Fairweather

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You sick fuck.

Kiss off. jarred. What gives a third-party concessionaire the right to extort money from monument visitors? They sure as hell don't do anything in regard to a climbing program that I can see. If I see one of these enviro-pricks asking to see my permit I'll just keep right on going.

Good info! Thanks. I will not be getting/paying for a permit to hike St. Helens this spring. I'm gonna go natural. While there are permit schemes I support, the third-party extortion racket in effect at this public monument makes my blood boil.

Looks like Carter's peace proposal held only slightly longer than your last woody. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7359661.stm

Please DO share! What is the "payoff" you speak of? "Reagan's team" pre election? When you post something like it's fact, at least have...some facts. I anxiously await your mainstream linked/posted sources. Good luck with this one.

Pretty much every American president between Truman and Reagan--with the possible exception of JFK, and in some ways, Nixon--was worthless. But along with Warren Harding, Jimmy Carter remains the worst president of the twentieth century, and any attempt to rewrite this fact is nothing more than historical revisionism taken on by the most virulent partisans.

Um...it's a R-O-A-D.

I'm constantly reminded that if you simply refuse to leave school, someone will eventually hand you a Phd. Ex presidents have a tremendous amount of influence, given their high level relationships, both domestic and international, as well as a great deal of legitimacy, given their experience. Carter, from his peace negotiations alone, is the most influential ex-president alive today, and arguably the most influential ex-president of the past century. Ex-presidents are also no longer constrained by politics. No, they can no longer order the troops to shoot up some poor dusty backwater whenever they feel like it, but they enjoy more influence in areas that are politically off limits to sitting presidents, most particularly the area of conflict negotiation. Your analysis on why Carter never served a second term is also a applying the rules of tiddlywinks to a chess game. You seem to have forgotten the economic destruction of paying for the Vietnam war, coupled with oil shocks from a certain cartel, plus over a decade of shitty monetary policy, factors which largely preceded Carter's presidency and were therefore entirely out of his control. The complexities of our dynamic world seems to continually flummox you, Dawg. I can see the static appeal of a world long dead. ...And your inability to understand this "world long dead" apparently includes the period 1977 through 1981. Jimmy Carter's own disastrous and hyper-inflationary monetary policy (basically, to just print more money) bears the brunt of the blame for his sour legacy. I like the way lefties and Democrat Party drones selectively rewrite history to fit neatly into the boxes they have built around themselves. Dumbass.

The UN is nothing more than an anti-Semite club. Looks like you're a member too! Tell me; when did the pendulum swing such that those on the right became friends of Israel and liberals (like you) morphed into Jew-haters?

Granting Palestinians the "right of return" guarantees that Israel will no longer exist. It's not even worth discussing. And how long do you follow the roadmap when every peace gesture to date has been met with endless rocket fire and suicide bombers? The Palestinian people made their choice: Hamas. Now they can make peace with Israel or live with the consequences of their own rage.

Beautiful Saturday snowshoeing up Suntop Mountain with Pope. Intermittent snow showers and sunshine.

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When even the EU won't speak to Hamas, it should tell you something.

Pretty much everything.

Yes, of course. the models predict both more intense hurricanes and fewer, smaller ones. I just love the way the COGW (Church of Global Warming) hedges their bets...

Don't spoil Dru's day with details.

He was kidnapped under a scheme sanctioned by Hamas. He is not a prisoner of war. You may be confusing this soldier with the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped (and still held)by Hezbollah a short time later--the event that ultimately led to the Israel-Hezbollah war.

Carter should lose his passport. He is giving his (undeserved) legitimacy to a group of murdering thugs. How did Hamas respond to Israel's withdrawal from Gaza? Anybody??

I'm not sure that the case can be made against consenting adults who want to practice polygamy. What about an unmarried man who fathers children with multiple women? His acts remain "legal" because he hasn't married any of his defacto harem? On a separate note, I would like to congratulate the State of Texas in regard to their handling of this delicate issue. If I recall, Bill Clinton and Janet Reno had a different way of protecting children...

I'm sure the NCCC will be lobbying to permanently close this popular access road. It's been one of their objectives since their founding. Be on the lookout. I smell envirolawyers.

Lemme guess: You work on her staff or for her campaign? The "mom in tennis shoes" is, by all accounts, a mental lightweight. I'm no lover of Democrats, but at least Maria Cantwell actually works hard to represent her state in Washington D.C. I'm not sure exactly what the vacuous Ms. Murray does.

Her performance should be measured as inversely proportional to the time required to complete the task. 15 minutes? She must be dragging teeth.

Adopt the model that seems to work in community colleges. No WEA membership or teaching certificate required. While I'm not a teacher, I am a parent--and a student. I'm sure you'll find flaws in what I came up with, but I didn't want your challenge to be met with only silence, so I anxiously await your flame. Here goes... 1.) You'll have to be prepared to kiss some administration ass. Just like folks do in the private sector. Not pretty, I know. 2.) You'll have to gain the respect of your colleagues. They know who's teaching and who's sucking public teat. Their opinions should be part of your weighted eval/merit increase. 3.) Respect of your students. Even hard-ass teachers garner the respect of the students they instruct. Again; some very lightly weighted input on your evaluation would be appropriate. 4.) Standardized tests have to play at least a part. Might not be totally fair. Too bad. (If my district's sales performance is down through no fault of my own; economic downturn, idiotic corporate pricing mandates, competitive disadvantage, etc ...it's still my fault. That's just the way it is.) 5.) Balanced against standardized tests should be some sort of scheme whereby a teacher who demonstrates the capacity to help a student find his/her niche is doubly rewarded. This would probably be somewhat subjective, but it could be done. Maybe each teacher could be quietly and randomly assigned 'project children' through which his performance could be measured. 6.) Abandon the goal of college for all. Bring back vocational/trade school track. Our current system is pushing kids who aren't college material (yet) right out the door. 7.) Restore discipline. Give teachers reasonable immunity from legal and administrative retribution when they take measures to maintain order in their classrooms--including corporal punishment. 8.) Incentives for the recruitment of more male teachers. I don't know what the stats are, but I suspect many boys with "issues" at school already have more than enough female role models in their lives. 9.) Pay educators who teach inside their credentials more $$ (ie: math teachers have a BS/MS Math, history teachers have a BA/MA history, etc...). 10.) Cut admin pay and staff levels. Immediately. Put the money and the bodies into the classrooms. 11.) You will never get the parent(s) of non-performing students to provide meaningful help at home. They are either not academically capable of doing so, working two jobs to pay rent, or just don't care. There is likely a genetic component involved as well. ...Or just maybe, Johnny's hormone-addled brain will finally fire up when he's twenty four and he will go on to do great things. Seriously. 12.) Pay scale for post-union era teachers? Just off the top of my head: $28,000 for probation/no exp/(or shitty ones). $100,000 for outstanding.