winsor

In Provincetown or Key West, no. In East Bejesus, Idaho, why not? In Perris or Z hills, no. At a Acrophobes Anonymous meeting, why not? I do not know about deserving, but one gets used to it. BSBD, Winsor

I thought he was on the side with the best artillery. It is said that God is always on the side of the big battalions... God is not on the side of the big battalions, but on the side of those who shoot best. Voltaire

I have a .40 Firestar, which, thought small, is hefty due to its steel contstruction. With full-patch loads, its weight is an asset. Some time back, someone from New Jersey asked what kind of gun she should carry for self protection. I recommended a can of Easy Off. "Have you seen a young man without a face running by here? He dropped his knife." If the issue comes up: "Why were you carrying a can of oven cleaner?" "I'm a sloppy cook, and my oven really needed cleaning. When that youngster pulled a knife on me, I panicked and sprayed him." In addition to being legal to carry, it does not make your ears ring if you use it without earplugs. BSBD, Winsor

God and what is of our own creation. ... FIFY

My niece is a cheerleader for the Ravens, so my sister and her ex get free tickets to the games. They just saw the one on Sunday. I know her ex would kill to get the Super Bowl, since he cares about football for some reason or another. At any rate, I consider the possibility to be rather unlikely; given Tebow's performance, it seems even God can't beat the Patriots.

To refer to fiat currency as "real" money demonstrates an insurmountable level of ignorance. Not to suggest that this is a bad thing, mind you...

Hey, Lesbos is Christian! Greek Orthodox, at any rate.

I understood there would be no math.

Strongly disagree. Rugers LCP, or Little Copy Pistol, because it is a rip off of a KelTec 380 design, may be fun to target shoot but the 380 round sucks for self defense. I don't want to get shot by any gun, but if I had to chose I would rather be shot by a 380 than a 45!!! At the minimum I would go with a 9mm, and the heaviest 9mm self defense round that you gun will shoot reliably and that you shoot accurately. Go heavy. For a Business Piece, the "go heavy" recommendation works. For a Social Sidearm, the equation is a more a matter of concealability, reliability and intimate familiarity than it is terminal ballistic performance. Rule number one in a gunfight is "have a gun." I wound up at a match once where the events were pistol, .22 rifle, benchrest and offhand with the same rifle, and trap. The only pistol I had that day was my PPK, and I was able to keep it in the black (at 25 feet IIRC). Whatever you have, knowing it cold is critical to prevailing in a clutch. You are a lot safer jumping a rig on which you have made 1,000 jumps in all conditions than on a "new, improved" system you have just figured out, and it is the same with a defensive firearm. When you are full of adrenaline and scared shitless (if you are not, you probably do not need the firearm), you really do not need to be screwing around trying to figure out which is the safety and which is the slide release, etc.. Being in a position where lethal force is indicated has little to recommend it. One of the drawbacks that is rarely mentioned is the nonzero likelihood of collateral damage. If you empty your wondernine into a very dangerous assailant and achieve 9 hits out of 17 rounds fired, where did those other 8 rounds go? If you hit an innocent, that is entirely unacceptable. At any rate, the only justification for the use of lethal force is to stop an attack. If you shoot to kill, you are in the wrong. If you shoot to wound, you are also in the wrong. Shot placement that results in an effective stop is very likely to be lethal, but that cannot be the primary goal. A KelTec .32 is puny, but it is very reliable with self-defense loads. It is simple to use, and easy to carry when dressed for jogging. If someone is far enough away that you cannot empty it between their chin and sternum without missing, you probably do not need to shoot. When all is said and done, the best form of self-defense is real estate - put as much of it as you can between you and trouble, as rapidly as possible. If you must witness violence, let it be on the 6 o'clock news, and if someone wants to call you a coward, let it be a long-distance call. BSBD, Winsor

Having had a canopy collision, I am kind of a chicken. I still have scars from the line burns - and I got off easy. I was a load organizer at a boogie where the most experienced person in my group was near the door. We were all in agreement that, if he did not see sufficient openings in the clouds at breakoff to opening altitude, we would ride the plane down. A couple of tandem masters kept yelling "GO!" when our spotter kept shaking his head. To which I replied "Fuck you!" We then let the tandems jump and rode the plane down. While we were ready to eat the jump tickets (I would have paid for the group to avoid having yet another near-death experience at the very least), the aircraft owner put us an another load when it cleared up. He approved of my decision to err on the side of safety, having had to deal with the aftermath of too many bad decisions over the years, but took me to task for doing anything to freak out the tandem students/passengers. He was right about my reaction to the TM, and I greatly appreciate his support of a safety-related decision. If you want to jump and I do not, and the pilot has turned on the green light, I will do nothing to impede your safe exit. After that, you are on your own. BSBD, Winsor

Nothing new.

Pay attention to the bumper sticker: "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." Pretty persuasive stuff, eh?

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. 'That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.' Christopher Hitchens

If so, it is a real kluge.

wtf?

ya, duh...who cares? Those of us capable of drawing the distinction.

When we first went to Somalia back then I opposed the action, and recommended pacification by means of Arc Light strikes on Mogadishu. Needless to say, some of the more gentle of my co-workers concluded that I was heartless, and that we should be there to help the poor Somalis. After the Blackhawk Down incident, the sentiment was that I was too timid by limiting action to conventional weaponry. It is a point well taken. Turning Mogadishu into a big parking lot would be a huge improvement. BSBD, Winsor

A couple things.... First, the safety of everyone on the plane comes ahead of regulations in my world, and an unrestrained body is a very dangerous thing in a crash, or even in a "hard landing" for that matter. The last thing I want is the weight of a human body on top of me as we pull a few G's (which, by the way, is a good reason to not just put your belt on but also pull it tight). Second, if the pilot isn't concerned about jumpers wearing their belts for takeoff, I'm concerned about the pilot and what else he/she doesn't care about. BTW, I doubt you'll find any DZ operation with a waiver allowing jumpers to leave belts off during takeoff. If you're going to debate, be realistic. I like to think of myself as being a pretty good pilot, and have emerged alive from circumstances that have killed many another pilot. Having said that, I avoid like plague the aforementioned circumstances, since the outcome was by no means assured. One thing that scares the hell out of me is having an unsecured load of meat aft of me while low and slow - like while taking off. I do not care who you are, if everyone moves aft suddenly such that a stall is induced right after take off, you're screwed. Of course, you then have the unsecured meat, cameras and what have you serving as projectiles when sudden deceleration results. If you are on my plane, you wear a seatbelt. That is not optional. BSBD, Winsor

When Michael Vederman impacted the runway from ~80 feet up, there were no vitals when people got to him (a matter of seconds). As luck would have it, he hit a few feet from where a Trauma Center RN was talking shop with a Trauma Center MD who worked elsewhere, and they went to work on him immediately. Having watched the whole thing happen, I was glad that I was not the first person there, since I would have been obligated to continue CPR until someone could pronounce him dead - which was the obvious outcome. At any rate, the ambulance left at a leisurely pace - but turned on the siren when entered the highway. We looked at each other, asked "what's the hurry?," and shrugged. It turns out that the EMT was trying to intubate him, and Mike was thrashing. The EMT said "Sit still!" and Mike did. The EMT said "Holy shit, he's responsive! Hit it," and the driver engaged afterburner. Thus, my sure knowledge that cardiac arrest from blunt trauma is not recoverable was disproven, and the tuition for that lesson was high, indeed - Dead Mike is still with us. BSBD, Winsor P.S. Even though I like Mike a lot, and am glad he survived with a great attitude, I am still grateful that someone else beat me to CPR. They found teeth in his lungs and stomach...

Conceding that a naive customer should be blamed for the over-zealousness of a twit wearing a shoulder patch. No thanks. And badges! You forgot the badges!

I agree, open carry is much more of a deterent. No, not really. With OC, the criminals know *exactly* who is armed and who is not. With CC, they don't know who *might* be armed. When Indiana Jones pulled his pistol on Belloc, he then found everyone else in the cafe pointing a firearm at him. After a gunshot is heard during the concert, Buckaroo Banzai and the Hong Kong Cavaliers immediately break out a massive amount of previously undetected firepower. Open carry is like advertising that you have a great hand during a poker tournament. Concealed carry avoids betting the ranch right off the top. If you can run away without an assailant ever being aware that you had lethal force available, so much the better. When your only option is to clear leather, the issue is very much in doubt. When possible, keep it out of sight and out of the equation. Never bluff, and shoot to stop if absolutely necessary. BSBD, Winsor

wtf?

+1 I think a nice little S&W .38 SPL would work fine...I haven't noticed a problem with accuracy...besides, if you have to use it chances are you'll be up close and personal anyway. btw, they make 'em in pink too! How embarrassing would that be to be shot with a pink gun? Like parachute systems, the choice should be the one on which you would stake your life. There is enough anecdotal evidence of successful stops with a .22 and of complete misses with a .44 that the "perfect" choice is a personal thing. Skill and confidence are what prevail in a clutch. If you wind up leaving the thing at home because it's too big and heavy, it is far from optimal. If it is well suited to the range, but subject to fumbling in the dark, it should likely be relegated to the range. Simple and effective is the way to go. A J-frame S&W or its equivalent, plus a lot of practice and defensive training, is a good place to start. It is not overpowered, will not destroy eardrums if fired indoors, does not have enough flash to ruin night vision, and is likely to change an assailant's game plan if on the receiving end. Again, a defensive firearm is like a reserve parachute - it is good to have it available, but you should plan very carefully to avoid ever having to use it, since it may not be enough to get you out of very serious trouble. BSBD, Winsor

Make that 5772 years. Plus "seven days," of course. Then again, it could be that a narrative was used to justify the "zero" of the calendar, and perhaps the Mayans just picked an arbitrary maximum. Kind of like "640K ought to be enough for anybody."

...and I sleep like a baby. You wake up screaming every three hours? That does not sound like too much of a bargain.