JayB

I'd be interested in hearing you explain exactly how a terrorist organization would go about undermining the economy in such a fashion - especially the part about no one knowing about it. Another massive terrorist attack would probably do the trick, but such a deed would hardly go unnoticed.

JayB, take a flying flip. You're just another turd in the bowl. That is the essence of both you and your contribution to this site. You were making progress, learning (ever so slowly) how to be a cool guy. Now, you're flushing it down in one enormous, commodial spiral. You know what, you are right. It was very inconsiderate of me to omit the reference to the Tom Stoppard pics in my earlier post. Make sure the program imports lots of random Tom Stoppard pictures as well as the Patch Adams and Taco Bell menu item jpegs if you want a simulation that does justice to the original.

Maybe someone could write a program (javascript?) that would periodically bring any of his many posts containing a variation on the "Sport Climbing is Gay" theme back to the top of the forum, and/or occaisionally import new jpegs of Patch Adams and Taco Bell menu items into the said posts. That would capture the essence of his contributions to the site, and in so doing keep the folks who miss his input happy while maintaining the ban.

Harness, shoes, helmet - maybe a rope and draws. Wouldn't sweat the rack as you should have no trouble finding partners that will take care of that. Backpack and sleeping bag, appropriate clothing for alpine if that's on the menu. Crampons and ice-axe if you are thinking in terms of snowy routes.

Haven't climbed at Smith much at all, and want to make the most of my visit there during the rope-up next weekend. What are some of the classics in the 5.9-5.11 range(Tuff and Gorge)?

Actually if there were a political party that engaged in less distortion of the truth than the other I this fictional party would be the most moral, but no such party exists. As far as morality is concerned, what I was actually trying to say is that Left generates as many self-serving distortions as the Right, but as of late has failed to market them effectively. If they knew how to do so they would, but for whatever reason they do not. This does not make them any more moral than the Right, just less effective at selling in their message in the mass media. I think this is largely a result of the fact that one can sense in most Leftists a palpable disdain for and innability to connect with large sectors of the population which used to be amongst their most loyal supporters, such as blue collar workers, Southerners, etc, sectors of the population which also happen to be the most avid supporters of Rush et al. Democrats such as Clinton that actually make an effort to pitch their message to these folks tend to do be pretty popular and enjoy pretty good results at the ballot box.

The absence of any desire to distort information for one' s own end and the inability to market such distortions effectively are two very different things. The inability to do the latter effectively while being equally complicit in the former is not a hallmark of moral superiority IMO. The bottom line is that anyone person or group that stands to gain from distorting information to suit their own purposes will do so. The only thing which keeps this tendency in check is the constant strife between competing interest groups attempting to discredit the other's claims. By means of this process the the group with the most compelling arguments and the convincing evidence will prevail in the court of public opinion, but this process can take far too long to satisfy active partisans in the debate. As far as the debate about Bush vs. Clinton is concerned, it seems to me some of our esteemed posters are conflating legal terms with moral ones. Clinton lied before a grand jury and committed perjury, which is an act that is specifically forbidden by a law. Making the case for war based upon the best available intelligence, which was consistent with that issued by any nation with an intelligence service worthy of the name and consistent with the stated viewpoint of none other than your esteemed protagonist Bill Clinton constitute a moral crime in your eyes. Fair enough, but let's not confuse our private definitions of criminality with the law. Further, lets not pretend that Democrats would have been any less vehement in their denunciation of a sitting Republican president who was caught in the same act. Yes, lying about an affair with an intern his far from a heinous crime, but the same is true of pilfering documents form an appartment owned by the opposition party, but in this case at least the Republicans tended their own house.

Just curious where you heard these inspiring tales? PLU? Spire Rock? UW Rock? Surely not in the gym. I've met a few climbers that climb at a very high standard, and the most inspiring and admirable thing about most of them was their humility and their gracious demeanor amongst their less talented or accomplished brethren. Perhaps your experience with the man was different because most of your encounters with him were offline, and your impessions are based on that, as it is hard for me to believe that you would hold him in such high esteem as a result of either the content or the tone his contributions on this website - which is all that the majority of the folks that post here have to go on.

Word. My use pattern will probably be 50% inbounds, 40% 1 day, 10% ski-in and yo-yo. Went with Fischer Big Stix 750s, Freerides, and Lowa Struktura EVOs. I have pair of old-school Karhus with 404's for other stuff....

I'll admit that my perspective is limited by the fact that I lasted about 5 minutes before deciding that I was wasting my time and going back to my book. If I ever see the movie again I'll double check, but in the portion of the movie I saw he seemed to be more or less saying that since the kids have been reared in a town in which a significant percentage of the adults make their living designing and building weapons designed to kill large numbers of people, that it was only natural that they would conclude that there was nothing wrong with the two of them doing so. Seemed to me like a naked attempt to appropriate the tragedy to bludgeon his viewers with the "All Corporations are Inherently Evil" message yet again. I am not a big fan of pushy and didactic filmmakers, so this too factored into the 5 minute limit for Moore. I saw his first movie and as mighty a task as it must have been, it seems as though he has grown even less subtle and his arguments less cogent over time. The funniest thing about "Roger & Me" is that had GM taken the path advocated by Moore - that is - maintaining production of underperforming product lines, with outdated production technology, high-costs, and low-quality - the entire company would have gone bust and all of the workers in GM plants would have been out of their jobs, not just the unfortunate few in Flint. Did he address the reasons behind the bombing of Kosovo at all in his film? I can't imagine him condemning the bombings unless he is a fan of unfettered rape and slaughter - but I wouldn't put it past the guy to ignore the context in which the bombings occured, and the end to which the campaign was directed, in order to score points with an audience that does not - to put it mildly - excel at, or show a great deal of enthusiasm for, understanding complicated matters.

Hands - which, for me is.....drumroll...a #2 Camalot. #1 Camalot sized cracks are off hands/ringjam hell.

I caught about 5 minutes of BFC last night, by which time I had quite enough of his attempt to exploit the slaughter at Columbine High for his own purposes. His attempt to argue that the town of Littleton essentially brought the slaughter on itself by encouraging Raytheon to locate some of their operations there was especially nauseating.

Looks like a good deal on the Miras at sierratradingpost - $291.

The fact of the matter is that the people that run this board do so with a much lighter hand than just about any other outdoor-related BB out there, which is part of its attraction, but even they have limits. Anyone complaining about the moderation here should check the scene at rockclimbing.com...

I have Wolfe & Hopkins's book, which names the architect for the UW and includes some details about the construction. I'll post the architect's name when I get a chance. As for the construction, I believe that they essentially made large, sand-bottomed moulds on the ground, placed rocks in the sand, poured in the concrete, placed more rocks on the other side, then waited for the slabs to cure and tilted them into place on the site.

Dean is a Karl Rove fantasy come to life, perphaps even more so than Ralph Nadir...

Good info to have on the G3's and the cowskins. I was pretty much set on buying the cowskins after reading the skin reviews on Offpiste.com, but this pretty much seals the deal. They will have to kill a couple of artificial cows to furnish all of the material necessary to cover the 112mm shovels that the new boards are packing up front....

Necro: If you need to vent your feelings concerning the media, feel free to do so, but you should channel the righteous indignation and invective at a more a more appropriate target, at a more appropriate time. Elizabeth is no more responsible for the conduct of the media at large than you are responsible for the dismal performance of American public schools in educating a large percentage of the children in this country, and let's remember who ultimately controls the content – the consumers. The manner in which the news is covered is a direct function of the average American’s viewing and reading habits, so if you want to launch into a diatribe there’s your first target. It is quite clear that Elizabeth logically concluded that news of a climbing accident in Leavenworth would be of interest to local climbers, and passed along the story as a favor to those that post and lurk here. The fact of the matter is that climbers are interested in climbing accidents, both because they hit close to home emotionally, and we want to know precisely what happened in the hopes that in doing so we might be able to prevent something similar from happening in the future. If this were not true there would not be any ANAM, and accident reports would not be a staple of every climbing related discussion board on the net. As far as exploitation is concerned, one could argue that you are exploiting this tragedy as a platform to air your laundry list of grievances about the media in a manner that is just as dishonorable as the behavior you are accusing the media of. Let’s remember that the victim’s friends and family suffered the loss here, not you (so far as I know), and if they have issues with the manner in which the media covered the story they should be the ones to articulate them, rather than someone with no personal connection to the deceased climber appropriating the tragedy for use as a platform to condemn the media - ostensibly on their behalf. And lastly, if you took issue with her posting the news here, you could have communicated your feelings just as well without the personal insults and abuse. I’m sure that you would not appreciate someone talking to your wife like that, to say the very least. In the absence of the said civility, you could have least backed up your statements with your real name. -Jay Brazier

Techwash---> Revivex----> Dryer.

Tragic News. Many condolences to the friends and loved ones.

Some folks feel the same way when people sanction the deliberate slaughter of civilians by means of human bombs as a legitimate form of protest or political expression on the Palestinian's part. Better denounce these tactics while you are denouncing the use of snipers which, at the very least, are not indescriminate.

I can only handle about 1 day of Vegas at a time. The entire place reminds me of a combination of the movie "Soilent Green" with a B.F. Skinner experiment. Red Rocks and Mt. Charleston are cool though, and the cheap buffets are also a plus.

Ice Gapades....

Also good news for exporters and US-based multinationals with substantial Euro-denominated earnings from their European operations. It sucks for anyone looking to score some climbing gear from the Euros for cheap. Every financial publication was talking about how massively overvalued the Dollar was Relative to the Euro last year so I made my purchases then when you could buy a Euro for 73 cents.

Stop trolling me Matt, you deceitful bastard!!!! If Mattp was actually trolling I'm sure he'd be very satisfied to see that you were upset enough to come out with a mini-essay in response to his troll.