Fair is fair...

I have given Sen. Joe Biden grief for all the stupid things he says, but sometimes he knows what he is talking about...

Biden: (video from Sept. 21, Castlewood, Va): I guarantee ya, Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey, don’t buy that malarkey. They’re going to start peddling that to you. I got two! If he tries to fool with my Beretta he’s got a problem. Stewart (after pausing incredulously): Two things. Uh. One, the Beretta, I believe, is a handgun. Not, not a shotgun.

Actually Jon, Barretta is a big maker of shotguns...They are not exactly blue-collar guns though. The cheapest ones are around a couple thou.

Just as a hint to Jon Stewart and any other know-it-alls: People normally know quite a lot about their own stuff. I mean, if I plopped-down $2,000 for a scatter-gun, you can rest assured I would know who made it! Once the wife of my ex-uncle (don't ask) was convinced that my 1983 Toyota Tercel was rear-wheel drive, even after I told her it wasn't. I had the thing for a few years at the time, so even if I didn't know at the time of purchase, I would certainly have figured it out at some point eh? I mean when you floor it on a dirt road and dust flies up from the front wheels, that is a big clue...and when your expensive shotgun says Barretta on it that is a big clue too.

Marathon training run for today.

I took my time on this one (2 hours 43 minutes) for of a couple of reasons: First, I had been having trouble going much beyond 13 miles when I ran fast and I wanted to be able to put a much longer run under my belt. Second, I was kind of lost until I hit Rt. 40 (about 7.5 miles in) and wanted to conserve energy.

I feel good about the run today because I had the energy to have gone further--possibly another 8 miles, which would have been a complete marathon. All this without any hydration along the way. I know this pushes the limits since I was 4-5 lbs lighter at the end than at the beginning, but I felt relatively okay.

Update: A little 3.5 mile run today puts me over the 50 mile mark for the week.

Marathon advice links--in case I can't find them again.

I don't want to bookmark these links since I will probably never use them again, or it will be so long that they won't work by then. For tapering before the big day:TAPERING FOR A MARATHON

Boston Marathon qualifying times by age.

The Bay State Marathon--The one I am running October 19th

Training 3 days per week--I do 6 days per week but try and incorporate the philosophy of the Furman Institute...

So, why exactly should I trust your judgement?

I was listening to On Point with Tom Ashbrook and he had a guest on who I thought would be interesting: Philosopher Susan Neiman who was going to talk about moral clarity, which she has written a book about.

I kind of expected her to be left of center and my expectations were quickly confirmed when she claimed that due to Iraq, U.S. standing was low throughout the world. Okay fine, it is debatable, let's give her more of a chance. Almost the next sentence was that Bush lied us into this war...Eh, I will be listening to music the rest of the drive home.

There are four formal possibilities concerning WMD at the point in time when Bush claimed Iraq had them:

1. They had all been destroyed in the sanctions regime from the first gulf war.

2. They had WMD but since then they were moved out of the country--like to Syria and are still there now.

3. Or were destroyed since then.

4. Or are hidden in Iraq and not yet found.

I have yet to see any evidence that option one is true AND that President Bush alone knew this. Quite the contrary: When there were a dozen good reasons for invasion, why emphasise the one that he knew was untrue? Why would the one guy smart enough to know Saddam got rid of his WMD (Bush), play-up the WMD threat?

Okay, I don't want this post to end up being a rehash of old arguments, my point is a larger one.

Liberals tell each other that Bush lied. It is objectively untrue that he lied. Everyone they know is in full agreement that Bush lied. Are they lying at this point? No. Not really. It has become conventional wisdom for them. They believe it and have full confidence that what they are claiming is the truth.

Sort of like how everybody thought Iraq had WMD before the war. Eh?

But there are some notable differences between the two cases. First, maybe 50% of people believe that Bush lied, while at most 5-10% believed Saddam was truthful about there being no more WMD. Second, it may actually be true that there were WMD at the time leading up to the war, while it is an almost dead certainty that Bush didn't lie.

So, getting back to philosopher Susan Neiman; why should I care what she has to say? It would be like if a paleontologist came on the radio and started out by saying, "...and as we all know Tom, back when humans hunted T-Rex with spears..."

The up-side of the Biden pick...

There is a formal chance that he could one day become president. The chances of this are low, the chance of comedy gold--pretty much certain!

When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed," Biden told Couric. "He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'

Hoover was president when the market crashed in 1929 and television was still in the experimental mode, otherwise great example Joe.

Trail run

Update 1. The course above is probably a mile or two longer than listed due to my not being able to accurately map trails. One way I know this is that I overtook an older woman between mile 8 and 9 and then 4 miles later met her going in the opposite direction. I was going much faster than her and yet the shortest route for her to have taken would have been around 3.5 miles.

Update 2. Affy loop, 5.2 miles. 39:37

Update 3. Bedford 4.25 31:01