GlibFit 4.0 – Coronavirus Edition XIV: I’m Back Baby!

by | Jun 14, 2020 | Fitness, GlibFit | 191 comments

What a glorious day! Well, I don’t know about today because I wrote this on Friday. My gym reopened at 5 AM. I woke up at 4:34 AM (one minute before my alarm went off; you’re welcome wifey) and was at the gym at 4:59 AM. It’s been quite some time since I was that happy to be up that early.

Deadlifts started my workout. Good lord I was nervous. Do I remember proper form? Can I execute it? Did my at-home workouts keep me in any kind of shape to do this? Have I lost all my grip strength? The first one felt awkward, but I got through it. From there it was like riding a bike while intensely focusing so as not to screw up my back. I’m a little sore and loving it!

Pull ups were also part of the routine. As I described in a previous post, I’ve gotten much better, but I hate my bar at home. It’s too low because it is in a doorway. I started psyching myself out before I even touched the pullup bar. There were a dozen reasons the last three months of workouts were a fraud, I was weak, and this was completely different. That bullshit faded away the moment I grabbed the bar and got to it. I banged out sets of 7, 6, and 5. Turns out suboptimal conditions still produce good results if you go full Goggins.

I finished with two sets of the burpee pushup pyramid. Do a set of ten pushups, burpee, back down for nine pushups, and repeat doing one less each time. I’ve been doing pushups like no one’s business during lockdown but this one always kicked my ass. That hadn’t changed but I did much better than I remember. First set I went straight through to 5. I needed to take ten second breaks at 4 and 3 before finishing out the set. Second set I made it through 7.  I took ten second breaks at 6 and 5 before finishing out. The burpee pushup pyramids are not only hard on the chest, it tests your conditioning as well. All the sprinting and all the miles paid off.

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Pssst Tundra.  How about lending a brother a hand?

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*Elbows Ozymandias*

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Last week I thought Rhywun was going under the blade.  Turns out it was just some friendly ass play.  Still I love this song so here it is again.

About The Author

Chafed

Chafed

I'm looking California but feeling Minnesota

191 Comments

  1. Gustave Lytton

    Rest day?

    • Nephilium

      That’s an impressive formatting issue. 🙂

      I got ~20 miles in on the bike yesterday, the wind was brutal on the way out, 15-20 MPH. Today, it was in the upper 50’s/low 60’s and I went in to a spin class. Wanted to get a bagel and schmear at a local place afterwards, but they’re mandating masks for visitors. As it’s their property, I’ll obey their wishes and skip going there until that restriction goes away.

      • westernsloper

        I am going to use this formatting for my next article. Wind here has been ridiculous for about two weeks. I can’t leave the floats in the pool.

      • Chafed

        I saw your comment yesterday. I take it outdoor rides are back in season?

      • R C Dean

        “outdoor rides“

        *waggles eyebrows*

      • Nephilium

        R C Dean, you’re a bit late for that. Those start on the First of May (lyrics NSFW).

      • Nephilium

        They are. The weather has been cooperating the past couple of weeks. I’m also looking at using some of my vacation time to bike the GAP/C&O canal (Pittsburgh to Washington DC) in a couple months. Total of ~330 miles, planning on doing about 30-40 miles a day. On the plus side, it’s a vacation where I may wind up thinner at the end. On the negative side, I either need to get dropped off/picked up at either end or take Amtrak. I’ve got one rest day built into the tentative plans, and a couple of days to spend in DC.

      • Chafed

        Maybe you can time it to be in DC for Reverend Al’s March. That should be fun.

      • Nephilium

        Well, I’ll already have my own bike lock with me…

      • DEG

        It all depends on how you define the word “fun”.

    • Chafed

      I have no idea what’s going on. Article was submitted and clearly received. I don’t know why it isn’t showing up.

      • Spudalicious

        You at least achieved your goal of letting us know you’re back.

  2. SP

    No idea what’s going on. It is listed as published and all the content and formatting are correct in the dashboard. Will continue to investigate.

    • Chafed

      Feel free to turn this into an open post and publish it later today or next Sunday.

      • SP

        There seems to be something wrong with your screenshot images….. I’ll see if I can fix them.

    • westernsloper

      No idea what’s going on.

      Me either. And that is not only the site but the world in general.

  3. Animal

    Well, I’m convinced.

  4. Spudalicious

    My trainer won’t be going back to the gym he was at, so I’m stuck until he has his new setup. I’ve started doing body weight squats(three sets of 20 to start) and continuing to do core work. Anything to keep the body moving.

  5. Naptown Bill

    People keep asking Chafed if he’s back…

    • Chafed

      I’m just giving the people what they want.

    • Gustave Lytton

      It’s so empty without him.

    • Q Continuum

      I wanna know if he’s front!

    • Ted S.

      Chafed got back?

      • Tres Cool

        he got no back cause he always frontin’

    • Naptown Bill

      So, what’s the deal with women on Instagram who seem to have…I don’t know how to put this…a long ass? Like it looks sort of like they’re pear-shaped, but the wide part of the pear is like way low. I think they’re doing it on purpose, or at least they think it’s in demand and they’re trying to emphasize it.

      • Q Continuum

        Partially the style of clothes, partially retouching. I’ve got nothing against big asses but there are limits. Unlike big tits in which the limits may exist but humanity cannot measure it.

      • Not an Economist

        You can also work at making the ass bigger without making the rest of you big. Lot of squats, lunges, things like that will work the gluteus maximus.

      • Naptown Bill

        As long as you don’t look like a trim teenage girl smuggling two basketballs in her pants. Your ass should not double as a coffee table when you’re standing up.

      • Naptown Bill

        Yeah, there’s a theoretical upper limit there but for all practical purposes it doesn’t exist. You could probably prove it with some kind of weird math.

    • westernsloper

      29. Good work. Respect

    • DEG

      Excellent.

      Orgy.

  6. Naptown Bill

    And outside of the realm of John Wick references…

    Because of close quarters and kids underfoot I haven’t been doing any real lifting, but I have been incorporating the “Russian method” of training pull-ups and push-ups, which has been really easy since I work from home and go days without actually leaving my house. It’s nice, because I’m never actually worn out, but I keep my heart rate up pretty much all day which is helping the fat loss. Also, I’m up to two “strict” pull-ups as my baseline, which is the best I’ve ever done. I’m starting to have trouble finding things to prop my feet on for decline push-ups, which is in itself I think a good sign, too.

    My rule is I never do more than ten reps (of anything) I just try to make it such that the 10th rep is the last I can do well. So, at random throughout the day I’ll drop to the deck, put my feet on the back of my couch, and do ten push-ups: clapping, the kind where you pop your hands and feet up off the ground a bit, pausing in the middle, whatever variations cross my mind at the time. Same with pull-ups, although because I’m using a bar that hangs in a door frame I have to sort of bend my knees and cross my legs behind me to get a full drop: chin-ups, pull-ups, wide grip, narrow grip, etc.

  7. peachy rex

    Well, I liked it. Conceptually bold. Thought-provoking, in an understated way.

  8. juris imprudent

    Had a great horseback ride last week with a large group (wife’s fox-hunting club) and today with our barn-owners. I’ve been riding enough to notice some new muscle development on my inner thighs.

    • Q Continuum

      “wife’s fox-hunting club”

      Is this some kind of swingers meetup?

      • Spudalicious

        For the ladies.

      • Tres Cool

        “Clam Bake” is also an acceptable answer

      • juris imprudent

        No, the tally-ho kind: horses, hounds, etc.

  9. Q Continuum

    My gym finally reopened and the results are… disappointing.

    I’ve lost 20 pounds on my bench, can only do about 70% of the pullups and dips I could do before and lost about 50 pounds on legs (I use my gym’s Pit Shark https://www.roguefitness.com/pit-shark since my back precludes me from doing squats with a barbell). I’ve actually lost weight through the Kung Flu, muscle I’m sure. At least I can start working my way back up.

    • Nephilium

      I’m entertained that I’ve gone from around the middle of the pack in the spin classes to ranking in the top three for the rides since they opened back up. Today I got 3rd place, but looking at the average wattage of the two above me, I got fully smoked. I’m used to being top on that, I still was top of average RPM.

    • Chafed

      But you worked out during the shutdown. It’s annoying you lost some gains but it could have been worse. And now you are back at it.

  10. Mojeaux

    The best I can do right now is go up and down the stairs in my house several times a day.

    • Don Escaped any Landslide

      The best I can do right now is

      eat less. Not fun.

    • westernsloper

      Wut?

    • R C Dean

      Concur. Surprised to see Q flagging someone without, err , enormous tracts of land, though.

    • DEG

      Aussie.

      Would.

  11. l0b0t

    I’m getting motivated to lose my gut by watching all these absolute smoke-shows parade past my house as they head to the beach to surf. I LOVE summer in the Rockaways! Sippin’ a Bourbon drink and swingin’ in the hammock, after finishing all my yard work, is a good way to spend the afternoon.

    • Nephilium

      One of the reasons I enjoyed going to spin classes. Lots of fit young women in tight fitting clothes. As a middle aged man, I’m the rarity.

  12. egould310

    Ran a bunch, which feels great. My legs feel good and I am the stretching king.

    Food has been not so good. French fries a couple days. Pasta for dinner twice. Rice. But I’m not stressing.

    Up to my armpits in work. Got a raise, too. It was a good week.

  13. egould310

    Sorry about the divorce; that sucks. However, get your body in shape and take advantage of your freedom and smash some p.

  14. egould310

    For lobot @#14. Not sure why it posted here.

    • egould310

      Not sure why that posted here, either.

    • l0b0t

      Thanks. I’ve been keeping relatively numb through the judicious application of THC and alcohol, so the pain/shock is gradually fading to timid optimism. I tried the online services, but found it’s naught but camera whores sex workers and real-life whores sex workers. I just want to flee to NOLA and try to establish a pop-up (infused) catering concern.

      • UnCivilServant

        I don’t think you’ll see my response from the previous thread.

        But Scintilla Vitae is not about pre-existing characters, ‘Sebastian’ is an oblique reference.

      • Chafed

        What’s stopping you?

      • DEG

        I hope your plan to flee to NOLA is successful.

        Online dating is a wasteland. I’m not sure why I still bother with it.

  15. Gustave Lytton

    Local rag is running with the systemic racism undergirds everything. Manifest destiny is a racist vision. Only a matter of time of this eat everything that someone will stumble upon the racist origins of gun control. Need more popcorn.

      • Drake

        Uh uh, Robin – tell ’em I was joking!

      • Chafed

        He has taken a turn to the left. I wonder how he is going to try to wiggle out of it.

      • juris imprudent

        He joined the church, he gets to face the judgement.

      • Tres Cool

        Yup. Like I said, he’s been too annoying to me for too long. I have Sirius and I dont even listen. And I believe he pulled the “Ive evolved” bullshit to defend his lefty-ness.

      • Nephilium

        Netflix UK pulled an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia because they wear blackface in the episode. Most of the jokes were about how terrible blackface generally is (except for James Earl Jones, he did it classy).

  16. Gender Traitor

    Got a couple more lap swimming sessions in at my reopened Y this past week, but while they’re still allowing you to reserve a lane, they’re making folks double up and share a lane. It’s forcing me to adapt the arm technique I use from that of an “elementary backstroke” to that of a proper backstroke with the more windmill-like arm motion. I was afraid that would cause me problems with my one wonky shoulder (hyperextended many years ago and prone to making crunchy noises when rotated certain ways,) but so far so good. IANAPT, but I’m hoping maybe it’ll actually be good for the bum shoulder.

    In other related good news, the Y also reopened the showers this past week, so I don’t have to cram my head into a sink to rinse my hair. It’s the little things…

    Weight still isn’t budging, but I’ll keep trying to focus on how my body looks instead of on the scale number.

    • Nephilium

      Can’t change in the spin studio yet. Which limits the options for food afterwards, and means that I’m wearing workout clothes instead of bike shorts.

    • Tres Cool

      If you need a fresh set of eyes for an appraisal……

      • Gender Traitor

        Nah – you’ll say I’m too skinny and tempt me with chocolate. ; )

      • Tres Cool

        Or Donato’s.

      • egould310

        ?

  17. Drake

    Still fucking closed in NJ thanks to my governor worry about my “health” – potato headed fuck.

    I’ve been hiking a lot, doing pushups and curls, but I know I’ll be way down on every lift – if and when the gyms reopen. Assuming he didn’t go bankrupt.

    • Chafed

      Murphy makes Cuomo look good.

  18. westernsloper

    Charcoal grilled chicken thighs marinated over night in Guajillo chilis, green chilis, onion, garlic, vinegar and lime for lunch. Also planned for dinner in taco form. I need a nap and absorb some Vitamin D before dinner though.

  19. DEG

    My gym reopened at 5 AM.

    Mine reopens tomorrow. I think at 6 AM. Hours are reduced. You have to wear a mask to enter and exit the facility. I think they are pointing to the Clown Prince’s orders because the Nashua mask ordinance requires a mask at all times when indoors at a business. I would not be surprised if there are a few Nashua cops working out there. They will probably provide “professional courtesy.”

    Personal training resumes on June 22nd.

    This week I plan to continue working out at home plus head into the gym on a few days for some conditioning/aerobic work that is easier to do at the gym.

    I hate my bar at home. It’s too low because it is in a doorway.

    I hate mine too. It’s not very stable and I heard the door frame crack. Oops.

    It sounds like your return to your gym went well.

    I’ve started wearing smaller clothes. If I can keep from going nuts as the bars and restaurants reopen for indoor dining this week (with restrictions thanks to the Clown Prince), I expect to continue to drop weight.

    Disc herniation pain has been minimal. I have only one physical therapy appointment scheduled this week, but return to two appointments per week next week.

    I have continued to procrastinate on making an appointment for another set of cortisone shots. The trainer I worked with at the gym is wondering if as I become more active with the gym opening, if I end up not needing it. We’ll see.

    Music links are OK.

    OT: Ace Speedway in North Carolina has reopened and held races in defiance of the Gauleiter’s orders. They have a GoFundMe to cover legal fees. I contacted the racetrack. This is the correct GoFundMe.

    • Chafed

      Glad to hear you are having less pain. It would be great if your weight loss and increased activity allows you to skip more shots.

      • DEG

        Thanks.

        I’m again strangely hopeful.

        I know I shouldn’t be. I’ve had my hopes dashed before. But I’m strangely hopeful.

      • Spudalicious

        There is nothing better for you situation than weight loss and conditioning. Make sure you carefully stretch before and after too.

      • DEG

        Am working on it.

      • Spudalicious

        That’s all you can do! Keep on keepin’ on.

  20. slumbrew

    Wife rented a spin bike for our (750 sq. ft.) condo for the pandemic, so I’ve been alternating ~ 35 mins/day on that & on my rowing machine that I’ve wasn’t using enough. Usually 1 day off a week. The bike is a nice option, since my elbow can’t really handle the rowing machine every day (minor tears years ago).

    I had initially put on about 5 lbs before I started that, and I’m about 10 lbs. down from that high. Which is good. Cardio is much improved.

    My BP is a solid 10 points high (130/80) – I’m not sure if that’s general stress, not enough sleep or too much drinkin’. Attempting to change all 3 of those.

    Thinking I should swap a couple of the cardio days for something with the dumbbells I have.

    • Nephilium

      I’ve got a recumbent stationary in the workout room, and a trainer that I can hook my real bike up to. It’s just so tedious to ride versus road rides. Spin class at least has the competition aspect and stats to work on.

      • Chafed

        And hot 20 somethings. Don’t omit the best part.

      • slumbrew

        I’m not trying to kill it at this stage, so just grinding through Agents of SHIELD episodes while getting my sweat on. Better than just riding the couch.

      • Nephilium

        Even throwing on TV/movies/music doesn’t help me. It just feels like a grind. Getting into the saddle and feeling the wind in my face feels like fun and freedom. And spin classes do have the hot 20 somethings as Chafed mentioned. But I’m old and fat enough that I think I’m in the “safe and harmless” category.

        It’s still nice to talk to strangers, and different trainers do run different classes.

        /makes a point to get back to my favorite trainer who would call me out by name.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Trainers suck. The only way I can tolerate them is if I turn the music up to F-18 Hornet takeoff level.

      • Nephilium

        Nah. This one is a cute brunette who said there was no limit to the max RPM. I corrected her by pointing out that the app/website caps out at 149 RPM. Her response was, “Why are you hitting that? Give me more gear!”

        It also helps that she does a Pop goes Punk spin class on a semi-regular basis.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I wasn’t referring to the cute ones with boobs. They’re great, if frustrating. I meant stationary training bikes.

      • Nephilium

        My apologies for not understanding. I did the trainer during a winter to try to keep up my conditioning for road riding. I had better results in the spin classes.

        It helps that there’s attractive girls at the classes. I couldn’t really attract them down into my basement for rides…

      • egould310

        Agents of SHIELD was pretty good. Binge watching The Flash right now. Thumbs up.

      • Nephilium

        The Flash has issues in the later seasons.

        Legends of Tomorrow (after season 1) is my favorite of the DC/CW shows.

      • egould310

        We’re still in season one. The Flash already has issues. But my wife likes it, so…. that’s what we’re watching.

      • Nephilium

        Legends of Tomorrow runs with the insanity involved in time travel and is great fun. I recommend trying to sell her on the second season of it.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I took a ride today for the first time in two years. The neuropathy has kept me away from it, but I think I’ve got it under control now.

        I’ve definitely got jelly legs. It’s going to be a while before I’m competent again.

  21. Not an Economist

    OFFS.

    Apparently this guy is a “libertarian” and may have connections to the Boogaloo movement. And he wasn’t wearing a mask. That was important to mention.

    • Chafed

      Of course the connection between his supposed political leanings and his violence is left unexplained.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Expect more of that as the Overton Window shifts even further left.

    • DEG

      And he wasn’t wearing a mask.

      That’s worse than one moving violation!

    • Q Continuum

      “may have been pushed over the edge following police use of force during protests over the death of George Floyd”

      His motives may be pure, but he is not a Party member and is guilty of Thoughtcrime.

      Death is the only remedy.

    • Gustave Lytton

      On Saturday, someone called 911 to report a suspicious white van in Boulder Creek, saying guns and bomb-making devices were inside.

      Bet he was the one that made the call.

  22. Derpetologist

    One gym reopened here at Camp Swampy today. Mask required, 30 minute limit on cardio, and 60 minute limit total. Not very helpful for moi as my weight loss/maintenance strategy revolves around walking for hours on a treadmill while reading.

    I suppose if I could fix the problem on the intake end, I would not need to pt so much. The struggle is real. I’ve been doing 2 minute laps to get my run time back to something acceptable. Regardless, I’m not worried. Whatever I have to do to fix myself will be a lot easier than what I had to do to get where I am now.

    Today I learned that I’ve been looking at the wrong horoscope. Turns out I’m a Capricorn, not an Aquarius. My life may never be the same again. I think astrology is bull, but it is known that Capricorns are prone to skepticism.

    I wonder if current events will force this classic Chris Rock bit down the memory hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj0mtxXEGE8

    • Spudalicious

      Capricorn? Poor bastard.

      • Derpetologist

        I’ll stick with the Chinese zodiac, in which I’m an Ox – patient, hardworking, strong, quiet, reliable, dependable

      • Spudalicious

        Look at the cultural appropriation over here.

      • Derpetologist

        Eh, all the US military logos with skulls are cultural appropriation from pirates. I’m surprised Somalia hasn’t sued yet.

      • juris imprudent

        Hold on – piracy has a long and proud, multi-cultural, multi-ethnic history. Those late-comers don’t get a special claim.

      • Derpetologist

        Yarrrr, your words be true, landlubber, says I.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27mB8verLK8

        [lights pipe, unsheathes cutlass, cocks pistol, feeds cracker to shoulder parrot]

        Avast, mateys! Hoist the Jolly Roger!

        Many moons ago, I was in Cub Scouts and we had a lesson about pirates, because why not? It involved a treasure hunt for plastic checkers wrapped in aluminum foil to make them look like silver coins.

      • Ted S.

        There’s a reason “dumb as an ox” is a phrase…. :-p

      • Derpetologist

        [points at head] The sum of the square roots of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side!

        Now gimme my diploma.

    • BakedPenguin

      this classic Chris Rock bit

      It’s been a while since I’d seen that. Hilarious.

    • Don Escaped any Landslide

      anyone could have told you that you weren’t Aquarius

      / non- believer

  23. Ownbestenemy

    Tiok the one 15 year old out shooting with his hrandpa. Winchester 94ae 357, Ruger Blackwhawk and a 911.

    That was a fun morning.

    • Derpetologist

      I like to call it hunting paper or turning money into noise.

      • LJW

        Bang bucks

      • Derpetologist

        In Eh-myeh-ree-kah, you say more bang for buck. In Soviet Russia, we say more rubble for ruble.

      • Spudalicious

        Pew pew pennies.

      • egould310

        Bucks shot.

      • Derpetologist

        ^winner!

        promote this man!

      • Incentives Matter

        Turning semolians into smoke.

      • Naptown Bill

        turning money into noise

        If that isn’t on a tee shirt it oughta be.

      • LJW

        Classic, too bad that show went south it was great for the first two seasons.

  24. Drake

    I finally saw video of the Atlanta shooting on the news. That guy didn’t just grab the teaser gun, he took a shot with it and missed while he was running. Of course the cops shot back

    • Drake

      Taser not teaser.

    • blackjack

      It’s a rare shooting that i’d call good. That was a badass dude, though. He beat up two cops, stole their taser and shot it at them. Impressive, but still, pretty good justification for getting shot. Can’t believe the mayor pronounced the cop guilty on this one. Anything to appease the mob, I guess.

      • Q Continuum

        I’m a little confused why he started fighting them in the first place. There is more to this story, I’m sure of it. Police were called because he was sleeping in his car? Then he goes ape shit and kicks two cops’ asses? Something just doesn’t add up.

      • Gustave Lytton

        Sleeping is probably passed out.

      • blackjack

        He was a solid dui case. When they started handcuffing him, he flipped a switch and beat up two cops. His biggest mistake ( among many) was taking the taser and firing it at the cops. Absent that, I likely would not OK the shooting. You fire an incapacitating weapon at a cop with a gun, he’s going to shoot you. He should’a just accepted the dui. The whole thing is shown on like four different cams on youtube.

      • Derpetologist

        My wild ass guess – he had warrants or maybe delinquent child support. Walter Scott ran and got shot over missed child support payments.

        The divorce rate would plummet if alimony and child support were abolished. Which I think is reasonable now that abortion is legal and women are free to work almost any job.

  25. Derpetologist

    I have to say, the bait car tactic is smart policing.

    They caught 3 pairs of wannabe Bonnie and Clydes in a couple of days. Skip to the 8 min mark to see them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej4r09joZfo

    The guy who was getting bossed around by his gal the whole time made me laugh. You’d think a car thief would be more assertive.

    • Nephilium

      Nope. I’d put bait cars into the entrapment bucket.

      • Derpetologist

        Even if you caught people who had committed other crimes?

      • Nephilium

        Yes. Setting up things to catch people is wrong. Why can’t they catch those people for the other crimes they’ve committed?

      • Derpetologist

        Because that is hard. Criminals run, destroy evidence, intimidate witnesses, and try not to get caught. It’s pretty hard to catch people red-handed. Fishing is entrapment but I’ve never met anyone who thinks it’s wrong. Of course, people are not fish.

        It is a crime to steal a car, even if it is a bait car. I’ll say this much- bait cars bother me a lot less than drug or prostitution stings.

      • Nephilium

        To me bait cars are right about the same level as the drug or prostitution stings. Every bait car arrest is one where officers could have actually tracked down a real theft. I’m not heavily committed to it, but the way the cops dealt with me when I suffered a smash and gram really soured me on them.

      • Sean

        Having had my car stolen, I’m biased here. Fuck car thieves.

        I didn’t get screwed as bad as blackjack, but I still got screwed.

      • Nephilium

        Sean, I’m on your side. The cops should be running down leads on those stealing cars. Most bait cars sit there unlocked with the keys in the ignition. You’re not getting the real thieves, you’re just getting people who made dumb ass decisions. If you’re going to make them actually hot wire the car to steal it, I’d agree more with the bait cars.

      • Derpetologist

        Fair enough. But suppose the cops had caught the guys that robbed you via a bait car. What would you think then?

        There’s a lot of crime, cops are lazy/overworked, they under a lot of pressure to catch crooks, etc.

        I’ve been pulled over half a dozen times, had cops ask me for id, etc. I’ve been driving for 20 years and have 3 speeding tickets. And most people would say I’m straight as an arrow.

        There’s a great book called You Can’t Win . One of the themes is the contempt criminals and law-abiding citizens have for each other.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Can%27t_Win_(book)

      • Sean

        Ironically, the cops did catch the guy who stole my car and prosecuted him. My car was in pieces at the impound lot and Philly required me to insure and register an undrivable car in order to have it flatbedded out. I wrote it off as a loss. ?

      • Nephilium

        Honestly,I wouldn’t be happy about it. The dicks who shattered my window in November and stole a book of CD’s that they (probably) didn’t recognize, already did the damage.

        The fact the cops wouldn’t even follow up at the local second hand stores to try to find the CD’s tells me that their priorities are different then mine. Time has made me lean much heavier to the restitution method of criminal justice more than any other.

      • Derpetologist

        “You’re not getting the real thieves, you’re just getting people who made dumb ass decisions.”

        I’d say “people who make dumb-ass decisions” is a pretty good definition for criminals.

        Most criminals are dumb and impulsive. Otherwise, they’d be making more money some honest way.

        Read up on criminals and ask yourself: how many of these guys have an IQ over 100? How many of them would last a week at a 9 to 5 job?

      • Nephilium

        Derpetologist: You could also say people making dumb ass decisions at time are teenagers. I’m aware that most violent criminals have both lower IQ and poor impulse control. Does it make it better if some random kid gets tried as an adult because they found an unlocked bait car?

      • Derpetologist

        @ Nephilium

        On the one hand bait cars, as you say, mainly catch the young and dumb. On the other hand, perhaps the experience of being arrested for stealing a bait car would teach those young and dumb folks to change their ways before they get into real trouble.

        Either you risk letting the guilty go free out of leniency or you risk people becoming hardened criminals through light punishment.

        Some judge said mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. I’d say that’s about 90% true.

        On a lighter note, the fact that protests and riots happen in the US from time to time is proof that the govt is not tyrannical. In places where the govt is too powerful, people are afraid to protest because it is a death sentence.

      • DEG

        But suppose the cops had caught the guys that robbed you via a bait car. What would you think then?

        Utilitarianism is bullshit.

      • Derpetologist

        The greatest good for the greatest number is bullshit? It can go wrong, sure, but it’s basically the way every society operates. Throw in a sprinkling of individual/minority rights and that’s about as good as any society will get.

        From time to time, I ask people to describe their ideal societies. Sometimes their answers are interesting. So that is the question I pose to you and anyone else who wants to answer.

        My answer in brief – no income tax, balanced budget, gold standard, no alliances, no war on drugs, no laws against victimless crimes, no gun laws, no foreign military bases, term limits, loser-pays rule for non-criminal court cases.

      • Nephilium

        Derpetologist: My ideal society? All taxes are consumption based, no victimless crimes, restitution based criminal justice system, and restrictions on where our military can be active (only locations where there is a declared war).

      • DEG

        The greatest good for the greatest number is bullshit?

        Yes. Who decides?

        it’s basically the way every society operates.

        Irrelevant.

        Self-ownership should be the basis of society.

      • Naptown Bill

        My ideal society? A stateless panarchy. Something close to Diamond Age, but not quite as Neal Stephenson-y.

      • Derpetologist

        @Naptown Bill

        Ah, I see you are interested in joining the First Distributed Republic. Stand by for instructions.

        I guess we can add bait cars to the list of intractable libertarian issues, along with pineapple pizza, abortion, circumcision, and all the other stuff I can’t remember.

        I say again – Let’s all move to Wyoming and form a gypsy caravan. Don’t worry, we’ll head to Vegas or Phoenix in the winter. Cook food, tell fortunes, fix guns, do magic tricks – we all know how to do that. We’d all be a lot happier, I tell you.

      • Suthenboy

        I don’t put my hands on other people or property that is not mine.

        Amazingly I have never been caught up in a bait car sting.

      • juris imprudent

        Except the usual entrapment is a victimless crime (drugs, sex). Catching a thief being a thief?

      • Naptown Bill

        Yeah, I don’t have a problem with this. Entrapment is when government agents inspire someone to commit a crime they wouldn’t normally commit. An undercover cop at a hotel bar during a convention pressuring a drunk, morose salesman in the middle of a messy divorce to give her a hundo in exchange for a hummer is probably entrapment. These FBI agents who spend months on message boards working some dopey teenager with self-esteem issues to get him to agree to build a pipe bomb using the handy instructions they’ve thoughtfully provided are engaged in entrapment. If a cop parks a car with a camera in it and leaves, and that car happens to be stolen by car thieves, there’s no entrapment. Even if the car is unlocked or has a laptop on the passenger seat. Saying that is entrapment relies on the same argument that police make when they say, “Well, ma’am, leaving your purse visible from the outside of the car is basically encouraging someone to steal it.” Sure, but that doesn’t make the theft stop being theft.

      • Derpetologist

        “If she didn’t want to get raped, she should’ve worn something different.”

        This is what opponents of bait cars sound like to me.

        Well, at least that’s what they sound like to me when I’ve a few. Perhaps a few too many.

      • cyto

        I’m on this side of this argument.

        Prostitution stings are wrong because prostitution laws are wrong. Same goes for drug buy stings. But entrapment is more like the example of the FBI creating a terrorist out of a disaffected teen online. I love the example of the fake prostitute talking a morose and tipsy businessman at the hotel bar into an exchange. Taking advantage of people to fill a quota is evil.

        Parking a car in a parking lot is normal activity that applies to every car in existence. Not entrapment in my book.

  26. Derpetologist

    My understanding is that no-knock raids came to be to prevent suspects from escaping or destroying evidence (like that scene in Goodfellas where Tony Soprano’s future shrink tries to flush the drugs down the toilet).

    Of course, there would be no need for such things if the war on politically incorrect chemicals ended. If nose candy was good enough for the Brahmin of Baker Street, it should be fine for everybody, damn it.

    Forgotten police brutality(?) – the guy who got killed for flashing his lights at a cop and arguing about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKC187MVICk

    My take – kid was an asshole and deserved a wood shampoo at max, not a bullet.

    • LJW

      I need to look into all the numbers, but something like 21% of arrests are drug related. Add in all the other victimless crimes and I’m sure that number creeps up to 30%. Eliminate that and the number of police interactions go down thus lowering the risk of a police shooting. Cut out vehicle ticketing and it goes down even more.

    • Naptown Bill

      According to the Balko book, the first DC police chief after Congress passed Nixon’s crime bill that made no-knock raids the law in DC refused to use them. His rationale was that they put citizens and police in needless danger, they’re bad imagery, and if the point is to get drugs off the street then who cares if they’re flushed down the toilet? He believed no-knock raids existed so that local departments could boost their conviction numbers, not so they could make people safer or even reduce drug use. I think he was right.

  27. Derpetologist

    One more cop thing

    Many police are shown a video like this in training: Officer Dinkheller shooting

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsrC5QV_Yrc

    Also on liveleak maybe – warning, graphic

    gist – Cop pulls a guy over, guy gets aggressive, pulls out a gun. There’s a short shootout and the cop dies. Guy is later arrested. He was a Vietnam vet, and probably had been in a few firefights.

    Many cops get killed with their own weapons. It’s the reason why most jail guards don’t carry any except the ones up in a guard tower. If you go into a police interrogation room, the cop will take off his gun outside so you can’t steal it from him.

    • Ted S.

      So a civilian-involved shooting.

  28. AlmightyJB

    Nationwide Blue Flu coming?

  29. Ted S.

    Got three walks in with the dog this weekend (Friday after dinner, Saturday afternoon, and 90 minutes this morning), and only saw one group of bikers.

  30. AlmightyJB

    Guess they should have let him sleep it off.

    • Drake

      If he parked somewhere besides the drive-thru lane, nobody would have cared.

    • creech

      Like where, his driveway? Wasn’t there a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court concerning a guy charged with drunk driving who was sleeping in his own car in his own driveway? As I recall, SCOTUS upheld the cops on that one – your car in your driveway doesn’t have the same warrant protection as your house.

  31. Tundra

    Hiya Chafed!

    You’re back, dude! The hotties will be drooling again in no time!

    I got back to the gym this week, too! Ours opened Wednesday. I rolled in at my normal post-lunch time and saw a dozen of the regulars. Man, was everyone happy to be there.

    I took it easy and tried to get a feel for where my dead and bench were on Wednesday, squat and press on Friday. I somehow fucked up my elbow a couple weeks ago, so that will be a challenge on the upper body stuff until the tendons settle down. Don’t care – I’m just happy to be lifting! Like you, I was sore but it is a great feeling!

    Another good week. Only lost a couple pounds, but my program is going well. Today I walked 10 miles and just got back from an hour of rollerblading. I’m done.

    How about lending a brother a hand?

    Homework?!?

    Sure, of course I will. Shoot me an email at minnetundra AT geefail and I’ll get a list of good stuff together.

    As always, thanks a lot for doing these. It helps keep me accountable – I don’t want to get to Sunday with nothing to show for it!

    • Nephilium

      It’s a great thing to me to see how happy people are to see outsiders. There was a girl in a class that I rode near back in the before times. She remembered me, made it a point to say hello, and make a couple jokes about how we would not survive the instructors instructions. Just chatting with random new people is wonderful.

      • Chafed

        Amen. When I walked in the gym, I couldn’t help but tell the two women checking everyone in how happy I was to see them.

  32. Drake

    Statue of man who never owned a slave and probably never laid eyes on an African, vandalized because he was racist.

      • Suthenboy

        BLM has nothing to do with racism.

      • Drake

        Black Leninist Marxists

      • Rufus the Monocled

        When all this madness passes and these losers recede back into the caves of misery where they live, those statues should be put right back up.

        Just like how NYC put the towers back up as a big fuck you.

    • straffinrun

      I’m disgusted by how many statues are dressed up in blackface.

      • Tres Cool

        …even in Japan

      • straffinrun

        Oxidation is racist.

      • Tres Cool

        that comment is too IRONic.

    • juris imprudent

      They vandalized the statue of an abolitionist in Philly. Fucking morons be moronic.

    • Naptown Bill

      Robert the Bruce never had the opportunity to be racist, since Scotland was a monoethnic region at the time–unless you count the sassenach bastards to the south, or of course the vile Welsh *ptooi!*–but if he HAD seen a black person, he might have been racist, so, just to be on the safe side, better tear his statue down. After all, it’s not like the modern-day Scots have any relation to the people who fought and died to preserve their national pride and freedom.

  33. Derpetologist

    Black parents talk to their kids about the police – I’d call it borderline child abuse.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coryt8IZ-DE

    gist – cops are bad and hate black people for no reason at all; hate and fear them

    • Rufus the Monocled

      Fuck BLM with a thousand rusty pikes. It’s a poisonous groups negatively impacting countries like Canada and the UK.

      Evil motherfuckers of mayhem. There should be a push back.

      I never cared much fo statues but the fact ignorant, illiberal nihilists are taking them down is enough for me to defend them. The sad part?

      They’ve taken down statues in the south that were allowed as part of Lincoln’s reconciliation. In the UK, Churchill was attacked. A man, despite his imperfections but a wit unmatched for a sot, who saved England from the showers of the German Blitzkrieg. What the fuck did BLM ever do for blacks or nation? Degenerate Marxists scammers.

      They’re directing their anger in the wrong places. First should be the community and its kids out of wedlock epidemic. Then it it’s the shyster pimps like Sharpton and Jackson who profit off their misery. And finally the Democrat leadership plantation that has done sweet fuck all for blacks. The cops have to deal with this cultural and political failure. Easy scapegoats.

      I could be wrong.

    • Plinker762

      “I don’t beat you because I hate you, I do it because it is my job.” A punch line I never forgot.

    • Tres Cool

      I dont even know what to say. My skeptical side says it seems to scripted…but I want to believe that happened

    • Derpetologist

      a classic

      Don’t Talk to the Police

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

      I’m biased. I have close relative who has been a cop in a big city. I applied to be a cop in a big city and was invited to sit for the exam. I didn’t because I got another job offer.

      Believe me, no one hates police abuse more than me. No one hates dumb laws more than me. No one wishes for a minimal, night watch govt more than me. What can be done? I know what I’d do, but I don’t expect big changes to happen.

      • Suthenboy

        Yeah, I am not sure I see the point of that exercise. It is a police station. The cars there are public property. Why take photos? Just go to city hall and get the inventory list.
        Why provoke some guy who is probably just doing his job. I have to agree with the cop, it was ridiculous.

  34. Rufus the Monocled

    I rode 16 miles and ran 4 miles today. Kept it light.