tvashtarkatena

The FW excuse for a patently stupid post.

Pretty good impersonation of The Incubator, if you haven't yet caught this SNL skit: Palin versus Clinton

Bullshit. Rossi and Greqoire are tied, and have been since the campaign began. How could this be, our brilliant FW asks? Um...the results of the least election, perhaps? Obama will handily beat McCain in WA.

The chance for a free cow, maybe?

I think we may have a future vice presidential hopeful in our midst.

I guess I don't understand why any rationale human being would choose to live a few feet above sea level in a storm surge prone area. It's not like living in an earthquake prone area, where most well built structures survive unscathed. You're house IS going to get fucked, period. Would anyone like to explain this to me?

I realize that coherence is not your forte, but when trying to worm your way out of looking ignorant, you really should stop here next time rather than piling on a jumble of irrelevant factoids and pretending that it somehow shores up your original meaningless assertion.

I have it. It's in my freezer.

It's interesting to compare Obama and McCain's rise to power. Obama was an accomplished scholar from a poor background who entered a life of public service. He's a man of hard work and a sense of high moral duty. McCain was born with a brass spoon in his mouth. This ensured his survival at the Naval Academy; an institution that surely would have rejected his lazy, party-boy ass had it not been for his high ranking father. He was then elected to congress based on his status as a 'war hero', bestowed upon him not for any heroic deeds in battle, but simply because he was shot down and captured. After several extra-marital affairs, he jettisoned his long suffering wife and married into an enormous fortune that secured for a him a life time war chest for his political campaigns. McCain has proven that he is principled for exactly as long as it suits his ambition; he's caved on drilling, caved on torture, and he'll cave on any other issue if the political winds begin to blow against him. He's got the spine of a slinky, the morals of a frat boy, and the work ethic of a drunk, and the judgement of a gambler; one of his favorite pasttimes, incidentally. Everyone's focusing on Palin right now, but historically, McCain could have chosen Osama bin Laden as a running mate and it wouldn't have played much of a role in the election. It's about McCain and Obama, not their running mates. Palin's just the side show of the week, albeit an entertaining one, considering how obviously ignorant, poorly educated, and under-qualified she is.

The seemingly inexplicable popularity of McCain is actually quite understandable given our present troubled times, and the almost certainty of worse times ahead. McCain's supporters don't actually want change; they want to return to a better past. This is impossible, of course, but McCain implicitly offers it by promising a victory in Iraq that will continue to elude us forever, and claiming that our economy is strong when it is collapsing. After all, this is what conservatism is all about; either trying to maintain a crumbling status quo or returning to a past that never was. It requires a belief in various myths that exceeds one's own survival instincts which, after all, require a certain sense of reality to be effective. McCain's supporters don't want to have to DO anything to fix the country; they'd rather pretend that things will go back to normal if they just continue to DO NOTHING, and they support the candidate that reinforces that day dream. McCain supporters certainly include the most ignorant half of the country, which explains why the GOP continues to field unaccomplished, folksy, and downright stupid candidates, but this constituency also includes the half with the greatest sense of entitlement to continue living the same life they grew up with, despite a rapidly changing world.

Trip: Temple Crag, Mt Sill - Moon Goddess Arete, Swiss Arete Date: 9/3/2008 Trip Report: TR: Temple Crag and Mount Sill Mt. Sill approach “It’s 4:00 am. Why are you getting up?” “Orion’s setting. There’s light to the east. That means it’s time to get up.” “Orion’s rising. That’s the town of Bishop.” “Oh.” “That’s the last time I let you take a four hour afternoon nap.” You can’t be right about everything. But, as my friend Jens would say, no one ever got screwed by getting up too early. It was just getting light as we stepped onto the moraine to retrieve the rope, rack, crampons and ice axes we’d stashed there the day before during a recon hike and aborted attempt at the less-than-enticing scramble route on Thunderbolt. We got separated: Kevin took the wrong gulley up and I took a trailside nap in the cool grass until the ants discovered me. Mount Sill’s Swiss Arete is one of the most popular alpine rock routes in the Southern Sierras, and for good reason. It’s superb. Grabby white granite flakes, wonderful exposure, and a finish with stunning views of the barren, Martian landscape that is the Southern Sierra. The first half of the route can be scrambled before climbing the six full pitches directly to the summit. The Swiss Arete on Mt. Sill “Dude, it is WAY too early.” The approach is a little tedious, but interesting. A traverse of the talus moraine is followed by an ascent of the Middle Palisade Glacier, or what’s left of it, now hard ice studded with truck size blocks top to bottom from some catastrophic collapse of the North Palisade’s East Face. Despite being relatively inactive, the glacier made a lot of noise during our crossing. As I tromped over the rock hard bridge spanning the bergschrund it gave out a rifle report that shot right through my spine and damn near into my undies. Mt Agassiz (left) from the Middle Palisade Moraine Rock fall on the Middle Palisade Glacier. The ice axe center frame was included for scale From there we climbed the steep, unstable gulley to the notch; a short bit of suffering that didn’t really live up to its notorious reputation. After caching our glacier gear it was a short boulder hop to the base of the climb and a few short hours of nirvana. The upper Swiss Arete Topping out on Mt. Sill Mt. Sill summit. North Palisade in the background tbCsXfZvOo4 Mt Sill summit Panorama Descending the Starr Route on Mt. Sill Two day’s before Kevin and I had climbed the Moon Goddess Arete on Temple Crag, an enormous, foreboding massif that could double for the Walls of Mordor. This monster lords 2500 feet over the Seven Lakes basin on more than a dozen well-fanged flying buttresses of dark granite. After leaving our axes and crampons at the base (not needed; we scrambled around the small snowfield) we scrambled the first half the climb, a project interrupted only by me dropping my camera 200 feet and retrieving what was left of it. Temple Crag. Moon Goddess Arete is just left of the left-most snowfield From there, we negotiated a meandering route of mostly short pitches and two full ones punctuated by airy perches from which I couldn’t take any photos. Pure torture. The images I couldn’t take still taunt me. We displaced a ruffled raven on the summit, and quickly found the 1940 Sierra Club register box (complete with the peak’s name cast onto it) containing photocopies of the earliest entries. Norman Clyde was an early repeat early offender. Temple Crag from Third Lake. The left skyline (in shadow) is Moon Goddess Arete Desert mountain mahogany (cercocarpus ledifolius) This trip can perhaps be done more efficiently from the same trailhead by approaching via the drainage south of Temple Crag rather than the Seven Lakes Basin, then camping at one of the high lakes just below Mt. Sill. From there, a short hop over Contact Pass takes you to the base of Temple Crag, and a short ascent up slabs takes you to the Sill. No crampons or ax required. Temple Crag from my sleeping bag at First Lake We hiked out hungry. During breakfast in Lone Pine, Kevin got news of a possible family emergency, so we decided to head back to Washington. We took a route straight through Nevada to Ontario OR, then up 84, 82, and 90 back to Seattle: 50 miles longer, but faster, easier, and more enjoyable. Recommended. Sights along the way include Boundary Peak (Nevada’s highest point), the 80 square mile ammunition depot in Hawthorne, the Wildcat Inn and KittyKat Inns (Luning and Winnemucca, respectively), and lots of old mines, ghost towns, and dust devils. Herzog inspired? It was open for business, but what kind of business? Luning, NV Bomb pinwheel (Hawthorne, NV). Gear Notes: Crampons if taking the Middle Palisade Glacier approach, none if not.

Nice. What areas are you planning on hitting NZ?

You camped in the Icicle for a month? Did you get up into the alpine?

FW's probably the first person in history to claim that the United States caused WWI or WWII in Europe. The outbreak of WWI had little to do with America one way or the other. Furthermore, America wasn't isolationist by any stretch at the outbreak of WWI (the only one of FW's assertions that could even remotely apply to this conflict). The country was focused on asserting its military power in the New World, which it did on several occasions; the Spanish American War, Santo Domingo, Panama, and by then it was competing in world commerce with the other major economic powers of the day. Next.... US policies of containment did have something to do with the war with Japan, but the US played little role in Europe. It couldn't have; the country was devasted by the Depression, an event FW must have forgotten to include in his 'analysis'. In addition, FW is confusing European appeasement of Hitler with some mythical America appeasement. Furthermore, it was the Republicans of FDR's day that were against facing off with Hitler (isolationism? appeasement?), not FDR himself, who firmly believed in taking on Hitler as soon as possible. FW seems to be arguing with himself here, but that's nothing new. Next.... The fault for Vietnam is shared by both parties. Truman ignored Ho Chi Min's requests for help with negotiating independence from the French immediately following WWII. The US had a few other little projects at the time. Eisenhower threatened the French with cessation of foreign aid if they negotiated a peace/independence treaty with the Viet Min after the French's resounding military defeat. In essense, Eisenhower forced the French to hand over the war to us. Kennedy took the ball and ran with it in an effort to bolster his party's "tough on communism" stance. This was not Democrat idealism, this was the cornerstone of both GOP and Democrat thinking during the height of the Cold War. As usual, FW is long on words but short on his knowledge and understanding of history. As for Korea, I'll let someone else take that one.

Both of the VP candidates out-speak their bosses. Obama cannot speak unprompted. Take another look between now and election day. The debates will likely reveal this too. I've seen Obama interviewed several times. He's intelligent, articulate, has a decent sense of humor, and actually answers the questions asked. Even his critics agree on this. His poise is simply not an issue outside your tiny mind.

Well if you want to do the best with what we have..... should we not take care of OUR home first? Who gives a shit about Iraq. Our own country has been ran into the ground. Health care, education and just plain food on the table for most Americans should be first. Not Iraq and there problems. Fucking go to Iraq and see what really run into the ground is you twat. This country is fine and still amoung the best in the World. I am sorry you have to pay $4 for gas. At least your kids aren't walking around in abandoned minefields from a dz. different wars/altercations. Ironically, the US bears the bulk of the responsibility for the devastation of Iraq. We destroyed much of their civilian infrastructure during DS, the continued to bomb them continually for the next 12 years before invading and causing the present chaos.

Um, no, not even close to an accurate representation of the man, and a laughable comparison between these two non-equals. TR entered politics when he was 23. Aside from a few years ranching and soldiering, he was a nationally known politician his entire adult life. By the time he was offered the VP slot, he was a national hero. TR was also a highly cultured and educated intellectual. Raised in a prominent Manhattan family, there was nothing podunk about him. He excelled at Harvard, was fluent in several languages including latin and ancient Greek, authored over 30 books, including a national best selling series on the winning of the West, loved literature and poetry, in addition to being a gifted athlete and naturalist. As for his hunting; he couldn't hit the broad side of a barn because of his poor eyesight. Most of all, he was deeply embued with a social consience; he was the first president to reign in the unchecked power of big busines, and the first to side with a union during a strike. He also firmly believed in helping the poor. Sarah Palin is none of these things.

Resuming your thorazine might help you get that soul back in its cage.

Chapter 1:1 "Doth thou believest in The Almighty?" "Nope. You?" "Nope. Fancy a beer?"

Did you know that if America laid all of it's bombs end to end, they would ring the world 50 times over... ...and most of them would promptly wind up either pilfered or at the bottom of the ocean.

Actually, I have no clue why America is so fucking dumb now. I just can't figger it out.

I suspect that the degradation of America's educational system has taken it's toll. It's no secret that much of America now worships low culture (given the popularity of reality TV, etc) and distains education and intellectual or artistic pursuit. You're youngster who sees a dumbfuck like Bush get elected and you think "Fuck you, Teach. This fuck off never cracked a book. Didn't need to, he shoots from the hip!" and gets it wrong every time, but whatever.

I was just thinking the same thing. I'm stuck here for undiscloseable reasons.

War, no matter how fucking stupid, does give half the dumb young guys something to feel manly about, and the other half something to be scared of.

I read 'cromwell' for 'orwell'. That fuckstick burned down the abbey in my ancestral village...and my lazy ass Irish relations still haven't rebuilt it!