Genie

im in the same boat fallin woman - havent jumped since september and am hoping to get up on either monday this week or next week.. One specific question , My rig was also last packed in Sept. the reserve was redone about a month ago but the main wasnt taken out - am i jsut being supersitious by feeling it shoudl be repaxcked before being jumped? Does anyone know wnaything of rigs malling more frequently after been left packed for a while - or is this just my subconscious coming up with reasons to forestall the dread day?? dont get me wrong i love jumping, but there is always the underlying nervousness, and this stage it seems to be subconscious and so harder to deal with. reassurance greatly appreciated :) Genie

Jumps in Ireland are about Euro 20 when you own your own rig. You my as well bring it for the hell of it - if you dont have it you wont jump :) unless you can borrow a rig which usually isnt a problem around us :) depends on what you are used to jumping! Genie

I know someone who is upgrading to the cypres 2 and is selling his cypres 1. Its three years old, had its battery change, due its first 4 year maintenance next year. Any one have any idea of a fair price for this? thanks Genie

I seem to have missed those... So the example you are giving here is that of a country which did have linguistic coherency but couldnt maintain its identity? okkkk... Im Irish. During our history our language was all but obliterated through a constant effort, with some families having children who could only speak one language and parents who could only speak Irish.. We seem to have managed to retain our cultural identity ok throughout that time. Seconded! I hope everything goes ok for him Genie

I agree with you on that. I am surprised that the american public is giving up its rights so easily - re the Oregon state legislature, the Oakland Police Dept, the Patriot act - and people are justifying this. I spoke with one vetaran, a friend thru the net for years, and asked him what he thought about the 25 years for pro terrorism activity for simply protesting your governments actions, and im still blown away by his answer " I believe in Freedom of speech - but theres a limit" This from a guy who put his life on the line so people were free to speak - and he didnt see any contradiction in what he said or did.. that astounded me. Genie

No one here can tell me why we went in to Iraq. At best some people may have a well thought out idea as to why, at worst, I see a lot of parroting of either party line. We all work and have our lives and do not have the luxury or ability in most cases to do the research. We dont' have access to the information. It does seem that way. Does anyone here know what the story with counterpunch.org is? It seems to be fairly well researched, draws info from a lot of different and indeed impressive sources, including John Brown an ex US diplomat due to his resignation over the US admin foreign policies, - just wondering if it would be considered a good resource to see the other side, or is it more conspiracy theories like some ive come across? Genie Now, to coffee.

[No mater what anyone writes the left will be against the current administration ALWAYS. The right will be for the current administration ALWAYS. Both are wrong. The problem is that coverage has shifted away from being moderate to being either left or right. It has left me disgusted and I am tired of reading articles that are slanted to fit whatever party line the writer supports, with only moderate attention paid to the truth. But did this article inform us of anything new, any revolutionary ideas, any proof of the authors claims...no. It is a propaganda piece pure and simple. *** Well it didnt add anything new - from my perspective i saw it as pulling together a number of things worthy of consideration - ie US was a major sadaam supporter, 9/11 was not commited by iraq, now WMDS have been found. I guess the main reason i posted it is because i still dont know why the US went to war. All of the reasons that have been given, quoted, repeated - none of them were reasons to go to war with iraq specifically. Yes the human rights were appalling but that stands for many many countries, some US allies.. They may have had the capability to make WMD's but even that has not been proven, and if they did, so do many others. I think everyone will now agree that they did NOT pose a "Clear and present Danger" to the US in any way - so why are your friends, neighbours, families dying out there right now? And it is going to get worse. At the massacre where 13 civilians were shot while protesting its now thought that the tank at the back of the US column let off some warning shots, which convinced everyone else they were being shot at and they opened fire. What do you do as a marine when someone starts throwing stones ? Do you shoot them or do you take it? And if you shoot them, as happened, there will be children dead - Northern Ireland has shown this over many years.. Genie

Well let me ask you - do YOU believe that Iraq was behind the events of 9/11 ? Do you feel the war in iraq was justified because of 9/11 ? Body pilot has made these claims on many occasions and trying to point out that the majority of 9/11 people were saudi had no affect other than " We will be going after Saudi next" Wrong call by the way, apparently its Syria that next on the agenda. onder what the justification for that will be? Genie

Well - good question by the way - i actually kinda wanted a discussion on it. Body Pilot has been the most vehement at stating that the Iraqis were responsible for 9/11 - which is why i directed it specifically to him. That being said Body Pilot tends to ignore any questions i ask about his beliefs and i also hoped that by entitling the thread with his name that he may read it and comment on it. that answer your q ? Genie

http://www.counterpunch.org/brasch04252003.html Playing Spin the Battle by WALT BRASCH More than half of all Americans believe that Saddam Hussein was personally involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. According to an Associated Press poll conducted shortly after the conclusion of the successful invasion of Iraq, 53 percent of the nation pin the 9/11 murders on Saddam, something the CIA and most of the world intelligence gathering organizations have consistently discounted. The fact that so many Americans believe this reveals the successful drum beating of the Bush administration along with a failure of both Congress and the media to adequately question the President's motives or to challenge the statements coming from the White House and Pentagon. President Bush and his horde of advisors have constantly said they never--ever--said that Saddam was the person behind the attacks. But, if the President could say "subliminal," that's what he, the vice-president, and their administration did to the Americans, with the complicity of the media who abrogated their responsibilities and made it seem that challenging anything the President said would be treason. In message after message, the President referred to 9/11 and the war on terrorism. Then, as in the movies, he jump-cut to the evils of Saddam, letting the people think there was a smooth transition, while implanting those "hidden" meanings. A month after 9/11, Americans believed Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were responsible. Upon that basis, the President ordered an invasion of Afghanistan, one of several countries that harbored bin Laden and his terrorists, and overthrew the Taliban regime. At the time, finding anyone who thought Saddam was personally involved in 9/11 was as rare as finding a corporate executive who believed in unions. Americans quickly learned that 15 of the 19 suicide/killers of 9/11 were Saudi. With a little more digging into buried news accounts, they might have also learned that 26 of al-Qaeda's top leadership at the time of 9/11, including bin Laden, were Egyptian, Saudi, or Yemini. Only one, a third level administrator, was an Iraqi. They might also have learned that eight of the top 10 financial contributors to al-Qaeda are Saudi. They might also have learned that Saddam and al-Qaeda had never been close, that as ruthless as Saddam was, he was relatively moderate in the world of terrorism except, of course, against his own people. A year of Presidential drum beating and brow-bashing led to about a third of Americans becoming believers. A month before the invasion of Iraq, about 45 percent of Americans, according to the AP, believed the Iraqi dictator was personally involved. The eight percent increase in the month after the invasion could be attributed not only to war-mongering rhetoric, but to the nation trying to justify why it sent more than 200,000 of its sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and cousins to war. By the time war had begun, the message wasn't that Iraq was behind 9/11, but that it was a potential enemy because it had weapons of mass destruction. In the most recent State of the Union, President Bush had forcefully declared that Iraq had a weapons program that included at least 500 tons of chemical weapons, 38,000 liters of botulism, 25,000 liters of anthrax, as well as uncountable numbers of SCUDs. But, as in the telephone rumor game when a simple fact spread person to person eventually becomes a bloated urban myth, America's people and their news media escalated even those unproven numbers until the average working person may have been led to believe that Iraq actually posed a greater danger to America than did North Korea and Iran, both of which had nuclear capability to hit American targets, something Iraq did not have. However, Iraq once had weapons of mass destruction, although none were nuclear. Between 1983 and 1992--the Reagan/Bush and Bush/Quayle era--the U.S. gave Iraq innumerable weapons, and issued about $2 billion in loans, most of which were used to buy even more weapons; the U.S. never expected full repayment. In addition, U.S. corporations provided Iraq with the means to manufacture chemical and biological weapons. The "point man" the Reagan administration sent to solidify U.S.-Iraqi relations-and who had personal knowledge that Iraq was using chemical weapons against Iran, and who helped remove the "terrorist" label against Iraq--was . . . Donald Rumsfeld. But, slowly and reluctantly under a U.N. mandate, Iraq began to destroy its weapons. So far, 300,000 American and British combat forces, aided by numerous infiltrators and the best spy satellite system ever known to mankind, have been unable to locate any weapons of mass destruction--other than ones used by the Coalition forces. Maybe the Bush administration should send in Monk and Colombo. The fact that the two-nation "coalition" of 300,000 overwhelmed and destroyed a country of 24 million quickly, and that Iraq's armies used only bullets, light artillery, and short-range, but legal, missiles in its defense, suggests that the defeated nation probably didn't have the weapons the U.S. claimed. President Bush and his supporters kept saying the war wasn't about oil. But, the first thing the Coalition troops protected once they entered Baghdad weren't the hospitals or museums but the Oil Ministry. Maybe the Ministry was in an "historical district." At the time President Bush was telling the U.N. and the American people that he had no plans to go to war with Iraq, his administration officials were meeting in secret with several industry giants with financial and political ties to the Administration to develop a plan for a post-war Iraq. One of those giants was Bechtel, a multi-nation conglomerate with close financial ties to the White House. Another was a subsidiary of Haliburton, the multi-billion dollar oil company that once had Dick Cheney as its CEO. In a few months, Americans may be shocked that Iraq didn't help al-Qaeda and the 9/11 attacks, that it didn't have weapons of mass destruction, and that there may have been collusion between the Administration and major corporations to reap financial rewards for rebuilding a country that the U.S. destroyed. We should be shocked--but we should also be in awe of how well the President and his administration spun their messages of war, and how dizzy the major media must have been to have accepted the words unchallenged. Walt Brasch, a national award-winning reporter and editor, is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University. He is the author of 13 books, including The Press and the State, and the current book, The Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era. You may contact him through his web-site www.walterbrasch.com. He can be reached at: [email protected]

Dont be silly - Im a Girlie!!! Genie

how do you do that?? - the clicky i mean, do i need to highlight with the url button? Genie

http://www.news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=510342003 Any comments anyone? Genie

I'd love to do a raft jump here but i don't know if it's been done here. Im sure theres been a raft jump in the UK - we got one in Ireland

Yup. So why are they so insistent that only US forces people will look for WMD's? When as you say they will be playing catch up. There are a couple of possible reasons: 1) They want to completely control the operation and all information coming from it. Why? To plant stuff? possibility. 2) The US is having a snit fit because they didnt have UN backing and now dont want to involve them. Possible but again leads back to conclusion from 1 - if the only people who say thee are WMD's in Iraq are american, and no independent team is involved in finding them then a large proportion of people worldwide will believe they have been planted. 3 ) ? im open to suggestions. Genie

I hate to sound cynical but with the US insistence that only US teams go to look for WMD i can pretty much guarantee they will find something.. of course no one will believe it because the US wont allow an independent team in there - and wont explain why. I can say with complete honesty that you do not want this to become another NI - one is more than enough for the world.. There doesnt seem to be a clear cut plan as to what happens now - the Temp Head of the Govt is it General Gartner, Gardiner - something like that - is having problems meeting with the local iraquis because apparently they dont all trust the US so they wont come to the meeting to select a local govt. So this is a damned if you do and damned if you dont - if the US puts ina govt made up only of those who come to meetings, the rest of the coutnry will feel they are not being represented. If they dont, stalemate. And if the iraquis want to put in an islamic religioius republic - will the US let them? And if not what happened to Operation Iraqi Freedom ? I dont have the answers by the way it just seems that not enough people are asking the questions. Genie

One of the people proposed by the US admin is a guy who has an outstanding warrent against him in Jordan for embezzlement IIRC. How will the UN staying out of this help the iraqi arabs to accept that they will now be led by a thief and the other arab nations will have to deal with him - do you think doing this all by the ideas of the US is more likely to lead to a peace? Say the UN stays out of it - except for cleaning up and trying to save peoples lives of course - how does that matter when the US tries to impose a secular government on a country that has had enough of secularism and wants an islamic regime ? Im missing your point on this one Body Pilot - whats the UN got to do with it - apart from of course MAYBE being able to act as a neutral body and smooth things over a little bit? Genie

Yes i agree - here are the first lines of the article "Papers found Saturday by journalists working for the Sunday Telegraph reveal that an al Qaeda envoy met with officials in Baghdad in March 1998, the newspaper reported. " Body pilot - can you tell me in what circumstances the US army would allow journalists from a British paper, to enter into the Bombed out Headquarters of the Iriaqi Intelligence service BEFORE their own intel guys had gone in and taken everything? Can you tell me why any army would allow journalists to take important intelligence documents away in the middle of a war? I dont know if SH was in league with OBL, personally i doubt it due to the differing ideologies tho i could see them uniting in the face o fthe invasion, but i have yet to see anything that proves it - you may remember i challenged you on your 'verified' sources before which IIRC were in the nature of "non iraqi arabs were in iraq!" At that time you didnt address my questions. Anyway - it would need something a little more plausible in the context of how the information was sourced, because i simply cannot imagine that the US army is a) Completely inept so they didnt secure the Iraqi intelligence service building b) mildly inept that they did secure it - but couldnt FIND these documents themselves and had to get the reporters help - doesnt ring true to me - or c) didnt notice the journalists finding these documents (after their own people had missed them) and let them announce it publically. If i were a cynic i might ask the probability of a journlist being handed information 'showing' this link and being told to broadcast it as if they had discovered it themselves.. any takers? Genie George Galloways days are numbered but I find it a stretch to believe that an MP would sell out to another government (as is claimed). Cash for questions is one thing (also wrong) but treason is something else. I also believe that his high profile visits to Iraq drew the interest of the British Intelligence services who (I assume) found nothing untoward in their investigation. David

Hi there I havnt done it myself but Inter Rail works really well. Get a europe wide timetable and off you go! The one thing to be very aware of is to eat enough! People have come back after a summer interrailing having lost 1- 2 stone ( 30lbs) so keep putting food in. Just fyi and im sure you know, but France is all AAD mandatory and Empuria in Spain is too. ( guessing you will go to Empuria - excellent dz, great visuals :)) Have a great trip and dont forget Ireland! Genie

You guys are the best! Thank you all for your help! Genie

*edited to mention that they are skydiving images! Doh! beginning to feel a bigger Doh coming on - would this hotbar thing be responsible for the 8 pops ups of affordable healthcare uk i got when i opened DZ today?? Im guessing that i shouldda checked here before downloading... so.. 'easy' way to get rid of it?? Genie

I dont have any helpful advice - but couldnt resist mailing when I saw your sig - The Breakfast Club is my fave movie of all time! Thanks for the reminder! Genie

Hey guys found this website www.hotbar.com and you can dowload 'skins' that go on your browser bar - at the moment i have a sunset load tandem which looks way cool. Look for sports, and then extreme sports and sort through the differing images.. some really nice skydiving ones there. Apparently it does stuff with email too but i havent managed to make it work yet - enjoy! Genie *edited to mention that they are skydiving images! Doh!

*** i thought there werre some of us till out there ? Not to worry - heres the idea! BOG SNORKELLING! http://longford.local.ie/content/45923.shtml/sports_and_leisure/sports_events Enjoy! Genie