Nightingale

Um... macs run Microsoft office just fine. I've found it runs much better on my mac than my pc.

Can you use anything other than the bible to refute his claims?

Well, you may be better off looking at Cypres fires rather than cutaways. It's hard to prove a cutaway was caused by "complacency" because when you chop a canopy, there's usually something wrong and you can't always tell why something went wrong. Looking at cypres fires might give you better statistics, because you can compare the rates of injured and unconscious skydivers to those who just lost altitude awareness.

In my experience, people who go their entire lives without needing anything beyond their own common sense also have a pretty heavy dose of dumb luck. An example: I was out with a guy who was a friend of a friend of a friend and I'd been set up on basically a blind date about four years ago. We were shooting pool, and he put something in my drink. Common sense: I didn't know this person, so we met at a public place and took separate cars and he didn't know where I lived. Dumb luck: I saw him put the stuff in my drink in a reflection in the window while I was setting up my pool shot. I made an excuse and left. When I was teaching karate, I saw so many people come through the studio because something had happened to them, and many of them did everything right but were victims anyway. Common sense isn't going to stop you from walking into a bank in the middle of a robbery or from being injured, raped or killed by an intruder in your home. Common sense is a passive, preventative protection. it's simply a part of your life. Martial arts and weapons are active, reactive protection. They both have their function and are in no way interchangable. Common sense prevents most shit from happening, and martial arts and weapons help you deal with shit that is happening anyway.

Get the apple. I have an apple, a toshiba and my mom and brother have a dell. The only one that has had no problems whatsoever has been the apple. On the toshiba, the board has failed twice, the fan has failed twice, the power supply has failed once and the video card failed once. I've owned it for a year and a half. On the dells, they seem to be in the shop as often as the toshiba. I've had the ibook for about a year. I've never had a single problem with it, ever. It's incredibly well constructed and their tech support has been wonderful, even when I'm calling them just because I'm still a bit mac-stupid and can't figure out how to do some of the higher functions. With the mac, you'll have the bonus of being able to use both windows and MacOSx, and it'll be running on apple hardware. Best of both worlds.

To give you an idea of whether it's doc-related, get an automatic BP monitor and check yourself at home.

100 jumps, no chops.

Get a friend to buy it for them, the same way they get friends over 21 to buy them beer.

Nightingale '08?

Well, you did ask me "what do you think?" so I figured you were asking for a personal opinion. I'm not sure which caselaw you want me to refute... perhaps something in a post not addressed to me? Or I'm just missing it, which is a possibility, as I'm in the middle of studying for finals, so my brain is a bit uncooperative at the moment. What it seems to come down to is that if you don't want to get in trouble for doing something illegal, don't do it where a cop can see it from anywhere the cop is legally allowed to be. If you're dumb enough to open the door and smoke pot right in front of the cop... I agree that the "I smelled pot" thing should be thrown out, because the human sense of smell is not very good. Detaining someone on the officers' sense of smell alone is too arbitrary.

See if your state has a process where you can appeal to a state organization that will mediate your claim with the insurance company.

These guys are my favorites The Fenians Sligo Rags

I tutor eighth graders in math, and this could be straight out of one of their textbooks.

Well, are your odds better with two canopies out, or none?

I don't think that is a violation of the 4th, since the 4th has a prohibition against UNREASONABLE searches and seizures, not warrantless searches and seizures. If an officer sees something illegal, and he is lawfully positioned to do so and not trespassing, I think it's perfectly reasonable to take action.

Guys, I think this thread is really insensitive, given that the victim was a relative of a DZ.commer. Maybe we should let this topic go.

No, but eating disorders are more common in girls who are dancers or cheerleaders, so I do understand not wanting to put more pressure on girls to look perfect. With the clothing dancers wear, there's an incredible pressure to look perfect, and I could see the same thing occurring with cheerleaders.

I don't have a problem with high school cheerleaders being told to get uniforms that don't show midriff... kinda silly for school athletics uniforms to be in violation of the school's own dress codes. Adult, professional, and non-school affilliated cheerleaders should be able to wear whatever the team decides on, though.

My brother sent this to me... kinda cool. You Passed 8th Grade Math Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct! Could You Pass 8th Grade Math? http://www.blogthings.com/couldyoupasseighthgrademathquiz/

Standing inside a doorway in full view of an officer would fall under "plain view" exception. "Police officers do not need a warrant to search and seize contraband or evidence that is "in plain view" if the officer has a right to be where the evidence or contraband is first spotted. For instance, the police may search for and seize marijuana growing outdoors if they first spot the marijuana from an airplane or helicopter, since the marijuana is deemed to be in plain view" So, if the officer has a right to be on your front porch, and you're standing just inside the doorway blowing smoke in his face, he can come in and seize the evidence. "Evidence of a crime may be seized without a warrant under the plain view exception to the warrant requirement. To rely on this exception, the officer must be in a lawful position to observe the evidence, and its incriminating character must be immediately apparent." See Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128 (1990).

Well, I think standing in the doorway and smoking pot would probably fall under a "plain view" exception...?

Well, if nobody votes for third party candidates because they believe those candidates don't have a chance, those candidates will NEVER have a chance. It may be necessary to vote for candidates that have a slim chance of victory at this time to convince the rest of the public that third party candidates can be viable options. A small sacrifice now to perhaps alter the political spectrum in the future. Before the last presidential election, I made a decision to vote my conscience rather than to vote for someone who I thought could "win". I picked the candidate I thought could best lead the country. Isn't that what we're supposed to do?

Right now, people pay about 1/3 of their salary, on average, in taxes. If a dollar for dollar tax credit was given for up to 50 or 60 percent of total taxes for contributions to charities that provide food, shelter, job training, day care, or medical care to lower income people, you bet those charities would get money. Most of us would rather our money go to charity than to uncle sam, and if it's a simple matter of a few check boxes on the tax form, people would do it, especially since it's money they wouldn't be keeping anyway. It would either go to uncle sam or to a charity, not back in their pocket. Edited to add: You show me a government program that helps the poor with a similar percentage to a well run charity of funds in to funds actually helping the poor rather than helping to line bureaucrats pockets, and I'll take another look at my point of view.

The problem with allowing the government to fund social programs and medicine is that the government tends to do things poorly and inefficiently. Libertarians advocate a dollar for dollar tax credit for donations to certain classes of charitable organizations, because the charities are already in the community, are aware of local needs, and don't have the huge amount of red tape that the government does. Honestly, I don't think it's the job of the government to provide social programs or medical care. That's our own responsibility. The government exists to protect our lives, liberty and property from criminals and outside forces. I don't have a problem with the government making it easier for private organizations to provide certain services, but whenever the government tries to do more than that, it usually messes up royally and wastes huge amounts of money on things that don't work. We've had a welfare system in place for decades now, and it doesn't work. Throwing more money at a system that doesn't work isn't going to make it work. It's just going to waste more money that could be spent actually helping people. I find it interesting how you make a sweeping generalization about libertarians (that we're disgruntled republicans), and then go on to say that you're not an expert on libertarians. I've never, ever been a republican. I was a registered democrat for the majority of time I've been able to vote. Democrats often claim that libertarians don't care about the poor, and that's not the case at all. Libertarians aren't heartless and saying that the government shouldn't help people, just that the government shouldn't do it directly, because it doesn't do a very good job and there are other organizations in a much better position to actually accomplish something. Read the libertarian platform. You might find yourself pleasantly surprised.

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