tkhayes

and as well, we were 'killing Iraqi civilians' with the UN sanctions that were imposed over 10 years. No one could get food, health care, etc. While on the outside the effect seems to be the right thing to do, the sanctions only hurt the weakest people in Iraq, the ones we are trying to save supposedly. I still agree with sanctions, but we also must take steps to ensure they 'hurt' the right people. Dictators never go hungry, never run out of money and never are without security etc. even when we impose sanctions. Since they generally do not care abut their own populations, most sanctions become ineffective at forcing the country to comply with international wishes. Best intentions but not such a great outcome. TK

that is pretty lame as justification for a war - in 1996 800,000 people in Rwanda were killed in 100 days and no one even noticed - so obviously the numbers of Iraqis we 'save' is not a good enough reason to go to war. But of course we use that excuse now that there are no WMD's found, and I doubt there ever will be. Do two wrongs make a right? Are we ever going to just admit that the war was a mistake and then go home, or are we going to try and banaid it to death? If you want to look at gencide as a reason to go to war, we should be invading dozens of other countries in the world. mistreatment happen sin a lot f places. While I do not agree with it and support efforts to quash it, i do not think invading is necessarily the right reason and certainly NOT in this case. TK

http://www.iraqbodycount.net/ that is one source, albeit biased, but most of their data comes form other good sources, just search on the keywords to find several sources of data.

perhaps sticking our noses into ANYONE's business is what is pissing them off. Name 20-30 countries in the world that do NOT poke around in foreign countries governments- Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Scotland, Finland, Poland, etc etc etc. Why is it that these countries do not seem to have half the world pissed off with them? Getting back to the source of the problem.... stop fucking around and sticking your arrogant nose into places where it does not belong might be a good start. We typically try to CONTROL everything in the world, power, business, economics and money, but mostly POWER. My guess is that is what is pissing them off. How about we stop affecting foreign governments, close all the foreign bases, take care of the people at home and mind our own business. TK

If the middle east is 'destabilized' then I doubt a military force of substantial enough organization or power could be put together to attack Israel. The Israelis are well defended and well practiced in that art. destabilization in the middle east might create concern for Israel, but I would expect that it would also give them justification to attack and expand their borders to control the area and the threat as they see fit TK

Placing yourself in a position of authority with awesome power, like the helicopter crew, places also some moral responsibility on you as well. 100-200 years ago, similar parallels could be drawn... "I just wanted to talk to him, but the nigger would not stop running, so I shot him" - it does not make it justified. We have killed more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians since the start of the war. That tells me that we have made 'many' mistakes like shown in the video - but for all I know, they could have been enemy fighters, it is not clear. But the point that we seem to regularly make that mistake is disturbing. How about this? If we were not in Iraq - we would have killed ZERO Iraqi civilians And we would not have any dead Amercan soldiers either. Those people in the video never would have been our enemy to shoot at in the first place, so we would not have been threatened by them and they would sitill be alive today. And if they really were civilians, I think it would be reasonable to say that they had mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, who probably did not agree (or get a chance to discuss) our 'justification' for the shooting. I bet they are all on our side now..... (sarcasm is sooo hard to put into print) TK

Being in Florida we usually say "Mickey Mouse will not risk HIS life for your entertainment, but we will" "So you are OK with a big gay guy strapped to your rear end?" "My New Year's resolution was for me to figure out those friggin' tandem landings if it kills me" "No really, I DO have more tandem malfunctions than anyone else I know" (Actually not a joke) "Don't show that video around too much OK? My parole officer does not know that I am here" TK

it points out even more problems with people's handling of things in skydiving. Slider up on landing means that they probably never checked their canopy, (obviously), never tried a practice flare, never did any turns past about 1/4 brakes, or the performance would/should have been noticed. Novices especially should be running through a rountine of checks when the parachute opens, just like first jump course - check canopy, check steering and practice flare to see if there are control problems with the parachute. too many people out there with the blinders on..... TK

Usually scattered afternoon thunderstorms, but we jump pretty much every day. Closed Tues/Wed, open other days, always a good weekend crowd with 15-20 loads a day. VERY HOT and HUMID hope to see you here TK

Promises to be a busy one - the Super Otter is flying, the weather is perfect, the load organizing is great. Janine doing dinner Saturday Night - BBQ chicken, burgers, corn, salad and more. Hockey game at the bar 8pm - go Tampa! see ya there TK

A blast from the past - all kinds of folks came out of the woodwork that had not been here in ages. Rick and Lelia, Jake Brake, Fernando, Mike Truffer, Liz, Arlo, Woodsy's, it was like something from 10 years ago. Hope everyone had a good time, i sure had a good time watching it all. Thanks again everyone,TK

http://www.dlc.fi/~frog/wavs/jackson.htm tk

I NEVER called anyone a racist in any of my posts, I never said it in any of my speeches - but I most certainly pointed it out as what the rest the world would make us to be. That was my point. TK

I could probably come up with a democratic arguement and a business case (as a local resident) and find support (with a large petition) to fence in the black neighborhood to keep crime out of my neighborhood. Even if I won the support of a large majoritynad took it to City Council - that would be WRONG. It would also be RACIST there are examples (thousands of them) where democracy does not fucking matter; there is the need instead to do the right thing. 2 days after 9/11, I could have gotten a petition signed to slaughter Arabs in the USA - that would be WRONG as well. Democracy is not always the right way no matter what or at any cost. What you are saying is the loudest voice wins. If the city really wants a true indication of the wants of its constituents, then it needs a vote or referendum, not a petition. Anyway, i resent the fact that you say that 'morons' bypassed the system. No one in this case ever intentionally did anything to bypass anything. The law was obscure and the procedure as you put it was not obvious. It was discovered after the fact, not found and then skirted by evil-doers in the hopes of pulling the wool over anyone's eyes. A mistake was made and identified, yes. Irene Dobson is a nice old lady, hardly the scoundrel you would have us believe that she is. The City Manager and the council (and the petitioners) were only trying to honor a great man - no ill-harm. My point is that more ill-harm will come of it now. Typicaly American attitude you have there that assumes that the outside view of our city does not matter (see my earlier posts). So narrow minded. Try a world view of things instead. There is no solution at this point, name tarnshed, reputation ruined, tourism probably damaged (hell we were on Leno the other night) and is that the 'best solution'? Democracy at any cost? I cannpot wait for democracy to turn against you someday and see how you feel? Or do you accept it blindly? "Sometimes it is not enough to do your best - sometimes you have to do what is necessary" - Sir Winston Churchill Fine you win - I surrender - democracy rules - I will make sure you are aware of the long term damage when it comes.... TK

no one is arguing that rocedures were not followed by the City - but that does not mean there will NOT be serious consequences for the town when they 'correct' that wrong. We are now associated with White supremist groups, the mayor is receiving hate mail, the city is all over the nationals news (in a bad way). I do not actually believe anyone on council is actually a racist, but it DOES put us in that class whether we want to be or not. This cannot be good for the City - and procedures be damned, this could have all been avoided by the keeping of the name. Instead of pissing off thousands of people all over the country, we would piss off just a few locals who want it changed back. Now it cannot be undone. Even if council changed the name back tomorrow, the damage is done, the reputation scarred and the ramifications not even seen fully yet. TK

http://www.skydivecity.com Z-Hills

Paul Cameron and the FRI are considered to be (even by moderates) extreme right-wing and Paul Cameron himself has been discredited by many as "the least credible, of the various psychologists, medical doctors, and associated professionals which actively collaborate with the Religious Right.." http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/html/facts_cameron.html http://www.hatecrime.org/subpages/hatespeech/cameron.html If he were generally accepted by even his own profession, then there might be some value in his data. But he seems to be standing there alone in his scientific findings. But that does not mean he has not convinced some of the masses (including you perhaps) of what he believes in. Even if the Gay numbers are 1 in 20 or even 1 in 100, that would still make them a LARGE sizable group, worthy of the governments attention and worthy of some respect for their cause. 1 in 100 would actually outnumber the American Indian Population and 1 in 20 would be close to the Black population of this country. We have gone out of our way already to grant special things to these people, albeit for different reasons and we have a long way to go. The point of my arguement is that the gay population is large - probably much larger than we think, fo many of the socio reasons discussed here. Once again, I ask, - what harm, if any, will come to society by the recognition of gay marriage? Once again I state - 'this is a free country and if it don't hurt you, then I outta be allowed to do it' TK

Simplification is not a bad thing. And yes it is OK to be skeptical about the evidence that exists, especially, as in your case, you are going to decide to use that to run your entire life plan. If I want to run my life by a creed, code and morals values, I want to know for a FACT that is it true, not some flimsy heresay that is 2000 years old. David Keresh demonstrated the same as far as his followeers were concerned, an so did the folks who drank the purple koolaid. Palestinian suic ide bombers KNOW that they are right too, and they do NOT feel that their beliefs are false - they still die for it and they are still wrong by most reasonable persons accounts. EXACTLY - a book of faith, which i do not mind, but I do oppose when the faith enters the government and they way that i run my life (or the way anyone runs their life) and white supremeists use lots of historical data to support their cause, as do the Nazis, as do the Turkish Armenians, as do the gypsies. Every gets to judge for themselves. the person(s) have asked for historical facts and there are some - a few, Ok ,even a lot. Most of it from stories that have been told again and again for 2000 years, making them hardly factual, but mostly heresay. To base your life and everything you believe in on that alone is not for me. TK

http://www.avert.org/hsexu1.htm is one reference, varying numbers between here and Britain, but perhaps a lot HIGHER than you expected.... also http://www.wildemarketing.com/facts.html reports smaller numbers in Canada, about 1 in 30 I have read and used the 1 in 10 number several times, although some studies doubt it. It may be more like 1 in 10 have had sex at some time with a same sex partner. Does that make you gay? Hard to say, I will stick with the 1 in 10 for now, since there sure are a lot of them, many still in the closet due to society's pressures on them and their own uunwillingness to come out. (that moral issue that has been hammered into their heads since birth) TK

given that 1 in 10 people are gay, so say the stats, then I would say that homosexuality does follow some natural law and order. And given that it has been around since the dawn of recorded human history, I would also say that it has passed the test of time. immoral? Perhaps from your standpoint, but not from mine - we agre to disagree. Does the gov't have the right to enforce moral code on me? I would rather they do not. Once again - explain to me the PROBLEMS that will arise from making gay marriage legal and defining it (or better yet, NOT defining it and staying the hell away from it) TK

yes it is a social institution, and we wish to change that institution. Which is our/their right to do so, adn then the definition would be part of every US citizen. Slavery was also a social institution that changed, as were many others, Again, I see NO ill effects for the purveyors of 'normal' marriage should gay marriage be allowed. This is a free country and unless you can come up with something that is going to cause ill-harm to society, then we/they should be free to pursue it. not only in marriage, but in everything. We too often have to prove that something is 'safe' to do. TK

funny, I do not remember much about the big bang in the book of Genesis. There was a lot of building stuff by God. By all accounts from science and our own 'real' beliefs, it certainly did not take only 7 days. To believe in the Adam and Eve theory, you would also have to believe that we all came from one moment in time, which modern science has proven again and again to be false. I do not remember all Genesis off the top of my head, but they had kids (one who killed the other), they had kids, those kids had kids, and somewhere not very far from all that, they moved to the 'city' Where did the city come from? and all those people? TK

not at all, the universe is generally accepted as an infinite place - therefore infinite possibilities and infinite combinations of energy and matter. no doubt, life was created by such combinations. (at least life as we know and recognize it) I think it would be pretty ignorant of us to assume that it was all made for just us and that we are alone out there. TK

The city does not follow its own ordinaces on many occasions. We built a hangar and fuel depot, as well as an RV Park without following City ordinaces. We also have trash dumpsters that are outside of the ordinaces, we regularly approach the City to bypass existing ordinances as do most businesses in the City from one time or another. I do not feel that is a good enough reason to raise racial tensions and create hatred around the City. Pretty small item, renaming a street, to cauase such damage to the city's reputation. Is the City proud to be 'praised' within the ranks of Stormfront.org? Is the City proud to be labelled by the rest of the country as racist? Can this be good? I doubt it. So the 'democrats' win with the democratic process, and the City loses future grants, reputation, tourism and gets set back decades in the minds of the rest of the country. Perhaps if those folks that were not 'consulted' watch their tax bills climb over the next few years because federal money does nto come in, they might reconsider. But more than likely they will blame the blacks for the controversy. tk

simple question - can they pass an FAA Class III medical? If not, then they would not be allowed to fly an airplane, even as a student pilot. Therefore I would think they should not be in freefall and 'flying' a parachute. USPA's requirements are pretty vague, several locations in USPA and/or federal regs point to the Class III as a minimum, and since it is the only 'official' medical statement there really is, I send my students to pass one of those when in doubt. It is a good meter of their ability and would certainly help cover you in the event of an incident. TK