BikerBabe

lol...what? Now who's reading things into posts? and when i said "your position" please understand that i'm using you as a representative of a commonly stated position...and because you happen to be replying today. so saying i want the US to uphold a moral standard that not many other countries aspire to is being on a "high horse"? Why Marc, you're coming dangerously close to endorsing moral relativism now... if waterboarding isn't torture, then i'm sure it would be OK to do it to you, then, right? or less personal...would it be ok to do it to criminals in the US prison system? How about those suspected of a crime, during questioning? Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Ah well, at least you're honest. I think what most people on this board are arguing about (regarding torture) is that your position is seen as base, uncaring, nasty, violent, medieval, savage, undeveloped, unenlightened, etc. I'd rather live in a country that is above those things. call it moral superiority, if you will. I want my country to be better, not only financially, militarily, or politically, but MORALLY, too. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

oh right, i forgot that YOUR context is the only "proper" context. my bad. actually, i'm sorry, i should have remembered that you don't care at all what the world community thinks of the US. My suspicion is that if any other country was torturing US citizens, you would be raising holy hell about it...but it's really OK for us to do it, right? Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

wow, so much for those cars' undercarriages on #10...lol Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

sure, and you proved to me that you COMPLETELY missed the point of the question at the same time. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

yup...and guess what? we STILL had idiots landing the opposite direction! And trust me, the organizers expedited themselves down in order to land much sooner than anyone else...and CERTAINLY soon enough for people to adjust accordingly. Oh, did i mention we also had someone holding the tetrahedron in place and the organizer would ALWAYS land in that indicated direction? So not only did you have the FMD rule, you had that FMD following the tetrahedron. And we STILL had people completely oblivious. This isn't about the particular rules at any given DZ. this is about paying attention under canopy, plain and simple. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

You are serious? You really think that the captors should care what their prisoner thinks of them? Really, are you serious? fuck yes, i'm serious, but let me rephrase the question...maybe, just maybe, for ONCE on this board, you'll answer me directly... If you had a friend who was a POW and his captors used waterboarding on HIM...would your opinion of the culture and people represented by his captors go down, up or remain the same had they NOT used waterboarding? simple multiple choice question. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Marc, my question for you is this: If you were being held as a POW and your captors began waterboarding YOU, would your opinion of your captors go down, remain the same, or actually go up? Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

exactly...and the POLICY at Perris is if you are in the air and this happens, then you land off the grass. the GRASS IS CLOSED. There are acres and acres of dirt fields to land in. So you have to adjust your pattern (as brett said) in order to land out in the dirt. The REAL issue here is that everyone had "grass envy" and ignored the pertinent rule. heaven forbid they get their jumpsuits dirty. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Brett's account is pretty accurate, actually. I was one of the jumpers from the 100-way waiting at the flag line for the planes to land when this happened. true, there may have been some 100-way jumpers out in the dirt, but really the pertinent area for this incident is the grass landing area at Perris and the rules pertaining to it. The only other thing i might add is the jumper who landed north landed about a second after another jumper landing to the south, though that south-landing jumper was actually pretty close to the west side of the grass, and there was PLENTY of room for the other guy to land. Either way, the moral of the story is, at Perris if you are in the air and you see two jumpers landing opposite directions on the grass, then the grass is CLOSED and you land out. As for the jumper that was hit...he was NOT on the 100-ways, he was on the fun-jump load. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

mountain bike. This comes from a bad experience involving a hill, a bike, and a rock that i had when i was a child. I can't do it. downhill on a bike over rocks is beyond my limit of personal risk eat raw oysters. i have a thing about food texture, and oysters just....don't. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

meh...Rock Band 2 is better ;) way more songs! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

What i find astounding is how the same people who rant and rail against the government taking control of banks and businesses have absolutely NO problem with that same government taking control of women's bodies. kinda funny... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I find in general, the majority of people (this site included) really don't have a firm grasp of how our government ACTUALLY works. By this i mean on a day-to-day, operating basis, not what you learned in HS civics class. Articles and posts about government spending (especially procurement, be it defense or otherwise) always make me chuckle, for example. Unfortunately, there is absolutely NO concise way to explain the processes by which government money is actually allocated and spent, you just have to live it for a while. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I believe this is EXACTLY the argument the student was making. Look at it this way: does that teacher have MORE of a right to express his views than the student? Of course not. One thing many people don't understand is when you sign up to work for the "state" (meaning, the government or a publicly-funded entity like the public schools) you are agreeing to give up some of your rights while in that position. For example, military members can't attend political rallies in uniform, nor can they exercise "freedom of speech" to speak out against the president. When i was in i was free to believe that W was a blithering idiot, but i was not allowed to say so. And it really only takes a few minutes of thinking about it to understand why this HAS to be so. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

Though i don't think creationism should be taught in SCIENCE class, i agree with the ruling here. Especially since it sounds like the teacher expressed several anti-Christian views (and made disparaging remarks) during class. And it's a HISTORY class, which is actually a place where creationism might be a worthy topic, as religious beliefs have a funny little way of shaping historical events. though i have to wonder if you would be crowing so loudly had the situation been reversed, yet the ruling remained the same. I had the opposite experience in my sophomore year of college, in Military History class. Once the teacher found out i was agnostic, he went out of his way to emphasize his personal evangelical Christian beliefs, often to the point of harassment. Perhaps i should have sued the Air Force for assigning him there as an instructor...who knows. I was 19 and terrified of saying anything against a major in the AF, who waaaaay outranked me at the time. My point is, would you be so happy...or even have ACKNOWLEDGED the ruling, had the beliefs been reversed? Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

sure. April 20th is Earth Day. I'll be spending most of the afternoon outside, coincidentally, mounting solar panels on top of our motorhome so we don't have to use the generator as often when we take it on trips. Since it's a monday, our recycling is collected today (and we always have more of that than we have trash). Even though it's 10 am and already above 80 degrees, i will not turn on the AC today. Oh...wait...you didn't mean THAT 4/20.... Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

hehe. to use an internet forum meme: "I see what you did there!" tricky tricky Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

1) Shelter (like, from the sun in 100-degree, 98% humidity weather and you happen to land in a thick swamp) 2) Clothing (like, if you land in a swamp and there are mosquitoes the size of trucks trying to eat you) 3) Signaling (like, you can spread it out on the ground or over the scrub trees in said swamp so the search plane can see it when they are out looking for you) But...um...I wouldn't know ANY of this from experience. Nope. Not at all! Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

hon, i was in the military for 10 years, i know what protocol is. I also know in the grand scheme of things, we have MUCH more important things to worry about. nevermind, i can see from this thread who cares about this Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

wow. WHO. THE. FUCK.. CARES. Seriously. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

oh but they do buy it, but only because they don't understand basic logic. Or because they aren't thinking about it in logical, rational terms. Or they don't really understand what "subjective" and "objective" mean. and thank you for the compliment. Though often times i feel like no one actually reads or answers my serious posts because they AREN'T flippant or sarcastic. Maybe i should throw in some veiled PAs every once in a while? they seem to garner a modicum of respect here Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

a fierce loathing of moral relativism does not belong only to the right wing. one shouldn't generalize so handily. nor does radical relativism belong only to the far left. not sure where you went to school, but in my philosophy classes, we were taught the logical inconsistencies of relativism. Now before you say "but you went to a military academy, there are no liberals there! you got a right wing education!", know that in those same classes we also had fierce and heated discussions about the origins of objective morals, and were taught how proof of God is NOT a rational or logical exercise, and other "liberal" concepts. my philosophy instructor was an AF officer, probably conservative, who knows. As one of the few liberals in the student body, i often found myself agreeing with and siding with him in several class discussions when everyone else was insisting we were wrong. I'm a left-wing, tree-hugging liberal...but i also know that moral relativism is the biggest crock of shit that modern philosophy has tried to dump on people. It's sad that so many buy into it. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

agreed. Yes, i've met mine. We're best friends. but any more than that wasn't/isn't possible, and that's fine. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!

I prefer King's Hawaiian Sweet Rolls, myself. I am also a smartass.... I'm of the opinion that if the banks are going to take money from the government via a bailout...then they need to be ready to follow the government's rules. That's the role of gov't in this case. Otherwise...not sure, to be honest. i can see both sides, so i guess i'm on the fence. Never meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup!