The pestilence spreads... Krokodil US Tour 2013... CHICAGO, BABY!

Checked my Book of Faces page earlier and saw a post by a friend of mine and guess what?

KROKODIL HAS HIT THE CHICAGO AREA!

 

Sweet, right? The same evil, flesh eating, injectable Urinam Diaboli we talked about here has reportedly been found in at least one town, the sleepy little berg known as Joliet, Illinois.

Actually, Joliet sounds like it is the place to be if a town in Illinois was an 80s stock broker, reportedly a rapidly growing town complete with an illicit drug problem. 

 

According to several reports, krokodil usage has been positively identified in three young female residents of Joliet at the Presence St Joseph Medical Center. With heroin usage big in the area and Chicago as a major distribution point of the country, it's no wonder this dirty shit has spread. One worrisome piece of info, as if the effects of krokodil (don't click that unless you have a strong stomach or a stronger hatred for krokodil junkies) weren't enough, one report says that two of the "victims" didn't know they were taking it.

 

 

Dishonest drug dealers. Weird.

 

Though I'm not aware of Memphis having a huge heroin problem, it is a bit worrisome seeing krokodil in Chicago. I've got a buddy that works drug interdiction for one of the fed agencies that spends quite a bit of time tracking undesirables along the Chicago-Memphis route. This crap being cheap enough (reportedly about 10-20% the price of heroin) and "trade routes" being what they are I won't be surprised if this shit starts making local zombies by the end of the year.

 

I'll have to keep in touch with my buddy.

In the meantime, enjoy a little Revocation.

 

 

Crap squat workout and an interesting take on gun control from a CNN contributor

Had one of those training sessions last night where nothing felt right once I got into working sets. Last night was squats and since I am off of team programming I have started a loose 5/3/1 program. Warm ups were good, depth good, back good, hips warmed up, etc. When I got to working sets, however, everything just felt... off. Couldn't get my knees out like I wanted or get back how I wanted without feeling like I was falling out of groove. Weird. Got my working sets done, couple accessory sets to test weight, knee opening, etc, and called it a night.

Looking back, I think it was a combination of a few things.

Fatigue - Long day at work and with a lack of reps lately, I think my CNS is starting to wussify. Also realized that I haven't really done any deadlifting of note since I first buggered my shoulder up in July. Two months with maybe three not so serious sessions in. Ungood.

Hip weakness - some of this is tightness robbing the hips, some of it is weak abductor muscles. Need more accessory work here. Time to get after some band abductions, side drags, side raises, etc.

Core weakness/miscue - some of the overall "off" feeling I think had to do with breathing and not tightening the abs and low back correctly. Just out of sync. More core work, need more reps, probably should do some overload unracks to build the CNS here.

Boom. 

So I am at work yesterday, doing my thing, and my wife randomly sends me an email with a link to an opinion piece on CNN.com by LZ Granderson. If you have never read any of his pieces, one of the first I read was this piece on dressing our children. While I don't agree with everything the man says by far, I have previously found a lot of his work to be insightful, somewhat even handed, and entertaining if nothing else. Had I known who had written the piece before checking out the link I would not have been so surprised, but I was immediately intrigued by an opinion piece on CNN titled...

Wait for it...

Gun control is not the answer

I KNOW, RIGHT?!

Surprised? I certainly was. Check it out. I found it to be a refreshing take on the matter versus the vigorous hand wringing on either side of the debate- someone actually taking the time to THINK on the matter and coming to something of a logical conclusion versus pushing an agenda and banning this and that. 

And this coming from a gay black man. 

Let that sink in for a second. The type of person your typical conservative is the quickest to disregard or denigrate has one of the most balanced opinions on the other side of the aisle. 

There may be hope for all of us yet. 

Itty bitty progress report and some asshole attacks the defenseless... again...

I had been worried that my last little bout of shoulder pain and tightness, post PT, was going to set my rehab back. After several days of deload with the recurrence of pain last week and continuing home rehab and stretching, I decided to pick up the week in the gym yesterday with bench day, to include a rep test. Glad (even a little proud) to report that I managed a set of five at 135lbs on bench yesterday.

While this is nowhere near 100%, it is progress over the nasty single for 135 I managed about five weeks ago. If you go by Wendler's calculated one rep max formula (weight x reps x 0.0333 + weight = 1RM) that puts me at about 158 for a current 1RM, or a 23lb increase in five weeks. Average that to gain 4.6lbs/week (as realistic or unrealistic as that may be) and I might be able to hit 225 again by early January. Hell, play my cards right and it may be sooner than that.

 ... and there was much rejoicing.

With some work, rest, nutrition and a little power from the mysterious unknown I should be able to hit a meet early next year with at least a token bench. Maybe someone up there can convince a dwarf to pound out a few new sinews on his anvil for me. 

And now it's time for a rant. If you're a fan of the government (regardless of your party affiliation), this is where you will probably want either stop reading or continue with an open mind.

As everyone knows by now, a coward attacked unarmed personnel at the Washington Navy Yard yesterday. I don't have much new to add to this aside from asking what I am sure many others are asking. How long does this go on? How many more mass killings do we have to endure before something is REALLY done about people like this?

There are already politicians lobbying for more gun control.

I am sure there are people crying and wondering what can be done to stop this plague of violence.

The truth is, people are violent creatures. We have laws in place to stop things like this from happening. The coward that perpetrated this crime has a history of violent behavior involving firearms and somehow still had a medium military security clearance AND was still able to pass a FEDERAL background check to legally purchase the weapons used in the attack. I forget at which source I read it now, but there was someone questioned at the Navy asking how this coward could have possibly obtained the security clearance with his known violent past. If I remember correctly, the answer was pretty simply (paraphrased), "The system didn't work with their system so we couldn't see the previous incidents."

Our own VP Biden said, not too long ago, that we just didn't have the resources to follow up on things like this, didn't have the money to spend on staffing and infrastructure to ensure that laws are followed, erroneous background checks are investigated, essentially that we couldn't enforce the laws we had in place due to lack of budget.

The coward used a shotgun as you suggested, dick.

Really?

We want to make more laws governing laws we have already written and put in place to stop incidents like this from happening? From making sure that dubiously named "gun free zones" are in fact safe areas and not places where law abiding citizens, in this case sworn defenders of our Consititution, are allowed to forcefully defend themselves and each other if need be?

Incidentally, if you look at pretty much any active shooter incident in recent memory, each of the crimes committed by these cowards against the defenseless are in so called "gun free zones". Something is foul in the state of America...

If we are going to rely on our government to protect us from ourselves, it is high time we hold them to task. If they are going to make everyone feel better by passing laws to appease the jittery sheep, then let those that are willing to be sheepdogs protect the herd.

Quit criminalizing the law abiding and start hunting down and punishing the criminals.

Start preventing incidents like these by prosecuting criminals early on to the full extent of law instead of letting them go or not starting investigation in the first place because the budget doesn't call for it.

Start enforcing the laws that are already on the books.

Put your fucking money where your mouth is.