willstrickland

And you thought searching on "80's Skank" would bring back vintage reggae-influenced vinyl recordings circa 1987.

Actually KascadskyNutsack, there has been a long-standing and well documented outcry over the dike/leveee system Saddam installed that drained those wetlands among both Iraqi and international environmentalists/ecologists/conservationists. The fact that you haven't heard "a peep from those supposedly concerned with the environment" has more to do with the media's choice of emphasis and your lack of an inclination to read arabic language scientific journals rather than environmentalists' lack of concern. Unless, of course you actually spend your days around professional wetland biologists, ecologists, etc, something I highly doubt. In fact, the area is currently being reflooded and resident "marsh arabs" are already returning to the area. Your claim that it is "a strong indicator of their pretense of environmental concern, a thin veneer over purely partisan, knee-jerk, political predispostions" is naive, arrogant, and nothing more than a right-wing caricature of the far left enviro crowd. Do you believe your own tripe or does Rove send you the talking points every month?

These things are light, but not the lightest option and I only have a few of them. The reason I have them is shape, and only shape. They are there in case I need to make a biner brake or garda or something else that won't "behave" on an asymetric biner. Otherwise, for an ultra-light biner, you can't beat the Trango Superfly wiregates IMO. They are essentially a lighter neutrino. At 30g, they are about 20-25% lighter than other ultra-light offerings (from memory, neutrinos are around 36, dovals are about 35? I think, JCs are about 37). My free rack is now almost entirely JCs, Neutrinos, and Superflies, and all new additions will be Superfly. Dovals, IMO, have no advantage except shape. They don't clip or handle well, and there are lighter alternatives.

Must have forgotten his high boots, and needed the horns to hold onto.

"Welcome to York," says York (Pa.) Daily Record managing editor Randy Parker about the truly Onion-esque story that ran in his paper today. "Man Charged With Assault on Sheep" was the headline, and the true-life story, by Caryl Clarke, begins: "Somebody was making nighttime visits to farmer Terry Patterson's sheep barn in the 600 block of Big Mount Road in Paradise Township." It goes on to tell of a man arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a sheep after the barn owner installed a barn alarm and intercom system to prevent such attacks. But there's more. Clarke's story details the police arrest report and ends with a pull-out box highlighting previous incidents of bestiality in York, including a 1997 case involving a live turkey in a food plant and a 1992 encounter between a man and a ram at the York Fair. link: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000835312

Nope K, not inverted, but flatter than one would expect. Most likely attributable to a combination of heavy buying by the asians recycling their trade surplus as well as pension/retirement plans restricted in their purchasing choices. No 30yrs issued in a while, which would put more pressure on shorter issues. C'mon Puget, those numbers are great...until you look at the trend. YOY levels are great, but let's see YOY growth trend numbers, not just sraight YOY. Productivity growth is slowing, so one would expect capital expenditures, particularly with the amount of cash on coportate balance sheets. And you know the unemployment rate just increased from 5.2 to 5.4 and the labor participation rate is low. While the "3 million new jobs" sounds great, lets put it in perspective: We only just "broke even" on jobs in Bush's tenure in December. That does not account for population growth. Job creation has not been keeping pace with population growth. It's amazing how the BLS has revised the monthly numbers down over and over again. You mention the 5.4 vs 6.4. I'd like to see a comparison of the unemployement rates adjusted for labor participation rate. That said, 5.5% is very, very low by US standards. The early 80s had levels hovering around 9-10%. The employment numbers were the only thing to surprise to the upside last week. And a large part of the "surprise" that fueled the market on that release was that labor costs were contained, thereby easing inflationary concerns spurred by the PPI numbers from the previous week that showed the largest jump in 6 years. Salary stagnant, consumer spending up, trade deficit out of hand, personal savings extremely low and a new mindset of savings through asset appreciation in what is arguably a housing bubble. This one gave me a chuckle: "Unlike the 1970s, central banks are not producing the excess money today that would raise future inflation." Not producing excess money? Are you joking? M3 is up 44% in 5 years. "Lower tax rates, deregulation, trade liberalization, capital investment, and the technology-induced productivity surge are all counter-inflationary measures." That's swell. But you know as well as I do that inflation is a monetary phenomenon and credit creation is at absurd levels. What do you consider an appropriate level of M3 growth? "This is why worldwide bond yields are historically low. Global credit markets are not demanding high inflation premiums. The worldwide commodity boom is a growth signal, not an inflation signal." Nor are they demaning a high risk premium. It's as much a function of liquidity and carry trades as anything. I agree commodities are being driven by growth. Assets, however, are another story. My point is this: We are very near the top before the next downleg of a secular bear. Given the state of global finance, the trigger to the downside could be some sort of crisis and it will get ugly fast. There is no way in hell I would be broadly indexed for the foreseable future. If you take economic banter from an internet site, particularly a CLIMBING site, to be usable investment advice...you are beyond help. Just send me your money now and it will save you the time and frustration of losing it. I promise I will invest it wisely...into 12pks of PBR cans and cases of ramen.

I've got two of the Metolius and like them. Sometime around 2002 they started making the fold in the middle overlaping. It's hard to explain, but instead of squared ends at the fold, and the problem with that, the fold ends are cut at a 45 degree angle and backed with velcro so that when folded out flat, the two sections overlap and voila no "dead" spot. So you get the benefits of both taco fold system and split fold system. They also started using metal buckles around 2001, which are much much better than fastex. When new they are very good for long drops. IMO, overall they are the a little better than the Misty pads, which were the most popular sellers down in the Southeast (Misty is in western NC). The Misty pads I've used seemed like they were thicker than Metolius but less dense/rigid overall. The first Metolius I have is prior to the metal buckles and overlapping fold, second one has them. The foam has lost some rigidity and the corners have developed small holes and the closure straps are frayed but it's got plenty of life left. They fold up easier, carry better, and are better to fall on than taco fold pads, but they are also smaller than the big Mistys, and worse to sleep on. My $0.02

I agree with that. Within' 10-15 years I think. Juan Cole, a M.E. history prof at Michigan, wrote an intriguing look at Lebanon, it's people, and Syria and Israel's roles there and posted it this week. It's a bit long, but well worth the read and really brings home the complexity of the dynamics in region: http://www.juancole.com/2005/03/lebanon-realignment-and-syria-it-is.html Well this is a really complex issue. They're running a huge trade surplus with us. The excess money is recycled into US Treasuries. Yes, the US$ is the defacto reserve currency of the world. Partially because our economic and geopolticial clout, and partially because oil is priced in US$ (which is partly due to the clout). So yes, they don't think the US will default on the debt. But, do they think it's a good investment? Not really, especially over the last 3 years. The dollar is declining and they (Asian central banks) are taking large capital losses by holding those dollar assets. And our treasuries' yields are low. They are losing alot of money. And, China and Japan in particular are taking additional losses in the market operations to defend their currency levels from rising against the US$. Then add into the mix that the asian economic growth is predicated upon exporting to the US consumer. It is in their interest to continue to finance our deficit because if our economy slows, their growth will stall. Presumably at some point the capital losses argument exceeds the export based growth model argument. Or comes to the fore anyway. And I think that is evident now. The talk of diversifying reserves into more euros and yen from Seoul, Moscow, and Beijing and the recent meeting of asian central bankers to discuss the declining dollar indicate that the concerns are growing. China blew something in the neigborhood of $100B last year in operations to maintain the yuan's (or renminbi if you prefer) peg. So, IMO it's more like a necessary evil than a good investment. Yet another element is the OPEC countries and the very real possibility that they will begin to price, at least partially, in euros. The dollar is overvalued against asian currencies across the board, but until China loosens the peg, the asians are not willing to allow the currencies to rise much because it makes their exports less competitive with China. We are in a tightening cycle that should go on for a while yet. And virtually every major tightening cycle involves a crisis at some point. With all the debt in the system now, and all the undercapitalized organizations with fat portfolios of derivative instruments, I think a crisis is imminent. I've been looking for the next recession to hit around Q2 '06. That was my prediction a year ago and the data trends are supporting my case thus far. Stocks typically peak 6-8 months before the economy peaks. Avg market drop during a recession is close to 40%. The spooky part is the complacency. Bullish sentiment has been high, volatility is very low, and if you watch the markets on a daily basis and how they react to news the complacency is very obvious. All are signs of an impending correction. Indeed. We're running a deficit around 6% GDP. That's not sustainable. But when the GOP screams for tax cuts and making them permanent, but can't make the books balance, whatcha gonna do? I'm all for less taxes, as long as you can balance the budget. The long term implications are what Josh is getting at. We need to invest in our country and its people, not shackle ourselves to the Chinese. Instead, our personal savings rate is something like 1% and our consumption binge is being financed by reallocating 80% of the entire world's savings. The really ugly part of this deal is our saving habits. We, as a nation, have become reliant upon defacto savings through asset appreciation (homes primarily, but also stocks/bonds). Home value goes up, people think they need to save less/can spend more because suddenly they have more equity. But the problem is, the asset appreciation in this case is not tied to fundamental values. In other words, the prices are going up at an unsustainable growth level because their is a ton of easy/cheap money pumped into the system. As credit gets restricted (i.e. FED continues to raise rates to control inflation), the housing market will stagnate and value growth rates will return to trend. The data is already showing new home starts continuing to rise while mortgage apps are dropping and rates are rising. Some of the "hot" housing markets may experience an actual decline in values, but most are likely to simply slow way down. I can see that. BushCo really doesn't like Chavez. But without an oil supply disruption, I don't think we get involved. I mean didn't we already try to oust Chavez on the sly?

Were you old enough to remember the 70s? Apparently double digit inflation, soaring oil prices, a stagnant economy, and double digit unemployment was a good thing in your opinion? The only good thing about the 70s early 80s was the opportunity to buy long bonds with huge yields that would be worth a fortune when Volcker's leadership finally cracked inflation and rates dropped. Yeah, the go-go bubble of the late 90s, that was healthy. The Nasdaq made a high over 5000 in spring of 2000 while the Dow topped 11,000. Today Naz closed around 2070, Dow around 10,800. Five years of significantly negative returns acconting for inflation. Do you have any concept of what the results of a liquidity boom like we're participating in does? Add in the explosion of derivatives in finance and it's an ugly picture. This is simple simple concept. Inflation is a monetary phenomenon. Pump a bunch of money into the sytem and what happens? Inflation. "But the FED says inflation is contained and Uncle Bubbles Greenspan says we're in good shape". Please. Do you receive your food and fuel for free? The core CPI, the number the FED harps on, ignores the increases in food and fuel because they are volatile. PPI just had the largest jump in about 6 years. That will pass through soon enough. But the real place we're seeing the inflation from this liquidity bubble...Real Estate and other assets. Add in the sketchy nature of financing our current account deficit and the highly leveraged, increasingly fragile system of finance running over with derivatives and you have a genuine doom and gloom possiblity. Don't be a lemming, protect your financial ass. I am currency hedged, short some high p/e techs, and long consumer staples, health care, and oil. There is nothing much to worry about if you rent, have a negative net worth, and enjoy the service sector ("Fries with that?") Denial, not just a river in Egypt anymore! But don't listen to me, take it from Paul Volcker: "Below the favourable surface [of the economy], there are as dangerous and intractable circumstances as I can remember.... Nothing in our experience is comparable…But no one is willing to understand [this] and do anything about it… We are consuming… about six per cent more than we are producing. What holds the world together is a massive flow of capital from abroad… it’s what feeds our consumption binge... the United States economy is growing on the savings of the poor… A big adjustment will inevitably become necessary, long before the social security surpluses disappear and the deficit explodes…We are skating on increasingly thin ice." – Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker

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Syria is next folks. The playing/manipulation of this one is, I must admit, absolutely brilliant. We're in there by this time next year. But that's another story... Iran knows we're overextended and today they called the bluff. "But Kharazi said: “I think that the American leaders are intelligent enough, that they have learned the lesson from Iraq and that they will not attack another country, especially Iran which is not like Iraq." Russia is quietly backing them despite the US's concerns. "Russia's Atomic Energy Chief, Alexander Rumyantsev has just returned to Moscow from Iran, having signed the deal and toured the facility. He's defended Russia's role in the deal. "We are cooperating with Iran within the framework of current international law," he says. "We’re not breaking any rules set by the international community and laid out by the international atomic agency. So you can criticise us, but I don't understand what for." Rumyantsev says the spent nuclear fuel from Bushehr will be sent back to Russia under the watch of the United Nation's Atomic Energy Agency. He says Russia has a long-established routine for transporting nuclear material; special containers, security guards, trains and surveillance." The global balance of power is about to be up-ended, the sharks smell blood in the water. We're over-extended militarily, and we are extremely vulnerable finacially. The US economy could be brought down by China alone (hell Seoul caused a 170pt drop in the Dow by mentioning they might start diversifying some of their reserves and they have a tiny fraction of the dollar debt that China and Japan hold), all they have to do is start selling off their dollar reserves and the US economy will crash. Of course the world economy will also crash. Would they do that to unseat us from the Supreme Overlord of World Power position we currently enjoy? Might not even need to. Our financial system is so leveraged, with so much excess liquidity and debt, it may collapse on it's own. The interplay of rare, unsustainable macroeconomic trends, and global power politics is fascinating right now. Strange days indeed.

Brian Head is the best skiiing down there. It's a unique setting for skiing and definitely worth a visit. Usually lots of Vegas locals there. Elk Meadows is so/so, not worth your time IMO.

Gay hooker playing reporter under a psuedonymn and has daily access to the White House. Had knowledge of leaked documents that outed an undercover US intelligence operative. Atty Gen justifies torture and discounts Geneva Convetion provisions as "quaint". VP lies repeatedly and demonstrably on national tv and tells a Senator to "go fuck yourself" on the floor of the US Senate. President dodges jury duty to cover his DWI arrests, seals TX records and issues new drives license to conceal it. Dodges the draft, and doesn't even fulfill his cushy spot flying obsolete jets for TANG. Baseball players on steroids are a major national issue. Social Security will be bankrupt tomorrow at 3pm so we need private accounts...which doesn't, by the way, do anything to solve the underfunding "crisis". GOP mouthpiece Rush "Pass the Oxycontin" Limbaugh found to be a massive drug addict who repeatedly violated the controlled substances act by purchasing hillbilly heroein on the black market. Former Sen leader Lott endorses segrationist. House Maj Leader Delay admonished for multiple ethics violations. Staff indicted. Sec State and former NSA Condoloser Rice apparently asleep at the wheel prior to 9/11, pumps the WMA angle and warns about mushroom clouds, and still gets promoted. Sec Defense says soliders don't have properly armored vehicles because as a "matter of physics" the supplier can't produce them faster. Conversely, the supplier says they could have increased production by 50% but were never asked to produce more. Rumy ignores advice of top military brass and invades with inadequate force to secure borders or occupy the country. It's like a bad fucking dream. Clowns, hucksters, and charlatans, the entire lot of them.

Dude, that was for the Hindus, c'mon.

A few things. I don't remember no f'in tree at the base of Prodigal, methinks homer above was referring to Touchstone, which starts right next to a rather stout one. Touchstone is probably the best cold weather option of the easy walls. First two pitches of Prodigal link w/ a 60m. OK line, stays crowded in season. Descent is one of the easiest you'll ever do after a wall route. Between Touchstone, Moonlight, Prodigal, and Spaceshot, the easiest to make time on are Spaceshot and Touchstone and I thought Moonlight was easier to climb quickly than Prodigal. You can do Touchstone in 5 pitches. Climb past the first bolted anchor and over the roof with the fixed RURP to belay just above it. That's about 180' to the deck. Stretch the rope on the next 3 pitches for almost full 60m passing mid anchors on each. Last pitch is bolted face to easy runout to the top. It goes free at .11- after the first 2 1/2 and has some cool free climbing on it. P 2 (when done this way) is a really cool hard fingercrack. I worked on it for half a day and got my ass handed to me. The crux is pretty much right off the belay, but it keeps coming on that pitch. I thought Touchstone was the easiest and fastest of the four. Moonlight goes fast if you are willing to crack jumar. Take at least triples or quads of mid sized aliens, you will be happy to have them. Don't get suckered into the false first pitch, it's much harder and sketchier than the real start (which is well to the left of there). If you are going to be bivying on a route, and/or plan to go slow Spaceshot is probably the best option unless you want to haul a bag and ledge. Fix the bottom few easy free pitches, or climb those and fix a couple of pitches above, bivy on the ground and the next day either make it the top, or if you get slowed down bivy on earth orbit (or if you just want to bivy on the wall). That is a really relaxed way to do one. There is also tons of free climbing on it at mid .10 and under, so it's very doable in a day without being a speed demon. Moonlight and Spaceshot are incredible for position. Of all of them, I enjoyed Touchstone the most but thought Moonlight was the best all around. Other key tips: Take beer and/or liquor or with you. 3.2% stout is a waste of barley and hops.

Add "neat" and you're there. Macallan 18 and Ardbeg are pretty damn fine as well. But I guess that isn't really a cocktail. I'd have to say Long Island Ice Tea, Bombay martinis, Bloody Marys. I can do without the sickly sweet fru-fru chick drinks.

Yah doods, it's about 5 min from my house. Actually in Fox, Alaska which, coincidentally, is the home of our local brewery, Silver Gulch brewing and a great natural spring that many of the dry cabin dwellers use for a drinking water source.

Dick Morris is certifiably insane with that commentary. For one, Hillary has zero chance of even winning the primary, the Dems know that her presence on the ticket would do more to fire up the Wingut Freeper base than anything imaginable. And two the GOP core constituency will vote for a negro presidential candidate about the same time hell freezes over.

Go to the Cirque. Easily. Neither of them are "crowded" by any stretch of the imagination. More people in the cirque though. But, if for some reason you do decide on the Arrigetch, give me a heads up. I'm not that far away, and you'll probably be coming through here.

If you enjoyed the speech, give credit where it is due....to his speechwriter. The account I heard was Bush told him to make this one the "freedom" speech. Funny thing, freedom. For example, my friend Charles, a career Army guy, served 22 years. Yet he was not free to retire due to stop loss policy. He's on tour number 2 since they would not let him retire. But his wife is free to raise their 3 children alone back in Georgia. Iraqi oil was going to pay for this quagmire and we had to do it or risk a mushroom cloud in Peoria, right Condi? Oh, no WMDs you say? We are paying the bill, not the oil revenue? Oh well, "freedom is not free!" Freedom does mean, however, that we are free to ignore the Geneva convention when it suits our needs, because our soon to be new Atty Gen deemed it quaint. And in this land of the free, you are free to royally fuck up at your job ala Rummy, Wolfowitz, Rice, Feith, and Hadley and still get promoted! Free to escape accountability for your performance. Nice. You are certainly free to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness...as long as being gay, protesting the govt, or smoking a joint doesn't make you happy. Freedom includes creating an ownership society. For example, you are free to own stock in great companies like Enron, World Com, and the like and when the CEOs cook the books or run ponzi schemes, and the company execs are free to escape punishment and retire on your money. I love America, but I could do without about 51% of the assholes who live here.

You know what? Fux. Chu. Beyotches. -31F

Valdez. Problem solved.

-48F at Casa Strickland right now. Yesterday morning, -46F. Tomorrow, heat wave -25!! You would think at some point that your employer would have a cut off point where the ice fog and frostbite danger is a liability. In fact, most agencies have some point where they say "just stay home today" My employer? No. But they remind you that they have a "liberal leave policy", in other words you are more than welcome to take one of your few and precious vacation days. The worst part of -48F? Being stuck in a house with NO BEER, and whole bean coffee WITH NO GRINDER. ARRRHHHGGGHHH!! My damn head is pounding from caffeine withdrawl. /end rant.

Fun New Fact: Search for WMD officially ended/called off. None found. War started, tens of thousands dead, no exit strategy, country on the brink of civil war, $200 billion added to the debt while the dollar resumes its slide and a backdoor draft continues. Stupid. Fucking. Chickenhawks.

Another Capricorn. Happy day you old goat.