Peter_Puget

TTT

pope, improve your trolling technique.

I hear ya...hikers PP

…or the true story of how capitalism helped to create this wonderful holiday. From the memoirs of William Bradford governor of the Plymouth Bay Colony. "One of the traditions the Pilgrims had brought with them from England was a practice known as 'farming in common.' Everything they produced was put into a common pool, and the harvest was rationed among them according to need. "They had thought 'that the taking away of property, and bringing in community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing,' Bradford recounts. "They were wrong. 'For this community (so far as it was) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much imployment that would have been to their benefite and comforte,' Bradford writes. Young, able-bodied men resented working for others without compensation. Incentives were lacking. "After the Pilgrims had endured near-starvation for three winters, Bradford decided to experiment when it came time to plant in the spring of 1623. He set aside a plot of land for each family, that 'they should set corne every man for his owne particular, and in that regard trust to themselves.' "The results were nothing short of miraculous. Bradford writes: 'This had very good success; for it made all hands very industrious, so as much more corne was planted than other ways would have been by any means the Govr or any other could use, and saved him a great deall of trouble, and gave far better content.'' "...Given appropriate incentives, the Pilgrims produced and enjoyed a bountiful harvest in the fall of 1623 and set aside 'a day of thanksgiving' to thank God for their good fortune." Happy Thanksgiving all! PP

MF is a one move climb and as such is kinda hard to use as a standard. I don't think the Nose is really under rated consider the direct finish to MF. Certainly that is considerably harder than the Nose. I agree with the pope that C & B is not poorly rated but I think that it is a harder lead than Thin Fingers or even Presure Drop at Index. Everyone seems to be discussing differences of a letter grade or two - hardly a sandbag. What about Princely Ambitions? That seems a huge step over Godzilla as a lead. PP

I won't be so crass as to reveal his identity openly on this site - his family and friends might see it.

Jaee - You brought a tear to my eye. Sheer bloody poetry!

I have seen the ice axe and the damage done…… PP

I do have a sister. She’s 5’4”, has two teenage boys, been married 20+ years and is closer to 50 than 40. And guess what - she is still hot! BTW - Her husband is a good guy. She stopped dating alpinists and married a fisherman! PP

Suppose you have a friend who is an all around good guy. Shows talent rock climbing. Has a good job. You know, the kind of guy who you would be happy if your sister dated instead of the losers she chooses. Lately you find out that he has become involved with a bad crowd. You know - alpine/ice climbers. Can anything be done to bring him back from the dark side? Is it harmless youthful experimentation? Is it simply another lifestyle? Intervention now before it is too late? Advice. Condolences. PP

Mr. Radon rules! Rumr you’re a freaking poser! Do three, four, five one arms and you still aren’t as strong as my failure! Operation One Arm is scheduled to end on 1/1/04! Got a bit behind schedule but hope springs eternal. Biggest problem: excess weight! I am thinking of buying a family membership the the VC. Not sure if it wil work out or not.

Europe? Bunch a wimps!

Jens - I believe most of the assertions you make here are incorrect. On average I find Jtree ratings more difficult than Index for example go try Baby Apes (Bachar route) or Sole Fusion (Bachar route), Headstone Rock Arete or even Coarse and Buggy. I could go on and on. Try the Gunks - many hard routes with ratings comparable to Index. Open Cockpit, Supercrack even on TR these are hard as hell. I wouldn't believe everything you read in climbing magazines. Yakima ratings and Index ratings seem pretty much in synch to me. PP Damn another weekend at work for me!

..or evidence of how things are really fucked up over there.. Link PP

Ok Back now. J_B – said the story was debunked on Saturday. I say he is incorrect. Scrambler seems to miss the entire point of the DOD memo. Here is the critical portion of the Pincus story (Pincus is well known for being anti-war) Yesterday, allegations of new evidence of connections between Iraq and al Qaeda contained in a classified annex attached to Feith's Oct. 27 letter to leaders of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence were published in the Weekly Standard. Feith had been asked to support his July 10 closed-door testimony about such connections. The classified annex summarized raw intelligence reports but did not analyze them or address their accuracy, according to a senior administration official familiar with the matter. No debunking. The reports are merely raw intelligence reports. The DOD memo: News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al-Qaida and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate... The classified annex was not an analysis of the substantive issue of the relationship between Iraq and al Qaida, and it drew no conclusions. Again no debunking. Note how what the DOD is saying is that the DOD has not confirmed new information. Of course since the data was raw intelleigence info no one was suggesting that they were. Further the DOD is not saying the info is false. I believe the DOD did not even supply the information in question, so why would they be responsible for confirming it. Read this: Another Link It is from Slate – not a Murdoch publication. Side note to J_B: It is generally considered bad form to attack a man and not an argument. Please shape up and leave Murdoch alone PP .

Havent been to the gym in a month. But I have worked everyday but one!

Might I suggest we all send email to the local papers and get other groups to do the same. (eg NW Hikers) I while ago I posted some links to various papars.

Lance - You make the approach seem much longer/harder than it is. One thing for sure since the FS seems to be letting more a more roads decay a Honda 90 is looking like a very good buy. All these guys complain about crowding at climbing areas but I never seem to see anyone when I go. They aren't pussies they are lemmings. PP PS Work rush is almost over! My goal: humiliate RumR at his home turf (Smith)

Link No shit: 4. According to a May 2003 debriefing of a senior Iraqi intelligence officer, Iraqi intelligence established a highly secretive relationship with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and later with al Qaeda. The first meeting in 1992 between the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) and al Qaeda was brokered by al-Turabi. Former IIS deputy director Faruq Hijazi and senior al Qaeda leader [Ayman al] Zawahiri were at the meeting--the first of several between 1992 and 1995 in Sudan. Additional meetings between Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda were held in Pakistan. Members of al Qaeda would sometimes visit Baghdad where they would meet the Iraqi intelligence chief in a safe house. The report claimed that Saddam insisted the relationship with al Qaeda be kept secret. After 9-11, the source said Saddam made a personnel change in the IIS for fear the relationship would come under scrutiny from foreign probes. There's more: 10. The Director of Iraqi Intelligence, Mani abd-al-Rashid al-Tikriti, met privately with bin Laden at his farm in Sudan in July 1996. Tikriti used an Iraqi delegation traveling to Khartoum to discuss bilateral cooperation as his "cover" for his own entry into Sudan to meet with bin Laden and Hassan al-Turabi. The Iraqi intelligence chief and two other IIS officers met at bin Laden's farm and discussed bin Laden's request for IIS technical assistance in: a) making letter and parcel bombs; b) making bombs which could be placed on aircraft and detonated by changes in barometric pressure; and c) making false passport [sic]. Bin Laden specifically requested that [brigadier Salim al-Ahmed], Iraqi intelligence's premier explosives maker--especially skilled in making car bombs--remain with him in Sudan. The Iraqi intelligence chief instructed Salim to remain in Sudan with bin Laden as long as required. The analysis of those events follows: The time of the visit from the IIS director was a few weeks after the Khobar Towers bombing. The bombing came on the third anniversary of a U.S. [Tomahawk missile] strike on IIS HQ (retaliation for the attempted assassination of former President Bush in Kuwait) for which Iraqi officials explicitly threatened retaliation. Still more: 14. According to a sensitive reporting [from] a "regular and reliable source," [Ayman al] Zawahiri, a senior al Qaeda operative, visited Baghdad and met with the Iraqi Vice President on 3 February 1998. The goal of the visit was to arrange for coordination between Iraq and bin Laden and establish camps in an-Nasiriyah and Iraqi Kurdistan under the leadership of Abdul Aziz. An analysis that follows No. 18 provides additional context and an explanation of these reports: Reporting entries #4, #11, #15, #16, #17, and #18, from different sources, corroborate each other and provide confirmation of meetings between al Qaeda operatives and Iraqi intelligence in Afghanistan and Pakistan. None of the reports have information on operational details or the purpose of such meetings. The covert nature of the relationship would indicate strict compartmentation [sic] of operations. Yet more: 26. During a custodial interview, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi [a senior al Qaeda operative] said he was told by an al Qaeda associate that he was tasked to travel to Iraq (1998) to establish a relationship with Iraqi intelligence to obtain poisons and gases training. After the USS Cole bombing in 2000, two al Qaeda operatives were sent to Iraq for CBW-related [Chemical and Biological Weapons] training beginning in Dec 2000. Iraqi intelligence was "encouraged" after the embassy and USS Cole bombings to provide this training. The analysis of this report follows. CIA maintains that Ibn al-Shaykh's timeline is consistent with other sensitive reporting indicating that bin Laden asked Iraq in 1998 for advanced weapons, including CBW and "poisons." Case closed. Mattp, Jim, Chuck and J_B crow will be served at 7pm sharp! PP

If the tax cuts were in fact the primary factor in the rise of deficits, then one would expect U.S. fiscal policy to be moving in a direction opposite to that of other countries that have not cut taxes. In fact, as a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis notes, the fiscal stance of all major countries pretty much moves in tandem. Deficits fell sharply in the late 1990s in all major countries, with many moving into surplus. Since 2000, surpluses have vanished everywhere except Canada, and deficits equivalent to those here (as a share of GDP) have emerged everywhere. St. Lois Fed Link PP

There really is a guide!

MisterE What do you mean?

Darrington Rock Website

Incredibly irritated at work, I decided to take a five minute break to write this first blush review of the groovy new Darrington Guide. My computer at home is an older machine running Win98. Upon seeing the guide I noticed that there were no minimum equipment/software requirements listed. I slipped the disk in and the guide started right up. First impressions: - Typically great Whitelaw graphics: Not your usual dry guide but not as flamboyant as Private Dancer. Topos can be printed out to stick in your pocket a very nice feature. - Super photo quality: A combination of old and new. Some photos made a route look super good but when looked at the description it turned out that the route only received a couple stars. Really nice pics! - Intuitive navigation structure: I only spent 30 late night minutes looking through the guide, so I am sure I do not know all the features but I felt as if I could easily find any information I wanted. - Easy to print non-disk guide as well. - Topos: Topos looked great and ratings consistent with my experience there. Tonight I intend to go home and watch some movies! I should also add that there are pictures of several cc.comers in the guide! PP

Being "Omnipotent" is busy work. Good link. Actually there has been some discussion on link in the super secret mod forum. But I was thinking of still posting some links here. Mostly some cam shots of local crags/areas