Staple it Together

We went on a night hike tonight up the South Fork of Provo Canyon. Yeah. And I have work at 4.30 on Friday. Yeah- that's four thirty in the morning. So early that I've been awake until that early on more than one occasion(Allie has a pic on her camera to prove that). So there's that. And tomorrow I'm going mountain biking up in SLC with Jewell. Not gonna lie- I'm way stoked.

Whoa.

I consider myself a climber. When I think about what I spend most of my time doing- I come to the shocking conclusion that I spend almost no time climbing. I spend all of my free time(which is pretty much all of my time) skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer. So, what am I then? I still consider myself a climber, but I'm lost as to why I consider myself a climber and not a mountain biker or a skier. I guess it boils down to the exclusivity of the climbing community. Not that climbers are v.antisocial and hate people getting into the sport- The reality of the situation is quite the opposite. The climbing community is very inviting. Maybe that's why I want to define myself as a climber. It's exclusive but not at the same time. Idk. Maybe I'm crazy. In fact- I'm probably crazy. That's the truth. No Joke. So, writing No Joke made me want to make a new catch phrase slash I guess I'm rambling pretty badly. No Joke unfortunately doesn't work that well but I'm pretty much a fan of the word slash and these girls we went to dinner with last night slash wakeboarding today used the word slash and I thought to myself- wouldn't it be cool if she started using it b/c somehow it got transferred from myself on down the line? Cause I only met her yesterday but then I thought to myself- did I actually start saying 'slash' on my own or did I kife it from someone? Intriguing question. Intriguing indeed. But I definitely ramble slash have rambled toooooo much.

CNN.com - CIA chief has 'excellent idea' where bin Laden is - Jun 20, 2005

"That is a question that goes far deeper than you know," he said. "In the chain that you need to successfully wrap up the war on terror, we have some weak links. And I find that until we strengthen all the links, we're probably not going to be able to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice.
"We are making very good progress on it. But when you go to the very difficult question of dealing with sanctuaries in sovereign states, you're dealing with a problem of our sense of international obligation, fair play. Asked whether that meant he knew where bin Laden is, Goss responded: "I have an excellent idea where he is. What's the next question?" Goss did not say where he thinks bin Laden is, nor did he name the country or countries he was referring to when he spoke of sanctuaries. But intelligence experts have long said they believed bin Laden was probably hiding in the rugged mountainous border region of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
-CNN.com

So if he knows where he is and our military is in Afghanistan and Pakistan is supposedly our ally, what's the deal? Why are we in Iraq at all if there are no connections between Iraq and Bin Laden? We should be pursuing Bin Laden with all of our forces and resources. Granted- our military is capable of maintaining a two theater war, but it's a symbolic gesture. As long as Bin Laden walks free, his very survival mocks American power. With all of our military might it takes us three years and we still don't have him. So what does that tell the rest of the world? We need to take him on. His capture has become to the war on terror what Stalingrad was to German offensive on Russia(and I'm not comparing us to Nazis I'm just using it as an example of the symbolic nature of certain targets. So basically, we should punish those who attacked us without injuring innocents unneccesarily. Focus our efforts on the symbolic targets and illustrate to the world that we are in fact powerful, while being compassionate of those residents of the Arab world caught up in the Islamists' deceptions.


"The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline," Cheney said. "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

On Sunday, U.S. Sen. John McCain said he disagreed with Cheney's assessment that the insurgency was in its 'last throes' and called on the Bush administration to stop telling Americans victory is around the corner.
'What I think we should do,' the Arizona Republican told NBC's 'Meet the Press,' 'is wait until we achieve the successes, then celebrate them, rather than predict them. Because too often that prediction is not proven to be true.' -CNN.com

Picture

Here's a picture for all of y'all. And I'd write something but I have class tomorrow at eight. In the morning. For two hours. And I'm incapable of writing a sentence that's more than three words long. So there's that.
This picture is the view from our campsite last saturday morning. And I just tried to write 'our camping spot' and then realized that there was a word for that. My vocabulary is really suffering as a result of I'm not quite sure what. I'd say movies but as I really don't listen to them all that much anymore; or watch them for that matter, it's probably not the culprit. It could be music but as I never know what the lyrics actually are, also probably not a very good candidate for culpability.

Randomness

Seven candidates are vying to succeed President Mohammed Khatami, a reform-minded cleric barred from seeking a third term.

Though Khatami was elected by landslides in 1997 and 2001, many of his initiatives were blocked by clerical hard-liners who hold vast power under Iran's Islamic system of government.
-CNN.com

Even Iran, a part of the 'Axis of Evil' has elections. And?

Earlier this month, an Islamist Web site posted the names of 390 foreign fighters it said have been killed in Iraq.

The site said that the greatest number of foreign fighters came from Saudi Arabia, followed by Syria and Kuwait.
-CNN.com

Supposedly dictatorships cause terrorism. So why do most of the terrorists come from Saudi Arabia, our closest ally and one of the most liberal states in the Arab world? And why do the ETA and the IRA exist in Spain and Ireland? In democratic governments. I fail to see how terrorism is a result of authoritarian governments.

The Promised List

1. My sunburned leg.
2. Jelly fish stings.
3. John wandering around Munich with no shoes cause the girl sandals he bought for four euro broke.
4. The grocery store at the Milan train station: SO flipping cool. And the Bloodorange juice we got there.
5. Doner Kebaps. So freaking tasty.
6. Not watching any TV or listening to any music for two weeks. Rather liberating.
7. The 85 Kilometer Bike ride that gave me my sunburned leg.
8. Learning Italian from some random lady in the train from Montereggio to Genova. She was really patient with me.
9. The little store we went to in Montereggio to get some bread and wound up buying a bunch of crap cause the lady kept giving us samples and the samples were dang grood.
10. Berlin smelling good slash riding on the U2 subway.

Europe

It's been a while so I don't know where to start. First of all- Europe was awesome. Trains and cool people and lots of beautiful old things. I feel some sort of responsibility to give a blow by blow account of it all. But it's been two weeks and I also want to give a running commentary of my life now. And some political commentary thrown in the mix. Which- interestingly enough was the reason I started this blog. To offer a particularly insightful way of seeing the political culture in which we live. I fear that I've failed on that account. So there's that. So I think that I'll just make a list of cool things that I remember and leave it at that. Only I'm too tired to make the list now. You'll just have to wait until tomorrow. Cause I'm sure there are so many people reading this today that are going to have to wait until tomorrow.

Here's this thing about Musique that Hannah passed on to me among others:

Total volume of music files on my computer:
16.78 GB. That's 10 days.

The last CD I bought was:
In Good Company Soundtrack


Song playing right now:
"Donde Estas Corazon," Shakira


Five songs I listen to a lot, or that mean a lot to me:
"Hands Down," Dashboard Confessional
"Such Great Heights," The Postal Service/ Iron & Wine
"Sitting, Waiting, Wishing," Jack Johnson
"Two Fine People," Cat Stevens
"Homesick at Spacecamp," Fall Out Boy
I had to not use some songs cause they were on Hannah's list and I felt dumb using the same songs. But I have a lot of songs that I listen to repeatedly and that are significant to me so limiting it to five was hard and it helped to have Hannah take a couple made my job easier.

Five people to whom I’m passing the baton:
John
Jewell
Jenna
Girl Randi
Will