JosephH

1: "Using asterik pass with a 100 lbs of shit on my back was essentially a failed suicide attempt" Been there, hated that. 2 : "rappel w/ the pig on runner girth-hitched to your harness and dangling between your leg." This is where the much maligned, misunderstood, and / or ignored Petzl Shunt totally shines. Shunt on the belay loop, rap device up a trad draw's height above it attached to the belay loop above the Shunt, bag hangs off the rap device - not any part of you; never touch the rap device when rapping, only the Shunt. 3 : "for christ's sake, find some way to protect jagged edges from cutting the rope and killing you!"

How about a warranty on old, ego-tripping, chauvenistic white guys who looked down their noses at the pitiful manufacturing attempts of all those [defeated] little yellow people and then proceeded to masturbate each other for the next thirty nine years until they lapsed into a coma of complete irrelevance.

Serenity, what's the deal with offing the rack...? Is it because you're being deployed? What happens when you get back...? When do you get back...?

That's ridiculous - I'd have to look for the stats, but trust me, the docs and nurses are not the ones making out on our healthcare - the insurance and pharmaceuticals are. In the 'raid' I keep talking about, the raiders essentially skimmed $100-150k off the top of every doc in the nation. So, if they're alluding to what may be charged for docs' time, then that would again be the managed care outfits and insurance companies making out, not the docs themselves - BUT, I'll have to look at the article because sitting here at the moment I don't remotely believe that statement.

My point exactly - this isn't 'competition', it's a gamed system built and rigged for insurance and pharmaceutical companies at the expense of both consumers and providers. They raided and took over the system in the late 80's thru early '90s right after they finished raiding all the weakly governed corporations for their pension funds.

The question is simple and has direct parallels to the Wall Street collapse and many other aspects of our society. Central and South American drug cartels are simply exercising their perogatives in a competitive free market setting devoid of government regulation and oversight and also arming themselves under a self-declared second ammendment. It's basic Adam Smith stuff - they sell us drugs, we sell them guns. And don't be confused, weapons use in Mexico is almost entirely a militia activity, it is not about unrestrained, random, or unassociated crime by individuals in possession of a weapon. These are militias, paramilitaries, and shadow enforcement organizations - it's all sanctioned and 'organized' as a basic and opertaive component of their economy at this point. It's probably duking it out with tourism to be the #2 economic driver behind oil. And who can blame them? The have a long pipeline to secure, distribution networks to defend, and they have to oversee the gangs they employ to manage the business on the ground - all expensive stuff and they don't waste a lot of change on management classes - they rule through fear and intimdation. I mean, isn't it obvious why weapons in a poor, largely uneducated society that sits astride one of the worlds busiest drug pipelines exhibits inordinate instability? Consider it the difference between the showroom (us) and the factory floor (them) - things are always more chaotic and messy, especially when you mix in mass quantities of our weapons. Also, if the notion is that we can broadly interpret the second amendment to mean essentially unrestrained access to weapons without some serious negative consequences and blowback in the bargain then I'd say you're either in denial, dreaming, or hallucenating.

I forget now, but aren't you in the technology business? You're confusing 'competition' that generates efficiencies and adds value with 'competition' which embues entirely needless complexity, rampant redundancy, and provides absolutely no value add. Again, collectively, the private Medicare Plan D providers way more than double senior drug costs under the program. It was a classic example of BushCo's corporate welfare, 'free enterprise' system on steroids - the closest example I can think of to it is post-invasion contracting in Iraq. How is diverting tax revenue to corporations which increase complexity and provide negative value add a 'competitive' approach to healthcare or any other infrastructure requirement. Jesus, I mean from the day the leashes came off it took private industry and 'free markets / enterprise' a mere 9.5 years to destroy two thirds of the world's economies - this is a model to aspire to? Maybe in some restrained, moral, and 'conservative' culture of a bygone era, but after 50+ years of television and sophisticated consumer marketing we've become a gaming society with a monetary rather than a moral bottom line - rather than an era where fraud was contained to edge conditions since the mid-'80s it has been clearly shown again and again to be a fundamental component of business. Or, as my accountant says - 'Corporations absent of appropriate government oversight are indistinquishable from organized crime". The results of which currently do not readily support either the notion that 'less regulation is the answer' or that 'competitive free markets are the answer'. The problem with the latter in all forms of the insurance business is there is no competition per se, the players are not playing as competitors, they are playing as an felonious - if not treasonous - cartels and syndicates.

Yes, it is a bit odd and specious to advocate for SCOTUS' recent interpretation of the second ammendment on one hand and with the other say why, if you remove gun violence, our healthcare systems provide equivalent care even if far more expensively. And hey, none of this isn't rocket science, it's actually pretty straightforward. Take the Medicare Plan D for instance. Funny how you can't even find a national list of 'providers', but last I heard back when the plan started there were at least 47 insurance providers doing business in Plan D. Think about it. 47 companies hired a sales force, policy folks, claims folks, and all 47 designed custom software for every aspect of the system. Not only does this represent a massive government giveaway to corporate America, it imposes an amazing amount of completely unnecessary complexity, and what efficiencies and cost savings do we get for that - aside from massively confusing seniors - none. That's right, none - in fact by comparison, the VA consistently pays half for the same drugs. It's a vast and wide clusterfuck of epic proportions to the tune of billions of dollors of overhead and lost cost opportunities all flushed directly down the drain in the name of "free enterprise". And actully, aside from the fact that I'm from Chicago, you knew Obama was a player, a pragmatist, and going to be sadly disappointing progressives again and again the minute he said on the campaign trail that insurance companies were going to be part of healthcare reform. READ MY LIPS - by definition healthcare reform that results in the existence of private insurance companies involved with the administration of a baselevel of universal healthcare isn't healthcare reform. Insurance companies provide no value in the stack. Period. And to answer jayb's question, of course healthcare providers recover their costs by any means possible - they have to and the insurance companies are in on the game. And that game is played across the insurance business. Ever been quoted one price for something with insurance and another price if you don't have any? New windshield, body work, dental work, eyeglasses - it's all fraud gaming the system. Bottomline - U.S. corporations will never be able to compete on the world stage if they are responsible for employee and retiree healthcare. Again, it's an infrastructure and public health concern; it's not a business businesses should be in. And purely from a pandemic public health perspective, it is rank insanity that every human in the U.S. doesn't have access to a [universal] baselevel of healthcare - extremely resistant TB just doesn't give a rats ass about economic, class, suburban, or coach boundaries once it's bred in healthcare coverage dead zones. And don't kid yourselves - rationing happens, it's happening now - we just do it differently. And that would work fine so long as we didn't have public emergency rooms, but with that back door open we're just kidding ourselves about how we go about it. You want homeland security, you want a return to a lasting economic recovery, you want businesses to thrive - then deal with healthcare - establish universal coveverage at some baselevel, build a single payer system with no insurance company involvement, and allow insurance companies and well-off consumers to create a new market for value-added coverage. Think the government can't do it? The VA is proof it can it has the best medical records technology on earth and has had for years now. Pharmaceuticals? Texplorer on this board is about to start his second pharmacuetical residency at the Reno VA hospital doing data mining and national efficacy studies - pharmaceutical companies HATE the VA because they actually are on top of the games and play hardball. It's all a game, a sham, and one riddled with parasitic middlemen. It's not much differently gamed than the one that just collapsed on Wall street. It's all propped up on 'free market' propaganda and the righteous politics of indignation and fear on main street. But again, tell the folks in SE Oregon about free market healthcare and they'll tell you they now have to drive hundreds of miles and book a hotel room to avail themselves of it.

At the end of October I had what seemed to be a heart attack while at a conference in LA. I went to Good Sams ER on the insistence of my sister who is an ER doc down there. I was treated promptly, but still spent eight hours in the ER before being admitted for an echocardio stress test in the morning. The upshot of it all was I apparently had a gastro-reflux episode, not a heart attack (could have fooled me). So in the end it cost about $18k for the following of which very good (and expensive non-group) insurance picked up about $13k. God forbid anything had actually been wrong. - 1 hour of ER work (the rest was waiting for things) - ER doc - 2 nurses - 1 stress tester - Review by cardiologist - Review by pulmonologist - 3 ecg - 1 xray - 1 blood workup - 1 baby's aspirin - 1 nitro spray under tongue - 1 nitro patch - 1 intravenous nexium - 1 bed - 1 echocardio stress test Is that reasonable? Could be, but when it costs $18k to handle someone who is basically fine it gives you some idea of how fast you'd be racking up costs if something were actually wrong. All in all I have good insurance, but even with that we're still basically one bad incidence away from being wiped out. Add to that I'm self-employed and the risk goes higher (totally on me and by my choice). Our healthcare system? Go to SE Oregon where the last nurse practicioner is closing their doors leaving the SE part of the state with no medical coverage of any kind like much of rural America. Add to that the fact that employee and retiree health benefits are just killing U.S. competitiveness in world markets, and then add the wholly unecessary administrative overhead of a myriad of insurance companies, and I come solidly down on the side of our system being a complete trainwreck. We don't run any other part of our infrastructure for profit, and it's completely stupid to run our healthcare system that way from an international competitiveness perspective. And the rightwing mantra of "leave medicine to the doctors, not the gov't" - what utter bullshit - these are the same clowns who took over, raped, and all but destroyed our medical system in the '80s and '90s with 'managed care'. The republicans explicitly didn't want doctors making medical decisions - they manufactured a system which explicitly took decision-making out of doctor's hands and gave it to insurance companies. And poor Natasha? She doomed herself on the slopes when she weighed appropriate medical care against the potential media circus which would ensue and chose wrong. She'd have likely been just as dead skiing anywhere in the US. And with regard to helivac services in CA - get real. All of CA has a massive remote northern territories to provide coverage to - much of it inaccessible in the winter - their helivac coverage is prioritized to service those remote northern areas that have no medical coverage of any kind (SE Oregon should be so lucky).

I believe it was actually Roger Ebert who convinced her on the need to syndicate if she ever wanted to control her own destiny...

Understatement of the year for me given I was coming from a sandstone/basalt background. Slick as snot - especially don't sweat...

Come to Beacon when it opens and aid 'Ground Zero'. Its first anchor has four side-by-side bolts and is a good spot for practicing setting up a ledge and bivy.

Trout Creek and Beacon once it opens. I'd say you should get yourself to some granite somewhere as well. A quick spring / summer Valley scouting trip does sound like it would be a good idea rather than just showing up and attempting to do your first wall (though plenty of folks have...).

Nope....just the sensitive moss folks! Nope....just the sensitive habitat folks! Dude, you're being a bit swishy on the liberal / environmental front there...

I believe Shane used one of my Loweballs for that spot, but I'd have to look at the video again.

It's not his, it's Shane's route...

Good article, but it should be noted that would also require changes to how we pursue our coporate and national interests relative to the political structures of nation-states, i.e. we need to insure SOF isn't synonymous with death squads and paramilitaries supporting corporate interests above those of the population at large. That [containment] legacy is why many Central and South American nations have turned against us over time.

That's my point though, once 'battlefields' are in play we've already failed on multiple fronts and putting guys like you in bad positions that were best avoided by other means. Once our military is in play, however, then we need to provide them with any and all resources they needs to be effective - which includes appropriate combatant detention centers.

Fighting terrorism with the military is the poorest idea of all, though. When it comes to terrorism, the military is our crudest and least effective weapon. Our values, diplomacy, economy, strategic relationships, international alliances, and law enforcement together are the only effective frontlines against terrorism. Any time we have to deploy our military against terrorists we have essentially failed and are being forced to use our solution of last resort. The military has a role to play in an integrated whole, but it should be in a service, rather than a leading, role.

That, would be an excellent thing to do once Raul steps down. It would also help insure we won't do anything this stupid again - at least not with the ease gitmo provided.

Again, that's why they called it a "constitution" - it implies one has one - as in the ability to 'hold' one's values when under stress, also often described as "having a sound constitution"... The Constitution isn't supposed to be a flag of convenience flown only when times are good. The men who wrote ours would have been the first to have spoken out against Bush administration policies and treason.

Uh, that's sort of like saying you have a lousy track record as a lover, but are great at masturbating...

Given climbers have a lousy track record doing that at Beacon I suspect you can for sure count on that not happening.

The best outcome would be BRSP doesn't close and Erik comes back to run it fulltime, though again I'm worried about Viv and Ben even if it stays open.

This was a complete misuse of the protraxion. The rope should have been secured directly to an anchor with an alpine butterfly or figure-8 before being ascended. Ascending directly on the protraxion or any other hauling device is an inherently bad idea.