wolfriverjoe

Indeed, but the burden of proof is on those who think one exists in the absence of any evidence. Still depending on science for an answer, eh? Indeed, it's the non-believers who try to put that burden on them when, indeed, it's not necessary, not required nor even relevant. Nobody owes you an explanation or justification for any religious beliefs they hold. Just as you owe nothing concerning your non-beliefs. Bolding mine. Very true. UNTIL they try to force their beliefs onto me. Through teachings in the schools, through behavior of governments, that sort of thing. If they wish to believe, and that belief is a personal and individual thing fine. I have some pretty solid beliefs in God. I don't go forcing them on others. Nor do I argue with the atheists that they are wrong. I "agree to disagree." But that isn't true for a lot of folks. They insist that "My way is the only way", use bad science and blatant bullshit to further their agenda and completely ignore rational discussion. They want to teach creation in public schools and dismiss solid science. They want to deny an entire group civil rights. All because it's in this one book that they really, really like. Those are the ones who need to "prove that their God exists." "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

That was way too quick. Something tells me you already had that drafted. Do you really think he didn't expect that? From this group of weirdos? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Ok, so what kind of nut are you? From what I've seen, you'll fit in perfectly at the dropzone. The cartoon was pretty much spot on. The "flying and trespassing" thought hits home. We are in a truly wonderful place that we don't belong in and can't survive in. And we keep going back. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Really? You don't have a mortgage that allows you to live in a house that's nicer than if you have to have paid cash for it, and is still within your means? (and maybe you dont. I know Switzerland has some of the lowest home ownership levels in the world, which is not a good or bad thing per say, but considering that most people who buy homes get a mortgage, I wouldn't say individuals wouldn't last long) Or a car. I know very few people who could buy a car for cash. But (of course) there's a huge diference between responsible debt and irresponsible. Having a house house/car that's within your means to maintain debt service is a world apart from using credit cards to pay for a new flat-screen or a big vacation. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

We also got Politicians, bankers and 2nd hand car salesmen I think the snakes are insulted by that. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Thanks for the clarification. I was wondering about that. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I don't know how serious you are about that. 18/36 at OSH is very long. Like 8000'. They lengthened it back in the late 80s for the Concorde. I was being somewhat sarcastic... to have two planes being flown by what I'm sure are very well qualified people roll off the runway, within a few hours... Ok. But I'll question how "well qualified" they are if they overrun an 8000' runway (although I realize the F-16 lost it's brakes). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Shah? Who or what is a "Shah"? Shah A fairly regular poster. His thoughts usually attract a lot of attention. Some of it good, most of it... Not so much. Look at the 2nd, 3rd and 5th of his "Recent Threads" and you'll see what I mean. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I don't know how serious you are about that. 18/36 at OSH is very long. Like 8000'. They lengthened it back in the late 80s for the Concorde. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Cool!

Hey, give him a break, he's really, really old. It's not his fault he completely missed his own joke thrown back at him. Funny as all hell, but not his fault. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

There is a "Dropzone Locator" feature here. The DZs listed are for real. There is a very widespread scam out there called "1-800-Skyride" that sets up websites for DZs that dont exist, and sells gift certificates that can't be redeemed except at a select few places. It's also known as "Thrillplanet" and "Sportations" among other names. If you call a place and they won't tell you where they are until you say where you are calling from, hang up. USPA is the only association in the US. Membership isn't required for a DZ to operate, and there are some very good non-USPA DZs out there. On the flip side, USPA membership doesn't guarantee a great operation. In the Atlanta area, the Farm is the one I've heard the best recommendations for. There are a number of "Farm Animals" that post on here, I'm sure you'll hear from them. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Would I kill someone stealing my car? No, not even if the law allowed it. Would I kill someone ransacking a business that I spent my life building, that provides mine and my families livelihood? Absolutely, especially knowing the police would simply take pictures after the fact. Sorry, still disagree. All you're doing is claiming that murder for some possessions is more justified than murder for other possessions. If you're a business owner with a family to support and have any reason to be worried about the security of your business it should be insured to the hilt before it even opens. That way when the unfortunate happens you don't starve to death. Insurance usually doesn't cover damage/loss due to riots. Read the fine print. And referencing a previous post: I don't know the exact circumstances of the 53 deaths in the LA riots. I'm sure that not all were due to defensive fire. And I'm sure that some (many?) that were due to defensive fire were legitimate self-defense (defense of life and limb, not just property). Many of the people in Koreatown were in fear of their lives from the rioters due to previous tensions (it's in the wiki link I posted upthread). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

It would be very unlikely to result in a blood bath. The average legally armed citizen here in the US is not all that trigger happy. I am sure it wouldn't be that much different in the UK. We'd be talking about armed roaming gangs of rioters and looters versus armed police (since I'm assuming guns for the police would be mandatory if they were legal and easily accesible for the general populace) and angry/scared business or home owners. People would be shot and people would be killed. Then again, maybe the fear of a swift death would be deterrent enough. You are right about the fear of death being a deterrent. Again, during the LA roits, there were armed police and armed citizens defending against the roaming gangs of rioters and looters (some of whom were armed). Although there were deaths, it wasn't a "bloodbath". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992_Los_Angeles_riots Edit to add: Once again, you posted somethng while I was composing a response. Yes, 53 people died. Over 2000 injured. None so far in Britain, which is good. But the looting is going on unchecked. Peoples lives are being destroyed. With no means to defend themselves or their livelihoods. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Yes. A little different from some neighborhoods during the LA riots isn't it?? I'm referring specifically to some of the news footage of jewlery store owners in Koreatown defending thier stores from the roof with rifles. Those stores didn't get looted. Edit to add: It wasn't in LA. There were lots of armed citizens defending their property. They weren't looted. And it wasn't a "Bloodbath". Most fired warning shots at the looters that approached, who then ran. Keep in mind the mentality of the looters. They are having fun, roaming the streets, wrecking stuff and stealing. They aren't protesting a political situation, they aren't revolting against the government, they're just out "hootin' and hollerin'" and having fun. If they were presented with serious opposition (as they seem to have been in a few neighborhoods), they simply move on to easier, better targets. As they seem to have done. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Paragear (where else?) http://www.paragear.com/templates/base_template.asp?group=29#S7845 The link goes to a "Press the Dot" snap, the one right above it is an ordinary one. I hope you mean "attach it to the leg padding", not the actual leg strap. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Yes on the Talon2. It's sewn at the bottom )where the legstrap comes out) both front and back, and onto the lateral at the top. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Because you have to be a "legal adult" in order to have the waiver be legally enforcable. Your parents can give permission for you to jump but they cannot waive your rights for you, and you cannot do it for yourself because you aren't an adult. That leaves the DZ dangerously exposed from a legal standpoint. A few (very few) take that risk and allow minors to jump. But most don't, USPA or non. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

We have some poisonous stuff too. So get a minivan (people-mover) and just get rid of the seats. Sell them to a junkyard, give them to a DZ for "benches", have someone put them on Craigslist or something similar. You will lose a bit when you sell it, but you are planning on selling it fast when you leave, so you won't be getting a premium price for it anyway, Right? The Chrysler Corp minivans (Dodge and Chrysler) are as close to "ubiquitous" as you get here in the US. 4 or 6 cyl, some nifty features (the newer ones have seats that drop into the floor, eliminating the "seat issue" for you) and are mostly reliable (not as good as a good Japanese model, but they've gotten a lot better). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

That is seriously intense. No, THIS is intense! "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Then there's the joke about the F-16 pilot and the C-5 pilot. F-16 pilot's all cocky and macho and radios to the C-5 pilot, "betcha can't do this!" and launches into a few bad-ass moves. So the C-5 pilot radios back, "okay watch this".... Nothing happened for a while so the F-16 radios back, "I didn't see anything, what did you do?" "I got up to go to the bathroom in the back." or something like that. A very similar one from the Viet Nam era: An F-4 Phantom is flying alongside a B-52 Stratofortress. The F-4 does a few rolls and such around the B-52. The B-52 pilot radios:"Well, that was pretty good, but I bet you can't top this." The F-4 pilot watches for a minute or two, and then radios:"What are you going to do?" The B-52 responds:"I just shut down 3 engines. Your turn." "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Clicky fixed. I have serious issues with any person in power who thinks that their opposition should be muzzled. If you can't refute their claims, then just shut them up? Sort of like how Obama wanted to lock Fox News out of the White House some time back. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Why is it "Atheistic" to accept that the Big Bang is a likely explaination for the creation of the universe? I have no problem accepting that many/most scientific explainations for how the world and universe got to where we are now. That doesn't change my beliefs in God. It does affect my belief that a collection of stories handed down over many, many years, collected into a book that was subsequently edited and altered (both in interpretation and actual form) over many more years is going to be factually accurate. Especially when the knowledge of how things actually worked at the time the book was written was extremely inadequate (How many elements do we recognize today?). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

You could have just edited the original thread, but oh well. (if you were able to delete it, you should have still been able to edit it) The problem is that a lot of people falsely claim to be pilots, skdivers, whatever and then go where they shouldn't and do stuff that they shouldn't. I'm not saying that you are making these false claims, but the people who's job it is to keep the idiots out of the way aren't going to take you at your word. Professional photographers are often the worst offenders at this. They are so focused on "getting the shot" that they put themselves and others in serious danger. Look at some of the off-road races or rally car races. The photogs often are inches off the course, and sometimes on the road. There is a pretty famous incident where a photographer wanted a really cool shot of a helicopter taking off. After being denied permission to be where he wanted to be, he snuck into a cornfield, and jumped out just as the heli was taking off, directly towards him. The nose of the heli dropped and the main rotor struck and killed the photog. If you hadn't made prior arrangements to take your pics, I'm not really surprised they pushed you back. I've done it more than once at my DZ. Edit to add: You seem to have been told it wasn't possible to go over by other hangars, owned/rented by pilots not associated with the DZ. That doesn't surprise me in the least. The skydivers have a hard enough time keeping in the good graces of the rest of the airport "residents". Allowing jumpers or spectators to wander around the other areas is usually prohibited. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I really never thought your intention was to prevent people from skydiving...