bobinc

Concord Tower?

Good points on efficiency. I work in the conservation/renewables field, and it has amazed me what this country has accomplished, given the amount of public funding for the research is but a rounding error in DOE's budget. I mean, $1.3 billion for hydrogen cars... not chump change, but imagine what could be accomplished if we put even 5% of the DOE budget into useful research (rather than spending most of it on nuke-u-lar facilities and weapons).

Dick Cheney got 11 military deferments. George Bush Jr's war "experience" is limited to flying toy planes in Texas. Colin Powell doesn't like war and is being pushed to sell it. Stormin' Norman says he'd like a bit more info before making up his mind.

It's early and the irony didnt' come through very well. What I am saying in the first paragraph is that, yes, there will be various casualties (Iraqi civilians, American troops, etc) and this will on the whole probably be more destructive to America's position in the world than it will be helpful. Arab countries will further villify us, our allies will become more nervous because of likely stepped up terrorist activities, and so on. The simplistic view that we can use force to get ourselves out of any predicament is much easier to sell than a thought-out approach to dealing with the complexities of the modern world. And that's where Bush does his best work: he has no interest (or ability, I think) to understand and deal with the complexities of any serious issue.

I am starting to see war as a win-win situation. If Wolfowitz and Cheney get the war they want, they will have to contend with some very thorny issues. First, there will be a big backlash from various quarters which could dwarf what happened on Sept 11. Second, there is the issue of what will happen on the ground in Iraq afterward, in terms of the power vacuum. No one has offered a clear vision of how a transfer of power will occur. We just go in and get rid of the bad guy and drop chocolate bars on the survivors and it's cool. Yeah, right. Finally, given the shaky state of the economy and the resources needed to fight the war, it's an even bet this war will have even further negative effects on domestic economic security. The other "win" is that if Bush et al don't get their war, they will be regarded as weak, which will hurt their chances of re-election in 2004. I can't wait to see what they decide to do.

Mt Stuart -- just below false summit and looking toward Sherpa

I assume 'twas cherry pie.

I'm not a doctor, but it seems pretty clear that your body is crying out for a good single malt Scotch.

bukowski

To get back to your original question, it USED to take quite a number of member sigs to get on the roster for a BOD election. I believe the number is in the thousands. When a friend of mine was considering running for the board (in part because he had many negative experiences with REI over the years), he found he needed those signatures and couldn't figure out exactly how to do it. That is, how long does it take to get them (stand outside of the store with a clipboard?) and how do the sitting members of the BOD do it? The system definitely favors incumbents (but that's typically how these things work).

A good combo to consider is the Yates Shield with the full strength chest harness. The Shield is also nice for longer free routes and not quite as heavy/bulky as the other wall harness they offer. It seems to work pretty well for hanging/semihanging belays in my limited experience. Plus pricing is pretty good.

Used the #6 quite a bit at Red Rocks last fall. Really liked the flex stem and the trigger action. That size seems to be about equiv to the .5 BD Cam but lighter. Also got one of the joke sizes (#2) but it will take some practice before I'm willing to hang on it. Really, it does look like it will break without much trouble. But the nominal strength rating is pretty impressive and it is an active device...

Investigated the snowpack in the Wasatch. It's even worse than here! Beautiful spring conditions in January but with much less snow. Still, found a few hundred feet of okay recrystallized snow in the trees here and there and met some cool people.

Check with estivate; he's spent a lot of time on that side getting intimate with the brush. Also, I think his website may be helpful: midforc.org or somesuch.

I'm sure you also support higher wages for daycare workers, eh?

Thought he was born in '21 or '22. Perhaps I have him confused with Bukowski. Regardless, he's already immortal.

The Forest Service is a branch of the US Dept of Agriculture. Douglas Fir == coniferous corn

If you include the full approach up the old skidder track, it could be considered a Class V!

Depends on the wind, especially in the morning (after you've been in your tent for 12 hrs or so...) But once you're on the south-facing rock, all is well.

Good points, Chuck. Something on the order of 500,000 (mostly children) have died in the last 10 yrs because of the boycott. If that isn't war, I don't know what is.

Point 4: Once we do our good deeds in killing all the bad people in Iraq, good people will rush in and rule the country to the benefit of all Iraqis. This is more or less what Paul Wolfowitz has assumed all along. It flies in the face of history, especially if you look at the religious schisms in Iraq. Very little attention has been devoted to this issue. Almost every discussion (if you can call it that) focuses on the "getting even" aspect of bombing Al Quaeda or Iraq or whatever stand-in one chooses and leaves out the issue of what comes next.

Does anyone know who the second skier is?

Apparently, the festival is supposed to happen on May Day. Running the livestock through the fire is intended to ward off disease or perhaps as just a sacrifice. There was a pretty good Seattle band known as the Beltanes that played for a few years in the late 80s.

Cavity Search Dicky C's Secret Hideout Scalia's Pet Rock (AKA Clarence Thomas)

Hey TLG, isn't there some special holiday "firewood" behind the counter?