Hugh Conway

Historically the Fanck mountain films (Die Heilige Berge, Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü, Der Wisse Rausch - available for download here http://www.archive.org/details/1931-Der-Weisse-Rausch ) were influential in romanticizing the mountains. Honestly the climbing porn movies are boring (same for ski porn) not sure how much interest those'll have from anyone.

They've 20% off all wine through Sunday. The 2006 Sterling Vineyards Napa Valley Syrah is a great deal at $4.80/bottle. Note: This wine was $53/bottle, $420/case from the Vineyard. Not sure how much further it will age, but a darn good Syrah.

damn, baller

Nice pics. Osh has (had?) some of the most beautiful women in the world wandering around. The Osh-Bishkek road is now paved all the way... which makes it even scarier because they can drive faster, steering the car with their knees while they're peeling peanuts and drinking beer

Oh.... Jay_B's already beating off over the movie version of Atlas Shrugged. amazing how many papers you can read and not leave junior high

From personal experience I can assure you there's at least one corporation sucking the WA state teat dry at the same time it's sucking on the federal teat. Ever heard of SUTA dumping?

I'm actually curious to read the logical gymnastics they used to reach this outcome

he's more ass to keyboard than ass to mouth

some fantastic aged wine deals there

You can tell how far you are from Siem Reap in Cambodia by the % of gas bottles that are Johnny Walker in the road side stands, the closer you are the more there are (they pack better) as an aside, interesting transformation in India from historic, more eco-friendly fastfood packaging - clay cups and banana leaves - to modern plastic disposable ones. The plastic ones don't degrade so quick on the side of the railline

And Mars bars! Coke is available everywhere on the planet pretty much - plastic coke bottles are now the defacto gasoline/cooking oil/whatever else storage container in the 3rd world it seems

I've never talked about either tollbooth operators or bus drivers, but hey, keep on trucking, ass candle! Now let's here some more about the people you "care about" - the blue collar worker, the average Joe. LOL. as typical califuckingfornia raised lickbagger you can talk a lot of shit salty breath. now fuck off. pizda ty zhopoglaznaya KK is choking on dick, again

Public pensions are the item under question, not salaries. And the argument has been that they are unsustainable. Funny how this is not an issue in the private sector. I wonder how that could be... hmmm. Because the company declares bankruptcy and dumps the pension on the PBGC fucking over everyone? Ask an airline employee sometime. Sweet jesus you fuckers are retarded.

Private companies do it all the time. And w/r/t retirement... so do individual employees at private companies. Sometimes you have to cut 401k from 10% to say 6% when times are not so good. Sometimes you even have to cut below the amount where you get matching funds. That's life, j_b. Some kind of variable bonus compensation that's indexed to economic growth over and above a particular floor would do wonders for aligning the incentives of the public and private sector workers, and would serve as an automatic belt tightening mechanism during recessions. Seems like a reasonable idea that actually tries to address, for instance, reality. from an academic circle jerk perspective, sure

Well then give me a practical solution that say, the mayor of San Jose or Gov Gregoire can implement in the next month to balance the books. Honestly - something, anything but abstractions. The pension thing is something else - that will change, one way or another over time. We just don't - have - the - money. When times are good underfund the pensions so you can screw the pensioners when times are bad! That's America! So awesome!

There are no reasonable answers to fallacious questions. Cutting your hand off will stop your finger from bleeding, but you won't have stopped the bleeding. As matter of fact, you'll have made matters worse: permanently decreasing public employee compensation will further degrade public services and reinforce the race to the bottom. If pensions, work-rules, seniority based pay, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc then California world beater in every category of public sector performance. It isn't. Virginia outscores California, Illinois, NJ, NY, Wisconsin, etc in every category. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp_report_card.aspx There *are* states with collective bargaining rules that score well, The data certainly don't support the claim that collective bargaining is necessary for the efficient delivery of high quality public services, effective public administration, etc. And yet, without collective bargaining, Virginia's schools still suck. Surely this would suggest there isn't a link at best? Hell, having lived in that state I'm surprised anyone would trot it out as a model for anything - except never ending suburban sprawl, regional incompetence and general shittiness. But Jay's packing up the Buick and moving out to Virginny! Oh dear, those dirty little facts getting in the way of Jay's ideology

yob tvoyu mat!

hey, I've got some great reform schemes that I know will never be implemented, so I can cling to my quaint ideology

That sounds about right for doing business in the Bay Area over the past decade. Unlike Cisco local government can't outsource firefighting duties to China, but I'm sure Jay_B will chime in with some incredible insight on that issue

They could sell off the airport they funnelled a couple billion into to an organisation that will run it properly.

this is an internet thing, right? It's perfectly fine to shit on any number of "vague" groups but shit on a specific and you are an asshole

Peter likes smiling whores. Maybe he'll pick that fat fuck Chris Christie

No, Jay figured out a way to get in with a good money making protected racket that gets in on serious government $ that he's ideologically willing to give up, but realizes practically he'll never have to in the meaningful future. He's become the yuppies he mocks More like I ran into a woman that I was actually attracted to that didn't run away screaming when I started talking about climbing, economics, and the political economy of foreign aid in Africa. ^ you've got the smug disdain thing down cold

I think Bill was joking. how can you tell?

No, Jay figured out a way to get in with a good money making protected racket that gets in on serious government $ that he's ideologically willing to give up, but realizes practically he'll never have to in the meaningful future. He's become the yuppies he mocks