I considered it good news when I came across this little story today.  Apparently, in the last year or so, AOL has hemorrhaged more than one million — that's 1,000,000 — of their dial-up customers.  It would seem customers are jumping ship despite the company's feeble and irrelevant attempts to save their specious little wanna-be Internet service.  If you remember my last entry about AOL, you know that there's no love lost between that behemoth company and innocent little ol' me.  Well, I'm hoping this downward trend continued — and accelerates — leaving AOL Time Warner in serious financial trouble and leaving no choice for the too-large company but to split (that merger should never have been approved).  Here's hoping AOHell gets a bit of the same disservice they've been dishing out for years.  Oh, and for those customers who haven't left yet — get a real Internet provider!

After the events of September 11, 2001, the world became a radically different place.  The threats of old were no longer germane and a new era of global terrorism was finally noticed by the masses (no one can argue that we long ignored terrorism as an ephemeron and a problem most often dealt with by other countries).  9/11 brought it home to American soil, and in the process it bubbled to the surface of American society an ugly and heretofore unseen willingness to quietly set aside our ideals in the name of national security.

A report by Glenn A. Fine, the Inspector General of the US Department of Justice, states that some of those detained shortly after the attacks in New York and Washington DC were held in unduly harsh conditions and were even subject to abuse.  The report, almost 200 pages long and evaluating 762 people found living in the US illegally, criticizes the DOJ for its treatment of aliens held on immigration charges in response to the terrorist attacks.

"The FBI should have expended more effort attempting to distinguish between aliens who it actually suspected of having a connection to terrorism from those aliens who, while possibly guilty of violating federal immigration law, had no connection to terrorism but simply were encountered in connection with a [FBI terrorism investigation] lead," Fine wrote.

Making note of detainees being held for more than a month before being charged with any crime while others remaining in custody for weeks without any investigation taking place, the report indicates that the American ideals of justice and presumed innocent were ignored.

Some of the worst examples of this behavior came from the New York Metropolitan detention center.  Fine pointed out that 84 of the detainees held there were locked up for at least 23 hours per day and were only allowed one call per week — a situation which often prevented them from obtaining timely advice and counsel.  Worst of all, the report clearly indicates some detainees suffered verbal and physical abuse at the center.

Fine wrote it "affected the detainees’ ability to understand why they were being held, obtain legal counsel, and request a bond hearing."

This doesn’t sound like the justice America purports to engender.

Fine noted that oftentimes FBI agents were so busy with other work that they delayed getting out notices that would allow the detainees to be released.  He added that confinement conditions at the primary holding centers in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Paterson, N.J., were below par.

All of this troubles me and brings me back to questioning the Patriot Act.  Developed and passed in a moment of panic, we readily gave up freedoms and protections in order to feel more secure.  All the while we feign horror at the atrocities cited in this report with lugubrious expressions of concern and outrage.

Benjamin Franklin said it best when he said in an eerily precognitive way, "The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either."

If our freedoms are not worth defending when we are under attack, perhaps they are not worth defending at all.  If we are to be Nazis, then declare democracy dead and move forward with the Fourth Reich.  Otherwise we need to seriously remember our foundation (remember that thing called a Constitution?) and tread carefully as we attempt to weigh security against our freedoms.

It's been about four weeks since I hurt my back, and I'm feeling like I can get back into my workout routine now.  I'm going to ease slowly into the routine again and will start out with less weight that I was originally using.  That'll help me make sure I don't push my back too hard and keep it from healing properly.  Aside from that, it's always best to ease back into a workout routine when you've been away from it for more than one or two sessions.  So, tomorrow, it's up at 4:00 AM and back to the regular schedule.  One good thing is that I've lost about 20 pounds since I got back to working out regularly early this year.  I wasn't fat by any means, but I had gained this insulating layer from head to toe that looked pitiful.  I've since been able to burn that off and hope to start adding lean mass now.

As I mentioned in my post on May 15, I decided that the time off from exercising that I was forced to take when I hurt my back would be a perfect time to evaluate my current strength training routine.  You'll notice that I haven't made major changes, but I have made some changes which I think will be beneficial.

I'll still only be doing strength training Monday through Friday.  I take the weekends off from weightlifting in order to rest.  I plan to add cardio to the routine and do that every day (including weekends).  Since I recently disposed of my old bike, walks will have to do until I have a chance to get a new bike.

My routine is to get up at 4:00 AM each weekday, stretch for 30 minutes, then go through that day's routine.  After my workout, I have a protein drink with my morning vitamins.  Since my morning vitamins contain 1000 mg of vitamin C, this is the best schedule (since vitamin C is important for repairing muscle tissue).

I will still be varying my workout each week by shuffling the exercises around.  That is, to keep my body from learning the routine and growing accustomed to it, I move the first exercise to the end of the routine each week, so it's normally several weeks before I perform the same routine again.

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