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And that, right there, is what I find most scary.

I can't help it; This whole conversation keeps reminding me of:

Language politics can get real stupid, real quick. Starting around the time I was born, the Quiet Revolution radically changed Quebec language politics. Back then Canada was dominated by a handful of English-owned banks headquartered in Montreal. Montreal was the biggest and most heavily industrialized city in Canada. Just as soon as they slipped the bonds of Union Nationale hold on power, rising Quebecouis politicians decided that after 200 years of oppression by the British, Union Nationale, Roman Catholic Church, major banks, etc. it was their turn to oppress some one else. Too bad nobody bothered to remind Quebecouis that they suffered under a rather boring occupation. Brits did not bother with the usual rape, pillage and plunder (compare with recent Ukrainian experiences at the hands of Russian invaders.) During a single generation, Quebec went from an almost feudal, agricultural backwater to hippy-dippy, free-love, more liberal than they can handle, etc. This several generation gap also brought a dramatic drop in fertility rates. Circa 1960, Quebec had the highest birth rate in North America, but that rapidly dropped to the lowest birth rate in North America. Since they feared being out-numbered in their own province, Quebec politicians introduced a variety of laws to force immigrants to attend French-language elementary schools, etc. Insignificant Frenchmen wanted to immigrate to Quebec. OTOH plenty of Haitians and North Africans wanted to immigrate to Canada. Granted, they were Catholic and they spoke French, but - HEAVEN FORBID - they were black! Horror of horrors! Funny, but my mother taught kindergarten for 20 plus years and she always had a few immigrant kids in her class?????? The principal always found a way to sneak in the best and brightest immigrant kids. 45 years ago I grew weary of that sort of language politics, so I moved out of Quebec. The last time I went back was for my father's funeral, just before COVID-19 hit. He was my last family member still living in our home town. Sadly, most of my Anglophone high school classmates had long moved out. But the most amusing part was all the recent immigrants and refugees from Muslim nations: Afghanistan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Syria, etc. Few of these refugees speak French when they arrive. Their women dressed more like Catholic nuns than modern Quebecouise women. Hah! Hah! Bottom line, Quebec politicians have a history of shooting themselves in the foot with language legislation.

Even simpler is to tie a piece of toilet paper tube to the bottom end of your strip. To help it withstand freefall winds, you might need to telescope 2 or 3 pieces of toilet paper tube.

At the very least can we please get a decent waiting period if you want a gun? Any gun. Not discriminatory. There is simply no situation anyone can reasonably find themselves in where they NEED an AR-15 that same day.

Hi Ian, Since the device will be a crude, 1-time only thing, rather than cutting a hole in it [ maybe difficult to get your hand out, if needed ], just get a small piece of plastic tubing, fold over one end & sew the tubing in. This gives you something to easily hold yet easy to get rid of, if necessary. Jerry Baumchen

Over on www.homebuiltairplanes.com we discussed an even simpler method for spreading ashes from an airplane. Just take a long strip of [canopy] fabric and pore the ashes along the center-line. Fold the edges in lengthwise, then roll up the strip. Once out in freefall, allow the strip to unroll and release the ashes.

Bat shit crazy continues in MAGA town. https://www.yahoo.com/news/drama-brewing-magaverse-pro-trump-080121729.html

This is Jerry Girdlers ash dive from a few years ago. The effect from the ground of the ashes is pretty impressive. I think I modified that tube from just the 2 lines to 3 to keep the opening of the tube more horizontal, although once air is in the tube those ashes are gone!

I've done it 3 times that way. The ashes blow up thru the tube very cleanly and keeps them out of the jumpers face and gear. I just used a couple of wide and long rubber bands to hold the package closed with a pull-up cord tied to the rubber bands and tucked under to make a good handle for pulling the rubber bands off. The trick to get it to work well is to spread the ashes out about 2 feet of the length of the tube. That keeps the weight from slumping lower than your hand when you pull the bands offf. I'll post a pic when I get home of the ash dive for my Best Man from a few years ago.

A guy arrives home at seven o’clock in the morning, stinking of whiskey, to find his angry wife waiting for him. She shouts at him, “You’d better have a darn good reason for coming home at this time in the morning.” “Of course I do,” replies the guy. “Well then, what is it?” asks his wife. “Breakfast!”

If you are someone who needs to believe it's not the guns but it's something else like healthcare, that is to say, uncared for mental derangement, you have a few hurdles to leap. The first hurdle is the constant exclamation that there was no prior indication of derangement by the perpetrators of these gun killings followed up by the assertion that even if there were heretofore unknown indications none would have been discovered by a common background check. So let's give you all of that but, to be fair, we'll assume that you would be keen on finding those unknown indications so we might prevent at least one mass shooting in the future. Great. You still have an empty bag. So what about this potential indication: an 18 year old kid wants to buy two AR-15 style weapons, 1800 rounds of ammunition and a dozen or so high capacity magazines. Is that an indication of potential mental instability? Is that something that should be halted until a little more investigation happens? Is that something a gun shop owner should deny by law or be held responsible for allowing? Is that a reason to have gun control laws? That's the problem. Either you believe mental instability is the issue and can be seen or you just want to use it as a trope so you can ignore the horror of these mass shooting events. Which one are you?

With the cost of traveling all the way from Uruguay, and the cost of tunnel time, putting the money in (coached) skydives will probably get you to your dream a lot faster, and have a better all round preperation with good exposure and skills in freefly, formation skydiving and more..

What is your definition of free speech? Being able to call someone an asshole or a pussy? Being able to rail against minorities using the N-word? Going unchallenged when saying that Hillary Clinton eats babies, Donald Trump is worse than Hitler, or that this should be a Christian country? Never being told “you’re wrong?” Always having people agree that the country has gone to hell because of the liberals? Ive never been constrained by the rules on dz.com, but then I don’t find that calling people names or pejoratives helps a conversation. Conversations are about talking with each other — no-rules shouting matches are much more about talking at each other. No thanks, been there, got sick of it. It’s all well and good to say that others have open minds. It’s much more important to have an open mind one’s self. Maybe accept that others have reasons for their beliefs and actions that are consistent with how they are — that acceptance, even when you can’t understand how they can see the same fact set and come to a different conclusion — that’s an open mind Unmoderated also means the 1-10 people a day joining the forum to advertise drugs, love spells, furniture, accounting services, fake passports — those are also free speech, right? Wendy P.

Hello everyone, I'm Ralph from Uruguay and like Future Hetman, I became skydiver because I love so much Wingsuit, all time saw YouTube WS jumps and I didn't believe when I knew my AFF Instructor make WS, and now I can see and share Fly with a Birdman all time, life is amazing, so now I've 130 jumps and have the unique possibility to go with him to WS tunnel to learn fly, this chance not means that after tunnel I'll go to buy a suit and start flying, because I know its very dangerous and I need more experience, skills, 200 jumps to start course and train. So the question is: what do you think about I take some hours of WS tunnel before complete 200 jumps ? and then continuos jumping to complete the minimum required to make course with Javier Rodriguez in Argentina. Don't let your dreams be dreams. Many thanks for read my words and appreciate so much your sincerely answer. Blue skies. Ralph.

Well - except mass shootings did go down during the assault weapon ban. Even that poorly written piece of legislature had an effect. And in countries that have better laws (Australia, the UK) mass shootings virtually stopped. So they do work. People just don't want them.

Hi airdvr, From the very bottom of my heart: THANK YOU Jerry Baumchen

Jerry, The Ulvade massacre has me very disturbed and disoriented, much like a hit to the head. All of these shootings have left me somewhat unhorsed but this one, where the cops were standing by armed to the teeth and yet paralyzed by fear when parents were fighting them to get into the school to save their kids is simply too much. I read that one dad was put to the ground and cuffed to keep him away. A mother was cuffed after pleading for the cops to act, then released, and then scaled a fence to get in to save her kids. How can anyone in authority believe this is how we should live?