hat an extraordinary moment in our Nation’s history. I have never felt so proud to be an American. I am proud that so many Americans chose to exercise their right to vote—many of them first-time voters (and many of those young voters).

I am proud that our country has once again affirmed to itself and to the world that we are a people of unlimited potential and possibility. And I am proud beyond words to have lived to see our Nation’s first African American President. I am touched by Eugene Robinson’s emotional words last night, as the results came in: for the first time in our Nation’s history, all fathers can say to their sons, “You too can be President someday.”

Those words are now true. There will be many challenges ahead. The problems we face are real and complex. But today, at least, our burdens seem lighter, our national spirit stronger, our future brighter. We have turned the page, and the next chapter remains to be written.

For the past few days I’ve debating whether or not to make any personal endorsements for the upcoming election. This is, after all, a mountaineering website, and with all the competing campaign messages bombarding us, it’s been nice to keep SierraDescents as a sort of non-political safe haven (illusory or not).

That is, until I happened to browse my site today and found political ads running all across it, including a particularly contemptible ad run by the Prop 8 proponents, courtesy of Google.

I’ve pulled all Google advertising from my site, and will keep it pulled through tomorrow.

Let me also state my strong opposition to Proposition 8, which would amend California’s state constitution to deny same-sex couples the right to marry.

Since California’s constitution guarantees people equal treatment under the law, the only way to deny same-sex couples the legal right to marry in our state is to specifically single them out in our constitution and exclude them from equal protection.

That’s called discrimination.

Normally, we write laws—and especially Constitutions—to prevent discrimination; not codify it.

Same-sex couples already have the right to marry in California. Since they’ve been doing so, it doesn’t seem to have undermined my marriage. It doesn’t seem to have undermined anything, in fact.

The fabric of our society has not unraveled.

As the Los Angeles Times writes:

Look at what Proposition 8 is actually about: a group of people who are trying to impose on the state their belief that homosexuality is immoral and that gays and lesbians are not entitled to be treated equally under the law.

This is not who we are. Vote NO on Proposition 8.

UPDATE: I should clarify that Google the company is not paying for these ads; Google is simply running these ads on its ad network. There was apparently a spirited internal discussion at Google as to whether or not to carry pro-Prop 8 ads on its networks (Google itself has a strong anti-discrimination policy). Google did not, however, offer its publishers (like me) any warning that these ads would be coming, nor any easy way to quickly opt out of running them—except pulling all Google advertising, which I have done.

**UPDATE 2: as of 7 a.m. Pacific, it appears that California’s Proposition 8 will pass by a narrow margin (52%-48%), thus stripping an estimated 18,000 California couples of their marriages—the price of ‘redefining’ marriage.

…under your mattress. It looks like the Bailout has failed to pass the House. NYT reports a second vote has been scheduled.

It’s been hard to come up with a subject to write about this week. Every backcountry skiing or hiking related topic I’ve thought of just seems a little…off topic.

So I will go off topic to stay on, and relay a dream I had last night, in which MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann was moderating a joint emergency House and Senate hearing on the current financial crisis, and the proposed bailout.

Politics Alert dear reader: (more…)

ARS Technica is reporting that Nike found comments made by an anonymous poster on the Yahoo Message boards so egregious the company has allegedly asked the Chinese Government to track down the source.

The story begins when Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang (a Nike-sponsored athlete) pulled out of preliminary heats in the Olympics claiming he’d suffered an injury. Nike found a silver lining in this by running the usual ‘love Sport even when it breaks your heart’ ad campaign featuring Xiang. Then some internet rumor-mongerer posted a bit claiming he had inside information that Nike asked Xiang to withdraw because he had no chance to win, and the injury story would allow Nike to continue running successful Ad campaigns.

The mature official response, presumably, would be to ignore nonsense posted in a chat room. But instead Nike turned to “the relevant Government departments” to identify the source of the posting.

China is well known to be one of the world’s most aggressive monitors of internet usage, heavily restricting what pages Chinese citizens are allowed to see, and diligently tracking their every online move. That Nike would turn to such a notorious government and ask them to use methods illegal in the USA to round up one measly internet lone wolf is surely one of the biggest potential PR blunders in the company’s history.

How does this fit with Nike’s painstakingly-crafted corporate image of individual freedom and expression? It doesn’t. Says ARS Technica, “Nike to China on fingering anonymous blogger: Just Do it.”

More info on this story at Cnet

Could any other city in the world have staged an Olympics opening ceremony to match the scale and spectacle of Beijing’s debut Friday?

I doubt it. My jaw kept dropping as I watched what will surely be remembered as one of the most awe-inspiring opening ceremonies in Olympics history.

Any one of the many set pieces would have been the centerpiece of any other games. But ceremony director Zhang Yimou (China’s celebrated film director) delivered one ground-breaking moment after another, flowing easily from symbolic imagery to sublime artistry on a scale that Olympic audiences have never before seen (more…)

The Island of Forvik is now accepting applications for citizenship. Qualifications? Apparently all you have to do is pony up one Forvik Gulde (approx. £60 pounds sterling).

Never heard of Forvik? It’s a small island off Scotland owned by Stuart Hill, who recently declared independence from the UK. Mr. Hill (who also happens to be Forvik’s only resident) wants the island to be a crown dependency ala the Chanel Islands or the Island of Man.

If the idea of being king of your own country, however small, appeals to you, you’ve got to admire Hill’s moxie. But maybe we should wait till we learn more about Forvik’s backcountry skiing opportunities before sending over the cash for citizenship.

Meanwhile, I’m going to have to look into getting my own island…or maybe I’ll just declare my block in West L.A. an independent territory.

Tired of getting tongue-tied when the subject of Benito Mussolini comes up? Looking to impress your friends with your knowledge of the roots of Fascism? In the interest of public service, here’s an amusing little history lesson.

The funny thing is, initially this didn’t even strike me as that big of a milestone. I mean, oil has been hovering around the $70-80 per barrel price for so long (relatively speaking), that I’d gotten used to the idea.

But wait a minute—only a few years ago, I believe the OPEC nations were saying that the ideal price would be in the $30 per barrel range, and that they would adjust production as needed to keep the price there.

In case you’re wondering why OPEC would want to keep prices down, the thinking at that time was that higher prices would lead to unwanted consequences, such as conservation, people driving less, buying more efficient vehicles, and turning to other energy sources. So OPEC wanted to keep the price of oil in that sweet spot where they charged as much as possible without damaging consumption—those old ‘maximize the function’ problems that you hated so much in college math class.

So why are oil prices now some three times higher? A big part of the answer has to be growth in the developing world… (more…)