birdlike

My dad had a "kid" in his Civil Air Patrol squadron back in the '90s who had his private pilot's license at 17 and had his commercial license by 19. I believe that about that age, he began working for a regional airline. So although he was not dropping bombs, he was entrusted to deliver the lives of paying passengers safely over distances of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of miles in an aircraft weighing numerous tons -- numerous tons of which consisted of jet fuel. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Correct. Reading all the posts here would devour too much of my precious free time. Especially your mental creations which you spread around so generously. I created nothing. I simply copied-and-pasted the ignorant spew from the article I saw online. BTW, you seem to be implying that you've been posting in spite of not reading the posts to which you're responding. Not exactly a "best practices" kind of thing to do, no? It's not that it made us feel superior; it's that your posts (on a continual basis) showed us to be superior -- at least in our knowledge and grasp of the subject at hand. How kind of you to sacrifice your own dignity, and make yourself appear to not have the slightest clue what you were talking about, in order to make us feel better. Thank you so much. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Hey! The ACLU is having its annual membership drive. Screw those liberal, small-penis elitists. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Look at what almost happened! And still, we allow anyone to just walk up to a gas pump, plunk down some money, and walk away with deadly gasoline, no questions asked, no age minimum, no background check. Someone show me how one person, with one gun, can kill all of the occupants of an apartment building as easily with that gun as he can with a bottle of gasoline. Granted, it didn't happen in this case, but it has happened in many others. Notably, the Happyland Fire No one in this country (or any other I know of) has ever used a gun to kill as many. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

W T F?! Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

That's too weird. You found that gecko and last night, I found a chameleon on my kitchen floor! I found him before my cat did, fortunately, caught him in my hands (little guy was was less than 2 inches long and so scrawny!) and put him outside where he has a chance at living. No heartless killer with no respect for life, here. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Amen Then write in Ron Paul. Jeez, people, vote with the strength of your convictions, already! Or how about, vote for the Libertarian (I believe it's Bob Barr), and help a third-party gain a foothold in this country, as is desperately needed! That's probably what I'll end up doing, since Palm Beach County usually goes to a Dumbocrat anyway... Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Something like that. I thank you very much for reconsidering. We need your support. You might want to look into the "Easy-pay Life" membership. It's what I did. Something like $25 per quarter until you've paid off $750 (it may have risen since I did it several years ago). I paid $35 per year for a long time before I finally said, "Enough. Let me just become a Life Member." The sooner you do it, the less you squander. Then you won't have to pay anything annually unless you want to donate -- as to the NRA-ILA, whose functions now are every bit as important as the gun-safety functions of the main organization. As JohnRich said, it's the NRA-ILA that got us shall-issue concealed carry, and works to stave off further "assault-weapons bans." Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Thats almost commical. Not to split hairs or anything but history tells us that YOUR country......nevermind. I can understand you. Your pain. Difference is: 3rd Reich killed under false premises which is more than 60 years ago. Your country does it still nowadays. And calls it legal. wow, comparing the U.S. death penalty laws with the 3rd Reich? you can't seriously believe that? Are you somehow less dead in the USA, then? Between the two, there are millions fewer dead, yes. I take it you agree that the U.S. death penalty and the 3rd Reich make for an apt comparison? Un-freakin'-believable. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Most gun owners are not interested in having guns but not being able to competently use them. So I don't think that mandatory training is necessary. Most of the people who are incompetent at handling guns are the ones who buy them out of fear, instead of out of a sense of self-reliance, or interest in them as a hobby. We would not need all of the control you want on guns if we were adequately dealing with our criminal element. What we need is a harshness that would make most leftists blanch -- they simply don't have the stomach to do to criminals what needs to be done to provide deterrence, and protection from those who will not be deterred. Registration lists cannot, and will not, prevent crimes. They serve ONLY to tell the government where to go when it decides to ban guns. And whether you think it would help the firearms accidental death rate or whatever, mandatory training is anathema to the exercise of a constitutional right. Why would you desire it for guns, but not something similar before people can vote, or publish? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

But if it weren't for that lobbying, you would have lost your gun rights 30 years ago. Just like self defense - if someone is attacking you, and you sit back and do nothing to protect yourself, you're dead. EXACTLY. It's not as though without an NRA to defend your gun rights, the anti-gun left would not have written law after law to strip them from you. I mean, look at the laws we've seen go through even despite the existence of the NRA, GOA, JPFO, CCRKBA, etc. ... Sitting down and doing nothing would have long ago given rise to a total loss of gun rights in this country. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

The people who despise us for standing firm for our right to keep and bear arms are not capable of thinking anything other than "must be a redneck". It's how they enable themselves to sleep at night. If not for writing us off as dumb redneck motherfuckers who are intellectually beneath them, they could not rationalizes their hatred of our constitutional right, and they would be terrified that we are armed and they are not. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

I don't know why this post was made in reply to me. I'm pretty sure it's well understood here that I'm a "gun nut" () -- and I'm an NRA Life Member who proudly wears articles of clothing to that effect through TSA airport checkpoints (and have gotten approbation from some of the employees and fellow travelers when doing so). Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

What do 10,000,000 battered women all have in common? They don't fucking LISTEN!! Why does an Indian woman have that red dot on her forehead? It's from her husband (poking her there repeatedly) yelling, "Why are you so fuckin' ugly?!" Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

What if she's Asian? Irene! Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Nowadays, a parent would take the kid for an MRI! Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Your recognition of those two realities is what really is important here. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Yeah, I don't understand why Livendive can see so much of Obama's bullshit and still keep saying that he's got his vote, but is "losing points." Just how many points does Obama have to lose with Livendive before he actually loses his vote? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Not really. Aircraft today require a metric crapload more training and the armed forces generally require a college degree and officers training before a person can really even begin to think of sitting in the left seat. Not really certain what the youngest pilot in Iraq is but my guess is he's at least 24. Different times . . . people used to marry when they were 14 too. That doesn't normally happen in the US any more either. Well, did human beings undergo a biological change so that now 18-year-olds are no longer fit for being "adults"? Or is it about how we raise our young? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Um, you just described the way most American gun-owning families introduce their young ones to guns. Did you really think that we just stick a large-caliber rifle into their hands and shove 'em out the door to do whatever appeals to them? The pro-gun argument goes something like this: SHOW the kids the guns; LET them use the guns; TAKE AWAY the "mystique" of the guns and let them know how they work and what they can do. Instill in them a respect for the guns and their power, and they will be far less likely to misuse or abuse them. You can argue that you "do not need to be armed," But anyone who is the victim of one of those crimes that comprise "your crime rate" might benefit from being armed. Unfortunately, they don't have the right to be, so we'll never know if they might have prevented being victimized. When I read your comments about there being crime in your city, but no need to be armed, it makes me think of a person having her neighbor's home burn down and standing outside saying that no one in her city needs to have a smoke alarm, or a sprinkler system or fire extinguisher. Why, because not every home in the city burned down? When kids drive drunk because they are able to get alcohol (usually illegally) and automobiles, and they kill people, do you blame the government then, too? Because we have laws in place that address how and when kids are to have access to guns, and still those who want them illegally get them illegally. When kids have guns and no supervision, it's already illegal. Still, it's the government's fault, not the kid for making the choice to use the gun to commit crime? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Thats almost commical. Not to split hairs or anything but history tells us that YOUR country......nevermind. I can understand you. Your pain. Difference is: 3rd Reich killed under false premises which is more than 60 years ago. Your country does it still nowadays. And calls it legal. Are you actually likening the disputed practice of executing those who are not yet 18 with herding women and children into death camps and gassing them? Really?? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

No one's used a .50 BMG firearm in a crime, either. But there are states that BAN them, outright. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Wheat explodes in an enclosed space too. So does coal. And gasoline is used to make Molotov Cocktails. Propane does a good job as an explosive too. However, loonies seems to have a distinct preference for guns when going on a homicidal rampage. Or gasoline. Gee, I thought your line of arguing was that the things that have been used for homicide are the ones that need to be regulated, with mental health records involved in clearing a purchase. So, NICS for gasoline purchases? No one I have ever heard of ever shot 87 people to death in anger. Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire

Yes, but what's interesting here is that the type of handgun used doesn't fit any of the categories that the gun-o-phobes like to blame for crime. It wasn't an "assault weapon". It wasn't a "powerful" gun. It wasn't "easily concealable". It wasn't a "Saturday night special". It didn't have a "silencer". The gun was bought legally. The shooter was of legal age. They've got nowhere to go on this one to use it as an example for banning any category of guns, or creating yet more gun control. All they can do is what they should have been doing all along - which is to blame the shooter. What this incident shows is that even .22 caliber target pistols, shooting the smallest bullets of any guns, can still be deadly in the hands of someone evil. Therefore, all the energy spent trying to ban all those other categories is really just a waste of time. Masterful post, JohnRich. Thank you.

That may be true, but it's feasible. And weren't there 19- and 20-year-olds flying serious hardware in the Second World War? Are there not 18-year-old TOW missile operators? Do 18-year-olds not carry fully automatic rifles into battle? Now, can we still talk about the feasibility of a .866 caliber handgun? Spirits fly on dangerous missions Imaginations on fire