Thoughts

This semester, the Governor pushed a notorious budget for the state of Wisconsin: 300 million gutted from Wisconsin's public education, Wisconsin Public Radio wiped off the map, 1.3 billion borrowed for transportation infrastructure, and 250,000 for research on the health consequences of wind energy. It might seem disconnected, but let’s dial the clock back a little bit. In November 2014, there was a little amendment put on the ballot called the Transportation Fund amendment, which would deliver more funds to transportation in Wisconsin. The Daily KOS warned “Watch out for ALEC on your ballot” outlining the amendment’s ties to the group, The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which somehow keeps its non-taxed non-profit 501(c)(3) status despite being a political lobbying group that is funded by some of the largest corporations. ALEC was a major player behind legislation that helped dismantle Wisconsin unions, and increased funds for fossil fuel transportation.

When the 'strong is the new skinny' campaign first started, I was pretty excited about it. The first article I saw was a woman who used to be what she considered anorexic. She said she was weak, and barely ate. She fell in love with weight lifting, and said it gave her confidence, strength and courage. She explained how before lifting she was taught to deprive herself, to lack confidence in her body, and be weak. After lifting she felt proud of her new strength, could eat (and was supposed to eat) more, and felt a sense of progress towards muscle, versus progress towards being smaller. She posted new photos of herself showing she didn't look much different (she didn't 'get huge'). Her photos though were fairly normal looking. She probably had a healthy 10-20% body fat, and you could tell she had some solid muscle. Her muscle, however, wasn't rippling out of her skin, and it isn't supposed to be. There are two main types of weight training I want to tal