JoshK

Do you guys mean the MK*1* XL? I wasn't aware there was an MK2. The Integral tents are awesome; cheaper and better than biblers. There pole attachments and corner cups are of a much better design and I think the vents are superior as well. I would personally never get a hilleberg or stephenson for an alpine tent. Ease of pitch and footprint size are a much bigger concern for me. Pulling out my MK, throwing myself and pack inside it, *then* setting up while the snow and wind blew outside was awesome. Can't do that with any other style of tent.

The regular S is a sweet summer alpine boot. Seam seal them BEFORE you ever used them. I was quite happy I did this. They'll last a hellavu lot longer. Will, I also got a pair of the Extreme S when my other leather insulated boots blew apart this past winter. I LOVE the extremes. Super comfortable (I could hike forever in them), they climb great and as far as I can tell, they are very warm for leathers. Granted, I haven't had them in any sort of very cold weather. I was also really surprised at how waterproof they were after a long day of slogging through deep, wet, slop. They were perfectly dry inside.

Let's relize the fact that a huge amount of modern technology that we rely on and take for granted was a result of U.S. military research. It is quite fair to say that the rest of the world, Candians and Europeans included, have benifited from projects that spun out of the U.S. military. I'm not defending the military as a whole as always being used correctly, but it's pretty dumb to label research done as a waste. I'd be curious to see what Clinton starts using the rest of his life for. Like him or hate him, he has a good opportunity to do a lot of good. He is very well liked around the world and is quite charismatic. I'd like to see him use that to do good.

This is about as dumb as me trying to put every single republican into one group. I'm also not sure how you group canadians and liberals into one group. Both are distinct and vary within those groups.

I'm sure everybody will tell me he was a shitty president, but Jimmy Carter, without a doubt is a champ of a human and the most productive ex-president in history.

Went up the Phelps creek trail and up to a col between red mountain and the peaklet west of spider gap. From there I skied over to the southeast ridge of Chiwawa. I was hoping to climb it from that (vs. going around and up the Lyman Glacier). This plan failed when I reached a super exposed friction traverse 400vf beneath the summit. I dont think I would have thought much of if I had rock shoes or even reasonably sticky climbing boots, but I wasn't about to try it in skiboots. Defeated and tired I decided to just ski home rather than go around the other way The skiing down from the col and down spider glacier was actually pretty fun.

I haven't cared a whole lot about pro basketball since it transformed from lots of great personalities into a bunch of criminals, but I am still pulling for the Pistons. It's like this election really. I could care less about Kerry (the Pistons), but it would be great to see Bush (the Lakers) get their deserved beating. So here is to the pistons And here is to the underachieving superstars, skill-less 350lb body-weight thrower and the rapist.

snow level starts at about 5500 foot in the area when I was up there 2 days ago. That's in the open. There is still scattered annoying snow in the forest down to 4k or below on the phelps creek approach, but I am not sure about rainbow creek. I ran into some people who had come up that way and they said it's pretty much bare. I would guess the climb would be fine. I dont think there is anything on it that more snow would make particuarly difficult, and, if anything, the glacier will be less broken. Let me know if you need a partner for Bonanza.

What a weird snow year...bad winter snowpack, warm spring, then a good deal of late may and early june snow.

Yeah??? Fatty, keep reading Jackass...you think cause he called the report "nonsense" it isn't true? By that logic nearly every beef you have with Kerry would be nonsense too, since I'm sure plenty of the reports you cite he claims aren't true. This isn't a controversial subject. Like I said, it's been known for a while. Dems, repubs, etc. all pretty much know it. I'm not sure what you find so appauling or unbelieveable about it?

Hey Fat Teddy, you fucking moron, Colin Powell not returning is old news...it's been known for well over a year now. Needless to say, the administration has tried to keep it fairly quiet. Since you are clueless, here are some links, both news and editorial: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A16856-2003Aug3?language=printer http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/04/powell.2nd.term/ http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0407-12.htm http://slate.msn.com/id/2095756/ http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,346150,00.html http://www.gibbsmagazine.com/Powell%20won't%20be%20back.htm http://us.altermedia.info/index.php?p=404 http://us.altermedia.info/index.php?p=404 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2003-08-04-powell_x.htm http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93659,00.html http://www.rediff.com/us/2003/aug/04us.htm

You make up facts to support your argument. You don't even KNOW a NG member. Period. Kerry committed WAR CRIMES. That alone makes Bush's service more honorable. LOL, yes, I made up my friend Kevin's father *and* mother. I guess they are just figments of my imaginiation huh? War Crimes...so like what our soliders in Iraq did that you defended?

How am I lying, moron? The fact that you are arguing Bush's service is somehow more honerable than Kerry's is just completely laughable. It speaks volumes about you.

Draft dodging? People currently IN the military aren't eligible to be drafted. Of course, having never served, you may not know that. 'You are going to argue tha Bush's joke service in the rich kid division of the Texas Air National Guard wasn't a direct move to avoid service in Vietnam? I'd love to hear you say that in front of a NG member. You'd be picking up your teeth with your broken arm. You won't, though. Cowards are like that. What was your service again? Funny, I know a few NG members and they think Bush is a load of shit. They know that he didn't actually serve the guard like he should of, but rather did the bare minimum to ensure he had some sort of military service on his record. That's only the opinion of these few guardsman tho. I said above I never served, you idiot. Last time I checked it isn't a pre-req to be able to have an opinion. I again return to my original point...how can you critisize Kerry and defend Bush in this matter? How completely hypocritical.

Draft dodging? People currently IN the military aren't eligible to be drafted. Of course, having never served, you may not know that. 'You are going to argue tha Bush's joke service in the rich kid division of the Texas Air National Guard wasn't a direct move to avoid service in Vietnam? And yes, I never served, so I must be completely uneligiable to make any comments on this matter, huh?

MLK day Is the justice Sandra Day O'Connor? If so, I would hardly consider her any sort of gift to the nation.

How can you idiots argue the validity of one of Kerry's medals (among many) and not be bothered by the rich-kid draft dodging of Bush? One purple heart seems pretty damn minor compared to all the strikes against bushy. Treason? BWAHAH.. Moron.

What have they done that deserves any sort of respect? In both cases the country has been worse off 4 years after they started in office. History is the final judge, and my guess is 50 years from now, GB2 will be regarded as one of the poorest presidents in history.

Yeah Peter, obviously that's a great way to put Dru in his place...a comparison of penis size between the US and Canada. Dru may or may not be an idiot, but our neighbors to the north have a lot going for them...lower murder rates, resonably sane health care, etc.. I find it laughable taht you also post some sort of support for his economic principles. It's ok to admit that his performance in that department was sorely lacking, but he did other good things. No president is going to get everything right.

Also, I just realized that I think the two bushes are probably the only presidents I cannot respect in any way. All the rest, independent of their policies, I can say that they were a president, and I respect them. The two bushes (the latter especially) are such completely incompetent asshats that I cannot express any sort of respect for them.

The fact alone that the christian coallition didn't like him makes him better than your average republican in my eyes: Another conservative, Ralph Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition, viewed the Reagan presidency with chagrin: “His eight years in office did little to transform a political culture that had become insensitive to religious values and uncaring about innocent human life.” Also, Dru, a whole lot of people, some liberals included, do believe that reagan's spend spend spend military budget had a good deal to do with bringing the soviet union to collapse as quickly as it did. My dad, who is as liberal as they come, has agreed, saying that it may well have brought the cold war to an early end. Like I said, I don't know much about Reagan, but looking at what he did, he seems to be vastly superior to the pile of shit the republican party has become. You certainly can't compare him to the likes of either bush, cheney, rumsfled, orrin hatch, asscroft, ternt lott, newt gingrich, and so on and so on...

I think his decision is sound. It is especially in germany's best interest to portrait it as a victory against the nazis, not generally. I have little sympathy for nazi war-dead. If german citizens think it's disrespectful of "german" war dead than they can take that up with the 40 million french, polish, russian and jewish dead.

I dont remember him, but I guess he seemed ok for a republican. Too bad his economic policies didn't work for shit. Then again, the name was applicable, if "trickle down" refers to urine.