rhaig

yeah... I saw that. not subtle are they... -- Rob

the game warden in the interview this morning pointed out the line of buoys in the middle of the lake that was the international border. I don't know how they sort out the territory issues in a lake, but the border is physically represented in the lake. -- Rob

wow...you really are the king of semantics aren't you. yes, it was in mexico. on the other side of a line of buoys in a lake (with no fence between them). move along bill.... nothing for you to see here. -- Rob

raunchy remarks? nobody would ever make a 'fifth attachment point" joke with a passenger. oh wait... yes we would. ;) -- Rob

If you pay attention to the story, they had actually crossed into Mexico, intentionally, to sight-see. Presumably they did not stop at some customs station in the middle of the lake. there is a series of buoys in the middle of the lake. customs station in the lake? is this the movies? -- Rob

how so? it's not the first incident of people being shot at on this lake. the interview I saw with the game warden said that there was "evidence of weapons fire on her watercraft" if this was a blog posting, or just huffpo, I might be a little more skeptical, but this is multiple major news outlets. what doesn't sniff right for you? -- Rob

I saw this story on TV this morning. Who's saying that there isn't a problem with violence in Mexico leaking into the US? http://abcnews.go.com/US/mexican-pirates-shot-tourist-head/story?id=11784598 -- Rob

well in all fairness... it is Canada. -- Rob

banks in TX have to post a sign to keep licensed carriers from carrying in them anyway. unless they explicitly disallow us from carrying, they they're allowing us. I appreciate, though, that this guy is taking it one step further in welcoming armed customers. -- Rob

What about a turtle? yes, I would shoot a suicidal turtle -- Rob

http://goo.gl/maps/X3So The Ballunar Liftoff Festival on Johnson Space Center grounds. It's essentially a 2-day long demo. There were plenty of ground features. (including a saturn V rocket) Finding my position wasn't what concerned me so much as making sure I was choosing the right spot. If I recall correctly, it was nasty windy at altitude that day and the exit point was over Nasa Pkwy. Jumprun was SSE with a 20-way climbout. so call cut just past the landing area. -- Rob

for those who don't want to spend a few minutes reading the whole article, see if this raises your interest: -- Rob

which was partly my point wonder how many are active. There are estimates for how many illegals there are in the country (wildly varying). We could compare active ITINs and guesstimate (with great error margins) how many are paying taxes. -- Rob

from what I've seen, the argument against on-campus carry is that you don't want a bunch of 21-year old drunk college kids with handguns on campus. So in this case, lets cross the street to west campus where a bunch of 21-year old college kids are allowed to have handguns in their apartments. Wait? there's not a rash of drunken students killing each other over there? hmmm... college campuses should be treated like any other public place. There are laws around how to prevent concealed carry in your place of business. Those should apply here as well. -- Rob

was listening to it all morning. Have friends working in that library, and some former scouts of mine who live on campus. they spent most of the morning looking for a second shooter that never came to be. I'm guessing an echo of the shots reported as a second shooter. local coverage: http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/breaking_news/reports-of-armed-man-inside-ut-library- went to lunch and heard alex jones on the radio talking about how this was a "staged event just like columbine" hey... he's a little bit of truth, and a lot of crazy. but he's fun to listen to. -- Rob

ah, but the fines are for not paying enough tax. (greater than this years owed tax, or greater than 90% of last years owed tax last time I checked) If your income changes in the middle of the year, and you've paid enough tax for the year, there is nothing wrong with modifying your withholding allowances to compensate for that. so ASSUMING you declare 26 with no additional amount withheld for the entire year, then yes, you would be under paying. And how would those underpayment fines be levied against the illegal immigrant with the fake SSN? Track down the victim of identity theft and make him pay the fines? -- Rob

you mean like their false SSN? and there's nothing wrong with claiming 26 withholding allowances. -- Rob

sales tax isn't the mechanism through which they'd be charged if they were to not buy the mandatory insurance package that will be required. they use fake SSN's so if they don't pay their federal income tax, who is the IRS going after? Some poor schmoe who is the victim of identity theft. current law (in TX at least) ensures that the ER cannot turn anyone away. so I'm not saying turn them away, I'm pointing out that they can't be turned away. what insurance options would HCR have provided that couldn't be provided by a private insurance company? so I still ask... if, when mandatory insurance purchases come into effect, an illegal immigrant doesn't purchase their insurance, how are they going to be charged the penalty for that? Through their income taxes that are levied against a fake SSN? Income taxes are withheld from their paychecks. They don't file for refunds. Tax penalty for not obtaining health coverage comes out of the refund, which they are not filing for in the first place. ah... so you're just unaware of how withholding allowances work. not everyone gets refunds. Just those people that want to (or don't know that they are) make a zero-interest loan to the US government. You can declare 26 withholding allowances and the IRS will withhold zero funds from your paycheck for income tax. -- Rob

sales tax isn't the mechanism through which they'd be charged if they were to not buy the mandatory insurance package that will be required. they use fake SSN's so if they don't pay their federal income tax, who is the IRS going after? Some poor schmoe who is the victim of identity theft. current law (in TX at least) ensures that the ER cannot turn anyone away. so I'm not saying turn them away, I'm pointing out that they can't be turned away. what insurance options would HCR have provided that couldn't be provided by a private insurance company? so I still ask... if, when mandatory insurance purchases come into effect, an illegal immigrant doesn't purchase their insurance, how are they going to be charged the penalty for that? Through their income taxes that are levied against a fake SSN? -- Rob

the more you learn about a flawed system, the less likely you are to believe in it. I also know plenty of atheists that started out that way and just learned about religion to argue with the christians. (kind of a dick move to do it just to argue, but I can't fault them for educating themselves about something that is such a large part of our culture) -- Rob

well by current law they get in through the ER for free. and going forward, if they don't buy healthcare, they will get taxed an extra ... wait? what do you mean they don't pay taxes? so they'll get it for free anyway... ok, then either they get it for free through the ER, or they get it free through the ER. what was your point again? -- Rob

I also think the DNC advisors calling the shots would be better serving their party by telling everyone to stop blaming bush and start proposing solutions. Blaming prior administrations might even be the correct direction for the blame, but it doesn't solve the problem. So rather than say "we inherited a hell of a mess, and we're doing the best we can" (which may be true) they might be better served by saying "we have a mess on our hands, and we have some ideas that might help..." And I'm not disagreeing with your statement there either. I think attack-only politics is more about marketing than solutions, and our politicians need to stop pandering to the vote and provide results. -- Rob

what? didn't you all see the article about the guy who was robbed in freefall? When I manifested for my first tandem almost 20 years ago they had it posted at manifest. Apparently skydiving is high risk for those types of crimes. -- Rob

I've had the latter happen to me. didn't realize that was what was happening, but it makes sense now. the editing seemed deliberate. removal of a comment regarding moderation. But like I said. it's not a public forum, so I don't really care. (well, not enough to complain anyway) -- Rob

[replyOn the other hand, people find out their lack of skill and knowledge in technique of spotting when they get their pro rating and have to organize a demo downtown for instance. Never got my PRO, but ended up spotting at Ballunar one year. Scared the shit out of me. I didn't trust myself and had to get Laird to check me. He agreed with me, and I felt better about spotting the rest of the day. -- Rob