JayB

Every side has their obscure intellectual of choice. Of course I prefer those who believe in studies based on observal fact, not those who refute them. Just to save you some Googling - Von Mises was an economist whose central thesis was that economic calculation and efficient coordination of supply and demand were both impossible in the absence market prices, and he predicted that efforts to supplant them by central planning would inevitably result in totalitarianism and economic collapse. This was in 1921. Von Hayek was one of his students and converts. This was a testable hypotheses based theory and grounded upon observation that has been confirmed by the outcome of a century's worth of experiments on mankind.

Von Mises is more my style.

There's probably room for two in the hut. Rent-free, of course. Psst..TREETOAD. The entity known as "Sexual_Chocolate" is a wholly fictional persona deployed in service of the deception that the American Corporate State's victory has not been total. The fact that it is derived from a character in a popular late-80's comedy designed to amuse and distract the populace while they chuckled away their freedoms should have been your first hint. Trust no one. To the hut! To the hut! before its too late....

They're coming... They're coming... They're coming... The voices have been telling you this, in whispers, in signs, in codes - but now the chorus is growing louder. The time for action has arrived. "TREETOAD - your hour is nigh!" Time to skip town and head for the Ted Kacynski-style compound in the highlands, my friend, time is running out, and unless you complete your manifesto - all hope will be lost. "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries. 2. The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down. If it survives, it MAY eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing through a long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently reducing human beings and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, if the system survives, the consequences will be inevitable: There is no way of reforming or modifying the system so as to prevent it from depriving people of dignity and autonomy. 3. If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had best break down sooner rather than later...." Just be sure to use proper MLA style when you paraphrase extensive sections of the above text in your own work.

That makes sense - we haven't seen them around town in a few years now. We were wondering where they'd gone to... Globalization man...Globalization..... I suspect that the loss of prime habitat due to increasing land prices and condo development - WTF is that thing they're building by the 7-11 BTW- also played a role.

I heard that they scoured Squamish campgrounds looking for roving bands of drunken, brawling youth to carry out the interrogations.

I'd say that's just a coincidental - and unflattering - similarity between POMO and old-fashioned populism IMO. I doubt that anyone's whipping out the Derrida or Foucault at the "Left Behind" series reading groups...

I was speaking of some of the branchs of PoMo that posit "facts" are all relative to the user and that each of us are equally qualified to evaluate all situations and all of our opinions are equally valid on all subjects. I hear that position espoused in evolution debates. I think that if you follow the course of the debate over the last 100 years or so, what has actually happened is that creationists have gone from dismissing science, to attempting to frame their argument in terms that appear scientific. Most of that happened in 40 years between the Scopes trial and the founding of the Institute for Creation Research in the 1960s (or thereabouts). Intelligent Design is just the latest manifestation of this trend in the US, although the argument that this is based on is at least a couple of thousand years old. (Plato's Demi-urge, etc). A quick look at the graphics and language in most creationist web sites will confirm this, (http://www.ideacenter.org/about/index.php), as does the fact that virtually every individual cited in pamplets, web-sites, etc - has scientific credentials of some sort that those producing the materials take pains to emphasize in the literature.

Coupled with an inability of people to differentiate between sources and influences in a substantive manner. It's interesting to watch the American right, who long railed against the relativism inherent in parts of postModern theory now accept and utilize the same identity/feeling logic to justify their positions. Not quite the same thing. In this case the dispute is over the facts, whereas with POMO the dispute was/is about whether or not there are "facts." At least people who are using less than sound science agree about the utility and validity of science as a tool for humanity, whereas a great deal of the POMO crew were using a maladaption of literary criticism to dispute the notion that one could ever obtain accurate information about the natural world, and that science was simply a ruse used by white men to codify and reinforce their power in society, etc, etc, etc. BTW - you might enjoy reading "Science and Relativism" by Larry Laudan. Quote from the intro below: "I did not write this work merely with the aim of setting the exegetical record straight. My larger target is those contemporaries who -- in repeated acts of wish-fulfillment -- have appropriated conclusions from the philosophy of science and put them to work in aid of a variety of social cum political causes for which those conclusions are ill adapted. Feminists, religious apologists (including "creation scientists"), counterculturalists, neoconservatives, and a host of other curious fellow-travelers have claimed to find crucial grist for their mills in, for instance, the avowed incommensurability and underdetermination of scientific theories. The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is -- second only to American political campaigns -- the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time."

I remember reading a great article a few years ago concerning fluoridation of drinking water. A small municipality had invested in fluoridation equipment, and announced that they would begin fluoridating the drinking water on a certain date, despite vocal opposition from certain quarters of the community. The day after the said date arrived, people in town began complaining of migraines, aching kidneys, dizzyness, misbehavior in children, fatigue, shortness of breath, and other related maladies. With each passing day both the number of people reporting health problems and the intensity of the problems escalated, as did the uproar. When the head of the water district was finally summoned to address the town, he made a startling announcement - no fluoride had actually been added to the water yet, and would not begin for another month. The real start date came and went uneventfully and they've had fluoride in the water ever since.

I don't care about the name JayB, it's the fact that he likes to dine on small African children's livers that I find disturbing. "No one cares what happens in Africa, those people are scarcely human," opined Alito. "A controlled harvest is the act of a compassionate society, and unpropertied individuals were clearly originally excluded from constitutional protections." If you think the guy's unworthy of the office, by all means raise hell and oppose the nomination in every way you possibly can. That's what I was talking about when I referred to the brawl in my first comment. I much prefer a nomination process where someone has a long record of consitutional jurisprudence for everyone to look over, there's a full-on public debate about his judicial philosophy, experience, etc - and the nomination either succeeds or fails on that basis.

Symantic pendantry Speaking of which - is that a term for the act of fixating on trivial variations in code that don't affect the function of anti-virus programs?

WB-400 is warmer and more windproof than the 3X dry, but slightly less breathable. Dynamic is more breathable than either, and lacks the microfleece liner found on the other two fabrics. IMO WB-400 is a better choice when you'll encounter strong winds and weather, and be engaged in stop-and-go activity. The 3X dry is better for more sustained activity in cold temps, and the dynamic is better for cool temps. I think most people just combine one of the more breathable fabrics with a really light hardshell for the stop and go stuff or when the wind kicks up.

There is in fact no vacancy. O'Conner is still presiding until a new justice is confirmed. Get your facts straight you right-wing knucklehead. Thanks for the semantic pedantry. Impending vacancy. There's clearly no need to nominate a replacement at this time.

There's also the fact that there is, actually, a vacancy on the court that he has to fill. Have there been any events involving the government in your adult lifetime that haven't been the result of a conspiracy orchestrated for a purpose outside of necessity? When Congress passes a budget, is that because it's their responsibility to do so, or is it an underhanded maneuver designed to distract the American people? Is that bond-issue that the water-district puts up for a vote really about raising the funds necessary for a treatment plant, or something more sinister..... I just think that an open argument about judicial philosophy is a better way to vet candidates. It's a given that a president will nominate a judge who has a judicial philosophy that's consistent with his beliefs about the role of the supreme court in government, etc. Given that a judge's beliefs and politics will influence his rulings, he should at least be called upon to demonstrate that he has he has the ability to provide sound legal justification for his rulings.

"Alito Name Too Vowel Heavy, Schumer Says" "Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, today questioned Judge Samuel Alito's commitment to diversity noting that the Supreme Court nominee's last name is 60 percent vowels and only 40 percent consonants. In perhaps the most substantive critique of President George Bush's nominee to date, the senator also noted that the federal appeals court judge's full name contains every vowel, but a disproportionately small percentage of consonants. "Not only is Judge Alito's name too vowel-heavy for mainstream Americans," said Sen. Schumer. "But 'Alito' begins and ends with vowels, suggesting that vowels are the alpha and omega of the alphabet, and clearly denigrating the contribution of consonants to our society."

Dave would you support giving health-insurance companies the right to raise premiums for people who are overweight?

Watch this movie, then decide: http://homepage.mac.com/poorboyz/.Public/Trailers/WAR_LoRes.mov

A beatific glow induced by contemplating the sublime majesty of a 20,000 gallon deep fat fryer.... Oops. Wrong photo.

This video contains several damning indictments of Bush, Rove, and Cheney.... http://homepage.mac.com/poorboyz/.Public/Trailers/WAR_LoRes.mov

Jesus. If his parents aren't careful he could turn out just like this guy...

Should be a good fight. I'd much rather have a bareknuckles brawl where people actually have to take concrete positions concerning their views on the constitution, the role of the court, etc and defend them than "evade your way through the confirmation process" model that seems to have emerged over the last 20 years.

Good points. Anyone remember what happened when Honda and Datsun and Toyota introduced those cars that were less expensive, more reliable, and more fuel efficient back in the 70s? Now look where we are? We had the Pinto, the Gremlin, and the Pacer - now we're stuck with these freaking Camry's that last 15 years and 300,000 miles. Argh. What really makes my blood boil those Asian and German auto manufacturers that have invested all of that capital and outsourced all of those high-paying jobs to the US.... Seriously though - anyone who wants to be competitive while producing labor intensive consumer goods in the US is going to have to compete on overall value, and use technology to increase productivity and quality. This is not impossible. For an example of one company that's making it work, take a look at Oregon's own Beyond Fleece. They've been doing pretty-well as far as I can tell. They handle ordering and distribution over the web, and use advanced machinery to reduce production costs. After you send in your measurements and specify the options you want on your garmets, their software calculates the dimensions of the cuts, robots do the cutting, and then local staff handle the sewing. When I bought a pair of custom pants from them, I sent in my measurements on a Monday and had them a week later. Free-shipping, perfect-fit, and a lifetime guarantee on the workmanship - all for less than a pair of mass-produced pants.

I think that you are probably right about the vintage. I was thinking in terms of downhill ski technology-chronology, and these are clearly XC/Touring skis. I didn't realize that fully-wooden skis were the standard for so long in the XC realm - that's kind of cool. My family picked up XC skiing in the late 70's, and the gear was pretty-much all fiberglass by then, but we did have some bamboo poles. Unfortunately, it looks like the previous owner must have stored these in a shed or something, with the tails in contact with the soil, so there's some damage to the wood there. I think that most of them could be restored well enough to use though - I'll have to look into how to do that properly. I'm probably going to hang onto at least one pair, and check with friends and family to see if they want a pair. If there's still a pair or two left over, I'd be willing to send someone a pair for the price of shipping from the East Coast. Since I'm not looking to turn a profit, the offer is limited to people who are interested in restoring the skis and/or hanging onto them for personal use or enjoyment. If there's more interest than skis, longtime posters get priority. Left to rigth: Bonna, Splitkein, Norge-Ski.

Several days at Whistler when the late March/early April megadumpage finally hit.