bill2

Hey John, just curious since I also live in the bay area. are you licensed to carry concealed because you were a cop or is there a secret to getting a CCW? it's almost impossible to get a ccw here. thanks[email]

Yes you can. Go to something like Thunder Ranch or The Texas Pistol Academy -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are lots of very good courses out there for tactical pistol. The only thing you can't get as a civilian from "reputible" places is full auto instruction and a lot of the "sniper" courses. Most of those are LE only. Plenty of pistol training out there. Thunder Ranch is a good one. Blackwater Lodge in North Carolina is another. It's gonna cost you out the ass for a course of fire with 10,000 rounds though. __________________________________________ Also frontsight just outside of Las Vegas - 2 and 4 dayd course in pistol, shotgun, and rifle.as well as a number of other courses. www.frontsight.com

I want both, at the same time of course.

Great answers to some of the myths curculating around about why pilots shouldn't have guns in the cockpit. Lots of people think air marshals are on every flight, it's more like about 1% since the US has up to 35000 commercial flights per day. Also don't forget, the option to not having the pilots armed as a last defense is having an F-16 shoot the plane down to prevent it being used as a missle. Think about that the next time you say pilots having guns are a bad thing and won't work.

Thanks for the info

How high can military jumpers go when they're doing HALO? at what point do you start using oxygen? do you jump with scuba gear, and if so how the hell do you move with so much gear on?

Outside the main theatre, in the bushes, on Ford Ord in Monterey. back when it was an Army fort. Also outside a large motel in the jacuzzi around 10 pm. luckily no one else showed up.Quote

*I used to scuba dive in the 70's and 80's, worked for awhile as a diver while going to college but quit it since working as diver can be pretty nasty. * I hang glided for a bit, and got my hang level 1 certificate, then had to quit to to job problems and needing the money. * I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and used to teach but gave it up years ago because of a bad back. I tried boxing when I was really young, got in a Golden Gloves tourney in the novice class and decided it was not for me. Played rugby for while which was fun but I spent every Sunday relaxing and trying to make the bruises and pain go away (usually through beer). * I snow ski (intermediate), shoot competitively, ride my motorcycle, used to swim in a masters program for while. * Skydiving is probably the most adrenaline charged thing I've ever done. Which is probably why many people get freaked out by it, since there is no starting out gently like other sports - you're either flying out of a plane at 120 mph or you're not skydiving at all. Nothing in between. * I disagree with you on your theory people getting hurt. Some people just have bad jusdgement period - I've seen that in motorcycling a lot. and the other ones are very experienced people who choose to push the envelope and know that they are risking serious injuries. It doesn't mean that they have bad jusdgement but instead think the rewards outweigh the risk of injury.

Hey Sangiro, Nice bike in the photo, is that a R1150GS? I've got one and it's a great all around bike.

Michele, Any idea when all this will air?

I made a tandem because I had always wanted to try it, and loved the adrenaline rush which made me want to do AFF. I kept at because no other activity has scared me this much, and I wanted to master it. Right now I've got 29 jumps, and still have a sense of wonder at being able to simply throw myself out of a plane at 14K, fly for a minute or so treating the sky like it's my personal playground, and then land a few minutes after that. I've only jumped at Byron, but if the people there are any indication, and all of you of course, then in general the people who skydive are just good people. Plus in the back of my mind, I do believe that there's some ego involved and that I'm doing what very few others have done or want to do.

What's a windblade?

I remember the movie but not that actual scene

I don't think so. We are gradually growing up; our history has, in general, tended towards longer periods of peace. We now have the ability to destroy entire countries halfway around the globe; we haven't used that ability yet, which I see as a very good sign. We're gradually learning not to wreck the environment, not to kill people for no good reason, and to spend our energies behind negotiating tables instead of machine guns. All we have to do is get through adolescence intact. ___________________________________________ You're assuming that negotiating with Sadam or any other terrorists will produce beneficial results. Sadam considers negotiating as a form of weakness, he will negotiate to save time in order to build up his forces and weapons not because he really wants peace. I agree with you that the war in Iraq might produce unintended results down the line, but simply going to the negotiating table every time out of the hope that Sadam will change is a waste of time. Unfortunately, people, especially Sadam, respect power above all. Remember all the talk in the press about the "Arab street" and how they were going to explode when we went to war in Afghanastan? And all the media pundits talking about the hardened Taliban and how we would get wiped out in a war over there? the US started slowly, but when it defeated the Taliban/Al Queda so quickly the "Arab street" did not explode and all of a sudden you had nations all over the planet falling over themselves to declare to the US that they were not terrorists. Quite a big change from the beginning when so many Muslims wanted to volunteer to go fight in Afghanstan. Maybe one day the human race will get out of adolescence, but right now we respect power and it's a mistake to always negotiate. We negotiated after completely defeating Japan and Germany and WWII, and they are our allies now. If we had negotiated partway through the war, we'd still be dealing with Hitler and the emperor.

I've got an office on the 2nd floor and can see west to where hwy 580 W goes between some hills towards Oakland and San Francisco. Grass, trees, and part of a parking lot before that. Not too bad a view, especially since a lot of people have interior offices with no windows at all.

and there's an IMAX theatre in Pleasanton ____________________________________ plus the one at the Tech center in downtown San Jose. Hopefully it will come to one of them.

My wife and I felt it. We live in Fremont in the east bay, and were watching tv and felt a small tremor, looked at each other and when the second and larger tremor shook the house got under a doorway. Before the '89 quake, I never paid much attention to them, but now I'm ready to move quickly if they don't stop. Quakes are not as bad as hurricanes; they don't happen as much and usually aren't as destructive. I tried to boast to my wife that I was so good that I could make the earth move for her with out even touching her, but she just rolled her eyes and told me to pipe down.

Software support out here in Silicon Valley. pays for the motorcycling and skydiving.

Ecofeminist Carol Adams discusses the sexualization of meat in society Thursday night in Annenberg Hall. "There is a world of suffering in every bite of meat," Adams told an audience of about 100 people (Katie Russell/The Daily Northwestern) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Email this story Print this story -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What do men want? Great sex and great steak, and not necessarily in that order," author Carol Adams told about 100 people Thursday night in Annenberg Hall while showing a slide of a man and woman embracing in front of a meat counter. "Sure, they want money and power, but only because of what they can bring them: great sex and great steak," she said. Adams, an ecofeminist, author used this slide and many others in "The Sexual Politics of Meat," a presentation based on her novel of the same name. The event was co-sponsored by Women's Coalition, the Women's Center, Justice for All and the undergraduate sociology department. During the slideshow Adams' addressed issues of sexism, racism and speciesism while posing the question, "How does one become a piece of meat?" "My becoming vegetarian had little to do with my feminism or so I thought," said Adams, referring to her decision to avoid meat despite growing up on a farm where meat-eating was "normalized." She said she made the decision when her pony was shot and she could no longer eat a hamburger without feeling guilty. Adams discussed the extent to which meat-eating culture permeates our society, with meat-laden writing exercises in children's textbooks and lessons on a balanced meat-inclusive diet. Children are often told, "That's why cows exist," and, "That cow wanted to be eaten," she said. Images of butchered meat flashed on the screen as Adams described the use of the "absent referent" by meat-eaters to avoid thinking of the foods they consume as living beings. Adams said inequality is made sexy in the world of advertising. Rear-end photographs of women and animals emphasize the bondage and vulnerability of both groups, who are dominated in our society, she said. For instance, before it became a pornographic magazine, "Hustler" was a restaurant in Cleveland that used the menu slogan, "We serve the best meat in town," under a picture of a woman's buttocks, she said. "These images send the message that certain bodies can be sold," Adams said. "All women live in sexual objectification as fish do in water." She added that, in contrast, ads showing men as meat usually depict them as "beef cakes." But she urged the audience to understand that it is time for change. "There is a world of suffering in every bite of meat, but we are working for a whole new world," she said. Doug Morrow, a vegan and senior at Pomona College said the presentation made him better informed. "My immediate instinct is that it made me very sad to see so clearly this representation of women and animals, as they are dually repressed," he said. "But it has made me stronger in my ability to talk to others."

A man staggers into an emergency room with two black eyes and a five iron wrapped tightly around his throat. Naturally the doctor asks him what happened. "Well, it was like this," said the man. "I was having a quiet round of golf with my wife when she sliced her ball into a pasture of cows. "We went to look for it and while I was rooting around, I noticed one of the cows had something white at its rear end. "I walked over and lifted up the tail and sure enough, there was my wife's golf ball-stuck right in the middle of the cow's butt. That's when I made my mistake." "What did you do?" asks the doctor. "Well, I lifted the tail and yelled to my wife, 'Hey, this looks like yours!'"

I'm not sure what you mean by reasonable good relations with the US, but 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from Saudia Arabia, their particular brand of Islam is very harsh and anti-western, and I don't think he cares about the US at all. They export the radical brand of Islam so it doesn't bite them in Saudia Arabia. I think it's time we got out of there, and let whatever happens happen. It's time for a change in government for more than one government in the Middle East. As for the gulf war, I think this prince was the one who stated on a news show here in the US that "Saudia Arabia helped out the US in the Gulf War", completely forgetting that it was his country that was in serious shit and we got him out of it.

I don't know where you are in the Bay area, but it's cold and foggy here in Pleasanton. I've heard it's supposed to be like that all weekend.

You miss my point. We will always have great men willing to die for their country, religion and ideals, and they will always be needed. Someday, their objective will simply not be to kill as many of the people they disagree with as possible. MLK has shown us that it's possible to sacrifice one's life for a cause, and to do it without bloodshed. I hope that the future holds more men like him than men like Milosevic, Bin Laden and Hussein, and that our differences are settled in the seats of goverment througout the world rather than through the deaths of our fathers, mothers and children. Again, if anyone wishes otherwise I very much hope they are never in positions of power. _________________________________________________ MLK was murdered, how do you call that "without bloodshed"? and don't forget the riots that followed. On the part where we have more people like him than Hussein, etc. I agree with you; although I don't think that will happen anytime soon.

If you want people to _be_ in that foxhole I don't want you in any sort of position of power. There is nothing worse than war. We will someday outgrow it. That day is not today (unfortunately) but the day will come when people no longer kill each other because of the color of their skins, uniforms or flags. ____________________________________ I wanted to find this quote a couple of days ago when the thread was going full bore, but I couldn't. Now I found it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight: nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety: is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and blood of better men than himself

Agree/disagree. People who find themselves in harm's way can end up being heroes because of what they did once they found themselves in that particular situation. I do think that heroes, to be heroes, need to risk something. The term hero these days is sadly overused.