Heatsteria – The Colbert Report – 2011-09-08 – Video Clip | Comedy Central

Part-time weather balloon Rush Limbaugh exposes the government-manufactured heat index conspiracy, while SpongeBob brainwashes kids with global warming propaganda.

Heatsteria – The Colbert Report – 2011-09-08 – …, posted with vodpod

Bonus: Colbert’s Rick “Parry” ad:

10 August 2011 pm

Workout notes Cornstalk course “run” (4.2 miles) in 44:04 (felt better toward the end; I was stiff and sluggish for the first 38 minutes or so!). The weather was cool.

Then: weights at the University gym:
rotator cuff and four sets of lunges
Bench press: 2 sets of 10 x 135; note I needed a 10 x 65 warm up.
Incline press: 2 sets of 6 x 130
Military press (standing, dumbbells); 3 sets of 12 x 40
Assisted pull ups; 2 sets of 6 (with 25 lb.)
Rows (Hammer); 3 sets of 10 x 200
Pull downs: 3 sets of 12 x 140
Curls (dumbbell) 6 x 30, 8 x 30, 4 x 25, 12 x 25. I was a bit off on my form with the 30′s.
Hip adduction: 3 sets of 10 x 170
Hip abduction: 3 sets of 10 x 170
Butt push-backs: 3 sets of 10 x 110
Sit ups: 4 x 25

Posts
Nah.

click to see at the source.

More political humor (?)

WASHINGTON—Calling a GOP victory in the 2012 presidential election antithetical to the party platform, top Republicans revealed a new long-term political strategy Tuesday: reelecting Barack Obama and making his life even more of a living hell than it already is.

“For three years, the Republican Party has coalesced around the single goal of making President Obama’s every waking moment sheer and utter torture,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters. “But we can’t continue to do that if he’s not in office.”

“If we are going to make the president a haggard shell of a human being by the time he leaves the White House, we need four more years of never compromising, four more years of miring every piece of legislation in unnecessary procedural muck, four more years of pretending we want to work with the president and then walking away from the table at the last second,” McConnell added. “Four more years! Four more years! Obama 2012!”

(yes, it is from The Onion)

Unfortunately, political factors APPEAR to be trumping policy factors:

Americans are deeply confused about why the economy is so bad – and their President isn’t telling them. In fact, the White House apparently has decided to join with Republicans and blame it on the long-term budget deficit.

Before I turn to the President, though, let’s be clear: The lousy economy is due to insufficient demand. Consumers – who are 70 percent of the economy — can’t and won’t buy because they’re running out of cash. They can’t borrow against homes that are worth a third less than they were five years ago, and most consumers are bad credit risks anyway because they’re losing their jobs and their wages are dropping. They also have to start saving for the kids’ college or for retirement, which will cut their spending even more.

Without enough consumers, businesses won’t hire enough people and pay them enough to reverse the vicious cycle. So we’re dead in the water. Even the stock market has caught on to the truth.[...]

Which gets me to the President. Even though the President’s two former top economic advisors (Larry Summers and Christy Roemer) have called for a major fiscal boost to the economy, the President has remained mum. Why?

I’m told White House political operatives are against a bold jobs plan. They believe the only jobs plan that could get through Congress would be so watered down as to have almost no impact by Election Day. They also worry the public wouldn’t understand how more government spending in the near term can be consistent with long-term deficit reduction. And they fear Republicans would use any such initiative to further bash Obama as a big spender.

So rather than fight for a bold jobs plan, the White House has apparently decided it’s politically wiser to continue fighting about the deficit. The idea is to keep the public focused on the deficit drama – to convince them their current economic woes have something to do with it, decry Washington’s paralysis over fixing it, and then claim victory over whatever outcome emerges from the process recently negotiated to fix it. They hope all this will distract the public’s attention from the President’s failure to do anything about continuing high unemployment and economic anemia. [...]

There’s still time for political operatives in the White House – and the person they work for – to change their minds. If economic stresses increase, Americans may insist on government doing more. A CNN poll released Monday found 60% believe the nation remains in an economic downturn and conditions are worsening. Only 36% believed that in April.

But for now the President is being badly advised. The magnitude of the current jobs and growth crisis demands a boldness and urgency that’s utterly lacking. As the President continues to wallow in the quagmire of long-term debt reduction, Congress is on summer recess and the rest of Washington is asleep.

The President should present a bold plan, summon lawmakers back to Washington to pass it, and, if they don’t, vow to fight for it right up through Election Day.

Surf to Robert Reich’s article to read more; I’ve only reproduced a bit. I agree with him here.

9 August 2011 pm

Swimming: this is interesting:

Sunday’s Nautica New York City Triathlon resulted in two deaths, both from cardiac events that arose during the event’s initial swimming leg. A 64-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman were pulled from the Hudson River before they could complete the 1.5-kilometer swim from a wharf near Manhattan’s 96th Street down to the West 79th Street Boat Basin. Both athletes were taken to a nearby hospital in cardiac arrest. Police said 26 others were removed from the water needing assistance for minor injuries or pains that arose during the swim portion of the competition.

The man, identified as Michael Kudryk of Freehold, N.J., was competing as part of a three-person relay team but lost consciousness halfway through the swim. Rescuers managed to get Kudryk to one of the four New York City Fire Department boats stationed in the river, but he later died at Saint Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center. Kudryk was registered for another triathlon next month in Long Branch, N.J., the New York Daily News reported. Amy Martich, of Elmhurst, Ill., died Monday morning at Saint Luke’s.

Triathlons are categorized by distance. Sprint triathlons typically require a 750-meter swim, 20-kilometer bike ride and five-kilometer run. Olympic triathlons (including the NYC Triathlon) involve a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run. In “Iron Man” triathlons, the swimming portion can be as long as 3.9 kilometers, followed by up to a 180-kilometer bike ride and a 42.2-kilometer run (the same distance as a marathon).

Despite being the first leg and covering the shortest distance in any triathlon, swimming has proved to be the most deadly. Minneapolis Heart Institute cardiologist Kevin Harris last year published a study in JAMA: The Journal of American Medical Association analyzing the results of 2,971 USA Triathlon-sanctioned events held between January 2006 and September 2008, during which 14 participants died—13 of them while swimming and one while biking. Swimmers who died were between 28 and 65 years old; 11 were men (although it is worth noting that more men compete in triathlons than women).

I wonder what is going on; part of it might be the stress from the cold, stress from other competitors, disrupted breathing rhythms and perhaps fear of drowning? I’ve done some large open water 5K swims, but then again, I love open water.

Come on Mr. Huckabee: you should be classier than this:

Apparently Mike Huckabee wasn’t done making a fool out of himself this weekend after his appearance on Fox & Friends touting Donald Trump for Treasury Secretary. Heaven forbid he could make it through the day without throwing a little racism in to boot as well.

After slamming President Obama for the fundraiser held on his birthday that Fox Nation attacked as “Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ” which our friends at Media Matters wrote about here — Fox Nation: Obama’s Hip-Hop BBQ Didn’t Create Jobs — Huckabee took a page right out of their playbook on his show this past Saturday night.

HUCKABEE: I’m glad that the President had such a large time with his friends. And by the way, they think that they all ought to pay more in taxes. So hopefully while they were gathered, they passed one of those great old big hats that one of the hip-hop pals wore, so that way everyone could empty their pockets and open their checkbooks, so they could give more to our ever responsible Federal government, so the fine folks at the party can bail out, our government. Well, I’m sure that happened.

So, let’s give back Jack. Let’s cut the Prez some slack. His birthday gig might just bring our economy back.

As Media Matters has documented and we have as well, but not to the extent that they have, this sort of race baiting is all too common over at Fox and at their blog, Fox Nation — Fox’s Race-Baiting “Nation”.

But that is the real crux of the Republican personality attack: WE are the REAL AMERICANS and THEY aren’t. Remember this gem from the past:

Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that President Obama has “a different worldview” that is in part “molded out of a very different experience.”

“Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas,” Huckabee added.

Huckabee, who is promoting a book, made the comments on the talk radio program “Focal Point,” hosted by American Family Radio’s Bryan Fischer. They came two days after Huckabee inaccurately suggested that Mr. Obama grew up in Kenya.

Huckabee said he misspoke about the president’s childhood and had meant to reference Mr. Obama’s four-year stint in Indonesia. But the explanation was not sufficient for many critics, who noted that Huckabee suggested that the president’s views were shaped by growing up in Kenya with a father who sent the message “that the British were a bunch of imperialists.” Mr. Obama barely knew his father as a child.

But I will say this: I have far more in common with Mr. Obama than I do with Mr. Hukabee, and that is a good thing.

Republican Candidates
No, the Michelle Bachmann cover on Newsweek is not sexist, even if The Nation says that it might be. If you want to say that blindly lumping Ms. Bachmann with Sarah Palin together is sexist, I might listen to your argument. Sure, both are tea-party favorites and both are dumb, but the resemblance ends there. Ms. Palin goes more on personality (That spunky Hockey Mom!) whereas Ms. Bachmann seems to be more driven by ideas (albeit crazy ones). Also, Ms. Bachmann finished her term and got reelected; she seems to be far harder working and more interested in governing. She is worthy of more political respect than Ms. Palin, though I find no merit in her ideas.

But this article drives home two things for me:
1. I tend to get very tired of The Nation very quickly; some of their articles are good. Others are shallowly argued crap (e. g., their articles denying climate change …in fact, denying that CO2 could even act as a greenhouse gas!)

2. Our side is not good at politics. She is the political enemy so don’t go attacking articles that correctly characterize her as, well, crazy. Could you imagine National Review taking Newsweek to task over an Obama cover?

Tim Pawlenty
No, he isn’t Sarah Palin in a suit:

1. He actually finished TWO terms as governor of a largish state; not one HALF term as a governor of a state with a small population.
2. He hasn’t been blessed by a pastor who hunts witches.

So while his IQ is probably is within, say 5 points of Ms. Palin’s, he has a much stronger work ethic.

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