Andy9o8

According to This Source, it's pretty accurate.

It's just The Boogeyman Of The Day by another name. The US has always had to have a boogeyman - a common enemy to rally the suckers, er, people, around, and to justify (a) violations of its own citizens' constitutional rights and (b) military interference in other nations' affairs, all in the name of national security, because candidly admitting it was actually imperialism was gauche. Before terrorism, it was Communism on a large scale. Also some smaller scales, such as evil Libya and evil Iran. Before that it was Fascism during the war, but only because of Pearl Harbor. Before that it was, yep, Communism on a lesser scale, and before that it was "anarchism". That pretty much takes us back to the turn of the 20th Century. Point being: it's really nothing all that new, or recent. Just more of "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

Hey I posted 3 days ago, and now you reply? I don't even remember if I put my pants on 3 days ago.

I thought it was a good one-liner, so bite me.

So after all is said and done... ... Who's there?

I make no comment on either Obama's policies or Bush's... but you realise that internationally there was a hell of a lot more laughing going on under the last guy, right? Especially when he got elected a second time, I mean, the world did a collective "seriously America?!?". .

Nice imitation of ChrisD, and that's ok. I was making an I-hoped-humorous tangential reference to how Euro-centric art and culture continues to portray images of Jesus of Nazareth as having the skin and features of a European, rather than what Nazarenes of the time probably looked like, which is not too much different than, say, most Palestinian Arabs of today. But I amuse myself. That's ok, too.

No. Even without a profit motive, without the income generated by tandems you can't keep your head above water. Even a small club DZ, with the building and plane owned free and clear, had incredible amounts of overhead. Property taxes (and the ground lease to the airport), fuel, maintenance, utilities, and on and on. If you want to keep even a 182 flying, you'd have to charge around $30 per slot, and fly every load full to break even. Been there. You're wrong. PCMN in the Netherlands is doing just that. They can't do tandems because of altitude restrictions, and they've been keeping afloat for ~5 years now doing static-lines, demos etc. out of a 182. Granted, there's a lot of volunteer-work going around, but jump prices for members are €15 for 3.5kft and €18 for 6kft, comparable to other dutch DZ's. Individual anecdotal exceptions do not rebut the general rule.

To make it really realistic, they should simulate successfully making it across the border, only to land in the hands of you and your pals, who will kick their asses and force them to convert to Pentecostalism. And everybody knows: wetbacks hate snakes.

Are you factoring-in the IAD students' FJC? I.e., both the income of the FJC fee, and the out-go of the value of the instructor's time plus the value of the product (the course) itself? IAD student = a few hrs FJC Tandem student = hit 'em on the head w/a rubber mallet & hook 'em up. Plus, I second what MileHiEric said - the public (especially non-athletic folk) these days wants tandem, for reasons having little to nothing to do with cost. That's the consumer demand; it is what it is. Don't be the vendor that ignores that.

Conveniently portayed as a pasty-faced Euro-Caucasian? Check.

You're nigruh-baiting, Ron. It's beneath your intellect.

Yeah, and, CNN, for example, is playing right into it. You know how when something's going on CNN makes it their story of the day, all day, practically to the exclusion of all other news? They're doing that today: all Snowden, all day. Anything about NSA abuses? Mmmmm....... no.

Well, it's like that old saying, "You build 100 bridges, and they don't call you a bridge builder. But if you suck one lousy cock, just to see what it's like, well, for the rest of your life...."

Stupid is as stupid does. So when the US government says we want him. We want to put him on trial for espionage. Rest of his life in prison or death penalty. Fair trial - nope. And Hong Kong - this guy is so loaded with sensitive information that you better not let anybody else get to him - including China. Yeah. That's how to get him back. That's damage control. As you were saying... Shit, you are right! Maybe they should have just baked him a cake The best way to get him back is via legal mean, failing that Extraordinary rendition is tried and tested. If he was Russian he'd by dying of polonium poisoning by now. You can bank on that. Anyhow. So did you hear our Secy of State, John Kerry, whingeing and stamping his feet at Russia and HK? "You guys better not have known about this! I mean it! You better not! Cuz if you did, well, we're gonna.... uh.... do something about it! Yeah!" I swear, it's fucking painful. No matter which party they're in, everyone in US governance has Shrunken Weenie Syndrome.

Stop. You got caught with your douche out. Take your ass-kicking and go home.

Four kinds, actually

He's pretty young, and basically just a professional nerd. I don't think there was a lot of deeper thought on his part put into the planning, prior to engaging capable counsel in HK. And should be interesting to see if he lands where "announced"; feint and diversion are the oldest tricks in the book.

In Kremlin, party plans for you.

China and Russia are now the Last bastion of human freedom? That's priceless. No, it is the principle of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He knows they don't support the principles of civil liberties, but is taking advantage of their desire to thumb their noses at the US govt. According to a couple of Chinese news outlets (via Google News), Snowden, having been released by HK probably with the acquiescence (and possibly at the behest) of - China, plans to transit to - Moscow; thence to - Cuba; thence to - Venezuela. You don't suppose any of them wish to say "Fuck you" to the US, do you? Word is, the Iranians wanted him to stop over in Tehran, too, but the team said "Nah, too obvious".

Not. They're training jumps, as in: practicing something very new. A repeat is a repeat, not a "failure".

It's cheap Obama-bashing for the usual sake of bashing. By the way, your OP article is 5 months old; so much for OP issue-currency. Anyhow, here's another perspective from no less liberal a rag as the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124206036635107351.html

That might change over time, depending on age and commute. When I was younger, I had 4 cars in succession that were manual. I definitely preferred the control, especially with cars with smaller engines. I fell out of love with them as a result of many years of spending a couple or more hours a day driving in heavy, often stop-n-go traffic. In those conditions, working the clutch gets to be a bitch. By my late 30s, my left leg was often sore by the end of such a day. Now in my middle-ageitude, my left knee definitely feels more of life's wear & tear than my right knee does. I attribute that in no small part to 20+ years of clutch-shifting. Now I just want the car to do all the work, so it's all auto trans for me.

Giving something of value (depending on the size of the DZ) to a customer who brings you new customers is not just good business, it's good form. Those DZOs that do nothing are not just being cheap-ass, they're acting low class.

It makes me worry about people who can learn only 90s on their canopy at their home DZ, then they visit another DZ or a boogie and start popping 270s under the same wing which, for that maneuver, is too aggressive for their skill set. Having said that, I understand where DZOs are coming from, because they're the ones who have to deal with a fatality, and the emotional toll alone can be devastating. My old FJI is a DZO now, and his DZ bans hook turns. I'm pretty sure that rule resulted from the loss of a beloved fellow jumper who died in a landing accident there a few years back.