DrewEckhardt

The opposition where I live seems to be small children with squirt guns. What would you recommend? Garden hose.

certainly money management skills should be taught at an early age and they are not - anybody can learn to live within their means. It's a choice to live paycheck to paycheck. (though it can be EXTREMELY difficult to avoid that at any income level). His point is clear - you CAN have $1000 'laying around' (collecting interest) if you have the discipline to set aside $40 a month (2 jumps). You can 'pre-save' for your next car INSTEAD of taking a loan and it saves a TON of money. these are choices, not fate No, it is not a choice for many people. Apparently you've never been poor, or you wouldn't be making such claims. I can tell you that as a young Marine, earning $320 per month, with a wife and child to support, saving up $1,000 was not an option. I usually had to borrow $20 from Navy Relief near the end of the pay period to buy groceries to get through. For many people, there simply isn't enough money to save, no matter how hard they try. That's well below the poverty level for which I made an exception. I've did it at $10 an hour in 1993. We had some inflation between then and the 2000 census, although at that point over 93% of the working households in America were earning more. The median household income in 2000 was $48,000. Half the country earns more. The average American could easily save that sort of money after making different lifestyle choices. Those beyond the bottom 7% should be able to.

Although you can expect car repairs (and maintenance) as your vehicle ages and save for them. A $1000 repair expected every 2 years is $40 a month up front. If you think that the average American keeps $1,000 cash laying around for emergency car repairs, then I believe you have an unrealistic view of the large majority of working families in this country, who can barely get by, living paycheck-to-paycheck. While I don't think the average American keeps $1000 on hand for car repairs, I also don't think it's hard to save that much over a few years once you get a bit above the poverty level. Beers at bars are pushing $5 each, cable or satellite TV can easily run $60 a month, etc. Fast food costs much more than home cooking. Not driving a newer new-to-you car saves a $300+ monthly payment. Communal living arrangements save a lot more. Within the skydiving community, two fewer jumps a month will do it in less than 2 years. I also think that six months of living expenses is a much better goal to cover job-loss or radical reductions in income. No one is immune, just the reasons are different. Small companies go out of business or get acquired with office closures by the new owners. Large companies have lay-offs. Independent contractors are affected by economic slowdowns. That could be under $3000 for a ramen-eating bicycle-riding single person with room-mates or $30000+ for a family with more elaborate living arrangements.

What's fun in 100 jumps isn't going to be safe now, so the average male skydiver is going to go through 2-3 rigs and 6-7 canopies arriving at a combination they're going to keep indefinitely. Some people skip sizes although that's false economy since even a tibia/fibula fracture is going to set you back your $2000 share of the $20,000 total the insurance company negotiated plus the thousands of dollars in lost wages your short term disability insurance doesn't cover (1 week exclusion and 60% of wages is typical). Without insurance it would be very expensive. It also hurts and means no skydiving for a few months. Since many people prefer $600 used canopies with 600 jumps and fresh lines over $1200 parachutes with 200 jumps that fly the same, resales are going to be easier and the total cost to you lower for all those rigs and canopies when the new jumper buys used gear they can resell for what they paid (or at least that less only $1 a jump for depreciation). With patience and an eye for deals the new jumper may even make money in the process. Used gear is a much better idea when the new jumper doesn't want to spend $5500 up front (I paid $1700 for my first set of gear), be sitting on nearly double that when they change containers + reserves, and potentially be loosing hundreds of dollars on canopy changes and more on rig changes. Odd body shapes and sizes may call for a new harness, although that can be a few hundred dollar alteration instead of a $1200-$2000 new container.

Showing any amount of fight often gets you detention, in-school suspension, suspension, or a paddling. Unless you're smaller than the bully (elementary schools involve children with up to a seven year spread in their ages and high-school five) or there's more than one.

Because they've been conditioned to accept their fate as victims and/or don't think that the risk of being a victim is high enough to justify the trouble of carrying a gun. I don't think the risk of fire is enough to carry an extinguisher, but do believe the chances of an accident justify wearing a helmet on two-wheeled transportation and leathers when on a motorcycle.

You probably have a software problem that's causing the operating system to kick up the speed (where it burns more power) and/or not halt waiting for an interrupt in its idle loop. Look at what's running (task mangler in windows, top in Linux, etc.) and stop anything that shouldn't be there.

Although you can expect car repairs (and maintenance) as your vehicle ages and save for them. A $1000 repair expected every 2 years is $40 a month up front. A $500 set of tires you go through every 3 years are $13 a month. Etc. This is especially true when the car is paid off and your only other auto expenses are gas and insurance.

I have three skydiving rigs, two AADs, and have kept only one of the AADs in date. I only do classic accuracy (immediate opening) and wingsuit (low descent rate which won't fire an AAD) jumps with the big rig so I didn't bother to buy an AAD for it. Since moving to a state which shuts their plane down between loads I haven't jumped my second skydiving rig and bothered to keep that AAD in date. It's a good idea to have an AAD and not that expensive (about $12/month) so I have one on my main skydiving rig.

Actually, I would think that a $4 million jury award is just as effective. I have no reason to believe laws against "bullying" will be enforced any more than the existing laws against assault and battery. Since that's the case the threat of lawsuits against the schools may do more to correct the problem.

so you think the situation would be improved by having people run around with guns without the benefit of any practice on their accuracy. Yeah, that's a step forward on your war against accidental shootings. I dont beleive guns should be legal, unless say for example you make your living or put bread on the table by hunting. To me that's a legitimate NEED for an object developed and used to kill. Alcohol is involved in 20,000 motor vehicle fatalities each year. No one outside the medical community needs alcohol. Do you think beer should be illegal, and if not why the discrepancy?

Yes I am , especially if any one of them were kids. So why aren't you crusading against safe storage of household cleaning supplies and replacement of bathtubs with showers since those claim a _lot_ more children's lives?

No because there are fewer air molecules. You get the speed of a canopy 1-2 sizes smaller (depending on when you come; in the summer we're a lot hotter than standard conditions at 5000 feet and end up with 8000-10000' density altitudes) but not the control responsiveness.

They'll happen (.6% of all accidental fatalities in the US involve firearms) but far less often than accidents on the campus streets (39% of accidental fatalities come from motor vehicles)), chemistry lab (18% are poisonings), or swimming pools (2.9% are drownings). Banning cars on campus and closing the school pool will do more to prevent fatalities than banning guns and should therefore happen first.

What proof do you have that 18-22y/o CCW holders refrain from drinking on Thursdays (or any other day). I can assure you that 18-22y/o ROTC students don't. The same proof that 18-22y/o CDL drivers refrain from drinking on Thursday nights. We let them drive 80,000 pound semis a few feet from bystanders. Once they reach 21 we even let them do that with hazardous materials that can do even more damage. We treat the drinking issue as the completely orthogonal problem that it is rather than exercising prior restraint and forbidding 18-22 year olds from driving trucks for a living or increasing the drinking age.

Sure, but at high (5000 foot MSL DZ) elevations - Freefall from the same AGL altitude is over noticeably quicker due to reduced air density - Anything over 12,500 gets you up to FL180 which is controlled airspace; while at sea level they may take you to 14, 16, or even 18,000 feet AGL.

The world is full of animals that may want to hurt you; some with four legs (feral dogs, cougar, wild boar, bear) and some with two (clandestine meth producers and marijuanna farmers, smugglers moving drugs and people, run of the mill robbers and thieves). Running into those animals is a lot more likely when you're riding around the back country on a motor bike and camping than hanging out in a city. Zipping your tent won't keep them out as well as locking the hotel door. And you can't call animal control or the police.

IPSC gun games give guns which cross the "major power" momentum threshold a scoring advantage. If you are going through the trouble of getting a gun for the rare social situation which requires one, why not get one that makes your chances of success highest? This probably means a shotgun for home defense (9-12 9mm bullets sure beat one!) and something small and concealable for other cases (the gun doesn't work when its at home). Then comes stopping power...

Transferable conversions start at $10,000 plus $200 transfer tax. Move to a state which doesn't restrict class 3 ownership and pony up! MIght be expensive to feed though; .223 is now over $250 a case of 1000.

Also try a classic 1911. It should have a nice single action trigger and fit your hand well (you have a Ruger 22/45 and not a Mk II, right?)

You might try a 1911 (you have a Ruger 22-45 not a Mk II, right?) which should have a nice crisp single-action trigger.

Those sound like great presents for a cat's birthday. Speaking of which, my cat turned 7 this month. Thanks for the suggestions! A romantic getaway might be nice. We took a seaplane to Victoria island for a weekend at a romantic bed and breakfast for our first. I'm bad at picking trinkets out.

THAT SUCKS. Before the advent of on-line bill-pay I used to pay everything but the credit card every other month with no adverse effects.

As long as its fine for the government to limit what we smoke it should be fine for it to limit where we smoke.

IMNSHO, if you're not trying to win competitions which requires planing out in the power band you should be using an interactive carving approach where being 100' off just doesn't matter (being obviously high means slowing the turn with opposite front riser;somewhat low means transitioning to harness input; really low finishes with both toggles) I got 48 MPH out of a mellow 90 degree carving approach under my Stiletto 120 @ 1.6 pounds/square foot; greater turn angles and higher wing-loadings should get you more than enough speed for recreational purposes. Lacking regular access to a RADAR gun I lack hard numbers to satisfy my curiosity there.