Be careful what you write…

Workout Notes: this morning I managed another 3600 yards; I had to kick myself out of bed to get to the pool. The swim was ok; 500 yards (9:10) of fist drills, 5 x (25 front kick, 25 free, 25 sfs, 25 free), 10 x (75 free hard, 25 back recovery) on the 2. I did the first in about 1:41, one other 1:40, the rest 1:38-1:39. On the last one I just did free all the way and got 1:32.

After recovering with 100 back I did 10 x 50 free (golf) on the 1; I hit between 88-91 each time, with 40-44 strokes and 46-48 for time. Then 5 x 100 (fly, free, back, free) on 2, 5 x 50 fly on the 1 (fins), 250 pull (cool down)

All in all, it was an ok workout, and I am happy that my 75 free, 25 back recoveries are now faster than my 100 free (hard) sets used to be.

Note: I had a bit more “tappas” than usual in my sets of 75 free, 25 back. That was because as I was finishing up a sprint, this guy had jumped into the side of the lane (we split lanes here; no one understands circle swimming) and came zooming past me going in the other direction. It was yet another fat guy with tons of body hair.

Damn; I was hoping for another nice shapey lady as I’ve had in the past two days; well, I shouldn’t get greedy.

Later, I hope to walk over lunch.

Being careful about what one writes
In my last post, I baselessly referred to a somewhat local blogger as a “wingnut”. I should have said “conservative”. I admit that I sometimes take the attitude “hey, I am just venting and popping off”, but from time to time, someone actually reads this blog.

(typically: 30-40 hits a day, sometimes spiking into the 100s)

But, at least I am not being careless on a national platform, the way some others are.

If you want a site that takes people to task for making false or baseless statements, try mediamatters.org. Yes, this site takes aim at those who baselessly attack liberals and Democrats. But, they make it a point to back up and document what they say.

Case in point: on Hannity and colmes , Hugh Hewitt made a false statement: he claimed that Liberals were more likely to hold Romney’s religion (Mormonism, or Latter Day Saints as they call themselves) against him.

On the March 12 edition of Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, nationally syndicated radio host Hugh Hewitt claimed that former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA), a Mormon, is “not going to have a problem with pro-lifers” in seeking the presidency in 2008, but rather “[h]e’s going to have problem with anti-Mormon bigots on the left, especially.”

In fact:

According to a February 9-11 USA Today/Gallup poll, 75 percent of “liberals” would be willing to vote for a Mormon for president, compared with 66 percent of “conservatives.” Gallup’s analysis of the poll stated: “Conservatives are less willing than moderates or liberals to vote for candidates with several of the ['non-traditional'] characteristics, including being of Mormon faith or married three times. This could make things somewhat more difficult for Romney or Giuliani to prevail in the Republican primaries, since conservatives make up the base of the Republican Party.”

As Washington Post staff writer Chris Cillizza noted in a February 14 entry on his washingtonpost.com weblog, The Fix, the USA Today/Gallup poll asked respondents “whether they would support a ‘generally well qualified person’ who was a Mormon. Nearly three in four (72 percent) said they would vote for a well-qualified Mormon candidate, while 24 percent said they would not.” Cillizza further noted:

But Romney’s challenge is to convince Republicans — not the American public at-large — that his Mormonism shouldn’t be an issue. Among the GOP sub-sample, 66 percent told USA Today/Gallup that they would support a Mormon candidate, while 30 percent said they would not (77 percent of independents and 72 percent of Democrats said they could back a Mormon).

In fairness, there were “point, counter point” articles in the New Republic Magazine
as to whether Romney’s religion ought to be considered, but liberals tend to view The New Republic as being “DLC-friendly, Joe Liebermanish”.

(note: Damon Linker’s article is the “point”, and John Judis’ article is one of the counter points)

But notice how Media Matters examines the issues and issues a factual based rebuttal.

Social
One of my athletic friends writes about his self-image bubble getting burst.

this young lady – Aussie, by her accent – comes up to me and
gets my attention; I pull off my headphones and ask what she needs.

“They told me that you were on that machine – the one with the weights? – and I wanted
to know if you were through with it.”

I assured her that I was, indeed, through with it, and she nodded and headed back around
to the free weight area where the Smith machine waited – and it occurred to me that she
probably didn’t know that I was finished because I had left the weight on the bar.

Then it occurred to me – how, exactly, had they told her that it was me on the machine?
She wasn’t there when I was there. I wasn’t visible from where the conversation had been
taking place. They would have had to have described me to her in such a way that she
would be able to find me in a crowded room, without ever having seen me before, and
with me having changed clothes (from a dark t-shirt to a bright-yellow singlet).
[...]
I couldn’t help but wonder – what had they said ? “Yeah, the guy who’s using that – he
went around the corner. He’s…”….he’s what?

“Oh, sure – you’ll recognize him. A real spiritual type – has a lot of deep blue in his aura”.

“Oh, he’s a real hunk – sort of like a tall version of Tom Cruise, with humongous pecs”.

“He’s steely-eyed and lantern-jawed, with character in his face and intelligence in his gaze”.

…or even…

“Bald, muscular – mean looking, biker type. Better not bother him.”

I had to admit – I was curious. So after I finished my ellipticating, I went over to the girl
(she was on a treadmill herself, by this time, and running at a goodly pace) and I said,
“I couldn’t help but wonder – how, exactly, did you know that it was me on the machine?”

She said “Oh, they just told me that it was the little, short bald guy using that machine.”

By the way, I now check on his blog regularly as I figured out how to get my google blog reader to pick up a feed for it.