foraker

This doesn't apply to us. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. Besides, are you implying that socialist strategies 'evolve'? I see no evidence of transitional forms of socialism.

bugger the economic fiasco, let's hear more about the 'unusual cuts of lamb' maybe if the government provided recipes, all would turn out well!

why keep gun violence and drugs separate when they clearly aren't? that's no way to go about solving a problem. since you aren't actually saying anything, i have no problem hijacking your thread. i have no problem with people having guns to defend themselves. what you want, and aren't saying, is that you want people to leave law-abiding citizens alone. I'm with you on that too. You seem unwilling to connect the dots that if you don't do something about the actual 'drugs/gun problem', there are going to be significant numbers of people who simply say 'ban guns'. You solve the 'gun problem' another way, e.g. by legalizing drugs, people are going to stop thinking about 'gun violence' and leave gun-owning citizens alone, right? all you single article showed was that banning guns doesn't do much. that's not much of a surprise. or was that your only point and you didn't want anyone debating the policy implications of it? wrong place, kemosabe.

Maybe if they showed dead Americans and dead Iraqis holding hands, that'd make everybody happy.

Well, yes, hanging drug users and dealers (as an example) would certainly be one way of dealing with the gun violence problem, but I reckon that would be an even harder sell than drug legalization, eh? Well, maybe not the drug dealer problem, per se. Does this mean we could deal with the alcoholism problem the same way? Or did you just mean, 'build more prisons'? If so, I'll just add that to the list of expensive public works projects you're advocating.

Of course, the easiest solution to most crime involving guns is probably to legalize drugs and tax the revenue. Fat chance of seeing that happening.

http://www.mtntools.com/cat/alpineice/axes/grivelairtechevoiceaxe.htm

Obviously, she's someone from the 'But I went to college/grad school! I'm hip! I'm urban! I'm entitled!' school of thought.

you don't have much of an argument either since you've neither described the cost of a wall (building, maintaining, securing), whether or not people are willing to pay for it, and whether or not it will be effective. You haven't addressed my solution at all, which is hardly hot air. Which is easier? Going after 11 million illegal immigrants or going after their employers? Who is easier to identify and nail down? Which is more cost effective? Are we going to build a wall all along the Gulf coast and along the Canadian border as well? Those are leaky too, last time I checked.

you won't stop them coming over the border until you remove the economic incentive for them to do so. and with shrub's 'war' and pork barrel spending to pay for, i'm disinclined to pay for another hideously expensive, most likely ineffective, public works project like a wall. frankly, i'm surprised conservatives are too. but, then, it's easier to go after the little brown people than the white corporate execs and Bob and Susan down the street who have a gardener and a maid service.

If you take away someone's simplistic pigeon-hole, what are you going to leave them to cling to?

If torture worked for Jack Bauer the way it works in the real world, they'd all be dead. torture goes hollywood

funny, i just picked up a TVS II. of course, i don't think anyone makes a high end P&S (film or digital) that I like: fully manual with a spot meter. i don't like the trend to do away with optical viewfinders either. what better way to save battery power than to turn off the lcd viewfinder.

don't the Leica's share the same sensor/chip set at the Panasonics?

what? get tired of talking about kidney stones and male pattern baldness already?

If you need a good massage therapist, I know one who works downtown Seattle. Works from a pretty good chiro's office. Really helped me get past my tendinitis and explained to me how I had all these muscle imbalances that were screwing me up. I feel pretty much normal now but still have to be vigilant about stretching for the tendinitis.

'Crowds' on Aspiring and Cook? What's your definition of a crowd? Maybe things were worse for you but when I was on Cook there was only one other team on the same route and there wasn't anyone else going up the eastern side. The huts weren't even packed. We didn't see anyone on Aspiring we were halfway back to civilization. Maybe if you happen to get a good 3 day weather window on Cook, things get a bit busier but that's a crap shoot.

STFU, Tvash. You're making me want to pick up all my crap and move down that way again.

Friend of mine used to work for USGS. When he and a colleauge were in the Brooks Range, they had a tendency to keep a shotgun loaded with slugs between them in the tent. One night, he gets woken and up sees a bear head sticking through the flap of the tent, having a sniff around. Without waking his colleague up, he picks up the gun and fires one right into the face of the bear. Needless to say, his tent mate woke up screaming to discover no bear to be seen but blood all over the inside of the tent.... Probably took him a couple of years to refill his adrenal gland after that....

How's that War on Christmas going?

And Cancer

JayB, I think you'll find 'Euro-Leftist' countries have a population that is often 'tolerant and accomodating' in name only or, at best, only at the government services level and within various social-economic groups. My experience with Europe is that there is still a fair bit of ingrained intolerance there, though no one admits it so openly to casual acquaintances. If this intolerance leads to social and economic marginalization, its no surprise to me Muslims living in Europe become radicalized. You have to ask yourself why this radicalization occurs mostly in, say, Europe than here (that's my anecdotal opinion, not something I can really support objetively...I might be wrong). Seems to me it's an underlying wealth and economic problem, not a 'religious' problem. Sure, certain aspects of the clergy might be radicalized but you don't see them out with bombs strapped onto themselves, do you? Just look at our own immigration problem here. Why don't the Mexicans 'radicalize'? Some of them probably do but most of them are enjoying the fruits of superior economic opportunity. Why would you want to kill the gold-egg-laying goose? Anyway, I may be full of it. Feel free to criticize.

I've advocated this myself but I realize it's not likely to happen since 'employers' in a political context are 'campaign contributors' and 'post-political-life employment opportunities'. Better to tax the populace to build a multibillion dollar fence that likely won't work than to upset the gold-egg-laying geese.

I know you're generalizing, but not all home-school their kids for religious reasons. you got me there. but adding that qualification right out of the gate pushes fewer buttons.