ScottP

Minus the high rez aerial photo

I am sure there are many.

Just read in todays Seattle times that the Pentagon reversed itself on billing Robert Loria after intervention from a number of senators.

Currently 40 F at Snoq Pass. 41 F at Stevens

I don't care how the guy ended up in Iraq, suffering wounds like this shouldn't result in wages being garnished by the Pentagon: link

Like many soldiers wounded in Iraq, Spc Robert Loria's injuries were caused by a roadside bombing. It happened in February when his team from the 588th Battalion's Bravo Company was going to help evacuate an area in Baqubah, a town 40 miles north of Baghdad. A bomb had just ripped off another soldier's arm. Loria's Humvee drove into an ambush. When the second bomb exploded, it tore Loria's left hand and forearm off, split his femur in two and shot shrapnel through the left side of his body. Months later, he was still recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and just beginning to adjust to life without a hand, when he was released back to Fort Hood. AFTER SEVERAL MORE MONTHS, the Army is releasing Loria. But "clearing Fort Hood," as the troops say, takes paperwork. Lots of it. Loria thought he'd done it all, and was getting ready to collect $4,486 in final Army pay. Then he was hit with another bomb. The Army had another tally – of money it says Loria owed to his government. A Separation Pay Worksheet given to Loria showed the numbers: $2,408.33 for 10 months of family separation pay that the Army erroneously paid Loria after he'd returned stateside, as a patient at Walter Reed; $2,204.25 that Loria received for travel expenses from Fort Hood back to Walter Reed for a follow-up visit, after the travel paperwork submitted by Loria never reached the correct desk. And $310 for missing items on his returned equipment inventory list. "There was stuff lost in transportation, others damaged in the accident," Loria said of the day he lost his hand. "When it went up the chain of command, the military denied coverage." Including taxes, the amount Loria owed totaled $6,255.50. The last line on the worksheet subtracted that total from his final Army payout and found $1,768.81 "due us." "It's nerve-racking," Loria said. "After everything I have done, it's almost like I am being abandoned, like, you did your job for us and now you are no use. That's how it feels." link

Take your pick

I like The Rattlesnake Ledge trail. The first couple of miles are nice and wide. The view from the top of the ledge is good and it isn't too far out of town.

•A biner with a bunch of heads on it below Town Crier/Green Drag-on while rooting around for a place to stash water. •#3.5 Friend on the first pitch of Dark Crystal at Index •A #? (3.5 inch) DMM cam on West Buttress of Blueberry Hill •An original Leatherman in it's case on the trail into Gothic Basin •An entire 3 point top rope anchor (5 biners, slings, two wired nuts and a yellow Lowe tricam) buried in the snow at a deserted Devils Lake, Wisconsin one snowy fall day. •A fat, greasy roach in the summit register of Guyes Peak a long time ago. Did anybody happen to find a blue(?) bivy sack in a red stuff sack below the slab routes at Index about 10 years ago? A cousin of the previous booty was the reason for the loss of that one.

...and a heaping helping of Eisenhower's fascination with the efficiency of the German Autobahn from his experience with it during WWII.

Whoa Nelly!

The marketing VP for Kentucky Fried Chicken gets an audience with the Pope. "Your holiness, KFC is willing to honor the Vatican with 10% of KFC's North American gross profits if you change the Lord's Prayer from 'Give us this day our daily bread.' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken.'" The Pope responds, "I can't do that. It's the Lord's Prayer after all." The VP counters with, "We are willing to offer you 10% of KFC's Western Hemisphere gross profits if you change the Lords Prayer from 'Give us this day our daily bread.' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken.'" "A fine and generous offer.", responds the Pope, "But it can't be done. It is the Lord's Prayer after all." The VP leans in close, "I'm not supposed to do this, but for you, we are willing to offer 10% of KFC's world gross profits if you change the Lords Prayer from 'Give us this day our daily bread' to 'Give us this day our daily chicken.'" The Pope pauses a moment and says, "I'll think about it." At the Archbishops meeting the next week, the Pope opens the meeting with, "Gentlemen, I believe we are going to have to rethink the Wonder Bread account..."

I hear of this sort of thing occasionally. My response is, how can the school board enforce such a mandate. There is no way the board in my district can monitor what I teach in my classroom. If I get out of line and begin espousing the virtues of alien abduction or the innate superiority of aryan brotherhood, they might hear about it, but to not focus a realtively small part of my time in the school year to creationism over evolution is something they can't possibly prove or disprove: "Hey, did you give equal time to the 'Theory of Creationism' over that 'Evolution' travesty?" "Uh, ya, sure, you betcha!" Unless of course they are rabid enough about it to plant listening devices; then I'm screwed.

Semper farcissimus!

A tonic strongly advised by Dr. Meuwse for climbing literature malaise... Downward Bound-A Mad Guide to Rock Climbing by Warren Harding Excerpt from the white vs black hat climber rating system contained within (italics are mine): "Fred Becky (sic) Zone ? Mr. Becky (sic) is the object of a complete investigation being conducted by the LSED & FS (?) to determine the validity of his prodigious (claimed) climbing record- of which serious doubts have been raised. When one considers the amount of time Mr. Becky (sic) spends driving to and from Seattle, talking on the telephone, and shitting, it seems more than likely that he has done virtually no climbing at all, despite the fact that he is reputed to be the oldest climber in the United States (publication date, 1975). Zone rating will be withheld pending completion of the inquiry."

... on the home page

How do you know he was vietnamese?

Maybe it was combat, which would make it okay?

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I think this is a pretty good likeness for the missing image in the collage: