winsor

Aieee! They are the Malvinas!

"I shall return..."

Not all felonies are created equal. Back in the day, felonies were serious violent crimes. Nowadays, after decades of "grade inflation" minor non-violent and even victimless crimes are classed as felonies. They shouldn't be, and they should not disqualify anyone from owning and carrying a firearm. FWIW, until recently in Virginia any sex except missionary position between husband and wife was a hanging offense. This dated back to the 17th or 18th Century and was not generally enforced, but 'the good old days' left much to be desired in terms of evenhanded jurisprudence.

Women marry men hoping they will change and they don't. Men marry women hoping they will stay the same and they don't.

That would be "datum."

Our chief weapon is surprise...surprise and fear...fear and surprise.... Our two weapons are fear and surprise...and ruthless efficiency.... Our *three* weapons are fear, surprise, and ruthless efficiency...and an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.... Our *four*...no... *Amongst* our weapons.... Amongst our weaponry...are such elements as fear, surprise....

Most Americans don't know the difference between Christian denominations, either. That's what we have the Irish for. In a lot of cases 'religion' is simply an identifier for ethnicity. Indigenous bog-trotter = Catholic Imported Scots foreman type = Presbyterian English land owner = Anglican "So, what's your religion?" "I'm an Atheist." "Would that be a Catholic Atheist Protestant Atheist?"

Complete separation between branches of government in the sense that someone who is a member of the Bar is Judicial Branch for life. Members of the Bar may not hold elective office in the Executive or Legislative branches. Those who practice the law are forbidden to write or enforce laws. A drop in the bucket, but it's a start.

RTFB. There are specifics whereby all these people are commanded to kill.

News flash: It's YOUR ass going out the door, not the person pushing the button. Stick around and you will see people come to grief by simply exiting when the green light comes on. As far as the 'rules' at one DZ or another, the physics do not change based on location. I have seen all too many DZs who relied on the aviation motto of "I'd rather be lucky than good" (look up the '45 degree rule'). If you pay attention, you will notice more near misses at places where the people in charge do not have a clue. Just because I have jumped at 100 or so DZs (16 in one day once) does not make me an expert in and of itself. However, I have a string of other credentials that do. BSBD, Winsor

I'm impressed. Somebody who gets it. Can you explain it to me? Sure. It's your basic frames of reference scenario. The reference planes of interest here are at exit altitude and at opening altitude, certainly not the surface. The exit interval times the aircraft's speed with regard to the airmass at opening altitude gives the effective separation at opening altitude. Since this tends to be less than the separation at exit altitude when flying into a headwind, and since the potential for overlap due to freefall drift and tracking increases as groups decend, the greatest likelihood of interference between groups occurs at opening altitude. Thus, the difference between wind speed at exit altitude and that at opening altitude provides a key parameter for evaluating freefall separation. What happens between opening altitude and the ground should be under canopy, which is a whole different can of worms. BSBD, Winsor

I still remember the story my father told me of the reciolless rifle. He said it was generally a good idea to stay clear of the rear of the rifle when it was fired. Same goes for the M72 LAW, the 84mm Carl Gustav and the M67 90mn recoilless rifle. I knew one guy who got caught in the backblast of a 90mm, and the scar pattern was amazing. A bit closer and he would have had part of his torso removed in the process; as it was, he got a medevac out of the deal and well-deserved disability thereafter.

M40 106mm recoilless rifle

Canada Mexico Iceland England Scotland Ireland (Erin) Wales Denmark Sweden the Azores Spain France Belgium Luxembourg Holland Germany (West, East, Unified) France Italy Switzerland Lichtenstein Austria Czech Republic Hungary Serbia Romania USSR (Russia) Turkey Tunisia Thailand Vietnam Hong Kong Japan

Canada Puerto Rico* Scotland France Germany Czech Republic Austria Switzerland Italy Serbia

Pear review is important.

On the Chesapeake, Stansbury Yacht Basin is a pretty good choice. Good facilities, walking distance from Martin State Airport ($11 ramp fee, but what the hell). BSBD, Winsor

Aye, matey.

Rick Santorum

I got a kick out of this. Just because something is published by the Scientific Media does not mean it has better reproducibility than does work on Phrenology, N Rays or Phlogiston. I will admit to being partial to vetted work, but have come across published articles that represented a dead end in a research path by virtue of depending on non-conformal matrix operations, treating vectors as scalars and other fundamental oversights. I am suspect of scientific research by anyone but a true skeptic, and consider any results as being tentative as a matter of course. BSBD, Winsor

You left out the option for the video of the beheading itself. Some time back I fucked up and played a video of Chechens beheading a captured Russian soldier, expecting it to be the expurgated version. It wasn't. I nearly threw up. I now have absolutely no use for Chechens in any way shape or form. Same goes for any group that spawns ISIS. If they were all to simultaneously choke on chicken bones, I would consider it to be a good thing. BSBD, Winsor

The perception of the current party's track record is not particularly valid; doing a rain dance when a tropical depression is about to hit does not make one a rainmaker. Presiding over bubbles that make the tulip craze look well-reasoned does not constitute turning much of anything around. The Mormon thing concerns me. It's roughly on a par with Scientology, and sets the bullshit meter off at twenty paces. The incumbent speaks glowingly of Islam, which I find as appealing as the people who look at the '30s in Germany as the good old days. My copy of the Koran is right next to my copy of 'Mein Kampf,' and it is hard to tell which is the more execrable read. It's like the dated joke, Q: What's the difference between a Spice Girls video and a porn flick? A: The porn flick has a better sound track. Note that I'm not calling him a Muslim, but can quote him speaking well of Islam. Anyhow, the best any recent president has done is to briefly bring expenditures in line with income (hooray!), but the tendency is to spend money in a fashion that would embarrass a drunken sailor. When drunken sailors run out of money, they quit spending, but we have indebted ourselves way beyond the tipping point. Again, it was fun while it lasted. BSBD, Winsor

No, not entirely true. Though median is considered a form of average, the term average is most often used referring to mean. True. One person with an IQ of 10 and 90 people with IQs of 101 result in an average of 100 overall.

FWIW, I find the use of torture to be appalling and a national embarrassment. Unfortunately, the current administration seems hell-bent on outdoing the previous one for managerial mediocrity. They both suck, and nothing on the horizon looks like an improvement. During the last go around, the Mormon at least had a track record of taking struggling organizations and rendering them profitable. In the long term, that may be the key to our national survival - but I suspect it's too late for it to make much of a difference. What little I know of Sheriff Joe suggests that he is a scary idiot. BSBD, Winsor