[Rant] Well, no shit.

Am you elitizt? (courtesy of geekers)

[USF Ppli Sci Professor Susan] MacManus says it's interesting that as our nation has become more educated, we've actually seen a decrease in tolerance [towards public figures being religious]. She says the religious divides included issues surrounding Mitt Romney's Mormonism, Barack Obama's supposed Muslim roots, Mike Huckabee's Baptist preacher background and now Sarah Palin's evangelical leanings.

Separation of church and state, motherfucker, do you grok it?

I could go on at great, inflammatory length on this theme, but will be succinct: The more educated you get, the less water conventional religion tends to hold, and the less trust one will place in a public official who is openly embracing it. This will probably not make me popular, and will draw disappointed looks from friends to whom religion is important, but I cannot in good faith trust the running of a city, state, our country to someone who openly embraces counter-factual belief systems or takes advice from their imaginary friend(s).

[Fitness] [Rant] Scheduled Peaking

[Fitness-related, but viewable to all]

MFT, the guy behind Gym Jones, from whom I cadge a fair amount of my workout philosophy, is occasionally so full of shit he squeaks going into a turn, as far as I'm concerned. Not often, but one of his precepts is simply not applicable to the vast majority of athletes - that training ought to be undertaken to provide peak performance at exactly the time it's needed.

In his post-Olympics essay, among a lot of stuff I genuinely agree with, was this: "Serious Athletes plan every aspect of their lives to ensure that they peak for that special event. To ensure that they are at the pinnacle of their career when they compete on the world’s stage."

Admittedly, I am not a "serious athlete." I'm a guy who wants to be in good shape; strong in useful ways, healthy, and all that sort of thing. I don't compete against anyone but myself, every day.

But, fundamentally, I have a different approach: Fitness should mean you're ready to perform at or near your peak any time you need to. Call it the Fireman Philosophy - those guys may be called on to do maximum effort any time, any day. "Peak performance at exactly the time it's needed" in the real world means you're ready to go Right Now if a storm hits, or a car crashes, or a mugger pulls a knife.

You can't schedule life, you can simply be ready to take it on.