JosephH

Kevin, I simply replaced belay/rap anchors while adding and removing a single protection bolt from an existing route (and not for my use). To-date, not a single route I've put up in thirty three years has a protection bolt on it and only one has fixed anchors I've installed.

50 is what you make it. My 50 was so pathetic and I got my ass handed to me so thoroughly by someone even older to the point where I had to remake my reality or quit altogether. Aging gracefully is simply a matter choosing wisely which humiliations you are prepared to suffer at any given point in time.

I climb hard vicariously each week simply by saying, "where is Jim Anglin today?"

I'm guessing you do a lot more alpine than me...

Climbs are art, though personally I find bolted routes to be more pop than fine art. A lot of graffiti is also art, the question it raises isn't so much the quality of the art, however debatable that is, but it's location and the canvas it was painted on. As far as I'm concerned Ignorant Bliss is just that - bad graffiti which we as a community had a responsibility to remove as soon as it appeared. Instead it turned in to a case study in collective handwringing, paralysis and an embarrassing inability of our community to assert and police itself responsibly. All routes and bolts are not equally righteous, aesthetically valid, or even legitimate. Those who think bolting is a one-way event - they go in and should never come out - should then think that much harder about where and why they are placed if they want to prevent wars. They should also think long and hard about what is lost each time a bolt is placed rather than just what is gained.

Ah, the judgmentless society argument. No values, where anything and everything is simply fodder for derision, scorn, and shock. I argue instead that even using no other moral compass or standard than common sense you'd have to be blind or complicit to not judge certain behaviors and actions as inappropriate to the common good. For example, the Bush adminstration's motives, methods, and actions relative to not only the war in Iraq, but also broad swaths of governmental policy, at nearly every turn, have been dishonest, disenginous, and at times treasonous almost from day one due to their ends-justifies-any-means approach to a 'conservative revolution in government'. In the case of Imus' on-air speech, as a professional journalist his speech was by any cogent standard a textbook example of hate speech pure and simple. He's free to spew his personal biases and bigotry as a private citizen - he has a different responsibility when he's on the air. A whole genre of media talking heads have spawned over the past 20 years which at their core are based on hateful content designed to skirt the edges of legal speech to shock, enrage, and incite divisions among peoples. Hopefully Howard Stern and others of their ilk were awake at some point during this whole pitiful episode. But in the end people get what they accept. Blind judgment rooted in dogma is lamentable, a blind eye to injustice, criminal, and treasonous behavior is stupidity. I just don't mind calling them as I see them when speech and action leave the realm of opinion and private concern to negatively impact public welfare. At one time that's what journalism used to be about - public accountability rather than hate-filled 'entertainment'.

And the beat goes on - even your questions are entertainingly bigoted. The kneejerk defense of Imus seems entirely understandable after the stream of unconsciousness you've inadvertantly displayed here.

I'm somewhere between 5'10"-11" and am currently at 184 after coming off an injury and coding relentlessly for four months. I won't be able to touch what I have in mind for later this year if I'm not at 172 max - preferrably 168. Anything less and I'll just be climbing and not putting up the routes I have my eye on. That wouldn't be a tragedy, but like I said, I still have things in mind. Aside from the requisiste shutting of the cake hole, I absolutely have to make aerobic activities the priority for the next two months. For me that mainly means running despite the fact I find it incredibly unpleasant for the first 3-4 weeks. Any focus on climbing is a secondary consideration given I have no concerns about that coming back if I keep my eye on my overall fitness. I'm about a week into it right now and working on starting the process of ramping my running up from 12 miles / week to 24-36 miles / week. Somewhere around 18 miles / week I'll throw in swimming. Whatever climbing I do always follows a run and I only do what I can with the surplus from the run; sometimes that's nothing at all, sometimes a little bouldering, and once or twice I've even gotten on a rope.

Kas, I'm beginning to really enjoy your posts. One after the other they keep marching along like little soldiers headed over a cliff. So predictable in terms of where they're coming from and where they're headed. The devotion to cause is almost palpable...

No 'detachment' of any kind is involved or required in distinguishing between Jews, Judaism, and Zionism. Quite the contrary. Niether Israel nor rabid Zionism are problems in and of themselves either - except when U.S. Citizens put the interests of Israel ahead of those of the United States. Wolfowitz has clearly demonstrated his allegiances lie elsewhere. He, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are all guilty of treason as far as I'm concerned; the difference between them is Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld were enticed by the [chauvinist, white male] Neocon fantasy whereas Wolfowitz and others knew exactly where and why they were pushing the Neocon agenda. Those reasons had nothing to do with U.S. interests in the region. In fact, the whole Iraq fiasco and indeed the entire modus operendi of systemic corruption in all Bush administration agendas is simply an extension of the same mentality and methods permeating the Reagan administration and exposed by the Iran-Contra affair. Reagan, Haig, Weinberger, Poindexter, and North - the last crew of bigoted traitors to inhabit the White House and lionized by the like of Imus and other talking heads of the right.

You gotta know how that sounds..... Pssst. Let me tell you a secret, Joseph. I even have a couple of friends that are b-l-a-c-k. Both this post and your previous one equating a problem with rabid Zionists with a prejudice or problem with Jews would appear to demonstrate your biases, not mine. That you can't seem to distinquish between Jews as a people, Judaism as a religion, and the politics of Zionism is pretty typical for those who do have a problem with Jews and all things Jewish. Again, lot's of people keep their bigotry well under wraps these days - your b-l-a-c-k 'friends' aside, is that what we're talking here?

As I said upthread I have a teen daughter. And my wife is a member of the Colville Tribe and only a very few men I've ever met are even half as tough or nearly as resilent as her. Making it in the world as a Native female coming off a reservation alone with no support system of any kind is an amazing accomplishment let alone doing it and being remarkably successful. Our daughter is also smart as hell and equally tough so someone who's man enough to live by her side and keep up with her will be rare enough we won't care whether he is white, green, yellow, or purple.

I have no problems with Jews whatsoever; dated the daughter of a prominent NYC Rabbi. I have many Jewish friends. I do, however, have a real problem with rabid Zionists and particularly those Zionist U.S. citizens who put Israeli interests before those of the U.S. every time.

My experience has been that somewhere on one side of each decade or the other my body has changed, and like Bug says, it can be difficult during that change. But, if you do the work to get used to the new you then you're good for about 8-9 years before you have to go through that wringer again. You basically have two choices for dealing with it - easiest: never stop climbing like my partner Tangen-Foster or, more difficult: deal with it each decade like I have. I've been in and out of shape a lot of times over the years when work or family have taken priority. That has it's downsides, but the upside is I don't worry about my ability to come back from the abyss because I've done it a few times before. It would interesting to know how high the attrition rate is at each decade; I suspect it's very high at 30 and 40. In raw numbers, I'd say those of us who are in our 50's or older have shown some significant depth of resiliency, addiction, and/or appreciation for climbing to still be at it.

Wolfowitz, just another corrupt, womanizing chickenhawk upholding family values while remaining true and faithful only to the Zionist agenda as opposed to U.S. interests. After meeting him at a Pentagon briefing, even Tom Clancy, not exactly a flaming liberal, commented "he's on our side?"

Nah, I'm getting too old. I can still carry the breaker bar but hauling 300 epoxy sticks for that many pitches of low angle stuff would get to be a drag and I'd just slow you down...

Thanks for that validation. Every now and then it is good to get a little feedback that one is doing something right...

You keep reiterating my point post after post. Deeper and dumber by the moment. The only thing disproportionate about the response was the amount of time a bunch of equivocating white executives tooks before even they had to sack up and act like men who stand for something besides quarterly earnings.

Finally some spine...

....how can a REAL climber not want to chop it? Real, meaning one with ethics and willing to accept risks are a part of climbing.

KaskadskyjKozak, guys like you are an embarassment to true racists and chauvinists who at least have the spine to stand up and own what they believe however sad and pathetic they may be. But guys like you try to claim to be neither, but rather hide behind a mask of the same reguritated words Karl Rove and other master manipulators of race in politics have spewed for several hundred years in our country. Imus and folks like you are living proof that racism, while by and large now forced underground in popular culture, can easily resurge when given the cover of disingenuious, national leadership who came to power only by wielding hate at the grassroots level of rural America.

It does sound like it might be worthwhile exploring acupuncture. My doctor in Chicago was also in a bad accident before becoming an M.D. that left her with excruciating back/hip pain that no MD could ever resolve over several years. Then in desperation she then tried accupuncture and got fabulous results. Being who she was she enrolled in medical school, became an M.D. and promptly headed for four years of studies in China. Her experience sold me, particularly given she learned both schools of medicine.

Again, always good to hear from you racists when you think you have sufficient cover to come out from under your rocks. Your form of racism is among the most unpalatable mainly for the sneering and unmitigated cowardice it hides behind most of the time. It is the worst sort of cowardice and, again, I just can't think of anything sadder or more pathetic than the plaintive whine of the [priviledged] white male.

And for those of you who can't recognize behavior deserving of outrage when it comes along, I'd say adjust your sensitivity dial. He maybe the bigot-of-the-week and you've just been too media saturated to care, but if you don't find his comments completely unwarranted and beyond patently offensive then you are not only as ignorant than him, you aren't even capable of processing it anymore - hard to tell which is a sadder condition. His comments towards this team of young women who have worked their guts out to get where they are would be just another racist pejorative I'd expect from at least four of you if you ever spoke honestly rather from your usual couched bullshit. Coming from someone in his position it is no longer a simple matter of personal responsibility and freedom of speech - as an ex-journalist (and Father of a teenage girl) I have no problem saying it borders on criminal on his part as unacceptable hate speech. That the Chairman of GE, NBC, and Bill Gates haven't called for or ordered his immediate firing is about the only part of this incident that is more embarassing than Imus himself.

John Mclaughlin an 'unknown'? Hard to imagine, have things gotten that sad in the guitar world?