JDBoston

In skydiving, your body is moving unstoppably towards a solid object at speeds approximately 5-10x the speed it's designed to go. You have NOTHING physically protecting you (OK, a helmet, useful in some situations) besides your own ability to slow your descent by deploying a nylon device and piloting it correctly. Seemingly minor, brief mistakes WILL have disproportionately serious consequences, especially if they happen close to the ground. In driving, you can steer away from objects, speed up, or put the brakes on, and you have thousands of pounds of metal and plastic plus (often) airbags to protect you, should something go wrong. Skydiving is NOT safer than driving. You are dead every single time, until you manage to save yourself COMPLETELY by deploying, landing, and walking back into the hangar. My $0.02, Joe

I couldn't disagree more. For every story like this you can find 100 where the seatbelt was the difference between a bloody nose/bruise, and DEATH. Instead of using that story as evidence that seat belts don't always matter, I would use it as evidence that "holy shit this person has a charmed life - better start buckling up now!" Wearing a seat belt is about as close to a no-brainer as any personal behavior issue could possibly be, other than not drunk driving maybe. Joe

I just noticed that Zakaria's site doesn't make this obvious except for the URL, but actually that piece appeared in Newsweek. Good enough for me. Newsweek also put out a cover story by different authors that discusses Team B, sometimes also called the Office of Special Plans: http://www.msnbc.com/news/991209.asp Joe

I still don't get what part of my post you're talking about. Is everyone now expected to footnote every single thing they say? Do you? But just to humor you, here are a couple links: Weapons grade uranium fiasco: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33639 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3087263/ http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/952019/posts Team B: http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/061603.html Rand Beers: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/ A62941-2003Jun15?language=printer Joe

All what? It's only been in the national press for about a year. Google it. Anything specific you think is false? Joe

Yep, he's relying on the intelligence community for the truth. I mean, that's why we had that crap about Iraq trying to buy weapons-grade uranium in Africa, which the White House badgered and badgered the CIA to sign off on, and then sold them out for it afterwards. That also must be why there's a "Team B" of analysts supervised by Cheney whose mission is specifically to second-guess the CIA. The concept originated with (and was used by) Papa Bush for the same reason, vis a vis the Soviet threat. About which, incidentally, they were WAY off compared to the real spooks. Also incidentally, Paul Wolfowitz was on the original Team B. But it all must be because the Executive Branch is just looking for the TRUTH, and not because they're trying to create justification for something they plan on doing anyway, even though the real intelligence data doesn't support it. The intelligence community must be head over heels for Bush. He must really make them feel like it's worthwhile for them to put their lives on the line in pursuit of accurate intel. Right. Incidentally, a few days before the Iraq war began, Rand Beers, the top anti-terrorism guy on the National Security Council ("special assistant to the President for combating terrorism"), who's served on the NSC under every President since Reagan, QUIT. A quote from his wife on it: 'It's a very closed, small, controlled group. This is an administration that determines what it thinks and then sets about to prove it. There's almost a religious kind of certainty. There's no curiosity about opposing points of view.' He volunteered for the Kerry campaign right after. Joe

That part of my post just meant, in a very general way, that I hope that what drives people in the service to serve and, consequently, often risk their lives, is a drive to defend the country, not the Administration, because any element of the latter would cheapen their sacrifice in my eyes and that would be a sad thing. Not in the context of any specific military action, and largely unrelated to previous posts in this thread. Joe

I'm glad you clarified. Your original post made it sound like you had a problem with other people exercising their rights... hence my post. I've heard so much "love it or leave it" crap disguised as patriotism that I mistakenly lumped you in with people who actually WOULD curtail freedom of speech if they had the chance. And BTW, as FW noted I did not say "you should leave" or "you should not be allowed to say that". I was simply making a point. Anyway, traitor and treason are pretty big words to me. And I would think you can separate criticism of a person from criticism of the entire organization to which they belong. So I see no reason for soldiers to take personal offense at what someone says about the President. I mean, you can like the Boston Red Sox players, and still say Dan Duquette is a loser... oh wait... they already fired him. My sister is in the Army, and I would like to think that if she has to risk her life, it's for the interests of the American people and the American way of life in general, and has NOTHING to do with defending the honor of politicians, CINC or not. Joe

That's ridiculous. This country was founded on the principle of freedom of dissent & political speech. Doesn't matter where, or when, or to which audience. If you don't like it, there are plenty of countries where it isn't practiced. Joe

Well, I was 1000+ miles from home and knew virtually no one in that area, let alone had any disputes with anyone there. Someone loosening them intentionally (but not TOO much...) and then replacing the wheel covers does not seem a very likely possibility to me. If you really want to screw with someone's car there are plenty of better ways, and if someone was looking to steal the wheels, this would not be a logical approach either. I don't believe that the lug nuts being 1/2 turn loose when the incident occurred necessarily means they were that loose 4000 miles earlier. I would imagine they were a tiny bit loose and worked themselves looser over that time but am interested in hearing other opinions. At the point that the LOUD front end noise and steering wheel shaking started, (a milder noise had been there ever since the 90K mile service in GA, and now THAT noise is gone...), I had already driven 100+ miles that day, and probably at least 20-30 miles since I had even parked it last (in the front of a hotel parking lot, in broad daylight, for 1 hour). Also, the wheel did not fall off - three out of four 1/2-inch thick steel studs sheared, and it broke off... not exactly the kind of thing that would happen easily or immediately, IMHO... but I definitely welcome all feedback on the possibilities. Joe

Here's the scoop: The full story with fun details is on www.joedeal.com, but basically I took my car to get a 90K mile service at a new dealership (since I'm traveling), they forgot to tighten the lug nuts completely, and as a result the right front wheel got loose enough that the vibrations/wobbling caused 3 of 4 lug nuts to shear after about 4,000 miles which caused the wheel to come completely off while I was driving. The tech that worked on my car at a different dealership, making it driveable again, said that the lug nuts were loose (1/2 turn or so) on ALL the wheels, strongly suggesting that it happened the last time they were worked on, i.e. when I had the 90K mile service. This is so far the only rational explanation anyone has come up with. I expect to be given the run-around by the first dealer (it's kind of started already), since a wheel breaking off at 40 mph is a life-endangering situation and something they would probably be reluctant to admit to causing. All I want to do is get them to pay for my damages ($450 to get car driving again, another $800+ work needed) and get a refund on the work they f'd up. SO: 1. Does anyone have experience dealing with a similar situation, and how did you handle it & what was the result? 2. What is the most effective way for me to be a thorn in these guys' side if I need to do that to get them to own up and pay for the damages they caused? (considering small claims court, getting insurance company involved, Better Business Bureau, etc. - any other suggestions?) Thanks & blue skies... Joe

Thought I'd post an update... I'm in Florida right now, made some jumps at Space Center and probably going to go back there next weekend. The bigger news is that starting March 1st I'll be working in Baltimore for the foreseeable future. Any of you folks out there live in or near Baltimore? Where do you jump? Joe

Good man, learning the ropes here. I pull whenever I can. Joe

Then is every man-woman marriage that doesn't happen in a church also "a mockery of the institution in the spiritual sense"? Maybe atheists shouldn't be allowed to marry either? Looks to me like the logic in your argument is being applied selectively, i.e. in bad faith, to something you have an instinctive dislike for already, for no particular logical reason. CF the previous post about straight couples who don't/can't reproduce, and billvon's about genetics. And that's just plain old intellectual dishonesty, no matter how reasonable/logical you try to sound. My $0.02, Joe

Unfortunately no, but thanks for the invite. I'm at Skydive Atlanta down in Thomaston, GA right now... and it's clear and beautiful so I better stop fucking around on the Internet and get back to the DZ and jump! Happy birthday - Joe

Hey there, it was great to meet all you guys too! Another place worthy of a piece of my car's bumper. Be careful what you wish for, I may be back sooner than you think depending on how my trip evolves... Two things to do before I come back: 1) learn some ASL 2) get a better stand (or gain 50 lbs.) so I don't get left behind on future "sitflying" jumps I think Thomaston GA is calling me next. Joe

You still here? Don't get me started on the things you "jump".

That's about the coolest-sounding visual ever. Wish you had a pic. Joe

Let's see... We went from a surplus to the biggest deficit ever. The economy got worse. Public schools are struggling. Healthcare is a nightmare. BUT... at least we're pissing tens of billions of dollars, and the lives of our soldiers, into a sovereign nation thousands of miles away that we invaded for no reason other than spite. And meanwhile, Saddam and OBL are still on the loose. Oh, sure, he did a bang-up job. What fucking ever. Next! Joe

Hahaha. What are YOU doing here? Do you even jump? Joe

Let's see if we can all grow up a bit here and not get this thread locked. Joe

The problem lies in your definition of torture. I agree with you if you're referring only to the infliction of physical pain. But the infliction of psychological pain, and also tremendous uncertainty, can also be considered torture but is a much more useful tool, especially when you restrict its use to people who won't be going anywhere anytime soon, because they're Guilty with a capital G and you and they both know it. And it's not as much about whether you're getting info that will hold up in a court trial, as it is about getting info that will allow you to take quick action to save lives. So clearly I think it's less of a good idea in run of the mill criminal situations - but terrorism is different. But torture of any kind is clearly not without its own problems. Joe

True, but what do you propose we do about it, other than simply keep it in mind as a tiny part of everything else we know about the world? Joe

Culture is too complicated a thing to assign simple cause-and-effect to. It's affected by, and interacts with, everything from economics to music to art, the mass media, climate, architecture, other cultures it comes into contact with (such as in the case of slavery) and is CONSTANTLY changing and evolving. There are simply some cultural elements that are more adaptive than others in the modern world (valuing education and hard work, etc.), so over time you would expect the less adaptive ones to become less common or at least adopt aspects of the more successful ones. Reparations to one specific racial group, IMHO, would be encouraging a negative and maladaptive cultural element - the element of looking for handouts for things that happened to your ancestors (defined as: not your immediate family). As an aside, what we undeniably DO need IMHO is MUCH more spending on Head Start programs and other things to help kids growing up in POOR (regardless of race) environments get a fairer shot at a real education and a future. Back on topic, look at how successful a lot of Asian immigrants are. Is it because there's no prejudice against Asians? Certainly not - though there's usually not as much as against blacks. But there are elements of some Asian cultures (and, of course, the self-selection element of voluntary immigrants generally being the ones who are willing to work really hard to succeed) that enable them to overcome a lot of setbacks. By the way, this pattern (of different racial/cultural groups doing better/worse than each other) is repeated in many countries, not just the US. A black historian named Thomas Sowell has written some interesting things on it. ? Just some off the cuff thinking - I'm sure this is something people will have some strong opinions on... Joe

I'm scared of babies already and this is not helping. Joe