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Probably a lot. As a result there are laws against kids buying alcohol, and laws against adults serving them alcohol. There are laws against kids driving, and stricter laws when they first start to drive. There are laws that make it harder for kids to drown, and that significantly drive up the cost of private and public pools. There are laws and testing standards that make cars safer for kids. Billions have been spent on things like airbag research, seatbelt use, car seat testing, rollover testing, audible alerts, backup cameras, collision sensors etc to protect kids in cars (and kids vs cars.) There are laws that prevent kids from buying cigarettes under a certain age, and tens of millions in spending to convince them not to smoke even when it is legal for them to do so. These laws, and this spending, is not seen as onerous; indeed, they are seen as fairly commonsense. Oddly, though, when laws are proposed that would protect kids from gun deaths, they are seen as the end of liberty as we know it.

American-ish?

Good stuff. His timing is odd as well. Rat says that Tina was ringing the emergency chimes right as they were nosing off the ground. So before Tina hits the chimes she had to be handed the note from Flo and have enough time to process it, before that she had to have had enough time to see Flo looking odd and to go inquire about it, before that Flo had to have sat down by Cooper and been shown the bomb, before that Flo would have buckled up and been seated when Cooper turns around and tells her to read the note, before that Flo would have been walking around, and finally before that Cooper hands her the note. So between Cooper initially handing her the note and the plane nosing off the ground there had to be at the very least 2 or 3 minutes. What if Flo read the note immediately and screamed in terror alerting everyone? What would Cooper have done then? They'd have still been on the ground in Portland when all that took place. Why wouldn't he have just waited to give her the note when he was certain they were off the ground? I also think some of the language Cooper used speaks to "phony tough guy" as opposed to "actual tough guy". His stuff like "no funny stuff or I'll do the job" just sounds like movie lingo. I doubt some actual badass like Braden would have said such a thing. Also, as you mentioned, Cooper apparently had this fear of air marshals. This tells me he was a bit timid. Again, I doubt a Braden-type would have been vocally concerned about such a thing.

Its somewhat amazing to me that nobody caught on to the fact a hijacking was happening ? Some said later they knew something was wrong. One passenger said he knew it was a hijacking? But Gregory right next to Cooper did not connect the dots? Cooper could have waited until they landed and passengers were off, then announce a hijacking? But Cooper had a different timeline for some reason, that required announcing early. He evidently was ready to accept the risk. Ive never been impressed with Cooper's 'tactical;' savvy, or lack of same. A number of military people Ive known pointed that out. Cooper was depending on his bomb to keep people off his back after announcing a hijacking early, even as he expressed great concern over 'sky marshals' being on the flight ? I believe this is one of the reasons Carr profiles Cooper as an 'amateur' ? It may mean Cooper did not have a military background because his actions were not tactically sound - he left openings you could drive a truck through. His concern about 'sky marshals' was irrelevant because of his own actions and plan! It questions Cooper's management skills.

Cool. A long cold stupidly expensive mostly boring solo skydive setting a "state record" that no one cares about.

I believe this interview to be Michael Cooper's. Missoula is the only city that fits the redactions and he's the only Missoula passenger whose name fits along with the story. Charles Street's name fits but he was on a business trip with Arnold Andvik and Charles Truitt for the General Services Administration in Seattle, so he wasn't just passing through.

What is Bidenism? I’d see it as an idolizing of person over his or her position, or cult of personality. I haven’t heard of a lot of people pledging personal fealty to him, and I haven’t seen any T-shirts with him riding a unicorn, shark, or anything else Wendy P.

Fraud, lies, arrogance, bragging: He fits right in to the MAGA party.

I ws under the impression that the American ban on parachuting through clouds was written circa 1964 when a bunch of skydivers drowned in Lake Erie. The story starts with a bunch of skydivers doing high altitude (above 20,000 feet) from a World War 2 surplus B-25 Mitchell bomber. When clouds closed in below them, they asked an air traffic controller to help them spot. Unfortunately, ATC followed the wrong airplane - Beechcraft Bonanza. When the Bonanza was over the chosen drop zone, ATC cleared them to jump. Unfortunately, the B-25 was really over Lake Erie. All the jumpers landed in the Lake and most drowned. Since then, navigation avionics have improved considerably, but no civil servant (e.g. ATC) wants to involved with a decision that might kill some one, so jumping through clouds is still banned in American airspace. OTOH I have done dozens of jumps through clouds, dating back to 1980. Most of those jumps were made in other countries. We had good pilots - who knew how to read VOR or GPS systems, so that my longest walk was from the far end of the runway. Ho hum!!!!!!

Just realized that Nancy House was only 24 at the time of the hijacking. For some reason I always imagined her being an older lady, I suppose due to the name Nancy sounding like an old school name to me.

Well, no sanctions against Lake. However, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson ordered Lake to pay around $33,000 in legal fees to Arizona Democratic Gov.-elect Katie Hobbs, the state's secretary of state who won the race by around 17,000 votes and was named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

President Biden has decided to send Putin a new years present. Soon Ukrainian MIGs will be servicing Russians with JDAMs. They already deliver HARMs.

More than 6,000 children killed, hurt by gunfire in 2022: Report 6,000. Think about that. That's more than the population of 50 of the smallest towns in the US - combined. Still not worthy of writing your representatives to reinforce your position and desired direction? Here. I'll make it easier: https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative EDIT: That's more than double the number of US Service Members killed in Afghanistan of 17 years.

I've got a Strike Eagle in 5-25x56. The first 34mm tube scope I ever bought.

I’ve had a few “dangerous jumps”, most from self inflicted stupidity. But this one is weather related. Herd Boogie mid-late 70’s. Sky Van jump, weather was bad most of the day, solid low thick clouds and windy, occasional holes and some low jumps. Then a long hold for about 6 hours. A very large break in the clouds was coming our way, so everyone is looking to jump. The manifest hustles a few loads and 1 plane takes off. Our group figures a 20-way makes sense and now it’s our turn. As we’re climbing, the clouds roll in FAST, we’re in dark solid clouds at around 7K, we decide to split into 2 10-ways. The 1st group huddles near the door and literally disappears into the clouds, we can’t see the ground and decide to wait. The pilot has been descending and now we’re below 5k after a brisk go-around but still in clouds, we split into 2 5-ways and our group exits. We are immediately engulfed in dense clouds and never see each other till we break out under 3. To our surprise we’re right over the middle of the airport, YEAH BABY! I know it’s windy so I pull low, (for safety of course), around 1300’ w/ a Strato-Star. Canopy opens nice and I do a turn to check ground speed. I’m backing up & ascending, I go up to about 1500’, backing up as fast as I’ve ever gone downwind. I watch the airport quickly fade away & start looking for alternates. I now see my jump buddy’s doing 360’s looking for places to land, except for Al Jacobs jumping a Starlite,(round PC like canopy). He’s just backing up and goes by underneath me. We are fortunate that it is open country w/ lots of farm land. I turn downwind to look for a field and there’s a big one waaayy ahead of me and on my wind line too. I know this is my spot, I’ve now descended below opening altitude w/ some hard 360’s and “running” towards the field. I’m watching smaller fields on either side of me whizz by and I’m overtaking cars on the highway below me, I see Al in his Starlite going almost as fast. The field is huge and looks level, I figure this is cake! I’ll do a Qtr turn, crab into the field and then a deep, smooth 270 for landing. I’m now under 500’, start my crab before the upwind fence line and lose some more altitude. Thinking; this field is long I can’t miss it, there’s high trees and fences at the back end and I don’t want to mess w/ those. I snap a couple hard 360’s, losing more altitude and about half the field and now I’m low & going backwards really fast, plan A is scrubbed. I see Al off the field in the trees, I cheat a tiny turn to see what’s behind me and It’s fences and trees. I use the ol’ accuracy trick, deep brakes and full release. My canopy dives into ground slams me down face first, (despite a good PLF), then re-inflates goes back over my head and starts to drag me, twisting and bouncing me over 200’ into the fences,(split rail). The canopy starts to look like it’s gonna take-off but now I can at least cutaway. I’m beat-up but no serious injuries. My jump buddy's landed in the trees about another 1/4 mile downwind of me. We landed 5 miles away from the airport after we opened LOW, right over the top. The other load that took off just before got to 5K and aborted, landing at another airfield. The 10-way managed to land on the DZ/airport in high winds, most got dragged but had ground help and all OK. The 5-way behind us never jumped and the SkyVan had to land at the alternate airport. The winds had gone from 25 knots to 50+ when we exited / opened. No one got seriously injured but we all got beat-up pretty good and had repairs to do on our gear. Big Al finally bought a square :)

I did research on fluidized beds back in 1964, but instead of sand it was sugar. PS the universe is screwing with you in more fundamental ways than that.