DanG

I was injured non-skydiving and received a lot of financial assistance from friends, even though I didn't really need it. When my friends get hurt skydiving (or otherwise) I pay it back. I don't care if they screwed up and hurt themselves or if an alien spaceship collided with them. If they need help and I can afford to provide it, I do. - Dan G

How is the war in Afghanistan about wealth, land, or resources? Please try to remember that Afghanistan and Iraq and not the same place. Please also don't mention the supposed Unocal pipeline. If that war were about building a pipeline, I'm pretty sure the pipeline would have at least been started by now. - Dan G

I'm not a lifelong criminal or drug addict, so I'm not well versed in the criminal mindset, but if I were going into that business, I would rely on the statistic that robberies are solved much less frequently than murders. In other words, killing the attendant is probably going to get you a lot more police attention than stealing from the register. You're right that the punishment might be the same, but the likelihood of getting caught is significantly lower. Either way, there must be a reason why stores (and police) do not encourage employees to resist armed robbers. - Dan G

Yeah, it does need to be spelled out, since Walgreen's advertising that it has security cameras everywhere was dismissed as useless. If the only motivation for killing people were removing witnesses, it looks like the security camera idea would be pretty effective at reducing violence. - Dan G

Tell that to Target. Believe it or not, I didn't write their policy. Can you point to any major store with a policy that encourages employees to forcably resist robbery attempts? You can't, because there isn't one. And yet department stores are not getting knocked over every day. Hmmm. I'm not sure what three strike laws have to do with anything. If I walk into Target and say, "Give me $10,000 or I'll kill someone," why would I not be happy when they hand over $10,000? What would killing someone gain me? - Dan G

It sounds like giving the robber what he wanted might have been a better choice. From the article (which is very short on detail) it sounds like the robber was already behind the counter with his gun drawn. Giving him the cash/drugs/whatever would still leave the employee the option of drawing his own weapon if that didn't satisfy the robber. I heard a story once that discussed robbbery training at Target. The employees are given the scenario of a man demanding $10,000 and threatening violence if he isn't given the money. The trainer asks the new employees how long they think it will take Target to make that $10,000 profit back. The employees guess anywhere from ten seconds to ten minutes or so. The answer was well under one second. The lesson of the story was to just give the robber what they want, usually they will take it and run, and the impact to a store like Target (or Walgreens) is trivial. - Dan G

And I expect it will take you at least five pages of childish word games to explain yourself. - Dan G

To clarify, you believe that offering a Christian prayer at a Christian soldier's funeral is evidence that the United States is a Christian nation? What are the implications of offering a Hindu prayer at a Hindu soldier's funeral? Does the US become a Hindu nation while the prayer is being said? Or maybe until the body is in the ground? At what point, exactly, would be go back to being a Christian nation? - Dan G

The funeral of a veteran should be about the veteran and their family. If they want Christian prayers, fine. If they want other religious prayers, fine. If they don't want any prayers at all, that should be fine with you, too. A funeral, even if it occurs at a National Cemetary, is not a government function. I think we can both agree on that. Where I disagree with you is in your implication that since it is okay to have Christian prayers at a soldier's funeral, the US is therefore a Christian nation. If that's not what you were implying, then I apologise. - Dan G

Do you think Christian prayers would have been offered if the fallen had been Jewish, Hindu, or Muslim? Could the fact that the fallen were Christians have influenced the types of prayers offered, or do you believe that Christian prayers should be offered regardless of the beliefs of the fallen or their families? - Dan G

The skydiving museum is not being funded by USPA. Have you brought up your concerns with your Regional Director? If not, that's probably more effective than bitching about USPA online. - Dan G

Does anyone have any information on this alleged incident where Airtec made up a report? It all sounds like something someone's brother's friend's next door neighbor's barber told him that one time. - Dan G

Of course in your other thread you said that no one owns any land and that borders should be completely open. Why am I not surprized that your positions make no sense? - Dan G

I gave up skydiving and replaced it with flying. It's even more expensive, less raw fun, but more of a challenge and certainly more practical. - Dan G

If you'd say what you think clearly instead of relying on one-liners, leaving out all punctuation, and making oblique references to things not already in evidence, I wouldn't have to make so many assumptions. - Dan G

Read the thread about how various posters would have handled Bin Laden. There appear to be lots of people here who want to torture for torture's sake. That doesn't follow. Even a blind squirrel gets a nut every now and again. Why would you use a technique that is unlikely to produce good intel (although there is a chance that it might work, hoewever slight) when we have lots of experience and experise in very effective methods? There are two separate arguments: 1) it doesn't work reliably, 2) it is morally wrong. It is possible to argue both, and I do. I also didn't acknowledge the fact that the sky is blue. I didn't think I had to. - Dan G

I think SkyDekker was refering to rush's comment that no new information is asked for during waterboarding. Apparently marc saw some show about interrogation and now he's an expert. I understand his theory that you only ask questions that you know the answer to, and then punish lies with waterboarding. The problem with that strategy is if some of the information you think you know is wrong, or if the subject doesn't know the right answer, you're right back to forcing the subject to say what you want him to. For instance, my sources have told me that 2+2=5. I have remwa in the waterboarding room, and ask him what 2+2 is. When he says 4, I subject him to torture. Then I ask him again. Maybe he says 4 again, maybe he takes a guess and says 3. I only stop waterboarding him when he says 5. According to rush, I've now proven to him that I know everything and he better answer truthfully. Obviously I've done no such thing. Since no new information is asked during torture, I'm not sure what I've gained, but I'm sure rushmc can explain what I'm supposed to do from there. - Dan G

Which is exactly the problem. If they don't have information, they only way they can get it to stop is by making stuff up. - Dan G

For some reason I think you might be upset if a local town council whipped out prayer mats and started praying toward Mecca before every meeting, even if the local residents weren't forced to join in. - Dan G

Nice. - Dan G

You just made TK's argument for him. I'll paraphrase: "If you want to participate in your local government, you must participate in a religious ritual." How is that okay? - Dan G

And what if someone tortured your kids because they may have been plotting against America? Or maybe they weren't, but whatever, if we have the chance to save some other American kids, I'm sure you're okay with torturing yours. Or maybe its only okay with you if we torture other people's kids? Here's an idea: let's not torture anybody. Maybe we can take a step towards being the great country we should be. - Dan G

Democrats want puppies and retarded kids to die. Didn't you get the memo? - Dan G

No, I guess I don't get it, since in your post #11 you said you think we should torture people. You didn't say we should subject them to enhanced interrogation, you said we should torture them. WWJT? Who would Jesus torture? - Dan G

And you seem to be totally unencumbered by self-reflection. If I'm so lacking in insight, educate me. I find it unlikely you can without resorting to false platitudes, and condescending snide remarks. - Dan G