JayB

Does that include design, tooling, etc, etc, etc? Or are you talking fabrication costs alone?

I think quite a few people that dismiss the site use it for route photos, conditions beta, etc. A TR for an alpine route that's in condition, like the Triple Couloirs, is almost guaranteed to cause a bump in traffic.

Those are colons ding-dong. Hahaha. Much better.

You'll have to do better than that if you want to roll with the likes of Crux, Jimbo. Nice use of semi-colons, though.

And I mean come_on, the plot intersects the x-axis right at 9/11. Coincidence?

Pshah. I wasn't expecting much in the way of a performance from you, but Crux has been making a strong run for the title lately - and the prose, man, the prose. Like an ESL student translating a legal briefing from his native language into English while desperately alternating between a Chinese knock-off of the OED and "WordSmart" vocab enhancement tapes. And all in the service of arguments to support the contention that politicians are...loathe to publicize their opponent's official misdeeds prior to an election. It's like watching really, really bad performance art conducted with letters. Fascinating stuff.

And explain the conspiracy that prevents the BB from displaying hotlinked gif's while you are at it...

Here's something to cut your teeth on. Explain the following chart, but please refrain from using terms like "predicted reductions in aggregate demand," or "futures markets," etc and instead tether the phenomenon to the motives of various political actors, reams of unseen evidence that's available to folks with your unique combination of perspicacity and analytical acumen, and bemoan the fact that the [insert derisive term for the segment of the American public not fortunate enough to share your particular gifts] will remain all-but-oblivious to the plot to influence the outcome of the mid-term elections that's unfolding before their very eyes. Crux, your moment is at hand!

There is a certain similarity there, I have to admit. Maybe the resemblance bears the seeds of a catchy new slogan. "Air America. The Adhesives.com of Poltical Radio."

Nope. Just thought that this line was a most devastatingly apt summary I'd come across in ages - "Remember Air America? The brilliant pre-publicity campaign marred only by an ill-advised decision to actually launch the product? " Hahahahaha

Seems to be the consensus from the rumor-mill. Keeping with this morning's Canada-centric theme, I thought I'd post an essay by Canada's own Mark Steyn on the subject. "Remember Air America? The brilliant pre-publicity campaign marred only by an ill-advised decision to actually launch the product? The hype was coast to coast, but the station was only in a handful of markets, and a couple of those dumped the station after a bounced check, and most of the senior executives departed after a couple of weeks, which, according to whom you believe, was either part of the original business plan or extremely necessary because one of them was a “former Republican activist from Guam” and thus likely a double-agent for the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. Many decades ago, Richard Mellon Scaife planted scores of deep sleepers in Guam on the off-chance it might get statehood in the next century. So I was amazed to discover the other week that Air America is still out there. I divide my time, as the book jackets like to say, between New Hampshire and Quebec, and motoring ‘tween the two on the northern side of the border I’ve taken to listening to the Big 1070 WTWK Plattsburgh, serving not just the burgeoning twin-state market of remote north-eastern New York and remote north-western Vermont but also much of southern Quebec. I’m proud to be an Air America listener, even if I have to go to Canada to do it. You may not be able to listen to Al and Janeane in Chicago or Los Angeles, but once you leave the country they come booming in loud and clear, in the same way that Michael Moore always looms larger in Cannes, in every sense. What’s wrong with Air America? Well, the trick for Democrats is to be like WTWK’s reception in Vermont – distorted and fuzzy. Distorted and fuzzy are the twin pillars of effective leftie strategy. Remember that favourite statistic of Bill Clinton – that 12 “kids” a day are killed by guns. When you examine the data, it turns out five-sixths of those 11.569 grade-school moppets are young adults between 15 and 19, many of whom are engaged in convenience-store hold-ups, drug deals and other activities which, though potentially lucrative, have a tendency to go awry. But fuzziness (the inevitable invocation of “the children”) makes the distortion difficult to question. And that’s how the left advances its agenda – muffling ruthless partisanship in fluffy talk. Air America is distorted, but it’s not fuzzy. Take Randi Rhodes, whom I hear more of than anybody else. She’s on from three to seven Eastern, noon to four Pacific. That’s a big chunk of the broadcast day. When you’ve got a four-hour show, you need to be able to nudge the story along – you can’t be making the same complaint about Rumsfeld at seven o’clock that you were making at three. But Miss Rhodes doesn’t seem to know enough to be able to advance the narrative. She has a gay assistant, and the other day she was speaking highly about the attractiveness of his ass. This being radio, we’re obliged to take her word for it. But up at the other end the gay assistant leaves a lot to be desired: he doesn’t seem to be able to mine the Internet for those little items that effective radio hosts use to refresh their take on the issues. Recently, she observed that Republicans are the way they are because they don’t get enough sex. This seems an odd observation from a host who’d spent much of the previous hour complaining that she wasn’t getting enough herself. The brave few who called in seemed motivated to do so by a gallant urge to remedy this deficiency rather than any insights into the issues under debate. One fellow went on to compare what America was doing in Iraq with the bombing of Dresden, and Miss Rhodes then explained that the Allies had bombed Dresden after the end of World War Two, which suggests she may have been reading the grade-school history primer back to front. The caller then went on to compare Bush and 9/11 with Hitler and the burning of the Reichstag. “Kinda sorta,” said Randi. Kinda sorta. What did she mean? Was she really lending credence to the idea that Bush was behind September 11th? Or was she bluffing, stalling for time till the gay guy could find a reference book with this Reichstag thingy in it? It’s a good thing Air America is such a flop or it would cause serious problems for the Democratic Party. Miss Rhodes, for example, has been urging those called up for Iraq to refuse to go – to desert, in other words – which, if I understand his nuances, isn’t exactly on message with John Kerry. Perhaps one notices this more tootling along the autoroute in a province that’s still home to many graying pony-tailed draft dodgers from last time round. Indeed, in its combination of whiney victim complex and smug Bush moron jokes, Air America sounds far more Canadian than the CBC. I appreciate that “Air America! Nobody covers south-western Quebec like we do!” is probably not what their promotions guys foresaw in the original marketing strategy, but I offer it in a friendly spirit, and in hopes that they’ll extend the benefits of their toll-free number to my fellow Quebeckers. I heard the same guy from Long Island calling on successive days in May, so it couldn’t hurt to vary the diet with Yvan from Trois-Rivieres. Allons-y, Air America!"

I heard they're going to build a center for the tendentious, acontextual, recitation of random facts in service of febrile arguments by citizens of geopolitical nonentities there as well. Should be a good fit. Those are such massively big and impressive words, you are obviously in the group of 1 in a 100 amerikans who actually read books. Most can only recite who hit the most home runs with the bases loaded in the 1972 world series, off left handed pitchers. You don't bore people at partys with that act though, do you? The saddest thing about being a Canadian, I think, is that when you look at the factual data - whether it be on CO2 emissions per capita, percentage of adults with a college degree, or any of the other modest bits of hum-drummery that you all coble together to erect your national self-esteem upon - it's clear that you share the majority of our shortcomings, yet enjoy virtually none of our strengths. It's like watching a geopolitical re-enactment of "The Scarlet Letter, " with you lot playing the role of Hawthorne's preacher - combined with the sunken chested towel boy who talks shit about the players on the field. I have a suggestion which I think will help with the collective neurosis which has been worsening ever since it germinated in the Trudeau era. Before a Canadian citizen speaks ventures forth with any criticism of the US vis-a-vis Canada, he or she must recite the following passage first: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

I heard they're going to build a center for the tendentious, acontextual, recitation of random facts in service of febrile arguments by citizens of geopolitical nonentities there as well. Should be a good fit.

Hihuy Fiyuve!

Pretty good controlled demolition of the creators of "Loose Change" on video here: Popular Mechanics Editors Vs Loose Change Guys on Google Video

I forsee JayB countering with talk of the current liberal cabals bent on destroying democracy, capitalism and the American way, gangraping Minnie Mouse, learing lustily at Lex Luthor, then raising the Hammer & Sickle over DC, instituting mandatory gay marriage, and then lighting their newly legalized Cuban cigars with his $100 bills while drinking newly legalized Havana Club cuba libres with organic cola and fresh glacier ice cubes. 3rd rate Hunter S. Thompson knockoff stuff if I've ever seen it. Surely you can do better. Given the fact that I pretty much universally support free-trade, and think it's clear that political and economic freedom are intimately intertwined, I'd love to see the end of the embargo on Cuba, which, despite their ability to trade with the rest of the world, has enabled Fidel et al to evade responsibility for the wretched condition of the country that they preside over. As far as gay marriage is concerned, I've always supported that for a number of reasons, mostly having to do with the fact that if consenting adults want to enter into whatever sort of legal arrangment they desire it's no business of the government what their motivations for doing so are. I'm also perfectly happy to cede to tradition and limit the extension of the legal privileges and responsibilities associated with marriage to two individuals, but recognize that my principles don't support any such limitation. I actually think on the whole, if the definition of liberal is consistent with maximum personal, political, and economic liberty, that I'm probably way more liberal than you are. Keep shelling the mirage if you want to though.

The documents themselves were not leaked, only an outline of the existence of the illegal programs. The people who did the leaking were taking big risks with their lives and their future freedom. The issue is *the disclosure* not the format, and it's entirely unclear how this distinction supports the assertion that "There is a very good reason why the media don't reveal these abuses." when they've received abundant and exhaustive coverage in the press. Pretty much the only time when the media doesn't report on something, is when the media is not aware of it's existence. If you took the sum total of all scandals that lead to investigations over the course of the past century, and looked at the number of them that were unearthed and disclosed as the result of a formal congressional investigation, rather than a leak, a mistake, or some other unofficial means of disclosure, you'd have virtually nil. In pretty much every case, you have disclosure elsewhere followed by a Congressional investigation, so this assertion that somehow a party can keep a hermetically sealed lid on all of its official misdeeds so long as they can keep the dreaded congressional sub-committees at bay is puzzling indeed.

You appear to be equivocating the numerous reports of criminal activity by our government with some kind of supermarket tabloid gossip – your apparent selection of reading material might explain that confusing “otherworldly” dementia you seem to be complaining about. Let me assure you that here in America several ongoing criminal practices by the Republican government have already been recently identified in federal courts and anybody who has been paying attention knows this. It’s no secret, and the only silence is that of the Republican-controlled Congress and the right-wing media moguls for whom you advised imprisonment and fines. All that aside, the silence from the Republican Congress over the past six years has enabled the unlawful activities of the Republican government to continue while the Democrats in Congress have consistently been expressly prohibited by the majority rule from conducting hearings on the alleged unlawful activities. As surely as the preponderance of evidence is not only NOT secret but often available in best selling published accounts, the courts have ruled, and anybody who has been paying attention has heard what the courts said. What you hear next, if anything, will be the sound of the other shoe falling with the midterm elections. That is all. Thanks Obe Wan. So....in your world, Congressional hearings are the only means available to a political party if they wan't to reveal official misconduct on their opponent's part? That certainly explains why no one ever got around to appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the Plame affair, the various ethics committees never uttered the names Delay or Cunningham? Since you've gotten the intel on the downlow from your fellow analysts (did the secret decoder rings come with 24 sided dice and special masks?), how about indulging us with some specifics. Identify the culprits, the specific violations of the law that they are responsible for, and which member of the administration or Congress is responsible for impeding the indictment. And - if I'm following you here - the Republican Congress have been able to effectively throttle any and all investigations into their misdeeds, yet detailed accounts have somehow appeared in best-sellers, and the disclosure of the said details has resulted in prosecutions in Federal courts, of all places - yet...somehow the absence of a Democratic majority in Congress is keeping the information under wraps and the prosecutions on ice?

You mean like classified documents that outline the details of things like the NSA surveilance program, the monitoring of the SWIFT network transactions that the media didn't reveal because the Democrats were not in control of Congress and couldn't convene a subcommittee to formally request the documents? If Fitzgerald requested a document and the people under indictment say no, then all he can do is say "Okay - thanks for your time."? This is like arguing with people from Bizzaro world, where no one in DC leaks documents to the press, the press abhors getting a scoop, and politicians won't capitalize on the oppositions misconduct in office because doing so would hurt them at the polls. Sage voices from the masses that the Democrats must have been heeding en route to their recent chain of electoral triumphs.

Perhaps the democrats believe it will be easier to expose scandals when the current government propaganda machine has been neutered and a balance in power in the government has been restored. At the moment, anything critical of government policy is immediately and aggressively dismissed as "liberal hysteria", "sour grapes", and "anti-American rhetoric". It would also be political suicide to pursue scandals just before elections, wouldn't it? If the dems did that, you don't suppose the Republican reaction would be to accuse them of playing politics in an election year? At the moment, the democrats best move will be to simply be quiet and allow the Republicans to hang themselves with their own threadbare accusations of anti-Americanism, et.al, coupled with the shortcomings of their policies. Yes - Rinpoche - your analytical powers are as mighty as your fists. It's clear that the overwhelming power of the government to silence dissent and suppress the flow of information is evinced by the fact that top secret programs like the NSA surveilance program, and the CIA secret prisons never made it before the public, and staggering embarassments with major strategic consequences like the Abu Ghraib scandal and the massacre at Haditha were never mentioned in the press, and the details of the surveilance techniques used to monitor suspicious financial transactions never saw the light of day in the New York times. If the adminsistration ever lost their ability to throttle the media and impose its message on the public through them, Duke Cunningham and Tom Delay might have found their careers in Jeoparday, and the Plame/Wilson thing might have even resulted in the appointment of a special prosecutor. Thankfully the ever circumspect head of the DNC has been able to keep his minions in line, because they know full well how revaling substantive evidence of corruption and wrongdoing in office can work on behalf of the incumbents who have engaged in such activities. They remember well the electoral triumph that the Republicans enjoyed after Nixon's downfall. "Whoa - keep that under wraps Billy. Remember how much Watergate hurt the Democrats!" FWIW I think that this business about the administration suppressing dissent, etc, has got to be the most laughable bunch of hokum I've ever heard in my life. If you are a prominent left-of-center politician or intellectual, the only thing that is likely to damage your standing or prospects is a LACK of vitreol directed at the administration. All of this business about suppression of dissent is just petulant whining on the part of people who have failed in their efforts to develop cogent arguments and substantive policy alternatives that resonate with enough of the electorate to gain widespread popular support and win consistently at the polls.

All of which explains the Democrat's otherwordly reticence vis-a-vis the staggering scandals that their entrepid volunteer intel analysts have unearthed via collective electronic seance. "Psssst. SssssssssHHHHHH!!! Keep that shit quiet until AFTER the elections...." Maybe you can keep busy drafting a list of TV execs that you'd like to see fined and imprisoned for airing docu-dramas that you disagree with until the said hearings get underway.

I liked stone gardens better for a lot of reasons. Mellower crowd, cooler vibe, better bouldering, and....the lead routes were never that crowded, and often empty, even during the busiest after-work megaclusters. Start off with the leading, wait 'til the bouldering mobile-cluster departs, then do a few problems. Great fun. UW rock in the summer, SG in the winter. Great combo.

Of course it does JayB! The political process is entirely transparent! I see. Now that the genius of the "keep the explosive scandal that will devastate your opponents quiet until after the election" strategy is apparent to me, it's equally clear who the political mastermind behind the Democratic party's stunning electoral triumphs since 1999 has been. One of our very own.

This makes a ton of sense. Clearly if the Democrats had strong, factual evidence to implicate republican lawmakers in illegal or scandalous activity, they'd take pains to suppress any hint of either prior to the mid-term elections, just to make the race to secure the congress that much tougher, and so that they could delight in breaking the news in the midst of the-always-heavily-watched committee meetings, rather than doing things the easy way and airing the information via press conferences or leaks to the press. "We've got information that will bring down the administration and restore our control of Congress, but by God, we're going to make both the people and the press work HARD to pry it out of us. If they're not paying attention to the minutes of sub-committee meetings, that may or may not occur depending upon whether or not we actually win the election without the assistance of this massive scandal, then they just don't deserve to know!"

Bring 'em on! The words of a sober genius, or a drunken fucktard? America has the democracy it's earned. Let it rot. Back to mountains: Nothing goes with splenetic nihilism better than...mountains.