tvashtarkatena

It was laughable watching the American media try to treat this story 'seriously'...analyzing how slow the Secret Service responded (5.3 seconds!), etc...while the rest of the world's media took the opportunity to have a good holiday laugh. Basically, they're gonna have to let him go; he's now a National Hero. The guy was a great shot, and Bush was an artful dodger; a perfect metaphor for the end of one of our most shameful administrations. The reporter may have missed Bush, and Bush may have missed the symbolism, but apparently a few Iraqis caught it.

Weird. You used to be at least somewhat intelligible.

One thing's for sure; any future aid package should not include shoes.

We can all doubt the veracity of the story, but not the heartfeld outrage of the drama queen who believed and repeated it.

Or man up and take up jazz flute

Hey, bitches, Layton's trying to get a book published here. Plus, Ivan's already taken....

Actually, I think Layton oughtta shell out a copy for the photo model, too, no?

Die, plagiarist! James Hamaker on the Katsuk Glacier, North Cascades

Hakuba CF tripod Aratech ball head Drill press Dremel Tool New roof for the garage An unsolicited phone call from MOMA

Oh wait, I meant 'mano a mano', rather than 'monkey against monkey'.

Wait a minute. One of those is MY photo! THis is WAR, you plagiarist Ricky Bobby MFO! Mono a mono! Only I get to enlist the aid of a Mac truck, cuz you're about as big as one.

Go to any hardware store and get the smallest fake Spyderco you can find for $3. All you need is a Simon Yates blade for cutting your dangling partner loose. I ordered a real Spyderco, and it's no better than the fakes. In fact, it's probably made on the same assembly line.

Agreed. UAW workers' hourly wage, including benefits, is $70+/hr while workers at "scab" or non-union plants putting together those trash Toyotas and horrible Hondas make $40+/hr (80-90 grand a year for a factory job is no pittance). The UAW would do best to realize they've priced themselves out of a job. Not only is the math wrong and the apples and oranges mixed up, but this is a classic misunderstanding of the issue as a result of getting your thinking from USA Today headlines. The burden on the auto companies isn't so much the hourly wage, but the retirement benefits; not due to the fact that UAW is overly greedy, as many common American's think, but due to the fact that the auto companies retain their workers for much longer than most other industries, including their non-unionized competitors. This results in a more expensive retirement benefits liability. The more admirable the auto companies behave by retaining their workers, the more penalized they are for doing so. This is a compelling argument for nationalized retirement benefits that amortize the burden of treating your workers well by retaining them longer across all industries. Some 'free marketeers' here would simply argue for the 'Logan's Run' option, fire the motherfuckers when they hit 40, and let McDonald's retrain them. Others here would argue that this isn't really the kind of society we want to support and live in. In addition, to argue that the auto companies' situation is due to any one factor is, again, to parrot some idiot's blog, rather than to analyze and understand the situation for yourself. Popularity and profitability of SUVs, rapid change in gas prices, poor long term planning, lower quality, too many models and factories, high executive compensation not sufficiently tied to company performance, government pampering in the form of lax CAFE standards, the FINANCIAL CRISIS, and, yes, labor costs are all to blame. As for the union part, it's really a minor player, financially, compared to the other factors, given the relatively low percentage of Cost of Goods Sold made up by labor costs. But unions are a political football, a game of obfuscation and misinformation that folks like DeChristo happily play along with.

Oh, and "shit", still their favorite projectile weapon of choice.

Party of the Big Pup Tent

I coulda been someone.... but so could anyone....

I imagine that monkeys, when they first developed the vocal cords for primitive language 40 million years ago, started out with their version of 'ass', 'fuck', and 'bitch', probably even before 'snake!' or 'food!'.

I'll bite.... Denali, from the Moose’s Tooth basecamp Stewart Matthieson on ‘Icy BC’, Marble Canyon, BC Gene Pires on ‘Ham ‘n Eggs’, The Moose’s Tooth, Alaska Range Andy Mishmash on ‘Ham ‘n Eggs’, The Moose’s Tooth, Alaska Range Eric Linthwaite ascending the Sherpa Glacier, Alpine Lakes Wilderness Rob McDaniel ascending the Coleman Glacier, Mt. Baker Wilderness Eric Linthwaite rapping the West Ridge of Sherpa, Alpine Lakes Wilderness Jens Klubbered on the top pitch of ‘Shreik of the Sheep’, Bridge River Canyon, BC James Hamaker on the West Ridge of Castle Peak, Garibaldi Provincial Park James Hamaker on Castle Peak, Mt. Garibaldi in background, Garibaldi Provincial Park Gene Pires on Mini Moonflower, Mt. Hunter, Alaska Range Fred Beckey on Louise Falls, Canadian Rockies Don Brooks ascending Argonaut, Alpine Lakes Wilderness Eric Linthwaite approaching the West Ridge of Sherpa, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

Beware of taking on too much liquid ballast, lads, particularly if you're listing this hard.

I'm going to defer to those with more personal experience in the region regarding the economic impact of our presence there.

Rhinos mark the corners of their territories with piles of dung the size of house foundations. The dung beetles love these piles for several reasons, not the least of which is that, while they know how to take off and fly, they do not know how to land other than to just crash into something at full speed. Nice, soft, broad dung fields keep their mortality rate down.

Doesn't Afghanistan export, like, 3+billion dollars worth of opium/heroin a year?

Whether there's a vacuum or not depends on the situation when we leave. We'll probably be there for some years, albeit at much lower troop levels than in Iraq, given the current situation.

Well, there's 'praying', and there's 'braying'....

The only thing that'll do that is a diversion in the form of thread drift. I was discussing all time favorite words with friends the other day. 'Bitch' has got to be, in terms of continued, long term popularity, 'sound punch', variety of meaning, etc, very near the top of the list. I don't know about 'ass clown', but I was discussing 'ass candle' with an older gentleman about a month ago, who maintained that it's been around for well over a generation, maybe more; much older than I thought. Apparently, it's someone who burns it at both ends sitting around on his ass, if I understood him correctly. My perfect moniker, really. One woman came up with 'skunt' (skanky cunt). It's amazing that no one ever thought of that before. There should be some kind of Pulitzer for inventions like that. There's so much waiting to be created yet in this world....