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moakley
SFN Regular

USA
1888 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  06:59:18  Show Profile Send moakley a Private Message
Pat Robertson has done it again through a display of supernatural strength. This is such an inspiring story, I am actually tingling with excitement. I can genuinely and sincerely sum up my feelings on such a revelation in just a single word. That word is, and I mean this sincerely, "BULLSHIT"

Clearly I'm not the first person to have this reaction to Pat's supernatural strength. Clay Travis had a similar reaction.

Upon learning that Pat's Doctor can leg press 2700 pounds another doubter suggested that his Doctor's name must be Bruce Banner.

I belong to a gym, and on one Saturday afternoon I watched a rather large and well proportioned man leg press thirty 45 pound plates (1350 pounds) 3 times. He wore a back belt and knee wraps, two precautions that Pat doesn't appear to use. So this strikes me as more PR bullshit from the 700 club.

Life is good

Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous

Ricky
SFN Die Hard

USA
4907 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  09:49:52   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Ricky an AOL message Send Ricky a Private Message
Why no video of the 2,000 pound presses? Were there ghosts in the gym that day, causing electrical interference and making the camera malfunction?

Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  10:33:25   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
Don't know for how long this link will be valid, but if you go to Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me... for May 27, 2006, and click on "Panel Round Two," you'll get to hear Robertson doing 1,000-lb presses. The Robertson section starts at about 2:16 into the audio clip (though the first 2:16, about Oregon's "No Drunk Legislating" law, is funny too).

My favorite comment from the show: "What Would Jesus Press?"

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Chippewa
SFN Regular

USA
1496 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  17:36:16   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Chippewa's Homepage Send Chippewa a Private Message
CNN's Anderson Cooper recently aired video of Robertson appearing to leg press 2000 pounds. CNN's guest also speculated that the machine Robertson used had to have been specially built since professional machines in gyms don't hold that much weight. Also, it did not look like Robertson was pushing dead weight up from the ground with his legs, but balanced weights suspended on rods with hydraulic pistons and counter-balances.

There may have really been 2000 pounds suspended on the polls, and Robertson may have been pushing up quite a bit of weight, but I suspect that this is something somewhat akin to me being able to push a 2000+ pound vehicle that has the breaks off and is in neutral.

Not to belittle it if he did it, but to me, if it were really proved that Pat Robertson leg pressed the full 2000 pounds, all it would prove to me is that a rightwing dingbat nutcase leg pressed 2000 pounds. It doesn't add an "weight" to his brain or his crazy beliefs.

Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.

"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.)
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend

Sweden
9687 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  18:11:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Send Dr. Mabuse an ICQ Message Send Dr. Mabuse a Private Message
Or they just added a zero behind any and every weight marking...

Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3

"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse

Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder.
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pleco
SFN Addict

USA
2998 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  18:26:26   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit pleco's Homepage Send pleco a Private Message
Maybe they used a faith-based scale.

by Filthy
The neo-con methane machine will soon be running at full fart.
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trogdor
Skeptic Friend

198 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  19:32:38   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send trogdor a Private Message
the real question is: could God create a rock so large that Pat Robertson himself could not leg press it.

all eyes were on Ford Prefect. some of them were on stalks.
-Douglas Adams
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard

USA
4574 Posts

Posted - 05/29/2006 :  19:46:16   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send H. Humbert a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by trogdor

the real question is: could God create a rock so large that Pat Robertson himself could not leg press it.

LOL!


"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman

"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie
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beskeptigal
SFN Die Hard

USA
3834 Posts

Posted - 05/30/2006 :  14:20:06   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send beskeptigal a Private Message
I just don't get how these faith based marketers live with their conscience after lying to sell products, or how the faith based politicians live with their conscience after lying to get votes.

edited to fix word errors
Edited by - beskeptigal on 06/02/2006 02:03:06
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 05/30/2006 :  15:19:14   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
beskeptigal asked:
quote:
I just don't get how these faith based marketers live with their conscious after lying to sell products, or how the faith based politicians live with their conscious after lying to get votes.
The same way I now manage to live with my wife: By no longer having one.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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JohnOAS
SFN Regular

Australia
800 Posts

Posted - 05/30/2006 :  23:02:45   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit JohnOAS's Homepage Send JohnOAS a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal

I just don't get how these faith based marketers live with their conscious after lying to sell products, or how the faith based politicians live with their conscious after lying to get votes.



While I think beskeptigal actually meant conscience, I find it amusing to think of how fundies live without a conscious.

As Homer would say, "It's funny because it's true!"


John's just this guy, you know.
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Ghost_Skeptic
SFN Regular

Canada
510 Posts

Posted - 05/30/2006 :  23:46:43   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Ghost_Skeptic a Private Message
quote:
Originally posted by beskeptigal

I just don't get how these faith based marketers live with their conscious after lying to sell products, or how the faith based politicians live with their conscious after lying to get votes.


Or how do politicians live with their consience after sucking up to a faith based charlatan and obvious hypocrit such as Pat Robertson.
I think these people need to have their own religous designation "Hypochristianity" to distinguish themselves from honets people who happen to be Christians.

Disclaimer: the term Hypochristian was not created by me. I got it from a gay musical rant called "Keep Your Jesus off My Penis" at atomfilms.com (requires special player, altering your security settings and a pseudo-Wiccan ritual, but well worth it)

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. / You can send a kid to college but you can't make him think." - B.B. King

History is made by stupid people - The Arrogant Worms

"The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism." - William Osler

"Religion is the natural home of the psychopath" - Pat Condell

"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter" - Thomas Jefferson
Edited by - Ghost_Skeptic on 05/31/2006 06:46:59
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26020 Posts

Posted - 05/31/2006 :  07:28:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message
"Keep Your Jesus Off My Penis" was discussed here before, without need for special players or weird rituals.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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Fripp
SFN Regular

USA
727 Posts

Posted - 05/31/2006 :  09:04:47   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Fripp a Private Message
This reminds me of a brief episode several years ago. Sri Chimnoy was doing a strange one-arm press/support supposedly in excess of 900 lbs (the precise number escapes me). He, as well, claimed that his great strength came from some inner spirituality. Noted weightlifting historian Terry Todd called bullshit on his claim.

I will repeat Mr. Todd's challenge for Pat: if you really want to prove the power of spirituality, instead of doing some stupid lift and a special machine, just sign up for a local powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting meet and blow away the competition. Do this enough times and you will get noticed and The Message will get spread.

"What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought my Dark Lord of the Sith could protect a small thermal exhaust port that's only 2-meters wide! That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! You have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?!?!"

"What? Oh, oh, 'just rebuild it'? Oh, real [bleep]ing original. And who's gonna give me a loan, jackhole? You? You got an ATM on that torso LiteBrite?"
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filthy
SFN Die Hard

USA
14408 Posts

Posted - 05/31/2006 :  11:12:35   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send filthy a Private Message
Just for the hell of it, let's take an in-depth look at our Pat. The scrutiny will include this ridiculous leg-press claim at the tag-end of it:
quote:
Leg press claims

Robertson claims on his web site that through training and his "Age-Defying energy shake", he is able to leg press 2,000 pounds.[47] This claim has been cited as impossible by outside sources, since 2,000 pounds would be an exceptional accomplishment for a world-class athlete, to say nothing of a 76-year-old man like Robertson.

Additionally, a standard leg press machine is not equipped to handle that much weight, and a modified or custom machine would be required in order to hold the 44-different 45-pound plates (loading 20 100-pound plates is possible, but most machines are not rated to handle the weight). For comparative purposes, when Dan Kendra set the Florida State University record of 1,335 pounds, the leg press machine required extensive modifications to hold the proper amount of weight, and the capillaries in both of Kendra's eyes burst during his successful attempt. Thus, Robertson's claimed achievement would add 665 pounds to the best-ever total of Kendra, a top athlete in his physical prime, who would go on to play professional football in the National Football League and become a Navy SEAL. [48][49]

In response to the skepticism of this claim, Robertson's website has claimed that his doctor is able to leg press 2,700 pounds, and that "It is not nearly as hard as the authors of these reports make it out to be."[50] (What "these reports" are exactly was not specified).

A video has also been provided supposedly demonstrating Robertson doing several reps with a weight of 1,000 pounds which can be seen here. In the video Pat Robertson is seen using a 45 degree sled type leg press machine. He keeps the safety locks in place at the second step which severely limits the range of possible motion. The seat is positioned to allow approximately six inches of travel after the lock. This setup gives Pat Robertson the maximum mechanical advantage at the last few inches of travel. This is generally regarded to be improper leg press technique. The proper technique is to load the weight, place hands on the release levers and then to press the weight from the stops and then to rotate the stops out. Then, the weight is allowed to slide down until the quads and glutes are at full extension. At this point, the person executing the leg press has minimal mechanical advantage and can press the least amount of weight. In the video, Robertson also appears to be using his arms to push on his thighs, which is also regarded as improper technique.


Pretty remarkable guy, really. If he were dead, I'd consider making him eligible for my signature....




"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)

"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres


"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude

Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,

and Crypto-Communist!

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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 05/31/2006 :  12:49:40   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message
What strikes me is that Robertson seems to be carrying on a sort of "reverse evolution" experiment with his followers. Only those that can swallow his increasingly ridiculous and obvious lies remain followers. Clearly, he's got his flock back to a prehominid state already. Watch for them to sprout tails soon.


Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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