Off_White

What I've Done With This Thread: So, I picked a spot in the chestbeat bickering and spawned it off onto it's own spray thread, where folks are welcome to carry on in that vein as they please. There remains plenty of discussion on the topic woven in amongst folk's reports on these three pages, so lets be done with here and move back to the original topic. So, a big thumbs up to anyone climbing hard or lots. I don't think I have any personal best ticks for the year outside of getting out more: cragging, hiking, alpine, the gamut. It wasn't frenetic by any means, but I think I got out more than any of the last five years, and that makes me a very happy boy. Good friends, good times, wonderful places: these are a few of my favorite things.

If you ask me, religion is much more of a choice than sexual orientation. Jay, I'd start an initiative on the idea of getting the government out of the marriage business if I didn't think I'd wind up in the same bin of "human interest stories" as the guy to tried to float an initiative to ban "irritating daytime running lights on cars." I do understand your antipathy to the way the initiative process has panned out in WA state. What do you think of the idea to ban paid signature gatherers? It seems to me that if you believe in your idea, and the support is there, you should be able to get enough people to volunteer to tilt at your windmill. Of course, I have no idea how that squares with the current legal concept of money=free speech. Tash, I sure there are any number of people here who would prefer to refer to you as "biatch" but thanks for supporting the cause!

I don't think that either of us have ever let that dissuade us from arguing a position. Matt, I guess I just want to see something other than a pell mell "ha ha fucker now I get to wear the boot" riot. I suspect Bush's improprieties are far more serious to the welfare of the country than blowjobgate, but the bulk of the democratic party's failure to press when they were a minority makes me doubt their suitability to pursue charges when they're the top dog. It's more about pursuit of power than justice, and it's just plain ugly no matter who's fist is in the glove. I am certainly not insulted to be called an idealist.

What a mess, I'm declaring a time out and locking the thread for a bit. I'd like to send all the Kevbone shit to spray, but I don't want to take out Still Climbin's input, since I think he hits the nail on the head. Odds are I'm going to split some of this off so you can chew on each other in spray, and preserve the balance of the topic for everyone else. I may wind up deleting some posts just for continuity/brevity's sake, so don't take it personally if your carefully assembled golden words disappear into the cybersphere. EDIT: this is it, the new bitch about chestbeating thread, cuz you know, humble is all the rage.

Well, I can only speak for myself, I don't have a lot of sway with the democratic party, since they no doubt consider me as fringe as the republicans do.

I don't think that the fact that Republicans began using impeachment as a partisan scourge back in the Clinton era means a power shift should result in payback. I want to see solid evidence before we bandy the idea about, though investigations may well be called for. I want to see some clear and intentional violations of law that result in harm to our nation as the bar for the rather extreme act of removing an elected official. Then again, I'm a proud neo-lib, and unlike many of our conservative brethern we don't believe in putting our boot on the neck of the losers, anymore than we believe that torture is a viable tool for the good guys.

Substitute the word "*" for "homosexual" and you'll find we as a nation have heard and refuted most of these arguments in the past. In my opinion, we should remove the phrase "marriage" from all law, and make all the legal and contractual piece of things attached to the "civil union" concept. The churches (of all types) can have the term "marriage" as a non-legally-binding ceremony honoring whatever they choose to enshrine. I certainly don't think any church should have to marry any two individuals they choose to reject, whether it's two people of the same sex, or one of the pair who isn't jewish/catholic/muslim/lutheran/whatever. Separation of church/state spirtual/legal is the best protection for everyone, whatever their belief.

Yes indeed, but let's consolidate our threads. Go here

I hope you didn't sign a pre-nup.

KK said: from the Daily Olympian today: On the menu for this morning:

funny how no one ever posts a rear view of that particular statue...

DNR = Department of Natural Resources, a Washington State agency. The portion of Fossil Rock that is on DNR land is closed to climbing.

Maybe it has to do with the way the pond is stocked. Why carefully tie your own flies when you can just stick some salmon eggs on a big ass hook and catch your limit? Anyone familiar with Jens' input around here over the years would see he's just stirring the pot to see what rises to the top. And you know, folks respond in part because they're as bored as Jens is...

In honor of Spicoli and his excellent suggestion I've got to add Fast Times At Ridgemont High. I'd also include Dead Alive and Bad Taste, two more early Peter Jackson outings. Sure, they're incredibly gross, but they made me laugh until vomit came out my nose. Along that line, next Saturday is All Freakin Night! at the Olympia Film Festival. Bad horror films from Midnight until 10am, highly recommended.

Tex, that's Clyde Minaret. One of the 50 crowded, innit? Great pics, thanks for sharing.

Well, I've always been fond of the Real Life jigsaw puzzles for the younger folks. You know the type, they're missing a few pieces....

It's never occurred to me to use that grigri method on anything other than cleaning & route development, but it's certainly an excellent method for that sort of work, that's the reason I bought the widget in the first place. Of course, being a worry wart, I always tie a back up loop below my stop-and-work postion and clip it into my harness, like a back up when jumaring.

Isn't The Passenger on the opposite side of the peak from Marlboro Man? MM looks to face due west.

Hmmm, is it that crag you can see back across Ohop Lake from the intersection on the route from McKenna to Eatonville? Seen to the left in this Google Earth Image:

That's funny, I thought flipping off the president would be appropriate behavior.

For the sake of all the needy children, abolish the death tax now!

Fuck YEAH! Is she single? My fiance's interested too. WOOT! I dunno E-rock, I've got it on vinyl, I'm sure I could convert it to MP3 if you're devoted, so let me know if via PM if you need it. Word on the street is that she used to do the go-go girl routine with this band, so you might want to do a google image search.

She's cute and all, but her it's her voice that is drop dead gorgeous. Who ever said nothing good ever came out of Tacoma? Hey E, do you know the Girl Trouble song "Neko loves rock n' roll"? I believe it's a tribute from her days as a fan as compared to a performer.

Done! As if by magic!

Oh, you're from here, you brought it up, you know the routine: the squeaky wheel gets poked with a sharp stick Besides, we all know who Avitripp is, what we want is to know who you are!