Read. Write. Lift. Irish Catholic. Clair Motor Group (1964 -08) heir. A one man review of books over on my site.
Douglas County, CO
Joined January 2020
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A new post is up.
These are raw writing riffs. I read, riff, publish. This one is scary to publish since it has positions that I would prefer to flesh out.
This one covers the recent right-wing personalities all crashing out over Trump like dramatic teen girls.
Behind the paywall I answer what our current time is most like.
The link is below:
Jim Clair retweeted
I love that one of Tucker Carlson’s arguments is that Hitler “said” he didn’t want to fight Britain. That’s true. He did “say” that. Hitler also signed a ten-year peace deal with the Soviet Union, and, two years later, invaded with 3.8 million troops.
You need to let the inner beast out here and there.
I miss Jim Clair grunting and smacking his feet on the floor like a bull about to steamroll an obnoxious bullfighter before pulling 700lbs and smashing it into the foundation so hard it makes the building shake. Meanwhile, I am giving a 60 year old lady an intro session over in the corner and she looks at me and says "I don't think this is the gym for me"
My time training at Starting Strength franchise gyms, nearly 7 years, I saw a lot of people come in for a form check or possibly train with a coach online or at the gym.
They had read the book, and some of the grey book, and after some time - I saw months and years - decided to get a look.
They had hit a plateau or wanted to ask about the Texas Method.
But it was clear they rushed through the book or felt they were advanced. And they had all the telltale signs:
- loading the plates with the logos facing out or in any direction
- thinking the exercises needing empty bar warmup was for rookies and they could start with weight on the bar
- that they read "low bar squat" as squatting "low" and not the technique of the actual low bar squat (they would always squat really high when they squatted).
All well-intentioned but they all needed work, even the most athletic, on the form, they all had impatience on a novice linear progression, and most came in seeking complex programming when they weren't ready.
Starting Strength requires, in my opinion, a coach who can properly guide you on the form, which is an ongoing journey. The book is great, but getting an eye to get the form is the best start. Programming is a whole different monster, but a good coach matters too, it's tough to do it on your own.
One of the most common things I've seen - almost always from people who just did an internet version of SS, and even fairly often from people who read the book - is that they aren't using the technique described in SS, or even anything close to it.
One of the great misunderstandings is thinking SS is just a program (also that it's a program meant to be run for more than a few months, but that's a different problem for another day). It's more of a holistic approach to training that involves biomechanical and anatomical analysis for technique, physiological analysis for programming, sprinkled with historical analysis for both in terms of trying to figure out if things have worked despite or because of.
Lots of people doing the program without even a semblance of the technique have a bad time when it predictably doesn't work the way they expect it to.
And then don't want to re-set the weight to learn the technique that would allow it to work in the first place.
Jim Clair retweeted
The Left has spent decades systematically eliminating every moral rule and standard governing human sexuality. The only one they've left standing is "consent." The problem is that sex can be immoral and degrading even when it is consensual. So when a woman feels gross and sad and embarrassed after a sexual encounter -- even when it was fully consensual (as it was in the Cornell case) -- the only moral language she has available to describe her feelings is based around consent. Therefore any sex that makes her feel bad after the fact must have been ipso facto non-consensual. The concept of sex that was wrong yet consensual is foreign to her. She has been told, and has believed, that "wrong yet consensual" is a category that cannot exist.
Jim Clair retweeted
If it's your vocab you want to strengthen, I can recommend Word Power Made Easy. Picked this up on the recommendation of @findjimclair. Shout out Jim.
I withheld a few posts.
Maybe it's the algo, maybe it's where I'm at.
But since returning to Catholicism I've noticed more of the Catholic bashing accounts. Sola Chad and stuff like it.
Protestant bashing exists on the Catholic side though I've yet to come across a full Prot bashing account.
I wanted to get snarky at some of the Catholic bashers, but saw it as pointless.
I have a lot of close Prot friends, I respect and a bunch of pastors, Prot thinkers, so on and so forth.
I get criticizing a point, that has its merits, and can sharpen either side for the better, but the outright bashing is engagement slop. It's nourishing anger, and nourishing anger towards believers.
Likely the people behind the accounts, especially the holier-than-thou types, are likely the most emotionally and intellectually constipated in their real lives.
Best to just ignore 'em.
Jim Clair retweeted
I'm sure that a pink haired feminist from Colorado is an expert on Catholic theology
It wasn't the thing, but this was the kind of thing that made me return to the Catholic Church. And granted, I felt called home, but this stuff definitely made the calling louder.
The motivational style pastors, pastors who brought out props (ladders, punching bags, kettlebells, basketballs and hoops) and those who never preached from Scripture.
I went to sermon's with a mention of Jesus and then they taught Atomic Habits, Love Languages, Think and Grow Rich, or gave metaphors from Bluey, and Indiana Jones.
Not all big boxes are like this, but the entertainment element snuffs out beauty, the sublime, and reverence - aka crowds out God.
I'm going through my adult confirmation in the Catholic Church.
I asked Grok to suggest some saints as my confirmation saint based on research of me and my conversations with Grok.
It gave, in order:
1. St. Augustine
2. St. Thomas Aquinas
3. St. Joseph
4. St. Hyacinth
Grok emphasizes St. Augustine because of the story of my return and similar life story.
It will be a challenge picking one.
Jim Clair retweeted
“Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded his empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men would die for him.” Napoleon
