The irony of federal grants and DEI

The Republicans are going after wokeness and DEI, especially in federally funded grants (e. g. National Science Foundation).

Here is what I find very ironic: if you actually READ some of these grant proposals..I mean read the substance and not the mere titles, many of the “woke sounding ones” really aren’t that woke at all.

For example: one woke DEI proposal (not on this particular list) was about math teaching, and what it actually contained was good, sound suggestions for pedagogy. Those suggestions are some that I’ve used for some time, and they benefit the vast majority of students, regardless of background, race, creed, sex, etc.

I’ve been attending some of the events created by my university’s grant (which IS on Senator Cruz’s hit list, linked to above). And much of what I’ve seen isn’t particularly woke or DEI related; these suggestions, both the useful and the not-so-useful ones, were really race/sex/category neutral.

So, what is going on?

Here is what I think: up to recently, DEI/woke language increased interest in a grant proposal. Or that was the perception, at least. So, maybe you wanted to study a classroom practice. If you said “I think this would help most differential equations students”, you’d get a reaction. But if you said something about it especially helping “marginalized groups”, that was an extra boost.

Now that same language makes the grant toxic!

Trump did not deserve to win. But the D’s deserved to lose.

Quickly: slight knee pain last night. So: walk on Rock Island trail: 4 miles at 15:10 mpm on a trail that was sloppy in spots. Ice afterward, and stretching much later (usual PT before hand, of course). It takes only 20 minutes to get there so there is no reason I can’t walk there on weekends.

Politics/Social

I want to make myself clear: I voted for Harris and gave her campaign money. I thought her campaign was ok; it was a lot of “red, white and blue” stuff. Nevertheless, I knew that Trump had an excellent shot at winning.

The Democrats, on the whole, have many, many problems. I admit that many of the problems may be my own perception; after all, I am a 65 year old Latino professor of mathematics who served in the Navy and likes traditional male things like football.

Here are some problems, as I see them:

  1. The Democrats want to be the party of the working class. And yet

And that leads to point 2:

2. Democrats appear to take their cues from college educated “activists” who are often completely out of touch. No, student bodies are not especially “woke” but many of the activists ones are, and the key words are “privileged/non-privileged” and “marginalized groups.” Somehow they think that a platform that is focused on the “marginalized” be it racial…ok, non-white, non-Asian, LBGTQ (or whatever letters are used as of the time of this writing), and, oh yes, women and spend your time demonizing and attacking WHITE MEN (a rather large voting block)…

Of course, people tend to respond better when you make the case that THEY are better off when you win. But the D’s cannot stomach that..evidently. They’d rather complain about the “lack of empathy” when they do down in flames.

The Democrats are a women’s (and other non-privileged groups) party.

3. Social wedge issues that make D’s look stupid: take transwomen in women’s sports division. Yes, that is a small number of people, and yes, you can make the argument that competition committees should be doing this. But what you have coming from the Democrats, at least many of them, is complete denial of reality. We have sex divisions for statistical fairness to women. Men ARE better at the conventional sports than women are..a lot better. Remember: we are comparing “outliers to outliers”: the best women to the best men. Yes, women run truly impressive marathon times, but they are not even within a MILE of the men’s winner.

Hanging on to this issue just makes the Democrats look stupid and delusional. Yes, I “get” why: “transwomen are women” is dogma and if you say “except for sports” the dogma is invalidated. And, as the saying goes, “if you can’t trust the Democrats on something so simple, what CAN you trust them on?”

And then you get to the times that liberals have tainted science by ideology. One such case was the outcry over large gatherings (pre-vaccine) during COVID, only to approve of such gatherings if the “cause” was the “right” one. (Yes, outdoor gatherings were not super spreaders but we didn’t know that at the time).

And so, where do the Democrats go from here? Frankly, I am out of ideas.

Workout dump

Thursday: 2 mile walk over lunch. Weights:

pull ups: 10 singles (alternating chins and pull ups), then 7 sets of 5, one of 7. Downstairs: 10 x 134, 10 x 150 bench (best in a while), 3 sets of 5 x 134 incline, 4 inch trap bar: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234

Friday: 5K walk at 16:48. Bad sleeping night; some knee pain.

Saturday (today) 2 miles at 15:10 per mile. Weights: 10 singles (alternating pull ups and chin ups), 8 sets of 5 alternating pull up sets and chin up sets.

bench: 10 x 134, 6 x 155, 5 x 155, 5 x 155
incline: 5 x 134
High incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 105
curls: 3 sets of 10
straight bar dead lift: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 225 (exhausting) burn in the hamstrings.

Sort of high

I got an ache in the knee last night and took a tramadol. I felt slightly….”happy” when I woke up. My walk: just under 4.2 in 1:02:27; 14:58 mpm. My watch gave me too much credit for mile 1 and too little credit for mile 4. Knees: they were ok; felt it slightly during the day, but there was a drastic pressure change.

I did ice the knee afterward, and at lunch too, and I did the stretching.

Upper body

My walk was a 2 mile commuter walk, some of it in heavy rain, holding an umbrella. The weight part:

pull ups: 10 singles, alternating pull up, chin up
Then 2 sets of 5: pull up, chin up
10 (sort of) pull up
2 sets of 5 chin up
2 sets of 5 mixed grip

Downstairs: bench press: 10 x 134, then 4 x 160, 5 x 155, 6 x 150, 10 x 145
high incline: 10 x 94, 10 x 94, 5 x 105
curls: 3 sets of 10.

I did put my upper body through the paces today.

Very slight knee pain last night. Slept with my new knee sleeves.

Toward baseball season

The Bradley Men won their final home game of the regular season, dispatching a good Northern Iowa team 73-56. Torrid 3 point shooting lead to a 45-36 halftime lead, and then the Bradley defense did the rest. 7537 showed up, the third largest crowd of the reason (just behind the 7560 that saw the Murray State game, but well off of the 9646 that saw the weekend game vs Illinois St.)

Barbara went with me; that is significant.

Workout notes: I did my West Peoria course (3.14 in 46:xx plus that extra 1.16 course (to Moss) to finish in 1:03:48; this was about 14:50 mpm in just under freezing. Stretched and iced afterward; right now the knee feels fantastic. Will it feel that way tonight though?

Current events: it is tough to think about as what is going on with our country (bad, rash decisions) is well..being seen elsewhere in my life. Internationally, we are no longer some “beacon for freedom.” Trump remains above water in some “job approval polls” and slightly below in others. So, while my bubble does not approve of Trump, large segments of the country does.

Leisure

I had a day of leisure today. Later: basketball game between UIC (who was favored) and Bradley.

The back-and-forth contest was tied at the half (28-28; UIC had a 3 point shot disallowed after review due to a shot clock violation) and it was 44-44 going into the 4’th. But then BU pulled away and won 65-54. Bradley played great defense in the paint, mercilessly harassing the UIC forwards and centers.

BU is by no means a good team, but at least this year, BU would be fairly be called “bottom of the midpack” of the Missouri Valley Conference. They are no longer an automatic win for a MVC team.

Before that, I had a long weight workout (2 hours, but I took tons of rest) and a 2 mile walk at just under 16 minutes per mile (I tend to speed up with knee braces)

I may have overdone it a little; tonight will tell. I have some barely perceptible soreness.

Pull ups: ok, these were just plain hard. 2 sets of 5 singles, then 8 sets of 5, with 3-4 sets being chin up sets (harder for me, but better bicep activation). It was in the 20’s with a wind.

Bench press: 5 x 134, 2 x 155, 1 x 165, miss at 175, make at 175, 10 x 145 (hard)

1 inch bar deadlift: 10 x 105, 10 x 149, 10 x 193
Olympic bar deadlift: 10 x 225 (not that hard) slight residual lumbar soreness later; mostly glutes and hamstrings.

High incline: 3 sets of 10 x 94
curl: 3 sets of 10

Rally?

Knee pain: none the night before last, and very little last night..at all. Tonight will tell the story.

Workouts: yesterday, 2 miles at 17:44 (commuter over lunch). Weights:

pull ups: sets of 5 (one of 6), with 2 of them chin up style. These burn my biceps. 51 reps total.

Bench press: 10 x 134, 5 x 155, 5 x 155, 5 x 155
4 inch trap bar dead: 10 x 134, 10 x 184, 10 x 234 (all easy)
High incline: 10 x 94, 9 x 94, 6 x 94 (very little rest)

Today: 3 miles at 17:07 (not supposed to be a commuter pace), 1.13 mile commuter walk. The knee was feeling it on the first walk (no brace); no pain but I could feel it tiring. Knees felt great during the day, especially after the lunch time icing.

Bradley women’s basketball

The women hosted Valparaiso. Both teams came in 11-16. BU started poorly..again. They had more turnovers than baskets at halftime and trailed 35-22; the Braves missed all of their 3 point shots.
In the 3’rd quarter the lead grew to 53-32 and it appeared to be over.

But BU went into a full court press and rattled them. And then some of the 3 point shots fell and it was a 10 point game with 4 minutes to go.

Valpo started to fall apart and with 1:24 Bradley tied the game and took the lead with 42 seconds to go, 64-62. On the next possession, Valpo hit one of 2 free throws to cut it to 64-63. But with 21 seconds, BU missed 2 free throws to give Valpo the ball back, and Valpo hit a 3 with 7 seconds to go to win the game.

Sometimes, teams with bad records can make for a memorable game.