23 January 2010 (PM)

Workout notes 4000 yard swim; 10 x 100 on the 2 to warm up, gradually moving from the high 1:40′s to the high 1:30′s with little effort. Then 10 x 200 on the 3:30: 3:15, 13, 12, 12, 11, 13, 14, 12, 12, 11, then 1000 of cool-down strokes.

Then weights; I was able to handle 45 pound dumbbells for military presses and 70 pound dumbbells for the bench press. I am getting stronger.

I finished with yoga leg lifts (20) and a headstand.

Interestingly enough, running or doing the elliptical prior to swimming slows me down. Go figure.

Afterward, we had lunch with Lynn (a friend) and then I tutored her about facebook.

Football
I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s NFL games. My picks:

Spread: Jets + 8, Saints – 3.
To win: Colts and Saints.

Jets: rookie quarterback, though the defense might keep it close. Vikings: not a great road team, but their recent road woes have been on grass, outdoors. The Superdome is more to their liking, in terms of turf.

Keith Olbermann Apologizes For Scott Brown Comment: ‘I Have Been A Little Over The Top Lately’ (VIDEO)

Keith Olbermann apologized for his comments about Massachusetts Senator-Elect Scott Brown Friday night just one day after being called out by Jon Stewart over the remarks. Monday night, Olbermann described Brown as “an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, tea-bagging supporter of violence against women and against politicians with whom he disagrees.”

more about "Keith Olbermann Apologizes For Scott …", posted with vodpod

Time For President Obama to Renege on a Campaign Promise?

I admit that I backed then Senator Obama from the beginning, when he announced in Springfield. In fact, I was there.

I loved the fact that he is intellectual and doesn’t try to hide it. I still think that he is a brilliant, classy man of excellent deportment. But I have to admit that he has struggled with some of the “high profile” items in his agenda and that I share some of the frustration that other liberals have, though I am not close to giving up on him. (Now if you talk about the Senate…I am very close to giving up on that stupid institution).

But one of the things that gave Obama the most popularity bothered me:

When I head this, I found myself saying “BS”; I have nothing in common with a large swath of “red America”; those people live in a different universe than I do.

Obama flat out said that we could work with Republicans:

(see about 1:00 to 1:20)

Well, the fact is that some differences are so great that they cannot be bridged; for example, you can’t work with a creationist to design a competent science class!

E. J. Dionne weighs in on this:

Washington will remain the object of scorn as a dysfunctional capital, and absent a new Obama approach, the GOP can act with the confidence that only Democrats will pay a price for the failure of comity.

This problem goes directly to the tensions in Obamaism. As a candidate, Obama pledged to change the tone in Washington and restore amicable relations between the parties. But he also promised to accomplish large things, including a substantial reform of the health-care system, major action to ease global warming and a reshaped and more responsible financial system.

At some point, Obama’s ambitions were destined to collide with the views of a Republican Party fundamentally opposed to almost everything he wants to do. Obama could try to get big things done or he could work easily with Republicans, but he could not do both.

As a result, he found himself leaning entirely on support from his own party, forcing a strategy of inside deal-making. This alienated the many rank-and-file Americans who don’t like the looks of such arrangements, however necessary they are.

A related contradiction was between Obama’s commitment to sweeping change and his soothing pragmatism that disdains public fights. In the campaign, this allowed him to unite a left that believed in his promises of transformation with a center that appreciated his conciliatory style.

You know, some things are impossible to do; it is almost as if I made a commitment this year to both get back up to 300 pounds in the bench press (which would require that I gain muscle) AND to walk 100 miles in 24 hours (which would require that I remain light or even get lighter).

Today’s daily address:

Special notes

Watch airline pilots tackle cross winds on landings (from 3 quarks daily)

Spot the Dork! (Steve Foster Memorial Run)

(click the image to see a larger version)

Last Saturday, some of Steve’s friends got together to honor his memory.

Can you “spot the dork”?

(big white beard). In this photo: Front: Lou McMurray (triathlete) and right in front of me: Beth Haynes (iron woman; 12 hour ish).
To the left of me: Bill Holmes. To the right: Bob Corbett (3:17 marathoner, over 300 pound bench press…he IS a nice guy, thank heavens!)