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That rug really ties the room together.

Disney figured out that their customers include more than just traditional, nuclear families with a husband, wife and 2.5 children. Nuclear families may have been the norm when I was born 64 years ago, but the world has changed a lot since then. Disney is following the money. Disney is far too wise to exclude single mothers. Which reminds me of a friend who is a single mother to two children. She was widowed after her husband fell from a ladder. Would it be wise for Disney to exclude her family? ... because they are no longer a traditional nuclear family? Would it be polite for Disney to exclude her non-nuclear family?

My simplistic gut reaction is that the FAA thinks it is in charge of airspace, and all others, hey, those dummies should check the NOTAMs. Sort of, "If they want info, they phone us; we don't have to phone them." Obviously the communications failures and security agreements around Washington will be more complex in reality.

It’s easy — it’s all about punishment. It’s OK to be able to punish all those other people, but conservatives don’t want to be subject to punishment themselves. And a decent number of them will (ahem) “refuse to comply.” Wendy P.

So guns are now the #1 cause of death for children in the US. Needless to say, conservatives continue to be opposed to any action at all. "A gun ban will never work" is a constant refrain, along with threats that democrats will try to ban all guns. Now, beyond the fact that no democratic leader is actually trying to ban guns, I have to wonder at their claim that bans can never work. Because apparently, according to republicans: Banning trans people from gendered sports will prevent unfairness and inequity Banning/burning books will prevent white children from feeling bad Banning abortion means there will be no more abortion Banning masks will preserve freedom Banning trans people from bathrooms will prevent sexual assault Banning the teaching of black history will keep the blacks from taking over Banning/canceling Disney will prevent impressionable kids from going trans Is it just me, or is there a huge logical disconnect here? https://news.umich.edu/firearms-now-top-cause-of-death-among-children-adolescents-u-m-analysis-shows/

Only managed 1 jump due to winds this weekend but I did way better. More importantly, I FELT better after exit. Still need to work on leg symmetry but everything else is there. Had a really good amount of twist, thought I might get 2 freefalls, but I was able to fix it relatively quickly. I watched it twist up and I was like ah dammit. Time to put some training to the test.

Just saying.

Hi Joe, Update: FAA admits fault in Capitol aircraft incident - POLITICO Looks like the buck has stopped. Jerry Baumchen

I agree with everything Wendy said except for her 5th point. Human birth rates are declining and populations will start declining around 2050. Human birth rates have been declining since circa 1970. Once young women get enough education that they can earn dollars outside of the house, they also realize that modern medicine has reduced infant mortality rates to the point that most of their children will survive to adulthood. Ergo little need to birth more than 2 or 3 children. First World birth rates have been below replacement rates (2.2 children per woman) for even longer. Second World birth rates have also been declining to below replacement rates. It is only a few Third World countries that still have high birth rates. See Nigeria which is the most populous country in Africa and projected to exceed the population of main land China by 2050. How Nigeria can feed that many mouths with a swampy Southern coast-line and an arid northern third is a mystery to me??????? Low birth rates force First World countries to accept thousands of immigrants per year to do lower-paying jobs. For example, British Columbia has to import hundreds of seasonal Mexican farm laborers (fruit-pickers) every summer because Canadian citizens do not want to work long days for minimum wage. Several first world countries are already experiencing serious labor shortages because of low birth rates. Main land China's "One Child Policy" may have solved a population problem, but it created other problems. Gender-specific abortions reduced the number of baby girls to the point that main land China now suffers from a shortage of brides ... conversely ... an excess of un-married young men. Un-married young men are far more likely to riot, etc. OTOH low birth rates can drive global politics in unpleasant ways. Consider the current Russian problem of too few young men of military age. If you look back a century, a Russian boy born in 1920 had only a 20 percent chance of surviving World War 2 (ended in 1945). Many millions of those deaths were during battle, but huge numbers also died during the Russian Revolution, Ukrainian Civil War,, Stalin's Purges, Holomodor Famine, occupation of Afghanistan during the 1980s, Chechin Wars, etc. Russia also suffered low birth rates during the confusing period after the Iron Curtain fell. Current Russian birth rates are hampered by age, alcoholism and abortions. Age problems are the results of a series of waves of birth rate slumps echoing back to the 1930s. With shortages of young men of marriageable age, few young Russian women want to raise families as single mothers. Alcoholism is caused by all the cheap vodka causing "brewer's droop" and shortening the lives of Russian men since Tzarist times. Finally, abortion is the only form of pre-natal care available to to millions of Russian women. Mr. Poutine felt compelled to invade Ukraine this year, because he knew that if he waited another decade, he would not be able to field enough soldiers. Russia is reluctant to admit immigrants who are visible minorities. This xenophobia is understandable given all the times that Russia has been invaded by: Austrians, British, French, Germans, Hungarians, Kyrgyrs, Lithuanians, Ottomans, Poles, Swedes, Sythians, Turks, Vikings, etc. Moscow suffers from too few natural lines of defense across the North European Plain. THE NEP extends from the Normandy Coast all the way to the Ural Mountains. I want to make it clear that I understand the paranoia that drives Mr. Poutine's current invasion of Ukraine, but Mr. Poutine's paranoid does not justify the current slaughter in Ukraine.

It's been done a few times already. Here's one of them: