tkhayes

you have a problem with Iran defending its own borders from a US attack? I believe ANY country has the right to defend itself. In Iraq, we have conveniently starting calling the insurgents 'terrorists' nowadays, makes it easier to kill them, when in fact, they probabyl have/had nothing to do with any level of terrorism, they just want us out and their country back. fundamentally, there is nothing worng with that. Telling the world that 'we are doing it for their own good' sounds a lot like the Crusades - too much like the Crusades. We DO NOT have the right to invade another country to disarm them, unless they attack us, threaten us with the same attack, or attack other innocents that request our help. All I have seen out of Iran is the likelihood that they are building nuclear weapons. No threat of any use of same, nor any threat against any other country. What would you say if the rest of the world told us to 'disarm or else', given that we have more nuclear weapons than anyone, we obviously are willing to invade countries that are of no threat, and we appear to be on a Crusdae to change the world to Christianity? I hope Iran does not use them, but I hope they stand their ground with the right to build them (as long as we continue to do the same.....) The USA can be so hypocritical sometimes.

Oh please! Actually a good list of factual cases fromt he recent news and headlines. Do you REALLY want kids to learn creationism in science class instead of the valid data that we have in front of us for the past 5 million years of history. DO you really believe that we were 'created' by a divine hand? This is scary shit - just the start. Question is, how much damage can they do in 4 years? I am afraid quite a bit. -invade other muslim countries, -change the education system and set it back 200 years -spend us into oblivion expecting 'divine intervention' to take care of us? -undo ANY hint of women's rights in this country, which makes us look more like the Taliban every day. What are we going to do - FORCE women to have babies? No wonder people are leaving. The best we can hope for is that they run the country so far into the ground that the republican party is annihilated in the next election. Don't laugh, it happened in Canada, and y'know what? Canada is no worse off.

Surely you jest; This may be true, but the PEOPLE who ran Chrstianity from the dawn of time, the priests, monks, church leaders, armies, politians and kings and queens all were responsible for the Crusades, the Dark Ages, the Spanish Inquisitiion, the witch burning, rape, child molestation STILL going on in the church, money laundering, political swaying for their own benefits, praying for money and I could go on. More wars have been fought in the name of "God" than anything else. Everyone judges themselves by their intentions. Others will judge you by your actions. If the Churches (all religions) actually lived by the creeds that they preach, then I would have more faith in it. I was 14 years old when I awoke to the fact that it is a load of baloney (to me at least). However, I do understand that people seem to need and want religion in their lives, I just wish they would face up to the reality when they talk about how good 'their version' of it really is. And I wish they would stop trying to run the country in which I live by that same corrupt 'creed' TK

Not too far away now, we have Boxman, Nigel, Roy, Oren, Martin, Colon and Pip organizing, 3 Super Otters, lots of fun, food, music, and great times planned. Hope you can make it out. 10 Way starts Thanksgiving Day 8 Way Friday 16 Way Saturday TK

ahem, I gave TWO sources of information, one stating 14,000 and one stating 100,000 You cannot, although you tried, negate the entire post by disputing the second. I know the second is somewhat hokey, however, I do believe that probably MORE than 14000 have been killed. The post I replied to disputed that ANY had been killed and asked for the proof of a number around 14-15K dead, which I provided. Now, on that note, the second study was done by 3 universities, including John Hopkins. Are you saying that they are not at all credible? 'cause I find that hard to believe. I did not like the way that they did the study, however that does not mean that they are wrong either. If you expect us to go over there and actually count bodies, then there will never be an end to the arguement, since probably thousands of bodies were buried quickly (Islamic traditions) and many were vaporized I am sure, or permantently buried under rubble and in craters left by bombs. Back to the original point - we have KILLED at LEAST 14,000 civilians in this war - hardly justification for 9/11. TK

And here, I expect, is the true face of Christianity: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/09/international/europe/09dutch.html?oref=login&th At least I could argue that just as easily as you could argue your first post. TK

Are you saying that Bin Laden is some sort of hero in all of Islamic culture? Because he is not. Most think he is a terrorist and a murderer. So again, I think SOME of Muslims think he is cool. I also think some white, red-blooded, Christian Ameriancs think that Tim McVeigh was cool too. some of them, not most or all of them. TK

Right you are - 2 billion Christians, 1.3 billion Muslims, was going from my head and not the stats - does not negate my original arguement. They have nut-jobs, we have nut-jobs. Islam is still not a violent religion by nature.

We have "Christians" in this country that shoot abortion doctors and bomb clinics, a form of terrorism But we just do not call it that. Try not to define a people by the actions of a few, unless you are willing to live with the same label for yourself. Islam is not a terrorist religion, nor a violent one. There are just a lot more of them out there that Christians, and therefore a lot more nut-bars too. We have our own Christion nut-bars - Jim Jones, David Koresh, and many would argue Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh get over it. TK

I think the total body count here is 580 or so. Let's add 3000 for 9/11 and make it an even 4000 American casualties over the past 30 years, merely an average of 130/year. Over the same 30 years: -about 800.000-1 million women died from breast cancer -about 12-14 million people died from all forms of cancer - about 500,000 people died from AIDS I could go on. My point is - what is the REAL threat to American lives? Are we fighting terrorists to PRESERVE American lives? We will spend hundreds of billions of dollars on a war, to prevent what is STATISTICALLY 4000 lives over 30 years. But we will not fund 'embryonic stem-cell research', (and many other medical things) Yet it would save 10's and 100's, perhaps 1000's times more lives than ANY war we could ever fight. the priorities are screwed up. TK

I can http://www.iraqbodycount.net/ and http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/28/news/toll.html so estimates actually range from 14000 all the way up to 100,000. Please note that 14,000 is the accepted bare MINIMUM of civilians killed is this justification for 9/11 somehow? TK

Got this in my inbox, but I have too much to do this week to work on it, anyone want to provide their input for this student? thanks TK ----------------- Jakarta International School www.jisedu.org November 2, 2004 Dear Sir or Madam I am an ESL student at JIS and we are doing a research and interview project about adventure and exploration. I have chosen Skydiving around the world as my topic and I hope that you can help me by replying to my email. I would like to interview you by email and gather information about your adventure experience, because my major task for the project is to write a biography of an adventure/ explorer. I have seen skydiving on the TV a few times, but I have never tried skydiving before. When I saw the TV, I thought I want to try skydiving. It looks a fun and it looks to become a bird. However, I'm afraid of leave the ground. I just watched the people who did skydiving on the TV, but I felt scary. Therefore I thought if I skydived, I will be fait after exclamation. Because of this, I thought skydiver have brave. I have been scuba diving several times, so I want to know the differences between under the ground and in the sky. Moreover, I want to see scenery from the sky. I hope you can reply to my letter as soon as possible, because my deadline is November 27. if you cannot replay personally, could you please pass my request on to someone who can help me complete my project. I hope you can replay to my letter as soon as possible, because my deadline is November 27. I know you are a club, so could you please pass my request on to a willing member or instructor or anyone who can help me complete my project. Thank you for your kind assistance. Sincerely, Ayaka Kobi 16927@jisedu.or.id

Did I say guaranteed? What I get tired of is someone posting a static photo in time and then declaring a hypothesis about the thing like something is terribly wrong. Same thing happened to one of my tandem masters years ago, a disgruntled employee sent a photo to the FAA and RWS and the guy lost his rating for life. A static 1/250 sec in time that meant SHIT! Does a static photo really reveal a lot of information? Sometimes, yes. I am offering an alternative viewpoint on what was displayed as a 'bad thing' I do not remember a tandem going in because side connectors were loose. disconnected - yes, but not from being loose. It should be addresses, tyes. It is not life threateneing, no. It is not an endorsement by me to do the same, however, I am trying to give the tandem master a break. Most people will not. nuff said - sheesh! Let's blow this thing completely out of proportion!

fine, a rough opening, but I do not expect that it would be life threatening. Stable? I think so. should not affect canopy deployment in any way. Not saying I recommend it, I just do not see a deployment issue

What sort of problem would you EXPECT to see during deployment? I see no issue with deployment time for this configuration. They will both be uprighted and such by the shoulders, same as any other deployment.

hmm, 150 jumps a month for 5 months, at maybe $30/jump or more, so that is $22500 for 5 months of work. Seems pretty reasonable to me. Over a year, better than $45K.yr, Do you have a plan for the rest of the year? Maybe you should find winter work as well. Tandem masters get paid well for what they do, my experience is that they burn out quickly, forget that it is actually job, and they often have no Plan B when it comes to their life, causing problems int he off-season or when they decide to move on. my $0.02

yes, it is, you reach down, grab them and pull them forward to tighten them, have done it several times myself. They do not have to be that tight - most TI's seem to be focused on that aspect. Fly your body and use your legs and such to keep the passenger flying as well. Even if they are not tight, you can still fly with them underneath you. Most people seem to tighten them to the point of no flexibility or circulation for the passenger.

how about the dropzone should not be involved at all - call the police. Us DZO's sometimes get tired of dealing with people's personal issues. I will call the police for you. If you were at Wal-Mart and assaulted, would you expect Walmart to deal with it? I doubt it. You/they would call the cops.

Now I will have to update the sign in my front yard - I just put it up today.... TK

The bash is on for Saturday Night - best costume wins a day of free skydiving, Janine is serving dinner, and I am sure it will be a lot of beer-drinking whoopin'-it-up fun 2nd Otter is on the way down here from the Ranch, so we are up to full speed for the season. 7 Days a week starting November 1 see ya there TK http://www.skydivecity.com

Actually it sounds like good old common sense rules to me - something my mother might do. not the 'corruption' that you allege Maybe we could use some of that common sense here. Making any new 'laws' just means that at some point, some 'law-yers' will tie up our courtrooms arguing about the legality of it all. Personally I do not think that the courtrooms of this country need to be filled up with cases about loud stereos. Stick you hand in the cookie jar and you get it rapped. No need to discuss the issue any further. TK

Let me get this straight - you advocate the brutal and torturous execution of another person, go on in the same post to indicate that all muslims are violent, and one is then not supposed to think that you are incting violence in any way? You are an idiot. There. ME expressing myself. Oh yes, and you forgot to address any of my other point sin the post.....they must be valid TK

Sorry but that logic is RETARDED! Do you really think there are no restaurant owners in Iraq? No barbers, or janitors, or welders or other professions? No normal people? Do you not believe that these people have husbands and wives and kids that are in school? That they do not listen to music and watch TV, and work normal everyday lives? There are 24,000,000 people in Iraq, some 200,000 less than there was in 1990 thanks to a couple of wars. Most are Islamic. Most are just trying to get by. Most have (had) jobs and lives and go about their own damn business every day, probably not thinking of much else than the needs of their own families, just like us. Your accusations are nothing but pure unaldulterated hatred and intolerance of anyone else that looks/believes/acts differently from you. If your comment was about blacks, you could be charged with hate crimes in this country. But because they are Muslims, then this country thinks that it must be OK to label them all and kill them all and spawn that sort of message and hatred. Thanks so much from trying to bring us back a couple hundred years in our thinking. Sheesh! TK Timothy McVeigh was a Christian and an American (and a terrorist too).

I'd be interested in knowing how much RWS and other tandem manufacturers have been sued BEFORE vs. AFTER the Part 105 changes? No one wants to get sued, of course, but I think sometimes you can go to ridiculous extremes to protect yourself, which was the initial point of this thread. Have you been successful sued since the 2001 changes in the FARs? Did your waiver explicitley play a role in that? It would be an interesting dicussion. We have lawsuits now from regular skydivers. They sue dropzones and gear manufacturers on a regular basis, yet you do not require the user of the regular gear to sign an 'user agreement allowing you to confiscate the gear' if they violate said agreement. Is it really any different? TK

It's called a joke, but I will apologize for it anyway if it went the wrong way