scrambler

"If I could just get a nuclear device inside Foggy Bottom (the location of the State Department's headquarters), I think that's the answer," former Republican Party presidential hopeful Pat Robertson said last week on his television program, The 700 Club. "We've got to blow that thing up." Pat Robertson also advocated bombing the State Department during a June interview. "Well, it looks like Congress had better do something, and maybe we need a very small nuke thrown off on Foggy Bottom to shake things up," Robertson said. Pat Robertson Comment "Despicable"--FOXNews

Seems that the image of an apocalyptic Christ straight out of Revelations with a sword in his hand is leaping out of the psyche of the fundamentalists with their voices in George's ear. Funny thing though, in the 80's someone from our government told the mujahadeen (Afghani 'freedom' fighters) that they were guaranteed victory over the godless Soviet communists. To paraphrase, "God is on your side." I expect that God-intoxicated (God-frenzied) messianic zeal from the fundamentalist hardcore, only I didn't quite expect it to be present so eminently in our government. Of course, not on major network news, but in small measured doses to select groups such as Bible groups.

mildew

HRoark Hahahahah. The Devil made me post this. Must be the archetype of Satan behind all this talk to drive a wedge into a unified front. Gotta be with an avatar such as scrambler. Seriously, though. At what point does someone become delusional? Just seems that religious thoughts can hijack a man's rationality. This is not meant as an indictment of Christianity or any particular religion. I believe as a member of the administration his hierarchy of obligations should be secular. Of course, in the real world this hardly ever happens. A religious meme can be particularily strong. The General's mindset is medieval in that he sees the world in black and white, believes in an active principle in effect in the world that opposes Christianity to the detriment of all souls, something Gothic about his worldview that I can't quite express. The War on Terrorism is really like a Crusade between Judeo-Christianity and fundamentalist Islam. I suppose I used the word, Gothic, because it's like all of us are like nameless individuals that strive and die as part of a larger goal for (the lack of a better phrase) the glory of God. Like we're paying taxes or laboring on a 'pyramid project' for some immortal moment in Time, a historical moment that'll go down in the not so distant future in the textbooks as a struggle between monumental opposites. I don't know. Maybe all this time not climbing is a bad thing. I need to go climb something.

His objective should be hard military targets. Specific targets like Al Qaida cells and such. Do you think this man thinks that God talks to him? Anything wrong with that? Well that depends on what God tells you to do. There's something medieval about his thinking. Isn't this type of thinking part of the reason that the Founding Fathers didn't endorse a particular religion. The history of religious wars that ravaged Europe should have been lesson enough. But if that's not enough, just look at the Middle East, Northern Ireland, etc. Yeah, I know it's more complicated than that, there's a lot of factors involved but religious difference seems to be the root cause .

This man knows what it's all about. He's the former commander of Army Special Forces, Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin. Boykin has led or been part of almost every recent U.S. military operation, from the ill-fated attempt to rescue hostages in Iran to Grenada, Panama, Colombia, Somalia. Boykin was recently promoted to deputy undersecretary of defense. In June 2003, Boykin spoke to a church group over a slide show: “Well, is he [bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [saddam] the enemy? The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here. The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.” Give me a freakin' break. Boykin also routinely tells audiences that god, not the voters, chose Bush: “Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he’s in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.” Apparently, Boykin doesn't believe it was the US Supreme Court that decided the outcome of the election, rather it was God's will, a miracle if you will. Top terrorist hunter's divisive views--link to MSNBC

I just want to see more bang for my buck that's all. Let's see our legislators be a little fiscally reponsible. Pouring money on these problems year after year doesn't seem to be working...seems that all we're really funding is public employees pensions No doubt accountability is a good thing is spending. That's why I think our current administration has driven the economic ship up on a sand bar. If you think the revenue shortfalls are a problem now, wait until you see the defecit and national debt climb to unpresidented levels over the next decade. The influence of the recent tax cuts will only increase over this time. Our kids will be facing the bill. As a working class Joe that's what I want to know. What will be the result of the tax cuts? Will it be a rising tide lifting all boats? I have a difficult time seeing the current Administration as one that has a vision for all Americans. Admittedly, that's a tall order but why isn't that possible staying true to the ideals of this country? Why does it seem like that the Administration has forged an alliance between big business interests and religious fundamentalists? As I see it, big business caters to a public of mass consumerism: everything is a commodity. It fosters a cow-like public school system to produce obedient consumers (here's another credit card offer...) and true discontent and protest will be sanitized, banned, or otherwise prohibited. A consumer dystopia fueled by lottery dreams and credit offers... And, the religious zealots? We're gonna control your thoughts because we have the one and only true God on our side. Any other thoughts contrary to our doctrine is heresy. Government and religion side with each other to keep the masses in check. Maybe when the shit really hits the fan, the preachers and pastors will revive the 'ol pie in the sky': you'll get your reward in another realm just work your asses off to pay off your debts, don't criticize authority, and keep having babies.

Wonder if the animal rights activists would protest this experiment? Seems that use of test animals would be transitional to actual testing in humans thus a crucial step in advancement of prosthetics. Protesting all experimental use of animals is absurd, but I do see their point when they protest use of animals in cosmetics safety testing. Our vanity shouldn't be the cause of their suffering. link to New Scientist article, Monkey's brain signal controls third arm Check out this Flash animation from Duke U. Flash animation (requires Flash Shockwave) See the brain scan?

Are you or were you devoutly Catholic? Seems they believe in an active personification of Evil that goes around throwing wrenches in the Good Old Guy's creation. This reminds of the question though someone asked me once, "If God is all good and all powerful, why did he allow evil into this world?" So, I think the Church's official response is something along the lines, that evil is a corruption of good, kind of like how an egg (good) spoils into a rotten egg (bad). Not sure though why the corrupting agent was allowed even though it supposedly was not created originally. Oh, and the other question, "If power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely....?" Seems you couldn't be devoutly Christian and at the same time believe that statement about power and corruption.

There are cyclic variations and an overall secular trend in atmospheric composition throughout earth history. You're talking about the secular trend or the overall decrease in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere with preferential enrichment of oxygen. This is accomplished by two feedback loops. One loop or mechanism is driven by inorganic processes involving the weathering of continental rock. The other loop is based on organic life and is subject to change through evolution. With regard to the latter loop, plants have become more efficient at carbon burial. The first land plants to appear were C3 plants or conifers (gymnosperms). C4 plants or flowering plants (angiosperms) appeared later. Most organically driven carbon burial, however, occurs in the ocean at upwelling areas. Plankton (sea plants) are the most efficient biological agents of carbon burial. Limestone is largely formed of the accumulated detritus of plankton skeletons. Some scientists have suggested 'seeding' the ocean with nutrients such as iron to enhance the growth and productivity of plankton production. Conceivably, we could enhance Nature's own process. Alternatively, scientists could develop a more efficient 'bug', one that allows an even greater rate of carbon burial. With regard to cyclical changes in climate, it is well known the earth's climate undergoes variation at many different temporal scales. The most recognized variation is termed Greenhouse-Icehouse. The alternation between a warm greenhouse climate and a cool icehouse climate occurs on a geological scale, or on the order of millions of years. Other temporal variations occur at shorter periodicities. One of these is due to the Milkanovitch Orbital Parameters. There are three components to the Milkanovitch Orbital Parameters: orbital eccentricity or shape of the earth's orbit precession of the equinoxes tilt of the earth's axis The climate variation resulting from the orbital parameters occurs on the order of approximately 20,000 to 100,000 years. Essentially, the bottom line is that there are natural variations in earth processes. Change in itself is not bad or unnatural. The problem is the rate of change. With earth processes, the rate of change is slow enough that earth systems such as the biota can respond. For instance, if global warming occurs due to natural change, then the soil responds first by developing in areas that are covered by rock. Then plants migrate in response to the temperature change. If the climate change occurs too rapidly, then the soil may not be developed or it may have formed but does not have the suitable microbes to facilitate plant life. That's bad. It's all about earth systems. If we can slow down the rate of climate change or increase the rate of response by biological agents, then it may be manageable. One can see a secular trend since the late 1800's (beginning of the Industrial Revolution) to the present day, as global warming in the average temperature. This is believed due to increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide in constrast to the large scale secular trend of carbon drawdown. There have been minor blips such as in the late 1940's when the trend appeared to have momentarily reversed and may be explained as a result of increased smoke or debris in the atmosphere which effectively shielded the heat (long wavelength) from emitting away into space. So, it's not only the presence of atmospheric carbon dioxide that influences the global temperature. Essentially, if it's an atmospheric agent, then it either blocks sunlight through the albedo effect (reflects sunlight) or tends to keep heat from escaping the atmosphere.

j_b = Gray Davis/Arianna Huffington Trask = Arnold

Dood, you need to approach this thing with a sense of humor. LIghten up. Don't try to win points by critical analysis. The people demand humor. Take a good look at the Trading Insults thread.

That looks like the metabasalt at X38. WEt and mossy

"I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass. ...And I'm all out of bubble gum." link to wav file John Carpenter

Why isn't this n te rock climbing thread? FYI, Wings of Desire is listed in Richardson (2003) as 5.11b & Wings of Steel as 5.12d. Looks like 5.11b is between French 6C, 6C+. 12d is approximately equivalent to 7C so it looks like the rating on Wings of Steel was listed wrong(?) in your guide. I don't climb at that level but seems that Richardson gave a reasonable answer to why he listed the ratings as given.

I don't know nuthin about french grades so this might be off topic. Howie Richardson's Skaha Rockclimbs (2003) has sport & trad routes listed in YDS, 'cept he calls it Yosemite Dumbass System. I guess he recognizes the limitations of a grading system. He has Blade Runner listed as 5.12a, fer instance. Richardson's previous edition had French for sport and +/- for gear routes. Richardson says: and this:

You're absolutely right, Trask. Now compare to the Republican philosophy: The choice is clear. We're in good hands. Why would anyone want to be a Democrat?

Keep an eye on this site: CascadeImages Click on hyperlink for Tieton.

You're shittin' me. Really? Damn, I guess Ahnold is the only choice for Republicans.

Hey Californians! Is this true? It's hasta la vista to $9 billion if the Governator is elected

Cuba holds a special place in our administration's heart: Is this true? Don't know but I've wondered why the detainees were not brought stateside. Fear of potential retaliatory terrorist attacks or the above mentioned reason? Nevertheless, Cuba is probably useful to us in its current form. Source: Brief History of U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Which country will get the treatment next?IranSyriaLiechtensteinNorth KoreaSudanPakistanNone of the above Any suggestions on defense stocks? Wonder if anyone's making a killing in the stock market.