tvashtarkatena

He jus care bout dem EYE rackies

Mike Meyers comes of like a such a lily-white little douche in this clip. Kin yoo pleez depeet da queschun?

But if not, there's always trundling.

Quality can mean many things, particularly when you're talking about quality of experience. Quality of rock, line, pro, remoteness, larches, meadows, light, weather, snow, ice.... Plus, am I the only one who gets tired of lugging around a hardware store? It's a very freeing feeling to move through the backcountry and climb without all that crap. It's also kind of cool to arrive at a peak without much information, pick a line, and try it out. Sometimes you get surprised with a nice line, solid rock and really fun climbing that way.

I've tried one. Don't bother.

Remove the 'white' requirement and I'm there, too.

Rad's Rat Thread.

...dead.

They're big enough, fo sho. The neighbor whacked two. My security challenged homemade worm bin has been replaced with a DHS approved plastic cone. Got 3 traps set...the barbie is ready and waiting. This little bastids are really messing with my peakbagging time.... Perhaps I can photograph them...

Mofo's got some fly pegs.

That's why I like hunting. Also because you get to see and experience so much beautiful wildlife, and then kill it. And hopefully share it. Ah loves me some elk steaks.

Hey, no making fun of TR photos, myan.

Some of us like to mix it up a bit...some technical routes, some scrambles, some backpack trips where catching a cutthroat or just hanging out in a beautiful place is "the goal". In other words, some of us just like to be in the backcountry, in whatever style we feel like at the time. Some of us also have friends we like to hang with who are not technical climbers. Go figure. Peak bagging is just a trick to get you into new and often amazing areas you might otherwise overlook. It can also require a level a high level of endurance; yet another aspect of this broad sport. Take the Pasayten. If you're looking for high quality routes past the Cathredrals, good luck. It'll be your loss, however. The area is amazing: flowers, wildlife, solitude; the whole feel of the place. Some of us also want to get to experience the backcountry here, ALL of it, in all its variety of forms, not just the relatively few areas that have quality technical routes. And finally, regarding the umpteenth TR of Tooth syndrome, well, that TR might just offer entertaining writing and beautiful photos, or an innovative viewpoint or treatment, so why not? Reading them is voluntary, after all. In addition, that TR might be about someone's first climb. They're stoked, and they want to share that. Frankly, that keeps all our stoke going, IMO. I've never gone out into the backcountry, not once, without experiencing something new and amazing. I never know what that will be when I set off, but such experiences don't seem to be correlated at all with the level of technical difficulty of the venture. The most beautiful wildflower meadow I've ever seen? Just below Oval Peak (what, not on your tick list?). The most amazing bear encounter? Just below mighty Plummer (Another MUST DO). It's just a matter of keeping your eyes open and letting it happen when it happens.

And here I thought this thread might lift us up to the celestial plane...

My advice to wannabe pet owners: Get a cat instead.

Ah, there's another concept. "Worthwhile contribution" It's in the same mud bucket as "Pulling your own weight". Is it "being a hard worker?". Hell, Bush was in that category by all accounts...at least after 911 and all his Texas vacations. Would society have been better off if he'd been a meth head laying in a ditch most nights? Um...yes, it would have, without question. And what of our famous artists? How many also had day jobs as drunks, deadbeats, and wife beaters? What about the "hard working" contractor, who happily mows down green spaces and leaves shoddily built environmental and visual shitstain in his wake. all the while happily paying taxes so that Merca can start a misery generating war in yet another third world dump? Yes, the world would be better off if most of us STOPPED contributing and starting fucking off more. It usually results in less damage being done. It also results in people doing what really suits them, rather than whoring their free time out for some other asshole. Let's face it folks: that's what most jobs are. Consider our most revered Merkin icons: the farmer (goodbye topsoil forever...hello obesity, and can you say pollution?...also, their all on the dole), the soldier (most sit around with nothing to do, unless there's a war, and then the former is still true, but a few of them wreak havoc in places where they have no business being), the doctor gimme drugs gimme drugs gimme drugs!!! the workin man (most crap shouldn't have been built in the first place. You can already see the junk built during the boom falling apart. Hellooooo, landfill!)

As a friend of mine who tried to poo directly into a blue bag once told me: "Uranus is not where you think it is."

Tuesday morning, shot from my sleeping bag:

Kids are good eatin'.

I know, I know. Hey, how about that pellet gun I was after, people?

"utopia" means "nowhere" You-topia evaporates the moment a second angry hairless monkey appears.

The idea that everyone in a society should pull their own weight has little to no meaning whatsoever. Pull what weight, exactly? What kind of weight should a 5 year old pull? An 86 year old? Trig, the Down's Syndrome Celebrity? A heroin addict? An Olympic athlete who otherwise doesn't work? The village idiot? The person who will someday cure cancer, and yet who weighs 900 lbs, smokes like a chimney, and consumes enormous amounts of health care of all kinds? A 'hard working American' who spends 90% of his 'productive time' spraying on the interwebs? In societies of all sizes and levels of wealth, since the beginning of time, those who can have subsidized the well being and survival of those who cannot. The extent to which a society does that or not marks it's level of humanity and or level of surplus. To think it has, or can ever, work any other way among the angry hairless monkeys is to be an utter fucking fool. We are drowning in surplus in this country, even after 'the crash'. We can afford universal health care for all, regardless of ability to pay, EASILY. We can also afford housing for all and a whole host of other things we choose not to; a testament to our humanity or lack thereof. Frankly, I find the choices we've collectively made in this country pretty fucking disgusting.

The major unstated premise here seems to be that, even under conditions of open competition, profits can only be realized by cheating consumers. We don't have anything even remotely close to a system of open competition. What's not being discussed here is how do we get to a system with a) costs under control b) all citizens adequately insured, and c) patient outcomes rather than revenue the top priority with as little catastrophic disruption from the present system as possible. Using as much of the pre-existing system as possible was how every first world country save the U.S. got to a fully covered populace. Furthermore, all of us agree on these three objectives for a health care system. Opening up competition across state lines seems like a sound idea. Opening up federal insurance to all seems like an obvious winner. Moving to a not-for-profit structure seems like a good idea, but it is a massive change from what we have. In addition, there are many for-profit providers that keep their costs in check because the incentives for their doctors not to milk the patients are in check. Perhaps as a long term goal, but how far out would this requirement ripple? To drug companies? To makers of medical equipment and supplies (many of which also make non-medical equipment and supplies)? Ranking providers based on where they fall on the cost/outcome curve and requiring disclosure of that information both to consumers and partnering health care entities is a good idea. Providing discounts to consumers for obvious healthy lifestyle choices, like not smoking, seems like a good idea, although this would have to be severely regulated to prevent it from running away and penalizing people for leading interesting lives by, say, climbing.

I've got an idea for how you could thaw those things....

Good, cuz my Fry Daddy busted when I tried to crisp up an entire ham hock in it.