Mindconnection eNL, 2017-03-05

Home

In this issue:
Good News | Product Highlight | Brainpower | Finances | Security | Health/Fitness | Factoid | Thought 4 the Day

Item 1. Carry permits surged in 2016. The number of permits has reached a record high of 15 million across the USA. Now our police officers are safer than ever, a fact born out by increasing reports of "Officer Down" being rescued by an Armed Citizen (a monthly report by the same name recently had an account of an officer being beaten to death before being rescued by a law-abiding permit holder).

Item 2. The left-wing, delusion-based mudstream media continue to lose what little credibility they had. The latest polls show these liars as being tuned out and turned off by a record percentage of the population.

Item 3. Informal polling shows that an increasing portion of the population recognizes libtardation as a form of dementia. Most of those polled believe it is due to organic brain damage and cannot be cured. All of which means fewer and fewer people are taking the views of libtards seriously. And that's really good news.

Whistler 1600 Watt 12V DC to 115V AC Power Inverter XP1600i

On sale for a limited time! We offer this on eBay, so that's where the link will take you.

The Whistler XP1600i Power Inverter is perfect for powering your life on the road. This 1600W inverter features 2 USB outlets for charging electronics and 3 AC outlets for powering tools and appliances.

Whether over-the-road driving or living off the grid, the XP1600i can power your microwave, heater, or medium-sized refrigerator. This mountable inverter also features a digital volt/watt meter for easy monitoring of power usage. The Whistler XP1600i also is remote control ready (remote sold separately) for convenience when driving.
 

Buy from us and save!
 

• 1600 watts continuous - 3200 watts peak power.
• 3 AC outlets - 2 USB ports for powering/charging devices such as game systems, laptops, and more.
• Digital volt/watt meter for monitoring power usage.
• Thermostat controlled fan and overload indicator.
• Electronic circuit protection which includes: smart surge control, overload/voltage protection, short circuit protection, and thermal cutoff.

You can buy from us with confidence. We've been making online customers happy since 1997.

I do realize that many libtards would prefer the politically correct label, "intelligence-disabled." But I'm not writing to libtards so I don't care what they prefer.

Libtards take stupidity to the extreme. In so doing, they make many forms of intellectual error very visible. This exaggerated stupidity can be a teaching tool or learning aid for the intelligence-enabled.

Here are some examples you can learn from libtards and then apply to your non-libtarded brain:

• Abject ignorance. Libtards not only don't know anything about most subjects that they try to argue about, what they do "know" is wrong.
  
  Lesson: Boost your brainpower by taking your reasonably good knowledge of a subject to the next level. Read a couple of books on it, watch a documentary, have a discussion with a subject matter expert. And try to identify myths, misinformation, and errors of fact so you can purge them from your mental repertoire (unlike the libtard, who makes a dedicated effort to collecting these).
   
• Total lack of logic. Libtards spew non-sequitors, use induction to reach false conclusions, confuse correlation with causation, neglect actual causation, connect dots that don't connect, fail to connect dots that obviously connect, and ignore magnitude. Among other things. Many other things. Basically, take any aspect of logic and violate it to get "libtard logic."
  
  Lesson: Be careful and alert for instances when you stretch your own logic or fail to apply logic (for example, not deducing something that logically follows from something else). When encountering "libtard logic" do not "upload it" and go down an intelligence rabbit hole. Stay with rationality, instead.
   
• Rejection of the axiomatic. Libtards automatically reject the axiomatic. This has the result of compounding their stupidity, making them more noxious to us and more satisfied with themselves.
  
  Lesson: You normally spot the obvious, but be sensitive to those situations in which something is self-evident and you might not be seeing the evidence. In other words, if something seems reasonable ask yourself if it is axiomatic or requires proof. For example, it is axiomatic that debt must be financed; libtards reject this idea because it doesn't fit their fantasies.
   
• Mindless arguing. Intelligence-enabled people seldom argue; we discuss. We seek to learn. Libtards, by contrast, value ignorance and argue against anything from the rational world. They argue mostly to preserve their ignorance.
  
  Lesson: When another person introduces an idea that is new to you or that conflicts with your perception, seek to understand rather than to "win" an argument. Exception: Libtards introduce fictions, lies, and delusions; these are not worth considering and their irrationality makes them impossible to understand so don't waste your time trying.
   
• Double, if not quadruple, standards. Libtards have an amazing capacity for unfairness and double standards. For example, they believe it is fine for criminals to have armed guards at taxpayer expense but they do not believe it is fine for law-abiding citizens to be armed. Thousands of examples exist.
  
  Lesson: Check your belief system regarding standards and integrity. Is it fair and rational?
   
• Parroting obvious lies. We saw libtards do this incessantly when the narcissistic psychopath occupied the White House for 8 long years. Not even a hint of reasonable skepticism. Now their big lie passion is to spew the lie that an armed citizen never stops a crime even though armed citizens do this all the time and it's documented.
  
  Lesson: Watch for the hook, line, and sinker when the stakes are high and the mudstream media are involved. Don't repeat something or pass it along until you at least turn it over and smell it.
   
• Finding fault, even if you have to make it up. This is an area of excellence for libtards. Libtards are totally intolerant of people who don't agree with their alternate universe viewpoint and they get downright nasty about it.
  
  Take the recent hullaballoo about President Trump's 90 day immigration freeze. Shockingly, the libtards claim this is all new and Trump just whipped it out. Actually, there is plenty of precedent for this including a FAR more restrictive bill that actually passed the House. Barry Soetoro invoked a similar restriction (in that case, I believe it was 6 months) yet no libtards made a peep. See my earlier bullet point about quadruple standards. In this case, the libtards are merely looking for fault in President Trump so they stick their heads very far up their posterior and make this a rallying issue.
  
  Lesson: Look for the good in people, and you are more likely to get it.
   
• Spewing the cliché of the day. It's not just libtards doing this, but the cliché of the day is a sign a libtard is lip-flapping. They seem to be mimicking others in an attempt to show how clever they are. As if when everyone else hears the same cliché 100 times we are somehow going to think the libtard was original with it.
  
  Lesson: Be self-confident enough to say what you mean, in plain language. You'll sound much more intelligent this way, and of course thinking about what to say helps boost your brainpower.
   
• Spewing the same failed arguments repeatedly, even after they've been conclusively proven wrong. This obnoxious behavior is a libtard favorite. A metaphor that I find apt is a person who loves the smell of his own farts so much he eats a 6lb can of sauerkraut at the office every day while his coworkers gag. THEY know it stinks, but he just keeps spewing more gas because while enraptured in his own perverse delight he doesn't care that he's obnoxious to others.
  
  Lesson: You don't need a lesson, here. You already have enough integrity to admit when you've been wrong, but you don't make failed arguments repeatedly if at all. You really do know when to hang it up, and have the civility to do so. Unlike a libtard, you are grateful that another person helped you fill in your knowledge gap.
  
  When a libtard tries to ensnare you in an argument, show tolerance by not laughing at the libtard. Just walk away.

Debt is helpful when the return on it is greater than the cost of borrowing, and when the debt is manageable. In the case of the federal "government" the return is negative and the debt is about $19.99 trillion past the point of being manageable.

You want to use debt for specific acquisitions, keeping the ROI and manageability in mind. Making debt a lifestyle is very poor financial management; it enslaves you and can ruin you financially and socially.

Don't borrow just because you can. Borrow strategically for specific reasons. Some tips:

• Don't borrow to live beyond your means. Sure, if you can get an inexpensive one-year loan for that new living room furniture set by all means do so. However, budget the payments in rather than treat the loan as additional income (it's not).
   
• Borrow only what you can afford to borrow. This is essentially saying the same as the previous bullet. Look at your cash flows; will you have to borrow to support the borrowing, or do the payments fit within your comfortable ability to pay them?
   
• Treat credit cards and other revolving credit as due within the initial term period. In other words, don't carry a balance. Pay these off each month. If you "can't" do that, you're on the path to debt slavery. To fix the "can't" problem, use the cards only for non-discretionary purchases such as fuel, groceries, etc. Anything else, such as clothing, entertainment, etc., pay cash or go without.
   
• Think things over before buying. Some people have a 24-hour rule. They wait 24 hours before actually purchasing something. This eliminates impulse buying. Other people plan their purchases strategically and tactically. An example is I wanted to replace my laptop bag because it's old, worn, and damaged (strategic spending), not because I just want a new one. I scheduled a trip to the store "Bags and Baggage" to coincide with another trip out that way, nearly 3 weeks before the intended shopping date (tactical). Meanwhile, I reserved the approximate funds and didn't spend those on anything else (tactical). Delaying spending is a great way to reduce it overall.
   
• Don't delay too much. If you have something expensive that is showing signs of impending failure, shop for the replacement now. For example, your car has 350,000 miles on it and you've started replacing parts frequently. Don't wait until the engine fails, replace the car soon. Your refrigerator is 18 years old and getting noisy? Check out the current sales and buy a new one! Don't let big expenses become emergencies. Be sure to budget for the replacement as soon as you see one's needed.
   
• Avoid automobile debt. It's ghastly what many people pay per mile just to get from one place to another. The single biggest factor is their car payment. Take care of your car from Day One, and you won't "need" to replace it for decades. But what if you're tired of your car and want something newer? Get it professionally washed, waxed, and detailed; it will seem like a new car. If that doesn't stop you from going $30,000 in debt for another car because you want an updated interior then visit a car audio installer and check out the new head units.
   
• Think "small home" to avoid being house poor. The house I have now is the smallest of the three I have owned. But the mortgage payments are also small (and it's to be paid off this summer). Yes, I would like bigger bathrooms, bigger closets, and a bigger kitchen. However, I've learned to adjust to what I have. The savings have been enormous, because the house isn't.

Many writers, for example, have pen names. For a period, I wrote under the pen name of Daniel S. Jerome.

A small business owner might want a business name of Gary Jones just to protect his personal identity. Or if his real name is something hard to pronounce, he does his customers a favor by using a shorter name. Many people of Indian descent use short "American" names for this reason.

For personal security, this can be very useful. For example, if you use Facebook or a dating site or any other sort of online "privacy killer" then sign up using an alternate name. If it's "social media" don't use your actual name.

Don't be lazy with your alternate name and just make it a variation of your own name. Your ruse will be too easy to discover, that way. Come up with something completely different, making sure even the ethnicity is different.

Avoid trouble by using your real name for legal purposes. These include such things as taking a loan, filing taxes, getting married, and so forth. Also, any academic records such as college degrees should be in your own name.

I caution women against legally taking their husband's last name upon getting married; it's fine for an alternate name, but divorce is statistically likely so keep that in mind. For anything important, use your "maiden" name.

Note also that your name is a critical piece of information for anyone seeking to violate your personal security. It's like your (anti)Social (in)Security number. Don't give it out unless you need to.

For a couple of years, I had a neighbor who used the alternate name John Marlow. I never did learn his actual name. His magazine subscriptions used his alternate name, so all of his junk mail came to that name. His official papers, such as tax notices, driver's license renewal, etc., had his actual name. You could learn his actual name if you were a cop, pulled him over, and demanded to see his drivers license. Or if you were a bank loan officer processing a loan for him. Or if you were a sicko with a job at the Institute of Reprobates and Sociopaths trolling for yet another victim and came across his 1040.

Marlow's credit cards also used his alternate name and he had a photo ID with that name. Pretty clever. How did he manage to use his alternate name on his credit card? If the issuer insisted the name on the card had to match his real name (which he had to give to the card issuer), he would order a second card "for my teenager" in the name of John Marlow. He kept the card with his real name locked in his gun main vault (he had two gun vaults), and used the one with his alias.

The more you hide your real identity from public usage and scrutiny, the more secure your identity is. Again, it did wonders for Barry Soetoro. The vast majority of Americans never "got it" that Soetoro was an Indonesian citizen rather than an American citizen because they naively went along with that Arab's alternate name ruse. But if they'd simply done a smidgen of homework, they'd have known about Lolo Soetoro and Barry Soetoro and been able to connect some rather enormous dots. Even the acolytes of this criminal merely had to read his book "Dreams from my Father" in which he reveals his real name.

It will be very interesting to see if the list of USA Presidents is corrected in our lifetimes to show Soetoro, not the alias Obama, as our 44th and worst ever President. I was going to say something about a rose by any other name, but the metaphor is a complete mismatch.

Generally, each "expert" offers something new and claims it's what you've been missing. Sometimes, but not usually, that is actually the case. Sometimes, their advice is simply wrong and sometimes their advice is correct but putting too much emphasis on one element or aspect of training.

For example, one expert says always go for intensity. That expert makes sense for the person who always goes for volume and isn't seeing any strength gains. It also is godo for the athlete who wants to maximize strength while minimizing hypertrophy. Many kinds of athletes have this second requirement; the bulk impedes their performance.

Suspect a problem when you see or hear "always" in regard to a particular training method or strategy. Not everyone needs (or wants) the same thing. And what worked a few months ago might not be appropriate for you today.

You must pick a training method that best fits your goals and make that method the base for your training plan. If you want hypertrophy, intensity will (more quickly than volume) develop the strength required to handle heavier weights.  Intensity will also do a better job of promoting leanness than volume will (the reason is the endocrine response in each case). But you need volume training to really get that size.

On the other hand, if you want strength for athletic prowess then you will want to ("always") focus on intensity. Volume training for you needs to be in the form of finishing exercises to help flush waste from your muscles.

Then there are the specialty experts. They pick a category and claim to be the authority there and also claim that others in this category need their particular advice. For example, Mark (another Mark, not me) says men over 40 can't train the way younger men do. This idea "might" be correct, but I am well past 40 and train the way younger men do because of the mechanics involved.

Now it is worth noting that most men over 40 have joint damage and other issues that require a modified training program. If you're over 40, this is probably you. But not necessarily. If you haven't been banging up your joints and tearing your tendons by lifting too much weight (and using bad form), why would you need a special regimen for men over 40? Is there another special regimen for men over 60?

I think Mark's training regimen is right for the typical man over 40. That's his target audience. But there is a segment of this age group that has been training "old school" well past 40. Sylvester Stallone is one celebrity example. Most men under 40 are nowhere near in his condition.

Top photo taken 16SEP2016, just days before 56th birthday; bottom photo taken 3 days after 56th birthday

"Weights for men and calisthenics videos for women" may be a long-standing viewpoint, but it is a disservice to women. So is the idea that weight lifting makes women less attractive. Many of the most beautiful women in the world are weight lifters. Demi Moore is an example of a woman long dedicated to old school weight training, and there are many others.

One trainer claimed that women should work high volume only, and she advocates sets of at least 20 reps. There is no scientific basis for this.

For women, angles change from the "standard" male workout angles (just as they do among individual men). Women have narrower rib cages and wider hips, and that changes the angles of advantage. Women generally use lighter weights than men, but a woman with a significant training history will almost certainly use weights that are too heavy for a typical guy.

I made this comment to a group, one time. A member of the audience said, "Except for the bench press." Well, that simply is not true. I've taken several gym rat men through a correct bench press and all of them struggled with 90lbs (including the bar). My (now ex) wife correctly benched 130lbs and I have seen other women do as much or more (all of them good-looking, not freaky).

Yes, when you cheat on the bench press you can really show of the power in your front delts, lower back, and quads. But that doesn't mean your manboobs are actually big, strong pecs. It just means you like to put excess strain on your ligaments and avoid muscle development for the sake of ego.

You might want to consult a trainer just to get another opinion on what you are doing and what you might do differently. But don't entirely change your program based on this person's claims of being an expert.

One caveat to the preceding statement is this. If you already train in some way out of line with the body of knowledge (accepted principles and techniques) in the body building world and need to get back on track with an effective split routine you might ask this person to design a program for you.

Training methods that are good to switch from (discontinue them, do standard "old school" weight training instead) include:

• 3x/wk circuit training. This is good for beginners, but those using this method typically plateau out within 90 days. Then they give up until they are way out of shape again. This approach is remedial, not sustainable.
• Cross-fit. The justification for it has no basis in physiology, and the injury rates are very high. It may be your preference, however, if you lack the discipline for a consistent, structured program and need variety to get you to exercise.
• High-impact cardio. This kind of training produces no adaptive response, but it does bang up your joints and lead to long-term injuries. You don't need "cardio" to get your heart rate up, either. Any form of burst training will do that.
• Casual exercise or "working it in". This doesn't do anything but fool you into wasting your time undergoing deterioration when you should be training to maintain or improve your health.
• Full body. Some folks like to hit every muscle group when they train. I see some climbers do this. Their idea is you climb to practice climbing but train the body (all at once) to stay in shape. It doesn't work. To get through the workout, you have to pace yourself instead of stimulating the adaptive response.
• Add-on workouts. I recently received a newsletter in which the author advocated training calves "at the end of your regular workout." But, he added, "Only twice a week." I train my calves twice a month, sometimes only once a month. When I train them, that is the only part I train that day. They are possibly my best body part. That author clearly knows zero about training calves. Or about training, for that matter.

I'm obviously a proponent of weight lifting. But if done with a "serious athlete" mindset, the practice of almost any "burst activity" sport will produce respectable benefits. That doesn't mean casual, it means really involved in the sport.

Here are a few that make the grade (there are others):

• Swimming.
• Climbing.
• Gymnastics.
• Martial arts (if no impact to the head).
• Basketball.
• Soccer.
• Sprinting (e.g., 5K and under).
• Hunting (traditional tracking, which involves hiking, climbing, carrying).

One way to see if a sport should be on the list above is to look at the people who practice it. Baseball involves a lot of standing around, and that explains the pot belly on so many baseball players. Marathoning involves high-impact, low-intensity activity with corresponding high cortisol, and that explains the "skinny fat" look. American football includes concussions and other injuries, same with boxing.

Don't get distracted by nonsense or dangerous ideas. Look at what works, and do that.

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.