More Halloween 2007 tidbits

Non Sequitur See the comic here.

This made me chuckle, but also reminded of me of one of my favorite memories of my yoga teacher. One day she substituted for a “core strength” class and I showed up. I was the only one.

I figured we’d goof off, joke, maybe flirt a little. But no; she gave me a one-on-one 45 minute ab workout. All the while, she did every repetition of every exercise with me. She kept smiling at me, asking me how I was doing while I turned various colors.

I was NOT going to quit, by Jove! I made it; barely.

Photos of various ultras and trails: a cool spread here; included are “in sequence photos” of the Appalachian Trail and other ultra courses.

And for those who love to see others suffer, here is a link to a website devoted to the infamous Barkley Ultra (less than 1% finish the 100 miler; about 12% finish the 60 mile “fun run”.)

Being that I can get lost in a hallway and that I trip over leaves on sidewalks, this race isn’t for me; though my wife wouldn’t mind if I tried it (she was asking how long someone has to be missing until they are declared “dead” and when my life insurance would pay out)

Rest day October

Workout notes Slept in; will do some yoga after posting. I want to walk long tomorrow (10-12 hours; distance unimportant).

I haven’t decided if I’ll do a bikepath course using my truck as an aid station, or if I’ll do a more urban “wander around” course and use convenience stores as my aid stations, and let google map determined how far I went.

Marathons The New York Marathon on Novermber 3, weekend after next. But on Saturday, the day before, the American Olympic team is having the marathon trials. The top three runners go to the Olympics, provided all have met the Olympic “A” standard. If the winner of the trails has only met the “B” standard, then only the winner goes, but that is unlikely to happen this year.

A total of 134 men, out of 179 qualifiers, have officially entered the race that will name the first three members of Team USA’s Track & Field team for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

The final entry list includes 2004 Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezighi (San Diego, Calif.), 2004 Olympic Trials champion Alan Culpepper (Louisville, Colo.), and American record holder Khalid Khannouchi (Ossining, N.Y.).

Also making a bid for the team will be two-time U.S. Olympian Abdi Abdirahman (Tucson, Ariz.); Brian Sell (Rochester Hills, Mich.), who made a brave attempt to surprise the field at the 2004 Olympic Team Trials – Men’s Marathon in Birmingham, Ala.; American record holder for the half-marathon Ryan Hall (Big Bear Lake, Calif.); and 2004 Olympic marathoner and 10,000 runner Dan Browne. [...]

Qualifiers – 179

Entrants – 134

Entrants with personal bests under 2:09 – 4 (Khalid Khannouchi, Mbarak Hussein, Abdi Abdirahman and Ryan Hall)

Entrants who have met the Olympic Games “A” standard of 2:15 – 12

Entrants who have won USA championship titles – 12

Past USA Marathon Champions – 4 (Dan Browne ‘02. Ryan Shay ‘03, Alan Culpepper ‘04, Mbarak Hussein ‘05-’06)

[...]
A media package featuring national broadcast coverage and live web streaming will bring the Olympic Trials Marathon action to marathon fans for the first time since 1996. The start will be shown live nationally on NBC’s “Today Show” beginning at 7:35am and the race will be streamed in its entirety via the Web at www.NBCSports.com. In addition, a 30-minute highlight show will be broadcast nationally on NBC on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. EST.

Here is a list of the entrants.

Elections and Politics I sometimes visit a statistical modeling blog. There were a couple of interesting articles about politics there.

On the whole, Republicans win the “rich people’s vote”. Duh, you say? Well, remember that Republicans do a good job of telling their poorer followers that the enemy are those BMW driving, latte sipping liberals. Uh, but the BMW drivers, latte sippers are probably Republicans, but never mind.

To see some cool graphs of who voted for what, here are graphs that show: poor people in most stated do vote Democratic, the rich tend to vote Republican except for most of the west coasters and the upper east coasters, and the map of the middle income voters tends to look a lot like the map of the states (exceptions: Vermont, Wisconsin, Oregon, were the poor voters tipped the scales in the Democrats favor).

The Stupid things a scared country does: At the Daily Kos, someone recounts their 80 year old dad being arrested by airport security. Why? No, he didn’t protest anything. He was going through security with an old “brass knuckle” in his bag; something he used as a paperweight for years. When it was discovered by security, he said “sorry, just keep it”. But the supervisor was called, and he was arrested.

No, no gun, no explosives etc.

Last Friday, my father (81 in December, can still play me in tennis, life-long liberal democrat, sharp as a …) was in the process of going through security at JFK. He had made a quick overnight trip to N.Y. from Florida for a cousin’s funeral, and before he left his house in N.Y., he threw in his carry-on bag an old brass knuckle he once bought at a flea market. Having seen the aforementioned brass knuckle on his desk for years, holding down piles of papers and other such detritus, I can attest, yes , your honor, he used it as a paper weight and it was being transferred to his desk in Florida where it would be resuming it’s non-nefarious avocation.

Understandably, the TSA worker saw the knuckle and my dad said, sorry, just take it. No, they have to call their supervisor. Supervisor comes, Dad says, sorry, I use it as a paperweight, just take it. No, she has to call the police. Police come, first a woman and then a guy, a schmuck who was a Sergeant. The Sergeant said “book him and cuff him” and apparently the policewoman protested to him because my father heard him say to her “don’t you know you’re being monitored!” So, back to where we began-my almost 81 year dad was frogmarched through the terminal with the cop’s hand on his shoulder (when he asked the policewoman if she could remove her hand, that it was embarrassing, she said she had to keep it there.)

Again, I could understand if this guy had a gun, or explosives, or even a knife. But this??? I suppose this is a combination of fear and people with out of control egos.

Getting Set Straight.

Obama: his “gay” problem (and a problem for all politicians). By Cenk Uygur at the Smirking Chimp.

Barack Obama has invited gospel music “superstar” Donnie McClurkin to perform with him this weekend in South Carolina because he needs the votes of black religious folks in that state. Donnie McClurkin claims homosexuality is a choice and if you come to him (and presumably tap your feet three times) he will help you get over (and under) this sin.

McClurkin says he was gay for 20 years but he has cured himself. Sure. Of course, no one in their right mind believes him. But the problem is religious people are not in their right mind. So, what is a politician to do?

You can’t turn your back on religious voters, there are too many of them. And you can’t accept their ridiculous assertions. So, politicians like Obama get caught between a rock and a hard place. There is no good answer until this country grows up and stops believing in fairy tales.

You think McClurkin is the only one in South Carolina who believes homosexuality is a sin and should be cured? Are you kidding? An overwhelming majority of the people in South Carolina believe that. And how about the people Obama is trying to appeal to in this case – Southern, black, religious folks? What do we think, about 95% of them believe that?

You know why they believe that? Because it’s in the Bible. They’re right. I’m not being facetious. It’s right in the Bible. A man shall not lie with another man. It is an abomination to God.

Now, of course, what most people won’t tell you because they are scared to death of being un-PC about this is that the Bible is full of shit. It also says you can sell people off to slavery, as long as they are not Israelites. Eating shrimp is also an abomination to God (God is one finicky dude). There are dozens of offenses that get you stoned to death in the Bible including cursing at your parents, mixing the wrong types of cloths or plants … and adultery. [...]

[...] read the Bible, it’s not a pretty book.

It is full of outrages, injustices, violence, mayhem and pure utter nonsensical crap. Now, which politician can say that? None. So, what is Barack Obama supposed to do? Tell religious people to go fig off or sing along with a clueless gay guy who is pretending to be straight?

I don’t know. If he wants to win, he can’t ignore the religious constituency. If he wants to be a decent human being, he can’t go along with people who are ignorant and hurt others by arguing in favor of discrimination. My personal answer is – don’t become a politician.

This is one reason I’d never make it in politics.

But fortunately, there are those who see more clearly, like the person who writes Liberals Must Die.

The Dumass-crats can’t seem to TAKE A HINT!

A few weeks ago they tried to pass a law that would expand the so-called SCHIP program, to cover even MORE poor kids who get sick.

Republicans were very polite in their response… “Thanks, but no thanks.”

We came up with some nice reasons why we didn’t want to vote for this bill. Stuff like “we don’t want to pay for people who are already insured” and “we don’t think the government should be in the healthcare industry” etc.

So even though we voted against it, and Bush vetoed it, and Republicans banded together to block the veto-override, the Demon-crats are putting the bill up AGAIN today for another vote.

Ok Democrats, we tried to be nice, but I guess now we have to give you the cold hard truth.

We don’t care about sick poor kids. OK??

These aren’t my kids! My kids have health insurance! I don’t care about these kids, I have never even met one of them! [...]

There is a reason these kids come from poor familes, and there is a reason they are sick. God made it so. If these kids were better people, and better Christians, maybe they wouldn’t have been born into a poor familiy, and maybe they wouldn’t have gotten sick.

Who are we to stand in the way of God?[...]

I stand corrected!

Wingnuts: say who the most dangerous organizations in the United States are. Media Matters ranks number 1, colleges and universities number 2.

I wish the wingnuts were denied access to all that comes from the science and mathematics that are discovered at the major universities.

And Eve ate the apple, boo-fu*king-hoo.

10) ThinkProgress
9) Muslim Student Association
CodePINK
7) American Civil Liberties Union, National
6) Family Research Council
5) Center for American Progress
4) League of the South
3) MoveOn.org
2) Universities and Colleges
1) Media Matters for America

Hmmm, I wonder if there would be a way to disqualify the wingnuts from using any of the advances discovered at the colleges and the universities. Now THAT would be a load of fun!!

California Fires: Blackinformant has some photos near his home.