I had a different commute today because I had to take the car in for regular service. I got on I-5 at Tustin Ranch headed north and oops! major slowdown. Stuck in traffic. Dammit dammit.

As I crawled north past various Caltrans and cop vehicles, I saw the cause of the slowdown. The Red Hill offramp was closed down and there were law enforcement types everywhere, copapalooza. Several of them were under improvised little sun shelter with sniper rifles, and a commander with his pistol out was crouched behind a squad car. They were all facing a motel that in turn faced the freeway.

So I crept by, hoping that Sideshow Bob and/or Pretty Boy Floyd didn’t open up on the cops and catch me downwind.

Just another day on the freeways!

I don’t think I know any philosophy graduates who don’t smoke except my mom. Anyway I thought Kate and other philosophical friends would enjoy this.

http://www.billboardliberation.com/actions/kant.html

—
ignatz

This entry has no theme or unifying metaphor. It’s just some stuff; sorry.

My new pressure cooker has done great things for my eating habits. Lots more beans & lentils, lean meat etc. This is good news because I need to eat low on the glycemic index and avoid some of my old favorites if I’m to beat this insulin resistance problem. Also, Irish Dan has fixed up my bike so I’m able to exercise more easily, since I enjoy bicycling and I can vary the difficulty of the ride with the amount of exercise I need. The anti-death project is therefore going well.

Some degenerate fuck is hosting hunting parties in Vegas where people can shoot at naked women with paintball guns. We’ve got to hose some of the extreme misogyny out of this society before we turn into the Taliban. It’s really gross and scary. Not linking to the news story, find it yourselves.

If you thought arguments about religion and politics were bad on the Internet, try looking into diet, nutrition, and health some time. People with moderate or self-critical opinions are very rare. All reviews of books on Amazon seem to have either 1 or 5 stars. Dietary theories or diet plans are either God’s Own Chosen Plan of Salvation or some devilish trick. Dogmatic opinions are held (literally) to the death. It’s fairly depressing.

A friend of mine recently did a few years of graduate work in biological psychology studying appetite, food avoidance, and craving mechanisms. She points out that most fad or commercial diets are sold based on one of five possible metabolic and psychological responses to food, and that many if not most people fit into one of these categories. The result is that quite often you find a maniacally delighted 20% who want everyone to know that this plan is the best ever, and a disgruntled 80% who mostly blame themselves but sometimes crusade against the dietary plan. Math is hard. Let’s go eating!

In my own case I’m a complex carbohydrate-craving, night-eating, insulin resistant overweight person who needs to cut down overall calories and eat low on the glycemic index. But the person next to me might need to eat lots of rice and less breakfast. Universal rules escape us.

I was just talking to jonpants about, among other things, a childrens book called Mr. Bump. And I thought that this might be a band name! But, it would be the name of a bad white funk band that plays Tuesday nights in bars.

And then I realized that every job I’ve had, just about, there has been one employee in one of those horrible white funk bands. And that employee always posts flyers for this band everywhere, and sooner or later you end up going, and they play songs like “Love Rollercoaster” and “Play that Funky Music” and do so very badly and you’re there to support Dave from Medical Records, and it’s hell.

Does anyone have any good analysis of this situation? I mean, that is so fucked-up.