Deuce

Correct on both points. Lets say I'm looking for a gun. You cruise up in the lummy wagon with the lil-lummies and skye and I just kind of wave you through. You jump out of the wagon on the other side and say "HA! I had a pistol hidden under the seat!" I yawn and say " So put it back and move along, citizen" "But I could have shot you!" "Yeah. Have a nice evening sir". But I profile. The folks who dress and act like gangsters get the gangster treatment. Why would we take time and resources to tear down and "American Broadcasting Company" news crew? You can't tear down everybody, so you stick to the likelies. Do you think and ABC news crew could bring a loaded AK47 into Disneyland with thousands of rounds of ammo? You bet! Why don't they? Cause that's who they work for.

Lummy, there's a physicist right now, somewhere in Russia, who can't feed his family and is in charge of a nuclear power plant. There's a general in charge of a missile farm in the same quandary. Both those fellows will sell you what you want so their children won't starve. So they can have a better life. There's nothing we can do about it. So far as I know we only missed the depleted uranium. If the news crew had been Al-jazeera, maybe they'd have gotten a closer look. These guys work for Disney! If you see a guy get on the BART train with a little teeny suitcase that weighs 100 pounds, maybe call the cops.

This is sensationalistic journalism. That "scientific opinion" is from their paid expert. He isn't getting paid, and won't be on "Good Morning America" if he states that even common granite gives off a radioactive signature and a 300 pound block of granite will give off the same radiation as an ounce of heavily sheilded plutonium. For the purposes of this argument I don't even care about the terror issues. It's just absolute crap tabloid journalism, and most folks aren't seeing it cause they don't equate ABC with this kind of nonsense. If they want to be badass, be badass. Buy some of the real shit and bring it on in. Apples to apples. Do any of you think we could prevent a well-funded nation-sponsored effort to bring radioactive materials here? I don't. But the stupid ones, well we stand a chance of catching most of them. And most of them will snitch each other off one at a time.

My man, my ratio of "out" landings is on par with anybody at Byron. The windmills have never been a factor. I can only think of one time when anybody landed out that way, and it was no big deal. They are really big, so they seem much closer than they are.

Well, I disagree. They used depleted uranium cause it sounds scary. If they had put horse shit in the suitcase, it would have made a lousy headline. "Homeland Security fails to find an amount of Horse Shit, that had it been enriched uranium, would have been enough to form a dirty bomb to kill everyone in Los Angeles" Why these folks are so bent on keeping people scared is beyond me. I do not think this was an act of patriotism to assist Mr. Ridge in improving his operation. It's purely sensationalism, and it's annoying. When I was learning how to be a cop, my training officer would occasionally plant something and when I'd find it or fail to find it he'd ask me "What if that had been a gun" And the answer would be "I would have gotten into a gunfight and won" (Wow. That sounds pretty macho, eh Diablopilot? ) I'd like to see Comedy Central import some horseshit in a fancy suitcase, and then call Homeland Security and tell them "If this had been a fuel-rod, we could have killed everybody!"

Not really. I think I landed out.

Could somebody please tell me how big a cube of depleted uranium is? What the heck is it good for other than being heavy? I'm sure hundreds of pounds of it can be found in and around tank carcasses all up and down the road from Kuwait to Baghdad. It doesn't have a smell, and it's not overly radioactive, so what's the big deal?

It's pretty. I like it. I like to drive the car. I'm a good driver.

That happens all the time. We had an old Deputy who worked 40 years for the County and had nothing. He married 4 times and split his pension each time. He would come out to the jail to eat lunch cause he could barely afford food. You must buy your partner out with a cash settlement to keep your pension. "Honey, you leave my retirement alone and I'll give you my share of the house".

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Dude, you are so cool. I mean like Clint Eastwood cool. Can I tell people I know you? Yes you can. Every time I call and bug a skydive gear manufacturer I tell them I'm you, so why not?!

Golden. We'll have great organizing for every skill level. Get on a MadJohn load! They are even recommended by BillVon!

It can even make Clay look good! (edit: doesn't the one of Clay look like he's doing a leprechaun dance?) And when the beer light comes on! Hidie Ho!

It's actually golden this time of year. Not bare dirt brown like some of the SoCal DZ's. And we've got the delta and some reservoirs nearby and Mt. Diablo. It's a beautiful piece of sky to drop through. Come see for yourself!

Phooey. Pics Monday, then.

That's a neat story, BillV. Very cool.

I want to do a Birdman Balloon jump with SM1, B-squared, and LouDiamond. I want to hang from the bottom of the Van with Mouth (Heck it's just a year late) I want to go head-down with Mujie again. I want to video Sunshine in the morning singing. I want to perfect my BigBen imitation. I do not want to walk in on The BoyAndGirlfalldown inflagrante. Not without video rolling.

Well, he's right. But what I was getting at is the amount of money a country spends on it's military as a percentage of the money it generates. North Korea has a crappy economy, they don't produce much that they can sell on the world market. Of the money they make in a year as a product of their economy, they spend a third on their military. That makes for a very lousy standard of living for a North Korean Citizen. The US economy makes some stuff it sells on the world market and makes some money. We spend a little over three percent of the Dodge/Microsoft/GM/Boeing money on our military. We don't really sacrifice much for it. It is a hellaciously huge dollar figure, but not that big a percentage of our overall money. Your prof is right to correct the GDP figure for military spending. We also sell military hardware to other countries, which further confuses things. But for nations like Russian and North Korea, who's biggest industries are military ones, the issue is even further compounded.

This is a question, not a statement, but don't the radical muslims view Jews and Christians in the same light? I.E. one group? Yes. The extremists view them as being in the same food group. Bwah! That's funny! -Sorry. But it's still funny.

Here's me all dressed up too. ( I had this out for another thread, heck never squander and opportunity to waste bandwidth )

Thanks. See, if you spend 3.2% of your income on wine, you like wine. If you spend a third of your income on wine, you're a wino!

Kevin jumps with me a Byron, and we'll be getting our suits about the same time. Stay tuned, pics and video to follow. Plus, the classic and the GTi in the DZ are gonna order SF3's soon as me and the Tall Guy figure out how to dust them.

I think the camera flier could get a bump in his fee to the tune of the difference in the cost of film versus a CD. Just a couple bucks. I think we'll be doing it that way in a couple years.

OK, then me and Chop hook on and put some arch in yer backs!

Hey, Philly, that military budget stuff is completely relevant, but I've always found it's easier to use the percentage of Gross National Product. I think that figure is a better indicator of national sacrifice to military commitments. I'm not finding it.