JosephH

I will be, but you may be stoned on arrival by association, though I suppose I could slow down to a safe tuck-and-roll speed at the west end of the parking lot and no one would be the wiser.

Friday morning.

Great. Never should have closed. Refreshingly consistent, frank, honest, and sincere - people may say whatever else about you, but you are a 'Beacon' in that way and I admire and respect that about you. And in this case I personally agree with [a version of] that; but given the closure is entirely consistent with every other AF-accepted raptor closure in the nation in scale, scope, policy, and management it just isn't going to happen on any legal or policy basis no matter what volume of whining or yelling is proffered. Personal beliefs and feelings (yours, mine, anyone's) simply don't enter into the matter and, given your wife is an attorney who's frequently involved with government, you know that as well as anyone.

She's opening Friday morning...

Physical Therapy Associates 837 SW 1st Ave #150, Portland, OR (503) 450-0591 ‎ Ask for Tony (Say Rhoda's husband sent you) If you want to try a Chiro then the only one I'd consider is: Ritch Seifert 14740 Northwest Cornell Rd· Portland (Beaverton really) (503)629-9494 Similarly say Rhoda's husband sent you...

Me? Jeebus H. Christ, are you serious! I'm not the "just say no person". Fuck, I'm the farthest from it you'll ever see. I'm also not: a "just make up plausible-sounding shite with fairy dust I pulled out my arse as I go along" kind'a person a "if I finally step up and push hard on this parked Abrahm M1-A2SEP and yell at it long enough, why this time I'll for sure be able to turn it right around" kind'a person a "if we get some new blood, cuddle up in a man-circle, and stroke each other while wishing long, hard and fast enough the dream will finally come true and end our sixteen year hellish nightmare because - gosh darn it - we are all such righteous and angry people [ who have been so horribly, horribly wronged goddamn it!!! (and why, oh why, doesn't the world cry out at the obvious injustice of our persecution???!!!) ]" kind'a person But rather more of: a "what is the objective reality we're dealing with" kind'a person a "what's it [really] going to take" kind'a person a "yeah, sure, but after actually bothering to look into the cold, hard facts, just how plausible is this shite we're talking about" kind'a person a "Dude, I know man, I know and I'm with you a 110% and got you, but if you're going to keep on doing that then you may want to try and get a grip on those hallucinations" kind'a person WTF man, I'm Irish and from Chicago - we're a pragmatic, call-it-like-we-see-it lot and don't stand for a bunch of ceremony or bullshit unless there's a green river of hard liquor flowing. We also don't whine relentlessly or gnash our teeth until they're all ground down just because it feels so damn good. No fucking way and, just like putting up FAs, it's all about sizing shit up for real, putting it all on the line, being prepared to bust a move, getting shit done, and then simply moving on once it's over or ain't never gonna happen. Hell, from where I sit I'm about the only "just say yes" person in the friggin' room - and that solely by virtue of having at least an ever-so-slight grip on reality and enough common sense to assess the [real-world] plausibility and potential of the various possibilities, outcomes, and costs. And I'm the bad guy? Right on! Fine by me then. And hey, I know life is hard and we all want that pause that refreshes, but where I'm from, just because a person has too much on the line to live in a make-believe world where everything should, must, and will go their way, sail on the Jolly Roger, or go flying about with Peter Pan doesn't make them a "just say no" kind'a person - it makes them a "just a profoundly different point of view" kind'a person. [ Beaconius 4:20: Let us pray oh lord for strength and endurance as we exit this, the sixteenth dark and pestilent purgatory of our touristavian holocaust. And let each man rise again knowing once more that, though thy will has been wrought on us yet again, we still romp and still stomp like never before and smite at the dragons thou hast loosed upon us from on high. Amen brother. ]

Seen people fuck up simpler things than swinging the gate...just sayin'

Kevin is right, the gate is rarely ever closed, but when it is they don't want you coming down that way. If you do, be careful, it's not difficult as Plaid says, but it would suck big time if you fucked it up in the dark.

It's pretty straightforward - if you're going to go to war then you better do it with resources enough to kick ass, get the message across, and get the fuck out. There is no scenario where we can 'win' wars while everyone at home is obliviously shopping in a coma. If we're going to fight a war, it shouldn't be business as usual at home - we should all be engaged in one way or another until the day it is over. And we shouldn't be going big and all in when decent HUMINT (if we had any) and a few Predators would be infinitely more effective in getting the job done. It also shouldn't be rocket science that when what the enemy wants is to destroy everything your country stands for the first thing you don't do is flush everything we stand for down the shitter and then throw three trillion dollars down after it. Because when you do that, hey they win, as they have in every way that counts in this case. All the resources for healthcare, schools, infrastructure and jobs? Flushed down a hole in the desert and what we see every day on the news is the direct result of our choices.

Not set yet, but I'd anticipate it likely being open for that weekend based on where the chicks are at...

Conservatives are especially cute when the only math they can do relates to the money in their own pockets. Which - when it comes to their real costs, risks, and roi of healthcare (and often vaccines )- seems to entirely elude them anyway.

Yeah, the DIFFERENCE is efficacy. Efficacy in health insurance is not much different than with vaccines - you have to hit the largest percentage of the population possible to really be effective. When large numbers of people opt-out they aren't just screwing themselves, they're screwing everyone. And that's the reason for the mandate, we need to have every single citizen in the pool; how that's best accomplished can be debated, letting people opt-out without relatively severe penalties can't be allowed under any circumstance. Again, as far as I'm concerned trying to weave this universal fabric over our entirely corrupt, for-profit, million-payers system of insurers / [large] providers is an entirely sub-optimal hack which leaves the system as corrupt as it was beforehand and achieves no benefits of scale. It's the reason why you can opt-out of public education by sending your kid to private schools, but you're still going to be paying for public schools.

Headlines: But of course, no one could ever have seen that one coming...

It isn't a matter of dueling 'constitutionalities', but rather simply a matter of it being constitutional as a federal tax as opposed to an allowable federal mandate under the commerce clause. FWIW, I think Obamacare blows chunks - that's because it maintains a for-profit healthcare system run by corporate parasites who add no value whatsoever to our healthcare system. And the bottom line is everyone needs to be in the same pool in order to make any system work. What we should have to be competitive as an industrialized nation is a base level of universal healthcare for all citizens; go to any doctor or hospital you want, all premiums and claims are routed through a single clearinghouse. Above that universal level of coverage private insurers would be free to offer premium coverage to anyone and employers could avail themselves of that to provide incentives to valued employees. But a system which only covers a part of the pool, is dominated by parasitic insurers and 'healthcare' conglomerates, and is run for profit will always be a disaster.

And so by your logic you think if you send your kids to private school or once they've dropped out of high school you shouldn't be obliged to pay taxes to support our public schools? Another longhair-doper-hippie-turned-rightwing-nutjob - your journey to the dark side is complete. Rise from the ashes of your youth, Lord Darth Bone...

One chick up and in the crashing about phase. Still on track for July 15 or a few days before. The BRCA might want to consider offering to do the signage swap for the BRSP once a firm date is worked out with WDFW.

Who knew you have as much potential as a writer as you do as a free climber.

Second that - please check in...

Three chicks, not flying yet, still on track for a July 15th open or a few days before.

No matter what perspective you look at it from, the Discovery Pass is a lousy approach to funding the parks.

Was at the memorial and glad to see his kids surrounded by a large and loving family. That they were up on Hood with his ashes tells you they're made of the same stout stuff he was. He will be sorely missed. Between Mark, Vern Stiefel and Jim Anglin we've lost some of the PNW's finest rock climbers of late.

Really? How did you arrive at that conclusion? Hey, they'd be complete shitholes inside a month if they weren't constantly maintained.

Just did some checking around - WSP is still receiving some general funds - which rather than being simply shut off this biennium as some sites have incorrectly stated are instead being tapered down over three bienniums from 66% of the WSP budget to 12% of their budget. Images from the WSP Financial Overview (Updated September 2011) [ 2005-2007 General Fund contribution to WSP was $97mil and in 2011-2013 is down to $17mil - a loss of $70mil in funding ] Go here (Item E-8) for a comparison of OSP and WSP relative to acres under management, staff, and budgets - basically the WSP does way more with way less on a per human and per dollar basis.

I call BS. If WA state raised sales tax by enough to cover the deficit in funding for WSPs, guess what would happen within a year? Suddenly, again, there would not be enough funds for the WSPs. It's about setting priorities for funding and be responsibile with budgets. THAT is what pisses off a lot of us, not the $30 itself. Absolutely none of which is in the WSP's control - their budget was way short of required operating and maintenance expenses ten years ago and has was been slashed several times before this latest fiasco. In the matter of priorities, the stand out one is whether Washingtonians want parks or not because the system has been bled to death over the past decade with no end in site. Staffing has been cut across the board twice now and while they have worked there asses off to stave off park closures, they have no further ability to do so. In the next round of cuts, parks will be closing.

Again, WSP gets 84%, DNR 8%, WDFW 8% - The WSP gets ZERO general fund dollars now and lives 100% of their budget off the Discovery Pass receipts. Anyone who can't find it on google needs to brush up on their google skills. The Discovery Pass, fines and all, isn't bringing in as much as forecast. That means the WSP, which when it was operating on general funds was already hugely under funded for their daily responsibilities, is now way hurting and have slashed HQ, rangers and staff and will likely have to start closing parks if this remains the funding scheme into the future. So not only are all the parks now under-funded and understaffed, the rangers have to burn a ridiculous amount of time solely on the Discovery Pass hassle which puts them even further in the hole with their normal work. It isn't a sustainable situation in any way. Exactly. That is the grand experiment underway with the Discovery Pass and the WSP - zero general funds and 100% supported by user fees. Anyone trying to ditch the fees might as well just be pissing on your state park systems which was already severely stressed and under-the-gun before they went down this road. Folks should consider skipping ten lattes a year and making a difference in a situation where every Discovery Pass counts. P.S. I'll ask about where the fines go, but you can pretty much bet they flow back into the Discovery Pass stream or the rangers wouldn't bother, but it still isn't worth the time and distraction from their real work that's backing up in every park.