tbrown

It now appears we ARE keeping Boy George out. But who really gives a moldy crap ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'd tell her to collect her shit and get out of your room, or tent, or whatever and that she could whore her way back home because her ride just dried up. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I never knew Rick very well, but remember seeing him around a lot at Elsinore. Especially two years ago, when he was shooting for the Select Team as they trained for the World Meet. As a husband and father myself, this news is heartbraking. My love and prayers to his family and my friends in the Elsinore family. Let's all be safe out there. Let's not ever forget what we're really doing every time we jump. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But we not only let John Lennon, we let him stay. Perhaps for leverage, we should finally crack down on that old sinner Keith Richards ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Personally, I prefer Yosemite Sam, he's more of the Andy Jacksonian type Democrat. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm glad to hear that after all these years. I always wondered how a pilot could overlook something like that, and the control cable explanation makes so much more sense. The lesson in this is that I read it somewhere, because somebody put it into print. Iyt's been so many years that I can't even remember where I read it. Just goes to show that you can't believe everything you read, not in print OR on the web. Second lesson is that this is how a bunk story like that makes its way into popular folklore. By the way, I was at the '78 Nationals Boogie and made several jumps from 873 in the week before the crash. The weather was crappy right up until the 4th of July, which was beautiful. Then the meet management decided to extend the boogie one more day into team practice day, to make up for all the lousy days earlier in the week. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

These revisionist writers fall into one of two camps. Either they're Nazi apologists who think we should've joined forces with Hitler to defeat Stalinism, or else they're way way out pacifists on ecstasy who think a big group hug will solve all problems. World War II was unlike any other, in that it was a true fight for world domination and civilized values. And in order to win that war, we had to make some VERY nasty decisions. We decided to bomb - and fire bomb - many German and Japanese cities to break the will of their people. We had to make a deal with Stalin in order to defeat the Nazis - and without Stalin and a Soviet alliance, Hitler WOULD have won the war, make no mistake about that. And finally, we had to nuke two Japanese cities to avoid an invasion that would've cost millions of American AND JAPANESE lives. No doubt about it, war is a shitty business, "not helathy for children and other living things". But what if we hadn't made war with Hitler ? Does anyone think he would have stopped with all of Europe and North Africa under his thumb ? Britain would've been next. Hitler could've taken Britain anyway, if he hadn't stupidy invaded the USSR, and at the time the US would've been powerless to stop him. Are these authors suggesting we should have ignored an evil empire that already had its concentration camps for Jews and other minorities up and running ? As it is, there's still the moral question of whether we should've bombed Auschwitz, as we had plenty of air recon photos and intelligence reports about "something" going on there (and a lot of Auschwitz survivors insit they prayed for air raids and would've been willing to risk being directly bombed to their hellish daily existence). So do these authors think that systematically exterminating all of Europe's Jews, along with Gypsies, Slavs, Gays, and dissident Christians was an acceptable price for peace ? The Holocaust was very nearly a success even with vigorous prosecution of the war, without the war it would've gone world wide and been in full swing operation to this day against any group deemed "inferior" or even inconvenient. It's sill to even ask some of these questions, because some of these writers clearly aren't bothered by the extent of Nazi - or Japanese atrocities. World War II was like Star Wars in the real world. It had to be fought and had to be won by whatever means necessary, or we'd all be goose stepping today. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Cute. However, ANYTHING can be trivialized and made to look ridiculous. And some things are ridiculous right from the start Please do, sounds good so far. Be sure to mention beer at some point.

Has anybody fucked up trying to do this? Just curious Nate Gilbert was killed doing this about five years ago. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Cute. However, ANYTHING can be trivialized and made to look ridiculous. Just look at skydiving.....we're bonded together in euphoria over our repeated near death experiences. Shall I go on ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The Collins' Lanyard has been available for license to all sport manufacturers, as part of the Skyhook system, for over a year now. It is available on UPT and Sun Path rigs right now. Aerodyne and Mars have done the required test jumps, and should be putting it on their rigs soon. I can't imagine why anyone would not want it on their rig. Can a Collins Lanyard be retro fitted to an older rig (like a 2001 Javelin) ? I know the Skyhook can't be retro-fitted, but would be eager to put a Collins on my existing rig if I could. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

My FJC in 1974 cost me $35 (large group discount). 7500 ft in a Cessna was $5. 10,500, when you could get it was about $7. At the Z-Hills Easter Boogie in '77, 12,500 was $8. And if you could get the whole plane (DC-3) to agree to go along, they'd give us 15,000 for $10. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This wouldn't happen to be the same fist jab everybody does on the airplane, somewhere between getting our helmets on and opening the door for jump run ? Golly, I never knew I was jumping with so many terrorists. Come to think of it, I never knew I was a terrorist, but I guess I've jabbed a fist or two myself (oh boy....). See y'all in Gitmo, I guess.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Actually, Dylan's "Forever Young", almost any good version by any good band or singer. The Rod Stewart version is on the memorial vid for the Perris Otter crash. My personal tear jerker version is Neil Young, singing at the 1991 Bill Graham Memorial concert in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Neil was backed up by The Grateful Dead and Jerry played a very restrained and poignant guitar lead. It's forever burned into my memory by my own brother's death from cancer at the time. A real shame that performance isn't commercially available, but then such are the joys of bootleg collecting. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's a sad state of affairs in our country when we have the largest primary voter turnout in history simply because a black man is running, countless people who have never bothered to vote before are showing up to vote without even knowing where the man they are voting for stands on many important issues, the only thing that matters is the color of his skin. Racism(along with idiocy) is alive and well in this country, only it's going a way we aren't used to seeing it go. You're suffering under the delusion that elections are, or used to be, at some mythical time in the past, decided by rational thinking voters. Hope you don't spend your Halloweens waiting up for the Great Pumpkin.... Elections have been full of lies, slander, and fraudulent chicanery all the way back. George Washington is our ONLY president to ever run unopposed, and when he retired, his Veep, John Adams, warned voters that the republic would disintegrate into a French style reign of terror if they ever elected Jefferson. What's got so many blacks - and so many women - out voting is that this year was the first time that either a woman or a black man had a serious shot at the job. And the black man still does. So who can blame either group for turning out in droves to vote for one of their own ? It might not please Plato (who said a democracy was the corruption of a republic), but it sure got the people's attention. Sort of a shame that the first serious woman and the first serious black had to run against each other, but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Barack's not going to pick Hillary, because if he does, he not only has to drag her along, but Bubba Bill as well. And that just ain't a-gonna happen. And if he ever somehow did, he'd be throwing a sure thing to McCain. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

ZZ Topp's "Pearl Necklace". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As much of an Obama supporter as I am, if he's fool enough to do this he completely loses my vote in November. Right now, Obama has my vote, but if the election were tomorrow and Hillary was on the ticket as veep, I'd write in someone. Maybe rehmwa and lawrocket. I hear Ralph Nader's running again..... As much as I can understand your feeling the way you do, we all need to recognize that the real choice will be either McCain or Obama. I don't think Obama will take the Clintons on his ticket. As mnealtx says, he's a double-damned fool if he does. And I don't think he's a fool. As for Heil Hillary, she is some piece of work. She still won't conced (how gracious), but EXPECTS to be offered the running mate slot. It is her birthright apparently. It hasn't sunk in on her that she can still lose the election for the Dems in the fall. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But you can't just kick him off the DZ. He's a good guy, firstly, and we don't want to ostracize him. But more importantly as regards safety, if you ban him from the DZ, he goes to another DZ and does the same thing around new people that haven't already been warned about him and don't know who he is. My my, how times have changed, and not always for the better. When I started back in the seventies in upstate NY, grounded wuz GROUNDED. Your name would "go out on the teletype" to the other upstate dropzones and you wouldn't be able to get on a load at most or any of them. One of the reasons skydivers are so tight is that we trust each other with our lives. If you can't trust somebody with your life, then DON'T jump with them. Be "uncool" about it and raise holy hell. It beats all that ash dive and "fly free forever" bullshit. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As of last week, Perris has gone to $26 (cash), plastic is always a buck more. A $1000 block of tickets is good for 42 jumps at 12,500. This is our second increase this year. Manifest is saying it will likely go higher soon, so I grabbed a block of tickets. I think the higher prices at perris are driven by the higher price of fuels (and everything else) in So Cal. I'm sure Cali must have one of the highest fuel taxes of any of the fifty states, SOMEBODY has to pay for all those multi lingual edicts they keep sending us in the mail, not sure if we get scolded in five or six languages anymore... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Obama should avoid this. Never fight outside of your weight class. I bet if he throws a bucket of water on her, she'd melt. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Absoltely perfect ! Couldn't have said it better myself. Somebody else told you that you have joined a sort of fraternity, which is true enough. You have to remember that our sport is something of a jock culture, ruled by some very strong willed types with monster egos. They also live in ghetto trailer parks and live on canned soup. And for all their skills, they often do our sport a real disservice by their hostile attitudes to new students. On the other hand, some of them will actually respect you for standing up to them and telling them to piss off. I've got a house payment and two daughters in college and I won't take that kind of crap from anybody who tells me my average sixty jumps a year "isn't good enough" to make me "current" or safe. If you've got the 'nads to jump out of an airplane, you're able to deal with these types - or spend your cash at another dropzone. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Only if she doesn't get assasinated sometime in June. You know, like Robert Kennedy..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But dont you think there is a interesting question who sent Hitler? If you are christian and analyze the text? Makes you wonder when we have been grown up in the western culture, and learning about the jews history and compare the the written "analyzed" texT Nobody sent Hitler. He was a twisted, and unfortunately charismatic character who came up in a time of social and economic upheavel, offering simple solutions that promised a return to a mythical past that never existed. And desperate people went for it, and for him; hook, line, and stinker. The problem I have with your proposition is that you're accepting Hagee's interpretation of scripture as a definitive source of Jewish history. It is not. For one thing, it is simply an ignorant and self serving interpretation of one single source, the Bible. (Oh boy, this is going to stir some people up.) But the Jews are more than capable of recording and interpreting their own history, and have done so, if we would take the time or trouble to look into it. One of the biggest problems in Christian - Jewish relations is that western culture has been too ready to accept without question the Christian interpretation of events around the Jewish people. This goes all the way back to the Jews' "rejection" of Christ as the Messiah, to blaming "the Jews" for Christ's death, and from there writing all Jews off as "Christ killers". In fact, numero uno, Jesus was himself a Jew. His followers were one of many competing Jewish sects. They were a millenarian sect, which was foretelling the end of Roman rule in the Holy Land and the establishment of a thousand year kingdon of God to follow. When the Romans raized Jerusalem and slaughtered or enslaved every Jew they could get their hands on after the uprising of AD 70, there were virtually no Jewish followers of Christ left. The religion was basically reinvented by its Gentile believers, who effectively divorced themselves from the Jewish faith and community. And then the Christianity we know took shape in Greece, among Gentile Greek followers, who had their own strong anti-Semitic biases. It is in the Greek authored books of the New Testament that you start to see the really nasty references about "the Jews did this and the Jews did that...". What happened to the Jews under Hitler is far too massive, complex and monstrous to be explained away by some wingnut preacher expounding on his interpretation of a single chapter from the Old Testament. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Mao Zedong once said "religion is a cancer" and he tried really hard to stamp it out in China. To this day, Christians, Buddhists, and Falon Gong all have their problems and persecutions with the Chinese govt. The govt for its part has admitted they cannot stamp out religion, so instead they try to regulate it through state approved churches and state appointed bishops, lamas, etc. But in the process, the state also created, and later abandoned, it's own religion of Maoism, with their damned little red book. The guy's most massive fuckups were enshrined in nothing less than another religion. Forget trying to abolish religion, it can't be done. SPIRITUALITY is as deep a human need as food and reproducing. We need to try to understand WHY we are here. And since we're not all super educated free thinkers, the natural tendency is to create religious structures and beliefs. And NOTHING makes people dig in their heels deeper than trying to take away their deepest held beliefs, especially if those beliefs give them their only hope in an otherwise fucked up life or social system. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Throw her over your shoulder and spank her if she kicks too much. This also allows the two of you to talk dirty all the way home. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !