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pretty sure the second person on your list is a Republican And what makes you think that? Because Jesus H. Christ hates gays? Is it because Jesus H. Christ wants to cut medicaid funding? Could it be because Jesus H. Christ wants us to lock up a bunch of people without any semblance of justice and thinks torture is a good thing? Or other?

Today at the White House, President Bush signed a deal that would send nuclear fuel and know-how to India. Yeah, when asked about the Indian deal, President Bush said, 'It's the least we can do after stealing their land.' (from Conan O'Brian show)

Someone with your climbing ability and apparent risk-taking threshhold, you could probably have a good time soloing some of the classic long trad lines (i.e. the one's that have been well cleaned up by the hordes).

June will probably have some snowcover on just about any bigger peak. So trails will be obscured. A good sense if navigation (map compass?) will be important. If you (or your buddies) have no experience with an ice axe, then it will have just as much chance to hurt you as to help you. A little practice and some studying plus the axe will probably be pretty nice to have on any steep snow. But if you don't have any clue how to use it, don't bother buying/renting/carrying. In June Mt. Si or Mt. Pilchuck might be good easy choices. There'll probably be no snow on Mt. Si and heavy bootpack will established through the snow on Pilchuck. Matt's choices (Hidden Lake Peak and Sahale) should also have good trails pounded into the snow, are a bit more adventurous but much more spectacular than Si or Pilchuck.

Another thing to look closely at is what the disability insurance actually pays. For the one I have, they will pay 60% of your salary, but only for two years. After that point, they say you must get any job that you are capable of getting. There is NO language that specifies that if the only job you can still complete is cold-call telemarketing or 8 hours/week as a Walmart greeter, that the insurance will cover the difference from your previous salary. In the past I have not found insurance companies to pay off more than they put in writing. Thus, I have to assume that this disability insurance will pay off for two years only. If your main worries are climbing/kayaking/driving I would consider looking at accidental death and disability insurance. It's quite cheap compared to standard life insurance. Although, it probably won't pay for loss of income, but would pay if you lost a limb or eye (and of course, if you died).

How many people attempt Mt. Hood or Mt. Rainier each year? Hundreds probably, maybe thousands? How many serious accidents? Around 10 maybe? If it ain't broke... Having climbers register and giving them the standard indoctrination seems plenty to me. If there isn't a passage in the list of topics about the dangers of pushing the weather, with pointed emphasis on people trying to fit a climb into their schedule, then there certainly ought to be something like that. But other than that, I wouldn't advocate any blanket restrictions just because a small percentage of climbers get into trouble.

I-90 West through Issaquah

$65/5 kg bucket. No licenses or permits required! Depending on how much it expands, you might be able to do some pretty serious damage by filling up a few adjacent expansion joints with the stuff.

good Leno/Letterman material here

back to the original topic! site that ranks (and links) media sites by leanings Here's the headline of interest in that liberal rag, The Washington Times: emphasis mine

It's just so annoying that when someone asks, "Are we winning?" and the person answers "No", that the fucking liberal media spins that to mean that the person means "we are not winning"! We should have a purple koolaid icon

Can anybody clue me in on a place in Seattle to buy a theraband or two (without paying the ridiculous prices they charge you in the PT clinic)? I guess innernet source would be OK also, but not my preferred choice. The innernet is so confusing.

Do the M's still have Carl Everett? Getting Bonds would really round out the group, Everett, Guillen and Bonds. Maybe with that group we could convince John Rocker to come out of retirement, or perhaps bring him in as a coach, or perhaps take over for Ron Fairly as color guy.

Oh, I'm sorry you don't like it. I'll do something about it right away!

To declare martial law, it's usually best to have the support of the military first.

President Bush November 8. 2006: "I thought when it was all said and done, the American people would understand the importance of taxes and the importance of security. But the people have spoken, and now it's time for us to move on."

No mandate. I'm sure that many of the Republicans who voted Democratic were also holding their noses.

Does Rossi/Gregoire ring a bell? How long did Rossi and the Republicans bitch? This time the Republican candidates aren't bitching because they know that they were lucky to even get many Republican votes. Did you read Rush Limbaugh yesterday? He's saying it's a relief that he doesn't have to "carry their water" anymore. Some Republicans might have held their noses to vote GOP, but the candidates knew they were already pushing it. Now they are just letting it die, rather than embarrass themselves any further. These were not 50/50 elections with evenly divided GOP/Dem populaces. These 50/50 results in VA and MT are places that the GOP usually wins handily. If you adjust for the baseline tendencies of these places, a 50/50 win by the DEMS is a landslide.

I heard a Nancy Pelosi interview where she said the first thing they would do is to change the House rules so that the reconcilliation committee (? the one that works with the bill after it has passed the House so that it agrees with the Senate version) will be composed of members from both parties instead of being limited to the majority party's members. I hope she follows through on that. It would make it much harder to sneak objectionable stuff into legislation, like the recent decommissioning of the special investigator's office to look into Iraq contracts. And hopefully, in 2008 (when Dem's control the Prezidency and both houses of congress), they don't just change it back.

Word. That is just a fantastic idea. If I didn't hate entire idea behind initiatives/referendums so much I'd suggest that you start gathering signatures. Failing that, those of us who think that this is a good idea should share it with our representatives via a letter or two. Totally agreed. Except for the sizeable minority who feel all homosexuals should be vaporized (excepting, of course, those that they actually know, personally), this debate is merely fighting over a word. Gay-marriage opponents feel that heterosexual marriage is somehow soiled if homosexual marriage shares the same term. (A bit analogous to denizens of this board objecting to some groups labeling themselves "climbers") Conversely, gay-marriage advocates feel gay couples are belittled if they aren't allowed to share the word. I heartily endorse Off White's proposal!

We're in a real pile of shit right now. Sure, the Bushies put us there, but giving 'em all the boot isn't going to hoist us out. I say give 'em a chance to work with us, AND investigate them. Carrot and stick. I think investigations ought to begin to examine current and ongoing practices that will affect how we can undo the damage. For example, do some examining of the hiring practices of the Bush administration in key posts in Iraq, Homeland Security, FDA etc. Investigate whether expert input is actually solicited or acted upon. We need some good people who know what they're doing, not just contributors to the GOP. WE won this election because, even though Republicans love having the GOP in power, they realized that complete incompetence in government was too high a price to pay. Making revenge our biggest issue will lose all that crossover support. We've got a chance here to improve our dsyfunctional government and political system. Let's not spend all of our political capital on impeachment. And, finally from a purely pragmatic AND partisan point of view, we certainly need thorough investigations anyway before any impeachment process would have a chance to be successful. If investigations turn up enough dirt so that even some Republicans would support impeachment, then Bush will just resign anyway (or be a complete albatross about the GOP in 2008).

I cheated anyway. Skeezix gets the fabulous prizes.

Presidential press conference going on right now. It's so much more fun to listen to Bush speak when he's a neutered idiot instead of a dangerous lunatic.

"a thumping"