JohnnyD

Ok. If the guy is a jumper, I hope the dz steps up and does the right thing. I'm getting really sick of reading about bad things happening on the dz and no one being held accountable.

This is on the dz, right?

It sounds as if the taxing authority has levied the assets of the dz. By taking the tandem rigs your friends are committing a crime, possibly a felony based on the value of the rigs. If these guys are your friends, tell them to put the gear back immediately. The tax man can stop you from jumping. The tax man can put you in jail.

Laura Bush has.

SWEET! Should I still feel bad when grandma can't afford her meds?

Agreed. Its better than TJ, but still not that great. You may end up wandering right into the "fruit stand" on the 8. I'll wait to hear "the rest of the story", because it sounds to me that there should be more to tell than someone got pinched.

Got a source? That story sounds a bit suspect. TJ is smack on the border. Tecate is not. Also, since when is is illegal to walk toward the border? Provided they were legally in Mexico in the first place. There are also far better places to cross - not that I would know anything about that.

Lots of interesting replies here. I am a diehard Oakley man. I have a pair of polarized Minutes that are nine years old. They have lots of jumps, motorcycle time, waterskiing, been sat on, dropped, kicked, and outwardly abused. Other than the rubber needing to be replaced, they are still in service. That being said, I have to agree with what people are saying about the round arms and the fit inside helmets. Mine were really comfortable in my Aviator, not as comfortable in my open face motorcycle helmet. I just bought a pair of Oakley Valves and that problem is solved. Hope I get nine years out of them as well. My wife just got a pair of prescription Haylons. She ordered a lens not offered on that model and they said no problem. One thing I noticed is that the prescription lenses are noticeably heavier than regular lenses. YMMV

The poll is flawed. There is no option for buy Johnny beer.

I drove past it yesterday and it looks as if they are leveling the ground but it doesn't appear that they are in a hurry.

Wow. What was she _supposed_ to do? She suffered very serious injuries in the crash and the report is she tried to fire her weapon (or a weapon) that jammed. Do you think she should have run out there and started going to work with a bayonette? No worries with a spinal injury, two broken legs, a broken ankle, a broken foot and a broken arm. Yeah, you're right, she's a coward. She went over there and came back a totally broken version of herself and handled all the media pressure with composure and grace, qualities you fail to possess even on dropzone.com.

It's amazing how much resistance a simple, common sense, requirement like that gets. The standards for men and women were as different as night and day when I was in. It totally sucked trying to get promoted ahead of an entire group who had practically no standards on top of competing with all your peers. In my opinion, set ALL standards equal and let women serve as they are able or just get them out completely.

Where do you put the big brass balls?

Thanks bro. He would have had to push my car through three others to get to the land barge. My car came out pretty good for how hard of a hit it was. To all the people saying the worst drivers are in Florida: PUHLEEZE. I see your old people and raise you snow and ice.

Yep. Also, Cal is kind of a long commute from Florida.

Two years and four months ago I moved to Colorado. I have since held the belief that the worst drivers on earth all live here. One of them finally hit me. An idiot in the typical Colorado vehicle (F-350 crew cab long bed = about as long as two parking spaces) was making a left and managed to get half of his land barge in the turn lane, leaving the other half to block traffic. I stopped but the 17 year old kid coming up behind me wasn't even looking until after he hit me. Needless to say he was a bit shaken up. I got out and walked toward his vehicle, a Chevy Malibu. His light, hood, grill, front fender, and left front quarter panel were all damaged. I was expecting something similar on my car, a Toyota Camry. I was very pleased to see that all I will need is a new rear fender. No damage to the trunk, lights, or rear quarter panels. No injuries.

You better care. If your neighbors find out you were the only one in there, they will think you're nuts and try to have you evicted.

You are straying from the story which this thread is about. No one has "taken a fall" for having a dog present during an interrogation. No lower ranking folks, nor their superior officers. Nor should they. If simply having mean-looking dogs is going to be considered "torture", then you need to ban them from all U.S. police forces. And then a lot more criminals would escape justice, and more police officers would get hurt. The idea that there is something wrong with having police dogs to control prisoners is ludicrous. Well, you missed my point but at least you missed it entirely.

I agree. Its a mess _all_ the way up the chain of command. My point is the only ones suffering the punishment are the reserve sergeants from West Virginia with a wife and kids back home who are now staring at prison sentences when all they were trying to do was put their lives on the line for their country. Now they are being uncerimoniously thrown under the bus and I think that sucks.

What about just following orders? Having been in the military, I don't buy that these guys just took it upon themselves to do all this without any instruction. Especially when some of the techniques were expressly condoned.

Yes, and it was authorized by superiors all the way up to the current AG. I think it is sad that the guys on the low end of the totem pole who were just trying to do their jobs are the ones taking the fall. It makes me angry that people will call you an American bashing coward for even questioning the administration or the actions of the troops and then turn a blind eye when we imprison and ruin the lives of our own troops who were following orders and taking actions that were expressly condoned. I am having a very hard time reconciling this.

Well there is. Just look at the popularity of ogrish pictures being posted, even on this forum. It is kind of interesting to see, that when it hits close to home, people are all outraged. I wonder what the reaction is on a motorcycle forum when you tell them you like posting and seeing pictures of the aftermath of a severe motorcycle accident. (not directly at you specifically, but you in general) -bolding was my emphasis That is exactly the point. If he would have posted: "Being in a warzone is the best job ever. I'm just disappointed I haven't been able to shoot some Hajis yet" We would call him a hero and thank him for all he does. But if he says: "I'm going to watch some military training exercises hoping to see some carnage" He's a sick bastard. Its not the facination with the what so much as it is the disgust with the who.

Therein, the dangers of the internet. I have seen at least 5 interpretations of his initial post so far, ranging from psychopathic to mildly disturbing: ---------------------------------------------------------- 1. I am willing to sabotage someone's gear so that I can see a fatality. 2. I hope someone dies at my DZ soon so that I can see a fatality. 3. When the next fatality happens at my DZ, I hope I am there to see it. 4. I am going to say something controversial to stir up shit. 5. I am going to conduct a psychological experiment to see how many people I can get to pipe up "I've seen someone go in". ---------------------------------------------------------- Now, my money is on number 3, but it is only a guess because the OP hasn't clarified what he meant. Until he does, we can only draw our own inferences. I think he has. The point is that skydivers hold the witnessing of a fatality as a sort of a right of passage. The strange thing about it is that you are not allowed to wonder about that right of passage. Many people will quit jumping after witnessing a fatality. Those that stay around can say NSTIW and I got back in the plane because this is who I am. It seperates the tourists from the lifers in a sense. The caveat is that it comes at the expense of one of our own.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/gratitude.asp

NICE!!!! If you still have it, bring it by the office. Us geeks yould love to check that out. ps - was it the legs girl?