lI1|1!

one more data point - i met a guy at the lifts on naxos and he said he has broken 3 sets of brakes this season.

Much like the spectacle of an accident keeps traffic flowing. speaking of the spectacle of an accident, i think there should be a full expose' on why trask was banned (if in fact he was). i think there should be lengthy discussions of the banning, complete with people holding one hand over the mouth and pointing with the other (i.e. was it porn?). i think greta van stern should interview legal experts on banning on the fox network, only to interupt her guests mid sentence when the conversation isn't going the way she wants. and what of the '1984/reign of terror' aspects of banning? why are we not not told who was banned and why? a sprayer is there one day and gone the next. they disappear - presumably sent to some cyberspace gulag. ban trask if you want, i just want the juicy details.

gat packin'

i was at red mtn for the first time on saturday. it is a really nice, unspoiled ski hill with good lift served terrain. we didn't have any new snow when we were there, but it must rip when it does.

i think this is a critical component of many CBS posts - veiled beneith the condescending tone is a naive longing for optimism, as if at some point in the future when everyone finally learns to tether their ice axe to their harness loop there will be no more self arrest accidents. perhaps in the CBS world view all human suffering can be solved not so much through the minutia of scientific knowledge, but through an underlying act of faith?

i used to have, maybe still do somewhere, an LP inherited from an older sibling of "the great society" - band grace slick formed with her two brothers before she joined jefferson airplane. the tube amp version of "somebody to love" is classic, and "white rabbit" had a long intro with a bizarre clarinet lead. other songs like "born to burned" and "the man in black" still randomly go through my head at times. the album was called "conspicuous only in it's absence" and might be worth looking for if you're into that genre.

GESTAPO - a word formed from the german habit of taking the first couple of letters of words to form a pronaouncable acrinym. GEhiem STAdt POlizi - literally = "home state police" didja know that?

your wish has been granted. from the nytimes: Bush Plans $1.5 Billion Drive for Promotion of Marriage By ROBERT PEAR and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Published: January 14, 2004 WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 — Administration officials say they are planning an extensive election-year initiative to promote marriage, especially among low-income couples, and they are weighing whether President Bush should promote the plan next week in his State of the Union address. For months, administration officials have worked with conservative groups on the proposal, which would provide at least $1.5 billion for training to help couples develop interpersonal skills that sustain "healthy marriages." i thought it was the dems who are supposed to throw money away for PC reasons??? The officials said they believed that the measure was especially timely because they were facing pressure from conservatives eager to see the federal government defend traditional marriage, after a decision by the highest court in Massachusetts. The court ruled in November that gay couples had a right to marry under the state's Constitution. "This is a way for the president to address the concerns of conservatives and to solidify his conservative base," a presidential adviser said. Several conservative Christian advocacy groups are pressing Mr. Bush to go further and use the State of the Union address to champion a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage. Leaders of these groups said they were confused by what they saw as the administration's hedging and hesitation concerning an amendment. Administration officials said they did not know if Mr. Bush would mention the amendment, but they expressed confidence that his marriage promotion plan would please conservatives. Ronald T. Haskins, a Republican who has previously worked on Capitol Hill and at the White House under Mr. Bush, said, "A lot of conservatives are very pleased with the healthy marriage initiative." The proposal is the type of relatively inexpensive but politically potent initiative that appeals to White House officials at a time when they are squeezed by growing federal budget deficits. It also plays to Mr. Bush's desire to be viewed as a "compassionate conservative," an image he sought to cultivate in his 2000 campaign. This year, administration officials said, Mr. Bush will probably visit programs trying to raise marriage rates in poor neighborhoods. "The president loves to do that sort of thing in the inner city with black churches, and he's very good at it," a White House aide said. In the last few years, some liberals have also expressed interest in marriage-education programs. They say a growing body of statistical evidence suggests that children fare best, financially and emotionally, in married two-parent families. The president's proposal may not be enough, though, for some conservative groups that are pushing for a more emphatic statement from him opposing gay marriage. "We have a hard time understanding why the reserve," said Glenn T. Stanton, a policy analyst at Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization. "You see him inching in the right direction. But the question for us is, why this inching? Why not just get there?" The Rev. Louis P. Sheldon, chairman of a national group called the Traditional Values Coalition, has started an e-mail campaign urging Mr. Bush to push for an amendment opposing the legal recognition of same-sex marriage. Other groups, like the Southern Baptist Convention and Focus on the Family, are pushing more quietly for the same thing, through contacts with White House officials, especially Karl Rove, the president's chief political aide, who has taken a personal interest in maintaining contacts with evangelical groups. In an interview with ABC News last month, Mr. Bush was asked if he would support a constitutional amendment against gay marriage and gay civil unions. "If necessary," he said, "I will support a constitutional amendment which would honor marriage between a man and a woman, codify that, and will — the position of this administration is that whatever legal arrangements people want to make, they're allowed to make, so long as it's embraced by the state, or does start at the state level." (has a page 2 i didn't paste)

i think limbough's rights to medical privacy are suspended under the patriot act. money from illegal drug trade is used to support terrorism. [would insert picture of asscroft here but i think it's something we can all do without]

Is that why he gets off watching himself naked? your statement is illogical. why would a butch dyke like to look at a redneck's body? duh? unless of course trask really does get off looking at himself, which would mean the butch dyke inside him is unable to come to terms with her own heterosexuality. sad.

some threads jumb the shark. in spray they just run out of steam. trask is a butch dyke trapped in a redneck's body.

i ate a

we're so fawking liberal dood. it all has a price tag.

I don't understand what that means, 'create wealth'. Greenspan mentioned that once but isn't it really the illusion of wealth? I understand the 'concentration' of wealth but not 'creation' of wealth. So are you talkin about an increase in production or lowering of prices? plant a seed. let it grow. the dried bud is now worth $300 an ounce. capiche?

So you're a believer in a win-win situation. I tend to see life as more of a zero-sum game where someone has to lose something for another to gain. It's a harsh way of seeing the world and discounts the existence of compromise but it's how I see the majority of interactions. I think seeing the world through 'infinite potential win-win situation' glasses is just more New Age mumbo-jumbo. i certainly don't believe everything is win-win; i don't smoke crack. but i think there is win-win out there, and i also think wealth can be created. (that wealth is created is i think the basic thing karl marx failed to understand.) i also think if you fuck your nieghbor in the ass you can expect the same thing in return. i also think somebody that screws you doesn't need to be your nieghbor (unless of course you're trask). cooperation is a great thing scrambler, you should try it some time. do you think "patriotism" invloves cooperation?

(a solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short ) i think we are brutish animals that are social in nature and are able to cooperate for the benefit of the group. often that doesn't need to involve other people losing. if it does involve other people losing the long term pros and cons need to be carefully considered - it turns out we all need good neighbors from time to time.

by your definition scrambler, if i don't think you and i have enough in common then then we don't need to be part of the same meaningful collective, so i don't need to be patriotic. so "patriotism" might be defined as a meaningless contrivance and any polititian who peddles can be rejected as pushing a bullshit agenda.

nicely put if democracy in the U.S. can be a tool to serve the humanistic needs of a broader good (as it has in the past - i.e. getting rid of fascism in germany say) then i am willing to be a patriot. if it's just a game of creating good things for assholes that happen to be u.s. citizens at the expense of the rest of the human species then i'm not a patriot. i don't believe in that shit, don't think it works, and don't need it.

it's already started here comes another reign of terror

sour grapes

me too. heh heh.

that's one of your best cut and paste jobs yet!

how dare you moderators foul our carefully crafted acts of creation!