Weight Loss

The Male Belly

Round and soft it grows
Chiseled by beer and pizza
A trophy of sorts


Gadabout is learning that staying fit and trim as he grows older is becoming harder and harder with each passing day. It used to be easy keeping the belly at bay, but now it has become a real challenge. Feasts of beer and pizza once had minimal effects on the body, but not today. A few miles of jogging and 2 or 3 trips to the gym were enough in my 20’s, but then the 30’s came around and I needed to increase the mileage and reduce caloric intake. Then the 40’s arrived and all hell broke out.

Once you reach the magical 40’s you cannot just add on a few extra jogging miles, bump up the number of sets in the gym, or add extra iron to the bench press; you need to make lifestyle changes. Fifteen miles of jogging and a few sit ups will simply not offset five pizzas, ten cheeseburgers and two cases of beer a week. Throw in a couple good glasses of whiskey, desserts and hotdogs at the ball park, and you’ll be in for a trip to the department store buying an entire new wardrobe. Keeping the lbs off has become a constant struggle, but I am keeping up the good fight.

We’ll label this fight the Gadabout Improvement Program (GIP) and it can work for you too. It is a simple program, so let’s take a closer look.

Walk. Let’s face it, the older you become, the less stress your knees and hips can tolerate. Substitute walking miles for jogging miles. It takes longer to walk a mile, but it burns the same amount of calories. Yes it looks silly, but so does a fat man trying to jog. The longer you are on the road, the less time you’ll have for eating cheeseburgers and drinking beer.

Weight Training. Forget the heavy weights (they hurt) and move over to the machines and lighten the load. Increase repetitions with light resistance. The women hang out in this area of the gym, so that is a special bonus.

Ride a Bike. Pull the old two wheeler out of the basement and take it for a spin in the evening or morning hours. Riding, in conjunction with jogging and weightlifting is cross training, and experts acknowledge that this is a good thing.

Alcohol. Buy the most expensive beer, booze and wine available. This will keep you from drinking like a college student, and keep the pounds off.

Food. Instead of eating an entire pizza, try reducing your intake to three-quarters. The same goes with Super Sizing (always drink Diet Coke). Eat slower. Psychologists have uncovered a nifty fact that the brain takes 20 minutes to realize that the stomach is full. Pull away from the feeding trough and wait a bit before making a second trip the buffet.

Tanning. Tan as much as possible. Yes, there are harmful effects from the sun, like cancer, but tan fat looks like muscle. You make the call.

Gadabout is working the GIP hard, and realizes that the war will not be won overnight. He is going to stay the course, not giving an inch, until the final inches are lost. Are you with me? Fat men unite!

Subprime Lending Mess Good for America

Gadabout has been keeping his eye on the subprime leading headlines, and posits a polemic position on the matter. Okay, first, what is a subprime? Well, it is essentially lending to individuals with less than desirable credit ratings at higher interest rates under less than optimal terms. In the mortgage business, it is all about closing a deal, and making a killing with fees and so forth. Everyone makes a buck when a real estate deal is closed; real estate brokers and agents, attorneys, surveyors, title insurance companies and home inspectors. Since so much cash is distributed in the name of the buyer, it is important for the housing industry to keep the machine turning. And it turned so wonderfully from 2001-2006.

Subprime lending accounts for about 12 percent of the big picture in mortgages and the default rate (2.5 %) for these loans is 10 times the prime rate lending industry. Ten times the prime rate sounds scary, but in the big picture it is a relatively small segment of ownership. Sure, a few homeowners will default and lose their homes, but savvy investors are waiting in the shadows to gobble up these prizes and generate a profit. Who loses in this horse trading? The owners who default ruin their credit scores, and the lender will most likely lose a bit too.

Let’s look at an example:

Earl and Betty buy a $200,000 home with a zero dollar down payment. They take a teaser low interest rate ARM and after a couple of years the interest rate climbs from 4 % to 6.5 %. Tax assessments increase also so their initial monthly payment jumps from $1,200 to $1,800, and they start falling behind. Oh, don’t forget that they dumped several grand for furniture, landscaping and new curtains, so the credit cards are maxed out too. Anyway, they default and an investor picks up the property for $155,000, and flips it for a profit at a final sale price of $182,000. Every group makes money again through fees and taxes!

The final point is that the lower selling price helped BRING DOWN inflation, thus offering first time homeowners more choices and lower prices. Subprime lending is a small portion of the mortgage industry and regardless of the fact that lives are temporarily ruined, lots of others make a killing off these serial closings and turnovers.

Gadabout does agree that the housing market has taken a downturn and in some areas, like Las Vegas, prices have crumbled. There are problems out there and some people are hurt and will face a serious hit in the future, but the "bubble" never "popped." It may have deflated a bit, but it remains a bubble. And with the national unemployment rate at 4.5%, the country still has steam. As always, be cautious, read the fine print, and don't live beyond your means.

Nukes and Going Green

Gadabout remembers the “disaster” of Three Mile Island (nuke plant in Middletown, PA) in the late 1970’s. Even though failures occurred in the proper operation of the plant’s cooling system, it did not result in a core meltdown and the generation plant retained its integrity. The incident caused quite a scare in the public and nuclear power became under fire from public policy organizations. No new nuclear power plants have been constructed in America since that incident. “Nuclear power is bad, dangerous and harmful to the ecology.” This rhythmic mantra successfully continued throughout the 1980’s and 90’s, but anti-nuke power organizations have found themselves in a tight bind in the new millennium. The bind is labeled “global warming.”

Global warming trends have, as most of you are aware, created strong core action groups that advocate reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These harmful emissions are generated in mass by coal burning power generation systems, internal combustion engines (in our cars), and are exasperated by fewer natural offsets resulting from deforestation. What is the answer? Well, nuclear power, of course! Nukes don’t generate those nasty greenhouse gas emissions! Darn it, all those successful demonstrations against a nuclear future may have had the unintended consequence of destroying the planet. Ah, shucks, all the protest signs need to be changed, again.

Gadabout’s point with this shift in political posturing is that when taking action based upon emotional beliefs does not always produce the best long term solution. In less than 30 years, the anti-nuke caucuses have found themselves jammed into a corner, forced to support an energy source it once firmly opposed. All those 20 and 30 something protesters from the 70’s are now 50 and 60 years old and are carrying signs demanding reductions in greenhouse emissions—read that pro-nuke. Sort of embarrassing since they may have very well created the global warming trends by demanding an end to nuclear power generation. Getting your way does not always make you right!

Making emotional decisions should be a warning to what actions should be taken with global warming. Going off half cocked may result in further damage to the environment and waste resources. Gadabout is not arguing that the planet may be warming since published descriptive data supports an upward trend, but has learned that haste often results in waste. Let’s learn from our past mistakes, make good decisions and work together in a constructive manner before declaring the sky is falling.

War Deaths--Degrees of Magnitude

A Portrait of Evil

Darfur

A Portrait of Evil


Gadabout is searching for answers on how opponents of the war in Iraq have successfully framed an argument based upon casualties. Before we move on, please let me make crystal clear that this discussion is based on the magnitude of war deaths compared to historical conflicts, and associated degree of “worthiness” associated with said conflict. I am not going to dive into any discussion of WMDs, Al-Qaeda, Humvee armor, UN resolutions, or any other rhetoric related to congressional or executive decision making.

During the 1960’s and 70’s Gadabout was deeply embroiled with his primary and secondary education in the Detroit public school system, and within those hallowed halls of learning he was taught that the atrocities of World War II, with its millions of civilian war deaths under the fist of Hitler could never again be possible because of the new world order. We, as a nation and a world, were deeply committed to never again allow an evil dictator to upset the gentle balance of peace and be allowed to engage in genocide. Boy, was I taken for a ride! It is estimated that 60 million died during WWII; 20 million military and 40 million civilian. 5.1 million deaths are attributed to the Holocaust. These numbers are debatable, but the degree of magnitude is what is important here.

Estimates on deaths related to the war on terrorism (primarily for Afghanistan and Iraq) are a bit tricky and smarter people than me are compiling the data, but the high side is around 1 million total deaths. The numbers that are concrete is the total coalition death count, which is roughly 3,700. But let’s not forget the 2,974 murders that occurred on September 11th. I’ll take a moment to inform the readership that nearly 3,000 murders is, in my opinion, reason enough to take the fight oversees and destroy those Islamic bastards who believe they can commit unchecked genocide on American soil.

Saddam Hussein killed up to 200,000 Kurds in the 1980’s. In 1994, the Rwandan Genocide between Hutu and Tutsi resulted in over a million horrific deaths. Some estimates of the death toll in Darfur exceed 400,000. These are just a handful of examples of genocide in our day. Americans are only informed on events in Darfur by a few television commercials and scant reports in a handful of the largest media outlets. Yep, “we’ll never allow evil governments to commit acts of genocide ever again—we learned our lesson with Hitler.”

During the Civil War, 700,000 soldiers died to preserve a nation. During World War II, over 400,000 American soldiers died to contain Japan and Germany (Germany never attacked the United States—should we have fought in Europe?). Over 60,000 died in Vietnam. Now, with the global balance of power in play with characters like Chavez, Ahmadinejad, and a laundry list of up and comers; atomic weapons procurement; genocide in Darfur and elsewhere, Americans are shouting for a complete withdrawal from Iraq. That would have wonderful results—regional and global destabilization and possible world war. Not a viable option, in my opinion.

More Americans died in one hour of fighting during the Battle of Shiloh than have died while defending our country overseas in our current war on terrorism. 16,000 Americans are murdered every year, and 40,000 highway fatalities occur every year in this country. These are just numbers, but numbers are often helpful in making decisions and understanding a degree of magnitude related to death and destruction, and whether a commitment of blood is worthy or not worthy. I wish we lived in a world where no Americans died in 9-11, but they did die. I pray for a day when our soldiers, marines, sailors and airman are out of harms way; but I don’t think that day is here.

Evil is lurking, and I am taking the position that Hitler was one of them and we should never allow genocide to ever flourish again. I believe our finest moment is at hand, and unfortunately the cost of success will be counted and documented with the dried ink of blood and misery. Gadabout will not sit back and chant peace, when a call for peace will cause further death and destruction. We were right to topple Saddam with our invasion, let us not label our decisions with shame.

Gadabout is an Election Official

Gadabout is to report for election official duty at 0500 tomorrow morning for the Virginia 83 District Republican Primary. I feel that it is my civic duty to assist in fair and efficient voting in our mighty Commonwealth. It will be a 15 hour day and I'll be remunerated $60 for my efforts and sacrifices. This adventure will be reported back to all of you in due time, but Gadabout has bigger fish to fry related to the war in Iraq and other environs in the near term. This exploration into the polls is new and should prove informative. Stay tuned!

Campfires, Wine and Friends

Gadabout spent the weekend in Kitty Hawk, NC, with friends who own a 125 year old farm house nestled deep on a 3 acre waterfront wooded lot. It was not the first time I had been invited to visit and enjoy the great outdoors and take advantage of admiring the calm waters of the inland water way, but it was the most rememberable. Elayne and Hugo’s house is indeed special; and during this particular trip we were treated to turtles, woodpeckers, rabbits, dragonflies, snakes, egrets and many more varieties of nature. Above all, though, we capped off the night with our usual after dinner campfire, and it was delightful.

Campfires are uniquely special for city dwellers, such as Gadabout, because fire has a hypnotic effect on the human condition unlike any other sensually aided diversion of everyday life. Campfires, alcohol and friends go together like corvettes, dry roads and cheap gas. It is not often we are afforded campfire opportunities, and when they do arrive it is a period of bliss and reflection. Stories are told by campfires, stories that are long forgotten and rekindled by heat, smoke and flames. Moments of silence are acceptable by a fire. Fire silence is not an uneasy period as in an urban dinner setting when a group has lost its way. No, it is a time when everyone is remembering and embracing a past memory and each person is individually cherishing that memory. Perhaps the passing reflection will be shared, or possibly it will simply be smiled upon and neatly placed back in memory. People smile to themselves around a fire.

If it has been over a year since your last campfire, then you are depriving your soul of a special gift from the creator. If you have made it to the end of this short note, then you have by now reflected on past campfire experiences and are longing for your next opportunity. Campfires are good, bring you closer to god and make a great setting for sipping wine. What are you waiting for? Get out there and start playing with matches!

Space Shuttle Atlantis Lifts Off—Yawn!

Gadabout was informed this morning that NASA launched Space Shuttle Atlantis yesterday evening with a full payload and a 7 man crew to rendezvous with the International Space Station. It was the first launch of a Space Shuttle this year, and the event was marked with, well, with just about nothing. I learned of the launch a few minutes ago while looking through Yahoo news online after my routine morning trip to Starbucks to sip coffee and read the morning paper. Nope, nothing in the Virginia Pilot (our local rag) was mentioned about the launch. I looked through yesterday’s paper to see if the scheduled launch was mentioned—negative, Houston. The morning paper did mention Michael Vick’s dog fighting woes with the Feds, Paris Hilton, trash on Mount Fuji, passport restrictions, global warming and a nifty hand written note by A. Lincoln.

Now, in all fairness to the media, I never turned on the television yesterday evening, so I may have missed something there, but I doubt it. You see, we are only informed about NASA’s shortcomings. Shortcomings like when a female astronaut goes bonkers over a failed love affair, when a rocket blows up or when the administrator challenges global warming theories. 7 U.S. Astronauts are orbiting the earth at this very moment, preparing to dock with the International Space Station, and the country yawns. Gadabout doesn’t yawn because I am keenly aware of the sacrifices, extreme level of training required and risks that our astronauts assume to serve our country. I am proud of all of them and will always afford them my greatest respect for their unselfish service.

Home Runs and Barry Bonds

King and Queen of America

Barry and Paris
Intriguing your games and play
Fame fades over time

Home runs matter in baseball and Barry Bonds is only 10 dingers from taking the honor of home run king away from Hank Aaron. Critics, including Aaron, denounce Bonds for his possible steroid use and bad form with reporters and fans. Gadabout cringes when he watches Bonds on TV, whining about the press, his injuries and life in general. He is not the man most fans identify with as the supreme ruler of the most coveted record in baseball. But so what? He is going to earn the record soon, and whether you are a fan or not, Bonds will be king. Being king will not be easy for Barry. His has a sorted history with the game, the commissioner has been walking a tightrope over alleged steroid use and Aaron doesn’t seem to like him much. It is not easy living at the top, just ask President Bush, he’ll tell you.

Bonds will achieve his goal very soon, but his reign will likely be short lived since there are a few active players nipping at his heels. Most notably is Alex Rodriguez. A Rod is only 32 years old, and if he plays through his 43 year like Bonds (maybe longer, perhaps 46), he’ll most likely shatter the record book. He already has 486 homers in his career and has chalked up 22 this year alone. If he can average just 30 a year, he’ll surpass Bonds by the 2017 season. 30 home runs a year is conservative, so look for A Rod grabbing the record by 2014.

Ken Griffey Jr. is often discounted in his quest to take the record, especially since he has been plagued by injuries since arriving in Cincinnati. But a critical look at the numbers shows that he has a shot. At 37, Griffey might have another 7 seasons left in his knees, and with 576 homers to his name, the goal is achievable. It would be a close call, so we’ll just have to keep an eye on his health and productivity. He has already hit 13 this year, so it is not unreasonable to assume he can produce 33 plus HRs a year in the near term.

It is easy to hate Barry Bonds, almost as easy as hating Paris Hilton. Both seem to have dodged our laws governing society and good order by way of their celebrity status. Bonds has posted the numbers through his God given talents, aided perhaps by modern science; and Paris, by birthright, seems to be above the law. No matter to either. Bonds will be king of baseball, and Paris will stay out of jail and remain the Queen of sex, drugs and bad behavior.

Bonds' glory will fade as others march up the record books, and Paris will gain weight and wrinkle. New kings and queens will replace them both over time. But for now their money and talent walk the talk, and most of us have neither, so let’s just sit back and enjoy the headlines.

Adult Kickball

Gadabout with teammates Rachel and Bobo


Gadabout calls an undisputed out


Hottie chick kicks a single

Gadabout has discovered that the game of kickball has made a powerful comeback in America. Yep, you heard it right, kickball, the game you played with vigor as a third grader. I guess it is not surprising that sports like kickball and dodgeball have made a resurgence since they were a blast to play as kids, and as adults we still enjoy the air of competition and beaning someone attempting to run home with a 10 inch rubber ball (hitting above the shoulders is against the rules).

Most leagues are coed, which is perhaps why so many single people are attracted to the sport. Kickball is a great venue to check out the available talent, and play sports at the same time. With a burgeoning population tossed back into the recycling bin after bitter divorces, and a growing distaste for a saloon-centric lifestyle, adults are flocking to alternatives for meeting "friends." Kickball seems to fill this void, and the numbers support this opinion. After only a few years since the sport became organized, hundreds of leagues have sprouted up. Virginia Beach is dominated by the WAAR (World Association of Adult Recreation) organization and boasts 42 teams on its roster. Not bad for its third year since inception, and the numbers keep charging upward.

Gadabout has embraced kickball for all it offers; athlethics, beer and women. I have been filling the role as league vice president and head referree, but the true pleasure flows from the delightful opportunity to enjoy and partake of sport. Who would have ever thought kickball would find its way back into our cultural landscape? Wonders never cease.

A New, Darker Foundation for Iraq

It appears, by all accounts, that the status quo of nation building is failing due to fundamental differences between deep rooted religious divides between Sunni and Shiite factions. Power struggles between loosely controlled, quasi-independent warfighting entities continue to pepper Iraq with tragic bombings and overt acts of defiance under an infant government. Plenty of smart people are scratching their heads trying to figure this out and offer solutions. I guess there wasn’t a book titled “How to Successfully Overthrow a Large Sized Country Controlled by an Islamic Dictatorship and Subsequently Build a New Democratic Government Capable of Establishing Lasting Peace and Harmony.” Someone should have written that book BEFORE we went in with guns blazing—it certainly would have saved a great deal of human life, resources and misery. Monday morning quarterbacking!

Gadabout has briefly and superficially examined the situation and has noticed a form of governance that is missing in Iraq—Organized Crime. That’s right, the Mob. Iraq is in desperate need for its citizens to discover and embrace addictions to alcohol, tobacco, drugs and prostitution. Gadabout is not making a joke here. Iraq’s underground is based on religious fundamentalism and control of territory along religious boarders. If a second, equally strong entity existed, then competition over control of territories would not be divisive solely on Islamic disagreements.

Take our own American Mobsters as an example. Peace was maintained through a network of competing families in the larger cities of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo and New York. The sanctioned government structures worked informally with these families to bring a delicate and fragile peace while allowing vices to be enjoyed by the masses—alcohol, tobacco, drugs and prostitution. I am guessing that if a radical group tried to establish themselves in Chicago by blowing up a car outside of Wrigley Field, they might get away with it ONCE. Both the cops and the mob would be taking care of eliminating the outsiders.

Iraq’s Mobs are not driven by profits and power; they are driven by religion and power. It is unlikely that an average Sunni and an average Shiite will ever find middle ground between their deep rooted belief and value systems based upon religion, but they might negotiate over the safe and lucrative transport of a truckload of Johnny Walker Black Label across and through the other’s territory at a cost. And, given enough power, these two average Iraqis may not tolerate the blowing up of an open market where both have financial stakes. This may sound frightening to some, but perhaps a third party needs to enter the ranks of power to establish a balance, even if that balance is dark and harmful. If the choice is between alcoholism, gang style justice, and drug abuse, in opposition to continued open warfare, some might choose the former.

Alcohol is not allowed to be consumed by U.S. troops in Iraq. The directive that denies alcohol consumption is called General Order Number 1, and it is strictly enforced. Talk about keeping the troops on the ground bummed out! No wonder they are angry and go off half-cocked at times—they are frustrated! Compounding the problem is that sexual relationships between members of the armed forces are a big no-no. Drugs? Forget that! Most every movie Gadabout has ever watched on WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam included alcohol, tobacco and women. Not in Iraq, though, because we don’t want to upset the population and leadership seeks absolute control of the military. No wonder we are losing.

If Amir were to drink a couple too many cocktails the night before his suicide attack, he might just wake up late with a hangover and not make it on time to blow up a security check point. Think about that. Maybe, if he met some hot chick and hung out for the weekend partying and having a good time, he might just lose interest in listening to radical clerics.

Yep, Gadabout believes that our forces need to loosen up on the rules and stop declaring democracy as an ultimate prize for this young nation. Maybe a little fun is the prescription needed to stabilize the population. Add in a third party of power, and we might just see some progress. “Bartender, another round, please!”