Save the Earth in Six Hard Questions
What Al Gore doesn't understand about climate change.

By Steven E. LandsburgPosted Monday, Oct. 22, 2007, at 7:44 AM ET


http://www.slate.com/id/2176156/

Real Men Don't Wear Parachutes

If you have ever discussed skydiving, then I'm sure you've heard at least one person exclaim "why would anyone ever jump out of a perfectly good airplane?!?" Well, probably for the huge adrenaline rush, and because it makes your balls bigger. Um, except for the ladies. It makes them better at changing their own oil(I keed, I keed).But what about jumping out of a perfectly good airplane without a parachute? That has to instantly make you badass, and that's exactly what Travis Pastrana did last month.

Travis Pastrana lives his life on the edge. Recently, he jumped over it.On Wednesday, September 26, Pastrana hopped a flight from his home in Davidsonville, MD, to Arecibo, Puerto Rico, to perform a stunt he's been dreaming up for more than a year. The next morning, four members of his group skydived from a single-engine Cessna from 12,500 feet. Pastrana performed his jump wearing only sunglasses, socks and surf trunks while holding a can of Red Bull.He was not wearing a parachute.You probably remember Pastrana from his double backflips during the X-Games, but this stunt relied much more heavily on other people to make sure he didn't die.

While it may not be the most dangerous stunt Pastrana has performed, it is his most shocking. In his past stunts, Pastrana has taken his life into his own hands. This time, he placed it in the hands of three men he'd known for less than a week.Wow, that's pretty ballsy. There's always a calculated risk involved in skydiving, but doing so without a parachute and relying on others to make sure you get attached to one is a totally different situation. My hat goes off to Pastrana, and the skydivers involved in the stunt. They sound like they're having a great time with life, and probably do more in a week than most of us do in a year.

Slideshow of the jump.

http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?FighterID=1500

Congressman Pete Stark D-CA

"You don’t have money to fund the war or children. But you’re going to spend it to blow up innocent people if we can get enough kids to grow old enough for you to send to Iraq to get their heads blown off for the President’s amusement."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lTUB5_l0Mg

Wow.

Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel.
— Homer Simpson

http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/

Jimmy Carter, America’s most powerless, indecisive President, who allowed a mob of uneducated Iranian students to hold Americans hostage for more than a year, says he wouldn’t have done anything differently.

Speaking with XM Radio’s Bob Edwards on Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter (you know, the guy who gave the “malaise” speech) told the radio host that he “would not want to have changed anything” during his presidency. Well, okay, maybe one thing.
Referring to the Iran hostage crisis, Carter said, “I have a specific regret in not having one more helicopter when I wanted to rescue our hostages. If I had had one more helicopter, they would have been rescued. I might have been reelected president.”

But presidency, schmesidency, says Carter, who thinks that the Oval Office isn't nearly as sweet a gig as his own humanitarian efforts at The Carter Center. [After] all, [if] had had that extra helicopter, which would have rescued the hostages and, thus, helped re-elect him president, Carter said "in that case I probably wouldn't have had the Carter Center, so in balance I would not want to have changed anything."