Mindconnection eNL, 2009-07-19

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• The author's views contradict the evidence.
• The author cherry-picks facts and then uses fallacious logic to reach conclusions.
• The author claims to be writing a non-fiction title, but in fact is producing a novel or just plain old horse hockey.

Typically, these are political opinions and those are nearly always statist and leftist. Sometimes, however, the author writes a fictional account of a true incident, posits unsupportable (or blatantly false) conclusions, and then presents the whole thing as fact.

I've noticed that such books get glowing reviews on Amazon. Yet when you read the reviews, they don't really say anything of substance. The words "air head" come to me over and over again when I wade through this tripe. Then you'll see a lone voice detailing where the author went astray.

It's not that negative people are detailed and thus write those kinds of reviews. It's that people who have the skill of critical thinking and can write a proper review end up giving a crappy book a negative review that explains where the book falls short.

Apparently, most reviewers are easily taken in. This gullibility and lack of critical thinking is why the Demopublicans keep returning to their lives of crime (exhibit one, the $11 trillion federal debt) despite the fact we have "elections."

The problem I'm identifying here though isn't the mindless reviews. It's the books themselves. Books larded with disinformation and written with low standards (if any) of editorial integrity. Such books usually have some value, but they are also dangerous because they present fiction as fact and do that to achieve an agenda that generally is in conflict with the best interests of the reader.

How can you defend yourself from being contaminated by the dross that flows from such intellectual dishonesty? Here are some tips.

• Look at the literature sources. You can tell these people are disinformed and brainwashed, just by looking at the sources they list in the back of the book. Rather than conduct research using valid sources, the agenda-driven author lists agenda-driven sources. For example, one author's source material came almost entirely from that bastion of bias, the New York Times. If you believe that the state should be empowered and the individual diminished rather than the other way around, this rag helps you bolster such a belief.
   
• Look at the expert sources. If an author makes claims and is using lay opinions when expert opinions are readily available, the book is fiction. For example, one author claimed a riot incident aboard an aircraft carrier was mutiny. But mutiny is a legal term with a specific definition and the death penalty applies (source: the Uniform Code of Military Justice). Nowhere in the book did the author quote a single lawyer, senior officer, or the UCMJ about mutiny. He did quote people who weren't qualified to comment on it, repeatedly, and used those quotes to make his case.
   
• Look at imbalance. I have no idea why people distinguish between the big-spending, regulation-happy Democrats (who are mere employees of lobbyists) and the big-spending, regulation-happy Republicans (who are mere employees of lobbyists). Somehow, the "logic" goes that if you choose one band of bandits over the other you will be better off, as if somehow the Demopublican Party isn't a monolithic entity despite its consistent track record of behaving like one. A trend in alleged nonfiction today is the author writes in a tone that indicates one end of this particular turd doesn't stink and the other does. This kind of delusional presentation of reality means the author is probably wrong in other areas as well.
   
• Follow the logic. If you haven't read a book on logic and/or can't identify the basic four kinds of logic, get a book on logic and read it closely. Being able to understand what a logical fallacy is and then being able to spot one is a great brainpower skill. Using this skill, you can prevent yourself from being carried along a leap of logic to a false conclusion.

Now, I have no problem with an author who states personal opinion and labels it as such. "It seems to me" or "My take is" mixed into the text is one way an honest author does this. Another way is the author has a separate chapter (often an epilogue) where the author expounds on his/her personal views. The tone in such a chapter is usually different from that of the rest of the book, and an author who is being fair isn't bringing in new evidence at this point but is basing conclusions on what the previous part of the book contained.

It's also true that our personal biases filter our very perceptions. So we can expect a bit less than complete objectivity. However, blatant non-objectivity is unacceptably dangerous when disguised as nonfiction.

"A penny saved is a government oversight."

Think about the implications of that. Then, look at your city council's Minutes and budgetary decisions. You may be quite shocked.

If you're in the USA, go to www.ntu.org and look at the spending records of your misrepresentatives in CONgress. The statement I quoted above really hits home when you do this. Take a moment to look at the Illinois Senatorial record of B.H. Obama if you want to know what kind of pain we're in for over the next 8 years. Spendbama, indeed.

We racked up trillions of dollars of debt under Clinton and trillions more under Bush. Now we're racking up trillions of dollars of debt under Spendbama. Whatever happened to the "change" part of his campaign? This crucial issue hasn't changed at all. And it deeply affects us all. Perhaps more than anything else the govt can do. Spendbama didn't start this pattern of gross misbehavior. It's become institutionalized. We need to take down that institution while we still can. That institution is the Demopublican-controlled CONgress (it's the Demopublican part that's all wrong).

If you review the actual voting records of the highest spenders, you see they are nothing more than the paid employees of lobbyists. Just follow the money. It's your money, after all.

You've seen lots of folks with great-looking abs. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen any of those people with twig arms, wimpy backs, flat chests, or bird legs? No, you haven't and there's a reason why.

The reason is the adaptation response. Hanging leg raises will work the abs (though sit-ups are a waste of time and will hurt your back), and a rigorous program of them can leave your abs sore for days. But your abs won't grow without working the rest of your body because your body wants to stay proportional. Even when they do grow, you won't see them if they are hiding under a thick layer of fat.

What's my favorite exercise for the abdominals? The front squat. In addition to putting tremendous, growth-inducing stress directly on the abs when done right (your abs form the front part of your natural "weight belt"), front squats cause a spike in testosterone output.

That spike means more muscle and less fat.

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You need to allow several days for a muscle group to recover. This is why so many bodybuilders divide their workouts into separate routines for separate muscle groups on separate days. There's no way you can do an intense chest workout and an intense leg workout on the same day. You simply do not have enough energy. One or both of those workouts will be so suboptimal as to fail to invoke an adaptation response so it's as if you didn't train at all. Worse, your cortisol levels will be far too high for the testosterone to really be effective. Worse still, this is exactly the recipe for overtraining and that means the muscles never recover between workouts.

The key to impressive abs is to adopt a lifestyle of training right and eating right, then giving things time to happen. As you develop slabs of muscle across your back and chest, your abs will just start showing up on their own even if you hardly ever work them directly.

Like anything else worth achieving, this level of fitness takes discipline. You aren't going to get it from a pill or from a gadget, though a fatburner supplement can prove helpful. Just don't rely on fatburners to make up for overeating, because they won't.

I personally believe you have to get out of the gym to build a truly strong body. Do some heavy work, somewhere. Is a neighbor digging a foundation for an outbuilding? Grab a shovel and help. Rather than run on a treadmill, go for a walk somewhere and bring along a plastic shopping bag. Squat down to pick up trash and/or pull weeds. You'll burn an amazing number of calories while doing something useful, plus the motions involved are natural motions that build body kinesis and athletic prowess. Plus all that squatting is a major workout even without a bar and weights.

As regular readers know, I'm 48 years old in the picture (above, right), taken in December. I don't diet down for summer. I don't have good genes for maintaining a lean body, I really have to be conscientious and disciplined about it. That doesn't mean I suffer, eat bland foods, or starve myself.

At www.supplecity.com, you'll find plenty of informative, authoritative articles on maintaining a lean, strong physique. It has nothing to do with long workouts or impossible to maintain diets. In fact:

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

Nor does it mean being hungry all the time (you are less hungry on six small meals a day than three large ones), being weak from hunger (on a proper dietary regimen, you will have much more energy than otherwise), or "giving up pleasures" (I have no idea where this concept comes from, unless a person considers being sick a "pleasure.").

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The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing at the right time, but also to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.