DrewEckhardt

It takes 2-3X as much floor space which will make you unpopular at the dropzone or have you packing outside where it's hot and the sun will reduce your canopy life.

I really don't care how expensive other peoples' cars are and am more interested in making enough money that I no longer need to work for a living than having an expensive car.

Plenty pay NO state income tax (Texas, where a lot of oil-rich folks live). Only one, very small, state is as high as 11%. California charges middle class people 9.3% + 1.0% for state disability insurance = 10.3%. That tax bracket starts at $46,766 for single people (doubled for married couples) and the SDI cap is $95,585 per worker. Million dollar earners also pay 10.3%.

Nope. In capitalist systems there are market alternatives which leverage lower costs of materials and labor to provide better prices. For example, for minor problems you might pay a nurse $25 for 15 minutes of his time and leave with a prescription. The astute reader will note that's not possible - only doctors are allowed to write prescriptions. This is because we don't have capitalist health care - we have corporatist health care, where the doctor's union (aka the AMA) has gotten laws passed so that only those who've cleared its high bar to entry (pre-med, med-school, internship, and residency) can practice medicine with the resulting cost of entry and scarcity producing high prices.

c'mon, really? ridiculous... When you've been working until 4 that's a HUGE deal.

What's the big deal? Assholes depriving me of my much needed sleep. Atheists and Pastafarians are MUCH nicer since they don't do that.

Absolutely! That's what the American Presidential Election is about: who you'd want to have a beer with. John Kerry: Stiff. Bush 43: Fun (I know about the decades of sobriety, although facts aren't relevant to marketing). Mitt Romney: No fun. Obama: A regular beer drinking buddy.

Why won't Obama do the same thing he did in 2010, and sign with the rate cuts for everyone intact a second time?

I rode my bicycle over to NASA Ames / Moffet Field and watched it. Got a better view than all the people packed shoulder to shoulder in an official viewing area who were expecting a pass over runway 14R or 14L - the 747 with shuttle flew behind them.

Sky surfing. It looked cool on ESPN although most of us realized that it was more fun to jump with other people after the novelty wore off.

This week has been very exciting. This morning I detoured by NASA Ames on my ride to work to watch the Space Shuttle go by on top of a 747 with an F16 flying off the left wing. I got a great view when the 747 flew behind the people who'd packed together for hours watching for a flyby over the runway. On Wednesday I saw our office puffer fish blown up like a spiky softball although we'd speculated for years that he was in fact defective and incapable of inflating. And it's been weeks since I last had to deal with a customer (because things work, not because I've chased them away) issue.

Feeling has nothing to do with this example. Social Security is a return on investment based on a contractual agreement with the U.S. Government. I see you chose not to respond to my reply to you .in post #97. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4376127#4376127 In other words, when the government program that you participate in pays you MUCH MORE money than you put into it Hardly. With a decent paying job you do MUCH worse than without it. When I looked into it back in 2005 I noticed the retirement age isn't increased, the FICA tax rate stays the same, the wage cap only increases with inflation, and Social Security benefits increase with inflation I'd need to outlast my statistically expected lifespan by five years to get a 0% inflation adjusted return on my investments. If I took my current investment out at the time, made the same contributions in the future, and got a 3% inflation adjusted rate of return in 2005 dollars I'd be netting $134K a year for the same 15 years: over 4X my social security benefit $72K a year until I die at 100: over 2X my social security benefit $44K a year forever: nearly 30% more than my social security benefit with $1.5M going to my heirs As it stood the numbers were $32K a year with a big fat zero going to my heirs.

Seems like an amusing work-around work-around for HOA prohibitions on all but for sale signs. Although "My neighor is an asshole" by itself would incur daily fines "For Sale by owner because my neighbor is an asshole" does not.

Right! Especially Republicans. With Bush 43's tax cuts America's income tax system became the most progressive (defined as the top earning decile's share of tax to share of income) out of the OECD 24 including includes Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, The Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, and The United Kingdom. Republican representative (and 59th Speaker of the House) Dennis Hastert sponsored the legislation creating Medicare Part D, the Republican controlled 108th congress passed it, and Bush 43 signed it. That's a trillion dollars of wealth redistribution each decade. One million million dollars. $1,000,000,000,000. Even Saint Reagan contributed to the problem with the Reagan Tax Reform Act of 1986 which expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit knocking 6,000,000 low earners off the tax rolls and taxed capital gains at the same rate as ordinary income (for the first and only time in Our Nation's History). In contrast Democrats' hearts are often in the right place. While wealthy Democrats like Obama talk about socking it to "the rich" like themselves their actions tell a different story. Clinton signed the 1996 welfare reform bill which in his own words "did in fact end welfare as we knew it", put a five year limit on benefits, and required recipients to work. He signed the capital gains cut from 28 to 20%. As a conservative you might want to vote Democratic in the next election since Obama is The Second Coming of The Gipper, in kinder more conservative form for the trying times we live in. Little details show how he's improved this time around - in his first life Reagan granted amnesty to all 3 million illegals who got here before 1982; while this time as Obama only the 800 thousand kids who came at less than 16 years old who are under 30 get amnesty.

It's the problem, but disabling it is not enough.

It happened to me too. Un-install so you can get to the internet, reinstall, choose the custom installation, and skip the firewall. Just disabling the firewall, rebooting, and resetting your connection is not enough. Their web site also gives other ways around the problem, although those require manual intervention every time windows restarts itself for an update. They may or may not work - I used up my patience trying other things before I un-installed and got to the web site and figured that leaving the defective component un-installed would be most likely to end my troubles. [URL]http://service.mcafee.com/faqdocument.aspx?id=TS101346[/URL]

It's about contributing more, not using less. It's like in agricultural third world countries where people need to breed so they have enough surviving children to take care of them when they become too old to work and care for themselves. Here we have the same thing but government run so all of us don't need to breed. It's called Social Security, and the Ponzi scheme will collapse if people fail to make enough babies to pay into the system when they grow up. A little bribery can't hurt. Of course young workers supporting old workers requires them to have jobs which pay well enough....

If your life sucks less for you than the viable alternatives (going back to school, doing some other career more or less full time if you can get a job, doing what you like very part time) you're doing the right thing. If not you should make changes.

For a Cessna that surely would be $25.00 pet jump ticket effectively driving 182's out of the skydiving business. The cited link indicates that piston aircraft used for recreational purposes are exempt.

Assuming you're not raking in $30,000 a year as capital gains or qualified dividends (assuming a 28% tax bracket) or making over $300,000 a year that's not his plan. That number sounds like what you'd be paying without any of the Bush tax cuts that were enough to make America's income tax system the most progressive out of the OECD-24 (including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, The Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, and The United Kingdom). Obama wants the Bush rate cuts extended for those of us making under $200,000 a year as single people (AGI) and $250,000 as married couples. He calls for capital gains to be treated as ordinary income, as opposed to being taxed at 15% under the expiring Bush cuts or the 20% they'll return to without them. Assuming the Republicans would continue the 15% rate and that you're in the 28% bracket, the 13% rate increase would require you to gross $30,769 in long term capital gains to pay $4000 more. He calls for splitting the second highest bracket at $200K for single people and $250K (after deductions for state taxes, mortgage interest, etc.) for married couples creating a new 36% bracket that's 3% higher. He's also already passed a 0.9% Medicare surtax starting at those thresholds. To pay $4000 more under that plan you'd need an extra $102,564 in income above the bracket start meaning $302,564 as a single person or $352,564 as a married couple. He also wants to allow the 35% top bracket to revert to the 39.6% it was under Clinton; although you're only paying that with an adjusted gross income of $390,050 or more. There's also the 2.9% Medicare surcharge on unearned income when you're earning more than the $200/$250K thresholds. The Republicans will keep passing tax-cut extensions that cover all brackets, and Obama could theoretically play hard-ball and refuse to sign any bill which includes the top two bracket Bush cuts (the situation referred to as Taxmageddon) thus landing us the rates we had under Clinton although he seems politically astute enough to avoid that sort of mistake. Obama's 2% employee share of FICA "tax holiday" is scheduled to disappear too ($2274 assuming you earn the $113,700 wage base or more) although he remains undecided on whether it should be extended, the Republicans aren't making an issue of the matter, and it's premature to speculate. [URL]http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxtopics/2013-Allow-top-two-rates-to-rise.cfm[/URL] [URL]http://www.gklaw.com/news.cfm?action=pub_detail&publication_id=1190[/URL] They're possible, not Obama's plan, and useful politically. We'll see what happens approaching November. If the Republicans offer an extension again Obama will have to sign because that will cost him fewer votes (most of us care more about getting our tax breaks than denying the "wealthy" theirs and accepting a big tax increase for us). They could also wait to keep the tax increases hanging over us until later when as a lame duck Obama has less to gain from compromise although it'll count against the Democrats in the next election. Obama signing with the top rates unchanged wouldn't be unprecedented - he signed a 2 year extension in 2010. Of course, vocal opposition before doing so is a useful marketing tool for him "I'm against the wealthy like me and my campaign donors and for you common people."

One thing I've never understood is how often times liberals claim they are the champions for the middle class and conservatives are for wealthy. The "liberal" and "conservative" labels are mostly marketing. Once in office both parties act about the same, passing laws to benefit industries which are large sources of campaign funds like the banks. You have to be more specific. In theory the Fed's low interest rates hurt the middle class more because we have a disproportionate fraction of our wealth in cash for upcoming major expenses (like kids in school or a new roof). In practice the average family has has just $4000 in savings and the difference between 0 and 5% interest of $200 is lost in the noise at 0.5% of the $43,000 household income so it's not a middle class issue. Obama's tax cuts more than outweigh that, with the 2% FICA cut saving the average family $860 a year. As responsible middle class people with a year's wage's set aside we're merely a screwed minority. Artificially propping up house prices through the GSEs and the fed buying $40 billion worth of mortgage backed securities each month hurts household formation; although with 2/3 of us owning homes the young people affected by this are another screwed minority. The stocks which make up the majority of your portfolio when working and saving go up with inflation (where the fed's goal is 30% a decade). You're only screwed when they continue the shenanigans as you approach and enter retirement where yields on low risk investments aren't high enough to support you. Of course, this is irrelevant to the middle class as a whole due to abysmal savings rates. Half of workers aged 55 and over have less than $50,000 saved for retirement. As of 2009 the median income for Americans 65 and over was just $18,001 including Social Security.

The Colorado Front Range usually feels warmer than the Pacific North Wet, it's a lot drier (that whole alpine desert thing with 300 days of sunshine a year thing), except when you're actually in the mountains (some of which net 400 inches of snow a year), has real mountains, and the snow there is drier so alpine sports are better. Of course, there's no ocean. I tried both sides of Lake Washington but only lasted 18 months.

While you can underload a canopy, it's generally at much lower wingloadings than you have. About .65 pounds/square foot (a 292 for you) is ideal for classic accuracy. The canopies which don't like low wingloadings (PD Stilettos) aren't good choices at this point in your jumping career for other reasons. It won't (I fly canopies from 105 to 245 square feet). In steady flight the load on all the line groups must add up to your weight regardless of how big or small the canopy is. Various canopy designs vary in how they split that weight between front risers, rear risers, and brakes. How they react to toggle input (how much, how fast) also varies between different designs and you're likely to to prefer some over others If you buy used and do a reasonable job shopping you'll be spending about $1/jump on depreciation regardless of how many canopies you go through. Do a good job and you might make a little money. Can you land it down-wind? Cross-wind? Turning in the flare? Turning below 50 feet? With some speed from front-risers? From half brakes without returning to full flight? Down-hill? Up-hill? Without having done these things enough to be comfortable with them you're not ready to down-size. These things are survival skills. Eventually you'll find yourself in a situation where you need to use them (although you won't need to use front risers, you will need to land with an approach at greater than trim speed if you didn't turn flat enough when you needed). Bill gets into more details.

Honest. The Soviet Union collapsed when they tried to match spending with their biggest potential adversary just as we will spending over six times as much. Drawing parallels with them is a fine path to realistically portraying America's current situation. I'm shocked that a politician (who needs to appease the defense industry paying to get him elected) would be so truthful, although we do live in unprecedented times. It's not a perfect analog (I doubt the Soviet Union had "Free Speech Zones" for protesters beyond the media presence) but is probably close enough for government work.

Well, the stupid fucker could have done it without involving anybody else, How? Guns often don't work (see attachment). Jumping of bridges often doesn't work. Carbon monoxide often leads to brain damage which is worse than before the attempted suicide. Poisons often lead to a slow and painful death. Relatively speaking a train might not be so bad. Some people can't afford the $5200 plus travel to Switzerland for certain painless exit from Dignitas. The rest of us will suffer from the side effects until the government accomodates them.