wolfriverjoe

I had mentioned previously that a friend who's an RN had been hired by a 'large national pharmacy chain' to do vaccinations. She's been pushed back again & again. It seems like the store has had difficulty in getting the vaccine to administer, but they haven't told her anything, just 'don't come in yet'. She also works for the county, in one of the 'old folks homes'. Being a county employee, she had someone else reach out to her and have her come to the county-run vaccination center. She says it's very well run and organized. Shots are done by appointment, and they've been fairly thorough about making sure they have people coming in constantly. At the end of the day, if they have a couple doses left over, they have a list of eligible people who live near the location. They start calling and get enough people to come in to use up any 'defrosted' doses. None go in the trash. Everyone who gets a shot is on the 'approved' list. Whoever put it together understood the reality of leftover doses, standby recipients and the 'optics' of giving the leftovers to people who aren't supposed to get them yet.

Many of these dipshits thought that the 'real' reason the National Guard was in place on inauguration day was to arrest Biden.

"Perhaps inadvertently'. Sure. Sure it was an 'accident'.

So your response is to behave just like him? I'd like to think that we, as a society are better than that. We're not, but I'd like to think so.

Not sure if this should go in the 'deplorables' thread or here. But, as a general rule, when participating in a riot/insurrection attempt, wearing a jacket with the NAME and PHONE NUMBER of the company you own in really big letters on the back is probably not the best idea. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/capitol-riot-phone-number-jacket_n_60193f4ac5b622df90f6bf89?fbclid=IwAR035JGaJ7rNoT4jV2ZXwIy30zuhl91Myl8mpxvabtrg0EF4qrDCu0S6VpM&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9sLmZhY2Vib29rLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN3ULB90tWyQ8MIWZ_vT7EwgaVEI3d2EgLFP20IhgS469W2C0KmWgAdUJqoBAQYI0QMcWkiTCHZw8a5wNt89hD8s2VTJTajAT1asoT-aaRgkcYkFQwRL7qFxTnOTMS2e-paEaeXPY_fh8cdvY2g_EvQ3Vbwsy0k_aXC2vV2XxkbX

That's hilarious. You were arguing that they should have released the vaccines very early, when they 'didn't have much data' on them.

Don't forget all the 'wonderful' things that the oil industry (and pretty much any mineral extraction company) does in places that have little or no environmental protections. Whether it's in Africa, South America, or even the US a while back.

Well, not everyone can find their butt, even with both hands and a flashlight. When I went through S/L training, I had that impression too, and had some difficulty. My instructor was far more in Ian's 'camp'. He wanted to see a deliberate, focused, clean pull. If it didn't happen before the canopy was out, that was secondary to the rest of it. I was jumping direct bag student gear, so the canopy was out really fast. Trying to 'pull before the canopy was out' was virtually impossible.

Yeah, but only if you allow an internet vote. Back to the OP: Funny thing. The "Junior High" (7th-9th grades) I went to was named for Albert Einstein. A few years after my time there, the annual 'birthday party' for him made the national news. Apparently his family was not consulted before the name was applied, and claimed that Einstein himself didn't want that sort of thing done. School name never changed.

Depends on a few things, but it can be done in 6 years. The schooling is pretty technical and specialized. Lots of chemistry. It's quite possible for him to have passed all of his classes while still having these utterly ludicrous and irrational beliefs (flat earth, imminent SHTF, ect). He would likely not have shared a whole lot of that sort of crap in the classrooms. He would have known it wouldn't go over very well. It's also possible he 'woke' to those beliefs after finishing school. Without more info, it's really hard to say.

Almost as if those people don't understand that some people are capable of intelligent decisions. You know, just because the lockdown was lifted, it's not ok to go out to bars and hang out without a mask for hours. Almost as if those people aren't able to exercise judgement... Oh... Yeah.

It's kinda funny. The only place that I'd ever heard the phrase 'herd immunity' used was in conversations about vaccines. At least until Covid. Most folks who understand disease shudder when 'herd immunity via infection' is brought up. Partly because the cost is so high. Partly because it really doesn't work.

I agree that there are two sides to this issue. I think it can be reformed without being totally ended. The article in the OP talks about 'split second decisions'. How about shooting someone in the back? How about blatantly false search warrant affidavits? How about going to the wrong address? How about 10 minutes of kneeling on someone's neck? NONE of those fall under the 'split second' thing.

I've done it in my bathroom. I used the shower curtain rod as the hanger. As noted above, I had several good lights. Not the best or easiest way to do it. I used some string to hang the clamps from the rod. I could get enough 'spread' to inspect one full cell (and the adjoining panels) at a time. It was a fairly slow process, but it worked well enough.

Tunnel time is very helpful for honing freefall skills. But it's not the same thing as jumping. Thoughts for your pleas to your wife: Get a group together and share the cost of block time and coaching (at your level, coaching is vital). Compare the cost of the time with the cost of freefall when jumping (at one minute per jump, plus gear rental if you're doing that). Invite her to join. Even if she has no desire to jump (which is pretty typical), tunnel is lots of fun. If you can get her to try the tunnel, she may find it's fun enough that she would do it again. Make sure she understands that more/better skills make you a better and safer jumper. This training isn't just for fun. It improves your 'survivability'.

Not to those who don't listen. It's just less work that will be ignored.

David - One thing that you might try : Take your folks out on a day that you aren't jumping (which is all the time right now). Show them how much care is taken with everything. Maybe have them sit in on a tandem training class, watch some rigs being packed, talk to the fun jumpers, that sort of thing. Let them see how the whole process works without any of the distraction worrying about you. Many fears are based on ignorance and preconceived notions. Maybe if they can see that it really isn't a bunch of reckless yahoos, they might have a bit less fear of it. That was one of the things that really impressed my mom. When she was first coming up to hang out while I packed the left over student gear, when she came out to watch the other guys jump, and finally came when I was jumping. She saw the way we carefully packed, how we planned out each jump, how the tandem students were treated, even the professionalism with which the pilots approached the whole process She said several times that the care and thoroughness she could clearly see made her feel a lot more comfortable about the whole thing.

It was ruled a long time ago that certain types of speech are not 'protected'. Incitement to riot is one. And the immunity is (as you note) for exercising their lawful duties. I find it hard (not impossible) to believe a court would consider Trump's trying to usurp a lawful election, incitement to insurrection and basically wiping his ass with the Constitution to be part of his 'lawful duties'. What crimes was Hilary charged with? What lawsuits did she weasel out of claiming 'immunity'? I find it rather amusing how many of the Alt-Right folks keep on pretending that she committed all these crimes, and all the other lies. Why wasn't she prosecuted? Trump had his little toadies in charge of the Justice Dept for FOUR YEARS. Yet they weren't able to find anything to charge her with. Were they that incomptent?

What immunity are you referring to? Congress critters have immunity from prosecution, that's in the Constitution. The President cannot be indicted while in office, that's the opinion of the Justice Dept from the Nixon crap. However, it doesn't confer immunity for crimes committed while in office. And I'd love to see the justification that 'incitement of insurrection', and blatant lies trying to stay in office count as 'official duties'. In theory, he could be tried for 5 counts of 'felony murder'. For certain, two. Probably 4. The cop killed and the woman shot were certainly 'homicides' (one justified). The guy who stun gunned himself into a heart attack and the woman crushed in the crowd are deaths that wouldn't have occurred had the insurrection not happened. I don't know enough about the 5th death to have an opinion that it was a direct result of the insurrection attempt, and therefore available as a 'felony murder' charge.

Ok. Thank you. Your comparisons are very much 'apples to apples', where the only real thing changing is trim. Mine are much more 'apples to bunny rabbits', where everything changes. As I noted, I'm very reluctant to disagree with you on this because your knowledge and experience is so far beyond mine (again, 'apples to bunny rabbits').

Well, this is interesting. And not in a good way. There've been a couple mutation variants that developed. The one first found in the UK (may or may not have come from there) spread a lot more easily. Now there's one that first appeared in Manaus, Brazil. There are some indications that it has mutated to the point that it 'evades' the antibodies the body develops in response to the main variant (either having the disease or getting the vaccine). https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/01/27/961108577/why-scientists-are-very-worried-about-the-variant-from-brazil?utm_campaign=npr&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=facebook.com&fbclid=IwAR3JZR28GEKBogRQmRO8un2rgjEmVYKJGFL9sY5ncAIQ7LMwMzADCbOG2p0 Nothing's been confirmed yet, but initial indications are concerning. And yes, it's here in the US.

I had the opposite problem. I'm a 'feather-butt'. I had a very hard time keeping down with other jumpers at the beginning. I jumped with 10# of dive weights in my pockets for a while. Although a definite 'crutch', it allowed me to be able to jump with others and stay with them without needing to be maxed out on my fall rate. As I got better, I learned how to fall better (faster) and am now able to fall fast enough to keep up with almost anyone. A friend and jump partner had your problem. He's a fairly heavy guy, and muscular, not fat. So he's pretty dense (from a physics point, not an intelligence one). He has gotten somewhat better at falling slower, but he needs to 'dress for success'. He needs a bigger, slower suit to not end up going low. Until he found the right suit (actually a couple different ones), he was low a lot. For now, I'd suggest finding jumpers who have the body type or the skills to be able to fly with you. As you progress, the range of fall rates you'll be able to jump with will grow along with your skills.

Actually, I know of a jumper who wanted to try a bailout rig to see what it was like. The story I was told is that the opening at near terminal was hard enough that he lost his shoes. The landing on the round was also rather hard. Made worse by not having shoes on.

Maybe. More likely he ratted out enough people to make the prosecutor happy back in 14, and wasn't an informant anymore. The story says there's no indication that he was acting in that capacity anymore. He's not facing any charges of that sort now either, so no reason to be a rat.

I doubt it. According to the article, he ratted out a variety of drug folks, human smugglers and gamblers. Also according to the article, he hadn't cooperated since 2012. It reads like a typical 'rat'. His ass was in trouble, so he did what he could to get out of trouble by giving the cops a bunch of people that they wanted more than him. Edit to add: Besides, he wasn't at the insurrection attempt. He had been arrested a couple days earlier and told to get out of town. So what would have been the purpose of having a CI arrested and booted from the area?