willstrickland

Looks like a longer version of Mexican Crack in LCC. That's a killer shot Off_white.

electric or acoustic

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Jay, I am well aware of the flood of liquidity and the current unwinding of the yen based carry trade. The euro carry trade is neglible in the grand scheme, being much smaller in scope, and having seen a good deal of it unwound from 2003-2005 when the Euro went from somewhere around parity to upwards of 1.30. The end of BOJ's ZIRP will indeed raise rates globally and was the trigger for the unwinding. Especially coupled with the fact that all major central banks are tightening concurrently. Yet, we have no idea what the FED will do...other than more obsfucation, see: end of M3 reporting. Given Bernanke's past utterances, I assume he will continue the Greenspan "mop up" policy. The elephant in the room is that this "mop up" is simply a massive re-liquification that subverts the rebalancing of capital allocation and leads you right back to asset bubbles in another class, courtesy of the leveraged speculator community and their access to endless credit creation. The explosion of MBS and the deluge of derivatives (credit default swaps, etc) have disrutped the standard credit creation mechanisms. Take a look at the notional value of CDSs sometime. Bank issues a load of mortgages, packages them, sells them to Fanny, who issues MBS. Now the bank can continue issuing and selling off the mortgages with little regard for lending standards of running into reserve requirement limitations. The credit mechanism is fucked and continues to morph like the cancer it has become. It has evolved to serve the financial paper handlers rather than the market for capital allocation to productive endeavors. These matters, as intersting, complex, and important as they are, do not sufficiently address the deficit problems. Growing our way out of it, with the demographic bomb about to drop is fantasy land talk IMO. And in the short term, rising rates should slow growth if anything. You state that Seems like a self-contradictory statment. Are you advocating across the board cuts of a certain percent to every program? As in they should all be cut by the same percent without regard to their relative value to the nation? You may wish to note that the "good ol days" of prosperity in the 50's had a upper end marginal tax rate of something north of 80% if recall correctly. I don't agree with rates that high, but it is interesting. This is the fiscal conservatives dilemma in the current GOP... raise taxes and suffer politically -or- cut spending and eliminate/reduce the safety net and suffer politically -or- do nothing and suffer politically because the fiscal conservatives defect or "forget" to go vote. GOP is in a serious bind and the "gay marriage!" rallying cry loses some effectiveness when the base you're trying to rally are in dire economic straights or watching their jobs disappear to the global labor arbitrage game. We can compare work history all you like, I've done some shit jobs in my time too. But it's a variation of a dick measuring contest at best. The point I was trying to make is that you, me, and most other people have it much easier than the typical service worker who can barely make ends meet while working their asses off, yet for some reason you begrudge them a living wage. Do you think pushing even more people into poverty will help the crime rate?

Jay, of all the items you list, only one addresses deficits, eliminating the mortgage deduction. Meanwhile, you reduce tax revenues even more by ditching the cap gains tax, raising IRA limits, and ending tariffs. A line item veto does nothing, it is a tool, not a policy. Any of the pork barrel earmarks bullshit could have been cut at anytime by Delay, Hastert, or Frist. Bush could have, and should have vetoed the appropriations bill until they sent him one without pork. Over and over and over until they "got it". But that requires ethical standards. The question is: would you raise taxes or cut spending, and if you're cutting spending what would you cut? We hear all this blustering from the radical right "I'd end funding for the NEA"...well, OK fine, that's a few hundred million, which we spend in the GWOT fiasco every hour of every day. What else? So, your solution is to fuck the middle class and the poor, while giving the wealthy elite even more concessions and doing nothing at all to address the deficits. And please, no supply side bs. You seem to live in this fantasy world where there is a meritocracy. I see nothing but cronyism and systematic looting of the public coffers by those wielding the levers of political power. But at least those dirty fuckin' spics and nigrahs won't make $7/hr anymore while working a harder day than you've ever experienced in your pampered life. Edited to say: I'll give ya the elimination of subsidies as addressing the deficit too, and with that you still got a lot of cuttin' to do. Where should we start? And I'm not real fond of unions within the public sector either so I'm with ya there, but not to the rabid "all unions are evil" degree of the radical right you embrace.

Jay, being the patriotastic fella I know you are, perhaps your time would be better spend figuring out a way to address the socioeconomic problems facing America, rather than some country you obviously loath for their socialistic tendencies. One might start by reigning in the drunken sailor spending, pork chasing, GOP congressional caucus. I don't really give a flying fuck if the French are having problems when right here at home we have an enormous credit bubble, the manufacturing base and infrastructure is eroding, housing affordability is at extreme low levels, the savings rate is negative, debt service as a percent of disposable income is at extreme readings, true inflation is running upwards of 6%, the employment/workforce ratio is saying that official govt "unemployment" figures are understating by about 3%, China and Japan are the only thing standing between us and a dollar crash, and the bloated budgets combined with irresponsible tax cuts lead us to unsustainable, extreme current account deficits upwards of 6% GDP. And you have time to worry about the cheese eating surrender monkeys? You must be a trust funder or a CEO.

So it WAS you that started the "War on Christmas?" Man, O'Reilly is pissed, you better lay low Commander, he' after ya.

Yup. The roof is almost perfect hands after the first couple of jams. Theres a good pic somewhere of RoxBrock in the roof. Edit: Here it is...

Jay I do pretty much what you do. My larger point is, beyond some combo of improved sliding X's, you hit a steep curve of diminishing returns. Simple, fast, tough to screw-up, expandable/adaptable to any number of pieces close together or spread out. What else does a brother need? When those cats using their insanely intricate systems get benighted, two pitches from the top, because they were fucking with the anchor an extra 10minutes at each belay...how safe are they then?

Might be. If the dude is crankin' .13 cracks, I figure it's not hurtin' him too much.

40hrs? Kinda slack for the corp world, but... How much time do you spend commuting and how much wear and tear on your vehicle from that, how much gas? Time at corporate functions, entertaining clients, road shows, and cooking something for the latest potluck for x-mas/thanksgiving/Bob's retirement? Travel for meetings, time shopping for and money spent on "professional wardrobe", various professional association dues and/or continuing ed? Opportunity cost on the big pow days in winter and bluebird spring days at the crag. Extra money spent on quick/easy to prepare food versus cooking because you are short on time and lunchtime restaurant meal because you forgot lunch or were too lazy/rushed to make it beforehand. Just so you can see your job migrate to asia within the next decade, your pension go unfunded while the CEO rakes in 7 figures, or watch as your continued employment rides on the outcome of a SCOTUS ruling (my current situation). Sweet

This is a pretty nice line at RR

Blake, you catchin' any browns down there?

I read a fair amount of it. Take away for me was simple: 1. Cordolette does not equalize worth a shit. 2. "Shock loading" on an improved sliding X (i.e. w/ limiter knots), a much touted concern, is not really much of a concern in real world situations. 3. People love to wank about with gear, but I need a simple system un-fuck-up-able even when exhausted. But I knew this already. So 50 pages of wanking later, I learned only that you do NOT want to be behind one of these parties on a long route as they attempt to remember, then construct, one of these 12 biner, eight sling, super double mondo equal cordowanksystems at each belay. Two stainless fatties? Bowline on a bight, aka atomic clip. Two lockers, one knot in the rope and you're done. Good enough when there's two bomber pieces. Yes, it has a downside, but not one you're likely to encounter.

Freudian slip, double entendre, or just another bad cc.com spellur? You decide.

Then go to Italy, sport. Be sure to clear it with your advisor first though.

Having my first Red Hook Copper Hook...well actually my fourth, but I mean first day...anyway. A little light for a copper ale. Not a contender in it's category. Not bad, but not among the best in Red Hook's bottled arsenal. Also, Pyramid Curveball Kolsch.... Sucks my ass. Lame even for a kolsch (a variety of which the Lucky Lab brews a nice example) a puffster beer brewed for some brokeback germans or something.

Interesting thing about the Suby AWD w/ auto tranny is that the power split is only 50/50 in 1st and 2nd gear, after that in 3&4 it's a 90/10 front rear split. (Or they used to be anyway) Forresters are pretty cheap, afa new cars go. For the money they are hard to beat. Not my own choice (I'm partial to the legacy wagon because the cargo box is longer) but they are cheaper than say an Accord or Camry or similar FWD japanese rig.

climbing forte: Not doing any. Seems to be my strongsuit for the last couple of years. I'm really, really good at it. But I've honed my skills of climbing off the couch and getting another beer, and also climbing into my waders and skipping work. Uncage your bowl..I mean soul...or something.

BD #6, range tops out 194mm, weight 557g WC #6, range tops out 194mm, weight 520g Weigh difference is about the same as the weight of a single neutrino. They may walk less, I wouldn't know.

If you can't find a straight up trade, and want to sell off the BD instead, drop me a PM. We can probably work something out.

She needs a meeting with "The Donald" You're FIRED!

If you wanna give them the real Yosemite local's experience, just stay shit-faced on malt liquor all day, spray in the caf until you've had 4 cups of stolen coffee and it's 11am, ride a bike down to El Cap meadow and bust out your plush lounging gear...crash pad, coolers, lounge chairs n such, puff a fat bowl and spray some more...head back to C4 and fall off two boulder problems, continue drinking malt liquor and smokin mad herb, find a campfire party and mooch liquor and fire warmth, stumble off to bed. Get up and do it again.

...where I could get some of that bitchin' striped neon lycra.

Actual call to the design eng this a.m.: Me: So, tell me about this new catch basin and culvert at the weigh station. Her: Yes, that's to replace the existing undersized culvert that's failing. We'll pump the old one full of slurry and abandon it. Me: Yeah, I get that part. But the bottom of your sed basin is higher elevation than your culvert inlet. Her: Umm, yeah I guess it is. Me: So did water start running uphill this week, or you have a pumphouse that didn't make the plans? Her: Well, no, there's no pump. Our hydrologist said this was the best configuration though. Me: Ok then. Well, I recommend you either raise the elevation of your weigh station building and the road bed, because the whole area is going to be under about 4 ft of water, or teach your hydrologist how to read topo lines. Let me know when you figure it out.