JayB

I second the motion's for the Buckskin Gulch and the Canyons around the Escalante. There's a permit sysem in effect for overnight camping in the Buckskin Gulch area, and you'd do well to reserve your spaces a few weeks in advance if you plan on hitting the canyon during peak season. The Canyons of the Escalante are pretty well covered in Kelsey's book, and are well worth visiting if you are in the area. I take that back. Escalante is an overdeveloped patch of hell that no one should ever visit under any circumstances, and there are no good slots within a 100 mile radius. Stick to Moab and Zion and avoid Escalante at all costs.

One Iraqi's thoughts on the matter: "Thursday, April 01, 2004 Crime and punishment. - What happened in Fallujah yesterday, when foreigner contractors were killed and disfigured, was more than I could take. I felt extremely angry, disgusted frustrated and desperate. What was worse is that it’s not the first time, nor do I feel it will be the last. There was nothing I could say to explain it, and in fact I don’t want to, nor do I expect anyone to understand. However it made me think a lot trying to understand why such things happen and how to respond to them. If I was living outside Iraq, I probably wouldn’t bother this much and I would settle with saying that evil exists everywhere in the world and that we shouldn’t generalize this, which is true, but since I live with evil next door, I can’t satisfy with just concluding. I find myself forced to look for answers that may help to stop this madness and to put this country on the right track. I’m not stupid enough to think that I can do it alone, of course, but at least I can do my part, joining those who went there before me, and waiting for others to do the same. Before going further, I’d like to say that we still have to work our minds while we combat evil and should never surrender to anger alone. There are many criminals involved in this terrible crime on different levels. There are those who preformed the attack (the terrorists), there are those who disfigured and cut the bodies of the victims, (the savages) and there are those who cheered the process, (the disgusting potential criminals) and last but not least the Arab media who celebrated that horrible event and kept showing those scenes again and again. All these should be punished according to their crime. I’m not going to bother myself with the reasons behind the crimes committed by the terrorists and the savages, and I think we all know the motives of the Arab media, which I have deleted from my list forever and will never watch again. They’re serving the terrorists goal by terrorizing both the coalition people and the Iraqis who cooperate with them and they want to create and promote hatred and distrust between the Arab Muslim world and the west, and discourage those who don’t carry such hatred on either part, all in the favor of the dictators who finance them. These should not be dealt with as journalists; they are a disgrace to this honorable profession. The only people that I think should be punished less severely are those kids and teenagers who were cheering that terrible act. These are just children who never heard a voice other than that of the mullahs and Saddam’s propaganda, which is still working with no less efficiency, thanks to Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabia. They probably haven’t seen any place other than their poor miserable town. Still they should be taught a hard lesson. The problem with many Iraqis is that they still don’t understand the meaning of freedom, as some of them look at the present situation and the semi absence of punishment as an opportunity to do whatever they want, as was shown by the last riot in Basra lately (which I know that it was carried by a group of professional criminals who claim to be an Islamic She’at group, who are supported and financed from Iran in the obvious hope of starting a civil war or at least a considerable disturbance, and should be dealt with seriously). These people should be lectured about that and when this fails they should be forced to follow the law and respect human life and values. They should know that the absence of a sovereign government does not mean the absence of law. The CPA should by now have distinguished Iraqis who are cooperative and willing to build a new Iraq, and those who are just not satisfied with them or just have some complains, from those who are (immune to reform) and they have dealt with the second group quite patiently and wisely and gained many allies. Now it’s time to deal with the third group and this should be done firmly. We have the tapes that show the faces of most of those who took part in committing and celebrating that crime and I’ve heard that the CPA is already following them and I hope this will be done soon, but I must add that even those who were just cheering, should be arrested, sentenced to prison for a long period and that this should be shown on the Iraqi TV and all the media, so that the others, especially those who fear the terrorists should learn to fear the law if they can’t respect it. I for my part have decided, instead of cursing the darkness to light a candle that I know very well it may burn me and my family. I’ll report anyone I even suspect of cooperating or knowing something about the terrorists. And to those who might wonder why this should be a risk, I think the answer is that-despite the great improvement in their performance and ethics- there’s still a considerable number of corrupted members on the IP and even agents for the terrorists and one just wishes to be lucky not to contact the wrong guys, and even the CPA is not a very promising alternative, since they need hard solid evidence, which is quite good in natural circumstances, but unfortunately not available most of the time, and just for the record, this is not the first time I do this. I think they need to be more hard on those who are strongly suspected on committing or helping terrorist attacks, so that the people who turn them in will not fear their revenge once they are released, which happened many times. I’m not calling for violence like that of Saddam’s, I’m calling for enforcement of law and justice and I’m ready to do my part. We are going through a very critical period and strict punishment should be applied to those who try to hinder the development or further disturb an already unstable situation. Anyhow, my life and my family’s are not more precious than those of all the victims of terror, and I’ve already sent messages to the CPA of all the information I have about people I have strong suspicions about, and who are supposed to be my people and some of them are actually related to me or consider me a friend or a neighbor but simply I don’t consider them so anymore, not until they denounce terrorist activities and stop cheering them as resistance, as my friends and my family are those who help me and the Iraqi people and whish the best for me and for Iraq. In case that will not work I’ll take the risk of going to the IP. The reason is why I’m doing this now and not before is because I don’t have solid evidences and it’s almost impossible to contact the coalition forces directly, but I’m also SICK of living with fear and I’m sick of getting, with all the good Iraqis and Muslims, the blame because of these terrorists and barbarians, because this only serves the terrorists plan, that is to block any way of communication and understanding between Muslims and others, and they use comments made by westerns in such times to show the other Muslims that hatred is eternal between them and all the others. This is not between Isalmists and the west, not between Saddam loyalists and America this is between good and evil, light and darkness and I can’t sit and watch or explain anymore. You can say, “Nuke Mecca” or “nuke Fallujah” and you can chose the Spanish government’s attitude and submit to terror, or you can join us (Iraqis and coalition) in fighting dictatorship, terrorism and their-no less evil and damaging- propaganda machine. I call for serious measures upon such channels that provoke hatred and celebrate terror and show it as a heroic action. I say, “‘nuke’ Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabia, the terrorists and all dictators in the world. It’s either us or them”. The evil TV channels should be prevented from entering Iraq and spew their poisons into the minds of simple people. They’re more dangerous than the terrorists themselves and no rigid concepts such as ‘freedom of speech’ should stop us here. This is not journalism, its terror propaganda. I don't think there's a need to change the coalition strategy in Iraq in a radical way, it's a very good one, but needs some fine adjustments. I think what should be done is that we go on with our plans to build a new free and democratic Iraq and show the people the benefits and beauty of freedom, but at the same time we should deal firmly with those who act only in response to hatred and fear and have no respect for any law or human values, in other words people who made it necessary that every country should have an efficient law system supported by a powerful police to make sure that law is respected and to punish, and even eliminate when it’s necessary, those who don’t fit in the society. We have suffered enough to get our freedom, thanks to our friends who sacrificed much to achieve their peace and ours, and we can’t turn back and we will never accept slavery again. No, better to die free than live as slaves for our fears. By Ali" http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/

"If you can say one thing about the muslims, you can say that they don't tolerate apparent injustices to other muslims." ....unless of course these injustices are being perpetrated by their fellow Muslims.

Never. You are hereby condemned to an eternity of left-to-right scrolling.

Well - I had high hopes for this trip but well over a week of record high temperatures more or less put the kibosh on the ice climbing. I new that heading out there this late in the year would be a bit of a crap-shoot, and I brought along all of my fly-fishing gear, some rock gear, and a snowboard as back-ups. As luck would have it, I ended up using all of the "back-up" gear and none of the ice gear. After rolling into town on Monday morning, I strolled into the local fly-shop, got wind of a killer blue-winged olive hatch, and bought a one-day license after explaining to the guy at the desk that I had come out to Cody for the ice climbing but was glad to have something to do on the days when I didn't have a partner. After coming in every single morning thereafter for the next four days, this had become something of a joke, and the occupants would have themselves a good chortle after asking me "How that there ice climbing'd been yesterday." Both my girlfriend and I thought that we might be able to squeeze some midweek climbing in together, but she ended up putting in far more hours than she had imagined she'd have to before the trip - so it was basically just me and the trout going mano y mano all week long. Thankfully, I was in the midst of the best dry-fly I'd seen since the late 80's, and found ample consolation while wading the Shoshone River. And this was right in the middle of town - amazing. Anyhow - a pal from Colorado was scheduled to arrive Thursday evening, so I took some time early in the week to check out the ice. The last I heard Wyoming was the final refuge of the "you can have a drink while you drive but you'd better not drive drunk" philosophy, so I picked up a few and had a couple once I had more or less arrived in the valley. Despite the warm temps, it looked as though there was still plenty of ice in the valley, even if most of it was looking a bit white and sun-rotted by the time I got there. I was hoping to take a few shots of some of the ice in the distance and blow them up to see if that would tell me anything more about their condition and even resorted to the poor man's telephoto (sticking a pair of binocs on the end of the camera) to help things along. I spoke with one of the locals at the end of the Hunter Creek Ranch Road about access, saw the fractured remains of a route or two on the shady side of the valley, then turned around and spoke to the aftorementioned pal about the conditions, and checked in with some locals for good measure. In the end we ended up heeding their advice, stayed away form the ice, and stuck to the rock in the upper Shoshone Canyon. We did find an incredible stash of ice the following day, but unfortunately it was carpeting the slopes out at Red Lodge, MT. After a kicked back day on the slopes there, it was time to head back to Colorado for a day or two to check in with a few friends from my time there, then catch a ride back to the PNW.

That sucks. I think just about anyone who has climbed for any length of time has heard that voice you speak of, failed to heed it, and managed to get away with it - then wondered what the consequences would have been if they had fallen. I hope you have a fast and complete recovery.

Just on the off chance that anyone who reads this actually wants to do something constructive - there are several organizations orchestrating efforts to improve the Iraqi people's well-being, especially the children's. Light a candle or curse the darkness. Your choice. www.iraqischools.com " HELLO All, I have never been a fan of mass emails, but under the circumstances I am willing give it a try to ask for help. The Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF): I am asking for your help in bringing desperately needed school supplies to the children of our zones here in Baghdad. Over the past few weeks, we have been faced with the mission to secure, clean up and win the peace in several large zones in the heart of Baghdad. Among the many tasks associated with this mission is interaction with the local schools (grades K - 8 equivalent). Simply put, the conditions are deplorable. The conditions include raw sewage on the ground and in the classrooms, no electricity or water, bullet holes in the walls and on the roofs, broken windows and doors, no desks or chalkboards, and obviuosly little or no supplies with which to hold classes. Despite the conditions, they will continue to hold classes. In many respects, the Iraqis put a greater premium and priority on education than we do in the US. The problem lies in the lack of resources and infastructure. Under Sadam's regime, resources were used as a weapon to influence and control the people. Even water and electricity were engineered such that he could turn it on and off as a way of rewarding those who supported him, while punishing those he did not trust. Our soldiers have had to endure a full spectrum of emotions and feelings, not to mention hazards while confronting the task of improving the schools. We do what we can with what we have, but it is difficult at best given our situation. Perhaps the most difficult part for many of our soldiers is balancing the desire to truly help the Iraqi people, and even more so the children with the hopeless frustration of acquiring the resources to do the job. To many of us, there is an endless list of those who would advertise to help, but in the end these bureaucrats are seemingly more interested in getting their name in the press than they are getting the job done. This is where my request comes in. After seeing first-hand the conditions of these schools and the reactions of the children we help, it dawned on me how fortunate we all are and how much we sometimes take for granted what we have. For what I provide my two boys in one year for school, I could outfit an entire classroom of Iraqi children for the year. My soldiers and I quickly realized the need to reach out directly to you all for help. We knew that by asking for help through emails and phone calls, we could circumvent the log jam of inaction and produce some positive results. I took a look at the group of you who I am able to maintain email contact with, and realized how fortunate many of us are in life, and realized the power and potential of such a group. For those of you who have seen the movie "Pay It Forward", we are attempting to start a grass roots movement to provide school supplies directly from the States to the children and schools here in Baghdad. In doing so, I am asking from each of you a few moments of your time and few simple tasks. My soldiers and I will see to the rest. " www.spiritofamerica.net "The Marines that liberated Baghdad last spring are back in Iraq and they need our help. Commanding General Jim Mattis says, "Your gifts will reduce adversarial relationships and bridge cultural gaps. You have significantly impacted our ability to do good and, I fervently hope reduce the potential for combat." Help the Marines be the best ambassadors possible. Your donation will have a real impact." www.operationgive.org "out at the front gate I noticed a young girl crying behind the barbed wire that separates us from the throngs of people waiting for their chance to speak with someone. Her mother, only having one leg, had hobbled in on her crutches a few moments earlier. The young girl, separated from the only person she was familiar with, began crying, now hiding behind the rest of the crowd. I searched through the mass to see where the crying noise was coming from. She was obviously very poor, in her tattered old dress, totally worn out plastic flip-flops, her hair matted against her head indicating she hadn't had a bath in a long time and her skin blistered from the dirt and weather. Once I saw her I quickly told the MP's to move the barbed wire back to let her in to join her mother. Her crying stopped as she darted in to grab a hold of her mother's long black dishdasha, torn and frayed from years of use. As she stood by her mother's side, grasping her dress, I moved over slowly to brush her stringy hair away from her eyes and to pat her gently on the head, as I told the guard to make sure they don't leave before I could return. I quickly loaded up the sources in my car and returned them to my office in the palace. I told them to wait for a moment, while I rummaged through my FedEx box full of toys sent my by my teammates back home. I grabbed a comb, a brush, a pair of new flip-flops, a whistle, a stuffed monkey whose arms hang around your neck, and a new toothbrush and tooth paste and dashed out the door, telling my interpreter to come along. As I made my way back over to the front gate, I saw the little girl and her mother waiting patiently anticipating my return, not knowing why I had asked them to wait. Bending down I handed her the items one by one, as I explained what each item was, to insure she knew what I was giving her, especially as I gave her the toothbrush, asking her to be sure to brush everyday. Her eyes lit up with such joy as I put the monkey arms over her head. She was so excited to receive everything, being somewhat shy though, not having dealt with an American before. She was so precious as her big brown eyes looked up at me, causing me to almost breakdown into tears as I walked away quickly so as to not bring too much attention to the little girl from the on looking crowd. What a moment! In my own little way, I am influencing and affecting the attitudes of Iraqis one person at a time, taking baby steps, one experience at a time. My sphere of influence is small in comparison to the task at hand, but who knows what the ripple affect will be of my small effort to calm the tears of one sweet little girl. Thanks to my team mates back home who made this moment possible by sending me the toys to hand out to Iraqi children. I have only one request of them and others: please send me more toys!"

Just summarizing the article actually. But - what the heck do the guys at The Economist know about economics anyways?

There's a good article on what's driving this week's oil prices in this week's economist - but unfortunately you need a subscription to their online service or a hard-copy to get ahold of it. In their analysis the current price levels aren't supported by the fundamentals of the current supply/demand equation - although increasing demand from a recovering US and a surging China have helped to elevate prices. The main factors that they see distorting the markets at the moment are intense political risk - a "terror premium" - in the Middle East, as well as in second tier producers like Venezuela, and strong buying by the US government for the strategic petrolem reserve. As when the price of crude has spiked in the past, there's been very little action on taken to withhold supply by OPEC members, all of whom are selling well beyond their quota allotment. One other persistent factor driving up prices at the pump is the ongoing tightness in refining capacity, especially for the blends required to satisfy tougher environmental regs. Political risk - in the form of price controls - is one of the factors that's made oil companies reluctant to make the investments necessary to build the additional refineries necessary to bring more supply to the market.

Another vote for the the West Ridge of Quandary. From what I remember it features almost a mile of traversing on 3rd and 4th class terrain at almost 14,000 feet. Very cool route, reasonably close to boulder by way of Breckenridge, and a route that will keep you away from the teeming hordes. If there was one 3rd/4th class route on a 14er relatively close to boulder this would be it. On Quandary's north side there's there's also the Inwood Arete which has a fair amount of low fifth climbing (5.4 max) followed by a bunch of blocky talus on the way to the summit. The route isn't all that committing as you can bail off of the fifth class stuff and traverse to talus on quite a bit of the route. Mt Evans is a good choice if you are looking for stuff that's a bit closer to Boulder, and the best route IMO is the linkup from Bierstadt to Evans via the Sawtooth ridge (exposed 3rd class - may feel like 4th to some) although this makes for a long day. One other route worth mentioning that's fairly close to boulder is the Kelso ridge on Torrey's peak, which has quite a bit of fun 3rd class terrain and one minor section of ridge narrow enough to be a bit more engaging than the rest of the climb. If you want to knock off two peaks in a day, the summit of Grey's peak is just a short ridge-walk away. Griz is right to recommend staying away from the Keyhole on Long's at that time of year if you are not into obscenely crowded routes and megaclusters. There's excellent coverage of all of these route's in Lou Dawson's guide to the Colorado 14ers, as well as Gerry Roach's book on the same peaks. I imagine there's also a fair amount of info on these peaks/routes available at www.summitpost.com

One more question that I'll post here for posterity. Is it easier to approach Mean Green and H.O.B from the end of the road on the drivers left as you enter the Valley or the road that goes a bit further upvalley on the drivers right? The hike from the left side looks longer but with fewer river crossings, while the hike from the right looks a bit shorter but has several crossings to deal with. Spoke with someone at a Ranch at the end of the valley on the left side yesterday and it sounds like they are cool with climbers walking on their land as long as they are quiet and don't litter, but get quite annoyed when people ignore the "Private Road" sign just past the trailhead and take their cars on their property. Appreciate all the help. There's lots of ice up there, even on the South side, but it's freaking tropical out here right now and some of the higher volume falls are coming down on the North side. May end up looking at stuff and walking away if it stays this warm.

Hey - Thanks for the suggestions!. I'm at the Public Library in Cody right now, and will head into the South Fork to check things out in a few minutes. I was planning to do that yesterday, but the fly-fishing was just too good.

...and anyone else that's been to Cody in Spring. I'm heading out to Cody tomorrow morning and will be there for the next week. Most of the south facing stuff should be toast by the time I get there but the folks at www.coldfear.com have been saying that the north facing stuff has grown as fat as they've ever seen it for the past couple of weeks. So - I need some recommendations. Looking for north facing 3's with a reasonable approach for the days when the g/f gets off of work at the hospital early (like noon) and for north facing 3s and 4s for when the homey from CO joins me up there from Friday-Sunday. Bozos Revenge and Mean Green are looking good at the moment but I'm open to suggestions as I have zero prior experience in the area. Thanks in advance for the help - will likely be crashing solo in the Cody, WY Walmart's parking lot due to some unforseen complications for with the housing situation, but am pondering Bunkhouse Willy's for lodging when the said homey rolls in later in the week, but would be grateful for any other suggestions as far as lodging in the area is concerned. Cheers, -Jay

What price are you looking for for years83-86?

Killer TR.

Thanks for the offer homes but I'm doing okay on that front. Evil One: The gist of your argument seems to be that if the governments in the Middle East were left to fend for themselves, they'd be unable to oppress any of their citizens, democracy would flower overnight, even the most petulant young men would search in vain for grievances to take their rulers to task for, and millitant Islamists would forget all about their perceived quarrel with the West. This is an entirely credible argument, given the precedent set by Iran. The first thing that the events which unfolded in Iran 25 years ago did was demonstrate the validity of your contention that no amount of popular unrest can unseat an authoritarian ruler who has the US's backing. The second thing this that this episode proved was that once the cruel yoke of Western-backed authoritarianism was thrown off, all barbarity and political oppression would cease instantaneously and a humane democracy would immediately spring forth from the ashes of the fallen order. - because that is exactly what happened in Iran. Iran's case also established the truism that no government which does not maintain an alliance with the United States could ever preside over its population in a manner that would instill any sense of grievance whatsoever in the said population. The youth of Iran - happy as pie and not a grievance in sight. And thank goodness that within days of the revolution we never heard anything more from the clerics who had previously stated their antipathy for the West and its citizens. I think most of them turned their devotion and fervor to needlepoint and stamp collecting. No western support = no oppresion = no terror. Simple as that. One could also apply this tidy little nostrum to Afghanistan. No oppression there once the Western backed rulers were out of the picture, and nary a terrorist ever lashed out from beyond their borders either. The pattern of terrorist actions in Iraq also lends credence to your thesis that the terrorists are really just a bunch of frustrated young democrats who would pretty much hang up there Kalashnikovs and go bury their Semtex somewhere if someone would just give them the chance to vote once in a while. Again - no mention of fulfilling their heavenly mandate to slaughter the Infidels, no public denunciations about combating the sinfulness and decadence of the West with bullets and dynamite - they're just aching for a parliament to call their own. The aim of the operations which have targeted the UN, peaceful gatherings of Shiites, and the Kurdish Political class is clearly to foster an accountable democratic government that will be responsible to the aspirations of the Iraqi people - not foment a catastrophic civil war that will leave the nation rife with discord, carnage, and ethnic feuding. That is especially true of the young men who have obviously concluded that the best way to bring about democratic reform in their own countries is to slaughter a procession of their fellow Muslims in the midst of their religious observances, and to assasinate the head of the UN's reconstruction efforts with an ambulance full of explosives. Thanks for the heads up.

I don't quite understand your position above; most such attempts have been met with the most brutal oppression, be it in Saudi Arabia (our "ally"), or in Iraq (also our "ally", once upon a time). My point is that "popular movements" within such rigid police-states are incredibly difficult; that's part of the reason why bin Laden is looked upon favorably by 66% of pakistanis, and enjoys widespread popularity in many other (most?) "Islamic" countries. well, you know, "clear thinkers" like JayB can't afford to be held down by such trifling realities. Evil One - you are slipping. Note the use of capital letters. What will the masses think. And SC - your are correct in your restatement of the obvious - that initiating and sustaining democratic reform is difficult in most states governed by an authoritarian regime, and impossible when the government is brutal and totalitarian enough, as was the case in Iraq. However, there's a continuum of oppression out there, and there are many examples of situations where the populace has succeeded in securing democratic reforms by political means rather than terrorism. They have also generally voiced the concerns and aspirations of the public that they purport to represent. They have also shown an ability to gauge what issues to push, in what manner, and at what time. The ruling class in Saudi Arabia, for example, would very likely hunt down and execute members of a political movement whose members targeted them for assasination, blew-up critical components of the economic infrastructure, and repeatedly stated their belief that they would like to see all of the idolatrous, infidel princes sodomized in hell by the devil for all of eternity. This same ruling class would arguably listen to members of a political movement whose stated goal was to further enhance the Kingdom's stability and prosperity by working with the royal family to promote a political environment that more effectively harnesses the talents and ambitions of their fellow countrymen, and enhances the public's investment in the prevailing political system via judicious democratic reform. One might expect reformers to know as much and conduct themselves accordingly. But I digress. The point is that if what really motivated the terrorists was a sincere desire to redress things like poverty, inequality, and the like their methods and their messages would be quite different. A cursory glance at their materials - widely available on the internet - will demonstrate that such things, are - ahem - not quite at the top of the list of their priorities, and providing adequate day care and hot school lunches for toddlers - while certainly causes that can best be championed by disembowling western tourists with car bombs - falls just a bit below "Slaying the Infidels Wherever They Exist" on most Islamic terrorists's to do lists. Despite the prevailing belief amongst members of the hard Left to the contrary, the fact of the matter is that these folks do not - actually - have many political goals in common with Jimmy Carter.

For those seeking to reimpose Baathist party rule, this may indeed be true. However, there is an abundance of public opinion polls, editorial pieces penned by Iraqis, Iraqi webloggers, and the conduct of the average Iraqis itself to consider, the sum of which paint a very different picture, which in turn suggests that your statement may be in need of a good bit of qualification, at the very least.

For Klenke: FWIW, I have it on good authority that a renegade band of capitalists in my evil homonym's ancestral homeland achieved a monopoly on capital letters through a combination of cunning, bribery, and underhanded tactics and henceforth artificially restricted the supply available to their less fortunate compatriots. In the years that followed only the wealthy amongst his countrymen were able to afford upper case letters, and would often compose letters to one another written entirely in capitals, which they subsequently took to laminating and displaying publically in a decadent display of weath which would have left even Thorstein Veblen reeling in an uncomprehending stupor. At the same time that the Capital Cartel was engaged in rigging the market to their own advantage, my Evil Homonym quitely amassed a great deal of wealth after attaining ironclad intellectual property rights to the vast majority of the world's discredited ideologies and selling or leasing them to the great swarming hordes of pampered activists native to college campuses there, all of whom had become physically addicted to the rush brought on by participating in utterly gratuitous and innefectual protest movements. Most, if not all of the ideas and ideologies he secured the rights to were going for a song, having long since been abandoned if not actively cursed by the all of the populations that had spawned them, but he was the first to recognize the effects that both nostalgia and the impossibility of ever having to confront their effects in person would have on his target demographics' perception of their value, and made a killing. However, in a touching show of solidarity with the less fortunate members of his society, he has nobly abstained from the use of upper case letters in his own writing despite having the wealth necessary to sprinkle them liberally througout every sentence he might ever need to write. His sacrifice has in turn inspired legions of his fellow countrymen, most of whom happen to post on the internet, by his example. So Klenke, goad not this man for his breathtaking parsimony with respect to this precious lexical commodity, but stand in quiet reverence as you gaze upon the evidence of his principled frugality. So there you have it - j_b's antipathy towards both capitalism and the use of upper case letters explained. The mystery is over. Three cheers and a raised glass to my Evil Homonym.

If percieved inequalities were the prime motivators behind political terror, we'd see quite a few more bombers targeting Westerners coming out of the Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Brazil, and other pockets of extreme poverty. Instead, the perpetrators of most large scale slaughters of Western civilians have come from relatively affluent societies, and were themselves posessed of advanced degrees. The notion that they were desperate people who were driven to violence by want, privation, and despair is entirely inconsistent with the truth. Moreover, if eradicating poverty and hopelessness were their primary goals, they would be conducting themselves in a decidedly different manner - as last time I checked there was relatively little money to be had in suicide bombings, and no examples of any nation achieving long-term prosperity by periodically slaughtering civilians in other countries with backpacks full of explosives. Prosperity results from increasing the quantity of goods and services that each person in a given society is capable of producing and purchasing, and it is quite clear at this stage in history that the best way to bring about such a condition is by securing the personal freedoms of the average citizen, which is in turn favored by a democratically accountable, transparent political system. No one is stupid enough to believe that slaughtering shoppers at a mall or teenagers at a disco is the best way to bring about such changes, except perhaps the terrorists and their apologists in the West. If they really wanted to redress economic inequalities and eliminate unfair policies in their own countries, they would have a much better chance of doing so by initiating mass movements in their own countries which harnessed the demands and ambitions of their fellow countrymen, most of whom are more concerned with rather prosaic mattters like securing a better life for their children and who have no interest in participating in political violence themselves. There are in fact examples like Korea and Spain, where the populations eventually succeeded in building a democratic state from a political system with authoritarian foundations. The fact of the matter is that the folks detonating these bombs are not furthering the development of a society that most of their fellow citizens wish to participate in, and they know it. In fact, many of their aims are far too wildly irrational and destructive to warrant serious consideration by anyone but the most delusional zealots. Isolating the entire Middle East from the rest of the world and imposing a retrograde Islamism on the population is not a popular goal, nor is converting the rest of the world to Islam by force a strategic objective worthy of serious contemplation. Terror, then, is what these people revert to when they cannot bridge the void between their ambitions and what the people they claim to represent actually want. Yet that never seems to stop people like you from legitimizing their slaughters by claiming that they are appropriate manifestations of the popular will.

Timm@y should add that hat to the cc.com apparel at that online shop. A must have if I have ever seen one.

I think the Seattle Public Libraries have most of the AAJ's in there collection..

I have a niece and a nephew that I'd be into taking to this thing, but I agree that Smith is a long way aways for such an event - at for those of us in Washington. My vote would be for something in the Icicle.

Sweet.