JoshK

Actually, scottie, our snowpacks are *generally* safer for BC travel all and all compared to continental snow packs, which can be a lot more tempremental and harder to read. That isn't too safe either one is safer at a specific time, or safe at all for that matter. I just wanted to point out yet another thing you don't know. Give the guiding BS a rest, man, you don't know a thing about what you preach and you are just going to get some other newbie killed.

You are probably right that it has to do specifically with guided climbs and huts, both of which we are using. My dad has never climbed anything aside from hike-ups before so a guided certainly seemed the best way to get the most out of our time there.

Yikes, that's never fun to hear about. I certainly hope none of the people we have arranged to contact when down there were involved. Does anybody else plan to be in NZ in the next month? We are leaving in 2 days...packing stress-out here I come... FWIW, we settled on Mount Aspiring. Cook, as you would expect, has permitting issues just like rainer, enchantments, etc.

More so, does anybody actually plan on respecting this "closure" of uphill traffic on the packed ski trail? I certainly wouldn't.

college week at stevens? whadda ya mean?

old school was funny as hell I thought.

let me get this straight. you are saying that Clinton had all the info he needed to go after BinLaden, did nothing about it, and now Bush is responsible for 9/11??? Yes, do a little reading. Cliton put Richard Clarke in charge of coming up with a plan to destory Al Queda. This was following the bombing of the USS Cole. Clarke developed a plan that outlined almost everything BushCo did *after* the NYC 9/11 attacks; attack their financial structure, bust up "charities" supporting them, help with aid to countries dealing with Al Qaeda. Furthermore, Clarke even recommended ground troops in Afgahnistan and the backing off the Nothern Alliance. This paper was completed only days or weeks before Clinton was to leave office. Apprently the administration decided that handing a war over to an incoming administration wouldn't be a good idea, so they handed the entire plan to BushCo to implement it. They figured they had bigger problems, like supporting their finacial backers and we were left with 9/11 a few months later.

Wesley Clark is ten times the man you'll ever be. I find it ironic you are snubbing your nose at a man that brough great success leading the military forces that you so wholeheartedly support pushing other countries around.

Looks like you just shot your '90% luck' argument to hell! Education and hard work are indeed what made your father wealthy, and hopefully happy too. Can you now address the original intent of your (assinine) 90% luck premise? As I said, he'll tell you the basis for his success comes a lot from what he was granted in Life. He was lucky enough to be born in the developed world. He was lucky to be born in America. He was lucky to be born to a decent family. Etc, etc... Fairweather, the people you spit upon aren't always there because they just dont show the shining drive and initative that a great thinker like yourself does.

Hehe...well said, I was just ribbin' ya. No shame in knowing what ya got and using it. As my buddy says...here is to being single, seeing double, and sleeping triple!

I guess your daddy is just 'lucky' that he can afford to take junior on a trip to New Zealand? I support higher taxes to pay for those less fortunate among us right here on CC.com! This revenue would cover the cost of private spelling tutors and economics lessons for folks like.....JoshK and Dave Schuldt. Major social undertakings for sure. He is *extremely* lucky and he'll be the first person to tell you that. He worked his way up from fairly little and through education and lots of hard work he has gained a lot in life. In fact, he is quite wealthy and would stand to benifit a lot from the jackass "screw the poor, help the rich" tax policies your boy BushCo works for. Despite this he is now dedicating a good portion of his money and life to try to remove the man from office next year. How old are you, BTW? You seem like a bitter old man. Go out and get laid and feel better about yourself...

The Clinton administration HANDED the BushCo Inc. adminisration a complete report and plan for dealing with Osama Bin Laden just weeks before leaving office. BushCo Inc. chose to ignore this and what we were left with was a pile of rubble in NYC and a "war on terrorism" The republicans try to blame Clinton for the "security lapse" that led to 9/11, but the fact is BushCo was the one that completely dropped the ball which was handed right too him.

Shit, I would consider buying an american car again if our car companies could just design one that didn't look like utter shit. American interiors are particularly bad.

The rate of warming seen in this current cycle is believed to be much much faster than in previous cycles. That is the issue, dipshit.

China will not be opressive and communist in 50 years. Things change, you do realize that right? The fact is it's a reality that we won't be the most powerful forever, and the more we press the beliefs you support on others, the more marginalized we will eventually become.

To say that social programs do not benifit society as a whole is just plain uninformed. It's a well known fact that by improving the state of the poorer and less engaged members of society that soecity itself improves as a whole through increased economic prosperity, less jail resources, etc. etc. etc. Pick up an economics book. You are going to spend on either social programs or more jails and police. The fact is that the people who claim they haven't gotten anything from the social programs that don't directly support them are wrong. They may not benifit directly but the ways and means that support their lives were built on the backs of other people and social programs that preceeded them. I will return to a point that I like to make when this type of discussion comes up. Anybody that claims that nobody else is entitled to anything because they worked for everything they had is fooling themselves. No matter how hard you work, where you end up in your life is 90% luck.

Yes, Ronnie would have been a true hero. So I suppose the same goes for all your repub. buddies in congress that push through expensive, cost-overrun, and worthless military spending bills?

Klenke, why don't you explain to us what you would propose to replace unions? I suppose the late 19th century and before were great, where a wealthy few employeed the masses to work for wages that would barely keep a family alive? I believe moderation and possibly better arbitration would be very useful for the situation but you'll have a hard time convincing me that we should underpay those who work all day to help make a few rich people even richer. I think most of us should just consider ourselves lucky that we dont work in an industry where we need to unionize simply to avoid being shit upon.

Pretty unlikely. Most climate models that they site claim that increasing temperatures will also lead to considerably less stable weather. One side effect to this, they believe, will be increased rain in many coastal areas. It's possible the rain forest could begin to cover more than just the west side of the Olympics.

1.) Nowhere does the story cite human activity as the cause for the current warming trend. Have I ever denied that global warming is real? No, just that human activity cannot explain the phenomenon. Nice try Dru. What basis do you have to claim it cannot explain the formula. I'm assuming you have no sort of environmental science degree or anything remotely related, right?

How is it paranoia if it's FACTS? This happened in Florida, whether you like it or not. Actually I know you like it, actually love it, since it got your boy in office. ROark, to answer your quesiton, personal opinions of citizens around the globe matter a ton. They elect their leaders who in turn deal with our leaders. The GWB right wing isolationist movement can only last so long. I look forward to 50 years from now when China is the dominant super power and we have to play nice to get along, rather than dish out this kind of shit.

Fairweather, you seem to live in a complete vacuum devoid of any sort of undestanding of what goes on outside of this country, or, for that matter, your right wing circle. Yes, I made up the 5.8 out of 6 billion figure. You would have to be dumb, however, not to realize that the VAST majority of the people on this globe do NOT like your leader one bit right now. Hell, your leader didn't even get enough votes to be popularly elected in *this* country! He was protested in every mainstream country just 6 or 8 months ago (and they continue) and opinion polls continue to show 70, 80, 90% of the citizens of many countries opposed to his actions. These aren't fringe countries either, but our former allies. You allow yourself to get so entirely caught up in the us vs. them mentality that you fail to realize that your views are NOT the views shared by most everybody else. Furthermore the people here that you try to box into the radical left are quite similar in views to what you'll find throughout most other developed countries in the world. It is the views of you and your "patriotic" right wing buddies who are viewed as radical to most others. I feel sorry that you live such a close-minded, constantly paranoid life.

But to fairweather the fact that 5.8 out of 6 billion people on the planet either dislike, distrust or hate the guy doesn't matter a bit. It's obvious his little view of the world is correct and everybody else's is wrong...

What does ordering the troops in there have to do with them getting on of their missions accomplished, caveman? They are busting their asses to do their job, but it doesn't mean going in there in the first place accomplished a damn thing. This would be like saying a the decision to go into vietnam was justified just because we managed to kill a few high level viet-cong guys.