Torture

Demands. Rights. Etc.

I can't exist for 30 seconds without getting force fed the opinion that somehow the government must expiate itself by providing for its people things I am unclear they deserve or have the right to ask for. I haven't lived long, but I can't help but feel a growing trend (especially in my age bracket) that people yearn for the unearned. Somehow, people have got it in their heads that certain inalienable rights now extend to social security, health care, privacy, money money money.

At what cost, and to whom?

Our Constitution protects its citizens so that they may have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Happiness in not guaranteed. If you are unable to support yourself, it is not the government (or its citizens) obligation to support you. If you seek to infringe upon the freedom of others (terrorists) your liberty, privacy, rights, and property are void.

Our Constitution set forth to hammer forth the principle that all men are entitled to their life. Freedom to pursue and achieve success is promised without fear of oppression so long as you do not violate the liberty of others. The second you choose to invalidate the freedom of another individual, you invalidate your own right to liberty. Perhaps this is the maxim that people seem so willing to ignore. If a private citizen decides to willingly plot against others in an effort to hurt or kill them or carries forth plans to further this goal, they have forfeited their right to their own person. There is no such thing as a right to harm others. One who harms others has no moral base to justify their actions. This is why the Patriot Act, and all the wire-tapping and torture that it precludes, is fully justifiable by our Constitution.

People disagree not because they find it morally unpalatable to torture a terrorist, they disagree because mob mentality has forced them to feel bad for thinking otherwise. There are few people in America today who are willing to stand on their own moral ground, their reasons for decrying torture and wiretapping is not an argument founded on objective principles, rather it is based in subjective sycophancy.

Ask yourself, what rights does a man who kills innocents have? Does he have a right to his own life once he takes others?

Driving Green Begets False Moral Imperatives

Following my recent banishment from www.traineo.com (see link for poorly channeled John Galt speech : Throw off the shackle ) I have found my outlet for attempting to spread common fitness sense to the masses has been decidedly cut off. Not that you can't continue preaching to those deaf to your ravings, but it lost some of its mystique when every response was met with meager excuses citing genetics, lack of time, strenuous jobs, and terrorists.

I was sitting in my car at a red light the other day, and as I sat in silence (car is turd-shaped hybrid from 03) I noticed that the LCD readout currently read an accurate measurement of zero miles to the gallon. This is wholly correct, since I wasn't moving and the gas-motor was off the fact that I wasn't wasting precious bits of dead dinosaur didn't matter. However, the instant I started moving under electric power I would achieve an infinite fuel economy. In fact, the instant I started moving at any speed I would get an infinite MPG on the simple fact that I would consume no gas. It temporarily amazed me that the connection between zero and the infinite was related by such a small quantity, in this case any speed whatsoever.

This long-winded metaphor is exactly how I would classify an overwhelming majorities pursuit of exercise. People believe that the connection between the zero (never exercising, overweight, etc.) and the infinite (Arnold) can be interrelated with the application of any small quantity. Unfortunately for you, but fortunate for the makers of ellipticals, recumbent bikes, and other useless pieces of equipment...this is not the case.

I made a comment in the traineo diatribe that the biggest reason so many Americans are unable to achieve their fitness goals is their own mental inertia. Their own mental turpitude hinders them so that they try and place accountability in the hands of trainers, gyms, equipment, and fad regimens rather than their own mind. It is easy at first to seek the comfort of placing all responsibility, obligation, and duty in the hands of someone else. It means you gain all the glory if you miraculously achieve, and you losing nothing if you do not succeed.

It is therefore a moral imperative, before your hand touches the erg for the first time or you grasp the olympic bar before learning to squat, that you realize that the source of all your achievement and failure derives from the impetus provided by your own mind. No one else.

Now, so that you don't get too bored, here is a video of a 56 year old woman squatting 540 lbs.