korup

pasted from salon.com In an interview with Alaska Business Monthly shortly after she took office in 2007, Palin was asked about the upcoming surge. She said she hadn't thought about it. "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq," she said. "I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place; I want assurances that we are doing all we can to keep our troops safe." Seven months into the surge, she still either had not formed any opinion on the surge or the war or just wasn't sharing. "I'm not here to judge the idea of withdrawing, or the timeline," she said in a teleconference interview with reporters during a July 2007 visit with Alaska National Guard troops stationed in Kuwait. "I'm not going to judge even the surge. I'm here to find out what Alaskans need of me as their governor."

I can't wait to see tonight's "Daily Show" - this is comedy gold!

Biden will rip her in half. Decades of foreign policy and Beltway experience vs. being on a city council and TWO years as governor of a highly peripheral state ??

Prolife, pro death penalty, pro hunting. Logical consistency might be not a strong point here.

Crap. I had a #0, Leo Holding bleeding on the cover. Let a buddy in MT borrow it, and it's gone, gone, gone.

You might consider adding "touring" to the title....

ohohoh! go go Mr Pinky!!

From the climbing link "It may be the first time anyone has set out to free solo a route at the edge of their ability with only a B.A.S.E. parachute." What? This statement idiotic. I'm pretty sure "5.12+" is not at the edge of Potter's ability, and how the hell does it still count as a free solo, if you have a F***ing parachute?

The Vector's compass is pretty worthless, so check out the Altimax. Durable, light, and really bomber. I've beaten the piss out of mine for 3 yrs, and it still look great. The menus, backlight and alarm a little old school relative to the newer Sunnto line (cell phone style menus), but big legible digits are sweet. There are some idiotic prices on ebay, but you can find one for $75 or less pretty easily.

I was just wondering why you ever bought the 36" ones; they are beasts to carry, and given how marginal pickets are anyway.... cheers!

Why in the world would you *give away* a 36" picket??

There were three McHales at Second Ascent a few weeks ago- one was pretty beat, one was good, and the last one was in great shape.

There were three McHales at Second Ascent a few weeks ago- one was pretty beat, one was good, and the last one was in great shape.

Ridgerest, $18, and holes don't matter. That thing is idiotic, but it bet you could coordinate it really well with some sweet new yoga pants!

I've bivied on serveral Colorado 14'ers, and gotta say, damn fun. Highly recommended if you've got nice weather.

Size? Also interested if the size is right.

The old timey progression of hiking, to backpacking, to following a strong leader, and then leading, gave people a pool of knowledge and experience to draw on, about weather, vegetation, personal limits, etc etc. Now, you climb in a gym twice, then go to REI and blow a wad of cash, and bingo! Youze a climber!

Last season I finally got sick and tired of cleaning/repairing the damn Whisperlights, and the idiotic *plastic* fuel pump. Bought a Primus Gravity, which is smart enough to have metal parts, and a long connector hose to move the bomb away from the ignition source.

Keep in mind Lowell's response may be slightly biased, as he has more mad skill than all of us combined! A little analogy: I heard some event organizer doing charity rides with Lance Armstrong was telling folks, "Do not even think about trying to race him. He can, and will destroy you, pedaling with just one leg, on a kid's tricycle."

Climbing in something like the Scarpa Laser is 100% better than skiing in Koflachs.

choochoo! choochoo! It's the LUV train!

Dugga- in spite of CCH's efforts to improve their QC, I think that their operation is a joke, and remain totally skeptical of their product. Yes, Aliens are sweet, but given the number of recalls, and production errors, I think my life is more important. Others prob. disagree, but....

I should restate. Obviously, in a rescue situation, I would use anything at hand and feel fine about it. However, my friend says he was told that this was the normal and correct way to do it. Dyneema runners are slippery, melt (think of a wet rope with sand/gravel) and are simply not a good choice if other options are available, safer, and ahem, cheaper.

A friend, (semi-newbie climber) went to a climbing shop in Seattle (and not the big box) and was told by a salesperson that it is A-OK to use skinny Specta/Dyneema runners as prusiks. OK, so before I head in there and go apeshit about melting point and the FACT THAT THEY AREN'T EVEN ROUND, is there any chance there is new info out there I am not aware of?

One day in Rocky Mtn NP, parter and I were hauling ass off a ridge line to avoid the monster thunderstorms that come off the plains every afternoon in the summer. We run into a dumpy tourist couple heading UPHILL wearing tshirts, two small kids in tow. "You might want to head down- the mother of all thunderstorms is headed this way." The dad freaks out, starts yelling at us that he knows what he is doing, and we can feck off. So, off we went, and 10 minutes later the sky went purple-black and 1/2" hail stones started flying- no news in the paper, so it must have turned out OK for them.