tkhayes

The downside - they will have to likely show 'harm' of some kind, but cannot because everything is secret..... You cannot tell or find out what the secret laws are, what the secret wire-tapping is, what the secret phone logs are, so you cannot request whether or not you have been 'tracked' because it's a secret. America looks a lot like Czechoslovakia in the early 60's. Slowly taking it all away.

in a perfect world....however we do not live in a perfect world. It's not just TI's, if what you say is the 'standard', then no human being should have ever died in any accident of any kind. which is far from reality. An admirable goal, but not reality. One man's tired, lazy sloppy TI is another man's talented, experienced, caring, and thorough TI who just happened to make a mistake.

One of the possible 'revolutions' that could happen is more and more people that work in these jobs simply 'outing' what they do and such and giving up similar information. It does not take much fr the government to ty and prosecute 10 people over several years. But if 1000 or 1500 people inside the infrastructure were to get disgruntled enough about what they are doing, it could start a wave of exposures to which the government could not possibly keep up with and that would likely result in better policy changes. How do we encourage the folks on the inside to tell all?

My facebook post this morning: The dilemma: 1) Pretty much unanimous support for the Patriot Act back when, despite the warnings from many about intrusions into our privacy. Well, you got EXACTLY what you asked for. 2) Now we have a police/security state that has unlimited reaching powers that operates mostly in secret. And people sound surprised when they hear that. (duh!) 3) The only way to find out what is going on, is through whistle-blowers and leaks like Bradley Manning, Wikileaks, Drake, Sarris, etc., and now Snowden. 4) The same people that DON’T want their privacy invaded by big, bad government and scream that we have such huge government waste: a. Support a war on terror but are unwilling to fund it b. Want these people and groups criminalized and prosecuted as traitors. (even though they are the ones that actually made you aware of the Constitutional violations) c. Still complain about the size of the government yet the NSA budget is ‘secret’, what it does is ‘secret’, the outside agencies it hires to do the work (some 2000 of them) are ‘secret’, so we actually have no idea what all this costs because it is a ‘secret’ 5) End result? Hypocrisy even greater than religion. I also wrote (yet another) letter to Gus Bilirakis and Randy Forbes (the biggest fucking tool I have seen in Congress since Michele Bachmann) with this and several other issues....

Clean it up people. It's been a bad year for aircraft incidents already. And looks like every one of them could have been salvaged by better emergency training and execution. 'Controlled glide into crash site'..... not good. We complain about having the FAA on our backs and yet we fan the flames....

If there weren't so many incidents in tandem history of people leaving the plane with connectors not hooked up it might not be necessary. (including me) Apparently this DZO/aircraft operator or whomever decided that it was necessary, or at least a good idea. I started making my students part of the gear check throughout the hookup and the pre-jump checklist. It adds that comfort level, makes them part of the process and forces me to do my routine using them as a witness. But I still would have no objection to a sign like that. We remind people (with signs) to do their own gear checks, to not slam the door, to wait for the green light, to keep their wingsuits closed, etc. Why? Because people fuck up that's why.

oh look - another anonymous poster.....how brave!

http://news.yahoo.com/5-dead-5-injured-calif-shooting-rampage-082047940.html Except that it's Friday, not Monday. Oh yeah, and even on a Friday, we don't have any gun problems.....

Prius sales are holding, up an down a bit. There is plenty of competition out there are new hybrids come online and variations of electric vehicles. There are plenty of reason for Volt sales to be down, it actually does not indicate anything much more than competition and market variations..

My letter to my congressmen and Senators yesterday: There is so much wrong today and yet, there are such easy solutions. 1. The latest revelation of Verizon phone call monitoring and tracking (or whatever you want to call it) is ridiculous Just another nail in the coffin of the USA becoming a police state. I demand that you stop it. Congress actually has the power to stop this. Presidential executive order or whatever you want to call it, CONGRESS has the power to change the laws to stop these activities. The Constitution prevents government from invasive breaches of privacy and unreasonable search and seizure. a. Unlawful and widespread grabbing of internet and telephone traffic. Just because it is easy to do does not mean that you should be doing it. Power corrupts and these agencies (NSA, NSC, DoD, and the thousands of outside contracted private agencies) are corrupt and out of control. Think of the $$ we are spending on these agencies, mostly unfunded and we wonder why we are broke. b. Civil rights violations with stop-and-frisk laws in major cities. States rights or not, the federal government is there to ensure that INDIVIDUAL rights are not being violated. And they are, every day. What are you doing about it? Absolutely nothing I expect. 2. Religious violations of the Constitution are rampant. This is a country with a Constitution that protects ALL religions to freely practice, (or none at all). I am tired of seeing this country drift down a Christian right-wing fundamentalist direction that limits freedoms and restricts people and their activities based solely on their biblical beliefs. More people than ever DO NOT BELIEVE in any religious dogma, and once again the Federal Government should be here to PROTECT those freedoms for EVRYONE, not assist in their elimination. And the only way that happen is when the government at ALL levels stays OUT OF RELIGION altogether. Separate my government from any and all religious activity. 3. When are we going to wake up and realize that the war on drugs is one of the greatest miscarriages of justice against the American people ever conceived? The money we waste, and the number of people we persecute for what is basically a medical condition is bankrupting the country (along with silly wars). We now have more people in prison than any country in the world. Congratulations. What exactly are you doing about it? I expect nothing. All of these issues are the responsibly of Congress. Why is it not changing? Because you don’t actually care. You don’t actually give a fuck. Because all you can think about it how much money you need to raise from corporations to win the next election. And until the corporate money gets out of elections and politics in general, I expect you will continue to not give a fuck about the American People. Get corporate money out of politics. Forever. One simple piece of legislation. ALL political donations are recorded and are made public. ALL political donations made ONLY by individuals. ALL political donations then speak for the people, who you represent. Until then, this government and this country will continue to slide into a spiral out-of-control corrupt police state serving no one, and certainly corrupt.

distractions can kill you, that's the lesson. He sacrificed altitude for what, in the end, was not a real malfunction, or even a serious enough situation to warrant an AAD fire.

How about you check you gear, and then you never have a PC in tow? It is probably the least common malfunction, and certainly ranks up there in prevent-ability. It is just as preventable as the 'I left my legstraps undone' malfunction.

http://tampa.craigslist.org/psc/spo/3834629633.html It's a pretty old SST Racer, but the pop top is unique, I had the link emailed to me, but that does not mean it was not stolen from someone or a scam, If you recognize the logo, let me know, thanks

just sit - up, once the opening shock starts - your head should be level and simply ride it out. The only time I look is watching the pilot chute and bag deploy, and I am already bringing my knees down.

Sit up for the opening, as your pilot chute & bag are leaving, you should know what the timing of your opening shock is like - start to bring your knees down. Ideally you end up in a sitting position when you hit the first bit of opening shock. The spine compresses vertically, which it is deigned to do and there is no whiplash. The leg straps are on your thighs and you can even control some of the opening shock by lifting/lowering your knees, kind of a lever action. Keep your hands out of the way of the risers/toggles, although some use their hands to gently spread the risers apart (high performance canopies) Sitting up for opening is an old camera jumper thing when cameras were big and heavy, you sit up for the opening, grab your helmet/chin cup to stabilize your head through the opening. Looking up not really advised, and laying there flat and just 'taking it' is not advised either, the spine gets quite a whiplash on a hard opening.

there are plenty of viable solutions and even plenty of interim temporary solutions. The ring wing gun nutters just deny deny deny regardless of their feasibility. There are better gun laws in other countries to use as examples, just like there are better education systems in different places and better health care systems in other places etc. The denial and refusal to see what is right in front of you is the actual problem. I put it to you that even if I came up with the perfect solution to greatly reduce gun crime it would be denied....

Not a lousy analogy at all. The statistics VASTLY demonstrate that an RSL, like a seatbelt, is a far better option that not having one. No analogy at all, just plain statistics. And you and I started jumping at the same time, 1980 or so, and therefore you must actually remember why we put RSLs there in the first place.

Not using an RSL ranks up there with not wearing seatbelts because of the 1 or 2 scenarios that you can dream up where a seatbelt might not help u in a crash. Botoom line? RSLs save lives and have. You are far better off with one than without one. period.

Just curious if u have a point to make. I do my homework and I post the info I find. Most ofmthemright wing gun lobby is filled with lots of' what ifs' and 'me thinks'. And not much in the way of concrete solutions, just rhetoric. MANY MANY other places in the world clearly demonstrate that effective gun control reduces gun crime.

Even so, a sawed off shotgun is/was not used anything near the number of times as a handgun and would prove to be far more difficult to conceal, use and certainly hide from plain view. Handguns ARE the problem. I even agree that assault rifles are not. An effective background check program combined with tracking transfers and sales of guns would greatly reduce the numbers of guns out there over time. people who still want guns would have no trouble getting them. People who currently do under-the-table sales would think twice due to the criminal consequences. CLEARLY demonstrated in other countries with effective programs to reduce gun violence and gun crime. It is and will be the first step.

http://www.vpc.org/fact_sht/ccwmassshootings.pdf Really people- try a little harder. Perhaps you would like to further debate the semantics? Maybe start arguing about grammar or some other distraction. You are all smarter than that. Stop acting like you are not, else I may treat you that way

Obviously background checks weed out undesirable/criminal/high risk people from owning handguns, and therefore background checks should be expanded to ALL gun transactions....not by state or county, ALL gun transactions, not just store-bought ones, but ALL gun transactions. All of them Every one of them Every last one. And in a rather short few years, the number of guns in the hands of criminals will be reduced. And you gun nuts will still have your guns and your precious 'rights' because you are so flawlessly perfect.

the claim from gravitymaster is that there are NO mass shootings committed by CCW holders, both you and I debunked that. So yes, YOU actually provided the statistics that not all CCW holders are 'good citizens', along with me. Thanks for making my point.

Yes millions of people have shotguns, but they are not used in crime (far less than handguns) due to their size and difficulty to conceal them. shotguns are not the problem. If they were, then the statistics would reflect that. The statistics DO NOT reflect that, hence my statement stands. The problem in this country is MOST OBVIOUSLY handguns, but all measures. But of course you would deny that, even though the gun lobby itself posts the statistics about axes/hammers/blunt objects every day, yet leaves out the handgun numbers. Because of course, they are the problem. And we would not want to acknowledge any facts in the debate now would we?

The number involved in mass shootings is small, but the number involved in other individual shootings and crime is arguably rather high. Rather easy Google search to find out just how many happen every day in the USA. You (and everyone else's) assumption that all CCW holders are somehow 'good citizens' is quite flawed. Everyone is innocent of a crime until they commit one. And pretty much any of us is capable of committing a crime, depending on the circumstances we find ourselves in. If you are capable of committing a gun crime, and you have a gun, that increases the probability that it might happen. If you are capable of committing a gun crime but have difficulty finding a gun, that greatly reduces the probability. The reason we do not have more ricin attacks in the country is because ricin is hard to get your hands on. The reason we have fewer homemade bombs made with dynamite is that dynamite is hard to get your hands on. The reason we have such a high rate of people being killed by handguns is (in part) due to the relative ease at which one can get a handgun. CCW or not.