Iraq has dominated the foreign policy discussion in the U.S. for to long. I’m tired of it. I long for the days when I could criticize my country for it’s failure to act. I long for issues like Rwanda. The issues haven’t gone away, infact they are continuously getting worse all over Africa. Sudan, Uganda, and other African Nations are under going experiences which make any terror in the Middle East look like a Hippy Love in.
Been a heavy week. I pushed boundries this week and I’m feeling it now. Very tired and glad that tomorrow is a day off. The muscles in both my arms and my legs are aching.
The biggest deal this week came on Wednesday when I did a climb that I failed to do the last 2 times I tried. Granted that was 2 years ago, but still. The climb is up a road called Moody which starts out at Foothill college and ends up about 900 feet higher. Max gradiant is 12.9 percent. Ouch. Next objective is to create a loop that goes up Moody, connects to Page Mill and then wraps back down to Foothill Expressway and takes me home. When I do that I’ll take the GPS and trace the route for other people interested in the ride.
Also I bumped my swims up to 45 minutes this week. Effectively doing the 1.5K that I’ll need to do for Wildflower. Technique is still the hardest point. I’m good if I stick to 50’s and 100’s but beyond that my stroke really starts to break down. At 500 I was almost just floping about in the water, making progress but not very effectively. I had to do catch up drills for 2 50’s after that to get my stroke back in line.
Running saw my shins hurting again on Tuesday. So Friday I slowed down quite alot. I think next week I’ll keep the slower pace and extend the run. My weight is whats killing this sport. I’ve no doubt that if I dropped 5 - 10 pounds I’d be able to sustain an acceptable pace without injuring myself. To drop that weight I’ve gotta go longer instead of harder.
Anyway Wildflower is just at 6 weeks away.
There is therefor no one who has more contempt for what it is to be human being than those who make it their profession to lead the crowd.
– Søren Kierkegaard
YouTube should not have caved. While I think the words in this video were abhorent and am glad the the Greek military is conducting an investigation into it’s source. Pulling it simply because the government of an country which has commited many of it’s own abhorent acts threatens to censor your website is pathetic. Freedom of speech is far more important than people taking offense to what has been said.
Information is always power, always. If Turks don’t want to hear that some unit of the Greek military hates them then they do themselves a disservice. It is the people of Turkey talking to the people of Greece which will ultimately ease any tension between the two. Like an ostrich shoving it’s head in a hole so that it does not see the tiger about to attack it, Turkey can not hide from the hatred of Greeks Christians.
There has been alot of talk around cultural sensitivity with this issue. America can not impose its values of “openness” and “freedom” on other cultures. Anybody who knows me knows I am rarely at the defense of my own country. However there is something that all people in the world just need to get over. If your cultural values are such that they do damage to you and or others, your cultural values do not deserve respect, they deserve respite. Culture is a beautiful thing, unless it is self defeating. Keeping your people in the dark is self defeating and deserves contempt not only in Turkey, China, and North Korea, but also in the United States.
YouTube aka Google is the largest information broker on the planet and they are showing a disturbing willingness to bow down to some of the most brutal governments in the world simply to make a buck. Their explianation for this is page right out of Neo Conservative handbooks. “Open markets will produce open societies.? It’s nothing more than a sad attempt at justifying making a deal with the devil. Perhaps YouTube should say to Turkey, we will not let you access our site unless you repeal the law which calls for the jailing of any person who speaks ill of Turkey. If Turkey wants to censor information then it may do so, but it may not eat the fruits of the tree of knowledge.
The week is starting off well, I got all 3 sports in the last 3 days; biked 18 miles on Sunday, swam 1K on Monday, ran 3 miles today and to top it all off I feel pretty good. I was fried yesterday but bounced back alright today. I think I didn’t eat enough earlier in the day so by the time the swim was over there was nothing left in me but sleep. Not physical exhaustion just really sleepy and unmotivated. I’ve tried really hard in the last two swims to change my technique it seems to be helping, while I’m not really going any faster I’m not as tired with each set. Swimming is a difficult skill. Staying afloat isn’t so hard, moving forward at a reasonable pace without wearing yourself out is very hard. The change I’ve made is to glide less. Everything I read last year had me extending my body as much as possible. That combined with having taken forever to learn catch-up drills without actually sinking got me stuck in a mode where I’d extend my arm after entry and leave it there until my other hand was about to re-enter. Then instead of pulling back I’d push down leaving the arm at almost full extension until it was ready to leave the water again. Breaking this habit isn’t easy but I think it’ll be well worth it.