Via Daily Kos: The Real Reason Sarah Palin Resigned

(from here)

Daily Kos: (Video) MELTDOWN: Palin Blames Media/Bloggers (UPDATED – BIG Insider says She Quits)

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Hat tip: here.

Hey, maybe ALL Republicans can resign!

I am Happy to Hear This:

Sarah Palin to resign at the end of July.

If she ends up being the GOP candidate for President in 2012, I’ll start to believe that there is a deity that loves me.

3 July 09 (am)

Security: This is a big time security fail.

This is a case when denying information (in the name of security) has gone too far. Senator Barbara Boxer wanted to make some data available so as to help people understand the environmental hazards that they might be living next to; her idea was nixed by the Department of Homeland Security.

Science and Religion

Republicans

Believe it or not, there are some who actually are persuaded by such bad comedy.

Here is a more high profile wingnut being interviewed by Alan Colmes.

Why do I read Republican stuff from time to time? This is why. I have to admit that many of the Republicans (or Conservatives) that I have come in contact with (mostly on facebook) are pretty clueless and ignorant; Dr. Andy is a big exception (which is why I love it when he checks in, even if it is to take me to task).

Health Care
Do you want a public option in the upcoming healthcare bill? Sign Senator Bernie Sanders’ petition.

Paul Krugman: sees an opportunity a health care bill (that is an improvement) to pass. Note: there is a good article in the recent issue of New Republic magazine that explains what is going on.

Why I don’t call myself an athlete

Workout notes 4 miles of walking, followed by yoga and pushups (2 sets of 30, 1 of 20), and one legged squats and calf raises. My main set (following warm up and drills) was 2.1 miles of 2-1 on the West Peoria track in 23:28. I got a bit more hip action this time. The day was reasonably cool.

Personal Essay:
Many years ago my wife was upset with me; she accused me of spending too much time on the internet with my “pretend athlete” friends and indicated that I too was a “pretend athlete”. She was a bit shocked that I was not insulted at all; in fact the term evolved to become “faux athlete”.

Interestingly enough, some of my friends have heard this and have at least thought about it. One even devoted a blog post to it.

So here are my thoughts: to me, “athlete” means someone who has an exceptional degree of expertise in a sport. By exceptional I mean someone who is a threat to at least win a local competition (age group or overall) or, in the elite case, good enough to where people will sacrifice time and or money to watch this person perform (either individually or as part of a team).

I’ll put it another way: I have a Ph. D. in mathematics and have published some peer reviewed articles (a modest publication record, and yes this summer I hope to add to that record!). I am far from brilliant or distinguished but I am competent. If my intellectual ability were on the same level of my athletic ability, I’d have been lucky to get an A in college calculus; it would have been hit or miss for me to have even gotten an undergraduate degree in the subject, though I would have been ok in areas that were less demanding intellectually.

What distinguishes me from an athlete? I’ll save the most obvious factor for last.

1. Body Awareness/Kinesthetic intelligence .

One time, several years ago, I swam a workout with the Houston Masters H20 group which is coached by Emmit Hines (I highly recommend the book Fitness Swimming by Hines, by the way). Coach Hines relayed a coaching observation to me: he said that most people didn’t have good body awareness. For example, if you told people to get in a certain position with their left arm fully extended, they’d get into an improper position and have no idea that they were in that position unless they were either told that their position was wrong or if they could somehow see themselves. Most people need to associate a picture with a feeling.

On the other hand, the good athletes could tell if their arm was straight or not!

I’ve also observed this in yoga classes; when you demonstrate a pose, most new people think that they are in that position, even if they aren’t. I find that, even after 6 years of practice, I still need cues, mirrors or other feedback to learn what a correct position “feels” like.

The athlete knows what his or her body is doing. Of course, they still have to practice long and hard, but they have superior body awareness.

How this shows up This tends to show up when the athlete performs. For example, when I do an athletic activity, my movements are very “sequential” and “robotic”; for me the motion is a bunch of discrete movements. I don’t “flow”; I come across as “stiff” even when I have, say, above average yoga flexibility.

Examples from walking: (good walking from Ray Sharp’s blog)

The slow walker is easy to spot, no? (yes, I was moving at a bout 9:45 minutes per mile when this photo was taken; it was from a judged 5K in 1993).

2. The athlete’s mind
The athlete has a very strong mind. No, most athletes are NOT as smart as I am (though some are and a few are much smarter!). What I mean here is that an athlete has the mind that can get their body to take that extra step; they can drive themselves to push through the pain and to leave nothing back.

On the other hand, I have a built in governor that shuts down at a certain point; when things get too painful I just shut down. I suppose the hardest I’ve ever driven myself is that 2004 24 hour walk when I got 101 miles; I still wince when I think of what I went through in hours 16 to 23. But afterward, I was still able to walk off with my cooler and supplies; yes after the race I carried a cooler that my wife was unable to lift.

Here is what I looked like at mile 100:

On the other hand, my former racewalk teacher (Augie Hirt) looked like this after his centurion walk:

Yes, Augie walked a 19:55 on a muddy track; my best was 23:41 on a synthetic track in perfect conditions; Augie owns a 4:19 PR for the 50K (as opposed to my 6:20 PR) and a 7:30 for the 50 mile walk. Read the stirring story of his centurion success here.

Another example: I had a roommate at the Naval Academy named Dave Kroupa. More than once, he ran himself sick at races; he literally ran so hard that he was sick enough to have to stay in his room the next day. Dave was NOT elite, but he managed a 32 minute 10K run and a 2:38 marathon run on the hilly Maryland Marathon. Dave told me that I looked “way too good” at the end of races.

This is what many competitive cross country runners look like when they finish:

3. Training

Of course, those who have a chance to win and to possibly receive fame or financial reward have more incentive to train hard. After all, it might make sense for a college runner who has managed to run a 28:30 10K take a job with a shoe store in order to have time to train to make the Olympic team; it would be utterly stupid for me to do so. But the fact is that the true athletes train much, much, much harder than the rest of us.

Many top distance runners put 100-140 miles a week in on a regular basis, as do many top distance walkers. An Olympic distance swimmer (1500 meter) will put in up to 15,000 meters (9.3 miles) per day! Frankly, each day would be a pretty good week of swimming for me! As far as walking, my top walking weeks (aside from those when I completed a 100 miler) were in the 70 mile range; I did quite a few of those between 2004-2005. But I didn’t have high intensity; when an athlete does a high mileage week they include speed work, tempo workouts, etc.

4. Performance

Of course, there is the “performance” thing. My best run (39:50 for the 10K, back in 1982) would be a light warm-up run for an athlete. College runners usually run 32 minutes or faster; Olympic runners (males) run 28 minutes or faster.

My best performance is that aforementioned 23:41 100 miler; the best time (that I am aware of) is 17:00.

This is what I looked like the day of my 39:50 10K:

This is me trying to run this year

And this is what running looks like

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Alan Colmes’ Liberaland » Mark Sanford’s Campaign Ad Promoting “Christian Values”

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If you want to know why the media is being so hard on Governor Sanford, look at the above.

Now he is comparing himself to King David!

Of course, in my view, the bigger problem (by far) is dereliction of duty (his leaving his state).

One side note: why are “Christian Values” a good thing? Does believing in the redeeming power of some fictional Jewish zombie somehow redemptive?

Florida Billboard Controversy | Friendly Atheist by Hemant Mehta

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Just a question: why is promoting religion good but having a billboard that lets other atheists know that they aren’t alone bad?
Not every atheist belongs to a science department.