traffic cameras record our every move, school districts regulate what kids may or may not eat and even ban games such as tag from the playground on grounds that it discriminates and hurts kids' feelings.

There are countless - almost literally - laws, regulations, and state-sanctioned property rights abuses that abound wherever one looks in America. The obvious is easy to spot - War, taxes, Kelo vs. New London, etc etc. But all the friend of liberty
need to is glance around for a few moments at his surroundings and he'll know that this is a profoundly different place than it was supposed to be, and it has been ever since WWI (some would say 1865). Once a humble Republic with lions for liberty as citizens, Leviathan and it's paternalistic and ever-encroaching regulations have turned America into an empire-driven (soft and hard) nation-state with security craving sheep. As Ben Franklin said, when people sacrifice liberty to gain a little security, they end up with none of either.

My hope is that strong people - the type of physically, intellectually, and spiritually strong folks that CrossFit seems to attract and develop - can be a part of shaping a more libertarian America.

Spider Chick,

I'll look forward to it!

Catching up on my WOD's from the weekend. No food plus no water equals no Crossfit on Saturday.

30 Muscle ups as Rx'd: 6:58

Hari, read your post for this WOD and was inspired by the dedication.

Ron Paul has become a whore to the truther movement. I have not seen a candidate look so hard for attention, as he has, from people that will never vote for him in the general election. He is a serious man, but his inability to control the need to get his ego stroked, has made him a joke. The antics of his supporters on on-line polls and you-tube videos has only further alienated him from the conservative movement. Antics like that I would expect from Howard Dean. Too bad. He is a bad mix of McCain, Dean, and Madison. Unfortunately the more attention he gets, the more irrelevant he makes himself. He should stick to being a Representative.

Again, the relatively few comments on rest days attests to the irrelevance of the opinion pieces offered.

Contrast this to numberous comments on the rare rest day when something not in the politcal realm was offered. Remember the rest day months back with people were ask to submit poems that inspired them---a huge response. Some poems were classics some were just funny. It was great rest day.

This is Mr. Glassman's website, and, as I have been told many times, he can post whatever he wishes. However, it is unfortunate he wastes 25% of the postings. And, judging from the anemic response to these policial, ah, discussions, it appears few people wish to get involved with them.

Blake, I thought you meant tyranny in the Stalinist- "they're censoring my freedom of speech" kinda way. You'd think some people are living in fear of black helicopters. Nice to know that isn't the case.

The impetus for the Revolutionary War can be summarized in 3 words IMO: "Taxation without representation". We have ample representation. Would you advocate revolution due simply to overtaxation then? Or is it more than that?

Even as one of least taxed 1st world countries, I would agree we're overtaxed. I don't like the way a lot of the taxes are spent either but I don't think it'd be any easier or result in a better product if we were to "burn it all down". Anyway, the only people who can really complain about overtaxation are small percentage of people who actually pay the majority of taxes. The rest of us are living off their backs to some degree. May to a large degree. Police, Fire, Unemployment, highways, etc. add up to a whole lot of 'trickle down'. Given the current state of affairs, and particularly the worldwide threat of Islamofacism, the tyranny of taxation doesn't rank high on my concerns.

So what was your answer on the WWII question? What would RP say?

Lastly, just to make a point, what was Ben Franklin's position regarding defense against nuclear weapons? just sayin'.

Regards

Ken, did you notice the post count from last rest day?

The .mp3 was pretty long, that's my take. Also, posting takes time, sometimes you need to take a break.

HALO3 to be released in 3 hrs. God, I love capitalism.

Ken - I notice this happens every once in a while. I don't know how long you've been hanging around, but it does. Sometimes Barry is busy, or Paul (ASwab) has other commitments, Dr. Jeff Glassman may be solving some formula that explains why the earth is tilted on its axis just so, and Joey is out beating a baby seal. ;-)

Sometimes there's nothing to say.

I wouldn't consider that 25% of the articles are wasted simply because you don't like it or agree with it. If that's the case, tell us why the author's book (or Prager's interview about that book) is so irrelevant? Why isn't it important to American foreign policy? Prager makes an argument for why it is. Prove him wrong with your elucidation.

Can't stick around to argue, however, clients calling.

Blake,

I find it interesting that someone would try and argue that liberty can exist without security. Who do we call if our protections fail? Your militias?

I read your piece on WW1, and coincidentally have been watching a PBS series on that conflict. Of particular interest to me has been the mechanism of America's involvement, and the precise reasons for Germany's surrender. It has never been clear to me with what justification Hitler referred to the "November criminals".

What your analysis overlooks is Ludendorf's decision to launch unrestricted submarine warfare in the Atlantic. This decision has been commented on in two different tape sets I've watched, and it is considered front row center as evidence of his fundamental tendency towards risky gambles. That, and his human wave attacks through the middle of 1918, losing troops he knew he couldn't lose.

You focus on JP Morgan as the sole and only major influencer on the conflict. The fact of the matter is that the Germans themselves viewed the conflict as a historical test of the relative values of monarchy relative to democracy. When things looked good in the spring of 1918, Wilhelm was strutting around, and talking about how he would insist the British, when they came to sue for peace, bow to his thrown, so it would be clear which system was better.

History is a complex matter, and the more I learn, the more ignorant I feel I am. One thing I can state, which I believe holds generally, is that any analysis that restricts explanation of something as complex as America's entry into WW1 to something as simple as greed, is missing large pieces of the puzzle.

Relative to the piece today, which I listened to most of the way through, it would be analogous to blaming the Spanish-American War on William Randolph Hearst's treatment of the sinking of the Maine. Certainly, that crystalized many sentiments, but it didn't create the larger climate, and as Kagan argued in no small measure our liberation of Cuba was based on humanitarian idealism.

If I understood correctly, the first international famine relief effort recorded in modern history, and possibly recorded history, was launched by Herbert Hoover--who in 1920 or so when this happened was Sec. of State, if memory serves--to prevent mass starvation across Europe, but most notably in the Soviet Union.

Interestingly, we landed troops in 1918 to aid the Menshaviks--the White (versus Red) Russians--but left after nobody could decide how far to go, or what the overall mission was. History would have been far different if we had stayed the course. Of course, no one could then have foreseen Stalin.

With respect to WW2, I did not read your link, but it is foolish to think our security--and your liberty--would have been served by sitting that war out. Hitler was very clearly intent on global domination, and he had in 1945 already invented the jet fighter. Had the war lasted much longer, we would have been in trouble. He would also at some point have invented the atomic bomb, which we would not have done, had we not had a dog in that fight. That, combined with our general military lack of preparedness--I would encourage everyone to read up on the ground we had to cover to mobilize for WW2--would almost certainly have spelled our eventual defeat and subjugation.

It's nice, it's idealistic to believe that we can put our heads in the ground, and pretend that there are no boogey men out there who want to kill and enslave our children, but simply flies in the face of all of recorded history.

I liked the point he made in the interview that on balance, we do tend to be idealistic in our foreign involvements. Wilson was clearly an idealist, as well as a naive--very naive--politician. We would have been much better off with Teddy. I would be curious as well, as to how much of his biography those who want to quote him as opposing blind patriotism actually know.

He was a highly vocal advocate of war with Spain, and insisted his sons serve in WW1. He lost one son, a pilot, there, and was never the same.

With respect to liberty, with respect to decreasing the size of the Federal Government, I am in agreement, but there are smarter and less smart ways to do it, and facing the facts with respect to history is the place to start.

Final pedantic note: the Civil War is generally considered the first modern war fought by any nation, and obviously is the first one fought by us.

http://www.aeragon.com/03/

Ken Davis, Since I actually heard the interview on the radio of Mr. Kagan, there is not much for me to say. I agree mostly with his position that there are, for various reasons, people in our country who hate our country. There are also those politicians that cater to those people.

To what may be your larger point that you find the Rest Day articles/media irrelevant, then perhaps you are not a good judge of what is relevant. Normally, however comments like yours turn out to be just people who are either highlighted in the articles or disagree with the articles, and feel slighted on some level. Either way it points back to a personal defect.

And the big boys weigh in...

Barry, that's an excellent post. While it is not one of your more lyrical, it is certainly content-filled. Excellent food for thought.

Joey - short, sweet, and about 40-grit. I love it.

Someday I hope I get a chance to buy you two guys a cold one. Cheers.

Dammit: awesome interview-I am in your shoes completely! I have a big park in my neighborhood and a globo-membership-I have been a crossfit addict for about 6 months now and am ready to begin Cert's! I have never met a fellow 'Fitter' face-to-face and rely completely on this awesome website for my workouts and instruction.
'God is there!'

Blake,

"We can't snap our fingers and make the world perfect, but we can hold up an ideological standard of right and wrong. I think you're conflating principle with reality here."

Honestly, I think you're the one conflating principle with reality. And I'm not arguing to argue or because I "must" be right. Maybe we're misunderstanding each other b/c it seems like you're making my point for me. Like Praeger says, "clarity over agreement". Pure ideologies, note I did say PURE, like Communism for example, ONLY work in perfect (fantasy) worlds.

More regarding strict ideology: I don't think any pure ideology works well. The notion of "good in theory, bad in practice" ultimately means poor theory. Any good theory will take reality into full account.

The core ideologies of the U.S. are Democracy and Capitalism. But neither is a pure strict application. We are not a pure democracy, we are a representative democracy. Popular vote doesn't decide a Presidential election, electoral college votes do. Why? b/c of the weakness of a true democracy: mob rule. Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb deciding what to have for dinner, right? So we find that to strengthen our model, we temper it with other ideas. Same with Capitalism. It's a great engine, but can be very unforgiving and inhumane when run amok. So we temper Capitalism, putting in controls like OSHA and the EPA to prevent greed from overcoming responsibility. We incorporate Socialist mechanisms (like unemployment insurance and emergency rooms and social security) to tamp down chaos and suffering and which serves the goal of a safer, stable, and richer society. You try to get the best net, end result possible for society. Again, I think balance is key, ying and yang. And up until a couple yrs ago, our big debates were over the level of socialism we have (IMO too much). Pure Libertarianism has no place for regulation and IMO "no regulation" yields bad results. Greed must be tempered.

In the end, I can't support your strict non-intervention approach b/c it lacks morality and is disadvantageous. Here's where we discuss WWII and support for Israel. IMO foreign policy should be based on 2 things: Interest and morality. Where those two intersect direct involvement is warranted, where either exists support/involvement may be warranted. Where neither exists, abstention is warranted. There is some wiggle room here, but that's basically it. For both WWII and in the case of Isreal, it is both moral and in our interest to get involved. It IS in our interest simply because leaving the threat unchecked, or worse - victorious, makes the world a more dangerous place. And we want to fight where & when we is most advantageous to us. Case in point, England appeased and their advantage dwindled.

Also, I haven't read your whole paper but I did briefly skim it and concur with Barry when he says "One thing I can state, which I believe holds generally, is that any analysis that restricts explanation of something as complex as America's entry into WW1 to something as simple as greed, is missing large pieces of the puzzle." The other link lost credibility with me the moment I read "When Roosevelt dragged America into World War II". I would attribute that to Hirohito myself.

Regards

Libertarian vs. Liberal may be a good axis for characterizing tax policy, but it's useless on war. Are Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich related? Their physical/philosophical resemblance restores one's faith in phrenology.

See http://www.ronpaul2008.com/about/ in uniform vs. http://www.dennis4president.com/index.php?option=com_rsgallery2&Itemid=37&page=inline&catid=1&id=10&limit=1&limitstart=0

Right vs. left may be a good axis for characterizing the difference between Fred Thompson and John Edwards, but it's useless on carbon dioxide emissions. When the left wraps itself in such mantels as Anthropogenic Global Warming, Affirmative Action, Pacificism, Marxism, and Moral Equivalence, the axis is right vs. wrong.

Liberty is the absence of certain things. It's freedom from this and that. This has the effect of casting the political right into an anti-left philosophy. It points to the useful axis of big government vs. small government. It has the negative effect of turning American values into things not found here, sort of a right vs. wrong axis - wrong for America.

Whether a Libertarian would have supported US involvement in WWII is not a productive question. It's not quite fair, considering that by December 1941 the US and its Allies had been attacked and that genocide was in full tilt.

One of the many big lessons of WWII is what the failure to act promptly can cost - globally in both humanitarian and economic terms, and to the US alone. The question for Libertarians is how do you reconcile your philosophy of isolationism with the proven necessity to act, and to act preemptively? What does it take to goad a Libertarian out of his idealized slumber and into action? The threshold lies somewhere between WJ Clinton on 2/26/93 and GW Bush on 9/11/01.

The next question for a Libertarian is in your Eutopia, who will own the infrastructure? How well do privately developed roads and communication systems work as a network? What effect will diversified ownership have on economic strength?

Whether war is just or righteous is an incompetent question. The SIDES in a war may be just or righteous, or neither. They may be both, as in the moral quagmire of the left: Moral Equivalence.

Patriotism is a virtue when you support your government's action even though you disagree with it. Patriotism is not pro-Americanism where by America you mean as you would shape it.

Democracy works because the minority submits to the larger will. Liberty is not license. Liberty comes at a price; license at a cost. The Republic works because we guarantee individual rights, notwithstanding the will of the majority.

Isn't moral equivalence the antithesis of patriotism?

I appreciate the responses, everybody, but to be honest, they reinforce why I stay away from politics on the boards.

I don't mean any disrespect - but it takes years to understand where I'm coming from, let alone agree or disagree. I can throw some facts, opinions, and articles out there for fun, but there are few venues suitable and effective to promote shifts in perspective, and message boards are certainly not among them. After all, it took me being confused in high school, passing up on the US Naval Academy, and then studying all of college, reading just under a book a day and consuming everything I could get my hands/eyes on to get where I am, and I still know just how much I don't know. To expect NOT to receive the usual (intelligent, perhaps, but still typical) objections and questions in response to a post such as mine above would be silly... I don't know what gave me the urge to try anyways ;)

If and when I finish the book I'm currently working on, I'll let you know because it might be of interest. I will continue to read the politics here, because reading other perspectives is more important (and more fun) than redundancy of confining one's own critical thought to his existing beliefs, as most people tend to do. Forgive me, then, for respectfully bowing out of this one. Happy Crossfitting!

(If you are interested, I recommend taking 30 min. of your day for a month and reading antiwar.com, mises.org, lewrockwell.com, and counterpunch.com. You'll find conflicting and diverse views presented there, and you surely won't like many of them. But what could be the harm? Food for thought, maybe tackle it next rest day.)

Dale, 40 Grit? Not me. You are a 40 grit kinda guy as well, you just hide it with that hi-brow lawyer speak and ivy league edu-mic-ation. I'll be buying the cold ones around here.

Now Jeff Glassman, that is some 200+ grit, smooth. Real smooth.

Dale,

Thanks!! I will admit to being big. Lyrical requires booze, which I am currently leaving alone at the local liquor store. When they call me and beg me to come back because they can't keep the doors open without me, maybe I'll go back.

You ever make it to this neck of the woods, I'll make an exception. I'm not one for microbrews normally, but we have a local one that is exceptional. I buy, you buy, we all buy, shot.

A lesson learned from WWII was to act preemptively to prevent a major conflagration. After an exhausting war, the Hitler species decided, “Well, we won't go that way again!”

Next at bat were the Soviets. They created a network of expansive satellite nations, avoiding the legal technicality of aggression attaching to Moscow. Our response was a blockade by coalitions, and where necessary overt and costly warfare: Korea, Vietnam, and indirectly Afghanistan. So the Soviet Union collapsed. “Well, we won't go that way again!”

The enemy now is Islam, overtly under Islamic extremists called Jihadists, and covertly by the others. Now the armies are gypsies, identified with no state, thus correcting the errors of the Nazis and the Communists. The targets are soft, and the media a tool. The leaders wear robes and operate from mosques. These methods exploiting the sanctuaries and naiveté of civilization necessitate a new set of tactics. They do not mitigate the big lesson of WWII.

The War is neither a culture war, nor a civil war, nor a war against a tactic. It is not a religious conflict. Scriptures prove infinitely flexible. It is not a war from want of diplomacy, for diplomacy only operates between civilized peoples. These are but excuses for inaction, and to get Bush. The threat is a lethal, aggressive, far-reaching, uncivilized, ignorant expansion and suppression of people, all under the mantel of religion.

Israel is next, and any weapon is OK.

Compared to the previous enemies of civilization, Islam is not as lethal - yet. It's the YET that counts.

Jeff,

This may shock some, but I must confess that while I'm not overly politically correct, I do think we need to be careful to differentiate the Islamic Communists (a term I like better than Fascist, since it indicates an ideology whose intent is to convert the whole planet to its' way of thinking, by force as needed; the Fascists just wanted to rule the world, they didn't insist everyone think like them) from mainstream Muslims.

From what I can tell, most Sunnis are Muslim the way most Catholics are Christian (before anybody screams, I am speaking from firsthand experience), which is to say they mostly believe the doctrine, they say their prayers, but they don't consult their faith for every decision they make every single day. When things are going badly, they probably get more religious, when they are going well, they probably slack.

It is true that Jihad is a core precept of Islam. It is popularly considered the 6th Pillar of Islam, but this is not in the Koran per se. Muhammad himself waged military jihad against many enemies, and engaged apparently in direct combat, at least as a general.

At the same time, I would like to propose an idea which may seem strange: it's entirely possible that at the time he did so, his efforts actually were a civilizing influence on many of the nations around him.

I am of course glad that Islamic armies were unsuccessful in their repeated efforts at overrunning Europe, but the fact of the matter is that in the Dark Ages before the Renaissance, Europe was not exactly high civilization, and did not have much of the glitter that came with the Enlightenment.

Byzantine, I would hope all will note, is synonymous with unnecessarily complicated. That empire was not precisely a model of justice, and even Constantine himself engaged in persecuting non-Christians in exactly the way Christians had been persecuted by previous Emperors.

The Muslims, from 700 to about 1400-1500, were arguably more enlightened than Christians. The great slaughters of the Crusades were committed by Christians, even though they were in reprisal for the Muslim military conquest of Jerusalem.

All of which leads me to state that past jihads were not entirely lacking in merit, and that the Crusades were effectively Christian jihads themselves.

Having said that, one can readily affirm that very few religions are practiced exactly the way they are written in their sacred texts. Jews no longer sacrifice in compliance with Leviticus, but the texts are not gone. They have simply been superceded as dictated by practical necessity. The Temple was destroyed and the Jews expelled. The Rabbinic solution was to internalize the sacrifice--T'Shuvah, if I"m not mistaken--rather than let actual blood of actual animals.

This word translates, if memory serves, as Return, and is synonymous with repentance, understood as a return to righteousness, and this movement is enshrined in Yom Kippur, if I'm not mistaken. Yet, the original repentance was found in sacrificing goats and sheep in the Temple.

The Pope, in Christianity, is nowhere predicted in the Gospel. Yet he is accepted.

Examples abound, of religious faiths accomodating themselves with practical necessity.

I see no reason that Muslims cannot--in the interest of the preservation of their faith, and in the interest of righteousness--reinterpret jihad as an inner struggle against sin. Many Islamic apologists have already proposed this as the primary meaning of Jihad. Someday, perhaps it will be.

Ijtihad is the Islamic theological reconciliation process. If and when it appears clear that Western Civilization is not willing to roll over and accept mass conversion to Islam, more and more prominent members of the Islamic Ulema-the thought leaders--will begin to call for inner repentance, and will begin to issue fatwas on Al Quedists who violate Islamic Law in the name of Islam. That will be the day peace begins to break out.

However, especially if one looks at Europe today, their faith in their own traditions, and their own culture looks like a sick animal ripe for the plunder. America is better, but even here we see people wanting to apologize for our existence. This hurts our cause. It hurts the cause of peace, and it hurts the cause of actual justice.

Barry #83

About as many Muslims speak out against the Jihadists today as Germans spoke out against the Nazis in the late ‘30s. The Germans, Italians, and Japanese paid a horrible price for lacking the courage to resist the obvious evil. The Muslims have the same problem, but with little threat of a similar fate.

Regardless, the civilized world can’t wait for a movement within Islam that might reduce the present crop of Jihadists to a harmless sect. You say, “I see no reason that Muslims cannot … reinterpret jihad”. With that I agree; it’s what I meant about the flexibility of scriptures. It’s not a matter of can, though, but of will.

Nor is the issue one of religion; no one but a Muslim cares much what Muslims believe, or their history. The Muslim community is going to suffer not for their beliefs, but for their failure to treat the malignancy in their body. They’re in surgery now.

Agreed. The interesting thing to me is that it's a bit like that kid in school who keeps acting up (and here I have in mind mainly the militant Muslims in Europe). He expects to get in trouble. He expects to get put in detention. And when he doesn't, he's surprised and almost disappointed, and then he starts smiling, and realizes he's got a lot of line to play with. And all the other kids wonder why the teachers have gone crazy.

None of this stuff takes a Ph.D. It's really very simple. In the West we have rules we play by. If you don't want to play by those rules, you get in trouble. If you keep getting in trouble, you get expelled. Simple as that.

So I agree we shouldn't wait. My only point is that we need to be pursuing absolutely all avenues we can.

As one example of a positive development that's only about 10 years later than when it should have happened, I just read in the NYT that the State Department has Arab language bloggers and is adding Farsi and Urdu speaking bloggers to basically just argue our case. Otherwise, it's pretty much a contest as to who can concoct the most outrageous fantasies. In many of these nations there is literally no one pointing to valid reasons why our success in Iraq may actually be in the interest of the Arab street.

Barry #85,

Yes. And it may be easier to convert the Arab street than the American Left -- The Greatest Degeneration.

Much easier. All we need to do is appeal to their self interest.

Our own Left feels the need to apologize for pursuing their self interest, so they don't want what they want; they won't want what we the Conservatives want; and all that's remaining is whatever the next person who walks in the room wants. This they support and defend assiduously.

There is of course a deep psychopathology behind this, which I'm working at tracing in my own writings. Notable break points I've, I believe, identified so far are the writings of Rousseau, the French Revolution, the Dada movement during and following WW1 and in this country Allen Ginsberg's Howl. Communism and the counter-culture of the 60's were just overt manifestations of qualitative breaks that had already happened.

I found it interesting that Dammit chose the word sympathetic to describe how his girlfriend felt about his CrossFit obsession. We understand.

* Here is my contribution to the crossfit war-'chest' of awesome exercises: I am pretty familiar with the web-site, and so far haven't seen this particular version of the pushup, so I though I'd put it out there. I call it the 'dumb diamond' pushup:
Perform a standard pushup, except each of your palms will be on a dumbell standing on end-keep the space between the dumbells wide (you'll see why) get your sternum as close to touching the floor as your shoulder flexibility will allow. At the top, push off hard from the dumbells and make a diamond shape on the floor with your hands as you land while keeping strict pushup form (of course!)
Once you perform your diamond pushup, that's one rep. These are pretty killer but I can crank out a few with good form and they really get the shoulders flexible before overhead squats.
Try 'em, and let me know what you think!
=cheers!

Robert Kagan is full of crap. The Federal Reserve is a private bank. They run this country. The Fed prints money out of thin air and LOANS it to the government. The people behind the Fed can start wars and involve the U.S. in wars because they and the military industrial complex profit from it immensely. An entity that controls the money supply controls the government no matter who is elected president. U.S. foreign policy is not driven by any kind of "noble ideal." Those are the facts folks.... Look it up for yourself.