Jim

Given I live in WA and we still have the Electoral College, you are correct.

Are you serious? He has a 43% approval rating, we have 9% unemployment and most importantly, the election is still a year out. Yea, and given that, plus the early game stage, we still have this, not the make-believe thing you posted. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/president_obama_vs_republican_candidates.html I'll take a bet on Obama now, no problem. Though last time I did this and won PP welched on me.

Unless OBL shows up alive and living in Camden NJ, this show is a dunk fest for Obama.

Given the vulnerability of Obama and the state of the economy, how come the GOP can't find someone intelligent to run. Oh, I guess they did but Huntsman didn't pass the wacko litmus test. Or maybe it's a GOP scheme to keep Obama in the White House 'cause they figure he's doing a pretty good job upholding their platform anyway.

We're definantely in an energy pickle these days, with the knuckle draggers keeping us from considering alternatives. Really, we need a new energy policy. The one item I would agree with the free-market folks about is that subsidies are an inefficient way to produce desireable outcomes. It would be more market efficient to do what other countries do - tax carbon, or at least petroleum fuels, to make alternatives more competitive. But the arument about not providing subsidies to alternative energy kinda falls flat give all the tax breaks that are given to oil and gas companies and the very cheap access to leases on federal terrestrial and aquatic lands. As usual, we'll do the right thing after exhausting all the alternatives and a crisis is upon us.

I wish you well Dane, hang it there. I've thanked you before for your informative postings and patience with my, and other's, less informed questions. And big thanks for the education lesson. Anyone with kids should be prompted into a vaccine discssion with their family physician. Raising one for you and hope to meet you in person on some ice flow soon.

I'm worried. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/10/23/magazine/mag-23-wtwt.html?ref=magazine

Another one bites the dust. http://www.americanrivers.org/our-work/restoring-rivers/dams/year-of-the-river.html

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.

What about "I am a yam" ?

regardless, "i am" is just 3 characters, and thus shorter - "stop" and "ouch" are longer. now what's the judge's ruling on "no?" related query: what is the shortest bible verse? My boss keeps saying irregardless - drives me crazy! And "Jesus wept" - also cited in the Turkish post-slaughter scene in Lawrence of Arabia

Trip: Rainier - Muir Date: 10/15/2011 Trip Report: Took advantage of the weather window and tromped up to Muir with about 20 of my friends, mostly skiers. I thought my time of 3:20 wasn't bad for geezer speed until a couple, chatting away came by me on that last 500 feet - man that seems to take forever. I was tempted to show them my subscription card to Modern Maturity to ease my pride, but they went by too fast. Having made the mistake of dawdling too long at Muir only to be greeted by 1K ft of refrozen snow, I didn't stay long and had quite a nice ski down to P Point. I put the skis on the pack there but a couple other folks milked it a bit more by taking on and off the skis. There was not a wisp of wind all the way up and it was a great ski. Variable packed powder and a melted thing crust made for some good turns - and for my 1st TAY. I was greeted by a group of Japanese tourists on the paved path, about 100m from the parking lot - "Is this the way to Mt. Rainier?" - Ah, yes, just past those trees it will come into view. "How long does it take to get to the mountain?" --- Well, technically, you are on it now - and about an hour to get to those snow slopes you can see - but I wouldn't suggest that as your nice shoes will get pretty wet. So I suggested a short hike on Skyline for a glacier view. Gear Notes: good skinning from just above Pan Point Approach Notes: Pebble Creek -

that's more a testament to their complete lack of interest in the subject than anything - i have had a good number of crazy-eyed politically active n' pissed off conservative kids (and jesus christ, what monsterous factory produces those kind of high-powered mutants?) over the years who have sussed me out for what i am and been bitter n' bitchy about it the last few months of the semester. meh. it's all philosophy goobly-talk - there is a collective sense of "impartial" or "unbiased" but it has no objective reality - for life to be anything more than just soap-box intellectualism you gotta take a side and run w/ it. i'm off for beacon in the drizzle - dog bless the 3 day weekend... Probably to aid climb, which, in my objective opinion, is wacko.

pretty sure sarah palin needs no help in that regard i'm all for civility in politcs, but jesus christ, not calling a true asshole an asshole just muddies the water... Pearls from Bachman. Derision is an appropriate response to such nonsense. ''Normalization (of gayness) through desensitization. Very effective way to do this with a bunch of second graders, is take a picture of 'The Lion King' for instance, and a teacher might say, 'Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?' The message is: I'm better at what I do, because I'm gay.'' ''If we took away the minimum wage — if conceivably it was gone — we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.'' ''And what a bizarre time we're in, when a judge will say to little children that you can't say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.'' "Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas.''

I'm ok with opposing views based in some logic - but fantasy is another thing. Let's take one item from the Perry, Bachman, and Palin rule book for instance. They don't believe in global warming or they may couch it that it is not human causes. Great - an opinion based on what exactly - no facts certainly. The door has closed on that one. They could say what they likely mean - that there is global warming but they don't think we should tinker with industry becase they think that is bad for certain economic sectors. That, at least, would be an honest policy decision.

OK - you are correct - they should not call them idiots. But they should do a better job showing how vacant their statements are -

But slience from the majority of moderates is what allows the idiots a venue. I mean really, Palin, Bachman, Kain, Perry, - these folks should be defended? What does it say about the Republican base and the party in general if they have to appeal to tragically failed policies, dumb-dumb false science, and ignorance of how our financial systems work - or actually haven't worked in the recent past. Sheesh!

Propane stove in basement, yes.

I agree. The Republican Party has been taken over by the right fringe and folks that might have a reasonably moderate bone in their body, Mitt included, are constantly covering their right flank. The press is pretty lame at calling most of the field what they are, blathering idiots.

Not true at all: Michael Reardon is also recent casualty. I can also think Jimmy Jewel (GB) off the top of my head. Oh, how about Lafaille as far as alpine goes? I don't think I'd lump Reardon in a solo climbing death group. He drowned after getting washed into the sea from the base of a climb in Ireland. I was about a mile down the road when it happened. Unfortunate.

A lawyer's primer: If you don't have the law, you argue the facts; if you don't have the facts, you argue the law; if you have neither the facts nor the law, then you argue the Constitution.

Soccer - the perrenial next big thing. While I like it enough it's just not catching on to compete with smashmouth and other sports. Yea, yea, lots of kids play. But when they get to be adults they apparantly move on. Oh yea, a whopping 40k to watch the Sounders.

I think you mean congressional candidates - or Willie Sutton.

Letter to a Christian Nation - Sam Harris

The reliance on technology seems to be getting to be the norm these days - see the excess of use of SPOT and such. But you can still get away from it all. It wasn't all that long ago that a trip in the Cascades meant isolation. In the late '80s while working on a NR Stuart variation (unintentional!) my partner took a whipper 30 ft from the top and seperated his shoulder. We tried to pop it back with no success. A party that came up the hiker's route graciously offered to get a rescue going. After an uncomfortable evening my buddy was plucked off the summit by heli. We took no pictures because we were mortally embarassed that we could not get off the peak under our own power. Well, we could have but it would have taken days. Now it seems to be taken for granted that help will arrive - and rather quickly.