Month: September 2021

Why Democrats will continue to struggle…

Others have had things to say:

And Ann Coulter..bless her heart, has a point.

Matthew Yglesias has point:

But why?

One thing: language. Take the concept of “racism”. Many (most) think that if you treat people in a colorblind manner, you are not being racist. Not so with the woke activists:

The upshot: mortgage company wants to, well, make a profit. So they create financial criteria which will ensure that, but such criteria DOES make it harder for disadvantaged minorities to get a loan. So, to the woke: the company is being racist.

And that is the crux of the CRT stuff: racism, intentionally or not, is so baked into our institutions that being “objective” is to perpetuate racism. Most of the country, including many minorities, do not agree. (For what it is worth: this is why I am a fan of government investment programs to enable higher risk people to have a shot at things like home ownership. Make the criteria race neutral, but it will end up helping minorities more than others)

Anyway, that is one albatross around the neck of Democrats.

Here is another example: take homelessness. Hard working small business owner, of course, wants customers. Maybe they set up a booth in a festival held in a center city area. Organizers know that people won’t come unless they feel safe, so they take measures to discourage homeless people from camping/congregating in said areas.

“Activists” complain…manage to get said measures taken out. Homeless congregate, which leads to customers staying away, and the small business owner loses that opportunity. How do you think said business owner and potential workers are going to vote?

And that, in my opinion, is how liberals drive people away from the Democratic party. They take up the cause of the tiniest of statistical minorities and expect everyone else to turn their lives upside down to accommodate the wishes of said group…and scream that they are bigots if they don’t.

Yes, a colleague did remind me that the general public does not attend college social science seminars, but the Republicans find ways to do so, and blast out every “if you don’t memorize the 30+ gender pronouns you are a bigot” rant from a professor and tell the public “THIS IS WHAT OUR COLLEGES ARE DOING.” Seriously; I’ve been accused of doing such things, and I teach math!

And do we ever hand them ammunition to use on us…

And so, the Republicans have to be truly dreadful to lose…and in 2020, they were, at least at the top of the ticket.

Not where I want to be but…

Now, IF this were a continuous walk, I’d be happy. But I had stretch breaks at 1, 1.7, 2.3 and 3 miles. Yes..the final one was just to avoid pain as I was at the edge of the parking lot.

The good news is that the first mile felt great for, say, 90 percent of it. I am stopping “pre-pain” but still…and I need to work on my back, IT band, core and glute.

Better news: shoulder feels great.

Some fires put out

I tried some stuff with respect to notes and it appeared to have been a success. I’ll just have to get better organized.

Workout: weights, rehab, 32 minutes on the exercise bike.

Weights: pull ups: 2 sets of 10 singles got me ready for 2 sets of 10, set of 6, 5, two sets of 5 chins.

Rehab: went ok

push ups: 25, 25, 20 (slanted, almost neutral, feet elevated)

deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 (this one was work), 10 x 260 high (easier?)

later in the day; back was stiff; some tingles/light pain on the walk home.

Putting out fires..

Another rough day with technology…connecting to the projector and my ladibug focus dying on me.

Workout:

pullups: 30 singles on 10 seconds, 10, 5, 5, then 2 sets of 5 chins

push ups: 25, 25, 20 (sissy, almost flat, feet up)

lots of rehab

curls (3 sets), rows (light..94), seated shoulder 44, 66, 71 have to watch the angle

31 minutes bike (10 fake miles)

some glute ache this evening, and slight shoulder stuff.

Conceding to age

I admit that when I work out, I take care to avoid injury, even if it means cutting it short or just quitting.

Today: rehab, deadlifts, 2 miles of walking in just over 30 minutes (stretch at 1 mile..probably should have stretched at 1.7 but I wanted to finish), and some banded walks.

The deadlifts:

10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 (all went ok; focused on hip hinge)

251: 3, 3, 3, 3, 4 (on the 3 minutes, did not push the last set)

274 (4 inch handle), 3, 3 (ok, but fatigued)

300 (8 inch) 1 set of 3; felt it in the back on the 3’rd rep and called it quits.

Ok, that is 35 reps with “working weight”; probably enough for one day.

Three steps forward, 1/2 a step back

Yes, that is progress.

Yesterday: had to get to the office earlier than normal because I was covering for a colleague who was out with COVID.

pull ups, push ups, curls, rows, and yes, overhead presses (44, 64, 69, sets of 10)

pull ups; did have some sets of 10, singles, 5’s, 60 reps total (2 sets of 5 chins)

Rehab. The story is in the push ups:

Contrast that to 3 months ago:

The down side: just a slight bit of ache last night..then again, we did have a weather change…

The glute is a stubborn as ever…better, but only slightly so. This will persist for a few more months.

Workout catch up

Kind of busy and dead this week.

Tuesday: I had my PT reeval; we will do 3 more “every other week” sessions.

Shoulder: progressing nicely. Glute: stalker injury…first 8-9 minutes feel like old times, then “never going to give you up” mode.

Monday; pull ups, push ups (including 10 almost flat at the end), seated presses, curls, rows, 32 minutes bike (10 fake miles)

Tuesday: yoga; 2 16:30 ish miles on the riverfront…then the PT later

Wednesday: pull ups, push ups, deadlifts (10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224, then 10 x 260 high); had to wear a sweatshirt, 32 minutes bike

Today: yoga, 2 mile walk (usual 2 stretch breaks), 33 minutes bike; legs sort of sore.

And the beat goes on; tomorrow I give an exam for a prof out with COVID.

Almost the end of the Chiefs season

I caught Saturday’s game with Barbara, Vickie and Harry. The Chiefs lost 6-3; two of the Chief’s runs came on solo home runs..and the relief pitchers teamed up to walk in a couple of runs.

I’ll catch the action later today for the last game of the season.

On my own: I did some deadlifts, walked 2 miles (breaks at 1.1 and 1.4 miles) 15:40 mile 1, 16:22 mile 2, and some rehab; doing the banded walks with the blue band was an eye opener.

The deadlifts: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 224 were ok

on the 3: 5 sets of 3 x 251 these were ok but NOT super easy.

two sets of 3 x 274 with the 4 inch handle.

High handle (8 inch) ugh…3 singles with 310 (on the 1); last one was just plain bad. Slight back strain.

10 x 260 high handle finished it.

Pick up Tracy in 1 hour.

Boys’ night out: Maryland at Illinois

The one downer: piriformis just ached…need to stretch after driving.

The rest of it: pretty fun..though the Illini lost.

I had predicted Maryland 42-31 and the game ended up being more of a defensive struggle, at least for 3 quarters.

Initially, not much; Illinois had a drive that ended in a blocked field goal; Maryland made theirs…then the Illini had a drive that ended in 3. So 3-3 at the half.

3’rd quarter saw a momentum shift. Maryland got the kickoff and marched 75 yards for a touchdown…easily. Illinois punted…another easy drive until a big hit forced a Maryland fumble at the Illini 11.

Then Illinois had a nifty 89 yard drive ending with a spectacular 30+ yard touchdown run to tie the game.

Later: Illinois forced another fumble..but threw an interception.

Early 4’th; breakway Illinois run looked like it would end with a fumble, but an alert Illini receiver picked it up and ran it in..17-10 early in the 4’th.

Maryland drove..but a TD was called back due to a chop block penalty.

It appeared that the Illini was going to put the game away but with 4’th and 1 at the Maryland 45, Illinois called on their punt team to pin Maryland deep.

Some fans did not like that call, but I did: the illini defense held Maryland to 10 points in the first 56 minutes and their punt team is outstanding.

But with 4 minutes to go, Maryland marched down the field and scored with just over 2 minutes to go to tie the game at 17.

Then came the last 2 minutes. The Illini used a time out and got a first down..but then 2 sacks and an intentional grounding penalty (QB threw to the center!) gave Maryland the ball back near midfield with about a 1 minute to go.

It didn’t take the Terps long to move the ball to field goal range, and they won it on the final play of the game.

Upside: defense played reasonably well. Ground game looked good at times.

Downside: it doesn’t appear the the O-line is used to pocket pass protection; most of these guys grew up on blocking on RPO’s and sprint out. QB got stacked and hurried many times.