Fairweather

Re borders: We won, er, I mean purchased the Southwest fair 'n square. Re environment: Ed Abbey.

Those pesky Westphalian principles at work. If only from an environmental standpoint, this type of action makes sense.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/04/16/teacher-sought-demolish-tea-party-placed-leave-school/

You understand the difference between gross income and taxable income, eh?

Thanks for sharing your unsolicited personal story and laying bare your baseless guilt. Now that your ego is satisfied with the telling of your marginally impressive bio I should tell you that your assumptions about me are entirely incorrect. My wife and I don't make a lot of money, but we've made good financial decisions and have put 2 kids through college. I will say that, if anything, my effective federal income tax is too low. It's the State, local burden that's becoming excessive for chumps like me. Regarding the 46% who pay nothing; don't you think that everyone (who is physically able) should contribute--if for no other reason than a vested stake in the dream? And what, exactly, do you think those uber-rich are doing with that big stash they "took" from the rest of us? Creating jobs, perhaps? I suspect you work for the state or some other government agency, no?

So do you really think it's ok to confiscate 65% of a rich man's income--not even counting state/local--while the bottom 46% of Americans pay nothing? Does the government really have the moral right to then take 77% of your estate when you die? And is it right to complain that they only get half nowadays? C'mon, man. Do you really think a graph loaded with hyperbolic tags is a reliable indicator of reality? Again, Bill, please take another look.

Obama's "deficit reduction" reminds me of the guy who washes down 3 Big Mac meals with a sugar-free beverage and then claims he's on a diet. j_b, are you delusional? You're so far off the range nowadays that I'm seriously thinking about placing you on "ignore."

j_b is trying to compare a 10 year budget fantasy to a $1.6tn annual deficit compliments of Obama. I'm not sure if j_b's bad at math or semantics. Probably both. Either way, he can't be trusted with a crayon. What a dumbshit.

Amazing. Like Pertinax after Commodus. Hopefully he lasts longer. He's my early long shot bet for POTUS in 2012. Like WH Taft--only with the beat down directed at the new big govt oligarchs and their union leeches.

Not quite as sad as mommy and daddy spending $$ on out of state tuition for a mathematics degree that was never put to any real use, but, hey, gotta laugh with you on the whole Palin/communications thaang...

OMG, I didn't see that one coming!

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Feel free to make a voluntary contribution to the underfunded public pension fund of your choosing... Prole, j_b & Co. are only interested in securing the hard work of others to create their utopia.

OLD VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold. MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself! MODERN VERSION The ant works hard in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter. The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving. CBS, NBC , PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so? Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green...' ACORN stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome." Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake. President Obama condemns the ant and blames President Bush, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope for the grasshopper's plight. Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share. Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Protection Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper. The story ends as we see the grasshopper and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn’t maintain it. The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again. The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and once peaceful, neighborhood. The entire Nation collapses, bringing the rest of the free world with it.

You're embarrassing yourself--again. Local regulators have been in bed with cable operators for decades--as well as trash haulers, energy companies, cell and land phone providers, etc. They are only monopolies insomuch as your precious government overlords allow them to be--and for a price, no less! Additionally, you might want to look at the Tacoma exception. (I know, sigh, this means actually educating yourself.)

Got it. Thanks!

Ok. I don't know my flowers that well. TTK?

On 31 May 1970, the Ancash earthquake caused a substantial part of the north side of the mountain [Huascaran] to collapse. The block of ice and rocks was about 1 mile long, half a mile wide, and half a mile deep. In about five minutes it flowed 11 miles to Yungay, burying the entire town under ice and rock, and causing the deaths of more than 20,000 people. Also buried by the avalanche was a Czechoslovakian mountaineering team [15 climbers], none of whose members was ever seen again.

The Bush administration was far to the right, which explains the hyperbolas and a good deal of truth from some left wingers. The Obama administration is center right, which doesn't explain at all the loony rhetoric of the right wing. Priceless. You're a fucking idiot. Seriously.

Yes. At least those pesky Himalayan glaciers will all be gone by 2035. The IPCC said so.

Game over, man! Game over.

If you're skiing mostly lifts as described, the Marker Baron is a good call. It's tortionally stiffer by far than any full-on AT binding, but probably not a good choice for extended touring. I use them with a pair of Garmont Adrenalins and BD Kilowatts.

Good pics of a spectacular retreat! Nice to see you made it out of the tent this time.

You really can't read it, can you? I guess election day Spanish must be different. Ok, I'll give you another twenty minutes.