j_b

Not a very subtle way to call someone a kook without providing any argument. Unfortunately for you there is extensive evidence as to how the corporate media propagandized the Iraq war through the present. Do you need to see that evidence again?

even *less* than Newt? for shame! Pretending that people who work for a living should compare their donations with that of plutocrats is beyond stupid. Time for you to get out of the sand box!

I guess KKK isn't going to explain to us how someone's ability to pay more than Romney's paltry 14% on ~$21 million investment income would somehow change the established fact that taxation overall isn't progressive as Washington residents know especially well.

I'll do that after you answer my question.

How is that relevant considering the inequalities in income? I'd rather these 2 paid their fair share in taxes than give to charities.

Romney published one or 2 (?) years of his tax return when he was preparing to run for the presidency and we are supposed to believe that he always pays 14% in taxes ... Some years I pay more than 14% if you REALLY want to know! and I am not sure why you would since it is irrelevant to this discussion.

Hell no. Ron Paul gave a blank check to Bush to do whatever he wanted in Afghanistan.

Firsts of this nature often have an element of arbitrary nomenclature that tends to obscure the accomplishments of others. Although aid from a tractor track is contradictory with the "human powered" claim seen in the media, it also would have occurred only on the shorter leg of the trip.

The foreign policy Americans want is almost entirely conditioned by reporting in the corporate media. Carter wasn't really a dove wrt Central America and Iran.

The bottom line is that Romney and co are taxed well below what they should be considering inequality levels similar to the gilded age.

You'd be a lot more credible if you weren't spending the rest of your time on this issue arguing that SS should be dilapidated and benefits cut.

that is of course irrelevant to the vast majority of folks who want him gone, as they'd have only used his doing just that as election fodder for "cutting n' running, liberal soft-on-defense-and-everything else yadda yadda bullshit" messages, no? The soft-on-defense message is stupid ("cutting and running" is pre-pubescent posturing) and it should be refuted on its merit, not by continuing the policies of empire. Unfortunately, Obama's motivation to continue military adventurism isn't to appear hard-on-defense for voters.

True, and don't forget about our presence next door, in Kuwait, although the official line is we don't know how many are just in transit

It'd be interesting to know where you heard that gossip. I don't know how many first were actually claimed by Ashton beyond that of the first female solo crossing of the continent. Media does tend to take it from there ..

It sounds like you had a fantastic season on the ice. I am jealous. I always wondered about the effectiveness of kites considering the pervasiveness of mean sastrugi, unless the sail is just an aid to pull the load.

Environmentalists and bee keepers have asked for a moratorium on the use of imidacloprid for the better part of a decade now and science appears to show them right. How long till we get action on this? as long as it took for asbestos?

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/30-9

I can see it. Notmessner jumping high over the manzanita ..

Well, this is quite a turn around: from decades long litany of regressive complaints about high taxes "extorted through force" to "we are clueless about how low our taxes really are" LOLZ ... Laughable opportunism! It also appears that regressives finally gave up on trying to have us believe that official tax rates are to be taken literally but instead admit that effective tax rates are much lower. It only took decades for them to admit it but there is progress, although we can be certain they'll fall back into the former behavior at the next opportunity. Strawman alert: Obama and Buffett didn't claim that all billionaires paid a smaller fraction of their income in taxes than the middle class. They said that some billionaires like Romney and Buffett paid a smaller % than some middle class people, and that should never happen. except there is no evidence for your assertion, whereas there is plenty of evidence showing that higher tax on capital doesn't impede economic growth and enables development.

I think a crossing from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea (what Aston did) is what has been done in the past. Ousland (mid-90's solo traverse) used pretty much the same itinerary but he went all the way to McMurdo station, which is significantly further because it is on Ross Island near the edge of the ice-shelf. He also started from some island on the edge of the Weddell Ice-shelf rather than at the land/ice-shelf margin. All told Aston's trip is ~1100km shorter than Ousland. Perhaps, this will be a source of inspiration and we'll hear about NotMessner doing the East Antarctica to West Antarctica traverse?

Never too late to get started. If you are eager to get out in the mountains, live permanently in the PCNW and don't want to drive far, I am not sure that you have another option but adapt to conditions.

I can't remember if Ousland used a sail for Antarctica in the mid-90's, but he also crossed the arctic solo. It's not technically land-based but the range of my burly meter doesn't extend that far to differentiate (although the Arctic sounds like a longer trip)

A British woman did the first human powered solo across the continent: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/23/british-woman-solo-antarctic-trek I can't think of anything comparable. It must be the burliest land based adventure record by a woman.

I suspect that if trolling helps in relieving some pent up anger before you get home, it's probably not entirely a bad thing. We wouldn't want you to kick the dog.

Not that we have to prove anything to anyone, but you're right, this is a climbing website. It's a climbing website but nowhere does it say one has to write TRs to participate. I like reading some TRs but to be honest pictures are often all I want to see. The truth is that most people here either don't do much talking at all or don't talk much about climbing, which is fine by me as themes tend to be repetitive over the years and I am past the time when my entire life was about climbing.