Jim

I thought Canary was pretty tame compared to the exposure of some 5.3-5.5 climbs back east at the Gunks. Can't hurt to have that one piece in just in case you slip off the ballroom floor. Seems unlikely though.

This is one of the best Freudian slips I have seen in a long time. Do I get the daily Muffy award?

Well if you listened objectvely, to sources other than 24/7 Rush, you would likely come to a different conclusion. Certainly the Clinton administration doesn't escape criticism here for not making some hard decisions with less than perfect data. But the primary indictment against Bush and his buddies is that they were "encased in amber" from the 1st Bush Admin. and all they could think about was Iraq, despite being told otherwise from the CIA, FBI, and their head of counter terrorism - Clarke. Clarke severed under 3 Republican and one Democrat administration. Guy seems like a straight shooter to me and very serious about what his role was in those administrations.

I was up there last spring when, unfortunately, the mounties were out. Two of them were riding up and down the icicle road (with helmets on) stopping at the roadside crags to tell the group leaders to instruct everyone to do a "tick check". I didn't know if they meant on one's self or if it was social grooming time.

The best quote was this one - when Rumsfeld tells terrorist experts "We have to bomb Iraq" - Clarke, the CIA, and the FBI say - "...but sir, this is Al Queda and they are in Afganistan, Iraq had nothing to do with this" Rumsfeld replies "But there are no good targets in Iraq".?????????? Clarke was the head of counter-terrorism and like may others makes the point that the Bushies were "encased in amber" from the previous Bush administration and had Iraq in mind from the start - despite the real threat. These guys are gone in November.

And the big winter event, the Iditarod, is over!!

I'm President Bush, and I approve of this scare tactic.

And neither of them were elected!!

Oh that picture is funny. Can you imagine Bush in front of a hostile parliment trying to answer questions. He could even string together coherent sentences on Meet the Press when they were tossing softballs over the plate.

Gimme a break! We're talking about the reason Bushy and Rummy gave for going to WAR. It's not just some mild rider put on an appropriations bill in the middle of the night or something. This is for spending tens of Billions of our money, spitting in the face of our allies, and putting our soldiers at rist. And for what? They lied and are now in a stew. Their feet should be held to the fire dammit. It's just that it's not done often enough.

Actually it's the liberal media - just can't count on them to follow a story.

Later in the year Silver Peak is a good trail run or quick hike. Great BC ski in early spring.

It wasn't about sex so I guess we can ignore it.

I agree with your main point- that terrorism is a crude stick often used by folks with no clear agenda and often out of sync with the general public. But to ignore the roots of terrorism is done at our peril. Yes many of the terrorists are from middle class families so what does this say about their motivations? Likely it has to do with power and wealth in their countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and others, where there is no hint of democracy and a growing friction beween the Muslim fundamental movement and the western oriented rulers. They see no room for their voice in their society and the western countries assisting proping up these regimes. And you can't ignore our continued funding or Israel's opressive tactics. This is not to excuse terrorism of any sort - it's a destructive force of no good. And why is Muslim fundamentalism growing? I don't know. Seems like the only thing they seem to be able to grab on to with any vigor is hate.

While sitting extend you leg out, foot off the ground about a foot. The by moving your ankle, not your leg, trace A, B, C with your big toe repeatedly. Helps strengthen and with mobilty.

Very good dective work - yes the pictures were attached but they're giant jpegs and I'm at work with little options. If that bear was ranked 150 I'd hate to see the others - it looks huge.

Got this from a fellow biologist in AK: A guy who works for the US Forest Service in Alaska and his trophy bear. He was out deer huntinglast week when a large grizzly bear charged him from about 50 yards away. The guy unloaded his 7mm Mag Semi-automatic rifle into the bearand it dropped a few feet from him. The big bear was still alive sohe reloaded and shot it several times in the head. The bear was just over one thousand six hundred pounds. It stood 12' 6" high at theshoulder, 14' to the top of his head. It's the largest grizzly bear ever recorded in the world. Of course, the Alaska Fish and Wildlife Commission did not let him keep it as a trophy, but the bear will be stuffed and mounted, and placed on display at the Anchorage airport to remind tourist's of the risks involved when in the wild). Based on the contents of the bears stomach, the Fish and Wildlife Commission established the bear had killed at least two humans in thepast 72 hours. The US Forest Service, backtracking from where the bear had originated, found the hiker's 38-caliber pistol emptied. Not far from the pistol was the remains of the hiker . The other body has not been found. Although the hiker fired sixshots and managed to hit the grizzly with four shots (they ultimately found four 38 caliber slugs along with twelve 7mm slugs inside the bear's dead body) it only wounded the bear - and probably angered it. The bear killed the hiker an estimated two days prior to the bear's own death by the gun of theForest Service worker. Think about this - If you are an average size man; You would be level with the bear's belly button when he stood upright, the bear would look you in the eye when it walked on all fours! To give additional perspective, consider that this particular bear, standing on its hind legs, could walk up to an average single story house and look overthe roof, or walk up to a two story house and look in the bedroom windows.

I disagree that options have not been put forward. To begin with Iraq was just a distraction we should be putting our resources into intel and picking apart these groups. I'd even be for more resources to Afganistan to weed out Osama and friends, and live up to our promise of making that country a better place. My 2 cents.

Hmmmm. Also seems that may folks were predicting the current state of affairs pending Bushie's foray into the midle east. And as far as appeasment. Seems that the former Spanish government was doing exactly that - licking the shoes of the US for a few crumbs - despite an overwhelming majority of Spainards against the Iraq intervention. You use the 911 ploy almost as skillfully as the Bushies. Iraq had nothing to do with 911 or terrorists. We're pouring money down a rathole and have taken our eye off the ball, the real terrorist hunt, where we should be putting out resources.

Before Thursday, the Popular Party had been favored to win by a comfortable margin. PP Opps - you are correct. I misread. The article says that 90% of Spainards disagreed with the decision to back the war - it didn't translate that into predicted voting.

WTF are you talking about? The incumbent government was on its way out. Their decision to go to bed with the US was extremely unpopular and they got tossed because of it. It didn't help that the current government tried to point the finger towards the Basque sepratists to try and simmer tempers. It's always a good ploy to bring up the terroist connection between Iraq and our invasion - about as much truth to that as the WMD card.

Never heard of mylotherapy. Basically for prolo they inject inert substances (dextrose or sailine solutions) into the ligament to iniate an immune response, which causes more collagen to be laid down. Ligaments are poorly supplied by blood vessels which is why they take so dang long to heal, or don't.

The defense department has been moving in this direction for some time, hiring civilian contractors to supply items that the armed forces used to do themselves - a lot of logistical items - moving things around, setting up camps and related facilites. The idea was to get the free market competition going and get contractors to do the job more efficiently and cheaper. Well anyone who has worked on a contractor basis knows what a no-bid contract, especially one for this type of money, leads to. Certainly it is a tough job and we should be paying a fair price, but it's the usual pigs at the tough here.