RoverPundit

Recovery

I'd like to thank everyone who wrote offering alcohol, advice, and power-tool-assisted amateur dentistry. It's been a long few days, but the end is in sight. You never realize how much you miss the ability to eat solid food until you're put on a ramen diet for 3 days. After a day or two, I caught myself wondering how many steaks I could get out of one of the cats. I figure Max is good for four, at least.
(Just kidding, cats.)
Speaking of the cats, the smaller and more neurotic of the clan decided today would be a good day to go adventuring. Gave me a heart attack, til I heard an ungodly yowling and opened the door to find her curled in a ball on the mat. Of course, her sister beat her senseless, but that's the price of living with family, right?

Technical Difficulties

This site has been unusually silent lately, and for that I apologize. I've acquired several semi-regular readers (Thank you!) and now I feel guilty about abandoning them. But there is a reason, and I think it's a fairly good one.
Over the weekend, I broke a tooth. The nerve is partially exposed, so I'm in a fair amount of pain. It needs to be pulled. Constant headaches/toothaches plus Vicodin mean that I have the IQ of a rabid hamster.
I spent all day yesterday trying to find a dentist who would see me on short notice, and finally found one around 3 pm. I explained the situation, and he asked that I come in at 9 am today. So I did.
He sat me down in the chair, took x-rays, and then he told me that I needed to have the tooth extracted. Well, duh. Then he said that he doesn't do extractions. Not only that, the oral surgeon he referred me to didn't have an opening until November!?
So, I got some pills and went home. Started calling around, trying to find an oral surgeon who worked more than 10 hours a week. Finally found one, got an appointment for Friday, and will be getting this taken care of. Wish me luck.
So, to sum up, I'm sorry I haven't been more entertaining. Hang in there, don't lose hope, I'll be back.

Random Post of the Day

I sat down and re-evaluated some of my goals today. I'm starting to realize that computer all day and computer all night is making Matt a flabby boy. Well, as flabby as a 6 foot, 135 pound guy can be. Is not a good thing.

This time last year, I didn't have these problems. I was working out 3-4 times a week at martial arts, and I still had the majority of my climbing strength. Then Alison's wrist started getting worse, and the next thing you know I'm without a partner for most activities, condemned to sit around and eat junk food.

Anyway, as I sat there thinking, I remembered a route that thoroughly rebuffed me two years ago. It's called the Angry Man Boulder. Here's the description from the site:

Left and right Angry Man are two of the Front Ranges most excellent sloper problems. From Jaws and the tooth boulder that sit below Little Twin Owls follow a trail uphill and northeast past a boulder with two left angling highball cracks (both very good problems) continue uphill and round a large boulder with a beautiful 25 foot v3 slab. Angry Man boulder is behind this giant, it consists of two sloper shelfs with a years supply of chalk on them. Left Angry Man (v7/8) begins on the lowest shelf and throws out left to the horrible slopers, matches then throws for the bomber lip. The key to this problem lies in a very frustrating heel-toe lock for the first move. It can also be done without this heel toe, but is a little harder. Right Angry Man (v10/11) (not that I have done it) begins on the same low set of slopers and slaps out right in a massive intitial crux move to a bad sloper. Left hand goes to a pinch sidepull, then adjust and dyno right hand to a bad sloping crimp just below the lip. Left hand out to the bomber lip. Both of these are beautiful problems.

I sat for an hour trying to figure out the first moves of this route, and left without even getting my butt off the ground. Here's what the first move is supposed to look like.

This is my goal for the next year. To get back into shape, and stick this problem. God knows how long it will take, but I will be victorious. With anyone luck, I'll even look good doing it.

Thank you for listening. That was your Random Post of the Day.

Photograph and description found at Climbing Boulder. Description by Patrick Vernon, photo by Holly Bernard. All rights are reserved, I'm sure. Please don't sue me.

The first casualties

War Now! has long been one of my daily reads. Then, a few days ago, War Now! went quiet. The first indication that it was something other than BlogSpot came from Sasha Castel, who wrote:

A fond farewell to Bruce Hill's War Now! blog, which has ceased publication. We'll miss his insights terribly. If anyone would like to write to Bruce he requests that you do so at pacificreporter@hotmail.com.

Mysterious, no?
Today, out of sheer habit, I stopped by War Now!, and found this message:

To those of you who have sent me private messages, thank you all. I'm very touched.
In the meantime, my brother Murray and mate David Bisman will continue the struggle at a new blog, Silent Running, which is located in a completely diferent national jurisdiction. I may pop up there from time to time, who knows? Stranger things have happened.
You can e-mail Murray at coyote451@hotmail.com, and David at dbisman@hotmail.com.
Anything those two totally separate individuals write in a blog utterly unconnected to me, in an entirely different country, cannot possibly come back to bite me in the bum.
And I mean that in a very real, and legally binding sense.

So, I checked out Silent Running, and it looks like the gang's all there.
Strange things are afoot. For now, I'm glad that Bruce Hill isn't totally gone. His site is too good to lose.

Who, me?

Pontificating on SUV owners, the New York Times Keith Bradsher spake thusly:

"They tend to be people who are insecure and vain. They are frequently nervous about their marriages and uncomfortable about parenthood. They often lack confidence in their driving skills. Above all, they are apt to be self-centered and self-absorbed, with little interest in their neighbors or communities."

I've heard this over and over since I got my first truck, a '76 Jeep CJ7. It used to bother me. Now I've realized that SUV owners are merely the latest group to come up on these psychobabbling snobs radar. I've heard similar comments directed towards sports car aficionados, people who own houses that are "too big", cigar and pipe smokers, and basically anyone who differs from the snob's idea of how things should be.
To hell with them.
I bought my truck to four wheel, carry stuff, and generally do all those tasks that a car is too small for, but don't require a U-Haul. How this choice tells anyone that I'm anything but a masochist (it is a British truck, after all) is beyond me.

Original link from VodkaPundit, article link from John Venlet

Colorado College Pictures

These are the few pictures that I was able to take, mostly due to nothing happening worth dragging the camera out of the bag and turning it on. I apologize for the poor quality; I am not a photographer of any skill, and the camera is old.
Without further ado, here you go.

These were the first signs we saw upon getting to the campus.

This young lady was protesting something, but I never got the specifics...

At Armstrong Quad, the crowd divided itself up by sympathies. This is the Palestinian side at the beginning of the speech.

This is the Israeli side at Armstrong Quad at the beginning of the speech.

This is the Israeli side again, 45 minutes into the speech.

This is the Palestinian side again. Note the superior staying power.

And, lastly, this is the no protest line between the two sides after some heated words were exchanged. There were 24 police officers. Stephen counted them.

The entire exercise was pathetic, IMHO. I would have taken more pictures, but there was nothing there worth recording.

Any comments/suggestions re. photo size, quality level, or improved captions are appreciated.

Feast or Famine

After drought conditions this summer, we've all been praying for rain. And boy, we got it.

People are sitting on the tops of their cars on I-25 and Washington, stalled out in muddy water that is over their hoods.

Denver firefighters suited up in dive suits are helping to rescue people. Motorists are urged to avoid the whole Central Valley area.

Southbound I-25 is closed at Broadway.
I-25 northbound is jammed from Washington St. back to I-225.
Standing water and mud across all lanes sb I-25 from Downing to University
Standing I-25 sb at Quincy
Northbound I-25 at Alameda has standing water across all lanes
Standing water on 6th Avenue just west of Federal

Negotiating the T-Rex construction zone along I-25 is always tricky business, but this afternoon one stretch has become impassable. Southbound I-25 is closed at Broadway.

Afternoon storms have turned the northern section of T-Rex, known as the Narrows, into a muddy river. The worst part is at Washington, but the flooding stretches all the way to University. Although the rain has stopped in that area, the water is continuing to get deeper.

Y'all be careful getting home. I'm talking to you, Andy.

A truly worthy screed.

I didn't get this up night before last, when I wanted to, but that doesn't change the fact that it rocks. A full throated rant is a beautiful thing.

The minutes passed, and, at 7pm, my friend and I took beers in hand and moved to the front bar, interested in seeing what message of hope and solidarity our President might issue. Mind you, we're both no huge fans of George Bush, Jr. - but he is our President - and we are at war - and that demands a certain amount of attention - if not from respect, then out of a need to know what our country is doing. And there - high above the bar - was one lone screen showing the President - delivering his speech to the nation, and the world.

And there was no sound.

And there was no closed-captioning.

It was the Executive branch equivalent of a mime, as if George was trapped in that plastic contraption, trying to convey a message to the people of America, but - unable or unwilling to bear witness, they laughed and gossiped with beer in hand as if 3,000 of their countrymen just happened to vanish, rather than being killed by terrorists. How very ... lacking. Pointless. Sad.

Read it all.

Public Service Announcement

Coloradoans, take note.
Driving home this morning, I noticed that there is a new message on all of the programmable signs along I-25. It read:

AMBER ALERT SYSTEM
96 GREEN SUBARU
LICENSE # 912EMD

and then:

IF SEEN
CALL 911

A little research shows that the Amber Alert system is for assisting in recovering a kidnapped child. I haven't seen anything on the news yet, so I don't have any details, but I thought that I'd throw this out for any Colorado readers.

Let's keep our eyes peeled, 'k?

UPDATE: Well, 9 News has the info on this.

BOULDER - Colorado's Amber Alert system was activated overnight for a 17-year-old Boulder County student with a medical condition.

Authorities issued the alert for Ryan Paul Witte, who is described as white, 5 feet 10 inches, about 125-135 pounds, with sandy brown hair and brown eyes.

Around 9 a.m. Friday, the Amber Alert was cancelled, but authorities said they were still searching for Witte, and were concerned about his health because he has a collapsed lung. Abduction is not suspected, authorities say.

The alert was cancelled because officials believe law enforcement and the public have been adequately notified.

Clueless at Colorado College

As you've probably already read by now, Stephen and I went to Colorado College to observe the keynote speech by Hanan Ashwari. He covers it well, so I feel there's little I can add. Here's my $.02.

To Colorado College: I hope you didn't pay much for that speech. You certainly didn't get anything out of it. The pointed questions during Q & A were entertaining, though.

To Hanan Ashrawi: Next time you get invited to speak anywhere, please write down what you're going to say. You might have thought it cute to start your speech by noting that you had no prepared speech, but you bored me shitless, when you didn't leave me wondering exactly what planet you were calling in from. And another thing. Next time you give a speech at a forum dedicated to a certain event or idea, please try to talk about that event or idea. Please? I know it's nice to air the laundry list, but we can hear that every day. Be topical.

To the protesters: You done good. I saw no unpleasantness, aside from a few harsh words, and everyone was respectful of one another. Additionally, it was the first protest I've ever been to that didn't smell like patchouli.

Rant done. The rest of the day was exceedingly pleasant. Dinner was delicious, Stephen and Melissa are very gracious hosts, and much alcohol was consumed. It's all good.

Driving from the Springs to Denver during rush hour while nursing a hangover is one of the more unpleasant ways of starting the day. At the same time, it's a wonderful way to prepare for the weekend.

Ouch.

No words, no reasons...

Reruns

It looks like associates of everybodies favorite homocidal psychopath, Osama bin Laden, have released another tape of the most holy nutbar.

The Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera broadcast more excerpts of a videotape on Tuesday in which a male voice attributed to Osama bin Laden can be heard naming all 19 Sept. 11 hijackers.

Even with this, most Muslims in Egypt, Saudi, Jordan, etc. will still claim that there's no proof Osama was connected.

The voice said hijackers Khalid Almihdhar, Nawaf Alhamzi and Salem Alhamzi came from the western Saudi city of Mecca, home of Islam's holiest shrine. Fayez Ahmed, he said, came from the Saudi region of Asir, Hani Hanjour from Taif, western Saudi Arabia, Majed Moqed from Medina, home of the burial place of Islam's seventh century prophet Muhammad in Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Alnami from Abha in southwest Saudi Arabia and Satam al-Suqami from the region of Najd.

That's a lot of Saudi citizens. Remind me again why the Wahhabists are still in power?
Oh. That's right. Bush likes them for some reason.
Stupid.

Hee hee

Well, with 22 out of 23 precincts reporting(96%), Billy McKinney is losing 39% to John Noels 61%. (Source) Being in Colorado, I'm not directly affected by this. Wouldn't it be a beautiful thing, though, if both McKinneys went down in flames in the same election cycle?
Hey, if we're lucky, maybe Billy will give us another spelling lesson.
"I'm a moron! M-O-R-O-N!!"

Update!: He's out. Instapundit caught this one before I did. I don't suppose that's very surprising.
Have to get up very early to get one by him.

Mini Blogburst

This is what "speaking truth to power" really looks like. Not hosting a sit-in, or a teach-in, or making snarky remarks in nationally syndicated columns, or drawing blatantly disrespectful editorial cartoons. College lefties, bleeding-heart columnists, asshole cartoonists; take note. (I'm not linking to the plethora of available examples for the above. I'm tired of seeing traffic driven to these schmucks.)
This is dissent that means something.

A Public Call For Rememberance of the 9/11 Tragedy

SMCCDI Political Committee
September 10, 2002

Free spirited Iranians,

It has been a year since the terrorist attack on the military and commercial centers of the United States of America. Consequences of the events of that fateful day were so immense and far reaching that they truly will be known as the turning point in the recent political history of the world.

On those days that America was mourning and Iran was directly or implicitly being called a "haven for terrorists", we remember how, despite the violent crack down and repression of the "Hezbollah" forces roaming the streets, hundreds of our youth poured into the streets and lit candles in memory of the victims of that tragedy and showed the world that they sympathized with the families of the victims and extended their condolences to them.

That night, our youth made it crystal clear that they were with the world coalition for the elimination of "religious" terrorism.

We remember how the reactionary, backwards, Taliban loving, self-elected rulers of Iran tried to down grade that humanistic and thoughtful sympathy action of our youth by calling them a "bunch of candle in hand sissies!," and once again showed, with their short-sighted vision of reality, how far away they are from virtue of humanity.

Bravo to you nation who, despite lack of leadership, embarked in that spontaneous movement, and with your sensational presence in the streets of the capital, you saved Iran from a catastrophe, as you showed in the best possible way, Iranian nation's excellence in love of humanity to the free world.

Now, with the first anniversary of 9/11 tragedy upon us, as SMCCDI expresses its sympathy to the families of the victims and survivors of that ungodly event, and the honorable nation of America; it invites all free spirited Iranians to honor the memory of the victims of that day by gathering and lighting a candle in front of the main entrance of the Tehran university and major public squares in Tehran, and the main squares in other cities and townships, from 6:00 PM till 9:00 PM, on Wednesday 11 September.

Also, from all those Iranians who feel they share the sorrow and pain of the American nation, it is requested that they turn off all their light on that same night from 10:30 PM till 11:30 PM in a silent, but much telling gesture of sympathy and solidarity with the bereaved nation of America. Without a doubt, in this age of high-resolution satellite cameras, your message of sympathy will reach the Americans loud and clear!

Tehran, September 10, 2002 (19 Shahrivar 1381)

The "Student Movement Coordination Committee for Democracy in Iran" (SMCCDI)

In accordance with these brave students requests, I am adding the image to my site.
Why don't y'all pass it along?
Thanks to Mike Hendrix for the heads up.

And this affects us how?

From Drudge, we find this steaming turd of a headline,
Vatican says no Iraq attack without UN approval.
The actual article, at Yahoo, expands upon this idea, with
No war on Iraq unless the United Nations allows the use of force, top Vatican official says.
And, if we don't listen, they're going to do what, exactly? The Catholic church's popularity in the US is declining, and I don't see statements like these improving matters much.

Update: Kim du Toit says it much better than I ever could.

The Vatican announced that "Military action against Iraq should only be undertaken if the United Nations authorizes it." Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran also warned the international community of the consequences that a war might have on both the Iraqi population and the stability of the whole region. "We can't impose the law of the jungle," Tauran was quoted as saying. "Obviously we can't fight evil with evil." [Errrr, Your Eminence, are you saying that the United States is evil, then?] "Should the international community ... conclude the use of force is opportune and justified, this should only happen with a decision made in the framework of the United Nations."

-- [And in another communiqué, one more relevant organization, the Women's League of Bratislava, gave its support to the Vatican's position. Note to the Vatican: We're not Ireland, nor is a Kennedy our President. Your opinions have about as much weight as Portugal's. Maybe less.]

Into the blogroll with you!

Wierd thing of the day

As the first Wierd Thing of the Day, I think I'll talk about something that I saw this week.
My normal route home is I-25, which is peppered by programmable signs. Normally, they say things like

EXTREME FIRE DANGER
NO OPEN BURNING
LOCAL BANS IN EFFECT

or

I-25 CLOSED AT
EXIT 160
CHAIN LAWS IN EFFECT

or something to that effect.

Well, on Friday, for reasons that I can't fathom, they said

STATE PATROL
HIGH
VISIBILITY ACTIVITY

I think that's the first time that I've ever seen the police warn someone about a speed trap. The best part is, I only saw 2 state patrol cars in the entire 50 mile stretch that I drive every day.

Everyone's got their niche...

I've been doing this blog thing for a while. Since 2/02, if my archives aren't lying to me. And I've come to a conclusion. One, that I'm a much more prolific blogger with a few drinks under my belt, and two, that I need to find my niche.
There are so many bloggers out there, covering everything from personal thoughts, to recent events, to in-depth analysis, and everything in between. And all of them seem to be much better at it than yours truly.
So, I've decided to be strange. Not a large stretch, as I'm most of the way there anyway, but crucial, I think, to preserving my stature in my own eyes.
From now on, I'm going to focus more on things that take my fancy, things that make me sit up and take notice. Among these are particularly well turned phrases, weird things I see during the day, and stuff that interests me when I'm drunk. Please, let me know what I can do better. I'm going nowhere in this vacuum chamber, and would love some feedback.
Thank you for your time.

School is back in session!

And how. I live in Fort Collins, CO, which is the home to Colorado State University. Not a party school like CU Boulder, but college kids are college kids, no matter where they matriculate.
Woke up yesterday morning to find that my license plates have been stolen. This was after not getting nearly enough sleep, due to the parties going on above me. Saw a truck, much like mine, that has been sitting in someones yard with a for sale sign for a while. Some helpful person had heaved a rock through the back window, for reasons that escape me.
The point to this rambling post is to make you feel my pain, I guess. I've had a few too many, and am a little fuzzy, and felt like bitching.

The ghosts of the towers

Sars, over at Tomato Nation, has a post up concerning the approach of 9/11, and the need to remember.

My mom gave me a Twin Towers calendar for Christmas -- twelve months of various views of the World Trade Center. It hangs beside the door in my kitchen, where I've always hung my calendars, and on Saturday I flipped the page up to September. It's a sunrise shot, the spire of the Greek Orthodox church in the foreground and the vastness of the towers behind it, all bathed in the orangey-red of the early sun. It's an interesting choice because, composition-wise, it's not actually a photo of the towers. It's a photo of the spire in which the towers happen to show up, which they had a way of doing whenever you pointed your camera in a certain direction downtown -- like the sky, but shinier.

I miss them. I miss my friends.

In the months after the attacks, I would go to movies set in New York and, almost unaware of doing it, wait to see my friends in an establishing shot. I sort of didn't want to see them at the same time, because I'd just have to say goodbye to them again, but when they popped up onscreen, I felt like a grandmother: "Now, just hold still and let me get a look at you. Oh, my. Such big, strong boys." When the film cut back to the action of the plot, I would find myself pitched forward in my seat, longing for them. That twinge got duller and duller over time and eventually faded away altogether, but for a long time, those buildings haunted me, and I welcomed it. I wanted them to haunt me. I wanted them to appear to me silently, searching for rest, like ghosts.

After you've finished this article, I recommend you take a moment and read her eye-witness account of being in the Financial District on 9/11 of last year.
Feel kinda cheesy saying it, but it's todays required reading.

A new name

I think I'll post as Dork for a while. See if I like it.