Bagged Glacier Point October 22, 2007
Posted by admin in : Environment, Irrelevant, Lies, Outdoors/Travel, Photos, Psycho/Spirit, Wild Animals , add a commentThis weekend I bagged Glacier Point. By “bagged” of course I mean I rode the bus up to the top and hiked down the four mile trail.
[ Earlier this summer, Terry and I bagged Mt. Hoffman. We were on a seven day high country loop and we stayed at the May lake High Sierra Camp on day 4. The evening after dinner, many of the campers were hanging out on a ridge watching the sunset, sipping hot cocoa. I was completely fatigued, and although hiking to the summit of Mt. Hoffman was on the itinerary for the next morning, I was secretly thinking I might not make it. Terry later revealed that he was also feeling a little intimidated by that peak, given how exhausted he was feeling. This guy was standing nearby with his party, a little older than us I think. He was staring longingly at the summit and said, "There's another peak I'd like to bag." After a short pause, his wife lets him off the hook saying, "Yeah, but maybe on another trip." "Yeah," the dude says. I wonder how many other peaks he'd like to "bag", but doesn't. Why would he say it, but not do it? It's like a 2-3 hour hike up from May Lake, and we're all staying the night there. If you're ever going to "bag" it, now would be the right time. By claiming to want to but being let off the hook like that, it's almost like he gets credit without actually earning it. Kind of annoyed me. So Terry and I the next morning felt a lot better and decided not to be that guy, and went ahead and did the hike. Mt. Hoffman is in the bag.]
October is a wonderful month to go to Yosemite. There are lots of fall colors going on — yellow maples and red dogwoods. Even the evergreens were browning (I guess from the drought). The temps were cool and comfortable. There are no crowds. I’ve hiked hundreds of miles of trails in Yosemite, although my least favorites are the valley ones. I’m not a big fan of staircase switchbacks, whether up or down. But I only had a few free hours (we took some out of town guests up for a quick visit and they weren’t hikers). I had never done this trail so it seemed like a good candidate for a quickee.
Glacier Point is such an awesome view. I love being high up like that. The Valley is cool, but I prefer looking down on it than up from it. And I loved seeing all the peaks I really did “bag” (hopefully this term will become meaningless soon): Half Dome, Cloud’s Rest, Sunrise Mountain, Mt. Hoffman. I did not bag Echo Peaks, but I sort of humped it once. I took some sunset shots the evening prior and now got some morning video before slogging down the trail.
No bears, although a big grey squirrel scared me.
After the week I had workwise, Yosemite is such fantastic therapy.
Why We Go To Lake Fausse, and What We Do There October 19, 2007
Posted by admin in : Irrelevant, Lies, Outdoors/Travel, Psycho/Spirit, Wild Animals , 1 comment so farAn Alternative History Of Mississippi October 12, 2007
Posted by admin in : Art, Dreams, Drugs, End Of The World, Film, Irrelevant, Katrina, Lies, Music, Timewaster , add a commentJudicious and Effective October 8, 2007
Posted by admin in : End Of The World, Irrelevant, Lies, Political/Editorial , add a commentI’ll go ahead and go on record as condoning torture. My only caveats are that when used, it must be judicious and effective. Judicious meaning, you are absolutely certain that the person whom you are torturing is guilty of the crime, has the knowledge you mean to extract. Effective meaning that the reasonable expectation is that by torturing this one person, many other lives will be saved. I oppose torturing under any other conditions.
But Phineas, you ask, what about the Geneva conventions? If we torture their prisoners of war, won’t they torture ours? They well might. But if they torture our prisoners of war, it’s still OK as long as they do it judiciously and effectively. Right? It’s only wrong if it’s unjust and ineffective.
Of course, the key is how to define judicious and effective. I believe the conditions are almost never satisfied, therefore I oppose all torture.
You know that little Jack Bauer hypothetical scenario trotted out by the pro-torture mob? It asks, what if the interrogator is holding a known terrorist, who is in possession of knowledge of an immanent terrorist attack, and by torturing him, we may save the lives of thousands of Americans? Wouldn’t torture be OK then? Shouldn’t it be legal then? Shouldn’t the President authorize it then?
Here’s my turnaround to that argument: If you are an interrogator holding such a suspect, and thousands of American lives hang in the balance, wouldn’t you go ahead and torture him anyway? The heck with the law, Geneva conventions, Presidential pardons, etc? What kind of person would let thousands of innocent people die just to protect himself from prosecution? If the situation is *really* that crystal clear, what difference should a law make to a sincere person whose only wish is to save lives? Ah, but the situation is never really that crystal clear. Legalizing or authorizing such actions does little more than to provide legal cover for all those practices which are *neither* judicious *nor* effective.