This 10,000 volcanic mountain on Maui is dormant, but not extinct. These photos were taken from the top, where the winds at times were 60 mph with a temperature of 49. Hypothermia weather indeed. A park ranger told me the weather can be anything from idyllic to heavy snow. Winds can range from 0 to 120 mph.

Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa on the Big Island from eighty miles. The triangles of white are snow, not clouds. I’m told this much snow on them is quite unusual. Both are over 13,000 feet. I’ll climb one someday, yes I will.

This is the crater. it’s a 3,000 foot vertical drop to the crater floor. The dark field in the front is a more recent lava flow. Didn’t get to hike down there this time, but will next trip!

I love being above timberline in alpine desert terrain, if you couldn’t tell.

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Their cover story on the US plan to send death squads to Iraq to kill insurgents is titled “Death Squad Democracy.” They oppose it, which shows that antiwar sentiment has indeed reached the mainstream.

A seasoned veteran explains why this is doomed to only create more enemies for the US.

Because we’re talking about the supposed Salvador Option, I figured I’d get back in touch with Joaquín Villalobos, El Salvador’s most brilliant guerrilla leader. Now at Oxford, he favored the Iraq war in 2003, but is dumbfounded by the direction the conflict has taken. Villalobos was dryly analytical, as ever. “The problem of repression and its possible effectiveness corresponds to five basic elements: proportionality, the scope of the conflict, time, a context that favors a multiplier effect or not, and the ability to control what you’re doing.” If so, a helluva lot more fine tuning is needed than we’re likely to see in Iraq any time soon. “If the generals think that with the hatred against the United States that exists in the region, with the divisions in Iraqi society, with Syria, Iran and others around, starting a dirty war is something that will give them an edge, they are totally and absolutely lost and desperate,” says Villalobos. “Invading Iraq without a post-war plan created chaos, subsequent mistakes converted the chaos into organized resistance, and if they keep blundering ahead blindly, they’ll convert the resistance into a real civil war.”

Iraqi victim says U.S. torture worse than Saddam

Allawi says nationwide Iraqi polls impossible as 25 die in attacks

Public opinion is now against the war. Let’s get into the streets for however long it takes until this vile, illegal war for oil and power has ended and the troops are home.

Momentum growing for Counter-Inaugural demonstrations on Jan 20 in D.C., L.A., and S.F.

Be there.

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Internet junkie fights to combat addiction

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