j_b

The existence of ethics that transcend space, time and culture doesn't mean one should be culturally insensitive, especially if it leads to alienating many of the well disposed moderates among Muslims. I am not advocating not portraying Mohamed but doing it without taking the extremists' bait, without prejudice and while also denouncing the wrongs done to their culture or it will seen as one more weapon in the arsenal to keep them down.

dude, you have no idea how mean a rooster can be. I'd run too. LOLz (hi Porter)

Don't misunderstand what I mean. There are plenty of very fine and bright people in the corporate world, and they'd be fine in government as long as they don't condone corporatism, which is doubtful it is the case for Obama's cabinet picks. hopefully you can tell whether they significantly differ from Bush's policies ...

I wish a spine was all that was needed but considering we have seen similar scenari with Carter and Clinton, it's hard to believe they haven't learned the cost of neoliberalism.

come on Tvash be honest, Obama didn't have to pick his entire team (minus a couple notable exceptions) from corporate institutions that threaten our very democracy. There are for example plenty of competent progressive economists out there, some of whom even got Nobel prizes.

there is a big difference in having one's entire cabinet picked out of the corporate world and over-simplifying, which in this case you appear to be doing.

Yet, you had to climb a harder move to get to the easy 5th and that seems to be a relevant piece of information that should be included in whatever you want to communicate. If I understand well, the reason for not including bouldery starts in ratings is because of the lack of commitment for the technical crux, which therefore places emphasis on commitment over technical difficulty.

the broad issue is about fair trade and regulating agri-business, which isn't very likely considering that Obama's appointees were in agribusiness a year ago. It's not about just you and me easily eating healthy, right?

Keeping the heat on Obama to get rid of corporocracy is a matter of ego?

Probably, but you also forgot the part about no GMO labeling here and most anywhere we import foodstuff from.

You didn't see the Hank Johnson/Guam thread did you? Not only would TTK let it pass he'd makes excuses on their behalf. spare us the hypocrisy. Where were you during the Bush years, if not cheering on the looters.

with people of your caliber around, it's really not a surprise Democrats have sold out their constituencies at every major opportunity they had over the last 30+ years. huh?

As long as you are willing to let pass from your man what you wouldn't let pass from your opponents, you are of no use to us.

what a pile of stinking, undemocratic nonsense.

Not including bouldery starts in overall ratings always seemed fishy to me. What if the crux is right off a good rest, do you discount it too?

It's lame to claim that politicians should not be accountable for selling out what they promised on the campaign trail. Once you start thinking that way, you become part of the problem.

Honestly, I don't see the power players doing much differently than they did decades ago (think Carter and trilateral commission for example). Sure, neoliberals are trying to enshrine corporate power but they were already doing so through IMF and WTO policies. In many ways, an international governance institution would probably benefit common folks in the long run because corporatism benefits greatly from the asymmetry in what's shaping globalization (all business, little to no government).

a one world government will happen in the very distant future simply because as the earth gets smaller, the needs of humans become more interdependent and because governance has to match the spatial scale of business to be effective at regulating it. There is nothing wrong in itself about enforcing needed policies at the international level (like demanding GMO labeling for every food item sold across borders for example), we just have to make sure these policies aren't meant to reinforce the power of international corporations to do as they please.

"usurpation of sovereignty"? like lying a nation into perpetual war? spare us the crocodiles' tears jackass. As if you gave a rat's ass about GMO labeling (not existing at the present in the US btw), or the landmine treaty that we still haven't signed along with the rogue nations of this earth.

True enough Rad, but aren't craggers as a group notoriously stuck up on ratings? The seriousness with which the style of ascent is usually discussed seems to point in that direction. I find it a little odd myself that a group that seems so much into climb difficulty, tries so hard to deny that ratings matter to them.

It might be a combination of hot days and sloppy shoes, but I find the slab crux on Thin Fingers to be harder than any move on Iron Horse or Japanese Gardens. Other than that one move, I don't think any part of Thin Fingers is harder than mid 5.10 And I'm a shorter climber with smaller hands I am short with small hands. Out of the half dozen times I led the climb, I never had a problem with the slab but actually pitched off the wider part of the crack once. I couldn't do Iron Horse the couple of times I casually tried it. I don't recall JGardens well enough to compare.

Thin Fingers is 11a. For taller climbers the slab move is hardest; the crack below the roof is harder for people with smaller hands.

Obama being wrong and now part of the problem doesn't make the dismal record of regressives anymore appealing than it was before Obama. What does Jihadism have anything to do with any of it? Conservatives starting with Reagan and Friedman to the Bush administration are responsible for the regressive policies (from deregulation to the race for the bottom labor and environmental cost) that have lead to corporatism. Conservatives today advocating no reform of any kind and being foot soldiers for corporate interests on every single issue underlines their chronic lack of credibility.

From ~1980 on, the regressive era or the return of the robber barons, courtesy of free market zealots:

I never tire of stating the obvious when it shows that regressives are corporatist tools.