Jim

Needless to say I'm in no rush to pay it off early.

What were those people thinking? More evidence that a lot of folks run their finances as the Bushies run the federal treasury. 10 yrs to go on the 4.1% fixed 15 yr mortgage

Thanks for posting that link. I don't have cable and don't watch much of the tube but when I see a forceful commentary such as this I get some hope, just a little, that enough of the US population may wake up from their stupor and give these guys the kick in the ass they deserve.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The smartest city in the United States is Seattle - 52.7 percent of its residents age 25 or older have completed a bachelor's degree or higher. The education rankings were released this month by the U.S. Census Bureau. The brainiest cities in the United States Top 25 cities with more than 250,000 population, ranked by percentage of bachelor's degrees among residents 25 and older Seattle's also been ranked as the most literate city in the United States by Central Connecticut State University, beating out Minneapolis, Washington and Atlanta. That rating was based on such things as the number of booksellers, libraries and newspaper circulation - as well as educational attainment. Many brainy people have flocked to the Seattle area to work in what's called the "knowledge economy." Companies headquartered there and in surrounding towns, including Microsoft, Amazon, Cray, Washington Mutual and Costco, all use heavy doses of information technology. Even another of the area's biggest employers, old-line Boeing, is also a glutton for technological solutions. Seattle also has more than its share of residents with advanced degrees: 20.5 percent. Only Washington, D.C., has more holders of advanced degrees. Many there work for the federal government, as well as for the think tanks and other nongovernmental organizations that form the heart of capital working culture. And good

The performance is just one of dozens of examples of his pea brain in action - or more accurately, inaction. In other countries the media would roast such patheic public speaking and lack of knowlege of issues. Here - the only true read you can get is on the John Stewart show. Sad.

With one notable exception. The US did not help Castro gain power, so he's not "one of ours".

FYI: Case in point. Check out Keith Olbermann's report on MSNBC regarding the terror alert game: http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

It was interesting to listen to the US and UK news conferences regarding the capture of the suspected bombing plot. While Bush used the typical "war on terror", "islamo fascists", etc. phrases, the UK language was more like a crime investigation - suspects, investigation, etc. The Bushies push the war analogy as far as they can to serve a number of purposes. The first to scare everyone into the constant need for war preparation and the vasts amount of money flushed down the Pentagon toilet, and second, to use it as an excuse to broaden the executive powers under the radar and in unconstitutial ways. Hopefully this is the beginning of some judicial restraint.

SEATTLE -- The suspicious shipping containers that prompted an evacuation at the Port of Seattle today did not contain any explosives. A Port of Seattle spokesman, David Schaefer, said the containers do not contain any explosives or radioactive materials, but officials are still trying to determine exactly what they do contain. A shipping terminal was evacuated after explosive-sniffing dogs hit on the two containers, which originated in Pakistan. Schaefer said it's not known what caused the dogs to indicate something suspicious was in the containers This- plus a fighter escort for a US bound plane because some woman was having an anxiety attack. I think the terrorists will break the bank by just continuing their email chats.

True. Leadership is lacking all around and the silence of some Arab states regarding violent tactics is unfortunate.

The crux, isn't it? Well for one I think they (and the US) need a more comprehensive strategy than bomb the crap out of them. Strangling the Palestian state has not worked so let try this: Stop making a land grab with the wall building, get rid of the strategy of cutting up Palestine into cookie cutter pieces with no hope of a functioning state, stop ripping up water projects and other infrastructure put in for the Palestinans by NGOs, foster a moderate government in Lebanon and Palestine through negoiation and less strong arm tactics. Get the land swap deal done already and stop dragging your feet. Stop demolishing houses for a buffer zone around the wall, discard the idea of collective punishment. That's a start at the root problems. If the US pulled the plug on the $4 Billion plus we give to Isarel each year I think we would see negoiations ramp up real quick. The US should have been engaged in the Israel/Arab situation long ago, not just at the crisis stage. But guess where our energies are being spent. You can't just threaten or ignore the players, particularly Syria and Iran, and then expect they're going to listen in the crisis situation. And they've seen the cards we played in Iraq and recognize the weakness and the opportunity. So again, a more sophisticated approach to the world stage than Rummy and Bushie can offer is needed.

And if that was their goal, who limit themselves to an artillery shell or two? It'd be interesting to see the analysis in which Israel concludes that it can advance it's interests by deliberately invoking condemnation and outrage through intentionally killing civilians. I feel like I must be missing something here. Israel has the capacity to kill every last civilian in Lebanon in short order if it chooses to, but only uses a fraction of it's millitary power, and takes as many precautions as is reasonably possible to avoid killing civilians, while Hezbollah holds nothing back and unleashes every bit of its arsenal while trying to kill as many civilians as possible, and use the civilian population as shields - but Israel is the actor singled out for condemnation? Having said all of that, even if they were equally bad, I'd take Israel's side for strategic reasons alone, so I'm hardly an impartial observer on this one.

Tale of the tape: Lebanon civilian casualties : over 600 Israeli civilian casualties from the "massive" rocket attacks: 18 I'd say the response is over the top.

It's their usual strategy, to pound the populace into pudding, thinking this will somehow pacify them in the long run. Good question though - why would you drop 500 lb bombs on residential housing? Hoping there's a couple of wackos among the innocents I suppose.

You're talking about the 1996 time, this time they only killed a third that many.

At least an intelligent question - you're close. My main concern is that Israel is a democratic state; and a powerful one. Forget about the issues about how it was established. It's there and deserves to be a sovereign state. Hezbollah and such are terrorists and kill civilians with that intent. The Israeli government kills many more civilians but says it's just in a days work of war. Is Israel excused from any morality because they say they didn't mean it, or will investigate it (the usual press release)? No. I'd say they have more moral and human rights responsibility because they are a powrerful democratic country, that supposedly values human rights. The purposeful targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure amounts to state terrorism. And I agree with you - a more precise ground offensive would likely have been more effective and minimized civilian casualties.

Recent Iraq civilian death estimates: between 39,000 and 44,000. But we didn't mean it. http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

In general, that's the strategy, except you forgot to add.......no matter the innocent body count. Another Bushism - We've never seen a problem we can't solve with bombs.

I wasn't selectively editing - I can't give you a blow by blow here. I don't thing the rocket firing started until the Israels started bombing civilian infrastructure in Palestine. While Israel certainly has the right to defend itself and is surrounded by a bunch of militant wackos, I don't see how this translates into the right to kill massive amounts of civilians (near 600 now vs the 18 in Israel)and employing a strategy of collective punishment. Their reaction is way overboard, and we're backing it. The strategy of slowly strangling the Palestinians wasn't working and that's how they ended up with Hammas in power. Now they've pounded the Palestinians and Lebanon, killed over 600 civilians, wounded over 2,000 civilians, caused over $2 billion in damages to homes, roads, power plants, etc., and made life miserable for a lot of folks not involved in the conflict. The result? Likely temporarily wounding Hezbollah and killing maybe 50-100 of the faithful. In the long term however they've just continued to pound innocent people and sowed the ground for Hezbollah recruits. The US strategy has always been to have Israel as our cop on the beat in the middle east. It's unfortunate that a people so stricken with a history of persecution choose to follow a ruthless policy towards civilians.

http://alpenglow.org/climbing/ptarmigan-1953/index.html

The latest round of violence in the middle east is going to end up solving, what exactly? So Hezbollah sneaks over the border, kills several soldiers and kidnapps two. In past similar situations Israel does a couple of air raids on training camps, says it will not negoiate, and they makes the back channel prisoner exchange. This time they hit the Palastian civilian infrastructure and now have bombed Lebanon back 25 years in infrastructure. Oh, and killed about 500 civilians - but that was the count by yesterday so is likely old. The point is what? Any damage done to Hezbollah will be masked by the number of new recruits they will get. Meanwhile the US is letting it's lap dog have at it, China and Russia are backing away from out position regarding a nuclear Iran, and the already weak Lebonese government will likely be voted out in the near future. Guess who will be voted in? Seems like this latest round is not going to solve anything.

I was in Italy for a month last summer climbing, hiking hut to hut, and some via ferrat(ing). Three days is not much time, if you can spare at least a week do it. Count on a full day to get to the Dolomites from Venice airport via train. I think the quickest is a train switch in Verona and then picking up a bus to reach the smaller villages. Even some of the larger towns like Cortina are not served by train. I would strongly recommend renting a car if you have limited time. Otherwise you'll be stuck using the busses in the villages and that may or may not meet you're needs for getting to your VFs. http://www.cicerone.co.uk/product/detail.cfm/book/362/title/via-ferratas-italian-dolomites--vol-1 The above link is for Vol 1 of thte cicerone guide, which was very useful. Don't forget you'll have to purchase a VF kit - it's a dynamic self belay device you put on your harness and you clip into the wires as you go. If you fall on just webbing it could be a major static fall (up to 20 ft between wire anchors) and they would snap like carrot sticks. I thought the VFs were interesting, though I'm glad we don't have them over here (least not many). You can choose to just climb the rock and use it as protection or grab on when needed. Some of them are pretty steep and long. We did one that was about 1,600 ft vertical, and of course it ended with strudel at the hut. I also have to VF kits I'm willing to sell. PM if interested. We stayed in Arabba and Canaezi, both central to the four pass area. Arabba had this place run by Brits, some of who wrote the Cicerrone guides. They had a ton of information, maps and route descriptions, for hikes and VFs, and gave me a suggestion for a climbing guide. http://www.colletts.co.uk/ I'd go back. Look at the VFs as protected scrambling - it has it's place in that mountain culture. Be happy to answer other questions.

thanks. For anyone else who wants them: North Twin Sister Here's the verbal version of the directions beginning in Sumas Wash. Watch your speed limit (25 MPH on main street). TURN left at the South end of town as for Baker (speed limit now 30 MPH) (radar on these two streets 98% of the time). No more radar beyond this point. Drive to Kendall (perhaps 15-20 k). Kendall is the place with the large NEW school on the right, fire station on the left. Impossible to miss the school. TURN right at Kendall beyond the school and drive towards Bellingham. Drive for perhaps 10k. You'll pass the "North Fork" aka "The Beer Shrine" on your right after about 6 k or so (recommended beer. Pizza OK but expensive). While driving up a slight hill with a long gradual right turn, you can see the Twin Sisters to the left for a short period if the weather is very clear. A couple of K's after the hill, you'll see a small store on the left (might be called "the welcome store") with a white community hall or church beyond (next) to it. TURN left on to the paved road between the two. Drive the paved road for maybe 10 minutes (might be a bit less). After crossing what seems like a small bridge, (several K's beyond the farms with the 90 degree right then 90 degree left turns) a gravel road branches to the left at a 45 degree angle. TURN left here onto the gavel road. If you miss this turn and come to a big bridge across a river, turn around and find your road 1/4 mile or so back up the road. Follow the main logging road following instinct! The only doubtful turn is when driving along a side hill where the road forks, offering a lower downhill option to the right TURN right onto the lower (and more traveled option). You'll cross a curved concrete bridge and 5 minutes later come to a yellow metal bridge that is probably gated. PARK here. Ride up the road following the most obvious forks. The main option is a fork after only 5 minutes or so (gated), stay left on the main road. After 35minutes of walking (maybe 26-28 minutes on a bike) you'll cross a creek that has visibly yellow coloured water. 10 minutes above that you'll see a side road branching to the right. Next to the side road on its left side is a pile of gravel (another spur 5 minutes earlier also has a pile of gravel but is not in driveable condition-the initial spur is wrong). TURN right onto the side road. After 5-8 minutes you'll come to an area where the road is blocked by large boulders (shortly after a great campsite on the right). No boulders = wrong road! Follow the road beyond the boulders. Eventually cross a creek and continue to follow the main road (stay left at any options). North Twin will be clearly visible as you ride through the clear cuts. When almost directly below North Twin, the road in the clearcut hits a high point and begin to drop. 100 meters beyond the high point a rather bushy skid road (with cairn) branches to the left. Rather hard to notice. TURN left up the skid road and follow main road. If memory serves correct you'll switch back to the left, then eventually to the right. Several minutes above the second (right) switchback a rather unexpected switchback/fork appears to the left. TURN left and follow this branch, eventually doing a switchback to the right and going into a logging landing (open level spot) several hundred meters later. The trail to the West Ridge begins here on the ridge crest. Walking times are generally 2-2 1/2 hours to this point from the car, so around 10K.

I saved and promptly lost directions previously posted for North Twin. A friend asked for these and I searched on this site without success. If anyone saved these I'd appreciate the help. Thanks.

Oh, oh looks like a Friday afternoon feeding frenzy. Bad timing Sman. <"}}}}}><