Sick picture...

Thank you, Coach.

3-2-1 Rest!

My hands can't handle 5 sets of Pull-ups. Head pounding for every rep over 20 on the squats. What a WOD

Congratulations, David on all of your success so far and everything to come in the future.

You've worked hard for it all.

as Rx'd 24:00.00 :)

almost pass out on the third round of yesterday workout..thanks coach for the rest day

almost pass out on the third round of yesterday workout..thanks coach for the rest day

Faster Cures is a great idea, but alas, the problem it faces is the very thing that makes medicine difficult. People. You are dealing with people who have spent a career finding the best researched treatments for a disease, aka physicians. If I understand the mission of this group, they want to provide better integration of new, cutting edge treatments on a MUCH more efficient timeline. The difficulty lies in telling the physician "You are wrong about treatment A, Treatment B is actually better- we found out last week." This is no different than the idea of "early adapters" in sales and marketing. Some folks respond fast, most do not. And therein lies the issue. Plus, any new treatment needs to be tempered in the lab which is "The Real World" to find its efficacy. This takes time and doctors don't want to risk their reputation on something that may not work and could possibly harm.

1 million % needed. I'm dead.

I've been substituting various beans in my diet intead of meats to get my protein. Though not a vegetarian diet, I have greatly reduced the amount of meat I eat. What I meat do eat is mostly fish and lean chicken. But, the bean substitute (i.e. black, garbonzo, kidney, etc.) has really made a huge difference in my muscle recovery. I feel like I am absorbing my protein faster and more completely. Still eating a lot of vegetables, fruits, nuts/seeds, and milk (no supplements)...also lots of water! At 160lbs, I am eating about 3000 cals/day just to maintain my weight and recover. Feels like all I do is eat...any suggestions?

***FRAT***

I'm at home, sick, and didn't work today. It sucks to be sick, but it doesn't suck as much as Prostate Cancer or being permanently disabled from war.

Help me help those afflicted to fight back. Join in on the fight. "Fight Gone Bad 4" September 26th, 2009.

www.fgb4.org/

***FRAT OUT***

Well that's nice. My hips are pretty sore from the deadlifts with squats right afterwards.

David,

I attended the Level I Cert at CFSB in April this year, and it was great. You definitely got it goin' on there. Congratulations on your hard work, finding your box (in NYC no less!) and in establishing a successful affiliate. Rock on CFSB!

See some of you at the OLY Cert at WestPoint in December...

Josh,

I don't know where you got that impression of physicians, but it is hardly correct. The overwhelming majority of doctors follow best practice guidelines which are dictated by the evidence. Doctors are always updating or changing treatment plans.

(A separate issue lies with who gives that advice and who determines what advice is correct. A relevant example is the large divide between CrossFit's advice on nutrition and the standard "Food Pyramid" advocated by the AHA, AMA and pretty much everyone else. )

The best thing Faster Cures endeavours to do is "Promote medical records and biospecimen databases to facilitate researchers' access to valuable information". A national electronic patient database would vastly improve health care delivery, from a patient viewpoint and an economic viewpoint.

Other things Faster Cure seem to be problems created by mixing capitalism and health care. Often, helping people costs a lot of money. Research, innovation and development depend on money. Until recently, when philanthropists, like Bill and Melinda Gates, started ramping up funds on neglected diseases and health care issues, not a lot was going on. But the landscape is slowly changing....

Rest days are my friend.

"FasterCures is governed by a Board of Directors that includes Nobel laureates in medicine and economics."

Call me cynical but a laureate in economics rings some alarm bells.

It might be the nice front end for some ravenous beast looking at its bottom line. Its not like Big Pharma dont feck people for profits.

Though i suspect there is plenty of room for reform in there field.

Get well soon Pony and out of the hospital!!! We will keep you in our thoughts and prayers!

rest days make me warm inside, always hard to sleep tho...stay healthy CrossFitters

Pony - your FRAT family <3s you! You are in my pocket 24/7. Get well soon!

Not FRAT family, but I join in with Rebe and Cookie: cheering that you get well soonest, Pony :) Sending you best possible healing vibes across the globe!

Loved the video of the Brooklyn Crossfit Affiliate. Would be interested in learning how business/gym hostile or friendly NYC is, recalling the Gravity Janes Crossfit Podcast about a box in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Popular Mechanics this month has an interview with Inventor Dean Kamen, one of the world's most prolific inventors of healthcare technologies. He challenges the notion that the U.S. has a healthcare crisis. Rather than slowing the pace of medical progress in order to cut healthcare costs, he argues, America should be encouraging more innovation in life-saving drugs and technologies. He claims the healthcare debate is "Backward Looking" ... http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health_medicine/4327012.html?page=1

#10 Publius - beans are actually carbs in the zone (except for soybeans). If you feel better now, and are recovering faster, you were probably glucose-deficient before and couldn't produce enough glycogen to make both energy and repairs. The zone is not low carb, but it is effective, healthy, and lowER carb than what most people eat. Bottom line- be happy you've found what works for you!

#19 - jos we consider all posters here our family :) I let here know tonight how much luv she's gettin here.

hey fam

Love you all too

Jos well now you're in the frat ok hon thanks

Can't sleep every little mvmnt loosens iv in my left arm and machine starts to beep no caps or punctuation on my bberry with just my right thumb

Just for record don't use color of urine to guess whether or not you have rhabdo

Mine was clear

Ok god I learned my lesson i am through beating myself up

Thanks cookie herm jakers smore jenn from co jos brandon pokey rebe and my frat compadres iam very blessed to have friends like you

cookie herm is great and all but i think i have the greatest boyfriend i love you goat honey

Due to commitments yesterday had to switch the WOD and today's rest, so:

WU 1k erg 3m36s

WOD as RXed except for BP:

BP 8x80, 4x85(PB), 5x85(PB), 3x85 4x85
DHPU 8(PB), 6, 6, 5, 5
S 8(PB), 8, 8, 6, 6

Third ever WOD (hence all the PBs). New to heavy lifting too so took the squats carefully.

Perhaps most significantly, I now feel far more part of the CF crowd after typical "Globo" gym-esque behaviour prompted the following comment from me:

"Are you doing many more bicep curls on the gym's only squat rack?"

Oh yeah - m/30/95/186

WOW...an experienced and long-term crossfitter gets rhabdo...I can't think of a more significant and worthwhile rest day topic of conversation.

Get well soon, SLP, and enjoy the rest. Judging by your past posts, goodness knows, you've earned it ;^)

I loved yesterdays WOD. one of my new favs. Although the globo was very busy and so most of my time was spent taking off weights and raising and lowering the rack. hmmm, if only i could clean my bodyweight...Anyways today i feel like ive been in a car accident.

Thanks coach,

oh, and get well soon SLP.

My comment #24 would have made more sense if my post before that (where I left out my stats) hadn’t been filtered. It was just to post results for yesterday’s WOD which I had to do today. Didn’t realise that’s not allowed.

I’ll leave out the results but hopefully it’s OK to point out the first event that made me think “I’m a CrossFitter”.

Trying to do the workout early this morning I was forced to stop halfway through round 2 in my near empty Globo gym by behaviour which prompted me to make what I thought to be a typical CrossFit comment:

“Are you doing many more biceps curls on the gym’s only squat rack?”

m/36/205/5'11

Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups
Body weight back squat

BP: 12-10-9-8-8
PU: 14-12-12-11-10
BS: 6-7-6-7-6

No excuses but wasn't into the workout. I hate when I have stressful stuff on my mind.

Thanks coach for the last 3 days! awsome WOD's and very pleased with my progress along with eating zone/paleo!

Taking today as Rx'd

What the heck happened? I was really looking forward to yesterday's WOD. I only got through two rds then it was like I had hit a brick wall and could only do 2 reps on bench the third round.

BP 16, 15,2
PU 13, 10
SQ 20, 20

I just could not continue. Any advice?

I was contemplating the other day how we would get rid of 9/10's of the Federal Government. The way we eliminate the FDA is to switch from a system where they MUST approve everything, by law, to a system where private entities like the FDA vet things, to varying degrees of confidence.

In the electronics world, for example, most devices anyone expects to be sold are UL listed. No doubt in many cases the UL listing is mandated by local law so as to prevent fire hazards. But Underwriter's Laboratories is a private company.

Look on your computer, or your toaster. Chances are 100% that it has been vetted by UL or someone like them (they do have competitors; they are merely market dominant due to long term success).

A system like this could get experimental drugs available much more quickly for clinical trials.

The danger, of course, is that 100,000 bureaucrats (or whatever the number is: their website doesn't say) might lose their jobs. Of course, that would free up that amount of tax money to pay down our debt, or create that many jobs that were actually economically productive.

Gee.. yet Another handstand picture in front of a mountain range.

yesterdays workout was intense first time mr pukie followed me home. Today is going to be a make up day for me since my wife and I had a baby boy on monday morning so I'm probably going to hit the deadlifts since my shoulders still haven't forgiving me for the 84 hspu on the weekend, but who knows I might throw the shoulder workout from monday in as well.

**Pony! How are you? What happened to bring this on? I will keep you in my prayers girl! I hope you are feeling better soon! Many Blessings your way for a speedy recovery!!!**

My post got ‘eaten up’ yesterday…
My Energy levels have been dipping. I have been dragging all week-tired, sleepy sleepy etc. Walking the am, working out, but nothing left for the usual yoya or evening walk. It’s been to bed early early for me. Yesterday I could barely make it to the gym.
Usually I LOVE DL’s, but was not even feeling up to it yesterday. I tried it anyhow which was a bad idea.
215-225-240-240-235
Off PR, form ugly, and I was getting very very frustrated. Did not know if I was going to scream or cry. Anyhow, its not quality of food. I eat all paleo style. Maybe stress. Maybe I just need more sleep. Not sure. Today is not a rest day for me so I will see what happens today at the gym.
Erin

man rest day.. this is my fifth or sixth day following the crossfit routine and i was so pumped to wake up this morning and see what the workout is. im 21/m/195 at 5'11'', trying to get fit and cut 10 lbs. im not fat but i have a very trendy beer belt around my lower stomache. so what should i be eating specifically? in the morning i usually have some honey bunches of oats cereal with fresh fruit, i workout, then have some more fresh fruit as a snack. then i go to school and by the time i get home i'm starving-

David,

I attended the Level I Cert in April at CFSBK. You definitely got it goin' on there, it was awesome! Congratulations on all your hard work and success at CFSBK. It is a really cool box!

See some of you at the OLY Cert at WestPoint?

#31 - Barry

You mean kinda like having companies like Fitch, Standard & Poor's and Moody's "vet" bonds and collateralized debt obligations?

m/21/156lb/69''

I've done modified WODs this week, feeling pretty good today, so I did hang cleans and tricept pushdowns

10 sets of 7 reps for time of:
-115lb hangcleans
-135 pully pushdowns

+set of 10 reps SDLHP 115lb

Oh no pony

hopefully recovery time will be short and you will be at 100% in no time, but know we all are thinking about you and praying for a swift come back

rest days rule

I've believed for a long time that regulation and runaway litigation, both working against doctors and researchers, hampers medicine, and has cost us 20+ years of medical advancement.

I believe that if someone wants to practice medicine (with or without a doctorate degree), let them. It is the patients responsibility to decide if they want to use the doctors services. If nurses want to provide basic medical treatment on their own, let them, they basically do a majority of the basic work anyhow... I mean, it's common sense... Caveat Emptor... if the guy seems or sounds like a douchebag, don't hire him as a doctor. If half of the people talking about him in consumer reviews say he's an idiot, well, you don't need the government to tell you not to hire him.

Basically, if someone develops a state of the art treatment, let them find people willing to sign away all right to litigation in return for testing a potential cure. And when someone signs a contract, make it actually mean something... We've become so backwards that if someone signs something that says "I will not sue you under any circumstances", it means "I can still sue you if I present a good enough case..." No, a contract is a contract, period.

Oh, and #35, buy (or borrow from the library) one Dr. Barry Sears' book about the Zone (Enter the Zone, Mastering the Zone, whatever...) Problem solved. I could tell you why you're hungry after eating honey bunches of oats and fruit, then more fruit, but it's more fun if you read it and find out yourself.

Lewis,

Yes, provided we didn't have prodigious amounts of taxpayer money riding on their valuations, and that investigations into their operations weren't blocked by Congressional Democrats.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were underwriting 75% of the home loans generated in the US, were underwritten themselves by the taxpayers, and were virtually entirely unregulated. There are no alternative understandings of those facts of which I am aware.

The CDO's, etc., presumed a stable, properly valued housing market. The trillions of dollars borrowed by FF/FM, and poured into the housing market on our nickel skewed all of this badly.

In effect, it created localized inflation which collapsed when the money ran out.

Less government: less crap outcomes, in general.

SLP, get well soon!

Hey all,

Just wanted to give a big thanks to Coach and the whole Crossfit community - this is my one year anniversary of starting Crossfit and it's improved every aspect of my fitness. I talk endlessly about it to anyone who will listen (and some who won't).

I'm hooked! Thanks again!

P.S. I'll echo what others have said in comments and say that I cannot believe some of the numbers you guys post here - you guys are monsters!

Thank GOD for break day! My back hurts :P

Todd #30-

How much rest were you taking between sets? I took 3 mins after each set, and afterwards felt like I should have gone with 4 or 5 if I wanted to get more of a strength training effect from the WOD. Yesterday's WOD obviously wasn't a metcon but it was still taking over a minute for my heart rate to drop after each set.

#35, in addition to what Matt already posted, read up on the Paleo diet. Honey Bunches of Oats is far from a healthy breakfast, regardless of how much fiber or how many vitamins it has 100% RDA of.

Eric,
I thought about that. I only rested long enough for my breathing to slow. Didn't think about resting until my heartbeat slowed. Also, I need to put more thought into my diet. Do all Crossfitters do the Zone?
Thanks for the reply

The zone seems to be the standard diet accepted however, not everyone does it. Some people follow the paleo diet. While others create thier own.

I just finished an extremely frustrating conversation with a physical therapist about CrossFit. In their presentation to a group of Army officers, a physical therapist suggested "two CrossFit exercises, back-to-back, would make up for the short amount of time CrossFit exercises take." Then, after I suggested they do some more research into CrossFit before suggesting something that clearly contradicts the foundations of CrossFit (specifically, intensity), the physical therapist said that it didn't really matter because the foundation of CrossFit was fundamentally flawed. When I asked why he thought this way, he explained that CrossFit does not care about form and videos on the website show people doing "crazy" things with disregard for form. When I tried to explain to him that it is not a fundamental flaw in CrossFit's foundations, but instead a fundamental flaw in his understanding of CrossFit, he tried to drown me in talk. I love "experts."

I am breathing for time

Fit Mom- I did this wod b/c of what you said on working on those weaknesses. ;)
Thus, this was Not a favorite wod AND I had to eat Humble pie! Ha ha

BP 80# 18-14-12-12-11 = 67 (almost shameful but form was 100% better than last Lynn)
Asst PU:11-11-11-11-10 = 54 (almost 3yrs into CF, still asst. Arg! I CRAVE a good PU)
BS, BW: 15-11-11-11-11 = 59 (these were as rx’d. In my head I was sure I could get up to 30 or 40. Well, that was wishful thinking!!!! Form on these is 100% better as well)
Total = 180

I must confess, I like a wod like Linda, or the AMRAP 20 min, heavy Grace, or single modalities like as many reps as possible of OHS in 20, or every min on the min for 30 min, 15 DL, Fight Gone Bad Tabata Style, etc that leave the gym dripping wet and sore. The pure strength ones today, are not a strong point for me and I always think, I should have done One more….

Pony – hope you are feeling better every minute and back home soon!

Erin

Definition of an expert. An "ex" is a has been and a "spurt" is a drip under pressure.

Todd #47-
Rip says to rest 3-5 minutes after strength sets in order to give your muscles and nervous system time to fully recover. I just picked 3 mins...that way I'd have a nice round number that I can use again next time for consistency in comparing results.

As for diet, most top CFers go with some combination of Zone and Paleo. When I first started with it I noticed immediate improvements in energy and WOD performance, and I burned fat and added muscle without ever feeling hungry.

Did yesterdays WOD today
m49/6'2"/190
had to sub in 85% bodyweight incline bench because I can't do flat bench anymore since my rotator cuff injury (can't understand why it makes a difference, but it sure does). Pullups are deadpull
Bench / pu / 190lb squat
15/15/18
11/14/15
8/11/16
6/11/14
7/11/16
total 492
just kidding : total 188

By the way, how come the picture everyday is some guy standing on his head in some weird location? Can't you guys figure out some other thing to take a picture of?

Don't remember all numbers but my lowest was:

8,22,12.

Is anyone else sore beyond all good reason?

I would appreciate the opinion of such an educated crowd -

Would you continue your participation at an affiliate that you do not believe the owner of the affiliate truly believes in CF - only sees it as a means of revenue?

Faster Cures
An interesting idea, acceleration is very hard. Ask any clinical researcher how long a good clinical trial takes. Often you're looking at 10 years to get a good idea.
If you're looking for a good story about how long it can take for cure rates to really reach a good level look up the work of Bill Evans on childhood leukemia. The cure rate has gone from 30% aprox in the 50's to aroud 90% for a specific type of leukemia. This is actually without the development of any new treatments, it was through a better understanding of how to effectively use existing treatments. This research has taken a long long time, it's brought about fields such as pharmacogenomics which leads us towards personalized medicine.
Bringing about the use of medical technology faster is a great goal, but the question often times is do we want it fast or do we want it to be effective and efficient with minimal side effects? Rushing forwards with minimal or incomplete research to appease the consumer and make politicians look good is how we got our USDA food pyramid, the chronic cardio model of fitness and many many more mistakes. Good science isn't fast Darwin and Einstein weren't fast but they did good work. This may seem cold hearted but we also can't forget the catastrophes like thalidomide.

Tabata swim, 8 rounds. Actually did a slight variation: swim 25m sprints, starting one every 30 seconds. The first couple reps I would get to the wall in less than 20 seconds, the last couple a bit more. Great workout.

Buy-in, cash out: easy run to/from the pool, about 12 minutes each way. About 20 minutes of swimming "golf" a la Total Immersion before doing the sprints.

Not nearly as tired as expected today.

Just saw this in the Denver Post Online, quoting the Denver Athletic Club’s executive director about how they spent over a million bucks on their facility. I nearly busted a gut laughing.

“We just renovated the whole lobby and have totally renovated four out of the nine locker rooms," van Hall said. "We're spending a significant number on workout equipment, and we just went into a partnership with Comcast to increase the number of channels on treadmills and other workout machines from 16 to 100."

Doesn’t that just say it all?

I bet they didn’t buy even a single kettlebell.

The Mac-thats awesome I'm looking at starting a box in wichita, ks in the near future I hope and this def. helped..out anymore info like this would help me alot..

catchin' up from yesterday (was in the car all day)

cfwu x 3

190# bp, strict pu's, 190# bs
5, 15, 18
scaled bp to 135# since I suck at life
15, 14, 16
12, 12, 16
10, 11, 15
8, 10, 13

totals:
5+45, 62, 78 = 190 reps

@ #60

I definitely would not continue at that affiliate. It's my firm belief that one must practice what they preach. Further, something must be said about the level of intensity that is inevitably lacking from a situation like that.

I work out in a damn garage - but you know what? We believe in this. It's more than just revenue for our host.

Publius- #10, go to a nutrition cert with Rob Wolf... It will rock your world!!!!

It seems that a rest day never actually ends up that way do to PT or something, spose i could consider it active rest. Plus i want to go swimming today, so sore though.

Im glad to say I've been doing crossfit for a year and a few days and I finally feel part of the family since yesterday when I did my first post(as brief as it was). Just wanted to say I've enjoyed the many discussions, sometimes random, that I've read with very good information included. Pony hope you get well.

p.s. I'll try to post more, but no guarantees :)

WOD:
rest as Rx'd on main site, did XFit endurance

Later, Ya'll

Would it have helped to chalk up beforehand?

http://www.10news.com/health/21102204/detail.html

Comment #60 - Posted by: Hatch

Only if he didn't care when I came in, what I did, or didn't care if I paid monthly fees. Then I'd continue training there. :)

Did the 'Daniel' today because i rested the other day. Was so much easier than last time. this thing is addicting

BTW now that I got that out of the way, just some food for thought crossfitters might want to check this website about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: http://www.4hcm.org/ It can affect all ages but is usually noticeable starting in late teens and even beyond 80 years of age. Average diagnosed age is 35. HCM can lead to sudden cardiac arrest commonly after intense physical demands on the heart. Please read and be safe!!! Much love!!!
Later, Ya'll

After these last three days, this rest really means something!

I woke up so sore this morning that even my hair hurt. This was one heck of a way to end my first full month of Cross Fit. This is the real deal!

Was out of town since 17th so I made up Daniel tonight. As Rx'd 20:15. Missed sub 20 by 15 little seconds. Man. Refuse to ever miss a Hero workout. Then made up the glute ham sit up with back extension, as Rx'd 12:20. Very weak but I was done.

Keenan/39/m/73/208

Rest day: stretches because the last three days called for them.

Pony: Good luck in your recovery. We don't know each other, but there's such an outpouring of well-wishing for you that as a member of the community I'd feel like I was shirking my part.

Faster Cures:
Why don't we spend all that money on learning how to maintain and improve our health, versus trying to "fight" disease. Our healthcare system is obviously in shambles, not because of money, rather because of a flawed paradigm. As Einstein said (excuse the butchered quote) "We can not solve our problems with the same line of thinking that created them."
Our crisis care is top notch bar none, however we do not have a healthcare system, rather it is a sick-care system. Let's introduce more people to success in health and wellness, as we (Crossfitter's) tend to live in a fashion that covers most of the facets of a healthy lifestyle (eat well, move well...)
It's proven that the majority of major disease is lifestyle related, let's focus on that.

I've always heard that pain is weakness leaving the body. Well, CrossFit is showing me just how much weakness I have in me. I don't think I've ever been this sore from working out. Love it!

m/48/177

Did the following skills work today:

Muscle Up Progressions, Rings at 60", 25 reps
Ball Cleans, 20 lb ball, 25 reps
Snatch Drills, PVC Pipe, Down to D-Ball, 25 reps

I'm really looking forward to getting my first muscle up. One thing is for sure: I'm patient and persistent. I know that someday I will master this elusive skill!

Barry 33,
My computer is a toaster. Reading any fiction these days? I am. It's nice to take some time for that sort of thing.

Lewis 31,
I hope you're not suggesting that the market doesn't regulate itself, or worse, that particular vendors fail to regulate themselves to preserve the integrity of the market?

DeMinco 42,
It is nearly impossible (in Anglo-American common law nations at least) to draft a contract with a term that has the effect of making it impossible for one party to sue the other in any and every circumstance. The "good enough case" you disparage is one where there was fraud, misrepresentation, negligent misrepresentation, etc etc. Would you like the term of the contract to say: "I will not sue you even if the bargain we have struck is based on your fraudulent statements, or your misrepresentations, or on the fact that you did not have title, hold property or licensing rights in the thing or service you have sold me"? A contract is a contract, caveat emptor? Well, for there to be a contract in law, there must be a consensus ad idem. A contract is not a piece of paper. A contract is a bargain. People hope paper will serve as the historical record of a bargain if (as Barry might say), there is a "crappy outcome").

Did yesterdays workout today used #135 on the squats and #90 for bench

BackSquat: 10-10-6-6-6
PullUps: 6-6-7-7-10
Bench: 9-10-9-7-9

Run swim run

1.5 .5 1.5

55 min of total cardio.

Prole,

I am rereading "The Grand Inquisitor". I have decided to rewrite it, in the spirit of the Kobayashi Maru. Progess has thus far been good. It's my current obsession: painful, but productive.

Are you willing to consider the possibility that our intellectual life has been led by idiots for better than a century? I'm genuinely curious. The question, itself, is a sign of respect.

Given our back and forth, I'd be more than happy to forward it to you when it is done.

Bonus rest day WOD at CF Augusta's new Gym Grand Opening:

FGD (order rearranged):
Row, Box, SDHP, PP, Wall Ball x3:
109+83+71 = 263 total

Didn't have any strength after yesterday's 5rnds max reps BP,PU,SQ wod.

the new box looks good...LOTS of space!

later,
b
m/32/5'8-1/2"/167

Barry,

Interesting, ambitious project - I had to look up "Kobayashi Maru".

Perhaps led by idiots. But there are many good ones too. They get washed out in the flood of media, and the tick tock click clack of University publishing factories. Thankfully we have access to more good books than any generation has ever had in history. My "intellectual life" can be led by Thucydides or Orwell on the same day.

No doubt. I am not claiming complete and universal idiocy.

Yet, while you are reading Thucydides and I am reading Doc Savage, Jacques Ellul, Sherlock Holmes and Dostoevsky, our neighbors are subscribing to Fangoria, obsessing over "True Blood", and wearing out Rob Zombie. Or they are reading Romance novels. Or they are reading People, and watching NBC News.

What binds us together other than a fetishization of tolerance? What ideals are taught universally that we can depend on other people having learned and internalized? Once, we were a Christian nation, and that binds us together more than any on the Left care to admit, but the tide is going out to sea, is it not? Or at least diluting the sacred to where it is a matter of convenience?

As wash after wash of morally ambivalent multiculturalism sweeps over us, what colors remain? What values?

The task of the Inquisitor was the same task Sartre set himself: to so radically increase freedom by destroying Good and Evil that people collapse under the weight. He himself was a Stalinist his whole life, which is only paradoxical if you fail to understand the latent logic of his system and work.

You see, freedom is useful if you have a means of "operating" it, which is a moral code by which you can make sense of the tangled ambiguities of life.

Yet, if you reject that code, you are left adrift in an endless sea without a rudder or oars. That is when the would-be autocrat comes by and offers his assistance. This is precisely what the Inquisitor described.

William James described the primary problem of philosophy as "The one and the many". I have amended that to the "One, some, and many". There are interactive moralities that neither disappear when confronted with difference, nor lack sufficient structure to inform human lives.

If you have read my paper on Goodness, you see the basic tack I am taking.

The paper is progressing well. Everything I need can be placed in there.

One other point: myth precedes philosophy. A well read person such as yourself could compare Sartre with, say, Derrida, and see considerable differences.

In my view, though, thought itself proceeds from a mythic cultural gestalt, which must be "analyzed" poetically and primally. At root, it is who you "are" that matters, not what you say or think, or--finally--what you do. Evil men can do good deeds.

That some of these people tried to deconstruct "culture" in the interest of eliminating the evils of our history does not change the fact that while you can smudge the paints on the palette, this does not create a picture. Cultures can be confused: this does not improve them, and there is no great cleverness latent in doing so.

On the contrary.

12:35 as RX'd my timer wasn't a hundred percent that he got the time right but it felt like about that.

I HATE THIS WOD! I wish I didn't ever have to rest.