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Gaetz, Boebert, MTG, Trump, Giuliani, Sidney Powell have no parallel among the Dems. Pelosi wasn't in thrall to the most extreme elements of her party when Speaker. No Dems ever rioted over bogus election fraud claims or put up slates of bogus "electors".

Bravo indeed. I go to AZ several times a year to visit guys I served with. We're all moderates and the politics in AZ are so divisive it's not funny. I hope you're right that it's a start towards working together. Now, if we could just get Kari Lake to sit down and STFU; it may go further toward relations.

Please define "loony and extremist left". Please give some parallels to MTG, Boebert, Gaetz, Lake and the rest. How many sexual predators have the "left" condoned and excused. Cuomo resigned as governor of NY after credible accusations. Al Franken resigned as Senator from MN after a picture came to light. The false equivalence of 'the Ds do it too' is disgusting. Fun fact: When Paul Pelosi was attacked, the Rs came up with some incredibly stupid and hateful fantasies about what had happened (I won't call them 'theories' because they have no basis in ANY actual facts). When Ted Cruz's daughter attempted suicide because the right won't accept her for who she is, the response from the Ds was... Support. Not hate. Besides, the 'left' in the US wouldn't even be 'moderate' just about anywhere else in the world. The Ds would actually be right of some of the 'conservative' parties.

Arizona republicans just voted to expel representative Liz Harris for ethics violation. She sponsored conspiracy theorist Jacqueline Breger to come to the Arizona House and present a slew of election-denial conspiracies during their investigation of the election, including accusations that governor Katie Hobbs and house speaker Ben Toma were being paid by the Sinaloa cartel. Harris supported her in these accusations. Bravo to most of the Arizona republicans in the house for putting integrity and honesty ahead of partisan politics. More of this could help heal the massive divide in this country between right and left.

I suppose the court system has always been heavily politicized. When I read about various justices being nominated I am often surprised at the senate battles that have occured. To my eyes the most objectionable thing is the Federalist Society and it's success in vetting judges throughout the federal system leading to the very contentious rulings lately that are part of the culture wars. And clearly the D side has responded by learning the game and is now feverishly trying to fill as many seats as possible with nominees they see as being on their side. But they are not nearly as organized about it as the other side has been for the past 20 years. This is just another aspect of what is required by your call to fight back. And Dianne Feinstein seems to be too proud and stubborn, possibly too senile to realize the roadblock she is causing by refusing to step down.

Same model. But currently democrats don't have that problem. When AOC says something dumb (which she does all the time) democrats call her on it. When a democratic politican is investigated for pedophilia - or if there is even good evidence that he has committed any kind of sex crime - they are gone. This happened to Franken and Conyers. When the roles are reversed, republicans defend these people to the bitter end. MTG has become one of the heroes of the right specifically for saying dumb things, and she is now a party leader - because she "triggers the libs." The party is defending Matt Gaetz who is under investigation for sex trafficking of underage girls. When Dennis Hastert confessed to fondling underage boys, Tom Delay wrote to the judge to ask for leniency. When Trump was accused of sexual assault by almost a dozen women - his ratings went up among republicans. Both sides certainly have problems, and have people that say and do stupid and criminal things. Always have, always will. But the party's responses to them are absolutely not equivalent. This one case is evidence that that may be changing, and I very much hope it does. But there's a ways to go.

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning.

April 13th, 2023 Here we are: 103 days into the new year and we have amassed 147 mass shootings to date (but, the day is just beginning). 213 killed. 566 injured. What in the serious fuck is going on in this country. https://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

People disgrace themselves once they accept the money. Thomas was a disgrace the day he sat righteously indignant in front of the senate judiciary committee.

If they were deserving of this waiver, the clergy would be insisting that part of the penance before the offender could get absolution would be to report their wrongs to authorities (even perhaps through legal counsel) and stand subject to the consequences. Saying a certain number of prayers should never be sufficient.

Agreed. And in some ways a civil war is brewing within the GOP between the Trumpies and the conservatives. It would be nice if the conservatives won.

If I were the sheriff or chief of police in that district, I would lay a beating on the murder weapon - with a large and heavy hammer - before handing it to the auctioneer. IOW destroy the gun or render it inoperative before handing it to the auctioneer.

Discovery should be very interesting. Doesn't suing your lawyer mean all those attorney/client communications have to be disclosed? Trump is an idiot.

The only person who could connect the two would be Cooper himself and thats never going to happen, apparently. Carr interviewed Weinberg to see if Weinberg had any idea who the man DB might have been - results were apparently negative. The DB case is full of 'apparentlies' and little hard evidence, so far. For example: if bones were found today in the LZ area and dna was extracted from the bones and teeth, could that data be connected to the partial profile the FBI claims to have? So far as I know, nobody in the public domain can answer that question ??? Moreover Ulis introduced turmoil and split the Cooper community. That was intentional on Ulis' part. There isnt even a functioning Cooper community for discussing the case now.

Or, you could change parties and fight the enemy from within <smile>

The main reason Liz Harris was expelled was for going too far. By going too far I mean that her attack dog that she lied about included some Rs in her outrageous claims. If she would have only attacked the enemy and not engaged in deliberate friendly fire she would have been given a pass.

Imagine the scenario where Bigun goes to a GOP political event. Then starts to espouse his views on gun control. Do you think his life would be in danger? Its more than the money. For the GOP the gun base is so central to sustaining power. That there is not likely a single issue that is larger......OK money is right there next to guns.

You can not win on this, not even on a skydiving blog. You're a cool dude and a real thinker but your false equivalency bit when it comes to the harms done by the different actors is unsupportable. If you want to call yourself a moderate at least register as an Independent.

You know perfectly well that the GOP is the only obstacle to doing something about it. Until the GOP can break itself from the clutches of the gun lobby nothing will happen. Even the majority of GOP rank and file support (for example) universal background checks but the GOP pols are so tied to the $$ that they won't do anything about it.

Yes, if the trigger is fully dislodged from the pocket, and you have a reserve first deployment (not a cutaway from a partial malfunction), you could tow the reserve pilot chute, and you would want to release the snap shackle on the RSL/riser. NOW, think about the actual process here. You have the MARD that weighs about an ounce, which means it is easy to accelerate and decelerate (Newton's First Law of Motion), that is being held in a tightly packed reserve container. It's likely going to take around 30 lbs. of force to get the MARD to start to move inside the packed container, let alone move the full inch required to clear the trigger from the pocket. Without doing the math, that's going to take a MASSIVE hit to the right side of the jumper's body. Enough of a hit that I think there's going to be two dead jumpers regardless of if their reserves open or not.

It's OK. As long as you say you're sorry to God, then you are forgiven. <snarky sarcasm>

It may not have been a clear-cut business interest, but Crow invited several other power brokers to these events/trips who did have direct or secondary interest to the SC's calendar and/or opinions. (Source: news broadcast -- I can't recall at this point who those additional parties were, or what interest they had. Tough to take notes while driving)

I remember him; I was at a protest with my niece a couple of weeks before that, and saw him and chatted for a couple of minutes; nothing significant (it was hot out; always a topic in a Texas summer). Yes, he was an ardent Libertarian and open carry proponent. That open carry thing scared the other guy with a gun. I'll bet he didn't come up with the gun pointed, just over his shoulder (where it was when I saw him). Wendy P.

They are like sports fans, they only care about their team. Facts don't matter if they aren't in your favor. Integrity, nope. Decency, nope.

What types of aircraft are the Indian Air Force using to train AFF? Illyushin IL-76, C-130 and C-17 are too fast for graceful AFF. Once students progress beyond the first few harness-hold jumps, these would be fine for later practice jumps especially with rucksack, rifle and snowshoes. How many Antonov AN-32 are still in Indian Air Force service? How slow can an AN-32 fly jump-run with a light load (say half fuel) and the cargo ramp open? I have done tandems from Dornier 228, but that side door is a bit low for AFF. The Dornier factory-supplied aluminum, accordian-fold door is a nuisance. You would be better off without or with a modern slide-up door made of clear Lexan (see most North American civilian jump-planes). You would also want to add grab rails both inside and outside the top edge of the door. I have done plenty of harness-hold jumps from Beechcraft King Air, with a similar-sized door, but the medium-sized door is far from ideal. Those medium-sized side doors are silly for jumping with rucksacks. Mi-8 and Mi-17 helicopters would be perfect. Just tell the pilots to open the cargo ramp and fly jump-run at 80 to 100 knots. Harness-hold jumps are easy at those airspeeds. HAL Chetak and HAL Dhruv helicopters would be fine for smaller AFF classes, because they only carry 1 or 3 AFF teams at a time, but still tell pilots to fly jump run at 80 to 100 knots. How tall is the tail ramp on Dhruv? In summary, slow-flying (80 to 100 knots) aircraft with cargo ramps are the first choice for AFF. Slow-flying aircraft with tall side doors (say 1.5 to 2 meters) are second choice, but require more setting-up outside the door before letting go. Finally even a half hour in a wind tunnel will vastly improve and AFF program. Are there any vertical wind tunnels in India? As an aside, I have jumped from more than 30 different types of aircraft .. some cramped ... some comfortable ... some easy to exit ... some a struggle to exit ... Airvan, Breezy, Beechcraft D-18 (3 different-sized doors), Queen Air and King Air, Britten-Norman Islander, Cessna 172, 180, 182, 185, 205, 206P, Soloy Turbine 206U, 207, 208, 210 and a light twin, DC-3 Dakota, deHavilland DHC-4 Cariboo, DHC-5 Buffalo, DHC-6 Twin Otter, Dornier 27 and 228, Ford Tri-Motor, C-130 Hercules, Maule, Pilatus Porter, Piper Cherokee Six, Quest Kodiak, Shorts Skyvan and Skyliner, and Westwind conversion of Beech 18. Helicopters include: Aerospatiale Alouette II and A-Star, Bell Huey and Jet Ranger finally CH-47 Chinook.

The raising of the deployment altitude BSR took a while and was approached with much debate and consideration. Several factors contributed to the change: Longer deployments have become the norm. The old altitude BSR's date back to the days of 7-cell F-111 canopies when 400 to 500 foot deployments were the norm and primarily only higher deploying students used AAD's. Many canopies today routinely take 900 to 1,000 feet to open and most experienced jumpers are AAD equipped. A simple math check shows that a 2,000 foot deployment on a canopy that takes 1,000 feet to open puts a jumper dangerously close to the AAD activation altitude, and puts the jumper AT the AAD activation altitude if anything delays the deployment (late p/c toss, burble hesitation, longer than normal opening, etc.) Next, there has been an issue of long reserve deployments after AAD activations. The reason isn't completely clear - possibly p/c in the burble, long deployments after slow speed mal cutaways, p/c temporarily snagged on the jumper, etc. For this reason, some jumpers have adjusted their AAD's to fire higher than the factory setting. This in turn creates the above mentioned deployment altitude conflicts. Less important but still part of the debate was exit altitude. On average, exit altitudes have gotten higher - much higher in many cases - over the years, and that has minimized - in the perception of many, anyway - the importance of humming it to minimums. I know a lot of skydivers and only know a few that routinely take it to the bottom unless they have to for traffic, big-way protocols, etc. In conversations I have personally had, almost no one was against raising deployment altitudes. As for waivers, there are times when jumpers have to deploy lower than the BSR minimums. Demo's are an obvious example. There are many times when a cloud base is below minimums but still high enough to allow a safe jump by qualified jumpers, so a waiver makes sense. There are probably nuances I have forgotten and anyone with a better memory than me are welcome to contribute. Hope that answered your questions.