Off_White

Yep, like most of the Gunks. Yes indeed, no need for bolts on all this horizontally banded quartzite we have around here.

You want goats? I think we have too many, though I often demur, "they're not my goats." I'm curious how they manage fencing for this land clearing business, my experience suggests they're crafty and hard on fences. It's really only the billys that smell, but boy do they ever. They have a fondness for peeing into their own mouths, and the girls seem to find that hawt. There's no "mating season" per se, the females go into heat and the boys are always ready. Having a billy on your farm affects the female's hormones and makes the milk much more "goaty" as well. I

Here's a post for MisterE

That'll be great, plus I'm more prone to go see music in Portland these days, so perhaps we'd get to do that too.

PP, I think Portland is even more liberal than Seattle, boy are you gonna suffer. But hey, you'll only be 4-1/2 hours from Index...

Hmmm, is this the slab with "Suncups" on it, an old (I think) Yoder & McGowan route? The slab I'm thinking of is definitely gray sandstone ala Peshastin, right next to the road. I'm think I climbed a route on it maybe 25 years ago, but I've pretty effectively blocked out the memory.

Oooh, it's Bill, live! eISBTBwWKeE

Someone stated that climbers are tightwads. You only have to peruse my rack peppered with first generation rigid stem Friends to confirm that.

Has Ahmadinejad been reading Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union?

Feck, I think you should just restore the link and let it play out. His earlier post on the same topic in the Climbers Board didn't seem to go anywhere or get any attention (which Jon examined and made an executive decision to leave alone), so he clearly decided that Spray is the place to play. It is a climbing related job, so it's not wholly inappropriate, and given the location, a little sport on a Friday might be fun.

Was this the last good day of the season? Drederek on Black Elvis 9-26-07

On the other hand, rumor has it that when the house is unattended, happy looking Sasha here tends to be growly and menacing, even to our UPS driver who is one of our regular Wednesday climbers out here.

Elmo, my daughter's dog. Careful, he's really quite savage. If you're a sock, that is.

How do you tell if an engineer is extroverted? He stares at your shoes.

It'll behoove ya to care for your uvula

There's an old Wild Seeds song.... I'm sorry So sorry I can't rock you All night long It's an interesting idea baby But it would be wrong

If that's not a GW Bush quote, it's a pretty good parody.

Why do you hate America? I think this must be the most pathetic post in this entire thread.

just this morning i was reading up on Kim Philby and other true spy stories that inspired tinker tailor soldier spy You should read Declare by Tim Powers, everything no one ever told you about Philby, Noah's Ark, the Djinn, TE Lawrence, and the super secret British, German, & Soviet paranormal spy programs.

I can't help it, your citation of the firebombing of Dresden has caused me to come unstuck in time! Yes Fairweather, my examples were all of atrocities that prosecuted, of expectations of higher standards. Well, there were three examples, but two disappeared, perhaps the source objected to lending their bandwidth? Granted, I think lots of folks believe that the Abu Ghraib prosecutions were more of a scapegoat facesaving operation.

Yeah. Right. And of course, an oldie but a goodie from 1968

Thanks Joseph, I think that's the first time he and I have ever been lumped into the same group. I wasn't saying that I thought privatizing the military is a great idea, just being a stickler about language. If the Sunnis hired Blackwater to snuff Shiites, then they would indeed be mercenaries. Same story if at some time in the future Shell Oil hires them to run Chevron out of Nigeria. If we were to hire one of those South African firms, they would be our mercenaries. As it stands, Blackwater's private soldiers are our employees, and they represent the US in the same way that my carpenters represent my company. Fairweather, holding the representatives of our country to high standards, higher standards than others may exhibit, is far from anti-American. You can't be the good guys if your tactics are indistinguishable from the black hats.

It's a misnomer to describe Blackwater employees as "mercenaries." By most definitions, mercenaries are employed by governments other than their own, and are solely motivated by money. Blackwater's contracts are mostly with various branches of the US Govt, and I believe their employees are all US Citizens. While I'm sure the high pay is greatly appreciated, I don't think it's the only motivation for those folks, a lot of them believe they're doing the right thing. It's inaccurate dramatic hyperbole to declare them mercenaries.