gjhdiver

One of the arguments used to try to weaken the separation of church and state is usually that the founders of the USA wanted a Christian form of government. It's one of the more pervasive myths, and it's time that it was laid to rest. Before the devout in here start complaining that they are beibng picked on again, try to remember that the following is not a repudiation of their faith (I'll do that in other posts ) but a nail in coffin of those who would remove the establisment clause. MYTH : The US was founded on Christian principles. TRUTH: This is incorrect. The Constitution never once mentions a deity, because the Founding Fathers wanted to keep their new country "religion-neutral." Our Founding Fathers were an eclectic collection of Atheists, Deists, Christians, Freemasons and Agnostics. George Washington, the Father of our country, and John Adams (Second President of the USA) CLEARLY stated in the 1796 Treaty of Tripoli: "The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion. George Washington rarely attended church and instead followed a popular 18th century philosophy called Deism;a Star Wars-esque philosophy that believed in a cosmic energy or large universal "Force." The dictionary says that Deism is "a system of thought advocating natural religion based on human reason rather than revelation," that had nothing to do with Christian principles. James Madison, the original mastermind of the Constitution, was an Atheist to the core who loved skewering Christianity. In 1785 he wrote, "What have been Christianity's fruits? More or less in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution". If I'd posted that myself, I would be roundly called a bigot. However, it happens to be very erudite and concise. Thomas Jefferson, who sat down and authored The Declaration of Independence, rarely missed an opportunity to laugh at Christianity. In a letter to John Adams in 1823, he wrote: "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." More ammo: In 1814, Thomas Jefferson wrote about the Bible's Old and New Testaments, "The whole history of these books is so defective and doubtful -- evidence that parts have proceeded from an extraordinary man; and that other parts are of the fabric of very inferior minds. In fact, it was President Jefferson himself who first wrote (to a Baptist church group in 1802), "The First Amendment has erected a wall of separation between Church and State." Therefore, when Jefferson talked about Nature God,the Creator and divine Providence in the Declaration that he wrote, he was being a hippie and referring to a general cosmic energy-- not the Christian God. America is not a Christian nation. Period. Our Constitution derived from the post-Christian Enlightenment values of reason and truth...never from the paranoid yammerings of that otherwise compassionate cult leader who died in the Middle Eastern desert 2000 years ago. Now, can we just accept everyone to the table ?

That's because you had a consumate professional on the radio for that stand up landing. I wonder who it was now ? Probably someone very handsome I shoud expect.

Does he arse. I prayed for him to fix the transmission on my car. Did he get it to work ? Did he fuck. It doesn't go into reverse now. He may be the supreme being, but he knows fuck all about Mercedes torque converters. Here's the thing though. The secret to my post is in the word "Fundamentalist". That's the problem word for me. You can attach any religion after that word as far as I'm concerned. I'll leave it up to the others to add their favorite superstition to the mix.

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours. 9 - You feel insulted and "dehumanized" when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt. 8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God. 7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the "atrocities" attributed to Allah, but you don't even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in "Exodus" and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in "Joshua" including women, children, and trees! 6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky. 5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old. 4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs -- though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most "tolerant" and "loving." 3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in "tongues" may be all the evidence you need to "prove" Christianity. 2 - You define 0.01% as a "high success rate" when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God. 1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Quite simply, one of the most talented, tortured artists ever to record. Some of his solo work is almost too painful to listen to, especially songs like Dark Globe. His influence on artists like David Bowie an others can't be understated. I just wish he'd been able to keep it all together and have a better life. Shine on you crazy diamond.

Honestly, they've been really good about accepting tickets from the old system. They gave 4 months notice to all jumpers at Byron to use the tickets, and that's who this policy is essentially directed at, not visiting jumpers who have a ticket or two left from a previous visit. They just don't want anyone wandering in with 500 tickets that they bought in a block from the last owner aftert the first quarter of the year. If you were a visiting jumper who had a few tickets left over, they're going to work with you so that you leave happy. They understand that not everyone is going to be able to use or return those tickets for credit conveniently. It's been a remarkably smooth change of ownership, and the drop zone is alread running better, with much better plans for growth for the future. Just give the new owner some time to get all old assumed debts sorted out.

Hopefully she won't drop him on his head.

You know, it seemed the right thing to do at the time, but it didn't really work out for us, the hotel, or the elephant. It's harder than you think.

It's that new Wings of yours. Makes 'em pert.

Don't know about RI, but Karel, the owner of Argus, was at the Wings factory with units for fitting and testing not too long back to ensure there were no problems with his units in regard to installation in Wings containers. As far as I am aware, there were no issues to prevent their installation. I expect that if he's done that for us, then he'll repeat that effort with the other manufacturers.

Two world wars and one world cup, doo dah, doo dah ! Oh hang on, that was the Germans. Sorry.

Yes it is. Here's what I can do. As it's Swiss German, I don't know all the words, but it's close enough. Dear Mr. Leonard, with traffic citation Stafbefehl you still owe the payment in the following penalty, costs and Gebuhr Verurteiilt penalty of CHF 400 Urteilsgebuhr of CHF 50 and court costs of CHF 70 Bertag CHF 520 We ask that you remit the pending entered within 15 within days using the enclosed paying-in slip to uberweisen. Yours truly, Grussen office for district governor reading valley bookkeeping, B. Donatz That's the gist of the bugger. Hopefully Anita will chime in. She's Swiss so she should be able to fill in the official terms I don't know. I doubt she'll be able to talk them out of it though. Remember, anything in Switzerland that is not forbidden is compulsory.

Sure. Just get their permission and get them to send us the file

We've had problems when people have mixed and matched components after they have left the factory, especially after handles have been lost after cutaways. I've seen containers in the field with other manufacturers components in them. I always offer free replacements for these items. As long as riggers like yourself are conscientous enough to bring it to our attention, we can fix it ASAP with little or no inconvenience to the jumpers.

Just watching you try to squeeze into that Icon of yours and look happy is revenge enough for me. As for the Wings logo, you tell us what you want or give us a picture, and we'll embroider it on for you. We've done tiger paws, guns, medals, you name it.

I think that what makes the Wings and Icon logo 'icky' has to do with the location. That view (rear view) of a rig had traditionally been left free of logos (except for the narrow area of the yoke), and I think that is important because customers do not want the logo getting in the way of the appearance when viewed straight from the back. I think a lot of people that own such rigs would prefer the logo not be included. Logos on the side panels are not nearly so obtrusive, in my opinion. Which is why you can specify no logos on your Wings. Very few people choose not to have the logo on the reserve flap though. They seem to like it there. Pride of ownership I guess.

It's a done deal. There's going to be a tower there no matter what it seems. I have done a lot of jumps at a DZ that had a control tower. I even did student jumps there on a round system. The airport was very busy, with several commercial airlines, three flight schools and lots of general avaiation. I can't remember ever being held on a load, even during the busiest times. The drop zone itself was one of the busiest in the country, and it sat under one of the major international air routes crossing the UK. Another drop zone in the south of the UK had no control tower, yet was continually denied altitude by Gatwick control. This never happened at the controlled DZ, because the tower would hand off correctly to the higher altitudes and route traffic away from us. Just because DZ operators don't want to have a tower, and no-one's done it yet here, doesn't mean that it can't be done. It just requires them to work within the system that they are presented with. It's not ideal, but it's better than the alternative.

My point was just that all thre had differing parameters to deal with the event. Out of the three, I liked the Vigil response the best, and the Cypres I the least.

Circumstances of the “misfire”? Quote Just returned from service, walking to the plane and it suddenly flew off my back. 10 minutes later, I would have been floating. No-one was in the plane, it wasn't running, and no-one was transmitting anywhere near. I also had the RF shield installed. The unit was flown back to Germany, and returned with a new cutter and battery, but no explanation. The unit diagnostics couldn't tell them why it had decided to fire, so I got it back unchanged. It never did it again, though it did break down twice more and refuse to boot, as did my other Cypres I. Both those units are aged out now. I'm moving to another make of AAD in the next month for my rigs.

But didn't you know that skydivers have to rely on them? Er what ? Me confused.

I have three living with a mile of me. I personally couldn't care less, as I don't have kids. I'd be more happy to know where the burglars and car thieves are, as they are just as likely to re-offend. Also, don't fall into the trap of presuming all registered sex offenders are child molesters. There are a few that been registered for having consensual sex with 17 year olds, when they were 18, and also for consensual homosexual acts. Its' weird when you check on what they were convicted of. If they are going to do this kind of profiling, why not just release the names of all parolees released into the neighborhood ? That way, your kids are safer, and hopefully so is my car stereo.

[replyIt sounds like they did compromise safety, with an inadequately tested software change. And that is a frightening thing. Ack! I've screwed things up before with poor software testing, but nobody's life was on the line with my work. I had a perfectly functioning Cypres misfire on me. It went back to the factory, and they could give me no reason for it. It just got a new battery and cutter and got sent back to me with a shrug. Just goes to prove. No AAD is faultless. There's always some set of circumstances that can confuse them that can't be foreseen. There were three types of AAD in the C-130 that pressurized unexpectedly on World Team. All three reacted differently to the same set of circumstances. I'm happy to see a manufacturer step up and admit a fault and get a recall out ASAP.

I'm sure that there will be way more than just one dive done. We could have a day of them.

Somebody needs to tape this and get it online for download for those that don't get the local affilate. Fuck copyright. I suggest http://www.youtube.com

Any of you guys coming from out of towm need a place to stay. i have a spare room, two sofas and an office. Just let me know.