SivaGanesha

Skydiving is the most selfish thing a person can do Wow...you really think so? "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Wow. With friends like that, who needs enemies? "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Improper Entry and Perjury are definitely criminal, not civil, matters. Removal (deportation) proceedings are, OTOH, civil matters. It is true that illegal immigrants are usually not charged criminally unless they've committed some crime not directly related to their illegal status. But the government definitely has the option to charge most illegals criminally if the need arises. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Then the question is why Whitman didn't retain an immigration attorney to sponsor Nicky for a green card when approached to do so, based on her employment. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

If she entered without inspection the appropriate crime is: Improper entry: 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a) However, I don't think we know for sure if she entered without inspection. She could have had a valid visa at one time and overstayed, which is a civil but not a criminal matter. In a criminal improper entry case, the burden would be on the government to prove beyond a reasonable doubt she entered illegally, not on her to prove that she did enter legally. I doubt if the government has sufficiently thorough records dating back 20 years to make such a case convincingly, although databases have become a lot more accurate since 9/11. There is also the issue of perjury if she lied on her I-9 form, which is also criminal. With regard to her claimed entry in 1990 or her employment in 2000, the statute of limitations has probably expired on any criminal liability--so I think such a discussion is beating a dead horse. However, if she has been hired illegally elsewhere more recently, and committed new perjury, then she could still be liable. We don't know what she was doing between June 2009 and now, so it is hard to know whether she should face perjury charges for recent criminal acts. The real issue here, though, is that having admitted being in the country illegally, she should face civil removal (deportation) proceedings. It is possible that, under the law, she might qualify to stay because she has US citizen children and has been here a long time--however she would need to demonstrate extreme hardship to her family to be able to stay, and the bar is hard to meet. Had she been prosecuted for her crimes before the statute of limitations expired, and before she qualified for cancellation of removal, she would have had no leg to stand on in terms of being able to stay. We have to enforce immigration law soon after illegal aliens enter or overstay--so that they don't get a chance to get a toehold in the country. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Category G and Category H are on the card you should be in the process of getting signed off on, jump by jump. Actually any given jump may not neatly fit into one category--a coach may sign off some (but not all) G stuff and some (but not all) H stuff on the same jump depending on what is planned/successfully completed on the jump. I don't think that solos move you any closer to the A license unless all other requirements have been completed and all that remains is to log the rest of your required 25 jumps. But they can be an inexpensive way to get in the air if money is an issue, as it has been for some of us in the past. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

It depends on the DZ's pricing structure but, yes, the above is a common scenario. Other DZ's charge the same amount for all post-AFF, pre-A license jumps. Another option is to do formation (RW) jumps, which are legal for students up to 4-way as long as there is at least one D license holder per student on the jump. This definitely provides for intense learning, and may not cost any more than a solo jump, but it also may be difficult to get stuff on the card signed off on such a jump. BTW I'm not advising you--just mentioning some of the options. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

So it seems the Whitman campaign has provided documents that allege her maid Nicky Diaz lied about her status in the USA: Meg Whitman - Nicky Diaz employment docs Now, a five minute search on the Internet shows that the social security number used by Nicky Diaz (or whatever her name is)--572 49 xxxx--was issued in California in 1978. Yet she claims to have lived in Mexico until 1990 on the forms. Ie it's not exactly rocket science to figure out that something about this paperwork doesn't add up. And Whitman is a former Silicon Valley CEO--ie she is someone who should know her way around the Web. If I could figure out that something isn't right in "Diaz"' background in 5 minutes, it shouldn't have taken Whitman 9 years. And another thing--why is "Diaz" still rattling around California more than a year after she was busted? Why hasn't she been sent back from whence she came yet? "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Mixed feelings about this. If it's true what the article alleges--that the kid was repeatedly harassing this lady, committing threatening acts and damaging property with a clear threat to escalate--and the neighbors and police weren't helping--then I agree, good for her. OTOH I think it is pretty sad that our society still hasn't found a better way to deal with this kind of juvenile delinquency than vigilante justice using deadly force. I think Singapore has a better way of dealing with this kind of crime. They would use serious--but definitely non-lethal--force on the kid administered on his backside with a rattan cane. They seem to have a much lower rate of this kind of harassing crime, so they must be doing something right. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Although this sounds eminently fair on the surface, doesn't this offer just a tad more anonymity to the guy in question than to the gals? The lucky stud boy could be any one of 32000 skydivers but the two ladies are narrowed down to a pool of three usual suspects. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I know at least one American (not a jumper) who found a good solution to this problem. He and his family, being high achieving Americans, found it quite easy to emigrate legally to Canada. So they did so, and lived in Canada just long enough to become Canadian citizens. Then they moved back to the USA where there are definitely more career opportunities. But they now have dual citizenship for life so if any member of the family ever needs catastrophic medical care, they can move back to Canada and be taken care of for life with, at worst in some provinces, a 3 month waiting period. Best of both worlds, because they didn't have to give up US citizenship to do so. And they don't even have to pay Canadian taxes unless and until they ever live there again. They are, of course, what the Canadians would call "Canadians of convenience". But it is, indeed, a convenient situation for the dual citizens, and certainly worth considering. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Au contraire--an H4 visa holder who is here for most of the year is definitely a resident alien for tax purposes. As such they are subject to US taxation on their worldwide income. Such income might include: --Passive income from investments, which is certainly legal income even though they can't work --Employment income earned during brief trips back home (or elsewhere outside the USA)--this is subject to US tax since they are a resident alien and taxed on world income --Employment income illegally earned while in the USA "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

The term "resident alien", at least, is used in an immigration context as well: USCIS - Resident Alien "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Some work visas (eg H, TN) forbid the spouses from working whereas others (eg L, E-3) allow spouses to work. Everyone involved--the main worker and their spouse/children (whether working or not)--is considered a nonresident alien for immigration purposes. One can be a resident alien for tax purposes but a nonresident alien for immigration purposes. Presumably the second and third categories (resident and nonresident aliens) take care of most aliens (noncitizens) since either they are resident or they aren't. The fourth category (none of the above) presumably consists of people who are in a legal limbo somewhere between nonresidence and residence. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I'm curious--what plan for joining the rich in this day and age would start by shutting off one's computer? True, one might close this particular browser window (eg SC) and open something else more focused on entrepreneurship. But almost all plans for success these days, even in non-technical fields, are going to require that someone be digitally literate and connected. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

There will always be opportunities for individuals. At the macroeconomic level it is indeed a matter of demographics--and so I tend to take Republicans blaming it on Democrats or Democrats blaming it on Republicans with a grain of salt. Right now the boomers are aging but it's still quite awhile before they are really old--so I think things will remain as they are for awhile. This isn't the Great Depression, but it's not the boom years of the 80's and 90's either. We won't see a return to boom years until a new generation takes economic control--and that's still some time away. But there will always be opportunities for individuals. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

In my experience the greatest rewards are for those who act anyways despite being very nervous. There's always going to be uncertainty in the world of entrepreneurship. If one thing becomes clearer (eg where HC is going), then the market will quickly adjust to reflect that clarity, but the best opportunities will then be found somewhere else where there is still great uncertainty (and, hence, great opportunity and great risk). The beauty of the capitalist system is that, if there is uncertainty about which way things are going, but you can make an educated guess and are willing to bet on it, there is always a way to make money if your hunch is correct. If entrepreneurs won't take such risks, to me that is a sign of an aging entrepreneurial population, not any failing of the government. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

This is no doubt true but my point is that when a new generation is ready to take charge, the new generation doesn't wait for businesses to figure out what the gov't is going to do. Instead the new generation TELLS both business and gov't what is going to happen. If that isn't happening right now, it's because a younger generation isn't quite ready to take charge but the older generation isn't going to take big risks anymore. So you get a phase of stagnation. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

It's a generational thing IMHO. The economy tends to stagnate when there is an aging generation that is getting conservative with its money and is just sitting on its wealth. Eventually a new younger generation has the energy to push the older folks out of the way, economically speaking, and then the economy starts moving again. The economy has been pretty stagnant since 2000--this began late in the Clinton years but it is caused by demographics, not the specific policies of Clinton, Bush, or Obama. Right now there is a large group of people--mostly boomers and some older Gen X'ers--who made a lot of money in the 80's and 90's but are getting older and less willing to spend at this point. Until a younger generation gains a critical mass of power, though, things are likely to remain stagnant. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Will this patient know...or at least strongly suspect without being able to prove...that it was you who submitted this information to the DMV? Is there any chance that news of your actions will get back to other patients in your care and damage trust between yourself and other (innocent) patients? Or is it quite well known in the community that he/she should not be driving, and is everyone likely to silently cheer the person who blew the whistle? I don't have a definite answer...but those are the things I'd be considering. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

Queen Victoria married her first cousin and they had nine children. The entire British Royal Family is descended from that marriage. The present Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are both descended from that marriage. This probably doesn't affect the rest of us much because it seems that, although the British Royal Family does practice incest, at least they keep it in the family.

I'll be interested to see--once the Circuit Court and Supreme Court, which have authority over immigration and tax matters which the District Court and state courts do not, weigh in on this--whether gay marriage rights will be recognized for federal tax and immigration purposes. The court's reasoning appears to depend on fundamental 14th amendment rights and not on anything specific to California. Of course all this depends on whether the 14th amendment itself survives. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

I'm not an artist but I think for it to truly count as a nude skydive, skydivers should be limited to the 'A' of 'SHAGG'. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014

But it's the most un-erotic environment in the world. People are dying in hospitals. It would be like going to Auschwitz to get laid. I'm one of the most horny guys around, but when people are dying--I'm sorry, my focus just isn't on sexuality. "It's hard to have fun at 4-way unless your whole team gets down to the ground safely to do it again!"--Northern California Skydiving League re USPA Safety Day, March 8, 2014