tvashtarkatena

Barefoot.

Easy. I carried Alex on my back all the way up.

I don't use long slings much, but usually carry one (mostly for the "damn, I forgot the webolet" moment when building an anchor. I fold the sling twice, figure 8 it, and clip it with one biner to the back of my harness. A rabbit/revolver combo is nice for those zig zaggy routes.

although the final POV footage would have made a bit of YouTube history

Proof positive that, next time, I should carry the GoPro

I grew up playing around 20 foot high poison oak 'trees'. We were just dumb kids, but we quickly figured out how to gingerly maneuver around the stuff. No big deal. Maybe its a generational thing.

One can always choose to stay home if our local flora and fauna prove too daunting for that delicate constitution.

Yates knife: Light, cheap, 100% effective for self rescue.

1. spray the works with penetrating oil. Wait a minute or two. 2. Drill it out slightly deeper than the hex hole with a bit slightly smaller than the torques drive bit you'll use to remove it. 3. hammer the torques drive bit in 4. remove.

Short horned lizards are the smaller, higher altitude version of the spikier desert horned lizard. Their smaller size allows them to heat up faster. The ranges for both species includes western deserts and semi deserts from BC to Mexico.

The Petzl Aztarex and BD Venom both make nice 2nd tools. The former has a more curved shaft - better for high gripping. The latter's shaft is straighter - better for plunging. The lighter toy axes don't climb anything icy for shit - and that's when you feel the need for a second tool, no? If you feel the need for a second tool, take one. You and only you determine the trajectory of your training and comfort level. After a while, the second tool may stay at home more often, but that's your call and no one else's.

Looks like a nice shot of a Short-Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma douglassi).

Trip: Yosemite's El Cap - Lurking Fear Date: 7/8/2012 Trip Report: Yup...same trip as Mike's recent TR. The slideshow is a mix of all of our photos - Mike's and Ivan's are credited. We arrived at the base to find that a bear had torn Ivan's gear and supplies a new, slobbery asshole. All that was left were a few unchewed cigarettes, some unpunctured water bottles, and 3 small cans, well coated in saliva (we hope) and dirt. Vienna Sausage, anyone? Not to worry: we send Ivan down to procure more supplies and toss our garbage. Unfortunately, he tossed three days worth of my food(stowed in a garbage bag) in the dumpster as well. Large mammals can be a problem in Yosemite. Our first aborted attempt at hauling the weight equivalent of a battleship up Lurking Fear's 2,200 vertical feet result in a general order to lighten ship and shorten our time on the wall from 5 to 3 days. After a redistribution of food wealth I wound up with Ivan's Cambells Chicken and Dumpling Soup, which is basically snot in horse cum as near as I can tell, as well as several squshels of gummy worms and a North Sea full of Swedish Fish. The Beanie Weenies were self inflicted. Once we were off the ground, things went relatively smoothly, with only one sleeping bag destroyed and the usual array of trinkets dropped (and some recovered later) en route. All poos were on time and on target, we didn't run out of water (a gallon a day per), and nobody took any giant rides earthward. Being the newest big waller, I was relegated to leading some C1 and low 5th, removing stuck pro, pig wrangling, and fully exploring the operation of our only belay chair. My trip up the wall was therefore slow, scenic, comfortable, and, with the exception of some strenuous sphincter isometrics while trying not to stare down 50 feet of offwidth runnout, a pleasant way to spend a few long summer days. A 2:30 am start under moonlight enabled us to arrive at Camp 1 just before dark, thanks to Mike's affinity for combining swinging and climbing. Mike and I played house on our two man ledge while Ivan gently attempted to cajole his Pringling portaledge 80' above. Eventually, the dynamic trio: Ivan, his portaledge, and his sleeping bag, produced a white mushroom cloud of down fail, punctuated by a verbal explosion that cut through the darkness like the shriek of a Valkyrie betrayed. I still hear echoes of that mournful cry every time I see a can of Beanie Weenies. Slide Show Gear Notes: Belay Chair and umbrella a must. 2 double rope buckets (Fish makes em) would have been exceptionally nice. A dry bag works well for poo, but one without a burp vent might provide a better ambiance next time.

In general, I support the Court's current trend towards reducing Federal power. The Government has not served us well these past 12 years. It has squandered our wealth on wealth concentrating tax cuts rather than fairness of opportunity, big bank giveaways, and failed foreign adventures. It continues its 40th year of the most expensive and human rights eroding policy disaster in history, the War on Drugs, relatively unabated. Our incarceration rate, world's highest, is now 7 times per capita that of China. The Government is now so far removed from addressing the needs of the middle class that, it's debates so ridiculously infused with religiously based idiocy, it this point, we'd be a healthier nation of power continued to shift to lower level, more responsive seats of government and the People.

The court rejected the 'broccoli' argument on several grounds. First, health care is not like the purchase of other commercial products, even 'healthy' products like broccoli. Everyone necessarily will participate in the health care market at one time or another, unlike the broccoli market. The 'potential' for participating the the broccoli market, the court wrote, does not constitute participation. Since everyone participates in the health care market, Congress's interstate commerce argument for citing the Commerce Clause as the source of their regulatory power might fly (it did not in this case for other reasons), unlike a mandate to, say, purchase broccoli to promote the General Welfare, presumably, improve the health of the People. Second, a broccoli purchase mandate could not guarantee said broccoli would be prepared in a healthy fashion or not simply thrown out by those who don't like broccoli. The end result (more people eating more broccoli) is too far removed from the hypothetical regulation (buy broccoli or pay a penalty). Based on precedence, the Court wrote that a broccoli or similar mandate would be unconstitutional. Finally, the Constitution's stated purpose, per the Preamble; to "and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity", might prevent the Government from attempting to regulate such detailed aspects of our personal lives. Then again, we still have marijuana prohibition. It's interesting that the primary emotional driver of the Libertarian movement is the fiction that others are mooching off 'my money'. The Government explicitly has the power to promote the General Welfare through Taxation: to subsidize the welfare of others through wealth redistribution. IE, in this Democracy, everything you gross is not yours. Civilization costs money, and those who can, pay for it. It's been this since the day the Constitution was ratified. Rather, my perception of Libertarians is that they are folks who tend to have projection issues. While their primary concern is others, typically straw men, and usually little brown and often female straw men, mooching off them, their primary political objective is to enjoy all the benefits of society: the roads, the grid, the internet, the education system, defense, without which their success would be impossible, for free. Their primary efforts are to increase their ability to mooch off the rest of us, and at the expense of those less fortunate, in other words. Regarding the statement that 'people who purchase health care will use more' - well, I'm still chuckling over that one. Any low income folks who purchase their own health care will certainly opt for the much cheaper catastrophic care packages with high (typically $5000) deductibles. They're not going to be running to the doc anymore than when they were not insured given that they must pay for everything up to that 5 grand limit out of pocket. These sad stories always come with heart rending tales of somebody's poor old dad who is afraid to hire new employees for his soda shop. These pieces are, in fact, not written by 'my friend', but by campaigns to disseminate under the guise of personal anecdote. The arguments put forth are 100% straw man and, in most case, just plain stupid. Fuck you to anyone who parrots this crap. You make the world a dumber, less honest place. Obamacare seeks to solve the problem of reducing an overly large, unnacceptable (at least to anyone with a shred of conscience) number of uninsured people. It also seeks to reduce medical care costs, but will probably not be as successful at this, because it does not address the problem's 800 pound gorilla: that American overhead costs are, on average, 12% higher than other civilized countries. The obvious solution to making health care available to all Americans AND reduce health care costs is to make Medicare/caid available to all Americans. Single payer. The experiment has been done numerous times successfully both here (add VA benefits to the our list of successful single payer programs) and abroad, but the Right actively opposes such a real, long term solution too much to make it politically feasible right now. We'll eventually have to do it. It's only a matter of time.

You are not required to buy health insurance. The Supreme Court specifically ruled that requirement unconstitutional. You are required to pay the tax if you CHOOSE not to buy health insurance, however. And yes, that is a big difference.

Like it or not, it is within the Government's enumerated constitutional powers to tax you for just existing if it chooses to. It is not within an individual's power to choose to absolve themselves of such a tax without sanction. Furthermore, the phrase 'greater good' appears nowhere in the Constitution. What does appear is this: Preamble: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. and this: Section 8: The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; These are specifically enumerated Federal powers. States, which do not draw their power from the US Constitution (but are not free to conflict with it, either) may extend their powers beyond those enumerated in the US Constitution. The People may exercise any powers not already enumerated by the US Constitution or exercised by the States. Welcome to the United States. I find that most Teabaggers I run across haven't the faintest idea of how their country is actually governed. They choose, instead, to believe in various fantasy theories promulgated by the blogosphere, completely ignorant of the document's actual text and, more importantly, the long history of precedence that interprets and defines its practical effects. Here's a complete text of the US Constitution, but its only the start of a long argument about what it all means: http://www.house.gov/house/Constitution/Constitution.html

The Medicare Extension, which would have required States to provide extended benefits under penalty of losing all pre-existing Medicare funding, was struck down. The Constitution specifically enumerates the powers of the Government – all addition powers are relegated to the States, or to the People. The States are therefore free to adopt policies that go well beyond those enumerated by the Constitution for the Government to conduct the nitty gritty business of governance from building bridges to establishing traffic violation penalties. The Government may incentivize States to adopt policies that go beyond its own enumerated powers in exchange for federal funding, but it cannot coerce States to do so by denying those States pre-existing funding for services the State is already providing. The Court ruled that the Government’s threat of denying States who choose not to extend Medicare benefits all pre-existing Medicare funding was coercive and overstepped its powers. This ruling has far reaching potential consequences. It would presumably prohibit the Government from denying a State which chose to, say, legalize marijuana, from denying that State pre-existing federal funding for programs (transportation, education, etc) for which the State is already in compliance with Federal guidelines.

I just read the title and figured Kev could use the read.

The supreme has ruled that the Commerce Clause does not grant congress the power to compel commercial participation. The government cannot force you to purchase a commercial product. The Government lost on that one. Rather, the government’s second argument prevailed: the taxation clause and precedent, in theory, empower to the government to levy a capitation tax, that is, a per capita tax, simply for existing. Given this, the court ruled that the much more limited power of taxing only those who choose not to comply with a government mandate is constitutional. The court agreed that Obamacare’s penalty, functionally, is, in fact, a tax. Bad news for businesses and politicians who seek to feather each others' nests and tea baggers who deny the constitutionality of this tax or that. The government may levy any tax it wishes to maintain the government, defense, and general welfare, as long as it's apportioned fairly amonst the states.

A clove hitch is not a good choice for tying in for the following reasons: 1. They can slip. If you have to 'make sure it's tight', don't use it. 2. They can jam under load to the point where you have to chop the rope. There are more than a few aid climbers who've jumared on clove hitches and learned this the hard way. Butterfly and bowline on a coil (for your rescue loops) are a good way to go for tying in short. Clove hitches are a quick, adjustable tie in for a dynamic anchor with an upward pull, but there are better knots out there for other applications.

My watermark IS an animal. When you click on one of my photos, my uncaged soul leaps out and rips your fuckin face off.

This sofa will nurture such dreams.

How can you achieve great feats "off the couch" without the couch? Nice, clean, comfy fabric sofa, very lightly used. 78” L x 34” H x 37” D. $250

Perception LC-1 whitewater neoprene spray skirt, Size L, very good condition $20 http://www.sierratradingpost.com/harmony-lc1-neoprene-spray-skirt~p~1037m/ Sawyer dual bend canoe paddle, 134 cm 720 g. Used in one race - excellent cond. Retail 190, asking 125. Amazingly efficient paddle. 5 pc Simon River Sports Xwing C-5 EZ Set kayak racing paddle L adjustable 215 - 260 cm Feather angle adjustable 842 g All carbon Used in 1 race. Retail 380, asking 250 http://www.simonriversports.ca/english/products/paddles/xwing.html