Elite_Marksman

When I was doing Honor Guard for a Veterans Day event with Air Force ROTC at a local high school, we had some parent call 911 because "There were two men in Army uniforms with rifles." Yes, there were four cadets there in our dress blues, two of us had de-miled M1s, one had the Air Force flag, one had the American flag...

Never said I was in favor of them having access. Merely stated that legislating that someone doesn't have access and reality being that one doesn't have access are two very different things. And no, I don't believe those who are known to be mentally unstable should be able to legally own firearms. Not that that will stop them from acquiring one should they so desire.

Or they might not, it is impossible to know what would have happened either way. Either way if he really wanted to come into possession of a firearm do you think a law would have stopped him? I will repeat, the ONLY thing that gun control laws prevent is LAW ABIDING citizens from possessing firearms, and LAW ABIDING citizens are the ones you have the least reason to fear.

jjudd, no matter how good a person is at their job, they are still a person. People make mistakes, rarely are they intentional, and often they don't realize they are making the mistake. Perhaps the person was slightly distracted, their mind was on something else, they just had a long term relationship end, a friend or relative die, and they overlooked a small detail. When the act that they are performing has the potential to cause harm, a prudent person will check over their work at least twice, and if practicable have another also check over the work. Mistakes still happen. Even assuming you found a way that you could pack your canopy the exact same way every time, and deploy every time in the same stable position, you will still have line twists and you will still have serious malfunctions. The reason there are malfunctions isn't necessarily that the canopy was packed wrong, or the bridge was designed wrong, or the steel was fabricated incorrectly. The reason there are malfunctions is because the universe is full of chaos. When you stick a funny shaped object (skydiver) into a moving fluid (air), especially if the fluid itself is already behaving chaotically (our atmosphere), the fluid makes a burble behind said object. What happens inside this burble is completely and utterly unpredictable, it is the very definition of chaos. If you do it enough times there WILL be burst of air that throws your pilot chute around your foot, there WILL be a vortex that gets the PC upside down, there WILL be a burst of air that causes the canopy to twist. Apply this concept to non-skydiving, in all aspects of our lives there are and always will be results that have at least some degree of unpredictability to them. We will NEVER be able to accurately predict the weather more than 8-10 days. It is not because we don't have the knowledge to be able to model the events, it is because those models are so incredibly complex, and in the case of weather, are equations that we will never be able to solve, only approximate. Add in the fact that anything man designs suffers from the same defect as man and you should be able to see that no amount of thoroughness will be able to prevent all malfunctions, and no practical amount of thoroughness will prevent all human error. To assert otherwise is to fail to see, or at the very least, comprehend the magnitude of our flaws.

I live in NJ and looked into getting a CCW. They pretty much don't issue unless you are an armed gaurd, a PI, retired LEO, or you can prove you "need" it. I also don't understand why I can buy a shotgun or hunting rifle at 18 with a Firearms ID, but I need to be 21 and have a Handgun Permit to buy a handgun. Both make you equally dead if I go crazy and shoot you...

Sorry, I haven't seen any police riots. All I've seen is police using the appropriate amount of force to disperse crowds.

Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you do it enough you might actually gain wing loading.

That will just get his kid suspended... I earned myself a 2 week suspension in 8th grade for giving a bully a black eye and a broken nose... AFTER he tried to shove my head through the bus window and choke me. I guess I also earned his respect/fear because he didn't fuck with me for the next 4.5 years, so it was worth it. My parents were pissed, until they saw the video that I only acted after I was attacked, then they were pissed at the school for suspending me for defending myself, but I guess that's the current world we live in.

I'm not exactly sure why good arguments negate the need for weapons. I have lots of really good arguments as to why people shouldn't rob other people, but sometimes a weapon of some sort is needed to make the bad guy understand...

Thanks for all the advice. My next chance to jump isn't until 11/4 unforunately, and it can get quite cold in November in NJ... Tentatively supposed to be mid 50s and sunny though, so I'll keep hoping.

I really, really, really hope you are joking. That article is quite possibly the WORST example of reporting I've seen in recent years. Living just 20 miles from Philly, we have a lot more articles about what happened in that basement. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/21/us-captives-philadelphia-idUSTRE79K6SY20111021 http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/21/justice/pennsylvania-disabled-chained/ http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Police-conduct-wide-probe-in-Philly-basement-case-2227447.php

Some departments, especially the larger ones, have computer systems in the car that recognize license plates and run them without officer intervention. In the ones that don't, except for the smallest of departments, they can enter the plate into their MDS and it will come back with any information the state DMV has on the vehicle and registered owner.

Yeah, I know why my ears pop. What I meant is that occasionally (only happened of 3-4 of the 15 or so flights) it would take 5-15 minutes after we reached cruising altitude or landed before my ears would equalize. I tried chewing gum, yawning, everything I could think of, but I couldn't get them to equalize when I wanted them to. Maybe I had a cold or something then, not quite sure. The first two were 5 years ago, the last 1-2 times I was too airsick to remember anything else (little Cessna 182 on a rather windy day through some mountains).

Perhaps that is because many people feel that abortion is wrong? Not necessarily for religious reasons, but many people do feel that abortion is immoral. That said, de-funding Planned Parenthood in general is just stupid, because they do far more than abortions. The Hyde Amendment on the other hand is great, preventing federal funding from being used to (IMHO) commit state-sanctioned murder. Maybe I'm just a dumb man, but when you have sex, you are presumably doing so with the full knowledge that the biological purpose of sex is to procreate. Therefore, by having sex, you are accepting the risk of conceiving a child regardless of any birth control methods used. Personally, I believe that life begins at conception, not because of any religious background, but because absent any genetic defects or abuse of the fetus, it will in all likelihood progress to a live birth. In my opinion, the mother does not have the right to unilaterally end the life of the child despite the fact that it is using her body to survive, because when she conceived the child, she did so with the full knowledge that the purpose of the act is to conceive a child. Also, I believe that the father (if he can be determined...) should have input in the decision to perform an abortion. Obviously he cannot force or coerce the woman into having an abortion, but the woman should not be able to kill the father's child. Personally, I would prefer if abortion was not allowed in this case either, but that's just my libertarian fantasy world speaking. The only case where I accept abortion is in cases of rape, incest, and if the continued pregnancy endangers the life of the mother. I know that if I ever got a woman pregnant and later found out that she had an abortion, and I knew the child was mine, i would likely be spending a good deal of my life in prison.

Welcome to America.. Not really the Land of the Free and now home of the brave face in our police state. I wouldn't exactly call being obligated to follow basic traffic regulations in order to have the continued PRIVILEGE to drive a police state. Just because everybody does 5-10 over the speed limit doesn't mean it's right. The speed limit is exactly that, the MAXIMUM permitted speed. People that don't use their turn signals or activate them too late are a common cause of accidents, and the line has to be drawn somewhere. In most places, that line is 100 feet, unless you want to give police even more leeway and have the laws say that the signal must be given with "appropriate warning" and let the officers decide what appropriate is. As for the stop sign, is getting a ticket for rolling through a stop stupid? Yes, but it's not a yield sign, its a STOP sign, therefore you must STOP. That said, I had to recently fight a red light camera because I made a right on red. The camera thankfully provided video and it was quite obvious that my wheels were not turning at some point before I entered the intersection. The PD told me that you have to "stop for 5 seconds." I called his BS and contested the ticket in court, since nowhere in NJSA Title 39 does it say I have to stop for 5 seconds, it says I need to come to a complete stop and yield to any traffic. There was no traffic, I did stop, judge dismissed the cite.

In the grand scheme, allowing police to pull you over because the registered owner's license is expire is insignificant. If an officer really wanted to stop that particular vehicle, he just has to follow it for a mile or two, the driver will do SOMETHING wrong. Maybe you put your turn signal on 50 feet before a turn instead of 100, or you're doing 29 in a 25, you roll through a stop sign at .001 mph...

No, they're just being politicians and doing what politicians do best... The ONLY reason the troops are coming home when they are is that the Iraqi government has refused to grant US troops immunity from criminal prosecution.

If they have the materials to convert an AK BB gun into a real AK, they already have a real AK ffs... Upper/lower receiver, bolt, trigger mechanism, and barrel are the important bits. There is no way in hell a BB gun would withstand a rifle cartridge firing in it.

Sadly I couldn't jump today. Got to the DZ and it was almost solid overcast. Maybe 11/4 if the weather cooperates.

I never said there were WMD in Iraq in 2003, there may or may not have been we'll never know. My point was that Hussein repeatedly showed the world that he was willing to use chemical and biological weapons as well as commit mass murder. Because of this his regime needed to be ended. It should have happened in 1991, it took 15 more years and the "reasons" we invaded in 2003 may or may not have been fabricated, but it needed to be done. That said the UN needs to take a much more proactive and aggressive role in "peacekeeping." Currently UN "peacekeeping" is a joke. The soldiers need to be armed and they need to be authorized to use force in defense of not only their lives but also the lives of others. That the UN refuses to involve itself in situations where there is a clear need for outside intervention (Darfur, Rwanda, Burundi to name a few) is a disgrace. It is long since time that an individual nation's sovereignty is nullified when it commits or allows serious crimes against its people to be committed.

This, and the fact that even if his arrest/stop is not legitimate, resisting is still a crime. As for the "Go stop real criminals" line. That needs to go away yesterday. Many "real criminals" have been stopped on traffic offenses. Besides, an officer does NOT need to be 100% sure you have committed a crime to detain you for questioning, he needs only probably cause that you have committed a crime. Registered owner of the car has a suspended/revoked license and the car is on the road? Unless it is obvious you aren't the registered owner from outside the vehicle, which it isn't... that constitutes probable cause to believe that an offense is being committed. If the officer determines that in fact no offense has been committed (driver of the car is not the registered owner and has a license), the officer releases you and you are free to go.

Hussein did use gas against the Kurds as well as against the Iranians in the Iran-Iraq war. Not to mention his campaign of genocide against the Kurds, the commonplace murder of his political enemies, his son Uday's crimes were at the very least overlooked, if not condoned. While there may or may not have been chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons present in 2003, his regime needed to end. It should have happened in 1991, especially when many Iraqis revolted hoping UN forces would help them, but better Hussein be removed from power 15 years late than to have his son take over who would likely have been just as bad. As to why the middle east, Africa, and eastern Europe are as screwed up as they are today is entirely a different story, but we can't undo the imperialism of the last 300 years.

Heh, the current car is a '99 Saturn with 143k on the clock and I need it to get to/from work, school, and one day the DZ. So it needs to be replaced sometime. And no rent, living with the parents still, so all I really pay for is gas for my car, books, and the data plan for my phone. Used to spend a bit going out with the gf, but thats an entirely different story...

The end of the world better wait until at least 5pm or so. I am going to be pissed if I die before jumping out of an airplane for the first time.

If it really did work that way our energy problems would be a thing of the past. Assuming that you could convert one form of energy into another at 100% efficiency, adding a turbine that generates 350KWh (removes 350 KW per hour from a perfectly closed system), you would need to add 350KWh more into the system in order to keep the flow rate constant. Since we're not talking theoretical physics and perfect systems, but instead talking real life, you cannot convert energy at 100% efficiency. The best wind turbine cannot achieve more than 59% efficiency, and more energy will be lost converting the mechanical energy of the turbine's rotation to electrical energy, some portion of which is lost to heat due to resistance. You would be lucky if a turbine generates 35% electrical energy of the energy it extracts from the air flow. So, if you generate 350KWh from a closed system, you would need to add 1000KWh into the system in order to keep the flow rate constant.