DEFUND INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING
I woke up this morning watching Harvard University getting hammered by the media, by parents of its students, by extremely wealthy benefactors, and by the public in general. It has taken an anti-Semite stance on the October 2023 war in Israel. And now it is going to pay. Or rather, it is not going to get paid – via benefactors who are pulling all of their funding.
So I got excited about trying to coin a new phrase – defund schools. But, I’m not the first. It is actually a small but growing political movement.
What??? Aren’t children our future? Aren’t we in need of a stronger educational system? Aren’t we in need of stronger systems of higher education?
Yea. Yea we are. But, that’s not what were getting.
What we’re getting is elementary level education systems that pound children with Marxist ideology of equity and inclusion; sexualization; mono-systemic (probably not a word) collective morals and socialist values. All at the expense of real education. Just look at some of the social media videos showing interviewers asking random young adults random things like: who won the Civil War; what time zone are we in; how many states are there in the United States; what countries border the United States; etc etc. While at first the videos are funny and you shake your head at the public’s stupidity, you then panic realizing these idiots ARE OUR FUTURE. Our kids aren’t learning math skills, reading skills, real history, science, and most importantly critical thinking skills.
Just watch any of the news programs showing American college kids protesting in support of Hamas terrorists. That’s right, outright support and encouragement for militants how gunned down unarmed civilians, burned elderly people, and beheaded infants. Listen to their justifications for the Hamas terrorists to do those things. It is appalling. It is not appalling that they support the terrorists, it is appalling they don’t even know why. They simply listen to the person with the biggest megaphone without doing their research and jump in to dance around and shout at the top of their lungs in a state of constant victimization.
Perhaps the first thing that just popped into your head is, “And, that’s were my tax dollars are going”.
Poor education school systems are always within political districts run by Liberals, mostly those being Democrats. They have extremely high per student cost yet rank and the bottom in all testing. Parents of students who are victims of rabidly liberal teacher unions and school boards are powerless to do anything. They can’t afford to take their kids out of those schools and put them in private schools. They might not be allowed to move their kids into other districts – this is exemplified by the New York system where you MUST go to the public schools within the hamlet you live in. If you live in Brentwood, your kids go to the Brentwood Union Free School District. If you live in East Islip, your kids go to East Islip schools. The only way out is to be financially secure enough to take your kids to private schools like many wealthy parents do in Manhattan and far out east in the Hamptons.
There is an answer for poor parents. Vouchers. Now I’m not going to claim to be an expert on the voucher system but I get the impression a “cost per student” is assigned to your child and you can then pull your child from the failing public school system you reside in and you get a voucher to put them in a charter school, or private school, or Catholic school, or some other religious school. I imagine if the voucher is for $15,000 and the school cost $16,000 a year, you have to come up with the additional $1,000. But, like I said, I really don’t have a clue how it actually works.
There is an answer for more wealthier parents too. Pull your kids from the public school system and do the same. Put them in a charter school, or private school, or Catholic school, or some other religious school.
How does that “defund” the educational system? The Federal Government and almost all State Governments pay schools per student based on attendance. That’s why schools sometimes add an extra day or two to the school year after a heavy snow season that closed the schools. They need that attendance day. So if you pull your kid from Joe Blow Elementary School and put him or her in It’s Better Here Charter School, the district loses that amount of funding from the feds and from the local education department.
Let’s get back to colleges and universities. Today, our higher education institutions are flush with radically aggressive extremism vilifying Unites States history, its culture, and society in general. Not to mention its all out war on white males under the guise of “diversity” and “inclusion” and “equity”. Instead of our young adults learning the educational skills needed to advance math, science, reading, the arts, etc, there are gender studies, feminist studies (laughable considering they support men alleging themselves to be women), gay and queer studies, various ethnic and race studies. All of which are heavily Socialist and Marxist in nature and absolutely devoid of having any use in their employment future.
But how? How do we “defund”? Well, stop donating to these places. Encourage all of your friends to cut off their donations as well. Don’t send your kids to those schools. And then get organized. Hit up your local legislators because they hold the tax dollar purse strings to public institutions. They can even remove the tax free status of private university endowment funds.
It gets as simple as this: if you would rather live in a society with civil morals and values, that has peace and order, a society EQUAL before the law (not laws of equity), freedom of speech and expression, free market economics (think Adam Smith and Milton Freedman), real science, real math, real history, then you MUST figure out a way to defund institutions that are trying to destroy those very same things.
GUESS WHERE ALL THOSE REFUGEES ARE GOING (AUDIO VERSION)
GUESS WHERE ALL THOSE REFUGEES WILL BE GOING
As of this writing about 1.5 million civilians are trying to find a way out of Gaza. I have seen partial interviews on the various news outlets regarding the border crossings in Gaza. The liberal spin is that Israel has completely surrounded and cut off Gaza from the rest of the world. They have trapped millions and are bombing them to a level of extermination. They, the liberal spinsters, relay on your ignorance to propagate their hated of Jews. Let’s put a stop to that.
Apparently, there are three actual border crossings out of Gaza. 1 is for cargo and supplies only going from Israel into Gaza. 1 is for Palestinians with employment permits to go back and forth through the border to work. The last one is the border crossing with Egypt.
Egypt is technically south of Gaza and Israel. It is 7.45 miles (12 kilometer) long. It is referred to as the Rafah Border Crossing. This border was established as an international border after the 1979 Egypt / Israel peace treaty. This border is only for the movement of people. As mentioned above goods and cargo must go through the Kerem Shalom border between Israel and Gaza. I am going to guess this is so Israel can make sure no terrorist related materials make it into Gaza.
In 2009 Egypt, with help from the United States (which in and of itself is laughable considering the United States has funded and helped erect several “walls” throughout the world but refuses to protect its own citizens in a likewise fashion) built a steel wall along the border. Since then and until now the Egyptians have widened the buffer zone in the crossing area because of the murders of 31 Egyptian soldiers by Hamas. Where were the protests then? Water filled trenches were also created. And smuggling tunnels were flooded with water from the Mediterranean Sea. Where are all the protests?
Time and time again, Egypt has demolished homes, resettled Palestinians, widened the buffer between themselves and Gaza and locked down the border. Where were all the protests then? Considering both are Muslim nations and adversaries of Israel, one has to wonder what that is all about. The answer is that Egypt has fallen victim to numerous militant attacks coming out of Gaza. It has gotten so bad that even the Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President at the time, voiced support for the border well. He admitted, “It is Egypt’s sovereign right”. Where are all the protests?
As of today Egypt continues to plan against a mass exodus from Gaza. Egypt is asking Israel to allow civilians to cross into Israel instead. Are they for real? By the way, where are the protests to that position?
So, what is Egypt’s problem? Well, there are several:
- They have been victims of Hamas militant attacks too. (Where are the protests condemning Hamas attackes on fellow Muslims?) Sounds familiar.
- They are unable to house and feed so many people. Sounds familiar.
- They have security concerns militants will sneak across the border disguised as civilians seeking the safety of a border crossing. Sounds familiar.
- They don’t have the infrastructure in Sinai to support this mass immigration. Sounds familiar.
Egypt finally states it will allow humanitarian aid to go INTO Gaza but no one will be allowed out. And, guess who is being asked to fund that humanitarian aid? You got it, you, the American Tax Payer. And, guess what the next ask is going to be – oh, can’t you take some of these Palestinian refugees off our hands? That’s right, the good ol’ US of A, the ones the Palestinians are trying to wipe off the face of the earth with all the other infidels.
Well, maybe we should do what all the liberal politicians, irrelevant – super wealthy celebrities, and left wing Marxist college students ask – adopt a family. Not that they are going to do it. They just was you to do it. So, prepare your answer, because the Gaza Refugees are on their way.
U.S. BORDER CRISES AND THE HAMAS ATTACK ON ISREAL
What is a border? For the sake of this argument, let’s call it a division between countries. That division can be arbitrary and imaginary (hey, you take everything between that tree over there west to that rock on the north side and I’ll take everything south) – some “line” drawn on a map or piece of paper. Or, it can be real like a river. Or, a wall.
Why are borders important? They establish sovereignty. I’ll do what I want over here and you can’t have a say in it. And, you can do what you want over there and I can’t have a say either. Borders recognize a “power”. That is, my leader is a king and we love our king. But, your country has a selfish, cruel dictator and maybe you love your guy too. Over the course of human history borders have fostered peace between countries, economic prosperity, and lawful order.
Why is it important to protect our / your border? Every country its own specific national character. Protecting your border keeps your country from being over run and overwhelmed by outsiders – whether you like those outsiders or not, whether you need those outsiders or not. Each country has its own cultural and ethnic differences. That composition is protected by ensuring migration over your border does not occur.
Perhaps the most critically important need to protect the border is property rights. A mindset that goes back to the Magna Carter and fully examined in 1775 / 1776 by The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. On a national level, your tax dollars and perhaps your actual sweat went into building the infrastructure, buildings, roads, etc. What gives any outsider the right to benefit from your input? Not to mention the fact that your house, your house, the one you fix, maintain, pay for, insure, live in is yours and no one should be able to come inside without your invitation and permission (including the INSANE squatting rights granted in California – if someone moves into your house while your on vacation, you’re out of a house, period).
There is a huge political argument that a border, our border anyway, reflects democracy, a condition made by social trust and likemindedness or solidarity. That democracy will certainly be undermined by mass migration by peoples of no understanding of these norms nor MORAL COMMITTMENT TO MAINTAIN THEM.
Perhaps the idea or philosophy behind a border is as simple as this: as Charlie Kirk says, “A border is a place where bad ideas end and good ideas start.” Think, North Korea and South Korea; Russia and Norway; India and China.
On September 11th, 2001, terrorists coming into the United States on work and educational visas committed the worst attack on American civilians and property in United States history. They were here legally and, as such, there was no illegal or warlike border crossing.
On or about October 8th Hamas, a political terrorist group based primarily in Gaza, crossed the border into Israell from several directions at different locations. And, those borders are actual walls. They flew over in para-gliders, they crashed through with bulldozers, and they fired rockets and artillery over those actual hardened borders. And, they slaughtered unarmed civilians in the name of fighting oppression. They crossed the border with malicious intent.
Then, there is the southern border of the United States with Mexico. A place where, coming north, bad ideas end and good ideas start as evidenced by the fact that millions are fleeing their countries to come into the United States. Indeed many are fleeing economic and political hardship. They just want a better life. But others, and it is indisputable, are coming here for the next terrorist attack.
In 2002 2.7 million illegal aliens crossed the border. As of 09/30/23, 2.8 million crossed the border. Most are without any “papers”. That is, their countries don’t mandate birth certificates, driver licenses, social security cards – nothing. They were ghosts before they arrived here and they’re certainly ghosts once they were let loose to wander about the country. They aren’t vaccinated, for anything; they are poorly educated; they are mostly unskilled.
The United States leads the world in immigration. 15.1% of the American population are illegal immigrants. America takes in 48.2% of all illegal immigration. The next closest country takes in 11.6% !!!!!! And, it is all because of the Biden Administration’s refusal to protect and close our southern border.
The largest numbers of immigrants are coming from Venezuela, Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, Cuba (both by sea into Florida and land from Mexico), Haiti, SYRIA, Ukraine. In August 2023 82% of the arrivals came from Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and India. Additional illegal immigrants came from Senegal, Ecuador, Mexico and Mauritania in northwestern Africa. 6,386 nationals from Afghanistan, 3,153 from Egypt, 659 from Iran and 538 from Syria all being men of enlistment age, 12,624 from Uzbekistan, 30,830 from Turkey, 1,613 from Pakistan, 164 from Lebanon, 185 from Jordan, 123 from Iraq and 15,594 from Mauritania. Large numbers of Chinese are also being encountered.
151 of those above were on the FBI’s terrorist watch list. It has been concluded the Chinese are not really seeking political asylum, they are free range spies reporting back on conditions in the United States. And, what’s up with all the “political asylum seekers” from the Middle East without families accompanying them?
You might now be wondering how much does it cost to disburse these illegal immigrants throughout the country, shelter them, feed them, educate them, cloth them, give them free cellphones – $150.6 billion. That’s 150.6 billion taken away from OUR homeless and OUR veterans. In fact, our homeless and veterans are literally being kicked out of their shelters so the illegal immigrants can have a place !!!!!!
Sanctuary Cities, especially those like New York City and Chicago, are complaining over being overrun and overwhelmed by the hundreds of thousands now occupying their streets. Governors and mayors are pleading to the regular Joe to “adopt” a family and let them live with them. WHAT????? Americans are living day to day trying to provide for their own and now these politicians want them to take on more?? I wonder how many families these politicians and their rather irrelevant but ultra-wealthy celebrities have adopted?
Let’s get to the final points. Why are open borders bad? And, what does this have to do with Israel?
Open borders, the ones supported by the Biden Administration, Liberals, Democrats, and the American Civil Liberties Union place our country at huge risk. Open borders let in criminals, terrorists and create other national security risks. Open borders makes it easy to smuggle drugs and exploit kidnapped children. Open borders flood the job market with unskilled workers who will never really find gainful employment. Overpopulation has its own set of issues. Cultural values will change for the worse. Some illegal immigrants will not be willing to integrate themselves into American society. We lose our right to define who we are a nation and as a people. The local citizen population will have high levels of frustration resulting in prejudiced attitudes against immigrants, legal or otherwise. Finally, open borders allowing people to enter the country with no prospects for food and shelter will create situations where those people with have to steal and commit other crimes just to survive.
Getting back to the title of this rambling, if Israel can be attacked having a strong border defense including actual barriers, walls and personnel monitoring and still suffer extreme terrorist attack atrocities, then what terrorist attack is in American’s future with open borders?
EDUCATIONAL EQUITY – The Dumbing Down of The American Student
A few weeks ago Rob Schneider released a stand up comedy video. During the show he examines various woke policies and the obvious danger they are to our society. One of the bits involves one of our major airline’s diversity policy which might suggest they are not interested in hiring the best, safest, nor most qualified pilots but they prefer a pool of mixed or diverse candidates. Does that make sense to you? Pick this candidate because he/she/it is not a white male regardless of their lack of training, safety rating, and experience? Really???
Fast forward to a few days ago when it was discovered the Portland (Oregon) is implementing new grading guidelines that bar teachers from assigning “0” – zeros to students for cheating or for failing to turn in assignments. It also eliminates penalties for late work and eliminates grades for homework, class participation, attendance, effort, attitude and behavior.
Apparently, the district argues, there is great race disparity and inequity. There is a drive to create grade EQUITY. (Wouldn’t it make more sense to hold teachers accountable for failing to educate students? Wouldn’t it also make sense to recognize there are some students who simply have no use for learning? No, it seems it is simply easier to make sure everyone gets the same grade – period.) The district seeks to follow California’s lead in narrowing the gap between non-gifted and gifted students. However, in that case, California simply obliterated gifted student programs and accelerated classes thus forcing the gifted kids, whether black, white, Hispanic, Asian, or otherwise, from advancing themselves into areas of higher learning.
This bizarre mandate, to take effect by 2025, indicates the minimum grade a student can get is 50%. Here there is a huge struggle to determine exactly what the point is. Shouldn’t it be 65% or what ever the minimum passing grade is? If there is really a desire to make all of the grades flat line across the board, the minimum and maximum grade any student should receive is 65%.
Let’s take a step back and examine this allegation of disparity and inequity. In 2023. When every day we hear it droning on and on and on about the racial disparity. Do they mean to suggest this great disparity and inequity still goes on today? In 2023?
Let’s consider this. I will never be an artist. I will never be a musician, a doctor, an engineer, a scientist, an architect, a spy, nor a professional athlete. I will never be a fashion model nor a thousand other occupations. Why, because not only am I NOT QUALIFIED, I also HAVE NO INTEREST IN DOING SO. But, if I did, I can simply go up to Portland where my grades will be evened out against students who really are qualified and I can enter any field I want. I look forward to operating on you, or designing your next airplane, or calculating the stresses on your next neighborhood bridge. I’ll probably have to make a lot of stuff up because I chose not to attend many of the required courses and failed most of my tests. Well, I would have failed but Portland says I need to have an equitable grade. So, I’m good.
So, am I exaggerating above? What’s the big deal? Well, frankly first let’s acknowledge the extreme insult to all of the students who actually do care. Who actually do try. Who actually do the homework and participate in class and take an active interest in their own education. Because they are being told they really don’t need to put in all that effort and they’re going to lose a lot of educational opportunities because they aren’t allowed to accelerate and “be better”. Let’s face it. We’re not all equal. Some of us are good looking, some not. Some are great athletes, some not. Some are “good with their hands” and can fix anything, some not. Some are artistically creative, some not. SOME OF US ARE SMART, SOME NOT. There is no avenue to make us all equal in these regards. Period.
Let’s see this for what it is – the dumbing down of the American student. Considering all of the foreign students coming here and securing all of the high end technological and health care related jobs, how does the Teachers Union and all of its woke supporters sleep at night knowing they make us weaker and weaker every school year? How can they look themselves in the mirror knowing that the American student continues to lose higher educational opportunities and well paying jobs to better educated and prepared foreign students?
Apparently, they sleep very well as they continue to try to make us all EQUAL.
How Communist / Socialist of them.
Alexander Hamilton and 1790
Wow – talk about foresight!! He wrote that a man unprincipled in private life, desperate in his fortune, and bold in his temper is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity, he may ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.
We all know to whom I currently refer. The GOP, Republicans, and REAL conservatives need a solid candidate with a minimum of drama, conflicts of interest, and skeletons in the closet.
Where All Our Hard Earned Money Goes
I’ll get to that in a second.
Did you know that China has cut a deal with Cuba that would allow the Chinese intelligence agencies to put up an electronic surveillance base? The Chinese will pay Cuba billions of dollars for the right to do so. It is clear such a base allows China the ability to hack our communications systems and listen in on all sorts of transmissions in the southeastern part of our country. For those of you who don’t know, US Central Command is located in Tampa, Florida.
Did you also see the, mostly scant, news reports of a large group of Chinese crossing the southern border, through Mexico, alleging political asylum?
Let’s face it, we have been invaded and the Biden Administration, the GOP, and the Independents did NOTHING.
Let’s conspiracy theorize why that occurred:
Conspiracy Theory 1: The Democrats think all of these illegals love them for allowing them to cross right over and the illegals will vote Democrat for decades. (Well, voting rights for illegals is another conspiracy theory for another day.)
Conspiracy Theory 2: The Independents simply are irrelevant in our two party system and it looks like they just turned a blind eye.
Conspiracy Theory 3: This will be a major talking point for the Republicans at the next upcoming election. “Look, see what they did!!!!! They let our country get invaded!!!!!” And, here’s an even SICKER thought – they are probably hoping for either a massive crime wave or spike in crime statistics related to illegals OR, even sicker, they’re hoping for some kind of terrorist attack so they can blame the Democrats.
One fact that no news agency nor federal agency has ever talked about is the probability that various countries used our southern border to get their spies and terrorist across. Unchallenged. And, the feds put them on buses and transported them for disbursement throughout the country.
So, let’s get back to the title of the post. Most of us work. Most of those who work, work their asses off. We need necessities of life and we are entitled to enjoy some toys – whether literal or figurative (like motorcycles, boats, a sports car, ATV, etc). Most of our purchases have a stamp on them – Made in China.
Our money is going to an enemy who has now created the largest navy, already had the largest army but now well better equipped, is funding surveillance posts across the world, is funding projects establishing China’s influence throughout the world. Our money helps fund their mining and gathering of raw materials across the world in order for them to make products to sell back to the world. For a Communist Country, they certainly are the best colonialists EVER.
The rest of our money, in the form of taxes, also goes to this enemy to fund various scientific projects. Are you fucking kidding me????? There was just a whole bunch of stories about that on ALL the mass media outlets. Even the Liberals are up in arms. Why is our tax money being sent to China for scientific experiments? Why is our pocket money going to China for the purchase of goods?
Well, now I have to go off topic because now I’m on a roll.
We have to buy our goods there because corporate and stock holder greed destroyed our manufacturing ability. If we ever go to massive war, we’re fucked. We can’t build, repair, create, sew, nor assemble practically anything like we could during the first and second world wars. We ripped Wood Shop, Home Economics, Car Shop, Metal Shop out of schools convincing kids those were useless bottom feeding industries (really, what was your last car repair bill??). But, we encouraged them to cross dress, go into the girls bathroom, compete in girls sports, you know, the whole LGBT thing because that’s more important.
We have to relay on Chinese experiments because we have dumbed down our children !!! There are school districts across this country eliminating advanced classes, honors courses, pre college advancement because they are racist and not inclusive. That is, only the smart kids (translated as white kids) get in. Since the not so smart kids (translated as non-white kids) aren’t qualified to get into those courses, then they must be prejudice somewhere. There must be racism somewhere. So, let’s do away with all advanced learning. (Why parents of color aren’t going out of their minds because of this insult, is beyond me. Essentially, the educational elite are saying children of color are stupid. Talk about racist.)
So, because we stripped our country of its manufacturing abilities, and because we have stripped our children from advanced learning to dumb down their educational courses, we have to relay on our enemy.
That’s where your money is going.
The INSANITY of The Ignorant
Cardinal Joseph Tobin of Newark, New Jersey (of all places) takes the position that all Americans should give up their 2nd Amendment rights as a way to achieve peace over violence. I guess I can stop right there considering the absolute idiocy of the statement. But, I’ll go on.
The Cardinal believes the right to bear arms is “eclipsed” by the responsibility to protect innocent people, secure public safety, and establish good order. What he plainly does not recognize is the fact that your 2nd Amendment right does EXACTLY that for not only you but those around you. Although rather cliche, it remains outright truth, the bad guys will always have access to guns.
Now before you start believing this is simply Catholic bashing, let me state I am a practicing Catholic, member of the Knights of Columbus and member of the 4th Degree of the Knights, and head usher at my Sunday morning Mass. I go to church every day except Saturdays.
The Cardinal goes on to say that only peace and never violence is the only truth. Hmmm, tell that to any of the remaining Holocaust survivors. Also reflect upon Great Britian’s appeasement policy in negotiating peacefully with Nazi Germany in the late 1930s / early 1940s only to have long range bombs dropped on them. So much for peace. The “real” truth is that sometimes you do indeed need to either respond with violence or act preemptively with violence to defeat evil. And, your 2nd Amendment right provides you with that ability.
He further goes on to say that only peace can build a free society. Hmm, again, apparently not a history buff. Our free society was built upon the need for guns and violence to defeat evil. Think the Revolutionary War; the Civil War; the First World War; the Second World War; the Invasion of Iraq. Free societies all over the world were built upon the need to use violence, not peace, to defeat evil.
He believes more gun laws and access control regulates our behavior in order to protect the vulnerable and ensure the common good. That statement in and of itself is ridiculous. No one, in the history of mankind, have ever protected vulnerable people without the need for violence. And, what “common good” does he refer to? Do you think any one living under an oppressive Communist, Socialist, or Dictatorship regime believes not having guns is good? Come on.
Every law abiding and legal concealed or open carry citizen gets sickened every time some nut shoots up our fellow Americans. And, perhaps that’s a point. You never hear that the shooter obtained his guns legally, or if he / she did, he or she didn’t have some kind of long term mental problems. Good people will not be saved from more “gun control”.
Here is example of what more gun laws and more “gun controls” looks like: There is a sign in your favorite coffee shop: “NO GUNS ALLOWED”. You’re a law abiding citizen. So, you take your holster off and lock your gun in your car. You go inside to enjoy your favorite brew. 10 minutes later three mutts come in and hold up the store and everyone in it. That sign, that gun control, just made you a sitting duck. But, not to worry, just act peacefully and you’ll be passed over like, well, Pass Over. No you won’t. You’ll be vulnerable and you’ll be a victim of violence.
There are hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people in our country who don’t believe guns are the answer. They don’t believe violence defeats violence. Fortunately, for them, they are protected by those of us who do.
Cardinal Tobin, stay in your lane. You have enough to fix without making ridiculous statements that endanger your flock.
Volume 5, Episode 1 – Maybe It’s Life or Death
Hey, this is Kevin Driscoll for The Rusting Barbell Blog Podcast. A podcast about strength training; weight training; power lifting; Olympic lifting; book review and article review, all with a focus on functional training with barbells. Please note, you should consult a professional regarding the exact mechanics and form of any exercise discussed. Remember to always consult with your doctor, health care professional, personal trainer, or coach before starting any exercise routine or trying any exercise discussed in this podcast.
I can’t believe it has been since August 2022 since my last podcast. It is simply laziness.
Of course, I have my New Year’s Resolutions all lined up and ready for implementation. Of course, one of which is to get into better physical condition. As of yesterday, I weighed in at 339.4. I do have a clear conscience in that I really don’t overeat, nor drink beer, or snack throughout the day. But I probably do have a touch of Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure, and maybe even a failing thyroid. My metabolism has probably slowed, and I spend way too much time sitting at my desk throughout the course of the day. My goal is to get down to 275 by my 60th Birthday in November 2023. I’ve already lost one month and I quickly approaching losing another month.
All of that is about to change.
I purchased a Proform Stationary Bike just prior to the Holidays kicking in. I started off with 20 minutes per session mainly because my buttocks needed to break in the seat. I’m up to 40 minutes per session but my rear-end is still not comfortable on the seat. In any event, 40 minutes on the bike is how I am starting my day. I usually get a little perspired by the time I am done, and I have to change my t-shirt prior to weight training as I train in the garage, and it is only in the 50s in there during these Arizona winter months. I don’t like that wet-cold feeling on the back of my shoulders.
I am returning to the Starting Strength Method of training, but I am adding Floor Cleans into the mix. So, it might be three days one, one day off.
Today I already finished 40 minutes on the bike and now I getting ready for a Bergner Warmup followed by an additional Floor Clean warmup modified off of Juggernaut. The workout will be set of 5 warm up; set of 4 – ½ way to max; and then 5 sets of three at “max” weight. Today I’m going to use 155 as my max 5 sets of 3 and I am going to open with 115. So, my set of 4 will be 135.
Hoping to get my New Year off to a good start. It’s all about consistency and discipline. And, it has to be taking little steps. Otherwise, knowing myself, I’ll get frustrated and lose interest.
Remember: consult your doctor and exercise professional prior to starting any workout or trying any exercises discussed in this podcast. And certainly, don’t use any of my videos posted on Instagram as any example of how these movements should be performed properly and safely because, frankly, I don’t know what I’m doing myself.
This is Kevin Driscoll for The Rusting Barbell Blog Podcast. You can hear audio versions of this podcast at:
Sound Cloud – Kevin’s Music and Blog Podcasts
Overcast – Kevin’s Rusting Barbell Podcast
iTunes – Kevin’s Rusting Barbell Podcast
Spotify – Kevin’s Rusting Barbell Podcast
Anchor – Kevin’s Rusting Barbell Podcast
