ChasingBlueSky

And Libya. Seems to be working there, too. Of course, it did take longer than 12 years Wendy W. Then there was Pol Pot. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

That is a quote from above. Then see about PTSD with women in the study listed above. The few women I know in the military will tell you its true. Tailhook anyone? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Would I consider that - yes. But I would never join the military. The funny thing about military pride and telling me I don't understand? In the end I don't care. I didn't ask you to join, it was your own choice. I didn't ask you to defend me, that was your choice. I'm sure the paycheck and possible career didn't factor in at all when you made your choice. I appreciate the fact that you are there - but I should not have to suffer guilt because you made a choice. My family members made that choice, my cousin choose to be a UN Peacekeeper in Bosnia for years. All thier choice. A draft is not a choice. A president should make plans with what he has, as should the DOD. To pull away the children from our country and to send them to a war they wouldn't send thier own children to? Forget it, no way in hell. I would send my own child to Canada if he said that was his choice. But only if it was his choice. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Isn't that what we are doing with Sudan and N Korea? Very true. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

That's a problem with your perception. Most people, myself included, do appreciate the efforts of those who serve in the military. We don't appreciate our gov't putting you in harms way when it's unnecessary. Well said Kev. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Actually his change was the catalyst that encouraged me to research more into it. Yes, it was that dramatic. I won't go into more family stuff here...but it was dramatic. As far as me? I've never been left or right - I've always been open minded and unafraid to ask the hard questions and listen to both sides and consider that not everything that has been told to me was truth. Here are two studies I listed in another post today: http://www.ncptsd.org/publications/cq/v4/n3/schwartz.html http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/Hidden%20Casualties-new.htm _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

My brother used to say the same thing to me. He is no longer the person I knew while growing up - his four years with the Marines changed him into a person I no longer know. His viewpoints are extreme, and sometimes border on scary. The military and the training he had helped him devalue and dehumanize others, and that didn't stop the day he left the service. I understand the need and the place for the military. I have family and friends in it right now. I had relatives that fought against oppression and occupation in Ireland in the very early 1900s. I've heard plenty of stories. However, those people made the choice to serve. It was their free will that brought them there. A draft works against this. Why are freedom forces the hardest groups to defeat? They have the passion and belief - and they want to be there. When you force someone into service you get the crimes that were well documented in Vietnam. Growing up in a family that had plenty of military types in it, I got to hear stories. The fact that serving could never be an option for me allowed me to look at the service from another perspective. A good portion of my papers in college were on the "neccessary evil" of the military and I interviewed quite a bunch for my study on communication and non verbal communication in the military as well. Do I have the inside track? Nope. Do I respect that people have defended this country - without a doubt. However, I see more bad, than good out of time spent in the military and I have plenty of studies to help with that argument. I would never volunteer myself to be a part of that. All subcultures claim a very unique bond - even as skydivers we do it. Why? To feel special and unique and better than others. Gangs say the same thing, as do the kids in band camp. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

And I would imagine that many people wear aluminum foil hats to prevent government satellites from controlling their minds. What's your point? I think "perspective" is the word you are looking for. I've always had a problem with the draft. IF the war was such a good cause and needed, then there would have been the mass influx of recruits like there were after Pearl Harbor. We have the right to choose in this country, and the freedom of speech. It was ok to speak out against the war and violence, but if you did anything active to show how much you didn't want to go you were a coward. Forcing someone into a war that most of the country didn't believe in isn't American. Forcing someone to kill another human being isn't American. Robbing families of a lifetime with their children isn't American. I never would have had a chance to be part of any draft due to a medical condition and the fact that I was in the seminary during the first Gulf War (when thier were rumors of a draft). I believed in why we were going to fight - but I would never have volunteered to go. Violence just isn't a part of who I am at any level. Honor? Coward? I don't see those as words for those people. They made a choice, a very active choice. Some may have done it just out of fear, others may have done it out of beliefs. Who are you to judge them? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Sorry to hear that Jack...hope the insurance covers most. Any word on the store or the DZ? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

There she is...Ms American Jackass! I just find it interesting how the government in one form or another loves to prevent privledges from gay people. No marriage, no right to defend their country, no protection from abuse/murder, etc etc The military loves to further that boys club mentality as shown by the studies listed above. I would love to see an epidemiological study on men in the military and how they treat/mistreat women. Found something close to that: http://www.ncptsd.org/publications/cq/v4/n3/schwartz.html And another: http://www.southernstudies.org/reports/Hidden%20Casualties-new.htm _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Maybe Bill Gates bought out the rights to eruption on Mt Rainer and he is going to package it for free in the next windows that could bring a new definition to the blue screen of death! sorry, geek humor. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Hopefully it won't interfer with his reality tv show _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I remember watching the dramatic movie about the eruption growing up. We had cable back then and they played it all the time on HBO....the main character was the geologist that died during the eruption and had cameras set up across the mountain. Those pics are the ones in National Geographic I believe. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Oops! Typo...thanks for pointing that out Lori. I'll fix the original post _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Are you sure it wasn't Amazon breaking a new speed record? I haven't seen a pic of the volcano in years - does it still have that very distinct crater left over from the 80 blast? Maybe in my volcanic ignorance that would make me want to guess that a new eruption probably couldn't be as deadly, right? Also - I know there was talk for a while about Mt Rainer going off, or is it still very dormant? I remember reading it was listed as one of the most likely dormant volcanos to go off next, and it would cause billions of damage. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Same here as well. Odd, huh? Oh yea, I was 21 at the time. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I play partypoker.com but only for fun - no money to bet and I have started to hear rumor of bots and scanners. Oh yea - I'm SkydiverBo on there. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

I have a friend that is a lawyer but 1) He is out of the country for the next 45 days 2) His response via email was "too busy to get involved with anything that involves the church." There is no paper lease. I know the landlord personally since I went to the school he was the comptroller for. Everything has been a verbal agreement and its worked out for the most part along the way, but I have been here for three years now and I have utility bills to prove my residence along with voter registration. My roommate is contacting a lawyer via his job tomorrow (its a free consult) to get an opinion. I do know that the cost of our rent covers the entire payment on this place that he owes every month. As far as the Bishops involved in the condo. You have to realize that priests have almost no bills - the church pays for almost everything. Usually your car payment is the biggest thing you will have as a priest. I can tell you first hand that in that line of work you need a place to escape to - and why should they be any different than anyone else when it comes to owning a residence? There are plenty of priests (almost all that I know) that have at least one house/condo/apartment away from their church where they can go and relax. Also, when you spend that much time around someone their title and position tends to move to the background. They become your friend and not the Bishop. I was in the seminary system for 8 years and those priests became my friends, and now a couple of them are Bishops (my friend just had one assist with his wedding - which is a rare event). On top of that, I had friends that became Catholic priests and they are just the same people I have known for the last 17 years and I do not treat them any different because they now wear a collar. I play poker with one of them about once a month and have BBQs with others over the summer (and they do pester me about me not practicing my religion anymore). I've had talks about one day being a partner in a winter home in the Florida Keys with one of them as well as a house in norther Wisconsin with another. So, the association has nothing to do with what their profesional title is, but because they are my friends. I know that my landlord has known these guys for years and they would often come and hang out at with us at the seminary. I guess you could say that priests are people too. Just because some skydivers are idiots does not mean all of them are.....just because some priests screwed up doesn't mean they are all screw ups. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Also, did the canopy ever get wet? From my understanding, the tape on the canopy can shrink slightly in certain areas causing it to fly differently. My Stiletto has 1000 jumps on it and flies good and the flare is still strong. The openings can be interesting at times and because of this I am thinking of getting a new slider. But overall it behaves like a new canopy. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

So I picked up the Sunday paper today only to see my landlord's name in the paper. He is under investigation, and I was wondering how this will have an impact on me and my roommates. Anyone know what sort of rights I have as a renter (there is no lease) in this situation? Here is the article (at the end of the article they mention one property that was not named in the investigation and that isn't where I live) and my landlord is the former Comptroller: Sunday Chicago Sun Times 9/26 Bishop here co-owns condo with embezzlement suspect BY CHRIS FUSCO AND CATHLEEN FALSANI Staff Reporters One of Chicago's Roman Catholic bishops owns a vacation condominium with a former seminary comptroller accused of bilking the Chicago Archdiocese out of more than $268,000, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Cash allegedly embezzled by former St. Joseph College Seminary Comptroller Dennis Composto is believed to have been used to pay the mortgage on a Wisconsin condo that Composto and his wife own with Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Jerome Listecki and Archbishop John Vlazny of Portland, Ore., according to a civil lawsuit filed by the Chicago Archdiocese and public records. Composto on Saturday denied the charges and said they were in retaliation for a federal age- discrimination complaint he filed after he was fired from his job in December. "They embarrassed everyone in my family, my kids. I never took a penny from that institution," he said. The Cook County state's attorney's office has begun a criminal investigation after receiving documents from the archdiocese more than a month ago, sources said. After conducting their own internal investigation, archdiocesan officials say they are satisfied Listecki, 55, has done nothing wrong. "We've talked to him [Listecki] about it because there is some connection with some property, but he has cooperated fully," said Jim Dwyer, spokesman for the archdiocese. "We have no reason to believe anything nefarious went on." "He is cooperating with the review, and he intends to cooperate fully with any investigation," Dwyer said, adding that Listecki is out of the country. A voice-mail greeting at Listecki's Libertyville office said he would be gone until Oct. 4. Archdiocese files suit The allegations against Composto, 64, were made in a lawsuit the archdiocese filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court on behalf of Cardinal Francis George. The complaint alleges Composto diverted seminary cash over an 18-month period in 2002 and 2003 from seminary accounts at Harris Bank to three personal checking accounts he also had at Harris. As comptroller of the seminary based at Loyola University in Rogers Park, Composto had the authority to sign its checks within undisclosed limits. Besides allegedly using seminary cash to buy books, videos and music for himself, the lawsuit says he used it to pay mortgages on nine properties, including the condo in the resort town of Williams Bay, Wis., that he owns with Listecki and Vlazny. Williams Bay is near Lake Geneva. Composto had worked in various capacities at the seminary since 1969. He said he was audited by the state and church-hired auditors, and that "never once in all the years that I had been there had I ever been cited." Composto blamed his dismissal on a boss who claimed he no longer could work with him. He said he filed his age-discrimination complaint with the feds Feb. 9. On seminary board Listecki is on the St. Joseph board of directors, and a relative of Composto's works as Listecki's administrative assistant. Listecki was ordained a bishop in 2002 and oversees an area of the archdiocese that encompasses most of the northwest suburbs. He is one of six active auxiliary bishops serving under George. Before heading to Oregon, Vlazny held several posts in Chicago, including rector of the seminary -- then known as Niles College -- between 1981 and 1983 -- and auxiliary bishop. He became archbishop of Portland in 1997, replacing George, who left Oregon to become the cardinal-archbishop of Chicago. Vlazny's spokesman, Bud Bunce, confirmed the archbishop is co-owner of the Williams Bay condominium with Listecki and Composto. The financial arrangement among the co-owners is unclear. The Portland Archdiocese made national headlines in July when it filed for bankruptcy to protect itself from payouts stemming from the priest sex-abuse scandal. Besides the Wisconsin condo, Listecki and Composto have owned and sold property in west suburban Hanover Park, records show. That property, however, was not mentioned in the lawsuit. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

They specifically mentioned ZHills on the Weather Channel this morning as one of the cities the eye will have gone thru as a Cat 1. The map looked like the LW area was going to be hit as well. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Sounds like all the weather stations are saying that the sustained winds are making this one the worse of the four that hit landfall in Florida this year. (why do they have all of those reporters out in the winds). Worse, it looks like it took nearly the same path as Frances and Charley.(they are saying this is the first time that two storms have made landfall in the same area in the same season) I'm sure most don't have power yet, and I haven't been able to reach anyone yet either. So check in and let us know you Floridians are ok! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

What Forum? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Are crossbraced wings a path the designs are headed towards? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

HA! You sounded pretty wasted last night, but it sounds like you had a good one! Hope ya had a good one! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....