tbrown

Ha ha, dream on.... Doctors and lawyers are some of the most childish, irresponsible people in the world. they have an inflated opinion of themselves, based on the secular priesthoods to which they belong. Several years back, some doctor was hounding his ex-girlfriend, trying to FORCE her in court to abort the child she was carrying. He felt that as the sperm donor that he had some kind of right to demand she abort the baby, because HIS relationship with her was over. Never did hear how it turned out, only surprised he didn't persist and attempt to have the child euthanized.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Vladimir Putin is an extremely dangerous man and a very bad neighbor to Europe. Anybody notice how nobody even pays attention to President Medvedev at all ? Nothing's changed except the sign on Putin's office door. This is the new Cold War (double meaning intended). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

From what I'm hearing, Roland Burris appears to have a clean record and would otherwise be an acceptable appointee. Unfortunately the governor's a complete skank. Sadder still is the insistence on playing the race card, about denying the only black man a seat, when I really believe race is the one non-issue here. As for Coleman suing to block Al Franken from taking office, I'll say this. If you serve a full term, or more in the U.S. Senate and can't muster better than a few dozen votes out of 2.9 million votes cast, you don't desreve re-election. Regardless of party. I felt the same way about Al Gore, even though I voted for him in 2000. If he'd carried his own home state of Tennessee, Florida wouldn't have even mattered. Candidates who try to sue their way into office are beneath contempt, they're the epitome of pure selfishness and lust for power. Coleman and Robert Mugabe are soull brothers, as far as I'm concerned. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Roland Burris was denied entry to the U.S. Senate this morning and has not been sworn in to fill Barack Obama's vacant seat. While the State of Minnesota has declared Al Franken the winner, he has not yet been issued a certificate and therefore cannot yet be sworn in. His Republican rival is promising to sue. My break is over, so my opinion will have to wait. How about yours ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

"A pint's a pound, the world around..." - from an old drinking song. We almost went metric back in the seventies, but the big mistake was they tried to print comparative side-by-side measurements on road signs and labels. Which is of course a hopeless way to go, trying to think back and forth between the two would drive anyone crazy. We just need to take the plunge and quickly enough we'd get the feel for Litres, kilos, and km's. But we're also in an uphill fight with a culture that thinks "math is hard". But hey, anyone who drinks already knows what a 750 ml bottle looks like. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I have a number of logical problems with this train of thought, especially the assertion that ALL codes are created by a conscious mind. A number of people on the forum, like Bill Von have cited some specific examples, but I will just say that simply because we haven't found an example (for the sake of argument), doesn't necessarily mean that it's so. Failure to prove the opposite is not proof of a statement, that is a logical error. I don't approve of the Intelligent Design doctrine, because it is simply another subterfuge invented to justify the teaching of creationism - a religious belief - as fact in the public schools. I cannot and will not support that, and neither do the courts in several cases that have been brought. On the other hand, I do personally believe in God and that God created the universe, though not literally as written in Genesis. I do not believe that either God's existence, nor his hand in the creation can be proven. If they could, then they would just be more facts and lose their power and mystery. There is plenty in nature that I believe points to God's existence and hand in creation, but nothing that proves it. Belief in God requires the personal choice of faith. I happen to believe that science, i.e. evolution theories, etc demonstrate by scientific means the "blueprint" if you will of how God got the job done, over millions, even billions of years. I have no bone to pick with science or evolutionary theory. This is my personal interpretation and belief that finds no conflict between science and scripture. And for the record, I think it's the SCIENCE that should be taught in public schools. People who want to teach "Flintstonism" as scientific fact need to open their own little schools or home school their kids. And please, before flaming me as some kind of an American Taliban, also consider that some of my fundamentalist friends have told me that I'm dead wrong, can't possibly be a Christian, and am damned to everlasting hell for my heretical beliefs. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

And maybe the neighborhood kids couldn't see how tbrown had been throwing shit over the fence for YEARS, even though the neighbor offered to go splits on a garbage bin. Uh, yeah, hypothetically speaking anyway. Not that I would ever do something like that to one of my neighbors (nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more). Let me use another example - your neighbors call you a racist because you object to their children beating the crap out of your children (doesn't matter who's which race either, it happens all over the place). Where's the fucking outrage at unacceptable behavior ?!? But WHERE in all this international outrage, condemnation, and protest directed at Israel has anyone admitted that Hamas shouldn't be firing rockets into Israeli cities ? If anyone's heard a word on this, please enlighten me ! Who do these people think they're fucking kidding ? I used to buy the line that Israel was very very bad to the Palestinians. I will still admit that they are - but they need to be. The Palestinians had their best chance during the Clinton years and they blew it. So fuck 'em - all of 'em. Even Hanan Ashrawi. I heard her mouthing off on NPR this morning and they can lob a fucking missile on her house too as far as I'm concerned. I hope the Israeli's level Gaza for all time. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

ALMOST like the Kennedys ? Except he's already had one of his sons elected, and for two terms at that (JQ Adams was a one term Pres, just like his dad, before Andy jackson turned him out of office in 1828). We can't ever really say if RFK would've been elected in '68. My gut says he would've been, inspite of the fact that Humphrey still had more delegates after the CA primary that RFK had just won. Teddy's bid to unseat Jimmy Carter from the nomination went down in flames in 1980, though he's been re-elected to the Senate every time in MA. And truth be told, he's been a very able Senator who's got a lot of things accomplished, even if he walked away from a vehicular manslaughter scot-free (he did NOT murder the poor woman). Which he did, but who hasn't, especially among the rich and famous (like Matthew Broderick, who walked after running down some poor woman in Ireland while deeply stewed back in the nineties, if anyone even bothers to remember...I'm sure the woman's husband hasn't forgotten). Dynasties in the White House are un-American. I don't care if the name is Kennedy, Bush, or Clinton. If it gets too out of hand I'd favor a Constitutional amendment that would block the next two generations of any President's progeny from holding the office. We may just have to do it if we want to preserve a republic. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The Bush and Walker families have been laboring for over a century to establish their American dynasty. It's not just a sense of country club Republican entitlement either - these people are dead serious and will do it, if the voters let them. People already forgot what a crappy job Dad did the first time around, but now that W has trashed this country like a bull in a china shop, maybe the lesson will stick, though I'm not taking any bets. Kevin Phillips (the guy who invented Nixon's southern strategy that turned the south Republican) wrote a definitive book about the Bush family called "American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush". It's available for half the cost of a skydive and something thinking Americans should read. Just a reminder - one of the anti Hillary arguments in last year's primaries was that the White House shouldn't be passed back and forth between Bushes and Clintons, ad nauseam. It shouldn't be. and the voters already made that clear to Ted Kennedy as far back as 1980. America has no royal family. America needs no royal family. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Spectres, Pilots, Safire2s, Crossfire2s all have excellent reputations for soft openings. and for occasional gut slammer openings. I had a 210 Pilot that opened beautifully until the day it slammed me so hard the canopy actually blew up and I had to chop it. Since then, my 188 Pilot has given me nothing but gorgeous openings, but I am damn careful about making sure the slider is all the way up against the stops. I even reach up inside one last time to be sure before I finish bagging it. But the bottom line is that any canopy can beat the crap out of you on any jump. With an injury like yours, you need to have a long talk with your doctor, your family, and yourself about what kind of risk you're willing to take for the future. You may be able to reasonably prevent another injury, but you cannot ever be completely sure, except that if it does happen again, it will not only be bad, but worse. We have one friend who actually crushed the ball joint in his femur during a slammer opening. That leg is now an inch shorter than the other leg and he wears a shoe with an inch ticker sole. Although his doctor cleared him to jump again, he reached his own decision to retire from the sport (he's made a couple thousand jumps). That's his choice and we respect him for it. This is one of those personal decisions you need to make for yourself after considering all the factors. You might also want to consider Bill Booth's contention that plastic tuck tabs may be causing slammer openings. You might want to buy a Vector system with the magnetic riser covers in addition to a new canopy. Not a cheap solution, but then again neither is surgery. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

You left out the part about masturbation causing blindness and hairy palms. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

We will not see the complete saturation of hate filled rhetoric from the media as we did w/ Palin. In part this is b/c it's just a senate seat. As I mentioned in my other post about Lady Caroline, at least the other Kennedys ran for office in open elections. And so did Sarah Palin. She got elected Governor of Alaska and not so good as Vice Pres. of the U.S. I don't hate Sarah Palin. I sure as hell didn't want her to win and I think her candidacy may have helped McCain to lose the election, especially in some of the swing states. But I never hated her. She gave Tina Fey plenty of material to make us all laugh - even Gov. Palin herself, if I saw her guest appearance on SNL correctly. But I don't think "the media" beat up on her. she really didn't do very well at some of her interviews and her competence was a real and legit issue. And she's still got Alaska. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not discounting God's help, which can bring about radical changes in people's lives. But too many New Year's resolutions are too grand and have no plan to back them up. Want to quit smoking ? That's outstanding, but it's also one of the toughest addictions to kick (I know people who have kicked cocaine and heroin, but can't quit smoking). That can probably use a doctor's help and needs planning beyind just tossing the cigs. Everything from diet and excercise, to avoiding alcohol at least for a while, to finding something new to keep the hands busy. A lot of angles need to be covered. Becoming a better person, wow that's huge. Commendable too. But how ? Also needs a plan. Maybe starting with even just one concrete step. Sign up for the adult literacy program at the local library and start teaching one adult to read. As you free their mind, you expand your own horizons as well. Plus you make connections with other people who have doing this sort of thing longer and you get exposed to the other things they're also involved in. If you start small with one thing you can really do, and can manage to fit into your life, it can grow and help to create more changes, until eventually looking back, it can be quite surprising what's been accomplished. Now if I would just get off my duff and apply this to me..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Of COURSE it does. Most of us here realize that the prejudice of you and your fellow travelers on the fringe right is unbounded in vehement vitriolic hate for any Kennedy. Oh I dunno Jean, I've been a pro-Kennedy sometime Democrat for a long time, but I'm rather put off by Caroline's bid for Hillary's seat. It utterly smacks of entitlement and I even voted for Uncle Ted one time back in Massachusetts. Hillary's seat is something of a "carpetbagger" seat. It is the very same seat the Bobby Kennedy moved to NY and ran for in 1964. He defeated the incumbent Kenneth Keating, but created a great deal of resentment for just walking in from the state next door and using the seat to advance his own career - which is exactly what he WAS doing, his tragic assasination aside. (By the way, when RFK was assasinated, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller appointed Congressman Charles Goodell to the seat. Goodell was defeated by James Buckley - a Connecticutt carpetbagger - in the 1970 election). Then in 2000, Hillary Clinton pulls the same stunt, moving to NY and challenging Alphonse D'Amato, who she defeated fair & square AND has since won re-election. But she also created the same resentment as RFK did and I have a number of old friends in New York who are glad to see her go, as they feel she's done nothing to help upstate NY's economy, which has been in bad shape even in the recent good years. BUT both RFK and Hillary RAN for the seat in open elections, where they had to appeal to the voters. And like them or not, they both won, both unseating incumbents. I'd call that fair enough. But Lady Caroline, even if she HAS been a New Yorker since her teen years, seems to think she's just entitled to the seat - because she is, God save us all - a KENNEDY (fall down and genuflect three times, I'll wait...). And she's not even going to the voters. She's going to the ONE vote that will fill the seat, which is Governor Patterson. And he's so far shown the colossal nerve to have not already appointed her, though the seat won't really be vacant until Hillary resigns it. All the other Kennedys, like 'em or not, have had to run for their offices. Why shouldn't she ? Shouldn't New Yorkers have SOME kind of say over who will represent them, even if it IS a carpetbagger seat ? Even if the governor's appointment will legally fill the seat for the next four years ? And by the way, her name is Schlossberg - has been for over twenty years now, though I guess she forgot. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't see why the Taliban would want to negotiate with the U.S. unless they thought it were in their interest to do so. They would need to see something worth gaining from it. Apparently we are now willing to negotiate with at least some of the Taliban, as it now seems even our generals are saying we can't clearly defeat them by military means alone. Historically the Afghanis have made a sport out of defeating one foriegn power after another, just ask the Brits and the Russians. I could see them wanting to negotiate if they thought they could get some short term gains out of it. An interesting quote I heard the other noght about Afghanistan was that "You can rent these people's support and cooperation for a short time, but you can never buy it", a lesson that Pakistan is learning and that may not have sunk in with us yet. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Actually I've been getting plenty all week long, thank you very much. I'm even a little surprised at myself and the intensity of my feelings over these Hamas assholes and I've had a few comments from some of my friends, not to mention my wife about it. BUT maybe it's because Hamas is lying through their teeth, or maybe it's because all the Euro/Berkeley rads are so eager to jump on Israel for defending their own people. It's like if I was throwing shit and garbage over the wall into your yard and you came to my door and punched me in the nose, then all the neighborhood kids started screaming about what an asshole YOU were for doing that. But make no mistake, I may be 53, but I need no Viagra. Hope you can say the same.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Daniel Schorr had some very interesting analysis this morning on NPR, where he's working even though he's now over ninety years old. As he sees it, both Gaza and the 2006 war in Lebanon with Hezbollah are backed by Iran. the Iranian government is fighting wars-by-proxy against Israel by supporting these groups. It's something the Soviets, Americans, and Chinese have been doing for decades in other parts of the world. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Just because it was deployed from a free-bag does not rigidly identify it as a reserve. Yeah, but it was a solid bright yellow 7 cell and looks like it came off the high end of the guy's back. No matter, anyone can pirate a video of a real reserve deployment and say their glue fixed it. Just like they can surround some guy with dreamy looking babes who giggle about what a big dick he got from taking herbal placebos. P.T. Barnum would be justly proud of this commercial. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Isolationism has a long history in the U.S. It's the main reason we stayed out of the First World War for so long, until we finally couldn't stay out any longer and so jumped in - and finished it in less than a year (ah, those were the days...). It's also why we stayed out of the Second World War, while the Nazis were running all over Europe and the Japs were gobbling up all of Asia. Even after Pearl Harbor, we only declared war on Japan, it was the Nazis who declared war on us. That second war was a tough one, we'd let things go so far that we almost lost - something they don't teach you in school. The only reason we pulled that one out of the fire is because a.) we made a pact with the devil by allying ourselves with the Soviet Union, and b.) we won a three way race for who could make the atom bomb first. It would be grand to tell the rest of the world to fuck off while we settle down at home and roast chesnuts over a fire, but it just isn't possible. We still need oil for starters.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not your poor wife, I hope.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

If you guys want to start a thread on heraldry, then go the fuck somewhere else and start one. Last I read was that Hamas was still launching rockets. It's time for a suimple ultimatum, that the entire city will be leveled block by block if the rockets don't stop. The UN and Euro/Berkeley rads will all cry boo-hoo, but fuck them too. Level the city and bulldoze the rubble - and the bodies - into the sea. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

One way or the other, you gotta eat something.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I wouldn't know what the rules are in the UK, but even here in the States, most people seem to interpret a hop & pop as a 5 - 10 second delay from 4 to 5 grand. Back in the day when pairchutes wuz carved out'n wood, we'd uset ter get out anywhweres from 2 to 3 grand and anything longer than a 3 second delay was considered a 5 second delay and not a hop & pop. The h&p's I've done since returning 6 years ago have all been from at least 4 grand, but I'd be okay down to 2 grand with my Pilot canopy and not worry about my Cypres firing. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I think Jesus was a real person, probably a charismatic rabbi, and not necessarily a pacifist. His earliest followers were Jews who believed that God was about to strike the Romans down and drive them out to re-establish a holy kingdom. He wasn't at all shy about kicking over the moneychangers' tables in the temple - which by the way was across the street from the Roman police station, where the Romans were always keeping a close eye on the Temple anyway. The ruckus Jesus kicked up in the Temple would have most definitely come to their attention right away and might be what made him a wanted man. Jesus may have actually believed he was the Messiah. But the "Son of God" is not necessarily the same thing as "God the Son". The concept of God coming to earth in the mortal form of a man is a distinctly pagan concept and quite foreign to Jewish thinking. Divinity was a claim made by Egyptian pharoahs and Roman emporers. Ditto for virgin birth, which was also supposedly one of Alexander the Great's attributes. And of course Zeus was always coming to earth in one form or another to knock up as many young girls as he could when his wife wasn't looking. It's a pagan concept. Most of the divine attributes of Jesus came about after the uprising and destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, when the Jewish Christian sect was essentially wiped out. The remaining believers were Romans and other subjects of the empire, who had come from pagan backgrounds. They took the core beliefs and reinvented them in a pagan form more comfortable with what they'd grown up with. Like believing that Jesus was actually God in the flesh. This poses a dilemma to a believing Christian. I doubt that Jesus was the god/man I was raised up to believe in as a child. But the Christian tradition is certainly a worthwhile system of beliefs, even if it is a synthesis of Jewish and pagan traditions. I'm not willing to throw the whole set of beliefs over the side, nor do I think it's necessary. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Isn't it fair to say that Nixon and LBJ felt they were better qualified as well? And you have to think Ike still believed in himself. Nixon and LBJ both served in the Navy in WWII. Nixon as a supply officer in the South Pacific, where he at least had to get by on less, living on some remote island. Johnson made three recon flights and arranged to award himself a Silver Star before returning to Congress, where he'd already been holding a seat from Texas. If this is what qualifies as military service, you tell me.... Nixon, aside from running a sucessful poker game, at least did a credible job of keeping supplies moving - and somebody had to do that, they couldn't ALL be line officers, or command PT boats like JFK (too bad Nixon couldn't "speedboat" Kennedy, as close as that election was...). Our greatest President served in the militia during the Blackhawk Wars and was evidently disciplined and punished for some infractions he committed fighting the Indians. So much for Abraham Lincoln... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !