JosephH

From an ST post of mine back shortly after the start of the Iraq War that details my view on what armed conflict / war should mean:

...with our gas, straight from Rumsfeld's ass.

Not happy to hear that - you keep your head down and watch your ass. Here's to hoping this will be your last deployment.

Maybe we are swimming in debt because we have allowed the development and operation of a shadow economy with little oversight or regulation. Debt is the basis of that off-the-books economy and every percentage of our economy that can be converted over to that shadow economy is essentially moved off the books and into the shadows where the people who make money off of it are definitely not the average American. Hence the reason we have assiduously converted all four basic forms of consumer debt to those markets and have been vigorously following through doing the same with the principal forms of debt use by all forms of governments at all levels around the world. If all of our nation's and the world's monies were vested in regulated economies those funds would be out of reach of the folks who have structured this 'new [financial] world order' that revolves around various forms of unregulated debt. To see the resilience of this shadow economy you only need to look at the efforts that went into killing financial reforms after the 2008 crash - nothing has been structurally or significantly changed since then other than some tighter reserve requirements - otherwise the game is still the same. Debt and debt markets are today's financial 'lingua franca nova' and that, from my perspective, is why we are swimming in debt - debt is now what makes the world go round under-the-hood. And those markets get repeatedly pumped up by speculation and the human instinct to chase 'easy money' - the corporate reshuffling of the 80's, borrowing by world governments in the 90s, the internet bubble, suckering pension funds, the housing bubble all feed the beast (along with what I would argue is the very best of speculative, off-book, bubble businesses, war). Of course, the ultimate booty, would be the opening up of Social Security to 'private markets' so you know who anyone rooting for that is cheer leading for. Don't like debt? Then apply the same level of oversight, regulation, and transparency to the derivatives market as we do our above board markets and economy. The way we have it structured now is essentially an off-books debt-based economy run by a gentler-and-kinder form of organized crime that's sanctioned and abetted by our government. It's a forest-for-the-trees deal with 'guberment' mainly to blame - not for 'spending' - but rather for us allowing it to be co-opted into failing to regulate this new shadow economy. Dude, don't watch the walnut shells; watch the guy doing the shuffling, and question why you are sitting at the table in the first place. But then, oh yeah! That's the lure of 'easy money' and the real bottom line - we all be wantin' some. Also, and contrary to popular belief, the sky is not falling and we should consider easing up a bit on the undue angst, drama and hyperbole, but then it is an election year and lord knows we gots to drive that black devil outta da Whiteyhouse: But if you desperately want politicians to blame for our current hangover you need look no farther than: But hey, war is always free in America ("and for a good cause!"). Never more so than when you're portfolio is redhot and you are too preoccupied rounding up that second vacation home or property to flip. And especially if you're rich, because you sure as hell aren't going to be paying for it when the bill comes due - hell, that's what all the [flag-waving] suckers and chumps are for (oh, and remember - war and healthcare - you can't have both and one is clearly the spawn of Satan himself).

It would be great if you guys could establish a rapport with the BLM and whomever their biology resource such that you'd be able to assist with the monitoring. Given the Goldens could possibly nest elsewhere in a multi-nest rotation in any given year, it will be important to address both monitoring for nest use each year and then, if it is used, to establish the scope of the closure for those years and monitor fledging for the open.

I believe they only went to #9 or #10 and then the longer ones that are filled with holes all over were officially marketed as 'Chimney Chocks'. I consider Titons the forerunner of Tricams and they were particularly bomb back in the Gunks in horizontals. I kept winnowing down what I carried over the years and ended up with just a #8 sown onto a shoulder sling, but even that's been hanging up for a decade or more as they aren't terribly useful on basalt compared to say HB/DMM Alloy Offsets and cams.

T-shaped aluminum extrusions lopped off and either slotted or drilled to take slings. Usually in various colors from very small to pretty good size.

Was it chocked or cammed at the time? They work fine as nuts, but are basically death as cams.

Having served on a cruiser that was way past its due, I can testify how dangerous these babies get past a certain point. I'm sure the crew, while saddened, is glad the deed finally getting done as she probably should have be taken out of service a decade ago.

If you need a pair for a trip I have a spare set you could borrow for it.

Yeah, I bought three of them the day they came out and I was lucky to have survived them.

Titons and Foxheads are one thing, Camlocks are another - totally worthless and not worth carrying and they've been that way since the day they first went on sale.

Yeah, nothing about that strikes me as at all unique, sounds more like a case of climbers not used columnar basalt having trouble reading the pro and, as you say, doubling up when necessary..

There's nothing particularly unique about the basalt there - are you thinking there are some sort of viable alternatives beyond pilot error or column shifts?

The rides I've taken on them are all the studies I need to know they can make the difference between merely falling and taking a really long ride.

It's all about a thousand times better than the gear used bitd to do all manner of badass ascents. Or, to quote the epitaph below the old windsurfing pic on the wall of Bart's Better Boards Consignment Shop in HR, "...the gear then was better than you are now"

This is why bouldering is so popular...

They were, and were a long ways towards regaining their orginal range and nesting pair counts. Then we started building wind farms in earnest and are now slicing and dicing unprecedented numbers of them. It's a bummer really from a climbing perspective, as it has put a renewed emphasis on protecting their eyries in an attempt to try and keep up the reproduction rate in the face of the wind farm losses.

Now your getting it. Aside from your brilliant guitar work, the thing I admire most about you is your straight-off-the-cuff honesty to all comers which is otherwise in short supply out there. You may be a total loon, but you're an honest one.

Yep, and they've been up in the Jolly Roger's crow's nest dumping like an old lady on an overdose of metamucil for years.

Tried that, but in the end, the BRBs wanted nothing whatsoever to do with any form of honest relationships built on openness and mutual respect - and you can't blame them - how can you be when you are all about unfairness and 'The Man'?

No doubt, in that circle-the-wagons sort of way. And who knows, maybe it will work out, but the blind focus on reopening the corner/ledge represents a lost opportunity to put some real protections in place and to set up to operate in an open and above board way.

Nor are the root attitudes of the core local contingent - it isn't about a 'bitchfest' or kevin - it's about core attitudes required for honest working relationships with the agency personnel and seeing where climbing management sits within a heirarchy of concerns those managers deal with day in, day out. So sure, call me obtuse, but I don't see any real changes in attitude, just faux mouthing of what folks think the land managers want to hear. If there had been any real change in attitudes then this wasn't the proposal that would have been made and I wouldn't be the odd man out. But as it is there is still absolutely no interest in working out there on the rock in a truly transparent manner as any number of recent incidents have shown. Maybe that will happen some day, but it isn't happening now. Now is just a bunch of new and old folks still angry and once again whipped up by the unfairness of it all taking another stab in the dark.

I heartily agree that is the whole point of the secrecy despite how futile that is. As far as 'obtuse' goes - which is more obtuse, working honestly and above board with mutual respect in your dealings with the various managers of record for Beacon, or talking shit, not wanting any of your dealings on the rock out at Beacon public or subject to any form of management, putting out paper that has neither an honest agenda nor reflects the real beliefs of the people who are proffering it? Yeah, accept there is a huge gulf between honest relationships built on mutual respect, shared concerns, and honest words and a grudging relationship that mouths what you think the "assholes" want to hear in order to get the single-minded object of your desire without a wit of real regard for the bigger picture at work out there. And that's without the continuous shit-talking, us versus them, and 'the man' monologues that so constitute the bedrock of local Beacon culture... Yeah, the same agenda I started with - get every possible day of climbing in out there - nothing more, nothing less. The difference is in how. Recycling the lousy '96 proposal whose sole intent and purpose is to open up the Corner to the Ledge to the trail, then having the AF go over it for verbage ("viewshed"), and then mouthing a bunch of total patronizing bullshit about the Peregrines and all the civic duties that will be undertaken is selfish, naive, and way less than honest. And in the end, it all boils down to honest, integrity, and a willingness to show both a mutual respect and a shared understanding and interest (if not a bit of empathy) in the bigger picture of the overall management of the park. And sorry, I still don't see a shred of that. What I do see, however, is a new crop of people inculcated into the same bullshit who have now worked them selves up to the point of being "mad as hell and I'm not going to take it any more". What is clear is nothing else has really changed, otherwise the ineffective and myopic '96 proposal wouldn't have been recycled and the proposal that was submitted would have offered Beacon some real and formal protection from bolting which you can be sure this one doesn't. So if that's being 'obtuse', then yeah, I'm obtuse and proud of it. This is all so the antithesis of real [self-]managed climber involvements that happen in Eldo, the Gunks, and the Valley as to be painful to watch year in, year out. At this point, however, it's clear the hostile attitudes and myopic realities aren't going to change out there any time soon (or are you really going to sit there at your keyboard and tell me I somehow have that all wrong - yeah, sure I have.).