tbrown

There's a good article in Rolling Stone about the Republican's path to self destruction. The party is in the hands of its own Taliban element and is in danger of becoming a regional party. Nothing could make me happier. A once respectable party that has become so obsessed with power and ideological purity has no place in America. The question is, who will replace the Republicans to speak for the conservative faction in America ? The Republicans replaced the Whigs, who had replaced the Federalists. My wife is suggesting that the Libertarians might just supplant the Republicans. Interesting thought - and so it goes... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Some interesting contradictions. At the time, the Nazi SS was the most highly educated officer corps of any army in history, with more PhD's than any other army. A great many of them, including colonel Hoss, the commandant of auschwitz, were known as devoted husbands and family men. They were even kind to dogs. Hoss was justly hung, onsite at the camp he'd once commanded. The gallows stands there to this day. On the other hand, a man like Oscar Schindler was a vain philandering playboy who joined the Nazi Party for the business connections it offered him. Yet he used his business to hide and save over 1000 Jews and lies buried in Israel, where he is a national hero. None of that stopped Schindler's wife from divorcing him shortly after the war, the womanizing hadn't stopped and she'd had enough of him. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I did my packing class on Friday and after a bloody hour of packing the chute my answer to the question was "fuck no" LOL ... it was just horrible, I "think" it would have opened. I am determined to pack and jump my own pack job this week, cause I need to get that signed off my A card ... Packing is not just an annoyance to earning your A license. It's teaching you how to pack your main for life. If you will just persist and do another half dozen pack jobs, you will never worry about them again. You will be set free to do your own packing and stop wasting money on a servant class that has been created at dropzones. Or you can just get your A and be one more fuckoff skydiver who doesn't understand how their equipment works. (NOT a PA, just the truth and not directed at anyone in particular). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Another case in point for the revival of static line as an alternative. Duh.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, we got the TARP (from the Bush administration, just to set the record straight) and the stimulus package and employment has not gone up to or over 10%. So your question is what ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'd like to waterboard Dick cheney, to find out what he and "the guys" from Enron were discussing for national energy policy in 2001, when they were fucking California in the ass with rate hikes and rolling blackuts. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So I we're supposed to feel what ? Shock ? surpise ? Outrage ? This is Jerry Falwell University, what the fuck DO you expect from these people. They should lose whatever church related tax exemptions they may be receiving, though it will never happen, as the IRS only uses that against "liberal" (i.e. Episcopal) chrurches at election time. Mao was right - religion IS a cancer. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Clearly an infringement on the right to bear arms, which is specifically proscribed by the Second Amendment. I say this with some great emotional difficulty, as we are familiar with a situation where we lived in Washington state, where a 6 year old boy accidenty shot his 3 year old sister in the head with a loaded revolver he found in their home. There was clearly a lapse of responsibility somewhere in that home and the consequences will go on as long as the kid lives (the little girl died, her brother is seriously fucked up emotionally). I hope the lawsuit wins, as the City of San Francisco obviously feels that only criminals should have unrestricted use of firearms. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Honest citizens have been carrying guns into national parks for as long as the parks have been around. They have sometimes got into trouble for it. In 1980, when I made my (legal) jump from El Capitan, I carried a concealed .45 pistol, which I gave to my fiance for her hike back down the trails after I left her and jumped off at the top. There had been two or three nasty murders in the park already that summer and I was concerned about her being able to defend herself from any two legged animals she might encounter on the hike back down (she was not alone by the way, she hiked down with a guy who was on student status at the time and had come along for the fun). Why should anyone have to go defenseless into a remote location, just because it's owned by a government that is alledgedly "of, by, and for the people" ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sounds to me like an "infringement" on his Contitutional right to bear arms. A very interesting choice of words in the 2nd Amendment. "The right to bear arms shall not be infringed". The founding fathers recognized that the right of private citizens was not likely to be challenged head on, but infringed, sliced into more and more, thinner and thinner pieces, like a fringe, until the fabric could no longer exist. That's why they chose to use that exact word. Yeah, I know, the 2nd also starts off with the need for a "regulated militia". In the case of post-Katrina New Orleans, after the cops had either deserted or else joined the looters (and were trying to confiscate citizens' guns), the most regulated militia that kept any semblance of order were the citizens who sat on their front porches with their firearms in plain site. Katrina turned me around 180 degrees on gun control, although I still choose not to own a firearm myself. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

We just had a 5.0 shaker in the LA area tonight. Centered right around LAX. Felt pretty good in Orange County and it went on for a bit, seemed to stop, then went on a little more. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The gray Shark Air Otter at Perris has a nice new coat of paint. It's still a gray shark, but the gray is a couple shades darker and it really looks slick. (Anyone know if any other work was done, as the Perris Super got new wings before being repainted as the blue shark two years ago). But ANYWAY, not only that, but the interior has been repainted white from stem to stern. And NO STICKERS. Apparently the FAA said the stickers had to go - "they make it hard to read the exit signs". This is what I was told. (How can "Vaginas are awesome" possibly be confused with "Exit" ?) I know the Feds have been talking about cracking down on jump planes again, but no more of those beautiful stickers ? I feel safer already...... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Before hand deploy came along, all skydiving deployments were by ripcord and spring loaded pilot chutes. Hesitations were common, everybody had them and they were accepted as a fact of life. Training focused a lot more on the problem. And then Bill Booth invented hand deploy. I still remember Memorial Day, 1976 when a friend of ours showed us all his brand new Wonderhog and explained to us how the new "hand deploy" system worked. It worked so well that within two years almost everyone had switched over to a hand deployed rig. It was great - almost overnight p/c hesitations had been almost completely eliminated. What it comes down to though, is that ripcord deployment is a SKILL, that has to be learned and mastered, like any other skill. And it isn't being treated like a skill. For thirty years now, newbies have only been trained to pull their handles in an emergency, as if that gets the job done all by itself. Thankfully for the most part it has. But the truth is, "it ain't open 'til it's open" and we are occasionally seeing reserves open too low to prevent serious injuries or death. There needs to be more training. Skydivers today don't pull a ripcord until they're already in trouble and going low. That's no time to start learning a new skill. As in the old days, a certain amount of hesitation has to be accepted as a fact of life and there has to be more training focused on anticipating and dealing with the problem effectively. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Newt actually makes a really good point: "Speaker Pelosi's the big loser, because she either comes across as incompetent, or dishonest. Those are the only two defenses," he continued. "The fact is, she either didn't do her job, or she did do her job and she's now afraid to tell the truth." I'm no fan of Newt Gingrich by a long shot, but he understands what the job of Speaker is about. As a pro-Obama independent voter, I think Nancy Pelosi is an embarrassment. She's a typical San Francisco radical who has stated in one interview after another that she wants to put the Bush administration on trial for just about everything. This inspite of a President of her own party who wants to move forward and not drag everyone through re-hashing the past. But then, what else can you expect from a Congresswoman who represents the Haight-Ashbury district ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

In response to a question on state of US politics, Gelb – who first came to DC to work for Republican NY Senator Jacob Javits – cited a lack of pragmatic problem solvers who put the national interest above parochial or local interests. He called them, like Javits, the Rockefeller-Republicans. And extended that loss of pragmatism to absence of folks like Sen Sam Nunn (D-GA). Maybe the Republican party of Javits and Edwards will never return. There was Charles Percy, Ed Brooke, George Romney. Even Dick Nixon had some pretty good ideas, his administration started up the EPA and even entertained the idea of a "guaranteed national income" in their earliest days (1969). That's what happens though to any party that allows their slash & burn Taliban fringe element to take over. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sen. Mitch McConnell, said the switch posed a "threat to the country." The issue, he said, "really relates to ... whether or not in the United States of America our people want the majority party to have whatever it wants, without restraint, without a check or balance." Aw boo-fuckin'-hoo Mitch. Weren't the Repubs the ones who almost got away with a "nuclear option" to eliminate filibusters altogether ? Oh wait, that was in the days they believed in their "permanent majority". Oh, but that sort of went the way of the Thousand Year Reich.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

To our credit, I think that we did indeed stop selling Saddam helicopters after he started gassing people. Hey, it's the least we could do. And we did the least that we could. Fact of the matter is that President Reagan sent Special envoy Donald Rumsfeld to meet with Saddam. Rummy told Saddam that we weren't exactly pleased with all the gassing, but under the circumstances (at war with Iran), we'd be willing to look the other way. there are photos of rummy and Saddam, all smiles and shaking hands. Ironically, one of those gassings was the actual charge Saddam hung for. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You sir, were a gallant knight of the road. You not only helped a young lady who had no clue WTF she was doing, but alleviated everyone else's anxiety and frustration as well. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It took me 20 years to talk John into taking me to see them the first time. We had such a good time that we try to go every year now. The colors are so amazing! It fun just to walk around and enjoy the beauty. Your pics look like you were at Roosengard's - always our favorite tulip farm when we lived up that way. Makes me miss tulip time in WA. Good thing you went on a weekday though, the weekends got impossible 8 or 9 years ago. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

In your opinion, what is/are the best way(s) to withhold consent to a search without unnecessarily escalating the situation into one in which a person's safety is at risk? My brother once stood the cops down for 3 hrs, refusing to let them search his car. This was at the Immigration checkpoint on I-5, north of San Diego. He was driving alone in his car, so there was no question of his harboring any illegal aliens. They wanted to search his car because they claimed their dogs "smelled something". My brother refused to consent to a search, claiming that the stop was an Immigration checkpoint and not an open fishing expedition on American citizens. (He also asked them if their dogs talked to them....). They tried every kind of intimidation, but he hheld his ground for 3 hours before they finally gave up. This was on Thanksgiving day and caused him to be late to Thanksgiving dinner. He had presents for his host's children in the front seat and the bastards would've torn those open too. My brother's been gone for 17 years now (cancer), but I've always admired him for standing those goons down. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's a beauty contest, she's not running for Congress. Though I disagree with her position, I admire her forthrightness for standing by her beliefs. Gay marriage as an issue is at a place where people will be persuaded with the passage of time. they will see it happen among their friends - some of whom they never guessed could be gay. It will come about as a generational change, though actually we're already halfway there. Perez Hilton is a nasty skank, who makes his living BEING a nasty skank. He contributes nothing but bitterness and alienation to the very people who need to be persuaded. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Looks like Pakistan is just a hair away from total collapse, with the Taliban on the march to Islamabad. Looks like the Taliban could finally get their own nuclear arsenal - very soon. Sobering thought.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm all for letting them go too. right where they're captured. Tie their hands behind their backs and let them go. Get it on video and send it to the web and the networks so these clowns can see what awaits them. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As a "Cypres1" (original model) owner who just got my Cypres back from its 8 year service, I would indeed be interested to know if Airtech would ever consider extending the lifespan beyond 12 years, based on solid data. I think the last of the original models would be due for retirement around 2014. But since that would be 23 years from the introduction of the first Cypres, they must have tons of data and documentation on how the things have been holding up and performing. 12 years' worth of production, with 4 yr and 8yr services, numerous field reports of thousands of saves, research on returned & retired u nits,and of course problem reports that have occurred over the years. It would seem there should be enough hard data for them to make a decision about whether or not the lifespan could be extended beyond the original 12 years. This would of course include a mandatory 12 year service, as well as keeping the 2 yr batteries on schedule. But as their main competitor is advertising a 20 year lifespan, with no servicing unless or until a problem arises (scary thought), a reasoned extension might be worth considering. Sort of like what PD does with reserves that have been packed more than 40 times or used more than 25 times. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Once in a while you get a story like this that makes you feel happy to be human. My wife, who cries at anything, wept profusely. I hope susan Boyle goes a long way and that she copes with her newfound fame and the ups and downs that will come with it. By the way, there's a sound recording on the web of a recording she made ten years ago of "Cry Me a River" that is just as killer. (The record was made by various artists for a charity in Britain.) Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !