murraysovereign

Yes, we've done that in the past. Space is a bit cramped in the back rooms right now with all the inventory piled up, but we can probably find room for a couple of duffles. Maybe PM me, or call the shop 1 877 892 9092, we'll set you up. And just to update everyone, the people who manage Brennan Park Rec Centre are looking into installing bus-depot style lockers. Not sure if they have budget for it, or when we might see them in place, but the District is aware of the problem and various options are being explored.

Renquist was named to "The Supremes" by Nixon, then was named Chief Justice by Reagan.

Yeah, it's hard to argue that line-up is anything other than a conservative dream team, with a couple of dissenting opinions tossed in for effect. Maybe Gottitdamnwrongagain is actually upset that the country and its institutions are governed by a "piece of shit faggified liberal fucknut constitution" that is "weakening the fiber and backbone of this country" by forbidding Americans to arbitrarily imprison, torture and kill people that look different, eat funny foods, or maybe speak other languages. Clearly, the ability to lock people up indefinitely, without charge or even clearly founded suspicion, all the while subjecting them to varying degrees of torture, degradation and humiliation, and possibly even killing the odd one just for the Hell of it, are all the things that made America great in the first place, and removing those treasured freedoms will inevitably bring about the collapse of the Republic.

Sounds like you and Will need to get together - between your rain, and his forest fires, you'd kinda average out to something like "cloudy and warm".

That may not have the effect you intend - remember that in Saudi Arabia it's not that long ago that families would attend public beheadings almost as entertainment, much the same way Tower Green was a popular outing in London, as were the guillotinings in France and public hangings in North America. In the past 75 years or so we in the west have put some distance between ourselves and the executioner, but not so the rest of the world.

NS generally means non-smoking, and professional means you get paid for what you're doing, so 'NS professional' would be someone who gets paid for not smoking. Personally, I'm an amateur - I don't even have a sponsor. I guess to be professional you have to be really, really good at not smoking, but that probably means spending a lot of time training and working out to stay at the top of your game. That would take all the fun out of it for me: I'd rather just stay a recreational non-smoker.

I take it this thread is prompted by the Marion Jones / Tim Montgomery / Jerome Young doping allegations? None of this comes as any surprise at all on this side of the border. We ran Charlie Francis out of the country after the Ben Johnson affair, and he ran straight into the arms of the USATF who were more than happy to send him their brightest prospects. When you knowingly handed your track stars over to the Timothy Leary of track and field for "training," well, what did you expect? RobBob notes that "almost nothing is learned from past generations", but in this case one thing was learned - Charlie Francis never met a steroid he didn't like, and he's really good at both administering them and covering them up. It seems the USATF learned that lesson quite well, and were eager to engage his services.

There's a speaker built into the bell of the bugle, and the "bugler" just stands there with the thing in his face and flicks a switch. There was something about it on the CNN (?) site about a week ago. Apparently it's been going on for a while now - just not enough buglers available. I guess the alternative would be to take civilian musicians and put them in uniform for the occasion. Which option would cause less offence? I think I'd prefer a real soldier faking the music vs real bugling performed by a fake soldier.

Cassini's already dropped in on the neighbours - here's a nice snap of Phoebe

Gulf War Sr wasn't a terrorist act, though, and I think that's what's being discussed here. It was a war, plain and simple. The USS Stark incident was in all likelihood unintentional, given that the US at the time was quietly supporting and supplying Saddam Hussein in his 7-year-old war with Iran (this is when he first came to possess WMDs - courtesy of Don Rumsfeld et al). Just because you're at each other's throats today doesn't mean it was forever thus. And the Iraqi jet was in fact a Mirage, from France. The Iranians were flying MiGs - that's why France and the US and the rest of NATO were supplying Hussein with weaponry of all kinds - to counter the Soviet Union's and China's support of Khomeini.

Hey - where'd you find the Mike Harris shot?

Gosh, you're right - awarded to him by... GWB. That must be quite the flattering portrayal of him in that book, for the President to go to all the trouble of rewarding him with the Medal of Freedom.

But are the showings of "White Chicks" selling out hours in advance, with extra screenings being added? How many showings of "White Chicks" are playing to 1/3 houses, while "F9/11" is pulling in better $$ in a smaller number of theatres? And "F9/11" will likely still be doing pretty respectable box-office long after "White Chicks" is gone and forgotten. The numbers for "White Chicks" really only indicate the tastes of 14-year-olds, whereas "F9/11" is drawing from a far more diverse demographic - mostly voters, which means it's far more interesting to see what, if any impact it will have on the election outcome. Something tells me that, twenty years from now, the release of "White Chicks" won't be cited as a factor in the Bush-Kerry contest. But "F9/11" could very well be.

That's because he wasn't educated at Andover and Yale. Sure, he attended Andover and Yale, but it's pretty clear he wasn't educated there.

Hmmm... you sure it was the CBC? From what I've always been told, if he was Canadian he'd have said "the large amoont of patients doctors see each day." Maybe they were interviewing some foreigner with a funny accent?

I've been noticing this exact pattern for two months now: on Thursday night, the weekend forecast calls for rain, so everyone makes plans accordingly. By Friday night, the forecast for the weekend is improving, but people have already made their plans based on the earlier forecast. When Saturay/Sunday actually arrive, the weather is gorgeous, but there's no-one around because they all bought into the gloomy forecast. This weekend is a case in point - Thursday night the forecast called for 70 - 80% chance of precip for Squamish. In fact, it's been hot and sunny all weekend. They've forecasted rain (as of Thursday evening) for all but one weekend for the last two months, and we actually got significant rain only one of those weekends (Memorial Day). So I'm going to say it again, and again, and again...ignore the Thursday evening forecast - it's invariably far worse than the weather we actually get, at least here in Squamish. I don't understand how they can be so consistently, predictably wrong, but they are.

I took a religious studies course many years ago from a somewhat radical catholic priest - he'd basically been "muzzled" by the Archdioscese to keep him out of the pulpit, because they didn't like having him ask uncomfortable questions - and he pointed out that no-where in the Bible is abortion equated with murder (as the Pro-Life crowd would have you believe). The closest he found to abortion even being mentioned in the Bible was in the Old Testament, in which the prescribed punishments for various crimes were spelled out. Causing injury to a pregnant woman that resulted in her losing her unborn child was punishable by a fine, payable to her husband. Murder is punishable by death. So while causing a woman to lose her child is deemed to be a crime, it's not seen to be "murder." And since the fine is specifically payable to her husband, presumably if she's pregnant out of wedlock there is no fine payable. So it could be argued that the crime is not deemed to be committed against the fetus at all, or even against the woman, but rather against the husband. Any theologians on the board who can shed light on this? It's long ago now, and my memory has been known to play tricks, but this whole discussion is still pretty clear in my mind so I think I've got the basic elements right.

But isn't it possible that his personal combat experience may cause him to hold back from committing troops at a time when it would be the correct and necessary response? In such an instance, wouldn't it be preferable to have a C-in-C for whom combat is more of an abstraction, so the decision can be made based solely on the requirements of the situation at hand?

I've heard similar discussions - that it can cost more to execute someone than to keep them in prison for life. Not sure what the actual evidence is on that, but ultimately it shouldn't be a purely fiscal cost/benefit type of decision. Personally, I'm not in favour of the death penalty. The fallibility of our criminal justice system when determining guilt or innocence is just one reason, but it's a big one. We stopped executing people in Canada back in the late 50s, I believe, although the death penalty stayed on the books until the early 70s. There was a program on the tube a few years back in which various people conceded that at least two of the last few men hanged were innocent. As far as the deterrent effect - it's questionable. Canada's murder rate had been rising slowly but steadily until the death penalty was abolished, at which point the murder rate started declining slowly but steadily. Something similar happened in a couple of Scandinavian countries. There are many other factors that may have contributed to those trends, so it's inconclusive, but it does call into question the idea that people won't commit murder out of fear of execution. I suspect most murders can be classified as "crimes of passion" of one kind or another, so the person commiting the murder probably isn't really thinking much about the possible consequences of their actions at the time. On the other hand, family gossip has it that a relative was the last man hanged for horse-rustling in Saskatchewan, so maybe I'm just nursing a grudge...

Opium, mostly. Good stuff, too, by all accounts.

Why was someone as secular as Saddam building bloody great huge mosques anyhow? What part of "secular" didn't he understand?

Oh, I agree with you on M.M. - he's clever, and I've enjoyed watching some of his stuff, but I don't let him formulate my opinions for me. I just had a funny sense reading your post that someone, somewhere, might have been looking at a mirror. OK, now I've really got to get some work done today. See y'all later.

I spent Saturday belaying kids on a portable wall at the Test of Metal finish area. Got "almost-blisters" on both hands, and a bit too much sun, but had fun and also managed to raise some $$ for Search and Rescue at the same time. But the TR of the day has to go to a certain local guidebook publisher, who climbed the Grand Wall early in the morning before riding the Test of Metal. At the finish, he looked like he'd just got out of bed. I hate people like that. Could be the germ of a "Squamish Ironman" competition in there somewhere...

Funny thing, that, 'cause on the Canadian side of the border the big complaint is that we're shipping so many raw logs to the US instead of processing them here, effectively "exporting our milling industry" to the States. I guess the grass really is always greener on the other side...