Summit40--a faith based charity run by my friend Alan Brock

A high school classmate of mine (Wichita Falls High School 1980) is currently undertaking a big challenge, and I want folks to know about it.

Alan Brock is a minister in the Austin area. He is attempting to travel on foot from Austin to Pike's Peak in 40 days. He has to cover an average of almost 23 miles a day to achieve the goal. As of tonight, he is just over 200 miles into his journey, and he is already battling a nasty blister on his left foot. You can follow his progress at www.summit40.com.

So why is Alan attempting this seemingly crazy feat? Well, to answer that question, I need to share part of his life story:

In November 2001, at the age of 39, Alan Brock’s life fell apart. Depressed and lethargic, he turned to food for comfort. By October 2004, his weight had climbed to 287 pounds, a full 109 pounds above his normal weight. As a minister, he knew where to turn for help. The answer came in a still, small voice... "Get up and run".

He entered a local health management program, and within four months, he had dropped enough weight to finish his first 5K run. By August 2005, he had returned to his pre-depression weight of 178 pounds and finished the infamous Pikes Peak Marathon.

Several months later, he started Fit2Endure, a faith and fitness ministry. The non-profit organization serves as a unique community resource by offering seminars, which provide motivational tips on how to create a healthy lifestyle. Brock’s desire is to help people to "live alive."

He firmly believes that physical fitness directly impacts every facet of one’s life.

Based on his own experience with obesity and the fact that he is a father, Alan is using his Summit40 run to call attention to the problem of childhood obesity. As Alan states on his site, "According to recent research compiled by the Mayo Clinic, the past two decades have seen a doubling in the number of overweight American children and a tripling of overweight teenagers."

Go to www.summit40.com to find out more about Alan's run and follow his progress.

I had to take a break.

Every once in a while, I get burned out and need to take a break from blogging, and I am at the end of my latest such break. This time, I felt particularly overwhelmed by the bullshit coming from the Bush administration. Here's a summary of my take on some of these recent events.

1. Big Dick Cheney is an evil bastard and a chickenshit coward. His goal is to run everything in such a way that he answers to no one--including good ol' George--and he acts like a dictator.
2. Big Dick Cheney has been running the government for a long time. Good ol' George has been and is Cheney's bitch and doesn't realize it. He never has.
3. Regardless of who has been in charge, the Bush administration--aided and abetted mostly by the Rupublicans in Congress and partly by the spinelessness of the Democratic caucus as a whole--has operated like an authoritarian regime.
4. Scooter Libby should be in jail. Bush's reasons for commuting the sentence are specious. His actions were clearly within his power, but so what? You know, George, why not just come right out and say you commuted Scooter's sentence just because of personal reasons? Why can't you be even a little bit honest about this?
   
5. And once again, the Republicans renew their obsession with Clinton. A lot of what Clinton did with his pardon power was ridiculous, but Libby's case is different, and in any event, what Clinton did does not have a damn thing to do with Bush commuting Libby's sentence.

I have to stop now before my head explodes.

Anyway, I turned on the TV this morning just in time to catch Bush's press conference. What a huge load of crap. My next post will address that press conference.