tkhayes

my most important things were a stereo and lots and lots of weed.

pain is an indication that something is wrong. get your back checked out - you may have some issue that is aggravated by the opening shock. if the opening shock is severe, then FIX IT! you will feel everyone of those openings in a few years and the pain will then never go away. If you cannot get the openings fixed, then change the gear. Spectre with Dacron lines, I recommend. And like an earlier poster said, bring your knees down once you deploy. You should be in a full sitting upright position when the parachute hits line stretch and the first bit of opening shock. It prevents the whiplash, and all of the opening shock is taken thru vertical compression of the spine (which your spine is designed to take), and using you thighs as the shock absorbers. learn to do that regardless of whatever parachute you are jumping, your spine will thank you in many years.

well I am for due process and a trial - then shoot his ass. And a civil action against all his cohorts to keep the clinic financed into the future.

I bought a Wagner power painter 20-odd years ago and used it to paint a large part of my house. Pros: very even paint distribution. took less than an hour to paint 2 large rooms used very little paint (paint is diluted with water) 2nd coat also went well coverage and finish was immaculate Cons: noisiest fucking machine I ever used Fills the entire room with a fine mist of paint spray You have to mask off ANYTHING that you do not want covered in paint spray or mist, including the rest of the house. took more time to mask everything off than it would have just paint the friggin' rooms with a roller. So I sold it. it is fast and does a great job, but the prep work was not worth it. Buy good brushes ($5-$7 each), not the expensive ones ($20 each), and the same for rollers. Use latex paint ONLY, oil-based is not worth the hassle unless you have a specific need for oil paint. Buy good paint, cheap paint is simply a pain in the ass. Use masking tape/blue tape. plan two coats on everything. Spend the time plastering and filling cracks, sanding and the job will look great. I fucking hate painting, but I am pretty good at it.

rushmc, the staunch defender of the US constitution objects to a 'constitutional right' granted in the SUPREME COURT of this great country? wow, I must be still asleep or something. but it is a free country and anyone is entitled to their wrong opinion. 1973, the decision was made by the top court in the country. the decision has stood the test of time, more than 30 years. Oh yes, but that was based on the 14th Amendment - obviously the Constitution was/is flawed. Maybe we should have stopped making amendments right after the 2nd one. It's hard to beat 'perfect' when it comes to a Constitution (sarcasm) late term abortions are nasty, but sometimes they are medically necessary. i.e. sometimes people do not find out that the baby's organs are outside of the body until 6-7 months. and many of the people do not find that out until it is 'too late' because they do not get decent (if any) pre-natal care. But that is because the health care system is BROKEN. But that's right, these are just poor people who "if-they-just-got-off-their-asses-and-got-a-job' they could afford that health care. but now I am really splitting hairs. And yes, occasionally, late term abortion is used as birth control, so I guess we should ban ALL ABORTIONS because someone did one that might not have been 'medically necessary'. that would be like banning all GUNS because some whack-job got ahold of one and shot up a school...... 30,000 children starve to death in the world every day. 400,000+ people die in the USA because of smoking each year, but no one is shooting tobacco executives. 1.3 million abortions are done each year and a lot of them are medically necessary. either way, that is 1.3 million people (each year) who obviously feel that they have the right to get one. Times 30 years for Roe v Wade, that is some 39 millions Americans that have had an abortion since then (about). A sizable chunk of the population. and if you do not like it - then you can raise millions of dollars, and put together a grass-root movement and challenge & CHANGE the law - but yes that has been tried too. And we still won that right. At least something works right in this country. "every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great. If a sperm gets wasted, God gets quite irate...."

AOPA and EAA are also far far larger than USPA, more money, more members, more voice in DC

USPA is a 'sport' organization. The feds are a REGULATORY body. By having USPA, we have actually DEREGULATED the sport. (at least in part). And we have a say in the regulations that do exist. Not having USPA would likely mean the feds would HAVE to regulate us. A bad idea. If you do not like USPA, then invent a new organization to compete with USPA, steal all the skydivers away to your new organization. Not having a voice in Washington, means the death of the sport due to 'rules' made by people within the FAA who know nothing about skydiving. Read the 'action' items on www.uspa.org and you will see why the membership is worth every nickel of $65/year and even more. And if you lost your rating or membership - well, my experience is that it ain't really that difficult to comply with a few simple rules. And they are not asking you to do anything different than they are asking 32000 other members to do, and most of us/them seem to have no problem with it...... stop yer whining. No one is stopping you from running for the BoD and changing the rules.

So sez you. And I believe that you believe that. Part of the problem that I have with religion is a whole bunch of the 'exact same Christians' who read the 'exact same Bible' come to completely different conclusions as you. And a lot of them apparently live in Zephyrhills (the south in general). Like I said, I hear this crap pretty much every day. This sort of hypocrisy is exactly why I decided it was all bunk when i was 14. But enough of that. You and I both know that a lot of people believe in the Revelations and the Rapture. And I think at least 'some' of that influence is driving US/Israeli policy.

http://www.geocities.com/lvegh/Revelation_Rapture.html according to this whack-job - the prophecies are far from done. This is an example of what we are talking about. I see it every day here in Zephyrhills, people that believe in the end of the world, the second coming, and-you-better-be-on-the-right-side-or-you-will-die horribly..... They hand out degrees in this stuff at any number of Christian based colleges in Florida - funny how these are the same people rooting for intelligent design in the classrooms...... another debate

ditto - for those who are wondering what I was talking about - THAT is what I was talking about...... If Israel does not exist, Christian Prophecies (as interpreted by MANY American Christians) cannot possibly come true.

you are right - I misread the article I had looked at - that appears to be the total aid to Israel over a given period. Current aid in the range of $3B/yr - still a lot of money and still a huge chunk of our foreign aid budget. And it is set to increase to perhaps $6B/year. http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222.pdf

*** what's the odds of a non-Jew ever being elected in Israel to a significant post? I think the 'arab' party got 3 out of 120 seats in the government. the rest of the seats are all held by 'jewish based parties. What's the odds of even a 'black' Prime Minister in Israel?

many of the US Citizens ARE Christians. and by 'Extreme', I do not mean 'terrorist'. I mean right-wing fundamentalist Christians. certainly more of a portion of the population that anywhere else in the world - correct me if you can provide some stat to the contrary. Is Billy Graham a 'terrorist'? no. Is Billy Graham part of the 'fundamentalist 'extreme' right-wing that I am talking about? Absolutely. America practically invented it, with things like the 'rapture' and such, not even in the freaking Bible, yet believed as part of US Christian culture throughout many churches. And Billy Graham has had an open invitation to the White House, has sat with with almost every President since he was a preacher in his 20's. Just one of MANY influences in the Whitehouse and in the government in general. so much for the separation of church and state. So is my point of view out of whack? Not at all. Is it the 'only reason' we support Israel? No, not at all. But it is a valid 'hidden agenda' disguised as 'support for an ally'. I do not believe that Israel deserves no support at all, but no support would receive no argument from me either. No support for Pakistan would also receive no argument from me. I would just like to see those tax dollars used elsewhere - Christ I sound like a Republican......

well I disagree. It has a lot to do with Christianity. The book of revelations requires israel to exist and all the jews will have to convert or die.... I doubt the jews care about that right now, they are milking the USA for $118B/year. And the USA recognizes lots of no-so-friendly governments. China is trying to 'destroy' the Tibetans, and Taiwan. North Korea wants to destroy everybody, but we still 'recognize' their government. I could go on. As I said, there is more to this than just 'support for an ally'. 45% of the world's Jews probably have a lot of voting power. The Christians, at least the fringe, want to see Israel exist as well. Maybe the Jews in the USA should hold a giant bake-sale to raise money for their country instead of taking it out of my tax dollars. I would rather see the money spent on health care and education of our own, thank you very much.

I actually said "I did my homework". sorry I did not elaborate, but yes, I read many articles and saw several points of view, INCLUDING Fox news. et tu?

I bulk emailed everyone on our mailing list, the details of the memorial viewing:

hey, if my boss likes jelly beans, and I have to get on his good side, I am going to bring jelly beans to his desk when I bring a report. That is called sucking up. Too bad the watchdogs within the Whitehouse were not doing their job to stop it. But GWB surrounded himself with an impenetrable wall that could not be gotten to unless you 'played it his way' it is still a sad commentary on our country and 8 years that we hope we can all forget someday.

And GWB is a fucking idiot - but he still got to be president. Sotomayor ruled 'right' on many issues in the past, and she ruled 'left' on many issues in the past. I think her portfolio is pretty balanced by the look of it. (I did my homework - did you do yours? Or did you just get it from Fox News?)

a true democracy - except that the entire system is based upon religion. Too bad we do not recognize the 'true democracy' that happened when the Palestinians elected Hamas overwhelmingly. You seem to have ignored the rest of my post. Our support has little to do with 'democracy' I think it has a lot to do with CHRISTIANITY. and we give one third of our foreign aid budget to one country......Israel. ridiculous. they are right? That might be your opinion, I do not share it. If we focus most of our foreign aid on one country and ignore the rest that 'really need it', then what good are we?

More and more I believe that the support from Israel comes from fundamentalist Christian Beliefs here in the USA. That gets mucked around in lobbying and political support and turns into billions going to Israel every year from the USA in money and aid and military. http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/usaid.html And we let them get away with pretty much anything - not that we do not let other countries get away with stuff, but if Mexico was doing the same things, we would cut off their support. With Israel, we do not. And it is because the Book of Revelations talks about the end of the world and the 2nd coming and all that CRAP, and none of it can happen if Israel does not exist. So we must support Israel in order for the prophecies to come true. Now that is far-fetched......but is it really? A lot of things we do have far deeper reasons behind them than what we see on the surface. And Americans are just stupid enough to buy it sometimes. Not to mention that Americans are largely Christians, and many of them EXTREME. Israel needs to be cut off. They are a self-supporting entity in their own right and it is time for them to stand on their own. I have no idea why we spend so much money on them. The money we spend would pay for Universal Healthcare for our own twice over.

the poll is meaningless. Obviously ANYONE would torture ANYONE if they knew for sure it would save lives, or preempt 9/11. The problem is that we DO NOT actually know who knows what, and we justify torture as a means to get information that we 'hope' will be useful. Torturing Ted Bundy might find more victims bodies, but it might not. Are you going to justify torturing him (and others) in 'hope' that you get information. I mean after all, we KNOW he is and was a killer. So why not? If you torture, you will eventually torture innocent people. If you have capital punishment, we will eventually execute an innocent person. And yes, I agree that there are people on this earth and in this country that deserve death and do not deserve to breathe the same air as you and me. But I believe more strongly that we can NEVER execute an innocent person - but we have, many times in the past. So what do you want your standards to be? Acceptable that we occasionally torture or execute someone who is innocent? What if it is YOUR children that are being tortured or executed, instead of 'saved' by torture. It is a slippery slope and we are supposed to be better than that. At least I am better than that. Augusto Pinochet and Stalin come to mind. Sorry but I want no part of it. “Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security” - Ben Franklin Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. and dozens of others. I prefer a free country.

what kills me is that the church continues to defy, deny, pretend this stuff never happened, and every time it comes up, they act like they never knew...... Over TWENTY years ago, the church in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland was investigated for abuse, which started the whole pyramid to come tumbling down for the Catholic church in Canada. It all started there. Here in the USA, it was about 10 years ago, and they acted like "We never knew...." when in fact, the same pattern of abuses was pretty apparent throughout the church all over the world, and they way they handled it was about the same too. How people remain "Catholics" is beyond me...... After 20 years of discovery (a generation), there is no more excuse. Any further abuse discoveries should be prosecuted at the FULL EXTENT of any laws, since apparently the church has not come clean, and they have not tried (very hard) to clean up their act. As well, they continue to hide and protect the abusers within their own ranks, rather than oust them all. power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Catholic church, above all other religions, enjoyed absolute power for centuries and they abused it beyond all reasonable human limits. But that's OK, ask for forgiveness and you will not burn in hell, just purgatory for a while.....

hmmmmm, maybe with so many "Well run" corporations failing at an alarming rate - the title of your thread should also include "Why Corporations can't run business....." lots of blame to go around. THe government is simply being "your Mommy". When you misbehave, take irresponsible actions, fuck over the general public, abuse your powers, play 'blackjack' with people's investments and securities, then you get ALL your toys taken away from you and you get a time-out in the corner. And if you cry about it, you get told "I'll give you something to cry about.....!"

there has been a lot of discussion in and out of USPA on their spineless backbones and so the pressure is on somewhat to enforce the rules. We now have a President (Stokes) who might actually put some dignity back into the organization and perhaps some consistency when it comes to matters like this. So, yes, if your local S&TA has not renewed his/her membership, then they are not much of an S&TA are they? 'Raising the standards' has to happen at all levels, starting at the top. It is an inconvenience for you, yes, but I bet you won't let it happen again, and I bet that signing person won't either, since now everyone knows about it.......

I am from Newfoundland, and growing up there, EVERYONE knows someone who hit a moose or was killed by hitting a moose, or hit a moose themselves. Seen a bunch of those accidents and came very close myself once when I was in college. Back there this past summer, we almost hit one with the RV, mother and calf running across the road. The calf slipped and fell, then scrambled out of the way by about 10 feet or so. Back in the day of larger heavy cars, it might have been less of a problem, but today for sure, ANY collision with a moose is a bad thing. send pics of the car!!