Serenity

CobraCommander, I'd respectfully disagree. I've carried a 229 as a duty weapon, and for a novice I wouldn't recommend it based on it's double action 10 pound trigger pull, lack of de-cocking mechanism, futzy safety, and not very agreeable for a woman's hand. It's a gucci pistol, or effective for a trained shooter. Price also becomes an issue when you are not going to be utilizing the weapon as much more than a paperweight. COBRAAAA!

Choada, I seriously doubt that this is the proper forum to get an answer from, but here let me throw in my 2 cents. This is an excellent pistol. http://www.kel-tec.com/p3at.html It is inexpensive, unobtrusive, easy to use, and requires little maintenance. It can fit into the pocket of your coat, or in a drawer out of sight. It's not the most gucci looking kit, but it is effective. The best defense is just a good situational awareness, and knowing the right of law as far as your rights to use the firearm to defend yourself. I would say unless you feel like YOUR life or the life of someone you care about is threatened (at that very moment-not after the fact). You honestly believe those facts, and can articulate everything succinctly in a court of law, that you get on 911 and let the po-po do the job. If you have a real hard on for being a crusader, then start testing with the various departments, and if you get picked up, you can do the job from the right side of the law. Good luck.

Highly recommend Cytosport Muscle Milk. Greatest taste of any I've had, clean protein, great price. http://dpsnutrition.com

Bender never did complete the "jah-drop" outside of Kamloops. He made 4 attempts on the 55 foot step down and decided he needed a steeper landing.

http://www.downinthelab.com/ra/scareme%20faded.mp3 AUGUST 2007 Aug 2nd Seattle @ El Corazon $12 in advance $15 at the door. Aug 3rd Tacoma @Hells Kitchen $10 at door. This band was used in the soundtrack for Boone Speed's film "3 weeks and a Day".

Classic trip! Good report.

Go back to watching Triumph Of The Will would ya?

Actually OW, I thought YOUR angst button had been activated, and was flaring like a pack of hemorrhoids. That's why I was like "WTF!?" They need to develop a 'sarcasm tone' font... I'll tell my handlers to put me back in my cage and up my red-meat intake. PEACE HOMIE!

You're so paranoid. Every time someone makes a statement contrary to your little political scratchings you get all indignant, and turn it into a personal attack. Clearly you feel like you have something to worry about once 'the man' turns a spotlight on. Don't flatter yourself small fish. You think it's OK to compare the government to a fascist state, pigpile on that idea with imagery that is contrary to some persons belief systems, however when I point out two examples of actual totalitarian or fascist states or mentalities you claim I hate your freedom? What about MY freedom? Or does that only apply when you can control the information flow? Two valid points in opposition to your beliefs, neither of which have anything to do with me, but are facts of life in OTHER countries, and you somehow try and assume I am gleeful? If banning me somehow makes you feel better go ahead. It really highlights the one sided dialog you so much love to promote.

Let's not flatter yourselves here OK? I'm just kicking sand in your sandbox of tranquility.

Let's not make it personal eh? I wasn't going there OW. In Germany publicly accusing a government official of being a Nazi/Fascist supporter can lead to a serious date with the Polizei. You'll either be tried as a criminal or sued in civil court. That's in a western country. In the middle east, defacing religious symbols, will lead to your death. Now I know how you love to cavalierly wave your freak flags high, and shout your stances from the safest of safe zones, but try and remember some of your imagery, opinions are offensive. And don't be surprised when your little sandbox scratchings catch the attention of the man. You can't always have your cake and eat it too, now can you?

Just try and remember, if our current internal state was anything remotely like a 4th Reich, some of your behavior and political statements would make you among the first to go. Then try and appreciate where you're REALLY at.

Arguing, speculating, and posturing on the internet makes you smarter. Keep going!

Reading this thread was like walking into a room where someday farted. Smells like shit.

You guys wanna go halfsies on that?

Hopefully the trail will remain ambiguous and in the future climbers will enjoy an adventure similar to your's. Good work, good report.

Hey saragrace, There is a ton of great bouldering in that area. The Donner Lake area has the split boulder, and that group. Emerald Bay has some, Lovers Leap has some good moderates. Kevin Swift has a book out, and you can check out the stuff on Supertopo. Have fun! Let us know how the fires affected the area. http://www.supertopo.com/packs/tahoeboulder.html

Did you guys buy some lottery tickets on your way home? Sounds like your lucky day.

Just my opinion. I grew up in Fort Collins, and I would say Bend is pretty cool, but much smaller. Fewer pubs and microbreweries, no college scene or vibe from CSU. No Oldtown. The real estate market in Bend seems a little out of control. Hundreds of homes sitting empty, and not that many buying. A lot of California money coming in. Bachelor is a moderate mountain, but very-very fun to ski on. Agree 100% about the tree skiing. Ponderosa Pines perfectly spaced. The 'backcountry' sides of the mountain are quiet and interesting riding. The nearby mountaineering is moderate, but accessible and beautiful. I prefer RMNP over the local Bend stuff, but if you include the entire PNW the Rockies can't hold a candle. Shasta to the south, Hood, St Helens, Adams, Rainier, North Cascades to the north. Whistler, BC within reach. Maybe about as far as FC to the Tetons. Smith Rock is a great little cragging area. Hundreds of climbs, but I could spend as blissful a day on pitch-penny and the pinch overhang at Horsetooth Rez. I could spend everyday on Longs Peak. There is some world class mountain biking over the pass enroute to Eugene. Keep heading west until you find the ocean. Something you won't find in Colorado.

No cliff huck? Rope? Helmet too? Geez...no MSP sponsorship for you!

I met Ron Scutt on a plane going to Turkey a few years back. He's a top shelf guy, and that community deserves better than they are currently receiving from local land managers.

That guys balls are officially made of brass. Cool vid, thanks for the link.

Lessons of D Day Good read and ties in nicely with what is going on today. June 07, 2007 The Lessons from D-Day By Victor Davis Hanson Sixty-three years ago this week, we landed on the Normandy beaches. As on each anniversary of June 6, 1944, much has been written to commemorate the bravery and competence of the victorious Anglo-American forces. All true. But as we ponder this achievement of the Greatest Generation that helped lead to the surrender of Nazi Germany less than a year later, we should remember that the entire campaign was, as Wellington said of Waterloo, a near-run thing. Our forefathers made several mistakes. They attacked nonexistent artillery emplacements. Planes dropped paratroopers far from intended targets. Critical landing assignments on Omaha Beach were missed. Once they left shore, it got worse. Indeed, D-Day was soon forgotten in the nightmare of GIs being blown apart in the Normandy hedgerows by well-concealed, entrenched German panzers. Apparently, no American planners - from Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Marshall down to the staff of Allied Supreme Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower - had anticipated either the difficulty of penetrating miles of these dense thickets or the deadliness of new German model tanks and anti-tank weapons. So we landed in Europe with the weaponry we had - and it was in large part vastly inferior to that of the Wehrmacht. The most brilliant armored commander in U.S. history, George S. Patton, had been sacked from theater command for slapping an ill soldier the prior year in Sicily. Gens. Omar N. Bradley and Bernard L. Montgomery lacked his genius and audacity - and tens of thousands of Allied soldiers were to pay for Patton's absence at Normandy. We finally broke out of the mess, after using heavy bombers to blast holes in the German lines. But again, these operations were fraught with foul-ups. On two successive occasions we bombed our own troops, altogether killing or wounding over 1,000 Americans, including the highest-ranking officer to die in the European Theater, Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair. The nature of his death was hidden from the press - as were many mistakes and casualties both leading up to and after Normandy. When the disaster in the bocage near the Normandy beaches ended over two months after D-Day, the victorious Americans, British and Canadians had been bled white. Altogether, the winners of the Normandy campaign suffered a quarter-million dead, wounded or missing, including almost 30,000 American fatalities - losing nearly 10 times the number of combat dead in four years of fighting in Iraq. News from the other fronts during the slaughter in Normandy was no better. Due to blunders by American generals in Italy, the retreating German army had escaped the planned Allied encirclement - and would kill thousands more Allied soldiers in Italy during the next year. Disturbing reports spread about the simultaneous advance and brutality of Stalin's Red Army on the Eastern Front. Some in the American government began to worry that a war started over freedom for Eastern Europe might end up guaranteeing its enslavement - Stalin's storm troopers merely replacing Hitler's. While we were ground up in the hedgerows, in the Pacific theater thousands of American amphibious troops were lost during the Marianas campaign. True, we kept winning gruesome amphibious assaults, but we didn't seem to learn much from them. Instead, far worse carnage lay in store at places named Peleliu, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. All these bloodbaths near the end of the war were characterized by the sheer heroism of the American soldier - who suffered terribly from intelligence failures and poor leadership of his superiors. What can we learn, then, on this anniversary of the Normandy campaign? By any historical measure, our forefathers committed as many strategic and tactical blunders as we have in Afghanistan and Iraq - but lost tens of thousands more Americans as a result of such errors. We worry about emboldening Iran by going into Iraq; the Normandy generation fretted about empowering a colossal Soviet Union. Of course, World War II was an all-out fight for our very existence in a way many believe the war against terror that began on 9/11 is not. Even more would doubt that al-Qaida jihadists in Iraq pose the same threat to civilization as the Wehrmacht did in Europe. Nevertheless, the Normandy campaign reminds us that war is by nature horrific, fraught with foolish error - and only won by the side that commits the least number of mistakes. Our grandfathers knew that. So they pressed on as best they could, convinced that they needn't be perfect, only good enough, to win. The American lesson of D-Day and its aftermath was how to overcome occasional abject stupidity while never giving up in the face of an utterly savage enemy. We need to remember that now more than ever. Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.

Hey Scott-Welcome back. Stay safe.

It looks to me like you could probably argue your point endlessly CJ, but you're not winning any converts.