tvashtarkatena

A strange and interesting tale of influence peddling The Illinois governer's corruption shit storm

It's interesting that several states: Kentucky, Tennessee, Kansas, and Texas to name a few, never ratified the 21st Amendment lifting prohibition. Those states still have dry parrishes/counties, which pretty much guarantees that their borders remain an unbroken Maginot line of watering holes.

I consider that a problem. It's back to what started this discussion, a basic Bill of Rights amendment being restored. You have a common misunderstanding of what a civil right is. All civil rights, including free speech, are subject to reasonable restrictions. You can't yell 'Fire!' in the crowded theatre, you can't threaten to murder someone, and you can't carry a gun into courtrooms, bars (in WA), and, in many cases, NPs. Thank God wiser heads than yours protect us from a simpleton's libertarianism.

Idiot? No. Other things? Maybe.... What urks me about guns in National Parks is those areas are one of the very few places left where you don't have to worry about yahoos with guns; shooting wildlife needlessly out of ignorance, shooting up the infrastructure (don't even think about pretending like this isn't going to happen; it happens in every other remote place where guns are allowed), and, as will most certainly happen eventually, shooting other park visitors. I think the safety and piece of mind of the non-gun toting population in national parks, which far outnumbers those who feel the need to always be packing, trumps the pretend need for 'self protection'. You can go anywhere else in the wilderness and carry all the firepower you want. It's not a basic 2nd Amendment issue, either; the state has a right to restrict guns in a variety of public places. So what's the problem?

No, you probably won't. The restrictions go park by park, and I doubt that Denali NP, for example, given their appropriate 'wildlife comes first' policy, is going to suddenly cater to dumbshit yahoos who don't know how to travel safely in bear country. My advice if you're too lazy or stupid to learn how to travel safely in bear country is to stay in the safe little toy parks where there are none. The quickness in which you produced such an influentcial and "informed" opinion (not only about my motivations, but what the NPS is actually going to do) is staggering. That might have had something to do with the comprehensive NYT article I'd just read on the topic. Reading is for cool kids!

Your Small Man Complex is showing.

I guess what differentiates me from the Bugs of the world, aside from a thorax and antennae, is that I'm prefectly satisfied with how mysterious, beautiful, and interesting the world is as it is, rather than adding layer after layer of spirits, superpowers, unseen, enexplainable forces, and the like. All that crap just gets in the way of my more directly connecting with the off the rack universe we find ourselves in. I'm comfortable with unexplained phenomenon, but I don't see the need for unexplainable phenomenon (um...how could we possibly know that something is unexplainable, anyway?). "It's BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING!" You mean, forever, no matter how future generations find ways to study it? How can that be? After all, didn't WE make all this unexplainable shit up in the first place? I think the addition of all this mysticism connotes a dissatisfaction with our world as it is. Well, I'm amazed by our world, not dissatisfied with it, so I see no need to seek amazement by trying to transform human created myth into reality. The frequent counter, from Bug, anyway, is "Oh, you just worship science. How droll. How boring. Plus, it's just a religion, too"; as if The Non-religious (read that to mean 'Unenlightened Ones' walk through nature's splendor and see only equations, kind of like reading Matrix code. Such comments are so patently ridiculous that they require no counterargument.

I never really got an explanation of how the mind over matter bullshit I grew up with in N.Cal was any different from your Master Chuan fog lifting, lineman tipping stories. Your lingo sounds pretty much exactly the same to me.

TMI.

No, you probably won't. The restrictions go park by park, and I doubt that Denali NP, for example, given their appropriate 'wildlife comes first' policy, is going to suddenly cater to dumbshit yahoos who don't know how to travel safely in bear country. My advice if you're too lazy or stupid to learn how to travel safely in bear country is to stay in the safe little toy parks where there are none. The quickness in which you produced such an influentcial and "informed" opinion (not only about my motivations, but what the NPS is actually going to do) is staggering. Do you normally convince and motivate others that you're thoughts/opins are superior? It didn't work here. Basically, I think the 2nd amendment gives me the right to carry responsibly. I'm not talking a shoulder fire nuke, but a gun. It doesn't MATTER what YOU think about my choices. This as MY right to choose and carry. BTW, YOU have the right too. And if I do something wrong or stupid w/ the gun (like shooting wildlife or signs, which I wouldn't do) then I PAY THE CONSEQUENCES! Actually, the NPS and other agencies will determine when and if you can carry, not you, regardless of how you interpret the 2nd amendment. Thankfully, for the rest of us, every idiot out there does not get to decide this for themselves.

Actually, Matt, that was a complete mischaracterization of my response to your opinion (and, after all, it was just your personal opinion, however you'd like to imagine it as a some kind of consensus), but typical of Spray's most passive aggressive personality. You shared an opinion with me, I disagreed, and you've pretty much been a prick ever since. So here's the deal: Spray is voluntary. Any time you wish to stop participating, be our guest. If you, as a moderator, feel that the posting rules have been violated, by all means, ban that person. Otherwise, you may now kindly shut the fuck up and quit whining.

The National Parks that open up to guns will do so until they get tired of having all of their infrastructure shot up; then they'll recind the policy.

I revealed that in the TR, speedreader.

A more likely scenario: Mr. Colddeadhands discovers FW giving KKK a hummer in the parking lot, and shoots botha them faggits deader'n'sheeit.

Considering the tiny scale of human existence in the grander scheme of things, it's not too much of a stretch to recognize that there are many 'higher powers' out there, in a literal sense, anyway. Or a 'higher power' can be a basis for moral choices that are larger than oneself. A respect and stewardship for nature, love for one's fellows, all and any of this kind of thing could be a 'higher power'. I don't go in too much for the 'if you name it you spoil it' fuzzy thinking, however. I think it strengthens one's moral decisionmaking by explicitly recognizing, to the extent possible, from where one derives that morality. When I hear things like 'energy fields' and 'life force' I start to think about how much clumsily we borrow language from fields we haven't studied to describe feelings we can't define because we haven't bothered to take the journey to do so. That stuff sounds trite and cliche to me; the kind of spirituality one might order on Ebay.

So you're gonna shoot people who 'loiter' at trailheads? Gee, I feel better already. Fortunately, most National Parks will likely continue to have the good sense to deny you ass clowns your weaponry for the protection of the rest of us.

Whatever you say, Adonis.

Oh, yeah. That guy landed on Master Chuan, who broke his fall. Laws of Physics: DENIED.

I seem to recall that a Russian fighter pilot held the record for surviving a fall; 30,000+ feet or something, onto steep powder snow. Too lazy to Google it.

Trip: Lillooet - Marble Canyon Date: 12/6/2008 Trip Report: Five of us headed up to Lillooet this weekend. It was a bit on the thin, drippy side in Marble Canyon. Icy BC was unclimbable for anyone without a drysuit. Still too early for the Deeping, so we stuck to the mixed routes on the far left. By noon, it had warmed up so much that we opted for some rock climbing across the road. Jennifer shows off her fly moves on some M7 Frozen stream below Icy BC. Ice ‘bone’ behind the Deeping Ice stalagtite behind the Deeping Ice stalagmite behind the Deeping Hemlock cone on Icy BC’s outlet stream Sap Marble Canyon A very wet Icy BC Jennifer sending it… …it sending Jennifer Emily Pat Jens bet me dinner that I couldn’t climb this route in my boots without falling. Pat climbs for his supper The free steak dinner and cherry pie dessert were tasty. There’s nothing like cragging in the sun

No, you probably won't. The restrictions go park by park, and I doubt that Denali NP, for example, given their appropriate 'wildlife comes first' policy, is going to suddenly cater to dumbshit yahoos who don't know how to travel safely in bear country. My advice if you're too lazy or stupid to learn how to travel safely in bear country is to stay in the safe little toy parks where there are none.

There were three flags visible from the border station and all three were doing something different.

Please the little lady by culling a few west African kids. You gotta love the diamond industry. You might as well throw a gram of coke in her stocking while you're at it.

Looks like the trail sign budget's gonna have to be increased....

I can clear a forum using only the power of my mind.