MUCH NEEDED!!!

No rest for me.

CrossFit Endurance WOD again and some of Brendans programming.

I'm thinking about taking the whole weekend off. Just doing CFKids and then sleeping the rest of the time. :)

...

Whats the endurance wod?

as rxd

24 hours

Just started takking crossfit seriously as of this week... I can get through the WODs more or less as rx'd (HSPU and some other movements are just unfamiliar; gotta get technique down)... but I guess I'm worried I'm not doing enough...

Like as weird as this sounds, no matter how spent I am, I can't get it out of my head that if I'm not in the gym for an hour+ per session I'm not doing enough. haha sorry for the rant, I just finished yesterday's WOD in 19 mins... can someone really stay lean working out just 19 mins?!

Steve, if you hit the wod as hard as you possibly can, you won't have the energy, or desire for that matter, to do anything more. You will stay very lean because of the intensity. I have a hard time keep body fat on.

Hooah, I wish I had taken a few pictures of the Cross Fit pit we had in Afghanistan. You find ways to overcome the lack of equipment and "Globo" gym mentality on deployment. It's fun picking up Cross Fit in a third world country at 7,600 ft, but it's not everyday you can say you ripped out a Fran at the top of a mountain. Remember: "Ask not what Cross Fit can do for you; ask yourself why you haven't beaten your PR."

Nice vid! Inspiring.

#5 KevinClark

www.crossfitendurance.com

It's a complimentary WOD for anyone who comes from an endurance background or competes in marathons/triathalons/etc. Somewhat tailor-made to that crowd, but of course anyone is free to do them if they are willing and have the energy to do so :)
Definitely worth checking out!

Oh. This ought to be good. (Sits back and grabs popcorn)

Ghostrider @ 6:58 PM

Very Nice

On the video:

Probably the most badass GHD set up I've ever seen! I get so motivated by little things like that. You guys are awesome!

Krauthammer's a stooge.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/02/AR2007120201636.html

#6 Steve,

Your body composition is determined primarily by diet. In particular what you eat, more than how much.

Did a few reps of deadlifts for the first time since injuring myself in the summer while doing deadlifts cold and with bad form. I feel alright. We'll see tomorrow.

The inspiration came from the war college video and Glassman's statement that "the danger is in not doing these movements." I've also swapped in light squat cleans and thrusters in place of overheads in the official warmup. Can't wait to work up to heavier weight and better form.

I have been watching the site for months and have increased my knowledge 10 fold since subscribing to CrossFit Journal a few weeks ago. Do it! It's so incredibly worth every penny.

Awesome video. So inspiring.

About the article; points A and B are very valid and point C is valid as well. But the democracy that is blooming in Iraq has already passed a law saying the US needs to get out by the end of 2009. This is overlooked in the article. Points A and B may become a more likely reality if we wear out our fragile welcome in their country.

s'more - where are you?

happy rest day people

Good article, great video!

I'll also be doing the endurance WOD tomorrow. Should be fun. Gotta break in the new running shoes!

GO ON ROYAL!

CJP Comment 13

What's your point? There's no doubt the mainstream media and the current administration completely blew this event off.

What I'm curious to see is the what the reaction to Afghanistan will be after The One does his "magic".

great video, excited for the day off!

Day 15

Rest

..zzzzzz....

That homemade GHD in the video is AWESOME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPbB-xkNThE&feature=related

FAVOURITE VIDEO EVER.

I forgot to blog this on the WOD today.... I got accused of using steroids.... Wow what a cool complement.

This guy who only does the slow lifts at my globo gym (great for him, at least he is doing something productive with his time at the gym and his deadlift is probably 600+lbs) walks over to me and says "hey do you have anything for my tendinitis, I think this could do with some chemical enhancement" and he points to his quads and does the needle thing with his hand. I told him that I have a prescription for him, crossfit and the zone. He laughed and said... sure. I walked back to him and asked him bluntly if he thought I was using steroids and he said something that made my day. He said " I have been deployed for 18 months and when I left you looked like you were in shape and now you look like a Men's Health cover and you can out clean and jerk everybody in this gym. I just about did back flips when he told me that :>) yeah me!!! I then told him that honestly, it's just Crossfit and the zone, really, and then I told him to try it. We'll see. The really great part is that I accused a crossfitter of the exact same thing three years ago and he told me about crossfit and now I get to pass it on, very cool. Great for rest day stuff.

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

# 8 Ghostrider,

What military were you in?

The article by Krauthammer sadly distorts the reality in Iraq which remain tenuous. It neglects to mention the Kurdish situation- who still want their own autonomous region. Also, Al Maliki lived in Iran for several years and also Syria while in exile. His political stance does nothing to suggest that Iran is the big loser. Iran has established trade relations with Iraq and has consulates in multiple cities. No matter how anyone wants to spin it, the reality is that the toppling of Saddam and the Taliban and the overstretched US military have done more to strenghten Iran's position than anything they could have done internally. At this point, to refer to the situation as a "small miracle in the Middle East" is pure foolishness.

Billy,

Awesome story. You worked hard for it.

Matt Comment 23, that is sick dude, nice work, you rock :>)

Have Fun, Train Hard,

Billy

#25 Billy

That's seriously an amazingly great story :) I've gotten the same question, and it's really odd being asked if you take steroids and find yourself taking it as a compliment lol. Keep up the hard work! Crossfit and Zone all the way!

thanks, billy

#23

Damn dude, that's some serious skill. Guess who's going to start practicing snatches starting next cycle? I'm inspired!

as RX'd.

Although I was hoping for another ass kicker....

ah good a rest day. which means im not missing anything. been out of commission for the past 2 days sick as a dog. Hopefully i'll be better soon so i can get back in the gym.

Thank God.

http://guerrillafitness.net/_blog/Getting_Aggressive_with_HC

so can anyone tell me the name and band for that song?

Krauts article is just a very tiny piece of a big puzzle: anyone ever read the book "Epicenter?" Iraq is going to have a big part to play

Song:

Stone Sour - Socio, off of the Come (what)Ever May album

Gotta love the muscle ups on the TRAM! Marine Ingenuity at its finest.

cool video

happy rest day everyone.

Eric Gohl--nice work on the wod today, sucks you got kind of hosed out of sub 20. my shoulders died on me and the hspu's killed me, definitely room for improvement for me.

S'more--if you're out there big hugs man!

CrossFit Camp Pendleton always inspiring!
I like the homemade sit up table, until now I've just declines, thanks for the idea.

is there a legit sub for hspu? Broke my wrist riding bmx and dont have full ROM. Knuckels? good/bad?

When Bush first proposed the regime change in Iraq I called the notion of a democratic Arab state in the heart of the Middle East a "pipe dream" - the worst excesses of foreign policy liberalism in conservative clothing.

I was wrong.

I think most of the war has gone as I thought. It proved a distraction from the central front on Islamic Extremism. We were not greeted as liberators. There was massive sectarian violence and the war is protracted and expensive.

It has not, however, been a failure.

I am reluctant to consider this the result of foresight on the part of the neo-conservative movement(even a broken clock is right twice a day) but I am happy to admit that the world is not quite as dreary a place as I had thought.

Awesome rework to make rings a GHD... simply awesome.... I may have to steal/use/borow it.

Great video.
A loud shout of support to all our Canadian troops and our American brothers and sisters, keep the peace - and kick ass when needed!!!!!!

When I try to play the video, I get the following message:

"Remote Host Blackholed -- Request Blocked
The server hosting the webpage you requested has been blacklisted (blocked). Contact your network administrator for more information, or if you believe this is in error."

Anyone know how to fix this?

Iraq moves away from socialism and adopts freedom, and we here in America move away from freedom, and adopt socialism. Brilliant!

in high school we used to sit on the edge of the bench and wrap our feet around the bottom if we didn't have someone holding them in place for us and sit back until our shoulder blades hit the floor. Works well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo2O9AupMFs&feature=channel_page

That video makes me want to drive back to the gym and work out again!

cool thanks X-fit

also wod as rx'd

"Ask not what CrossFit can do for you; ask yourself why you haven't beaten your PR."

- Affirmative Ghostrider!

Re article: After years of demanding our own defeat and declaring Iraq "lost", is it any wonder that Democratic leadership & the MSM would ignore the positive election results and Iraqi progress? Besides, these knuckleheads are busy trying to re-inflate the artificially high (bubble) housing values.

Billy, are you at least taking HGH? Can I at least get a fish-oil confession?

#35 @ 8:11pm

HC good to see you posting on main site :) Gonna git my butt down to Montclair again for Saturday 9am, was so nice to have you yell at me both Friday AND Saturday; I think you winked when you snagged me finishing my tabata push ups in 19 sec instead of 20 LOL

Read your blog, nice writing. As far as hesitation re: decision in jan. Alan Cohen wrote:"I have a formula for knowing if the next step is the right one for you: if you feel *both* excited and scared, that is it. If you're just excited and not afraid, there is no challenge, no stretching, no initiation; you are still in your safe zone and growth is unavailable. If you're just afraid, there is no positive motivation. Why walk through a fear unless there is something you are walking toward? But if you are simultaneously turned on *and* frightened, do it and watch you growth skyrocket."

s'more taught me to say that whole mess in spanish in 1 taut verse "me asusta, pero me gusta"
it scares me but I like it LOL

You owe it to yourself, your loved ones and your clients to stay on your cutting edge. Step forward to greater things. I hope you are doing it.

Nice to see the Union Jack shorts are still de rigueur.

Love the vid! Day 35 of the burpee challenge. I have no excuses!

“Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.”

-Will Rogers

“Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right”

-H. L. Mencken

“The people who cast the votes don't decide an election, the people who count the votes do.”

-Joseph Stalin

“Democrats are the only reason to vote for Republicans”
-Will Rogers

“Perhaps the fact that we have seen millions voting themselves into complete dependence on a tyrant has made our generation understand that to choose one's government is not necessarily to secure freedom”

- F.A. Hayek

I know that man in the photo. That's a crate!

Took a rest day yesterday and did yesterday's WOD today.
3 rounds CFWU (minus the pullups and dips)
50 Ring Dips (subbed 50 jumping pullups and 50 dips)
Run 400 meters
50 Push-ups
Run 400 meters
50 Handstand push-ups (subbed 1/2 BW push press)
Run 400 meters
Time: 37:01
Um...getting my arms above shoulder level is going to be a mission today and tomorrow.

Have a great weekend all.
Ian

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard."

-H. L. Mencken

"Democracy consists of choosing your dictators, after they've told you what you think it is you want to hear."

-Alan Corenk

The vid, #23, #25...

Thats what keeps me coming back here.

no excuses

RicT

Krauthammer is the first columnist I've seen in a while that gets the long view of Iraq and states it so clearly. When I was there in '03, we knew it'd be 10 years minimum before we pulled out--to us, it would take at least that long for all the reasons Krauthammer states, and that was before the major sectarian violence. I don't know when we'll be completely out of Iraq--likely never, but it's amazing to me to see the progress given the rubbleized wasteland Baghdad was in summer '03. Seriously, it was freakin' Mad Max out there, and now they're having real elections. Score one for U.S. determination.

I was in Baghdad in 2005 for the first elections, which were carried of with no violence as well.
One thing no one seems to be pointing out is that it's really easy to change the name of one's affiliation from "Arab" or "Islamic" to "Iraq" or "Iraqi" while changing nothing at the core. It's also in every cleric's best interest to defeat the occupation by any means necessary, even if it means playing the political game for a little while. Listen to what Sadr had to say to Maliki. These people are incredibly patient, they're used to waiting a long time for their turn. I'll get excited about this a year from now if all the newly elected secular officials still have their heads attached.

Krauthammer? You guys are serious?

F out of here!

Hey happy rest day everyone!!

Allison if I could only be as inspiring as you and do those endurance works out, I am shot keep up the good work!!

Eric, Jakers, Fat Tony, Rookie, Strong lil Pony, Billy and everyone else lets enjoy or rest day, as we all know tomorrow brings a new round of fun!

Eric hey brother how that WOD do ya yesterday? Sorry about missing that sub 20, but at least you stuck with it and yea those HSPU were monstrous! I only do about 20 unbroken and then sets of 5 till about 30. From there came the sets of 1's! I thought they would never end! I was lucky and finished at 19:50...just barely under that 20 mark we were shooting for. No matter what good job brother and enjoy our day off!!

Great Video! Anyone know the name of the song attached to it?

Buy in
Dynamic stretching
Dead hang PU, push-ups, BE, OHS
BP in kg 23 x5 / 31 x5 / 41 x5 / 51 x3 / 61 x2

ME Bench Press x3, in kg
65 / 69F/ 67
High reps 51 x14 PR

Metcon AMRAP in 10
30 GHD Situps + 25 BE
4 rounds and 30 GHD situps

Cash out
HSPU
stretching

Like the video with the marines and then the one random Army SF guy overhead squating a .50 cal.

Karl,

re: "I am reluctant to consider this the result of foresight on the part of the neo-conservative movement(even a broken clock is right twice a day)"

What you shouldn't be reluctant to consider though is the fact that most Iraqis & Iranians are not religious extremists. And that outside of that small contingent, the human heart yearns for freedom.

Peace-Out

Interesting article, but i'm not exactly tracking with the last paragraph...

"America went on to create a small miracle in the heart of the Arab Middle East"

I think this statement is a bit of an exaggeration. It will take time to see how the Iraq situation plays out, but calling it a miracle is just not accurate in my opinion. I'm not so sure Iraqis living on the streets would agree with the word miracle.

Secondly, how is "President Obama...the custodian of that miracle"? Obama ran on a platform of pulling troops out of Iraq, not becoming a custodian of a miracle. More importantly, a majority of Americans agreed with Obama enough to vote for him. I would be personally upset if Obama ditched his promises on Iraq.

This author can call it being a custodian to a miralce, but I call it inheriting the woes of a failed and dishonorable administration.

Did a Fran yesterday (I was missing her to much) for the second time of my life. PB with 3 min @ 9.00 min.

Today I'm resting like never before.

God Bless our WARRIORS fighting overseas!

Good Morning All

I will purchase rings soon to hang in my garage but until then I place two dumbbells on bar stools to do my dips. How far apart are the bars/ dumbbells suppose to be??

Ty

Excellent video

God Bless our military. Thank You Guys and Gals!

#70 gus:

Im in Iraq right now. I talk to Iraqis EVERY SINGLE DAY. It is a miracle. People showed off their purple fingers proudly, for days after January 30th. I was also in this very same city for the first election 4 years ago. The streets were deadly and empty in those days. Today they are still dangerous, but they are filled with people, cars, animal carts, lunch kiosks, cafe tables, men, women and children. You could mistake this city for Marakesch or Cairo in many ways. Obama will surely claim the successes wherever they occur, unless admitting to their genesis is too much to stomach for him and those around them. He should also shoulder the responsiblity for seeing previous mistakes through to their correction. Ive learned a few things about leadership here and elsewhere, and that is one of the difficult but necessary lessons.

The NEO-LIBs that made careers and dollars bashing the previous administration on every level have yet to offer answers to any of the questions they asked concerning Iraq. I certainly agree that we came here under less than perfect pretenses, and initially made a mess of it. But now, as we have worked hard to right our wrongs and have partnered more and more closely with the good people of Iraq, things are dramatically better. I only hope that we will follow through on our responsibilities and see these people to their version of democracy. Its the right thing to do. Being uncomfortable is a part of daily life for Iraqis and US servicemembers serving here. Americans can live with being uncomfortable watching CNN for a little while longer while we complete the job here.

Is that Camp Victory? OMG... I remember that mud. Holy smokes, that was some seriously STICKY goo that made it hard to keep your boots on your feet. The world became mud for a month. then it was beautiful. then, it became an inferno and stayed that way.

Me likey Her Majesty's Royal Marines... Almost as much as I like the USMC. A girl always feels a bit better when those dudes are around.

Me asusta, pero me gusta. (great quote strong lil pony.) Sums up my first week and outlook on crossfit perfectly. I'm sore as hell and exhausted, but can't wait to get back in the gym saturday. Looking forward to my first experience with one of "the girls" workouts or some kettlebell punishment.

On vacation next week looking for killer WOD's to do. no real gym to speak of any crazy idea's
bringing rings, 20 lb vest , ect running crap. all suggestions welcome....

Question for anyone who does the Zone Diet:

I follow an eating plan called "The Abs Diet" by David Zinczenko and put out by Men's Health Magazine. It is based on Power Foods and focusing on incorporating those 12 foods into every part of your diet as well as eating 6 times a day (3 meals, 3 snacks). It also includes cheat meals (one a week) and automatically encourages eating more protein, whole grain carbs, and good fats. All that being said, I have never had to count calories or measure amounts and that's one of my favorite parts. Now, according to a fitness test done at my local gym by one of the trainers, I am about 10% Body fat. My question is, if this system seems to be working for me can any of you offer any reason that I should consider taking the time and energy to start the Zone diet?(not to mention probably ticking off my wife because she makes dinner and would hate to have to learn a new system - it was hard enough to get her to at least try and incorparate the abs diet into our meals. She does alright and could do better but I've decided not to fight it - I'd lose) I'm game if you can but I feel like what I'm doing is keeping me lean and healthy. Plus, I'm not looking to be a ridiculous Crossfitter but rather one that continues to better myself and stay lean, strong, and healthy. Thoughts?

I know times are tough but there had to be other places to cut costs before they had to pull out the left over shorts from the 70's.

We talked about the scientific method in the last Rest Day. I proposed that the necessary and sufficient components were a clear idea and a means of testing it.

A clear idea I have proposed repeatedly over a period of years is that most liberals (leftists, to use my preferred term) do nothing other than parrot what they hear, take no trouble to understand issues, and consequently lack--never having developed it--the capacity to defend their own views.

The prediction made is that responses from leftists, in general, will be short, sarcasctic, and invoke propaganda memes of ancient parentage. As a general rule, the basic roots go back to Lenin if not before. Napoleon was a skilled propagandist, and as the forerunner of the modern totalitarian autocrat, perhaps we should go at least that far back.

Proper thinking--complete, intelligent, sober, serious thinking--necessitates context. You look at what preceded something like the invasion of Iraq--for a period of, say, 100 years--then also look forward--again, say, for 100 years--and do your best to locate the actions within a continuum of cause and effect.

What we see in the Middle East is autocracy. Somewhat ironically, the first Empire in the Western Hemisphere which is historically recorded was that of the Assyrians, whose capital was located near Mosul. They were masters of siege warfare, and if cities failed to submit immediately, they would--when the city eventually fell--kill all the men, and enslave the women and children. Many of the men, typically, were roasted over fires, or staked to the ground and skinned alive. This discouraged resistance.

This basic pattern of autocratic rule, invasion of other nations (stealing their stuff, raping their women, enslaving everyone) has been pretty much what all nations have done throughout history.

One would be hard pressed to find an example anywhere in recorded history of a nation invading another nation in self defense, then sacrificing its blood and treasure simply to prevent mass bloodshed in that nation, and a reversion to the status quo.

One will find almost nowhere in history large groups of soldiers able to resist the impulse to rape, murder and steal. Napoleon financed almost all of his wars simply by giving his troops free reign to take what they wanted, and do what they wanted. He himself was a rapist.

To find large fault in small crimes is simply to ignore the entirety of human history, or--for that matter--to ignore the very real and swift punishments meted out to our own soldiers who act dishonorably.

Turning to the elections, one must remember that the United States has given a voice to all of its own people for less than 50 years. Women have had the right to vote for only about 100 years.

Democracy is a tenuous, delicate process, and the skills to operate it are very much the skills that act to counteract exploitative violence: diplomacy, patience, tact, accomodation, self restraint. These traits are social traits, and any nation that develops them, is on the path to sustainable prosperity and stability.

We are helping an Arab nation do this. This has never been done before, and to fail to grasp the enormity of the change from, first, Stalinist/Fascist (same thing) dictatorship to self rule, and then from daily car bombings to relative stability, is to betray febrile imbecility which is likely best covered up with prudent silence.

I just hope the Iraqi government isn't giving their new police officer's pensions. Because as we learned last week the demise of a society is the pensions of cops and fireman.

Ransom # 79

How is your CF performance? Are you continuing to improve? Times going down? Loads lifted going up? How is the "mirror test" progressing? More definition and less fat? How are your serum lipids (LDL, HDL, TG, total)?

If the answer to all of those questions is "good" or "yes" then your diet is fine for you. Here at CF we use food as fuel. Eat enough to support lean muscle mass and athletic performance but not enough to support fat deposition. The Zone is a strategy to achieve that and nothing more. CF is "you vs. you" and your goal is a better you tomorrow than the you today.

#81

I think regime change has been tried before. Didn't we try it Iran with the Shah?

I really Iraq isn't screwed up when we leave at the end of 2009 as the Iraqi democracy has mandated. But don't try to say this hasn't been tried before. The guy in Iraq made a great point that Obama has seen the mistakes and now he has a chance to correct them.

And to the person who says Iraq is moving away from socialism and towards freedom while the US is doing just the opposite; I'll remind you that Billions of US taxpayer dollars have funded this project in Iraqi freedom. Our Neo-Conservative govenment decided that it was the American workers responsibility spread their wealth to the Iraqi people. And at the same time they decided we shouldn't spread so much wealth to Afghanistan. Now we have to spread more wealth over there to try to regain the advantage from the people who attacked us on Sept 11th. But when Obama spreads the wealth it's socialism.

Karl Smith, # 45

Good on you for acknowledging facts that are contrary to your original opinion.

I will quibble on this, however: "It proved a distraction from the central front on Islamic Extremism."

Al Qaeda does not agree with you. Their top leadership, including Osama and Zawahiri, repeatedly declared that Iraq was, in their words "now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era."

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2005/10/dear_zarqawi_a.php
Full text: http://www.dni.gov/press_releases/letter_in_english.pdf.

They totally committed themselves to the effort in Iraq, and were comprehensively defeated and destroyed, with devastating consequences to their ambitions and to their appeal to the masses. It is hugely, hugely significant.

Al Qaeda was much easier to kill in Iraq than in Afghanistan or Pakistan for many reasons, including culture, terrain, and logistics.

The choice of Iraq over Afghanistan/Pakistan as the terrain upon which to wage this battle was highly favorable to our side. I think that falls in to the category of "strategery."

Best regards,

ZONE DIET & ENDURANCE CYCLING QUESTION

Peer-reviewed literature reports that carbohydrate consumption during prolonged exercise (>60 minutes) enhances endurance performance. While the optimal rate of carbohydrate ingestion is probably not known, a carbohydrate intake of 50-70 g/h, during physical activities over 60 minutes, has been recommended.

If an individual is attempting to maintain a ZONE diet, should that individual increase the blocks of protein and fat to the same level as the increased carbohydrate ingestion during endurance activities?

Thanks for your assistance.

as always, well said Bingo...

as for active recovery today... a 1 hour drive out to the Hill Country to visit the parents for the weekend with the offspring in tow, then a little kettlebell work with my 1.5pood and 2 pood. this of course will be done after helping my father on the "farm" until he is ready to call it a day.

#78 you could do Murph one day, Angie on another day if you can find a pullup bar, then you can do the wod we did yesterday wearing your 20# vest.... you might want to bring some tape for your hands though! not real creative on my part but if your going for a week you could do one of the wods listed above every other day considering their is repetitive movements in all of them.

We did:
21-15-9
box jump (24")
kettlebell swing (16kg)
sumo deadlift high pull (75#)

9:22

awesome video..i will punish myself today in their honor

Kind of interesting the media reporting on Iraq is somewhat limited after the inauguration. Hmmm...

From the article: "Preoccupied as it was poring over Tom Daschle's tax returns, Washington hardly noticed a near-miracle abroad. Iraq held provincial elections. There was no Election Day violence."

I would suggest that Washington and the media did not notice because it would suggest a win for Bush's Administration. The U.S.S.A. government is too busy trying to figure out how to justify the new directions they are forcing us to take.

-fellow comrade and slave [cue theme song- beetles "back in the ussr")

Marshall,

The Shah was an excellent idea. Let's do this: look at the following map (1918), and text.

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/centrasia/haxiran.html

http://www.zum.de/whkmla/region/centrasia/iran19451953.html

The Soviets, following WW2, occupied many areas. With respect to Iran, they held the northern half of the country, and tried to in effect annex them to the Soviet Union, as they did with the Eastern Bloc nations. The formed a pro-Soviet party called the Tudeh Party, which was in play in Iran itself.

Everybody wanted Iran's oil, but the Soviets needed it more than we did. It was in our strategic interest to keep them from getting it. It was also in our interest to keep the Soviets from getting a seaport in the Persian Gulf.

When we sponsored the coup to take out Mossadegh, the Soviets had just greenlighted the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, and the initiation of an insurgency against the French in Indochina, via Stalin's personal associate Ho Chi Minh.

The streets were in chaos, and the conditions were highly ripe not just for an American coup, but for a Soviet coup. That's what they did. We needed someone in there who would be a solid ally, and who had the backbone to prevent Soviet subversion.

The Shah served that role well for, what, twenty some odd years, until we abandoned him. The Revolutionary Guards killed more political opponents in their first year in power than the Shah had killed in the previous 25. They tortured more people, and unlike the Shah they didn't limit their autocratic impulses to merely subversive activities, but found profound pleasure in beating women who did not behave, and torturing people who did not share their views on Islam.

My case stands. Parrot your leftist BS somewhere else. If you want to stand for good in the world, learn some facts, then practice using your brain.

Good people for increasing freedom, and decreasing murder and political repression. We served neither cause in abandoning the Shah. On the contrary, millions may yet die horrible deaths from our cowardly retreat, led by triumphalist, moronic Democrats.

There was another part I'll deal with later. I have to go work out.

A better title for Krauthammer's column would have been "Good News Is No News."

#86 Guy B Smith

Hate to point to Mark Twight, but here I think you might be able to find some interesting useful information. Read the articles at the following link and you'll see that during long endurance events he found it advantageous to skew away from the zone diet even though normal days he would zone.
http://www.gymjones.com/knowledge.php?id=17

As always what Barry said.

Man that saves me a lot of effort.

50 ring dips (subbed 150 bar dips)
400 meter run
50 push ups
400 meter run
50 HSPU (poor ROM)
400 meter run
35 minutes

No rest today.
Kortvasan, 30 km cross-country skiing, with my 12 yo daughter, in just under 4 hrs. Next sunday it will be my turn, Vasaloppet 90 km.

Hi Everyone!

It has been a few days and gosh, I miss you all so much (I take responsability for this void...I could have logged on). Anyways, just wanted to write a few things that came to mind over the past few days...

A friend's grandfather passed away yesterday. He was incredibly dear to her and she flew in from NYC last week to be at his bedside in the hospital. This video today, "No Excuses" is befitting. Life is incredibly unpredictable and often we make excuses for our decisions, rather than taking responsibility in our life situations. Remember that reasons, regardless of how "good" they are, are just excuses; choices, like any other. Five years ago I would have looked at my friend and thought, "How could you just leave everything behind in NYC? Your job, your friends, your gym?" I realize this sounds absurd - people mean more than a workout. But at the time, I was a "gym rat" and my entire identity was tied to the two hours I spent there, "proving my worth," every day. Crossfit is what enabled me to see past that, to separate my identity from my body, and generate self-worth through the deeds and performance I aim for and achieve. Life is a workout, and to succeed it is essential to accept responsibility and resist making excuses.

You have all listened to me the past week about my feeling inadequate and such, most of which is the result of letting go of this physical identity, about measuring my worth in terms of my capacity to help others rather than the flesh around my stomach, to life with an intensity of purpose and take responsibility for my choices rather than hiding behind excuses.

The equipment will never be perfect, the time will always be too later, too early, the temperature will become uncomfortable as your body heats up....but we still have to perform, we still have to find a way through the rough stuff and finish the WOD. Maybe we choose to scale, maybe we take it slowly, maybe we vomit the intensity onto the mat...but we find a way through.

Witnessing this friend during this time, I am amazed by her grace and patience and lack of stress...she is at peace. I desire what she has - equanimity. She is choosing to take each day as it is, to accept every challenge and every feeling and persevere.

This is what crossfit is teaching the world: to accept your circumstances and find a way through. Excuses make this difficult and create guilt. Whatever the WOD, in the gym or in life, we just have to find a way through. In either case, crossfit or life, the standard is not perfection - it is persistance.

Thank you for listening, everyone. Enjoy your day of rest!

Luv Jen

Rest for me is tomorrow

5 rounds with 20# tac vest, 1 min each station:
jump rope
hanging heavy bag - punch, elbows and knees
GH situps on tractor tire
Heavy bag ground and pound

then 5 min rest

tractor tire (230#) pulls with harness for time:
10 x 30 yds - 8:59

Barry - Nicely said x 2! Enjoy the work-out.
Cheers,
Scott

#92 re:#84

Barry, we helped a democracy get on its feet in Iraq. They voted for us to leave so they can take over at the end of 2009. We have lost ground to the Taliban in Afghanistan that we now need to regain and send more troops. These wars are funded by American workers with the money that is taken out of their paychecks. The Iraqi stimulus package was paid for by the money George W Bush was taking out of my paycheck every two weeks. The Shah paved the way for the Islamic Revolution.

What part of that is Leftist BS?

My facts are straight.

Now go copy and paste some more Michael Savage and Sean Hannity quotes and continue to contradict yourself.

Bootnecks on the mainpage, finally!

I hope all of the British forces adopt CrossFit, be stoopid not to.

Marshall,

I had to laugh out loud. Quite literally. You seem incapable of grasping the depth of your ignorance.

Pave the way for the Revolution? Is that like Battista paving the way for the Cuban Revolution? All you lefties supported Castro back then, and 40 years later socialized medicine is a cot and maybe some aspirin. The workers sit on their front porches and swat flies, and if they open their mouths, they get arrested.

In Iran if a woman walks down the street in something some 15 year old punk deems inappropriate, he can beat her with anything that is handy, including a bat. That was not the case under the Shah, and his fall was not only not inevitable, it took determination on the part of Jimmy Carter to make it happen.

You are defending the indefensible. But I don't expect you to grasp that.

How about this: I remember hearing almost daily about the $10 billion a month the war in Iraq was costing us. $120 billion a year. Your President just spent 6 times that. All of it is borrowed, all of it will come due, and almost none of it will do anything other than create attractive window dressing that MIGHT allow the Dems to keep their majority in the 2010 elections.

I think the stink will be quite obvious by then though.

Start again, son. Start by telling me how the torture chambers the Revolutionary Guards operate are better for humanity than those of Savak.

Then explain to me why you support women being beaten in public. If you don't, then obviously backing the Shah would have been the correct move, right?

I will comment more generally that there is a certain point you reach, after studying history carefully for a long period of time (I've been listening to 30 minute lectures probably 200 days a year for the last 5 years or so), that you realize that not only is the Left wrong, they are so far wrong that it becomes a task for the social psychologist to explain just what motivates people to work so hard for evil in this world.

Tomorrow is my rest day so….
Borrowed one that Melissa Cvjeticanin posted on Feb 6 (thank you Melissa!!- I love it when people post different workouts they did or ones they made up)

Renegade of Squats
3 Rounds, going for reps
1 min BS, 75# : 34*34*26
1 min rest
1 min FS, 75# : 25*25*23
1 min rest
1 min air squats : 50*48*49

= 314 total squats

Would be fun to add OHS to this mix.
I am kinda tired, typical for Friday so this was good. I will be sore but am not exhausted from the WOD. I have to go to work, job #2, after work so gotta save a little fuel ;)

Hope everyone is having a great Friday!
Erin

Strong Lil Pony- read your post on the old crazy eating days. Yeah, I understand…
I now eat “innately” – eating like our ancestors, like paleo- meat (organic/free range), veggies, fruit, nuts/seeds, good fats, and fish oil. I eat throughout day with snacks, watch portions, but do not weigh/measure food. Took a long time to see “food” as “food” again, and don’t want to get obsessive with those rituals again…
And glad to hear your brother is around so you are safe! Goodness gracious!

Erin

Comment #94 JC Veggie

Thank you for providing the link to "gymjones," relative to my question about ZONE diet and endurance cycling. It does look interesting and I will look at greater length this evening.

Again, thank you,

CFSB: front squats, 5 x 190 (5 r pr), 15 x 185 back squat, then metcon 7 x 7 x wall ball, burpees, pullups 10:18. DB snatch practice. Next: nap.

HEY GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!....=D

i have problems with my internet company due a huge blackout and i got no access to the net....DAMN I MISS YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!

i hope every one are doings just great you guys (ladies and gentelmen) are the best BIG HUGS AND SIDE HUGS brothers and sisters

My baby's last 4D was terrific kind of funny she looks angry I thinks it's because she can't do pull-ups inside HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! my babygirl is great and full of heatl...that inpired me so on the yesterday's WOD i hit 16:52 (my arms hurts very bad!!)

BIG HUGS TO EVERY ONE AGAIN.....Herm, Cookie, Rookie, Jakers (thanks again for the mail bro), Strong Lil pony, Eric Gohl, OneFastBird21, Jennifer, Fitmom, Fitmom's mom, Pedro Barrera, Jaybear, Jay, Playoff Beard, Julie Parisien (great parental post just awesome), Gillian Mounsey, COS, fat tony, Adam Rogers, Bingo, JPW...all you and if i forget a name please PLEASE excuse me!!!!

IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK =D

LOVE AND BAD ENGLISH FOR ALL!!! take care everybody 3-2-1 GOOOOO

welcome back S'more!!!

DAMN I FORGOT!!!!!

big hugs to in8girl, Sailor Erin, Jimm

My take on carbs for endurance work is they are necessary and helpful. The zone frowns on high glycemic carbs due to the insulin reaction. If, however, you're on a 100 mile bike ride, your body will put the glucose to work without calling upon the pancreas to secrete insulin. At Ironman, we'd suck down these pudding like packets of glucose (I think they're called "Goo") every 20 minutes or so. IMO, endurance efforts are the only time when high glycemic carbs make sense from an athletic point of view.

S'more, enjoy every second of your girl!

thanks so much #111 Jeff i'll certainly do

from yesterday's comment Allie hey there is no bad spanish if it's from the heart

Comment #110, john wopat:

Thank you for your response to my question of ZONE & endurance cycling.

During an endurance cycling event you would increase the carbs only, or would you also increase protein and fat blocks (per ZONE) accordingly?

Thank you,

24/m/170/5'11"

Rest day row:
1500 meters in 7:34

Bingo #83

It's hard to answer all of those questions yet because I am still new to CF (since Thanksgiving).

My perforamces vary from good on some to pretty bad on others (at least time-wise). The few WOD's that have repeated since I've started have shown improvement. Lifts are progressing as far as I can tell. I would say that my definition has increased to some extent(or stayed the same [which was good to start with]) and I'm bigger than I used to be but the fat level looks to be about the same (which therefore assumes it's about 10% still). I don't know about my serum lipids and don't really know what they are to be honest.

I'll give you that the zone diet would give me a more accurate picture of what supports muscle and performance without depositing fat and finding that balance. I think I'm pretty close to it but it's probably not spot on.

Being a teacher I have the summer's off - maybe I'll stick with what I'm doing for now since it works for me and then give the zone a try when I have some more time on my hands to really do it right. When the time comes I'll pick up the book as well. Thanks Bingo!

I think I need to go back to working 70 hour weeks.

Endurance: look up the Mark Sisson article on diet and endurance. He has a site. The reality is you DO need a lot of carbs for optimal endurance performance. This is why training endurance as endurance year round is damaging to your health. It also causes body catabolization, which makes you weaker everywhere else. Twight, from what I hear, is only good at what he does: very long, very hard climbs.

The point of CrossFit Endurance is to enable you to train from endurance events, without the mileage, and without the catabolic effect. For that reason, you should be able to stick to the Zone, remembering, of course, that if you are already lean you will likely need to add a bunch of fat blocks. Our own Rob Miller does something like 16 protein/16 carb/64 fat blocks. Something like that. Fat has no effect on insulin metabolism, so its a good source of calories, which of course you need.

During races, I would assume, you use the Goo. Obviously, you would have had to try them a few times in the lead up, but not as a staple of your training. They likely have more info on their sites.

Net, net: CrossFit Endurance is for endurance athletes who want the benefits of endurance training, who enjoy endurance training (or need to do it), but who don't want the downsides as well.

Billy: Great story man, good for you. I wish someone would accuse ME of being on steroids...all I get these days is "Wow, you are so skinny!"

Jennifer: "maybe we vomit the intensity onto the mat...but we find a way through." That's pretty good ;-)

s'more: El hermano de atrás bienvenido, nosotros le perdimos! Man hugs and bad Spanish :-)

Barry Cooper: I'm afraid you're wasting your breath brother, they are never going to get it.

Happy rest day everyone, NEVER QUIT!

Jennifer- bravo!
s'more- you crack me up!
in8girl- yeah, until this week i was effortlessly eating paleo, no problem, eating whole food meals driven by internal cues, not external (clock, other people eating, smells). this week lack of sleep, increased caffeine intake and *choosing* to stress over psycho ex-bf derailed me. Ah, nuts. No biggie. I feel back on track already. I continue to ignore him, don't answer or return his phone calls, texts, and when I have seen him around, I am down right rude to him and just walk away. I also recently got a dog now, Piper (black lab/whippet mix, she's a doll and bi-lingual LOL responds to both spanish and english commands) and she's quite the barker when someone comes up the driveway.

Lots of water today, only 2 cups of coffee.. down from 7...yikes...yawn....

Lots of love & frontal hugs to all
Bartender! Bad English all around!

Comment #116, Barry Cooper.

Thank you for your in-put relative to my prior question regarding ZONE diet and endurance cycling.

So far, it sounds as though I should fill my bottles with a beverage mixture of ZONE portions of carbohydrate/protein/fat, with the amount possibly dependent upon the expectation of ingesting 60-70grams of carbohydrate per hour.

Again, thank you,

Playoff Beard! My old friend, where ya been? What movie we watchin' this weekend?

John in Jersey- thanks for not being offended by my email, thats me- no BS get right to the point LOL. "Alls I'm sayin... no funny business, awright"- hands on hips, arched eyebrow, head tilted to the side, loud gum crack LOL Looking forward to a WOD with you in the near future.

Guy,

I'm sorry, I'm multitasking (aka not focussing), so I didn't read your full initial question. Here is the link from Sisson: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/case-against-cardio/

"A case against Cardio". Basically, the CrossFit position on cycling would be to do almost all tempo and interval training. The CrossFit Endurance people probably explain it better, but the net goal is to offset the negatives that Sisson talks about.

As to what to put in your bottle, I'll punt on that. I just don't know. My guess (since I can't shut my mouth) is that you should use what other cyclists use, during your race.

During your training, I would think your sessions would be short enough that water alone, with a postworkout meal would be enough.

The Zone is an insulin control diet, that is intended for long term use. Short term insulin spikes are not a problem. The point is to retain your insulin sensitivity, while getting sufficient protein to maintain your lean body mass, and immune function.

#81 Barry Cooper,

I appreciate your consistently cogent and carefully-stated positions. I usually find myself in general agreement with your take on whatever issue is being discussed. But what's with the sweeping ad hominem against leftists? Ok, you did sufficiently hedge your position with qualifiers like "most" and "in general", but while those provisos make your statements likely to be true, they don't serve any useful purpose other than to make your target audience less likely to hear the meat of your arguments. Not only do they serve no useful purpose in general, the first 3 paragraphs of your post had nothing at all to do with the rest of it.

Proper thinking necessitates context. This country as a whole is rife with people who do nothing other than parrot what they hear, take no trouble to understand issues, and lack the capacity to defend their own views. This widespread nescience is not at all limited to leftists--it applies across the political spectrum. I am neither a leftist nor a leftist apologist. As some people here may remember, I label myself a libertarian. I grew up in a non-leftist family. Most of the people I spend time with by choice are of similar leanings, both political and intellectual. The sad fact is that I find just as many (if not more) nescients on the right as there are the left. Your faulty generalization, while it might be technically correct, unfairly targets a subset of the problem , and implicitly and wrongly exonerates those not in the scope of its destruction. It does as much to destroy the quality of debate as those whom you criticize of doing so.

You are not the only one guilty of this. There are many others who do the same thing. (I have also probably been guilty of it at times, although I make a concerted effort to not be.) This place would be much better off if everyone would eliminate their across-the-aisle vitriol and keep to substance.

Bingo great answer to Ransoms question ,I have another for ya.Ive been zoning for almost two months with crazy weight loss 24lbs and enhanced performance(fran prezone 7:09 ,fran last week 4:31) but one thing bothers me,my muscle bellys never feel full energy comes and goes and an actual PUMP is a thing of the past.Is this normal or atypical?thanks, any reply and info is welcome!

Oh dear! This will bug me!
Strong Lil Pony- I meant NOTHING of the food splurges this week!!! I would never comment on someone’s eating. I only was agreeing with you on a comment (maybe yesterday?) about zoning and read you did not weigh/measure food etc re some past disordered eating issues. Same here.
I only was commenting on how I eat now, but I too don’t weigh/ measure anything.

And I have had coffee splurges all week too- my mom is in town and has been treating me to a coffee in the afternoon, much to my enjoyment and delight. I will be on a caffeine withdrawal next week ;)
Oh please don’t take what I said wrong. I really do not comment on a splurge! ;)
Take care and have a good night!

Now, off to work #2
Erin

I wonder what the the founding fathers would say about us spreading "democracy" all across the world? Lets ask them:

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the issue!"
-Benjamin Franklin, 1759

"Democracy...while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide."
-John Adams, letter to John Taylor, April 15, 1814

"Unbridled passions produce the same effects, whether in a king, nobility, or a mob. The experience of all mankind has proved the prevalence of a disposition to use power wantonly. It is therefore as necessary to defend an individual against the majority (in a democracy) as against the king in a monarchy."
-John Adams, The Massachusetts Gazette, Tuesday February 5, 1788

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising them the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over a loss of fiscal responsibility, always followed by a dictatorship. The average of the world's great civilizations before they decline has been 200 years. These nations have progressed in this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
-Alexander Fraser Tytler, 1770

"The majority, oppressing an individual, is guilty of a crime, abuses its strength, and by acting on the law of the strongest breaks up the foundations of society."
-Thomas Jefferson, to Pierre Samuel Dupont de Nemours, 1816. ME 14:490

"In all cases where a majority are united by a common interest or passion, the rights of the minority are in danger!"
-James Madison, debates in the Federal Convention, June 6th, 1787

"Democracy is the most vile form of government... democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention: have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property: and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths."
-James Madison, Federalist Paper #10, 1787

"Wherever the real power in a Government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of Government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the Government is the mere instrument of the major number of the Constituents."
-James Madison, Letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1788

“It had been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience had proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.”
-Alexander Hamilton, June 21, 1788

"A democracy is a volcano which conceals the fiery materials of its own destruction. These will produce an eruption and carry desolation
in their way."
-Fisher Ames, author of the 1st Amendment, at the debates in the Federal Convention, June 6th, 1787

So what form of government did the founders intend, if not a democracy?

When asked what form of government they had just created at the Federal Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin replied: "A republic, ma'am, if you can keep it."

"We are now forming a republican form of government. Real liberty is not found in the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments. If we incline too much to democracy, we shall soon turn into a monarchy (or some other form of dictatorship)."
-Alexander Hamilton, June 26, 1787

"If we advert to the nature of republican government, we shall find that the censorial power is in the people over the government, and not in the government over the people. "
-James Madison, speech at the Virginia Convention, June 16, 1788

Alright Barry. You win. The Iraq war was executed flawlessly and the US can do no wrong.

Unless it is under a Democrat president.

We should not be spending tax dollars to build US infrastructure. We should be spending tax dollars to build Iraqi infrastructure. The investments we make in our country for electricity, roads, and education are socialism. Tax breaks are the only thing that make people confident enough about their employment to spend and boost the economy.

The Republican model has served this country well for the past 8 years. And all of the Leftists in the mortgage business and on Wall Street ruined the economy.

Comment 121, Barry Cooper.

In your response to my (Guy B Smith) question of ZONE diet and endurance cycling you recommended a link to one of Mark Sisson's articles.

I read the article and found it informative and useful.

Thank you,

M/27/190

CFWU x 3

Ran a mile (8:45)

I have followed the "conversation" between Barry and Marshal, and I could have predicted the outcome because it is the same outcome that happens during most political/historical discussions between conservatives and liberals.

Liberals offer up talking points that sound good at first.

Conservative use facts that shoot holes in liberal talking points, and use facts to support their views.

Liberals realize they do not have the facts/knowledge to support their views, all they have is emotions and rhetoric. So they resort to sarcasm, and in more extreme cases name calling.

Good job Barry!!!

Marshall,

Honestly, you're not worth engaging with. If you want to keep posting, though, I will.

MB,

You're right, most people don't think. I don't listen to any of the talk radio programs. I don't watch Fox. I don't even subscribe to the National Review or anything like it.

Most Republicans are as ill equipped to defend their views as most Democrats. The key difference, as I see it, is that Republicans are not attacking the fabric and moral foundation of this country. Conservatism is about conserving--protecting, not destroying--our heritage. Republicans are not out running down this country every chance they get, gloating at our failures, and all but openly rooting for our enemies.

Take the topic of today. Only one person in this thread (Karl) has actually admitted that what has happened is worthwhile, who previously had grave reservations.

The other people are acting as if it makes no difference at this point if we leave Iraq in the right way. That Obama should keep his promise, regardless of the consequences to Iraq, our military, and our national security.

Who are they trying to help? The military? They have shown over and over that they are quite willing to undermine their mission in every way they can. The Iraqis? They wanted to cut and run and abandon them to a vicious civil war. The budget? Spending does not seem to be a problem.

And I will note in that regard that much less than $100 billion of this stimulus is going to what might be termed capital improvements. Most of it is tax cuts and giveaways. All of it is borrowed, and all of it has be paid back.

And I won't defend Bush's fiscal profligacy. We don't need any more "compassionate conservatives". We need responsible adults who can think past the next election cycle. Bush did a lot of good things, but he spent too much money.

Still, he never contemplated anything quite like the Stimulus.

Mason A.,

I'm familiar with most of those quotes. I'm curious, can you contextualize them? Do you understand the difference between democracy and a Constitutional Republic, and why the former is such a lousy form of government?

That's right, Marsh! I don't need reliable electricity, roads, or a solid education, I'm an American capitalist- I can do without!

I may be young(18) and a novice tax-payer, not fully understanding the gravity that our economic crisis holds, but isn't the improvement of energy, infrastructure, and education a good thing for a society in general, despite claims of "socialism"? Where as, the improvement of the Iraqi nation, although currently important and valid, has no real value to the everyday lives of American citizens.
It's odd to me that one could object to the improvement of self, just because it could be associated with the ills of enemy governments. Although, until I grow up some more or take some Econ courses at my university, I probably won't have a real idea on how a nation should spend its money.

When I was born, this nation was the wealthiest in the world, and that's great! Why not make efforts to become the most educated, safe, and healthy too?
Maybe it's idealism, but I'd like to think it's ambition.

Awsome video!

"Marshall,

Honestly, you're not worth engaging with. If you want to keep posting, though, I will."

Barry Cooper at 3:30 PM

I think that is what we call back home a "beat down."

reading this makes me wish it was not a rest day.
jeez. what happened to enjoying the pain. it's not political talk hour.

Caught up with ystd's WOD, subbed SP/PP/PJ since I can't push out or down. 17:27.

L'il Bingo did a re-entry WOD.
4RFT
2 Cindy rounds
Run 400M

8:23

bg

and that's where your wrong. It is political/science/economics talk hour
or 24.

#130 Barry

I do understand the difference between a democracy and a republic, as do I the differences between all forms of government. If you agree a democracy is a poor form of government, why are you advocating that we spread it to Iraq, and why are you speaking highly of it in post #81?

The current system of government (democracy) in place in the US today is nothing to brag about...much less spread throughout the world. We haven't been a true republic for a long, long time...if ever. (I would argue that any form of oppression is impossible in a true republic, and slavery is a very glaring example of oppression)

Barry:” that you realize that not only is the Left wrong, they are so far wrong that it becomes a task for the social psychologist to explain just what motivates people to work so hard for evil in this world."

Sadly I've seen this too. And this quote is going in my vault.

And as for "saying it mean" that people complain about, who cares. When a child is mistaken you take the time to correct gently with the realization that this might be their first experience with such a thought.

An "Adult" on the other hand should know better and so doesn't deserve the coddling a child does. They either were guided gently as a child and it didn't stick or are speaking on something they have no experience and might even know they have none. Either way harsher tactics can be used because if it the first case a firmer hand is obviously called for as the "gentle" approach doesn't work on said individual, and for the second they need to realize the size of the hole they just created for themselves and to step back a learn (they never do though they just forage ahead and dig deeper).

Mason A, a fine list of quotes, too bad by your own quotes the founding fathers would support the "democracy in Iraq". Iraq isn't a straight democracy; we set it up to be like us a constitutional republic.

Politicians use the word "democracy" in a general sense not as an actual literal meaning of a government. Mason, are puns and sarcasm lost on you too?

Marshall, you jump around too much. Your WHOLE point was to try to use history: our failure in Iran as evidence that we're wrong in Iraq as well. So you bring up Iran, Barry schools you, instead of presenting counter evidence or interpretation you switch/jump/retreat/flee to our Iraq policies, basically ignore any evidence cause it doesn't match your opinions.

But instead of logic and history, which you tried and failed, you prove Barry's prediction of your (the left's) behavior "The prediction made is that responses from leftists, in general, will be short, sarcastic, and invoke propaganda memes of ancient parentage." Sadly, I wonder if with enough work we could set our watch to it.

Logic, ethics, and civics need to be brought back into schools. The majority’s exposure to such things these days is sorely lacking.

M/39/6'3"/253#
Made up Wednesdays WOD

Pull-up progressions; Gravitron 55# assist
9 rds & 8 pull-ups
Immediately into
Dip Progression w/55# assist:
12 rds and 8 dips
1 minute rest
Tabata sit-ups - 126 total reps
1 minute rest
Tabata squats - 98 reps

20 minute cool down on treadmill

Oh s***, that was sarcasm. Dooe!
I look like an ass now.

To redeem myself:
The progress that has been made in Iraq is outstanding. I may argue if it's worth 5,000 lives or not, but it in never-the-less outstanding.

I apologize for my own ignorance.

#138 penty

I draw a sharp distinction between a republic, and a democracy pretending to be a "constitutional republic."

As it stands in the US, the majority elects leaders to write laws--an indirect way of saying that the majority writes the laws. If laws can be changed by a simple majority, what basis do those laws have aside from the fleeting whims of the majority? Writing the will of the mob on a piece of paper doesn't make it any less of a mob.

In the US, when the majority supported slavery they simply wrote laws sanctioning it. Same thing for when the majority didn't think women should vote. Women couldn't vote for the first 172 years of America's existence. What kind of system is that to force on others? What if as soon as we leave, the Iraqi's pass a law disallowing women to vote? Are you going to wait until 2181 for them to "come around," or would you just nullify the law a la an outside dictatorship.?

A true republic is different from a democracy in that its laws have an actual moral basis. As stated in the declaration of independence, "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
*That* is a legitimate foundation of law, not majority opinion.

If it is majority opinion that writes the laws, what you have is a democracy--not a republic.

Awesome work, Billy, just awesome.

Thanks for posting this Coach. Wish I could make time to more fully address this, but then again, the situation speaks for itself.

Made up the last three days of WODs today, having worked my way out of working out for as many days. Details there as Bingo says.

Ransom #79 - if you did the zone for two weeks or more you'd know all you need to about what it would do for you. Perhaps you'd notice a difference. If so, you'd then have to make your choice based on cost/benefit. I looked that diet you mentioned - the focus on whole grains means you are eating a ton of empty calories, and for many those grains become a medical issue, the more so the longer they use them (and why not? Grain is bird food). If you lost the grain, ingested at least .7 grams of protein per pound of lean body mass, and used the low glycemic index fruit/vegetables on the abs diet, you'd doing essentially the Zone (and stage 4 Atkins). If you took that a step further to fully Zone and didn't sleep better, recover faster, and perform better, then you'd know "it's not worth the time and effort." Paul

COTD (confession of the day):

I had a double cheesburger and fries for lunch.

#130 Barry Cooper,

So you think your position is a moral one? Congratulations. So do the leftists. This doesn't make your criticism of their intellect any more relevant. If you feel their position is so damaging to the fabric and foundation of this country, then argue that. Don't weaken your argument with generalized ad hominems.

Bush never contemplated anything quite like the Stimulus?!? Where have you been the last 6 months? First he passed a stimulus that came an the form of a check to taxpayers. Then in October he passed a $700 billion bail-out. From what I understand, the Obama stimulus that was just passed was along the same order of magnitude. In reality, there is very little difference between the Republican and Democratic positions here. They all need to appear to be doing something about our problems. And the things they do are veiled power grabs and afronts to freedom couched in rhetoric that appeals to the massive ignorance and greed of the American people.

Hey guys, I've been ghosting this for awhile doing the WODs and reading everyone's comments. Something I haven't seen posted about is alcoholic consumption. Do any of you drink beer or wine and if so in what quantity and frequency? My primary concern is how it affects the zone diet and the bodies ability to rebuild muscle after workouts.

Thanks in advance

Strong Lil Pony, hey!

Well, I still haven't seen The Wrestler so it's gonna have to be a rental now, bummer. Hmm...what else...I just watched Pretty In Pink for about the 20th time the other day! You can never go wrong with a John Hughes film IMHO. Class of 90' baby :-)

#145 Will:

Beer contains protein...that's good for you. But beer also contains something even more important to your overall health and happiness...something I like to call "joy". Bottoms up champ :-)

Ok, I'm an idiot.

Mason A."I draw a sharp distinction between a republic, and a democracy pretending to be a "constitutional republic.".. and other nonsense I won't bother quoting.

Sigh. I see the problem here. It's called an agenda, and you have it, Mason. Your agenda has you redefining words (republic, democracy, constitutional republic) that already have very specific and accepted definitions. The fact you can't be bothered to use these accepted defintion of these words and instead make up your own is speaks volumes.

What is worse is you start spouting off without explaining to anyone that you are actually, and knowingly, changing generally accepted definitions. You even carry this further by logically drawing a bunch of equal signs between everything.

The first rule of effective comunication is to define terms. You seem unable to follow, and maybe not even understand, this basic concept. You are basically deciding to start off into a converstion speaking gibberish and then expecting every to change their already established and agreed upon definitions to suit one person... you...arrogant.

BTW, a simple use of a dictionary/google search and like would clarify the traditional definitions of these forms of government. Republics not being republics because they allow slavery is nonsense, for example.

You, no matter your definitions, have stated you don't believe in "the will of the people". Please share with us the name and defintion of your perferred type of government.

#146 Will

Sorry man, you asked a serious question and I poked fun at it. No offense intended brother.

Personally, I enjoy drinking beer and wine but I do my best to consume small amounts, 2 beers or two glasses of wine per day. Never hard liquor for me, but that's just preference. On nights before a tough WOD, I will usually pass on alcohol altogether and just stay hydrated.

Cole #123:

Dude, it's all about performance. The "pump" is secondary if it occurs at all. Who cares? -2:38 on "Fran"? Righteous! SOMETHING must be pumped, eh?

In Crossfit we are training for something (I train to not su^k at tomorrow), but that something is typically not a look, per se. Now to be truthful, most folks end up with a pretty good look (check out Billy's comments about being accused of using steroids!) anyway, but in the end that's secondary to performance.

Are you saying you had NO pump after the PU ladder?

Welcome aboard. Fasten your seatbelt.

Penty: Welcome back! Where ya been?

Will #146: Life is hard, man. The Zone can be hard, too. In a tight Zone you would account for the alcohol. I'm betting that most of us who partake do NOT count the alcohol carb blocks most of the time. It's you vs. you. How does the alcohol affect your performance (no double entendre or pun intended)?

I dearly love the taste of alcohol. A good glass of wine. A pint of bitter. Tonight's Grey Goose martini with blue cheese stuffed olives. Heaven. All of it has a measurable negative effect on every aspect of my life performance, BUT all of it also adds a little happiness. A moment of repose. I partake when I can afford myself the luxury of that repose, when the only performance that is affected affects no one other than me and I can gift myself with that small kindness.

YMMV.

Playoff Beard...PIP...ah, Psychedelic Furs....My friend had this quote on his FB page for peeps to identify and I was *knew* instantly from where "just played the clarinet this morning. Not one lesson!" You know? Anybody else? And dont google it LOL Class of '89 rocks.

Eric- answer my FB quiz, and dont laugh at my allegiance to Alice in Chains LOL You can however laugh at me 'cause of Skynyrd. I am so uncool. And I don't care. LOL

in8girl- oh I didnt take anything personally. I was raised catholic, thus have tendency at times where I feel compelled to list my sins and how I plan to right them. Hence, look how bad I've been... 'bless me papa glassman, for i have sinned, it has been been 6 days since my last cheat meal, and I have been eating brownies and drinking coffee like a madwoman' confession.

C'mon, where's tomorrow's WOD? Need to know before I go out!

#148 penty,

Looking past the non-traditional definitions, it sounds like Mason favors a government that protects the minority from the tyranny of the majority. A very reasonable philosophy if you ask me.

Playoff Beard I laughed too because I do the same thing. I generally drink a couple beers per night on the weekends and rarely drink during weekdays unless it is a special occasion.

The question was mainly centered around an article I read that states your RMR (resting metabolic rate) is increased while consuming alcohol but it throws off your insulin and causes carbs and stuff to pile up in your system. I'm thinking that the last thing someone needs is out of control insulin production for muscle recovery.

I was in the army for years and we drank pretty much every night and did PT regularly and never really noticed recovery times taking any longer but my diet was different and workouts were mainly body weight and running. Anyway now I'm not drinking as much but it seems like recovery from heavy lifts like DLS, squats and cleans take like 2-3 days instead of 1-2.

#146 WILL i think that we don't have to be or to attach with a perfect diet we are humans we enjoy some flavors just no take too much from those that you know are non healty

90% strict
10% to enjoy our mess haha!!

personally i eat some junk food two or three times at week....to me it like the lunch time at school that means HAVE FUN!!!

sorry if couldn't help you i have a terrible english

Well put bingo.

Will- I want to know what the WOD is so I can call my evening *before* I go out. If its tough, and duh... usually is... I either just don't drink or have at most 2 Miller Lites. My friends love it- I am almost always the driver. LOL

I do enjoy occasional glass of malbec or pinor noir while cooking dinner. Since of late, I am just cooking for my daughter and myself, I haven't been doing that. No biggie there either.

I suppose it depends on how important zoning/ and performance is to you. Don't know about you, but I hate having a crappy WOD *knowing* that I could have done better but was stupid the night before.

Zone follow-up:

Lovely Daughter is home for a surprise visit. She just brought home an ice cream sundae for me. So not Zone.

I dearly love Lovely Daughter!

#148 penty

I am using a strict definition of all my terms...

The term "republic" is derived from the Latin phrase "res publica" or "public thing". A republic is defined as a rule of law.

The term democracy is derived from the Greek words "demos" and "kratein" which mean "people" and "to rule". A democracy is defined as majority rule.

The term "law" means a lot of different things depending on the context. In simple terms, Merriam-Webster defines a law as "a binding custom or practice of a community".

As I stated in my argument, I was speaking of "moral" law or "legitimate" law which is one of many definitions of "law" by Merriam-Webster, given as "a rule or principle of proper conduct sanctioned by conscience, concepts of natural justice, or the will of a deity." . The concept of natural justice was defined in my excerpt on inalienable rights from the declaration of independence.

Your contention is my definition of "law." To you, if a group of people write something down on a piece of paper it is a "law." What the majority thinks is by definition the "customs and practices of a community". Are you suggesting that the basis of law should be the "customs and practices of a community?" How is that not a circular argument? What you really mean to say is that your law, your society, and your government has no basis.

I am saying the basis of society should be human rights. Laws should protect those rights, and a government should enforce those laws. A true (moral, legitimate) republic is a rule of law where the laws given have a moral basis.

As I alluded to, the random whims of a mob are neither moral or legitimate--as evidenced by 89 years of slavery under our "constitutional republic."

IRT
Video, dead on. Do the best you can with what you got. Sort sweet & to the point.
CFJAX
Cav

IRT
Video, dead on. Do the best you can with what you got. Short sweet & to the point.
CFJAX
Cav

Mason A.

Much as I would enjoy spending the next 1,000 years trying to pin you down on anything while you decide to be deliberately obtuse while also keeping everything so abstract that real world applications are impossible but I have better things to do.

Crossfit and Fearless WOD

3 Rounds
5 Tire Flips
20 Deadlifts (185M/135)
30 Wall Ball
40 Pull-ups
50 Sit-ups

Laura 26:37
Alej 26:25
Jennifer 32:26
Sam 2.25 rounds 30:00
Jonathan 1 round
Austin 29:05
Jeremy 2.75 rounds 30:00
Jason 38:00

"Get yo mind right"

political stuff aside,it's nice to see the sea hats, why is he carrying that bloke is he too tired from "yomping for a few miles"r are they trying to catch the boat that they gave to the Iranians? no but really airborne all the way, should have,could have, and yet you did'nt become a paratrooper shame really mate!

M/32/6'2"/185

Rest day run:
30 minutes 3.8 miles

Rest day.......couldn't stay away from the globo, so did Death by Pull-ups - WOD from Main Page 090218.

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Got 10 rounds (10:00) plus 9 pull-ups during 11th minute.

M/58 yrs/5'10"/201

Post number of minutes completed to comments.

Penty,

Well done. You saved me some work.

Mason,

You are being ironic, without realizing it. You are using the Roman term Republic, and the Roman concept of Natural Law, and yet you are using them in ways contrary to the manner in which they were used by the Romans.

In point of fact, our system is an almost exact match of their system, with some obvious flaws corrected. They had two Consuls; we have a President and Vice President. Their Consuls were elected for one year periods, and were both Commander in Chief, but on alternating days, which as you can imagine led to some problems. They had a Senate, and various people's assemblies, who brought their grievances to the Senate. They had a court system in which Tribunals could on occasion countermand the edicts of the Consuls.

And they owned slaves, and threw Christians and other perceived enemies of the State to the lions.

What you are asking for is in fact our Bill of Rights. That is what limits State power, and enshrines the concepton of human equality under the law into our Constitution.

And there are many checks, by design, on the direct power of the the People. We are a representative Democracy. Senators are only elected every six years, which eases their need to constantly be positioning themselves for reelection. House members, on the other hand, are elected every two years. The intent, there, was to create more direct democracy. Thus the images of the House as a hotbed of nuttiness, and the Senate as more deliberative.

And to be clear, the Bill of Rights--and the Constitution itself--was very explicitly intended to act as a counterweight to populist sentiments.

Finally, the property requirement was actually intended to make only people with vested interests in the system able to affect it. Our Founders did not want "The People" to be voting themselves things. They did not want this vulgar spectacle of people who dont' even pay taxes voting themselves shares of other peoples wealth.

This discussion will go on until Monday, I think, so I would like to go into the propaganda significance of "The People" and "Democracy" then. As in Students for a Democratic Society, and "The people's Republic of China".

Mason, I'll assume those are not your reference points, but even if they are, I'll get there. I'm actually going to rest from Rest Day this time.

MB,

I do think my position is a moral one. My post are typically 9/10ths content, and 1/10th insult. The insult perhaps is a sign of emotional weakness, but the simple fact of the matter is that every time I see cretins like Nancy Pelosi smiling for the cameras, I see good men and women dying, in this country and others. I see people going hungry due to human stupidity. I see families breaking, and children crying.

Yes, I think I am right, and I argue it almost every day, and have for years. I have never seen anyone able to defend current Democratic policies. The Democrats have been a party without a single good idea since Johnson. Johnson and Kennedy at least understood the importance of moral clarity with respect to the Cold War, even if their social policies often caused more harm than good (Voting Rights Act being a clear exception).

With respect to the stimulus, you are right. I defended Bush because I got tired of people insulting him using language that was applied generically to every President since Roosevelt.

But he was no conservative. Not in any meaningful sense--not domestically at any rate.

The problem here is that the Left has come to dominate the media to such an extent, that doing anything that smacks of reducing or ending the Welfare State is political suicide. So we keep gunning the accellerator towards the cliff.

Clinton was the last one able to surmount the criticisms of his own party, to get reforms through. Say what you will of the man, he was not a complete idiot. He was certainly much smarter than Obama. There is no question of that in my mind at all.

Thanks penty, your commentary gave me a great laugh! And not just because I agreed with it.

Thanks too, Barry, keep up the philosophical WOD.

Barry,

Ok, here's the bottom line. I've got no problem with your 9/10ths content. I may even disagree here and there, but that's fine because your points are reasoned. The problem is this. You wrongly defended Bush because you got tired of people insulting him the same way you insult Nancy Pelosi. Oh the irony.

Here you're flirting with the edge of something I abhor--blindly supporting a person/party (as well as blindy fustigating the other side) because they, possibly irrelevantly, happen to fall into the wrong weakly-delineated category--rather than supporting/fustigating underlying beliefs/actions that are the problem. This is the political equivalent to racism, and I loathe it.

Know rest for me did fran,she kicked my ass as always!

#167 Barry

I'm not being ironic. I am questioning on what grounds someone can support a form of government which has no intrinsic guard against something as morally abhorrent as slavery. To me, that is a clear sign that such as system is inherently flawed.

I don't want the bill of rights. What good did the bill of rights do when people were enslaved and women couldn't vote? I want a piece of paper with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" hung on the police station. What rights does that simple phrase *not* cover? Tell my why there is not a single US law explicitly ensuring life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? We have 50,000+ laws, why didn't we bother to write that one?

A government formed on that simple principle, for example:
1. inherently protects against slavery
2. inherently guarantees women's suffrage
3. necessarily utilizes a free-market, capitalistic system
4. cannot by definition go into budget deficit

As it stands, our system of "democracy" or "constitutional republic" (whatever you want to call it, we all know what we are talking about) has already failed. More so, it has failed in the exact manner that the founding fathers predicted 230 years ago--it is financially and morally bankrupt.

In 2008, the total US debt, including entitlements such as social security, was approximately $65 trillion. That amount exceeds the world GDP! Last year the budget deficit was $5.1 trillion alone! (again, when you look at the real accounting which includes entitlements, congress is using future money to pay the bills today which makes the figure appear smaller)

I'm sorry but democracy in the US does not have a good track record. Slavery, prosecution of women and minorities, the rounding of Japanese into camps after WWII, $65 trillion debt, a 94% taxation rate in 1944, etc. etc.

The sooner we stop pretending that this is a good system of government, the sooner we can actually establish one which actually protects human rights and ensures economic prosperity. The American people have bled for freedom countless times in the last 230 years, its about time we actually gave it to them.

Mason,

May I ask what system of government would you like to have for the US? Please provide an example since I'm confused with everyone's definition. Would appreciate it.

Thanks

On 1/12/09, Amy Tuteur, MD, OBGYN, reasonably intelligent and educated we must presume, wrote this on her blog:

>>I am a proud member of the American Left. … However, I cannot overlook a central failing of the American Left, the inability to recognize evil.

This understatement is a very good first step in a 12-step rehab program for any leftist.

#172 trace

I want the form of government our founders intended, but could not obtain because of the underdeveloped morality of the 1700s. I call it a "true republic" but one could also call it a "republic" or "constitutional republic" whatever the label, how about I just define it so we aren't confused?

It would be set up exactly as it is in Article I of the United States constitution: three branches of government: executive, legislative, judiciary with all the powers, checks, and balances, in our current system.

The president, senate, and house would be elected just as they are today. The supreme court would be appointed just as it is today.

The ONLY difference in the system of government I propose is that we re-ratify our constitution to include the the declaration of independence as a preface. Most specifically, to write into the constitution (law) the unifying principle and moral basis for the system of law we are to establish:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed"

Thats IT. Thats the only change I would make to our current system of government. That notion was assumed in the drafting of the constitution, but never explicitly written into it. Two hundred years later it has been all but forgotten. It is, I think, the greatest mistake the founders made. It is the most basic expression of human rights, and yet there is not a single US law which protects it!

2/20/09
CFWU X2

WOD
30 Push Press 55lbs
30 Dips
30 Bench Jumps
30 Front Squats 75lbs
30 DB (kettle bell) Swings 35lbs
30 Burpees

Time = 8:35

JD Roper
Pickens High School

Mason A,

Sounds like a reasonable idea. Although I think it would need to be accompanied by something with a little more teeth, something that articulates more specifically what is meant by "to secure these rights governments are instituted among men", something that provides a clear reason to strike down the dangerous work of over-zealous legislators, and not being so broadly open to interpretation. I also think that we should include a clause from the Confederate Constitution that says (paraphrase) that all bills introduced by the legislative branch must have a single purpose. This would hopefully eliminate the pork-barrel politics we have today.

But other than that, I'm right with you.

58/M/195
48/F/125
In the Sierra Nevada, D & B shoveled snow for 1.5 hours clearing the path to the cabin. Life is good.

In Akron, OH for the weekend and found CrossFit Legacy in Barberton.

CFWU
Deadlift Skill Tng
Push-Press Skill Tng
In one minute complete for ten minutes:
6 x 60lb Dead-lift
6 x 60lb Push-Press
For four minutes
10 x 60lb DL
10 x 60lb PP
For six minutes
12 x 60lb DL
12 x 60lb PP

I made to 18 rounds before I ran out of time.

WOD
30 push press (30lb/55lb)
30 dips
30 bench jumps
30 front squats (55lb/35lb)
30 db swings (15lb/35lb)
30 burpees
time-11:12

Mason,

It sounds to me like what you want is to invent a time machine, go back in time, and tell everyone in 1789 to think just like you do today.

I don't think this is a reasonable position.

If you want to talk about protection of life, what do you mean? Can this be done in any meaninful way other than through the enacting of laws designed to protect people from murder? Would you want to include the lives of the unborn?

Liberty: can you speak in any meaningful way about liberty without defining what you mean? For example, freedom of speech? Assembly? Freedom to keep and bear arms? Protection from self incrimination?

Is there some liberty you want that is not already protected?

The sense I get is that you are a product of the suburbs who was surprised to learn that your lifestyle was not always pervasive in America, that we were not always (and still are not) perfect, and that in some inchoate way you are being deprived of something.

Social Security is bankrupt. It was a bad idea, and its time has come and gone. This does not mean we are a failed nation. Crap, man, do you quit when you get a little boo boo on your little finger? We haven't even been invaded or hit with a nuke. We haven't even declared bankrupcy. That is when the serious fight starts. You've thrown in the towel before the bell has even rung.

MB,

I understand you fully, and have anticipated you fully. In this regard, with respect to this conversation, you are a leftist. I will tell you why.

On the left, it is assumed that whenever two positions exist on a topic, they are both morally equal, since everyone has a valid perspective. Perspectives are made valid by having them. Universal tolerance necessitates this conclusion.

Given this, the only possible formal reason for judging someone is if they have exited the system by judging someone else. For example, you have judged me for being judgemental. You have in effect compared me, formally, to a racist, which is in perfect conformity with the understanding I am presenting here.

Republicans can be made evil for the simple reason that they offer clear positions that they actually believe. Leftists can content themselves with criticizing Republicans, and supporting everyone else who is, on their own account, non-judgemental.

There is no need in this system to develop clear ideas. There is no need for logic. All you need to know is that someone has rejected judgment, and they are part of the clan.

Where this gets a bit convoluted--and has fooled many intellectuals (admittedly, as willing accomplices)--is when people like this get in power. Lenin, as an example, sought to overthrow the oppressive Czarist system, and implement a system where everyone was equal. He wanted to reject, in principle, the conception that one person could claim qualitative superiority to another person, in the quality of their ideas, or in their social standing.

In the Communists formulation, then, Democracy is a system where all class structures have been eradicated, and the power given formally to the People, as an undifferentiated, equal--hence free--mass.

Freedom is not the freedom to do. It is the freedom from judgement, by fellow citizens. You are equal. Racism is gone. Classism is gone. Inequality of outcome is gone. This is the socialist vision.

Practically, what happens, is an overwhelming State crushes the people into a pancake, takes everything they own, then calls this Democracy.

But see the people who operate the State are still involved. So, obviously, they are not equal. As Orwell put it, they are "more equal".

And as any rational observer can plainly see, what has happened is that an aristocracy that formerly had checks on it in the forms of the Church, custom, and some version of common law, has given way to an aristocracy--the Party--which has NO checks whatever on its power.

Lenin killed more political opponents in his first year than the Czar had killed in the previous 150 years.

Thus when you see something like Students for a Democratic Society, what they are actually working for is absolute power for themselves, and a steamroller to compress the unwilling masses into flat, equal, pieces of meat.

All roadkill is equal in principle too, isn't it?

I will add, that the best system of government is that which distributes power most evenly. Communism is the worst system. It is a type of fascism which has eliminated even the balancing conflict of interest of private industry.

Our Constitutional Republic is as good a system as have ever been devised. We have screwed it up by investing too much power in the Federal government, but I would like to point out the many checks and balances.

Everyone learns about the Executive, Judicial, and legislative checks. You have checks between the Senate and the House. You have checks between direct democracy--the People--and an elite--our representatives. You have--or should have--a balance between the Federal Government and the States. States, by the way, should be able to have, officially, religous positions. The point of the Bill of Rights was that the Federal Government was not to tell the States what to do in matter of religion. This applied both to forcing them to do something, or to REFRAIN from doing something.

The First Amendment, obviously, has been abused by the Supreme Court in an unconstitutional fashion.

There were to be checks between individual states, and counties, and cities.

I have said before, and will say again, that I believe the 14th Amendment should either be repealed, or rewritten to recover for the States their protection from the Federal Government.

Prior to the 14th Amendment--passed by Republican Radicals (the Democrats, remember, were the party of Slavery) against what no doubt would have been the wish of Lincoln, had he survived--the judicial and legislative abuses we saw beginning with Roosevelt, and greatly exacerbated in the 60's and 70's, would not have been possible.

Overly convoluted sentence there, but a reading or two ought to make the meaning clear.

We are dying not from Goodness, but from Do-Gooders who have jettisoned in principle the capacity for rational thought.

#180 Barry

"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" means: "the freedom to think and act, to pursue one's own ends through voluntary, uncoerced action."

We don't need a time machine, all we need to do is re-ratify a new constitution. Congress needs only add one law:

"the freedom to think and act, to pursue one's own ends through voluntary, uncoerced action, shall not be infringed"

If that was written into law, a law forbidding murder would be redundant, it would only exist to define punishment. Same for the freedom of speech--its already covered. Slavery? Covered. Women's rights? Covered. Right to bear arms? Covered. Right to remain silent? Covered. That one law, as I've said, is the most basic expression of human rights--it alone endows humans with all the rights they will ever need. It is a timeless statement of true morality.

How can any individual be expected to know or understand the 50,000+ US laws currently on the books? Why establish a web of such intricate redundancy when a single seven word phrase is sufficient?

Why then, are there no US laws explicitly protecting "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?"

#181 Barry

"that the best system of government is that which distributes power most evenly"

I disagree. I think the best system of government is the one which best protects human rights.

Mason,

You have lapsed into full incoherence. You have to have laws, since freedom is ambiguous. The Romans had a conception of Natural Law such that some things--like murder--were to be understood in all times and places as wrong.

But you also have a necessity for mundane law. You must be young, or you would understand this. Certainly, your positions betray a fundamental naivete.

For example, can you park in front of the Fairdale Court Building at 12 noon on Tuesdays? As it happens, that's the day the Judges all meet for cocktails to determine their next move, so it's against the law. But not in Evendale. Etc.

The more precisely you define what is allowed, the less conflict you have.

Your proposal adds nothing to what we have.

With respect to 183, how do you differentiate the division of power from the protection of human rights? If you haven't noticed, slavery is no longer legal in this country, although it IS formally allowed in all nations which follow Sharia.

You are making no sense at all. You are not solving a problem which exists.

I will add, that slavery is nothing other than separating specific people from power. What is needed, then, is their inclusion as another part of the distributed power.

In our nation, this involved first equal protection under the law (yes, I understand the intent of the 14th Amendment; it has been served), then the right to vote.

#184 Barry

True freedom is hard to understand. Who in this lifetime has every really experienced it? It would take hundreds of pages for me to explain it in terms which will be convincing to you. If you wish for me to elaborate I can try, but just understand that freedom to me is different than freedom to you. Yes, I am "more free" than a lot of people in the world but what do I care of that if I wake up without certain freedoms?

If I am dying of terminal cancer (I'm not, just an example) I cannot legally buy medicine without somebody's approval. How is that freedom? Maybe it is in my "best interests," whatever that means, but it is certainly not freedom.

One clear form of slavery is forced labor without pay. I am forced to work to survive (I have to eat) yet 50% of my income is taken from me. If a slave is someone who loses 100% of their income, what do you call someone who loses 50% of their income? Am I a part time slave? Full-time half-slave? Again, the things that money buys may be in the "best interest" of society, but that is not freedom.

How can you distribute equal power to people with conflicting interests? Even in a democracy 49% of people are powerless.

So basically you want a world where you, Mason A., are never inconvenienced in any way, or compelled to do anything you don't like.

Obviously, cancer is a reduction in freedom, and death is worse yet, so a true Republic (or would it be Democracy?) is a system in which there is no death.

People get out of your way on the street, it only rains when you want it do, and trees are green year round. Nobody ever says an unkind word to anyone, nobody has a job they don't like, and everything anyone could ever want is freely available.

Sounds like you want the Big Rock Candy Mountain.

#187 Barry

Again, I understand how you feel Barry. Freedom is a really alien idea to most people, so let me respond to your questions.

"Obviously, cancer is a reduction in freedom, and death is worse yet"

Cancer is not a reduction in freedom because cancer is not a human agent. Cancer cannot violate my freedom anymore than tornadoes or tigers can. Freedom exists only as a social agreement between people with conscious choice. Humans violate my freedom when they take away my choice to purchase medicine.

"People get out of your way on the street"

How would other people be said to have freedom if I could force them to do whatever I want? That would be the definition of slavery, and is not at all what I am proposing.

My freedom imposes no restrictions or obligations on the actions of other individuals--only to abstain from violating my freedom to think and act, to pursue one's own ends through voluntary, uncoerced action.

Freedom is not about "doing whatever you want" or having "all of your dreams come true." That to me, is slavery--when a group of people decide to force their will on others.

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, freedom is not without restriction--your personal freedom ends where the freedom of others begins. What I mean has been popularized by the phrase "The freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins."

If your personal freedom was unrestricted, everyone else would necessarily be your slave. If all humans are created with equal freedoms, that is a contradiction.

I'm special because I'm human, not because I'm Mason A.

Mason,

Either your concept is empty, or we already have what you say you want. What you are trying to express in words is a feeling you have of being limited. You don't like this feeling, so you are doing what you can to articulate something better but you are failing.

More generally, I will submit that whether or not Mason is guilty of this or not, a great many of our kids are growing up thinking only of their rights and not their responsibilities. A responsibility is a reduction in freedom. It is a commitment made to others, that is honored regardless of personal feeling, or inconveniences encountered.

Our nation has been so successful--the sacrifices of our forebears have been so fruitful--that we have forgotten that to live without limits is to be condemned to perpetual infantilism.

What did the hippies want? Freedom to be "themselves". What did we get? A society where nothing is sacred, and people grow into adulthood without ever internalizing on a deep level the conception of responsibility.

In an inchoate way, the left recognizes this in the notion of "social responsibility", but what they really mean by this is voting in increasingly intrusive governments that play the role of parent in counterpoint to their role as perpetual child.

In seeking "freedom", they pursue fascism. And, ironically, they condemn countervailing impulses like genuine conservatism as fascist.

Fascist, in that sense, is being told something they don't want to hear, like you have to pay your bills, or "freedom isn't free".

Mostly, though, and most precisely, it is any system of thought that facilitates qualitative judgment, and which persists in finding a principled difference between wrong and right.

Anyone who cannot abide the phrase "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" is, by this definition, a fascist.

You see, there is a logic to this system of thought. All systems have underlying structures, and leftism is no different. It is simply that they refuse to recognize and articulate their own ideas because in the light of the day they are exposed as fully ridiculous, and motivated primarily by simple cowardice.

#191 Barry

There is a difference between what is "socially wrong" and what is "criminally wrong." Racism, for example, is socially wrong but not criminally wrong (freedom of speech).

Our laws, which establish legality (criminality) have no jurisdiction enforcing social morality. Laws emphasizing social morality necessarily result in a loss of freedom. Case in point, slavery in the 1800s and women's suffrage in the 1900s.

Yes, people should have a "social morality" which extends beyond criminal morality, but that is not the proper role of government. That is the role of parents, educators, schools, friends, and communities. That is the realm of personal responsibility, not governmental responsibility.

"...we already have what you say you want"

If I purchase medicine without the approval of a doctor I will be forcefully sent to prison. That is not freedom.

#191 Barry

What would Newton say if he was exposed to quantum mechanics?

You might think the idea of a government that exists without coercion to be extremely foreign, but what new ideas aren't by definition, foreign?

Can you think of any way government could exist without forced taxation? If you can't, does that really settle the question?

To put it in perspective, our forefather's started an entire war over a few pennies on their breakfast drink.

You are right that "freedom isn't free" but you are wrong that freedom exists if you are forced to pay for it.

#191 Barry

"A responsibility is a reduction in freedom. It is a commitment made to others, that is honored regardless of personal feeling, or inconveniences encountered."

Responsibility is a choice to reduce your own personal freedom for the sake of others.

Slavery is being physically forced to reduce your own personal freedom for the sake of others.

Mason,

I commend your effort to think these things through on your own, and hope that you continue that process until you begin understanding what I am saying well enough to dispute it substantively. For now, I am going to forego a direct response.

I did want to add, though, that the concept of rights is a legal concept. Until a concept is embodied in law--backed by a credible police power--it is an ethereal whisp.

Our understanding of law owes much to the Romans. In the Roman Empire, Roman citizens had legal rights which were greater than those of other citizens.

During the Enlightenment, this concept of foundational duties of any State with respect to any member of that State were universalized to all of humanity--in principle, certainly not in practice.

But those conceptions are only as good as the laws that are created to enable them. The Bill of Rights was supposed to protect the sundry states from the Federal Government. It has in large measure failed to do this, but only because the system has been corrupted by corrupt people.

Now, this conception of universal rights is foreign to most nations and religions in existence. In particular, it is foreign to the Islamic legal system of Sharia. Speaking in an Islamic country as you are speaking here could well get you branded a heretic or enemy of the State, and killed.

If we value our rights, we have perforce to value the system of government in this nation which protects them--imperfectly, but still well--and we have to understand that there are many people in this world who would like to see this Western idea of rights disappear from the Earth entirely.

And such a thing is possible. To deny it is to ignore history.

#195 Barry

"I did want to add, though, that the concept of rights is a legal concept. Until a concept is embodied in law--backed by a credible police power--it is an ethereal whisp."

Rights are not a legal concept, they are a social concept. Police enforcement is only one of many possible methods to enforce human rights. The most basic form of enforcement is personal self defense.

My rights as a human being exist whether you, your government, or any other system of law recognizes them or not--for as long as I am able to raise my fist in self defense.

That is your belief. What happens to your rights when someone larger, stronger, and better armed than you throws you in jail? Would you not want a legal basis upon which you could demand you be released?

Obviously, society may not like you, and may not recognize the value in your being released.

If so, under your system, you will lay there until you rot. The whole point of putting rights into the law, is they apply even when the person is a social outcast. This, ultimately, was the argument made by civil rights activists.

And in point of fact I will defend the right of bigots to their points of view, even though I don't agree with them.

This is the fallacy of much of the so-called Progressive Movement. They are not content to gain equality under the law. They want full social acceptance of their agenda, which is not something that belongs, at all, in the political arena. Once you exceed equal protection under the law you are engaging in coercive social engineering, using the power of the State. This is a prima facie reduction in freedom.

In addition, this mania for social perfectionism results, itself, in bigotry, as anyone who studies the assaults on religion that followed the Gay Marriage ban in California can clearly see.

#197 Barry

"That is your belief. What happens to your rights when someone larger, stronger, and better armed than you throws you in jail?"

That is precisely why we need a police force. The problem is, it isn't supposed to be ME they throw in jail, its supposed to be the larger, stronger, better armed guy who tries to violate the rights of others...even if that larger, strong, better armed guy is a police officer himself.

You are right that the legality of something should say nothing of the social acceptability of it. How do you justify trying to have it the other way around, though?

Mason,

I am continuing to engage in this "debate" from the simple observation that I often learn things I can't predict through the sheer motion of thinking and typing.

You say we need a police force. Why? Don't you have the power of self defense?

And if social acceptability is superior in principle to law, then if I don't like you, I just need to call my uncle the Chief of Police, and have HIM throw you in jail. I accept it, they accept it--hell, we're all HAPPY about it--and the law has nothing to say about it, since it is inferior to our opinions. This is how it works in much if not most of the world. We decided we had the right to jail you, and we did it. Case Closed.

How old are you? If you're older than 22 or so, I will be quite disappointed at the rate of decay in our nation.

To return to the topic of the day, this is how things worked in Iraq prior to our invasion. Except jailing was not something Hussein had tremendous use for. Normally, people were tortured and killed.

Needless to say, they had whatever right they wanted over any and all women and little girls too. Probably boys too, as far as that goes. I would bet on it.

This whole digression started as a result of a woolly headed misunderstanding of the word democracy. What we want to the Iraqis is a system of government in which everyone is equal under the law, and in which bad leaders can be replaced by better ones without violence.

This is a massive improvement over the status quo ante bellum, and over the status quo in every other Arab nation. I do not see how anyone who assesses the facts even superficially can conclude otherwise. That is why leftists who ardently desire and work for our failure don't want to talk about successes, or the cost of failure to people they claimed they cared about before the invasion.

Barry,

Thanks for having the dialogue with Mason and his wish list for America. I did not have the heart or desire to try to figure it out.

#199 Barry

"You say we need a police force. Why? Don't you have the power of self defense? "

I already answered that in post 198. You claimed in #195 that only rights written into law and backed by police power are "real." I responded by providing a real world counter-example: self defense. A man's right to not be murdered is self-enforced when a burglar enters his home and he defends himself with a gun. The police and legal system have nothing to do with the enforcement of that right.

You then responded by mocking the need for police enforcement?

I never proposed that police enforcement be replaced with self-defense, I was merely refuting your claim that police are somehow inherent to the definition of "rights." As I said they are but one of many possible solutions. To go sci-fi on it, if we had chips we could implant in peoples brains that could prevent violent behavior--that too would be an alternative to police enforcement just like self-defense.

Am I saying get rid of the police? No, I am saying that the particular *method* of enforcement has nothing to do with the concept of rights.

I am speaking directly to the point and in simple language so I do not understand how what I say could be so confusing to you.

Mason,

I don't doubt that you don't understand me. Yet, in point of fact, you are fully incoherent. From the start of this discussion to this moment, you have been unable to define clearly what you want, and what exactly is unacceptable with the status quo.

Are you still in high school? I ask with perfect sincerity, as minds like bodies take time and experience to develop. The first step in that process is to begin to plumb the depths of one's ignorance. At a young age, this is a virtually bottomless pit, particularly in our school systems (which, if anything, will be made worse by added funding).

Given, however, that wisdom starts with the perceived need for it, I would encourage you to begin that task.

With respect to the topic at hand, let's say you kill someone in self defense, but he happens to be the cousin of the police chief, who is actually the brother of the mayor, and son of the governor. They don't like you now, and they put you in jail.

Other than the law, what will get you out? Public opinion could give a rats ass either way, and the implementation of it is in any event controlled by people who want you in jail.

Can you at least try to uncross your eyes and grasp this simple concept?

#203 Barry,

"With respect to the topic at hand, let's say you kill someone in self defense, but he happens to be the cousin of the police chief, who is actually the brother of the mayor, and son of the governor. They don't like you now, and they put you in jail."

You are talking about police corruption. In effect, you are asking "What if criminals commit crimes?"

How is that relevant?

work out of the dayy : )

**30 push press (30lbs)
****30 dips (jumpingg)
******30 benchh jumpss!
*********30 front squatss (35lbs)
***********30 db swings (15lbs)
*************30 burpees! yayy the endd :)
timee was 9 mintues and 31 seconds !!

Mason,

How do you define corruption? Is it something other than acting in a manner that is illegal? Contrary to the law?

And can you get out of jail by some means other than the appeal of someone on the outside to the law, coupled with a police power (FBI, Judicial system) to free you? You don't seem to have encountered many of the words people who study these things use, but Police Power is a general term for an enforcement mechanism. I wouldn't expect you to know that, since you can't even define democracy or freedom.

You know, it's good to throw your hat in the ring on occasion, but I would suggest to you that modesty is well warranted in your particular case.

Here is a concrete example: http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/024991.php#respond

Faith healers are being killed in Pakistan, because the Muslim extremists (with the tacit compliance of the supposed moderates, one increasingly senses) believe them to be unIslamic.

With Sharia law, these murders are legal. Within Pakistani Civil Law, they are at least technically illegal. Men are being deprived of their right to life.

But the police are not investigating, making whatever "rights" these men may have wanted to claim they had superfluous.

You have to have a law, and you have to have an enforcement mechanism, aka Police Power.

And, for the sake of perfect clarity, "Rights" per se are not something to be found in the Western sense in Sharia. You have the right to be a Muslim or a second class citizen. Screw that up, and you're dead. If you're a woman, you have the right to endure your beatings in silence.

Screw that up, and you're dead. If you're the wife of a "moderate" Muslim founder of Muslim TV, you might find yourself moderately decapitated.

We are trying to be patient, but if this sort of thing continues, our capacity to do so will begin to cease. Right now, liberals can claim we share some blame for the anger of the Arab world. I know this isn't true, and the Muslim radicals know it too. As time passes, and we witness more and more atrocities, the moderates in America will begin to wake up, the best efforts of our media notwithstanding.

We have the military wherewithal to kill every Muslim on the planet, most of them within the hour. This should be remembered by all.

I should add a moderating note. We are not at war with any group based on religion, or social group. We are at war with those who want to undermine our system of governement, and who want to throw people back into slavery, as has happened in the Swat Valley, after many murders, much violence, and no doubt much pain and suffering.

We saw in Iraq the power of common decency, of wanting something better for your family and clan.

Surely there is nothing un-Islamic about this? Surely the functional definition of radical Islamism is totalitarian psychopathy?

We continue to hope that more and more men and women of Islamic faith will increasingly show the traits of impartial justice, honor, courage, and decency which their religion commands them to obey, and which are in any event the common property of all civilized people.

WOD
30 push-press(55lbs)
30 dips
30 bench jumps
30 front squats (75lbs)
30 DB swings(35lbs)
30 burpees

time: 6:08

#180 Barry Cooper,

I didn't see your response to the Feb 20 rest day discussion until just now and I am interested in continuing the discussion.

So you completely ignore the substance of my point, find one thin thread of commonality between me and this vacuous, ill-defined group that you call leftists, and declare that I am a leftist? You couldn't have made my point any better. Again, you qualify yourself into technically-correctness with the "with respect to this conversation" clause, but you have made no meaningful point. You imply that I think both sides of every issue are morally equal. Nothing could be further from the truth. You make the incorrect leap that I only approve of judging someone if it is because they were judgmental. I judge people by the quality of their argument, and yours here is lacking. I have developed a clear idea with well-found logic. You then go on a long, eloquent, but completely irrelevant exegesis relating these straw-man connections to communism. Since you disagree with communism, you must disagree with me.

Frankly, it's enraging and makes me want to lash back and lower myself to your level in response. Ahhh, maybe that last sentence had a slight hint of doing so in my use of the phrase "lower myself to your level", but that phrase is logically backed up. This is precisely my point. And you have not made a single argument against it. All you have done is make more inaccurate arguments based on this new ridiculous, ideologically racist, categorization of me as a leftist. So why don't you stop using the ill-defined labels and tell me precisely what useful purpose, other than make you feel better (because I TOTALLY understand that they do that), they and your ad hominems serve? And if you succeed in doing that, then explain why their use, whatever it may be, is not more than offset by their negative effect of escalation of emotion and ultimate degradation of the quality of discussion.

#208 Barry

You wrote: "But the police are not investigating, making whatever "rights" these men may have wanted to claim they had superfluous."

Police are "empowered to enforce the law and to ensure public and social order through the legitimized use of force." If I say a spider has 8 legs, and you respond with "well what if it lost 4 legs in an accident," you aren't contributing anything relevant.

Criminals are a group of people who commit crimes. If you are talking about "police" who commit crimes (throw people in jail with no justification, manipulate evidence to help a friend, etc.) and don't enforce the law (ignore acts of murder, etc.) you aren't talking about "police" in a meaningful way...

We aren't debating whether police always enforce the law, or never commit crimes. We are debating what rights are and how they are enforced. The only reason we got on the topic of police is because you claimed that rights don't exist without a police force--a claim which I refuted by giving a counter-example (self defense). You then claimed that rights don't exist if a spider loses its legs in an accident. What are you even talking about anymore?

To bring you back to the original point of contention: Human rights exist because we can discover them through reason. They are unalienable, timeless, and static. Whether you live under sharia law, a democracy, a republic, or a dictatorship is irrelevant to their existence. Whether they are enforced by the police, a militia, a neighborhood watch, personal self defense, or god himself, is irrelevant. Whether the police, militia, neighborhood watch is corrupt or sometimes fails to enforce these rights is also irrelevant.

I asserted that a democracy has no inherent guard against human rights. I provided several counter examples (slavery, woman's suffrage) which demonstrate, within the bounds of the system, how a democracy (or whatever you call the current gov of the US) does not inherently protect human rights. When refuting something, you are not required to provided an alternative solution--but I did anyways, and I explained how it, as opposed to a democracy (or whatever you call the current gov of the US), inherently protects against violations of human rights.

It is a coping mechanism to dismiss others arguments based on a perceived superiority. If I post my IQ or give you my curriculum vitae would that affect your perception of my argument? You should have the wisdom to realize that it is not who is making the argument that is important, but rather the quality of the argument itself. To illustrate the irrelevance of your question of whether I am in high school: are you smarter and more knowledgeable than every high school student on earth?

You are eloquent no doubt, but eloquence is pointless if you cannot comprehend what someone is saying, nor form a relevant response.

You may impress some people by dressing an irrelevant argument in a flashy suit, but others are going to see right through it for what it is...