livendive

We as humans are pretty emotional beings and most of us attach some special significance to human carcasses. It seems kind of silly and I don't know why it's the case, but it is. Given that, one can logically conclude that publicly destroying a corpse will get them more attention than leaving a corpse be. All they have to do is temporarily subdue their emotions and do what they've determined "needs to be done." I imagine coroners have to occasionally apply a similar emotional filter in the course of their work. Then again truly hating the person or their cause might make it a bit easier. We have to accept that our actions over there are fostering deep hatred in some percentage of the Iraqi people, and likely a fair number of folks in other Arab nations as well. These are public exhibitions of that hatred. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Well if you read some of the other articles about it, it's ouf fault the odds hit him. He hadn't been able to find work and was preparing to come back home. Then, he was detained by Iraqi security forces and then tured over to our military. We kept him in jail until we determined why he was over there. By the time they released him, it was after when he was planning to come home, and after the shit hit the fan over there. Right after he was released is when he was kidnapped. Yeah, I read all that too, however didn't extrapolate out that it was "our" fault (not that I honestly believe you did either). In any case, his family might blame the US government (they're throwing around "without due process" comments), but that doesn't make it any more our fault than a DZ is responsible for a skydiver losing the double-mal lottery. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Fucking sweet. That man deserves an awful lot of free beers and all our thanks. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I think the two things are totally different, both somewhat offensive, but neither to the point that I'm "outraged" about them. Last year the Iraqis showed the faces of some American POWs on TV. There was an outcry that this violated the Geneva Conventions by virtue of humiliating them. We subsequently one-upped them. 6-8 weeks ago, some Iraqis got ahold of 4 American civilians and killed them. Our response was a sustained military attack on that city, killing an awful lot more than 4 civilians, including a fair number of children. Once again, we one-upped them. When they killed those 4 civilians, and this one, they made a public spectacle of them. When we got Saddam's sons, we handed over images of their bodies to every international news agency that would take them. War is hell and generally involves actions by both sides that seriously offend the sensibilities of those not involved. At the risk of sounding a bit coarse, I can't get too worked up about this incident. An independent American businessman went into an active war zone hoping to get rich on a fat contract. He had to have known the risks, especially considering his lack of security. It's unfortunate he ended up on the wrong side of the odds. I feel for his loved ones and I hope his death was reasonably quick. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I noticed that myself, once again reaffirming (to me) that the most effective way to get a balanced view of world events is to draw from many different sources. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

on CNN and it's not a skydiving fatality. Am I correct that the descriptions of escalating racial tension are a bit exaggerated? I mean it's just a freaking street name! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Hmm...I wonder where the rest of the world got the idea we might not mean what we say. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Who gives a fuck what the Army says? It's foreign soil. They can just go through whatever the French demo process is. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm not a Wall Street Journal subscriber, so I had to read the Red Cross report here, but I'll assume it's an exact copy of the link you provided. On page 4, you'll read: And on page 9: According to this article, the Red Cross Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

A more disturbing quote from him: That last sentence, if true, is potentially more damning than the photographs we've seen. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

OK, this post isn't in response to your question, but I couldn't see starting another thread entitled "Geneva Convention" immediately above this one. I was just checking into what laws are currently applicable in Iraq. Part of that included skimming the Fouth Geneva Convention (to which both the US and Iraq are signatories) and I found this: Now "Protected Persons" are defined as: My question is what am I missing. Something leads me to believe the US was within it's rights to hunt for and arrest/kill the folks in that deck of cards, but this suggests otherwise. Anyone know how we got around this? FYI - That's also where I read this: Also, in the Third Convention, there was this: Anyhow, I thought these were interesting. I was listening to Glenn Beck on my way to work this morning and he was trying to rationalize some of the treatment as "not torture." As signatories to the Convention, forget torture, we're not allowed to expose them to "unpleasant or disadvantageous" treatment of any sort as a method of soliciting information. Unless of course, I'm wrong. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What??! Freddy Got Fingered was HILARIOUS! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

What Iraqi law? While there is no government, there is no law. Those guys have an interesting position: They're not really covered by Iraqi law, the UCMJ, or US law (or their home country's law in the case of foreign contractors). Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I was pretty vocal that Reno should resign over Waco. I do not have enough information to say whether Rumsfeld should resign over this, but I guess I'm in the "probably" camp. Given my lack of knowledge on Rumsfeld's role, all I can say with certainty is that it will hurt us less for him to resign while not specifically guilty than for him to stay in office if he did foster the culture that triggered this. The administration has plenty of qualified individuals to choose from who can walk into the SecDef office as an improvement over their predecessor. First of all, why are you limiting it to "mental" abuse? I thought we were talking about mental, physical, and sexual abuse. Additionally, why are you limiting the victims to "terrorists, criminals, and left overs of Saddams Army"? The ICRC has reported that up to 90 percent of Iraqis held by U.S. and allied troops have been arrested by mistake. In any case, the root cause poor judgement that put us in position to carry out this abuse has led to the deaths of over 700 mostly innocent Americans and thousands of mostly innocent Iraqi civilians. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Comparing a Prius to an Explorer seems a bit disingenuous. Wouldn't a Corolla or Echo (i.e. a compact or sub-compact passenger car) be a bit more appropriate? We did that math when buying our commuter car, comparing a Civic to an Insight. Best I can remember, it would have taken nearly 10 years for the savings on gas dollars to add up to the difference in purchase price, and that doesn't include any specialized mechanical work the hybrid might need in it's first decade (if any). So we went with the Civic and its 38 mpg. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Just filled up a rental van Saturday and was unpleasantly surprized to see prices had gone up another dime in the last week, putting them around $2.10/gallon in my corner of eastern Washington. Tonight I get to fill up my daily driver pickup to the tune of ~$50. Although I only get 16-18 mpg, at least I only live 6 miles from work! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I'm surprized she can still purchase liability insurance. If she can't, she can lose her license for driving without it. I got hit by a kid having some sort of diabetic seizure a couple years ago. When paying me off, his insurance company told me they had dropped him and figured he would be hard pressed to find someone else to cover him due to the way they report the "cause of accident." Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

It's been a couple years, but I've had three tandem students puke under canopy. What's funny is the two who were making their first jumps gave me enough warning to say "turn your head to the right!!" and then hide behind their left side so I came up clean once and got a little on my wrist once. Then I took a buddy's girlfriend up for like her 15th tandem (his rating was lapsed), and that's the only time I ever got covered. She said "umm...Dave I don't ...hhuuuaaggghhh!) The funniest puker I've seen though was while I was on the ground ready to help catch a tandem. The student waited till about 100 feet and then let loose...*right* over the top of his wife & kids. LOL I remember thinking "Jeezus, nice spot!" EVERY tandem student I've seen puke was on a hot day (95 or better). I think it has something to do with how uncomfortable the ride up is in a packed Cessna but I don't really know. Here's hoping for another clean July/August! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Same war but different conflicts. They are both part of the overall "war on terror". How do you figure? Saddam Hussein was not a "terrorist", he was a head of state. Iraq was not a terrorist organization, they were a sovereign state. Some are and some are not. There are foreign fighters in Iraq who profess to be members of terrorist groups. They are terrorists. I'll grant you that some of those fighting against our troops are non-Iraqi citizens and that it is likely some of them are also members of "terrorist" organizations. Their current role in Iraq is more analogous to that of the Brits, Poles, and Spaniards (for now) than it is to the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11/01. In any case, those individuals are likely a distant minority and are not the one's I was referring to. The strongest correlation between the war in Iraq and the "war on terror" is the timing. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

In Creswell, Oregon, Eugene Skydivers and Wright Brothers Skydiving have a couple porta-potties between them. I remember someone opened a second dropzone at the Lodi airport a couple years ago, but they didn't last long, and I believe the Dillingham Airfield in Hawaii has FOUR dropzones on it. From what I've heard and seen myself, having competing dropzones right next to each other just makes for hard feelings all around. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

C'mon now Bill...we all know you'll gladly go out somewhere between 200 and 350 feet, right??! Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Which "terrorists" in Iraq? The Iraq war and the "war on terror" are seperate conflicts. The men in Iraq who are attacking our troops are simply engaged in guerilla warfare against a superior army that has invaded and is now occupying their country. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

OK, from CNN: Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

I never saw combat in the Navy, but I did participate in emergency operations that were days long. There were no "speed" rations, we just had to push thoughts of rest to the back of our minds and move on with what we were doing. When things get that tough, 15 minutes of sleep can help quite a bit too. I'm assuming our troops over there can do 16 hours standing on there heads. It seems to me that people don't usually start hitting a real wall till 30 hours or so. At 40+, most people get easily confused...simple tasks become much more complex and high-end thought processes become almost impossible. I think everyone I worked with experienced auditory hallucinations when beyond 50 hours. I've gone weeks straight working (physical labor) 35 hours on, 5 hours off, repeat, repeat, repeat. Sugar and caffeine were sufficient chemical additives, though I'm sure being young had to help. Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)

Elephants are the only LAND animals that can't jump. I'd like to see a slug jump. :-) Blues, Dave "I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!" (drink Mountain Dew)