selkirk

I never said he was the dumbest, or the worst (I don't know my history well enough to say that!). He (through his actions) does come across as narrow minded, and I do think he's done as much harm as good in any given arena though. He is decisive, I'll give him that

I spend too much time working with the French at the moment Lets say for the most part it is not an amicable relationship. Though my direct counterpart has been great to work with Saturday, put in a bit patio/paving stones to frame the new deck and avoid the inevitable mudpit in front of the door from dog traffic Followed by the illegal/unofficial neirborhood dog park and the resulting sleepy/mellow puppy :tup: Sunday, went to Index, decided not to climb the buttlips onsight first thing in the morning ran into some other mounties avoiding said buttlips Then made a go at Princely Ambitions. Made the idiot mistake of trying to drag 2 ropes (party of 3) and got caught by heat/ropedrag resulting in my running out of gas trying to clip a second piece on the traverse (I figured if I didn't protect the traverse my seconds might make me walk home ). Ended up having to take and blew the onsight :( Rested a bit, dropped the second rope (note to self: dragging a second rope and clipping through critical pieces, even if you aren't belayed on it, creates a shitload of extra rope drag . Then finished the pitch and did the 2nd pitch as well :tup: All in all a good day. Though I hate climbing in the sun, and am desperately out of shape Granted that 3 is an odd number but for some reason I almost never get more than about 5 pitches in any given day of cragging Not sure what that's all about

Unluckily this is true of the majority of technical programs I've come across (math, science, engineering, etc.) Really f-in sad. We're graduating people who understand a very narrow technical field, but have little broader education or understanding of their/our place in the world/history. Makes them easy targets for anyone with a broader education and understanding.

Not true at all. Statistically, there is a strong correlation between intelligence and higher education, especially post-graduate degrees. The correlation is even stronger w/r/t tier-one schools. And I'm sure Bush's credentials compared to those of a huge chunk of the participants on this forum will bear those statistics out - with only a very few counterexamples. But, taking that aside, Bush's malapropisms and mangled statements are no worse than those of the average smug, arrogant, Bush-hating detractor on this internet forum. And it's ironic to listen to some vitriol spewing dimwit with no higher education dismiss Bush's educational pedigree as "meaningless" (a la No. 13 and Adam 13). Bush's intelligence or supposed lack thereof has been discussed ad nauseum both here and elsewhere. The fact is, he is a highly educated man with above average intelligence. He's obviously not in the 99th percentile but I don't really want a quantum physicist running this country (or our dear Gary Yngwe for that mattter) for the very reasons stated by you - high intelligence often does not map to practicality in the real world. But you can be damn sure that neither Gore nor Kerrey is much different in intelligence than Bush (in Huxleyan terms they are all typical BETAs and nothing more). To state otherwise is a laughable claim easily explained away by rose-colored glasses tinted by political group-think. Correlation between higher degrees and intelligence yes, but it's neither causative or necessary. You could probably find quite similar correlations between wealth and advanced degrees, and parents/children with advanced degrees again with no causative/necessary connections. And while high intelligence does not always map to the real world practicality I would imagine that highly intelligent people probably have the same distributions of practicality/common sense as anyone of moderate intelligence. (After all, I would say Clinton was both intellectually brilliant, and had enough practicality/common sense to function extremely well both socially and diplomatically as the president.) And your right, Gore/Kerrey may not be significantly more intelligent than Bush. However I would be willing to bet that they would be more likely to listen to rational arguments from opposing viewpoints, and less likely to appoint/mandate people who only agreed with their agenda/politics. I think the intelligence of the president is secondary to his ability to select and listen too good advisors chosen for their technical expertise and not necessarily party allegiance. Unluckily the impression I have of the Bush administration is not one of technical impartiality and a tolerance for diverging viewpoints, but one driven by cronyism and the necessity of toeing the Rove/Bush Party Line, and anyone who disagrees can pack their backs.. Granted their will be some degree of this in any administration, but from my admittedly limited perspective the level of cronyism/tolerance of divergent viewpoints in this Administration seems excessive. He may be the decider, but it seems that he often has his mind made up well before he has any facts to back up his decisions, then any inconvient facts are just ignored.

Advanced degrees are much more about persistence and stubbornness than intelligence. That said, I've known some folks with advanced degrees that I wouldn't trust to manage a McDonalds. An advanced degree says absolutely nothing about your level of common sense or your ability to apply classroom based knowledge anywhere but in the classroom. And if you'd like i'd be more than happy to give you my credentials

i am a mom it is my job to be up tight. they have a dad to introduce them to the wild and crazy side of life a person can not be muffy and mommy all at the same time.... They will discover your true identity and use it against you when they are teenagers. Better to get it out in the open now. oh shit BTW The "uptight" comment was at parents in general. Not a personal attack. Although you do seem to have a nerve ending there. Oh and one more thing, your kids are going to figure out how to search the cc.com database on "Muffy_The_Wanker_Sprayer" before you figure out they have. Get your rationalizations ready now. Time to cut the landlines!

Pissed off. Would definitely be time to move back to North Idaho.

Definitely doable! Leading 5.9 is all about headspace, if you can keep calm, manage your fear, and focus on your footwork you'll be golden! Are you shooting for 5.9 trad, sport, or both? Some good stuff out at Vantage, and Tieton that will be in till the end of October

Hoping that the fall season will make up for the totally suck summer. Index tomorrow, Squamish next weekend (with Smith as a back up) Smith the following weekend, PDX for the Ice tool comp the weekend after that, and hopefully keep rolling in the Desert until it's too cold to climb and Ski season kicks off Personally I'm a big fan of the drugs i'm on the moment! They certainly stoke me delusions

What about Archie's guns? Or Sherri's? for that matter

It's kind of like a cross between snipe hunting and calf roping.

Bring em A little debauchery is good for the youngins! After a night spent with drunk climbers they should be good and sober till they're at least 60

Not necessarily. I just don't want to have to wear a helmet around them. Should I make the obvious short bus joke?

I wonder how this relates to the new itty bitty wiregates (30g and less bunch).

Is someone bitter? Anyone losing weight and keeping it off deserves a pat on the back. Besides, you probably just got the skinny gene Linky Linky

No Shit! Your other personalities are seriously slipping!

No, just that your trying to infiltrate the good guys and steel their secrets. As I have black, I just get to sit back and be amused I suppose you could be converted, but the drapes would have to match

maybe, i am not scientist and i don't really care any more. I had my sign carrying banner flying stop the pollution, save the ozone days already. i did my part and stopped using airisal cans and stiraphome. I worked with OSPRIG donated money to the seria club, started recycling when you still had to FIND a center to recycle at, i was a vegetarian. ate local organic and low on the food chain. i did all the right things and you know what, people didn't change, the world was not saved and all the idiots still reign supreme. so i decided there has to be a reason for that. we are part of nature. we are as much an animal as any other animal on the planet. we are more conceited, self centered in the bad way more resource hogging more damaging and certainly more disgusting than any of the other animals. but we evolved and here were are. if we are lucky we will blow ourselves up before we find another planet to populate and destroy. hmmm there's that bitter thing again. i need to keep working on that Why yes you do! Aren't you Gen-X? Then you're not nearly bitter enough! All those freakin happy go-slappy Gen-Y folks get on my nerves And your right, we are part of nature, we're just on a slower cycle. Look at any isolated population with no competition, limited resources and a rapid breading rate... First thing that happens is that they use all the resources and go into starvation , then the numbers shrink rapidly due to shortages/infighting, followed by excess food due to the much decreased numbers which leads to rapid growth. (Think rabbits on an island with no foxes ) The only thing we've added to the equation is the ability to kill ourselves off in 1 go with nuclear weapons So it all depends on damping, we'll either peak, and then settle to a stable population (might be some oscillation). Peak, and then indefinitely oscillate, or go unstable (but I don't think that's very likely barring nuclear war.). The good news is we can't really screw up the planet, just make it uninhabitable for us

Do you live in Seattle's only trailer park? Didn't think so.... So much for steet cred

That's why they don't need to pay attention. When you drive a tank, it's only the little, tax paying people that suffer.

Your willing to go climbing post breakfast burrito You do like to live dangerously don't you

The west ridge is a good route For easy technical climbing it makes for a great alpine kind of day

Mrs. Selkirk went up to the Windy Pass area and came back with oodles In season and plenty ripe. With a little rain should be good through next weekend at least! mmmmmmmm huckleberry pie!!!!!

I've been interested in a full or partial day at Index tomorrow. Anything up to mid 10's and i'm willing to do the leading if need be. PM me and I'll check again in the morning. Cheer Josh

This ain't the IRS. You can carry your children up if you wish, however. If you carry a child, you can count the weight as body fat on the BMI scale. Think long and hard about using this tactic, because if you lose, the child is first on the barbie. Would probably be more tender, but not nearly as well marbled.