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I remember when Col Oli North wrote in his book. "We did what any good intelligence agency did; we turned on CNN." Over the past 30 years, journalism has shifted towards more opinion-based content that is heavy on argumentation and less on objective news coverage. They all chose a lane. FOX, OANN, MSNBC, etc. etc. I'm not sure what your point is - they're all guilty of influence and all have a market that listens.

If you’re asking for drop zone financing advice here, you’re not ready to buy a drop zone. IMHO Do you have a good DZO friend that has been around a while that can mentor you through the process? There are about 101 things to review before purchasing, or starting a DZ from scratch. A nicely run DZ in a good location can be very lucrative. Signed, recovering dzo

Amsterdam. Bidet. You were trying to rehydrate using the bidet.

Because, after all, boys will be boys, but Biden had better not trip up! Wendy P.

Yep. If he turns out to be a boring chief executive who spends his time in meetings, on the phone and in Congress, it will be a huge improvement.

I find that not paying attention to or watching that network is what I can do. Wendy P.

I'm not going to lie - I had to look this up. SB1646 would prohibit parents from "administering or supplying, or consenting to or assisting in the administering or supplying of puberty suppression prescription drug or cross-sex hormone to a child, other than an intersex child, for the purpose of gender transitioning or gender reassignment." The bill would change the state's definition of child abuse to include parents allowing trans minors to access hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and puberty blockers, two types of treatment commonly prescribed to trans minors by medical professionals. Advocates like Adri Perez, a policy and advocacy strategist for the ACLU of Texas, say the bill could cost trans children their lives if passed. https://www.insider.com/texas-lawmakers-propose-bill-to-label-trans-health-care-child-abuse-2021-4 Ya know, I don't even know what to say - Well, Silliness. It's no secret that I'm opposed to abortion and we've had that conversation. But, if my child were to need/want trans . . . let the state try to come for me. I may not have a lot of money . . . 'nuff said.

This, definitely. And that would mean that the rest of us have to pay higher prices. But, ya know -- I can pay higher prices, and spend a larger percentage of my income. What Bigun said up above about the restauranteur angling to get government money rather than paying to bail out his restaurants himself is pretty key. We aren't owed keeping our savings by the government; those savings are to help protect us. I don't plan on divesting myself of all assets if I ever need nursing home care so that I can go on Medicaid -- that money is there to serve me, not my heirs. That doesn't mean that I would turn down disaster funding if I needed it and was eligible, but I really can't imagine myself working my life out to get someone else to pay. Wendy P.

I did dude. Called them 11pm on Friday night (9am NC time) but they are closed on Fridays. Called them 11pm yesterday which was the first time they were back in the office. In the meantime, I thought I'd ask for some advice from other people who may have some.

I recently heard a first hand story (story teller was on-site during the incident) of someone going in on a naked jump at an unspecified DZ in Florida or Georgia sometime in the last few years I believe. A married couple was on this naked group jump, husband goes in... was during a boogie if i recall the story correctly, mid-day everyone in all of their glory. I cant remember if they said nothing out, PC in tow, or reserve not yet fully deployed... impacted at extremely high speed. Wife had to be distracted and forced to put clothes on, according to story she was aware of it on landing or shortly after and was freaking out, understandably. Jumpers had to “wrangle her” and get clothes on her. Other jumpers apparently told police they “cut off his clothes not knowing what to do while administering first aid”.. I guess afraid to get in trouble for the nudity?? Not sure. I can not confirm if this is true, but it seemed like a legit story from a level-headed well known individual, im a poor listener unfortunately. There are others who know of this story I am sure. God bless the deceased, my thoughts are with them and their family. BSBD

Then we might need to go to those schools and get your money back, and beat their asses. CPU and COPD are all capital letters, capisch? That means that all scientific endeavors are supposed to progress at the exact same pace. Got it now?

Well, I was part of a DZ that had a line of credit from a bank. We used that money for 'big' expenses, like rebuilding the engine on one of the planes. Or a new tandem rig (actual purchases when I was part of the club). We had a steady tandem business (maybe 20 every weekend), and a fairly active S/L first jump class (maybe averaging 5 every weekend). 2 182s. The bank had no problem, in part because we had 2 planes for collateral. The LoC would get extended, then slowly paid off. The bank understood we shut down in the winter and would accept 'interest only' payments when we were on winter hiatus. Also, after 4 years of no DZ near me, one started up again this year. The old Green Bay Skydivers reopened as "Skydive Freefall Adventure" on Memorial Day weekend. One of the TIs from the old operation and his wife, who worked manifest at the old place rented the same hangar, leased the same plane and got a pair of tandem rigs from one of the area DZs. I have zero clue what sort of start up money they already had or how much it took, but I know they took out at least some of the money as a loan. Have a business plan. Have projected income (if its already an operational DZ, show the numbers of jumps, each type and the income from them), projected costs, all of that. You can get around the liability question by showing them the waiver and how many successful lawsuits have been pursued against DZs. Do you have any/much experience as a DZO or DZ manager? If you haven't already done this, it's a ton of work. Plan on doing everything, from checking in the cute students to mopping out the toilets. And the standard phrase 'you make a small pile of money in aviation by starting with a big one' is often true. Expenses can be brutal. One way around it is to be as many of your own 'employees' as you can. Do you have a rigger ticket? Commercial piliot? A&P? Those can take a huge bite out of expenses (the bank would like that). I would call this 'difficult but not impossible'.