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A good man. Maybe not the greatest president, but a good man who lived a good life.

Apparently, I'm from Ecuador.

One of the reasons he wasn't a very good President was because he was such a good man. He didn't seem to grasp how evil some people could be. His work worldwide with election monitoring, and here in the US with Habitat for Humanity were both excellent examples (and not the only ones) of his genuine goodness. He was a much better 'former President' than actual President.

I'll never forget chatting with you at Eloy one year, Bill. I was there judging a competition -- can't recall if it was Nationals or Collegiates. Met Mark at a civilian demo my teammates were jumping, then met Andrea with him at Fitz. They were kind enough to put me up for a night another time when I was taking the LSAT at Stetson. Super awesome people. Robert (TheOnlySki) hooked me up with VPNs before they were easily available commercially for my times living abroad. Big thanks to David (Kasch) coming out to Turkey with his spirit of adventure. We did some great scuba diving and I gained some great ideas for where to take my family when they eventually came out as well. If not for COVID, I believe Kasch would have found a way also to explore Papua New Guinea during my last post. Though no longer jumping, I am still judging (and much more available for that since I retired from the Marine Corps), so competitors should keep an eye on the CF judge lists internationally, and both CF and FS/VFS (indoor and outdoor) judge lists within the US. I would love to continue connecting. Also, I plan to get my account going on Bluesky within the month. My profile name likely will be different, but I still connect my actual name to my accounts. Thanks everyone for the political (domestic and international) discourse and for giving me a way to stay even more connected to skydiving when I had to stop. Tanya Murnock

First POTUS in MANY years to bring decency to the White House. Something we may not see again for awhile. At least 4 years anyway.

They do call you Bigun Wendy P.

We sold both our bikes a couple years ago. More and more we were just riding them to stay current enough to ride. Locally, I’d rather ride a bicycle (wonderful trails) or just hike. Wendy P.

I think you just crossed the line: no prayers for you! ***I like to think of the Soup Nazi saying that as he snatches a bible out of your hand.

Actually Reagan and Tip got on very well and there was a great deal of cooperation. McConnell promised to block everything Obama wanted to achieve in order to make him a one term president.. tip.jfif

What’s with you and Bigun being rational right leaning people? That was an interesting article. It seems the primary reason for prison is to make Joe Public feel good, rather than solving a problem

Nope, it's Obummer's fault all the way. Apparently the worst president in history, according to my reliable MAGA sources. Top men, y'know Wendy P.

Just so you know, there is life beyond dizzy.com

https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-loses-appeal-e-jean-carroll-5-million-defamation-verdict-2024-12-30/ Appeals court upholds $5M verdict against Predator Trump for defamation and sexual assault.

Who's been watching too much Fox after their bedtime?

It's classic troll behavior. I'm surprised you are playing his game.

Of course he's lying. It's what trolls do.

About 35 years ago I was a new skydiver, jumping at a tiny DZ on Long Island and dreaming about moving somewhere new. I spent some of my free time at work posting on rec.skydiving - a Usenet group that catered to skydivers. It was a different time back then. To be able to get to Usenet at all means you needed a modem and a computer, both pricey purchases, and you needed to be able to get them to work together, which meant you needed some tech experience. As a result, not many people were on Usenet - just me and a few other tech nerds. And there was hardly any spam! Slowly over the years more people figured it out and started joining. I remember TooyT, Barry Brumitt (wrote the first skydiving FAQ!) Lance Kirwin, Kevin O'Connell, Dave Appel and Jerry Sobieski. I also met Amy on there, which changed the course of my life in a big way. I moved to California in '94 both to escape a bad relationship and to skydive. And of course because I found a great company - Qualcomm - in San Diego. By that point Usenet was becoming a cesspool of Viagra ads and foreign bride offers, and filters had not gotten good enough yet to remove all that, so browsing it was painful. So when Willem announced he was starting DZ.com I felt a big sense of relief. He got in touch with me to see if I wanted to moderate S+T and Incidents, which I said yes to. We started with a complement of about a dozen moderators, some of which I got to know really well. I spent a day in San Diego with Andrea watching whales swim by the gliderport, and I spent a few days with Chuck and Katie at Raeford jumping. Derek once built me a tersh just because I was talking about how I needed one (thanks again Derek) and Remi, Karen and I would meet up whenever we were out at Eloy. Seven of us once got together at Eloy and did the now-infamous moderator jump, angled carefully so no one could see Willem's face on camera. I think Eric and Scott were on that one as well. I also met a bunch of other people from DZ.com in real life - Lisa, Keely, Gary, Winsor - and saw them at Perris and at boogies all the time. It grew my circle of friends from Socal jumpers to jumpers all over the US. And even the world; I met some people from the Irish Parachute Club and made a trip out there to jump with them. I recall a lot of drinking. Over time as moderators changed I took on moderation of a few more forums, but to me the S+T and Incidents forum were always the important ones. I got some sort of award - a "skydivers hall of fame" or something from Parachutist for running that, and got on a few podcasts talking about safety and incidents. One of my proudest moments during that time was reading an incident by a newer jumper flying a too-small canopy. He had read one of my many diatribes on "LEARN FLAT TURNS!" and had tried them once or twice. Then one day he found himself flying downwind by accident, and he tried to turn into the wind at 50 feet. He tried that flat turn he had heard about, but there was something off about it (he explained) because he landed hard, tore his jumpsuit and sprained his ankle. The fact that he was complaining about a sprained ankle after a turn at 50 feet under a heavily loaded canopy made me think that maybe this forum was actually doing some good. I learned a lot, too, mainly from the forums I wasn't moderating - forums like General and Gear and Rigging. Based on what I learned about wingsuiting here, for example, I bought a small wingsuit, taught myself how to fly it, started moving up in wingsuit sizes - then met Jari and became one of the first Birdman wingsuit instructors in the US. And over the years we lost people here too, of course. In some ways this place served as a memorial; you could go back and read what Shannon or Taz had posted while they were still alive, and remember them that way. Over the years traffic has started to fall off as people find more social-media options for skydiving, which is a natural evolution. I'm sorry that it will be disappearing sooner rather than later, but nothing lasts forever. It will be interesting to see what happens to the database; all these incident reports and threads on canopy flight have a lot of value (IMO) and I hope we can save some of it. Thanks to everyone who participated on this site over the decades it has been running, and thanks especially to all the moderators who I've worked with - Wendy, Lisa, Andrea, Chuck, Eric, Remi, Meso and all the others. And of course thanks to Willem for doing all the work to set up and maintain this site. See you out there.

You were being a troll.

Ah yes, the "it's always been this way" argument. Reality:

The 'shitty thing to do' I was referring to is to algorithmically deny people medical care in health insurance companies.

Oh that's what you meant? Well that's hilariously dumb. Of course I know you identify as one of my betters - it's all part and parcel of your closed minded, narcissistic personality. If you just assume you're better then you don't have to risk actually listening to anything.

Lol, what? You’re saying I only think that Trump suggesting injecting bleach and shining UV light as a treatment for Covid was incredibly stupid because you think it was an intelligent and insightful suggestion? You’re saying I only picked you up on your made up climate change predictions because it was you that made them up? What was that about narcissism again? Well it’s certainly impossible to argue against that - because it’s meaningless word salad.

Yep, when your argument started by trying to tell me I meant to tell someone else what they meant it’s really no surprise that ‘whatever’ is all you have left. Of course, if you had a single shred of intellectual honesty or open mindedness you’d admit that you were doing exactly what you were trying to scold me for… but it’s you.

Would that be In Before Aggie Dave ?

I was somewhat curious about the need for a hyphen in his username. j/k of course!

The Discovery Institute is an evangelical protestant think tank that promotes the pseudoscientific concept of intelligent (sic) design (aka "junk science"). It has nothing whatever to do with Cambridge University.

But people who are hot enough that a rich guy might want to bang them is 100% an applicable standard? Reported by who? Now if we're talking about real world standards like actual exceptional qualifications or a job offer, he had neither. So no, I don't think he'd have warranted admission. I mean - he literally didn't at the time, which is why he had to cheat.

Getting old and hurting is why I sold my chopper. I just HAD to have that S&S 124". Back on a geezer glide now, 15 Street Glide.

Yes, your use of exclusively fake 'predictions' is indeed a good example of scaremongering.

IBAD is still my favorite, even after being threatened with a banning for using it. Again.

I've never found horseshit to be interesting. Usually it's just a waste of time.

I've always thought it was a great miss of that data set that the type of incident is not recorded, only demographic data. An incel that walks into a school and shoots children or shoots up a movie theater is different than a gang shooting or workplace violence. The solution to stopping them may be totally different for different types of shootings.

There's a lot of really good reasons to use an 'old school' paper map. As I travel across the country, there's a Rand McNally Motor Carrier's Road Atlas on my dash. I don't use it as much as I used to, but there are still times it's a better and easier choice than the GPS maps (truck computer, old hand held Garmin and Google on my phone.

Interesting, was obviously a bigger thing than I realised

Cross the line and you'll want to burn me, or stone me, or whatever is the currently popular Christian solution to social problems. I have Christian friends who are nothing like the mean, hateful, Christians here. I don't believe what they believe but I know they're good people at heart. Some of you folks, not at all.

O I'm not going to listen to an hour of bullshit. There's no ACTUAL evidence and you know it. Either that or you don't know what constitutes 'evidence'. Edit to add: A quick search found a fair amount on this bullshit. Standard "intelligent design" garbage.

Cross the line, n we stop praying for you. Yes, Thank God for Christianity n the other six churches of God.

I just covered this w/Billy. I'm quite fond of studying history, actually. The vast majority of Americans are studying more recent history. Real history, not the MSM_Mockingbird narratives. That's why the Demonrats just got their azzes handed to them on election day

I'm finding too many Lefties piling on, here. Your reply sounded just like them: ignorant n obtuse. Glad you're aware of the problems associated w/5G n binary weapons systems.

No one benefits when identity trumps capability.

It is an interesting moral question. At what point does an organisation have a moral obligation to deliver it’s product and in the health insurance industry what are the consequences of wrongful denial, or what should they be? Social responsibility is something I’ve started getting very interested in recently. The one that grabs my attention is the large supermarket chains. They actively structure themselves to minimise taxes, in a legal but morally questionable way. Then they replace low skilled jobs with automation and technology like self checkouts. The end result is that low skilled jobs opportunities are reducing in the suburbs, putting more people on welfare. On top of that many elderly people’s social contact comes from chatting to the person at the counter.

More than 10^62 possibilities for a brute force search if you want the shortest route. Would take a while unless you have a quantum computer.

For the same reason it's not premeditated murder to repeatedly deny a beggar money he needs to survive. It is no doubt a shitty thing to do, of course.

Having run a business while I had a wife and kids at home, that is a good reason NOT TO work from home :) Seriously, a partner and kids don’t tend to ‘get’ that you’re working and will ask for odd jobs and interruptions. We ended up renting office space about a mile from home to fix that problem (and I got to see the wife and kids at lunch).

I suspect that a lot of Trump's swing voters will be having some serious remorse when they come to realize what they've done. Not all of them, of course, because a good fraction are too ill-informed/stupid to figure it out.

Hey Bill! That visit to San Diego is the only time I've ever visited the city, so you still get props for being the best tour guide in San Diego that I've ever had! And I'm trying to remember...was that Karl Strauss Brewing that you took me to? Moderating these forums were sometimes the biggest headache, but also the best fun that I've ever had. I'll never get over people looking for "skymama" at a dropzone or boogie, I hope you all weren't disappointed when you met the real Andrea who is a little boring and reserved in real life. I'll always be grateful to Sangiro for believing in me that I'd make a good Moderator, I hope I didn't disappoint. And, I can't leave out meeting Normiss on this site. Talk about a life changing experience via this website, we'll soon celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary!

now the name popped up - it was Amazon!

I miss nerdgirl and Andy9o8

There will be another.