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I'll bet that $34.8 million a day to deal with the aftermath is a pittance compared to how much we waste arming and preparing good guys who seem unable to prevent school massacres or even stop one that's underway. As a nation we spend $300 Million a day on our Police. China spends only twice that on their entire defense budget. 40% of the Ulvade City budget goes to their cops. The average Texas homeowner, in a state with the 7th highest property taxes in America, pays $3400 per year. Think about having paid that for 20 or 30 years after you've been pepper sprayed, put to the ground, and handcuffed by those cops for trying to go unarmed into the school to stop a maniac from killing your kids while those same cops, armed to the teeth and with kevlar protective gear were too afraid to help. We need police. We need to pay them right, treat them right and give them the respect the job deserves; it is hard, dangerous work done right and they need to know that we know that truth. What's wrong is that we sell the job as a paramilitary assignment and, consequently, too many heroes in their own minds, like the Ulvade cops, join up. Too many are like gang bikers: they love to push around the weak and avoid the strong. If we need to pay up to get the right people then let's pay up. But it should be obvious to all now that just throwing military gear at applicants to get them to join is a failed plan. A Police Captain friend, smart guy and exactly the kind of guy you want, once told me that when you go out on a serious call you never know what arms you'll be up against which is why they need to be prepared with serious weapons. Okay, that makes sense. But where do we stop before we start saying easier access to guns and more guns for everyone is the real problem? We are devolving here in America. The Second Amendment as amended by Scalia will be tossed into histories trash can some day. The sooner the better, I say.

Bingo..

Four CEOs of beer companies are having a meeting and they decide to get a drink. The CEO of Budweiser orders a Bud light. The CEO of Miller orders a Miller Lite. The CEO of Coors orders a Coors Light. The CEO of Guinness orders a Coke. The three CEOS then ask him, why aren’t you ordering a Guinness? He replies: “If you guys aren’t drinking beer than neither will I.”

Sure, and further for sure who am I to argue? I could give a rip about the content of a posters posts. If I'm annoyed I can just block them, and did. Of course, I still need to be exposed when others quote reply but that's endurable. That all said, it does make the forum unenjoyable for me when one poster so dominates with shotgun and unattributed posts to the point where for the first time in my experience here the program tilted and gave notice of a posting overload. Trolling is less of an annoyance and that's no bueno. Why not the rude crashing of the system with insistences?

This, a thousand times this. Every piece of data is an opportunity to test your assumptions, thoughts, beliefs, and convictions. There's not always time, but it's a good exercise regularly. Incident reports had me putting my RSL back on, and things here have had me rethink positions as well. That doesn't make me weak, it makes me smart enough to understand situations can change, and that I can be wrong. Wendy P.

Maybe when it comes to gun rights; the whole "I'm in charge" thing is a very male thing -- it's just that in American (and much of the world) society, what you can be in charge of is largely driven by the institutional structure, and in the US, that's mostly white. But how often do you hear about machismo, or "rap bad boys?" I think that the desire to dominate is in some part biological, exacerbated by testosterone and socialization (exacerbated is carefully-chosen word in an increasingly crowded society that frowns on simply eliminating your opponents). So the other-racial-group manifestations tend to be within subgroups, or families, because then there is a possibility of domination. Women aren't immune to me-firstism either, but they've had, as a rule, precious little opportunity to exercise it outside the home. For awhile, that might make female leadership desirable, as cooperation seems to increase then. However, give it a couple of millenia, and I'm sure that folks can change that. Wendy P.

Hi, my name is Tracy Chris was my best friend when he was in the Dallas Ft Worth area. I made sure he had access to food and a refrigerator when he was living at the airport in Decatur. I was there every weekend and stayed in the little room with him. He became part of my family. I’m 62 now and my daughter wanted to look through my logbooks. And there were my favorite entrees. Not because I jumped with Chris but it was he illustrated. Our jump with the best drawing’s. When we open my book today tears came to my eyes…. How I miss him Chris’s was there for her birth. She is 38 now. I loved Chris very much. I got to meet David Armstrong and one of his brothers as well. I would love to get some copies of any art work you may have. I haven’t jumped since Chris’s accident. It just wasn’t the same anymore. please if there is anything you are willing to share I will take on the expenses and make sure you get everything back it it’s original form as well as digital…. feel free to call anytime Tracy 817-862-1258

Given what happened, this is more than just a little bit prophetic.

Well, whites are about to lose their majority. The idea that they could someday be treated as a minority is terrifying to them - because they remember how THEY treated minorities. So they feel they will lose something very important to them.

That's your choice. I'm sure you are ignoring the fact that they are far more likely to do you harm than good. You doubtless think you are an exception, same as everyone else.

All, I'm Chris' little brother, Tony. I so glad to see his friends remember him. One of the last conversations I had with Chris was when I told him I was joining the Air Force. He called me an "Air Dummie" and he invited me down to San Antonio in two weeks time to take me on my first jump. He died a week after our conversation. I've now been in the Air Force nearly 22 yrs and think about him all the time through the eyes of my first son, Christopher. Thank you all for all the pictures and memories. Blue Skies... Tony Bickerdike tony@bickerdike.net