peacefuljeffrey

With any luck, when she's old enough, I'll take her skydiving and be a big tandem guru by then. Thanks everyone for the b-day wishes and congratulations! Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I think this is how it was with my family. My brother broke a lot of ground for the rest of us, but they weren't even really that strict with him. But when he went to college, they had him pay for it. By the time the rest of us went, Mom and Dad had decided it was something that they would pay for. (They both had gone to college, too, but they married before Mom finished.) I think that once they realized that they had four really smart, mature, heads-up kids, they were able to let us do what we wanted with little worry that we'd screw anything up really bad. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I'm the "baby," the fourth of four. brother Paul, 1962 sister Jessica, 1965 sister Elizabeth, 1970 me, 1971 There was never any real sibling rivalry at all. You can see that my brother is 9 years older than I am, but for me and my sisters, he was always a good big brother, taking us out and including us in stuff. I have great memories of him taking us out to laser rock shows at the planetarium, or going inner-tubing in the surf at the Hamptons. He was responsible for us getting what was my first dog when I was in 2nd grade. His friend's girlfriend had a dog that had a litter, and Paul brought us all over there to visit them, and he picked the only completely white puppy of them all and brought it to our house, campaigning to our parents to let us keep him.

Heehee, some of us know all about it but aren't actually in the circle of friends. I have relatives and my best friend who are, though. Congratulations to you all. Stick with 'im. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Some please tell me how you're supposed to post these numbers? All I know is I had 3 awesome skydives Sunday and after I got tips on some packing nuances a few weeks ago, all my openings have been crazy-straight-on! (I had had twists in my risers on a bunch of packs. Now it's all good!) Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

So now Kerry can go back to campaigning on the merits of his war performance even though he renounced the war, and the medals that we now know he acquired legitimately. Yay. Just what is this guy's deal?? Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

He doesn't know! He probably thinks that the "assault weapons" subject to the ban "sprayed bullets." We are dealing with people who don't understand even the basics about the things that they think they want banned. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

agreed. can't see it any other way. they weren't just supporting the president. they were in a confrontational location. Wait a minute, aren't you the person who just pointed out the oxymoron of "free speech...zones? Now you're saying this guy shouldn't have brought his daughter into a "confrontational location"? What do you call it when thousands of disruptive Democrat supporters show up to misdirect and harass Republican supporters at the RNC in NYC? Isn't being there "confrontational"? Or is this only about being in a "confrontational location" with his daughter? So, you throw out a "he coulda" and now what, we operate on the assumption that your conjecture is the fact? Who knows, Kerry coulda had his minions implant mind-control devices in the brains of the guy and his daughter so that they would go to the "confrontational location" and make themselves look like troublemakers. Blue skies, -Jeffrey -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Homer Simpson: "I know, I'll sell one of my livers! I can get by with one!" Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

NOOOOO! I'd consider it unsellable, pretend to myself I didn't have it, because after the bad situation is weathered, I'd surely want to skydive again, and it's easier to get rid of a rig than to scrape together the money to replace it later on. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I got up today on my birthday (#33) and had a voicemail waiting for me that had come in at 06:45 from my brother... wifey was in labor! ...She gave birth to their first baby, a healthy girl, at 13:07! So my new neice and I have the same birthday! How cool is that?!

careful... someone might turn that into their signature line. Pffft! Let 'em. I forgot who, and what the line is, but I saw that someone already had quoted me in a sig. Like I give a shit. If the stuff I say weighs that heavily with them... suckers! Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I don't know if maybe I've overstated my position before, but let me clarify: I don't utterly discount as impossible the existence of God. I just don't believe it is true. I find it unlikely enough, though possible, that I think it's not to be believed in. I think it was pretty sly of you to use Stephen Hawking's brilliance as a springboard to a defense of the existence of God: you say he "doesn't discount the possibility" -- you don't say he believes, and you don't say he thinks it's likely. A one in two thousand billion chance is still a "possibility." I guess that before we sent explorers there, some brilliant minds may have acknowledged the possibility that the moon was made of green cheese. Remote possibility, but possibility nonetheless. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Interesting quote. This I can wholeheartedly agree with. Wrapped in my husbands arms, both of us silent and still, absorbing the beauty of nature around us, feeling the sun on our faces or snow beneath our feet, that is when we are at total peace with ourselves and the world. Nothing goes through our minds but admiration of the beauty around us and not minds cluttered with everything else. If that is God, then yes, I believe in that. To me, at least, it is truly heaven and I could live all eternity that way. Togas and wings aren't my thing and halos would take way too much work to keep polished. Give me good earthy mud any day. People are always offering the schmaltzy greeting-card pap for "what is God to you?" -- "the laughter of a child, the breeze in the mountains beside the fresh stream, the flowers on the meadows... blah blah blah." But nobody means this when they are asking about the existence of God. This kind of stuff, quaint though it may be, is not what is meant when people ask, "Do you think God exists?" They are asking about the DUDE who sits and arranges the whole of creation, who made the world and the stars and all that stuff, and set up this soap-opera-esque drama that they put into the bible. Please let's not muddy the waters with talk of "singing laughing children and little lambs and kittens" as proof of "God," unless you are willing to say that lambs and kittens and children and hummingbirds and flowers all got together to build Creation. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

How do you think generals would get a war won if every death of an enlisted man caused them to break down emotionally and start thinking, "Oh, the humanity!"?! I think that the ONLY way they can get a war won when it realistically will cost thousands of lives is to detach from the humanity of those troops, to a certain degree. It's the old, "Some of you won't be here tomorrow" speech. You don't relish the idea of it, but you accept it as the reality. You think of the dead as a "life," but not as "so-and-so's life." I mean, I'm no general, but I can't imagine that they mourn every individual life lost the way the family would. It'd be pretty impossible to carry on, and carrying on is one thing that must be done if the enemy will be defeated. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Dude, if you post that in a couple more threads, I think they're gonna lock you into "Skydivers with Disabilities." -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Besides, unless a chick is willing to maintain a follicle-free zone down there on herself, why should guys agree to doing the same? If I'm dining down, I don't mind hair. In fact, it's kinda oooga oooga primal, and I like it. No-hair is sweet too, but I'm not above choking a couple down in the tradeoff for our mutual pleasure. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

You didn't offer "dude, trimmed but not shaved, man!" So I had to vote "no way". Fully shaved, uh uh. -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Dictionary says it's five, seven, five, for sure So here's this new one See? I CAN admit when I'm wrong! Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

You do know, uh, that chainsaw blades can be sharpened, right? Just make sure to do it while the engine's running. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

The business section of my newspaper showed a guy standing high on the tilted trunk of a tree using a chainsaw, with not even goggles for eye protection. (edit: they said he worked for a tree cutting company!) If you ask me, people like that are begging for an injury and deserve it. Too bad they're not the only ones who suffer when they fuck themselves up because of such stupidity. You get fathers out of work and their kids and wives do without, etc. If I hired a tree service to remove debris from my yard, and saw them without safety equipment on (goggles at the very least) I'd fire them on the spot, and tell them exactly why. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

good thing your not a military leader, that line of thinking went away shortly after waterloo.... War is not chess. Fighting War like a chess game where you trade your peices away is a good way to lose and a colossal waste of resources... War itself is a colossal waste of resources. Millions of tons of material that is designed to destroy itself? You tell me. The only trouble is, sometimes it's necessary, when someone starts fuckin' with ya. No one wants to have to go to war... Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Ok, where is the real Jeffrey and what have you done with him? Blues, Ian He fades in and out. I'm in control, now! Muuaaahahahahaaa! -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

I love it!! -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

Absolutely not. I'm only concerned about how we treat innocent people who have been charged with a crime. You're trying to get me to say, "How do we know they're innocent until after the trial," so that you can say, "SEE?! We have to treat them as innocent because we don't know they're guilty yet!" and I'm not falling for it. I personally draw distinctions between how I will treat person X or person Y based on my own intuition about whether they're guilty or not. I think O.J. is guilty of murder regardless of the fact that he was acquitted. Do I think the criminal justice system should do that? No. Is it alright if a private citizen like me feels that way and bases actions and thoughts on that? Yes, absolutely. Conviction doesn't always mean guilty. Acquittal doesn't always mean innocence. Once you get past those realizations, you have to make your judgments based on your best information, and your intuition. And I don't really believe that charges are so frequently brought against people who are very likely to have done what they're accused of. I guess it does happen, but I don't think murder suspects are that often just people who are mistakenly suspected. Blue skies, -Jeffrey - -Jeffrey "With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"