el jefe

yes, tacoma is sooo much more desirable. if i lived there, then i, too, could boast that i live in the town that spawned the famed serial killer ted bundy. by the way, portland is "weird", not "strange".

hey bedwetter, the fact that fondling a handgun gives you a hardon doesn't mean that i'm the one who is "strange"...

responsible gun owners would be in favor of regulating firearms, just the way responsible drivers are in favor of laws against driving intoxicated and mandatory auto insurance provisions. if you are opposed to regulating firearms, then you are an irresponsible gun owner. it isn't difficult. i'm not opposed to the idea of people owning guns, but i am fed up with the nra/gun nut position that gun owners shouldn't be subject to any sort of regulation or oversight because the fact that they own guns somehow protects my freedom. my point is that there's no "light" to shed on this issue if gun owners are going to insist that we all just have to trust them to be responsible, period, and can't ask that they register or account for their firearms in any way. look at this thread, there's no conversation gin on here, no give and take of ideas. the gun people just keep saying that any restriction/regulation/registration/whatever of firearms is unacceptable. nothing anyone says, no matter how reasonable (e.g., should nuclear weapons be off limits? how about fully automatic weapons?) is going to make them budge one millimeter from their extreme stance, so why bother talking to them about it?

gun nuts are just nuts when it comes to guns, so there's no point in discussing the subject because they aren't capable of being reasonable about it. they like guns and want their guns because they just like things that shoot projectiles and they aren't capable of conceiving of any situation where any limitation, registration or regulation of guns is or would be acceptable because they just like guns and that's the end of it. a pile of dead kids at an elementary school won't change their minds because they are impervious to evidence or reason when it comes to their passionate love of guns. thousands of people killed by guns every year doesn't change their minds or even raise the vaguest hint of a doubt in their minds because they just want guns. their arguments in favor of unfettered, uncontrolled gun ownership are just bullshit and it doesn't matter because those arguments aren't the reason why they own guns. they don't own guns because they are concerned about protecting everyone from potential government tyrany, they just like shooting guns and that's it, and any form of so called rational argument they use to justify their passion is just a verbal smokescreen. talking to inanimate objects is a more fruitful use of one's time than debating guns with gun nuts because they'll never give one millimeter of ground no matter how unreasonable they are being because they are just so in love with guns. guns are for killing, plain and simple, and handguns are guns specially designed for killing humans.

nice picture of billcoe at beacon, alpinfox. i feel safer already...

i agree, josephh. guns aren't relevant anymore especially since there are so many of them in the world. losing our right to privacy is how we will lose our freedom in the 21st century age of information. people who think owning a gun somehow protects their freedom are living with a very false sense of security.

guns don't matter, billcoe. we're in the 21st century -- the information age -- and the foundation of any freedom now is the right to privacy. we should all be much more upset about the bush administration having engaged in surveillance of u.s. citizens without any sort of oversight by the judicial branch. guns are the source of political power but the world is full of guns and the government has many more and much more powerful guns than you and your neighbors have, so the fact that you've got a gun and think it matters somehow means you're the one who has settled for "perceived safety". your guns won't protect you when someone decides to wiretap you and read your emails, then send you off somewhere for interrogation.

just kidding. girth-hitched chickenheads make great pro, and the chickenheads on outer space are unbelievable.

i had a feeling that was the route. nice anchor. you must have had great confidence in your second.

which route were you guys climbing?

as noted in another thread, there is more than sufficient evidence of brain damage among climbers in the postings found on this website...

i would have thought that there was ample evidence of brain damage among climbers here at this website: just check any one of the political discussions raging right now in "spray" and you'll see more than sufficient evidence of impaired executive functions, etc.

climbers are brain-damaged -- this is news to someone?

nice work.

nice one! but i thought the british decided against siding with the south because they quickly discovered they could replace southern cotton with cotton from india? even if secession had occurred "peacefully", bad feelings would have persisted between the usa and csa, probably forcing the british to choose anyway and there's no reason to think they would have chosen differently than they did. i still see the south living under the shadow of bigger cousin up north, just like the rest of central and south america ended up...

the south had no industry and its only resource was cotton, so it would have required foreign investment (probably from the north) in order to develop the oil in texas. this would have probably worked better for the north anyway since the south would have become one of the banana republics on the state dept payroll -- that way the yankees could control the south but not let the rednecks have the vote.

i'm just glad i didn't take the bait and get a subscription when they offered that 33% off deal right before going under. $48 or whatever for a single issue of alpininst would have been seriously annoying.

i think the idea would be to have let the south "secede" ("suceed" is almost freudian for "succeed"). in any event, my opinion is that if the south had been allowed to secede, then they'd have been a 3rd rate banana republic with a backward agrarian economy and no one would have cared whose side they chose during ww1 or ww2. even today the southern state receive more money from the federal government than they contribute in terms of federal tax revenues. that part of the country is a liability.

wishful thinking is what keeps the screw there. also, i've found that sprinkling a little pixie dust on it never hurts. and no, i've never fallen on one, either.

i think the complaint that obama's resume lacks heft is just a publicly acceptable way for white men to say that they can't bring themselves to vote for the dark-skinned candidate. if anything, ron paul's resume is significantly less impressive than obama's (i.e., he is just a congressman from hicksville, texas, has never been a governor or even run a large family farm), yet that fact doesn't seem to disqualify him like it does the democrat with the funny-sounding name.

billcoe, the fact that "George Bush had significantly BETTER credentials" and nevertheless did an absolutely terrible job as president seems to argue that your concern re: obama's resume is essentially irrelevant. in fact, based on your bush analogy, we would in fact be wiser to choose the guy with the slimmer resume. as for me, i'm voting obama because i believe mccain would be a continuation of the bush disaster, especially if he dies in office and leaves dimwit sarah in charge. also, ron paul isn't an option because i find his libertarian views simpleminded and naive.

i've had one pair of evolv shoes and thought the trax rubber wasn't very sticky, so i traded them with a friend who liked them a lot, although i think he plans on resoling with fiveten rubber.

in my experience, onyx rubber is very sticky, but wears out pretty quickly, too. i've been using miuras for a number of years and like the vibram rubber, but am pondering (as usual) trying something new.

i haven't yet tried the acopa shoes. i hear rthe rubber is supposed to be pretty sticky, though. what other opinions are out there?

pope, you are an ass and everyone knows it.