eternalX

There was a great satirical article in The Onion "Our Dumb Century" book that was titled "French Surrender to Germany after Valiant 10 Minute Fighting Effort" hee hee

on a lighter note i love the onion. --eternal

No it isn't. The administration and the UN would disagree with those numbers. I was only trying to show that those numbers are highly speculative and subjective. The US stopped the food for oil program after they found Iraq to be illegally selling the food for money and military equipment. They were even using banks in the US to do the whole thing. The food never even made it to Iraq i don't believe. It was a pretty big scam that was widely reported a few years back. I know that France still participates in it...which is maybe why they don't want the war to happen. Cheaper oil for them. If we could actually just give all of our excess wheat for their oil, that'd be quite a deal! --eternal

I will make Libertarians out of all of you yet! --eternal

his statements about democracy are enough to make him THE BIGGEST PEICE OF SHIT IN THE HISTROY OF ERIK!!!!! basically he states that public opinion means little to him. no duh! this fuck face monkey boy from texas needs to be hoisted outta office and dragged through a pile of shit...and then have his nads chopped. or something.... he is outta control!!!!! Well if by public opinion, you mean the minority, then yes. Despite the millions that marched, the vast majority of Americans back his war on Iraq as evidenced by his approval rating. for better or worse though, I don't know. --eternal

Well for one, they need to explain what they did what they did with their chemical weapons. similar to when a person gets audited, it's not up to the IRS to find where you hid your money, it's up to you to explain what you did with it and prove it. It'd also be helpful that they didn't get caught with weapons they aren't suppose to have and also covering up the evidence. If you read that slate article, you'll understand why inspections aren't going to help. Even Hans Blix said he doesn't need any more inspectors. What he needs is Iraq to comply by providing information on how and where they disposed of these weapons. We know they had it at one point because we gave it to them. --eternal

you are mistaken. Remember the population is already on the brink of disaster. The UN is bracing for a humanitarian crisis in case of war. According to scenarios there will up to 100,000's death (~250,000 in the 1st gulf war), countless refugees, etc ... How am i mistaken? You don't ever actually say how. It's on the brink of disaster because of Sadamn. Remember that Iraq should be one of the wealthiest nations on the planet but he fucked them by taking over Kuwait. Now, with the sanctions in place, he's still diverting money to his army. You quote one set of numbers like they are the fact. They are estimates, and only one set of them. The UN disagrees with you and so does Iraq, who states somewhere closer to 1.6 million people are dead because of sanctions. which points to our lack of interest in what's best for the people of that region. Well duh, the US cares about itself firstly (and so do you i'm sure). I never made the claim that we didn't. However, the US has a pretty good history of standing up against oppresion. I don't see any other country that has anything close to our history. I don't see France running around protecting people. Even when Yugoslavia was being torn about and thousands murdered, Europe didn't do shit. Clinton stayed out for a long time and then got blasted for it. You're fucked if you do, fucked if you don't. --eternalX

j_b said: oh yeah, 1) we impose sanctions that are ultimately responsabe for the death of 100,000's (and keep wanting enforcing them in hte face of common sense), It's amazing he has all this money for his military and none for the people. If you read the articels, you'll see that where the UN actually handles the food giveout program, the infant mortality rates are actually lower. You're not actually suggesting that the goal of the US administration is the death of little kids...are you? 2) we gear up for war upon a people on the brink of starvation, A war won't be against the civilian population. I'm sure some civilians will be killed, but probably not as many are killed by Sadamn for not supporting his regime for CNN cameras or that die because he is selling the food he gets from the UN 3) we supported this same regime for years as we knew all along what it was up to, and This was actually pretty clever for awhile. If you look back, we had two big problems here, Iraq and Iran. The administration at the time figured if it could keep both at war with each other, then they wouldn't bother us. Yea, it's starting to bite us in the ass now, but either then or now, and then we had that whole cold war thing going on. Some nice articles on slate Why Germany Isn't Convinced Sinecurity Council I'm not really for a war on Iraq and i don't think it was inevitable awhile back...i think the administration has dug itself into a hole and probably has to fight now to get out. War is inevitable and how long it'll last is anyone's guess. I'm personally a bit concerned because i think a lot of americans will die in the ground fights in the city this time. A regime change just isn't as easy as something like Desert Storm. --eternal

After the last few articles I've read about Germany and France's involvement in this whole thing, I'm starting to think less and less that their opinions have anything to do with Iraq and more that they are just trying to assert their authority and presence in the EU and UN. France's chancellor has been blasting the other nations for agreeing with the US. Some of these nations that owe their very exsistence to the U.S. my 2 cents --tim

Why don't climbers pay for rescues? --eternalX why dont you pay for the cops and fire and ems services. oh wait you already do, its called taxes. You don't pay for EMS services? Tell the hosiptal that next time you get picked up by an ambulance or heli. --eternal

Why don't climbers pay for rescues? --eternalX

I think you got that one backwards. If gas wasn't so heavily subsidized people might think twice about buying SUVs with three couches and living 45 miles from work. things that cost too much: beer shrooms --eternalX

Hope they make it out okay. What day did they go up? I'd go check out the story on king5.com if it didn't require you to be registered. Guess I'll just have to surf over to one of the other million news sites. on another related note, news.google.com rawks --eternal

Where are you getting your information from? Can you point me to where one article is that the US stopped giving aid to North Korea that we had promised in return for dismantling nuke sites? I don't suppose you think that NK has anything to do with its current famine? Did you read that NK was diverting its aid shipments? Designing and building nuclear weapons is incredibly expensive and NK has a very large army. Not to mention they are working on long range missles, something very few countries have. Ask yourself, how came no other countries have long range missles? Because they are incredibly expensive and have very few purposes. I don't think you realize that NK has a lot to do with the situation it's in. I also don't think you realize that this aid for nukes program was set up by the UN. Other countries have participated as well. Having said all that though, I don't really find NK to be a threat in itself. If it ever decieded to launch a long range nuke at us, the rest of the world would just fucking decimate NK. You can't have nukes flying around. Everybody knows this, which is why even the US has never used them again. The biggest problem with NK is that they might possibly sell a nuke to the highest bidder. That's hard to believe though because if a nuke ever went off and they traced it back to NK, which they can do, NK would suffer the same consequences as if they launched it themselves. Afghanistan is a good example of what happens when your country plays easy with terrorism, as I'm sure the Taliban would have second thoughts about harboring Osama had it knows that the US would do what it did after the Sep 11th tragedy. And I'm sick of this argument that "Iraq is a great location for a base." As opposed to what? Qatar? Diego Garcia? Afghanistan? Saudi Arabia? Turkey? Kazikstan? Uzbekistan? I'll buy that the interest in oil is there, and possibly the diversion in attention away from domestic matters, but not geographic location. --eternal

Greg makes a good point. We have been given very little information on Iraq. Why are we going to attack? Because he *might* have chemical weapons? Because he might use them? Because he oppresses his citizens? If that's our logic, there are a whole bunch of other countries that we should be going afetr, including our little buddy after the 9/11 attacks Pakistan, who has been terrorizing India for the last several years, supporting terrorism against India AND posses nuclear weapons. Even Powell's speech wasn't a resounding success (and I dig Powell...probably the only republican I like) as the UN was not convinced that we should attack. Im just not sure what we're trying to accomplish. The administration has gone back and forth on whether or not Iraq is linked to Al Qeida and shown very little of what it could be. And even today we're not helping the Kurds. As far as the protests are concerned, i'm all about the people showing their dislike of war, but as someone stated earlier, point out some solutions. And you can't just say "anything non-violent". Of course nobody is FOR war just for war's sake. This country does not put up with death in war anymore so you can bet as soon as some bodies start coming home in bags that Bush's approval rating will drop into the toilet. --eternal

I used to have a cover of Jenny (867-5309) that kicked ass, but I can't think of who did it. --eternal

I would think Scotchguard would prevent the gore-tex from breathing. Also, you guys keep spouting hydrophilic around, but as far as i can tell, that only means something that has a strong affinity to water. Can someone describe in detail how spraying something on a jacket make it more waterproof AND breathable? I understand the jacket is loaded with tiny holes and that makes it breathable...but wouldn't spraying a coating of say Scotochguard just clog up the holes? I could understand a dryer melting the jacket enough to clog the holes too, or soap not dissolving enough to clog the holes as well.... argh, sorry, it's the geek in me. --eternal less talk, more

What's the deal with Gore-Tex? What really happens if you don't use the fancy GoreTex wash stuff? It seems if the stuff is that tough, it shouldn't break down when you wash it like every other piece of clothing you own. sorry if this has already been covered. --eternal

If anybody made it to the mountains today, let us know about the conditions so we can plan our sunday. Personally, I was thinking of going to Crystal tomorrow. thanks --eternal

Sunday is looking up. --eternal

Nice catch.

What time of year was it? --eternalX

Going out drinking is considered research now? Man, I left college too soon. --eternal (always researching)

I don't quite understand how the topics are arranged in each forum. If i try and sort by last post, it is still all out of order (the dates displayed in last post). Am i misreading this? Otherwise, great site. --eternal

Weird. I KNOW i posted a reply to this yesterday, but it isn't here today. Oh well. We each brought a homemade dinner for three, that we cooked at night. We also brought mixed nuts, peanut butter, cheese, and summer sausage. Thanks for the kind words. My question is, should it take 4 days for the trip, or are we just slackers? --eternal