Bungee Jumper

They don't. It's strictly a statistical measure: "The pre-war Iraqi death rate was 5.5 per 1000, now it's 30 per 1000, therefore 600000 people were killed because of the invasion and occupation." That's due to all causes...breakdowns in sanitation and health care, violence, car accidents, suicides. And having read the article this afternoon (yeah, I picked up a copy of the Lancet and read it. I figured at least one person in this thread should know what the !@#$ they were talking about. ) and done the math...I still disagree with the methodology. Looks to me like, based on their data, the number should be closer to 120k or so. Like I said earlier, I've never seen statistical estimates match up with the actual body count; it usually greatly overestimates actual deaths (the classic "One million Iraqi children die each year because of sanctions is a great example.)

I'm sorry...did I say "newsworthy"? I thought I said "important". Two different things. Witness Paris Hilton.

Clients? None. Bosses? And yes, if it looks like graft and corruption, it probably is. W/R/T the zoning, which is common as sh--. If you want to throw Reid under the bus for it, you'd have to throw virtually every political figure from town councilman on up under the bus as well (note: I'm not necessarily saying that's a bad idea. ) The real estate deal, including the reporting requirements to Congress...it only looks like corruption, because significant details are missing. Namely: the details that would actually make it corrupt.

I know. But it's accurate.

No. Because it was on the news. Therefore it's more important. Because the news told us it was.

Did you read my post? You don't have to be a millionaire to do the exact same thing. I've seen it. My wife sees it every day.

I'm sorry...I had no idea you were one of his kids. I thought I was bullshitting about a baseball player with anonymous people on a message board. My point being that I've had people taken from me suddenly, without warning (and in light plane accidents, as well). It happens. And I choose NOT to be a holier-than-thou prick about it, like yourself.

I'm so sad you don't like it. I did it just for you, you know.

I know his address, if you want to shoot his mailbox...

Which isn't what they did. Had they, I'd give it more credence. They went around and polled people and families ("So...know anyone who's dead?"), and statistically extrapolated that to an overall death toll for the country. I've seen that method used before. When they eventually compare it to actual body counts, I've never seen it end up accurate.

I'm not hiding, people. Crap Throwing Monkey has just had his day. He accurately represented the tone of the board a while back...but now, everyone acts like they're ready to jump off a bridge at the smallest setback, only to bounce back up at the slightest hint of anything positive. So you're all bridge jumpers...but not really, since you keep springing back. Hence...

Things like this HAVE occurred in my life...I react pretty much the same. Death stalks us all. I choose not to be overawed by that fact.

And as I said, ownership may not have transferred until just before the sale to the developer. The details of that "transfer of ownership" are conspicuously absent from that story. Nor did I see, as Coli said, where Reid had a 75% stake in the LLC. He had a 75% stake in two parcels of land (owned one outright, and 50% of another) that he eventually transferred ownership of to the LLC. As I said by way of example: if he and the LLC merely had a contractual agreement to transfer ownership, that isn't an actual transfer of ownership, and shouldn't necessitate reporting...and that contract can remain open for years (as my wife sees in her job all the time). The real questions that speak towards the illegality or unethicalness of the situation are: when was the sale completed, and how was it executed? Neither of those questions are sufficiently answered in the article: as for the first, it's just stated "in 2001" without the supporting evidence that should be very easy to come by (land records are wide open to the public, Reid can't hide either his deed or the LLC's deed to the land), and the second isn't addressed at all. As I said, a big and important chunk of the story's missing; the chunk that actually explains whether what he did was illegal or not. Ya think? Did you know that the contract to build the DC Nationals' ball park and develop the waterfront was granted to the biggest developer in the region by the Sports Commission that included a member who's president of the title firm the developer's using for the real estate deals, and the title firm is owned by the law firm that wrote (literally - what idiot lets a law firm write laws?) the DC laws allowing the rezoning and eminent domain purchases of the private property on the waterfront? Business as usual...

Well-established statistical methods...that, every time I've checked (quite frequently, actually) are usually high by a factor of 4. I could probably use the same methods to prove 25k people died in NYC on 9/11.

Pete - as usual - doesn't know what he's talking about. I know people that have soloed in and out of Reagan National in DC (much more restricted and crazier than Manhattan) with 20+ hours. He's right in that Lidle had no business being over Manhattan - bad decision on his part (bad decisions from a Yankees pitcher? What a shocker...). But he wasn't restricted from flying there by anything but common sense...and the NYC regional air traffic control, who I'm willing to bet he wasn't in contact with like he should have been (another bad decision). And "overcast" is only important if you're actually flying in the cloud deck. If there's a solid overcast at 10k feet, and I'm at 6k feet...just so visibility's a few miles or so below the cloud deck (I forget how much; my ground school books are still packed), VFR applies. Anyone know the ceiling in NYC this afternoon? Lidle was clearly below it...

Pelosi third in line, impeachment hearings for the President...and a VP with a weak ticker.

I think there's a major detail missing somewhere in that story (hell, I know there is. At least one. The story doesn't contain a single detail about the transfer of ownership from Reid to Patrick Lane. That would be a matter of public record, with the details easily discovered). You can't just sell land to someone, hide the fact for three years, then collect a windfall profit when they sell it. The recordation alone doesn't work that way. In fact, it's literally legally impossible to structure a real estate deal that way. And I can think of a lot of possible missing details (e.g. a contract of sale or purchase signed in 2001 with a good faith deposit. but not closed on until Jan 20, 2004, which would be perfectly legal. Hell, I know people that do that for a living) that would make this story a complete non-issue. Ethically...the land swap thing is slimey as hell...and normal. Probably not an ethical violation by the letter of the ethics code (which is a fault in the code...but you think Congress is going to write ethics that'll inconvenience them? ) And the reporting requirements...depends on the missing details. Taking my example, Reid wouldn't have to report signing a contract for a real estate deal, just the closing...which would make the deal perfectly legit and ethical. But until and unless details of the transaction come to light...lambasting Reid for a half-assed story containing a description of a transaction so glaringly incomplete that the legality of it can only be guessed at is bull sh--. It's dumber than Hillary Clinton's cattle futures "scandal", and that was quintessential bull sh--. Come back with a reasonable approximation of the entire story...

Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on what the flight's for. If he was just being checked out for his twin-engine rating, Lidle was the pilot-in-command, so to speak, and the instructor probably hands-off. As far as I know, that's the general rule - there's no such thing as "partial" control of an aircraft, you either have it or you don't. I would be surprised, though, if Lidle had full control. He was, after all, a pitcher for the Yankees. (Ba-dum bum).

If it's due to engine failure. If the engine's still running, the 'chute's useless, or worse.

"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." - Mel Brooks.

Seems his flying was about as accurate as his pitching. And what kind of a dumbass instructor takes his student flying around midtown Manhattan?

Holy sh--. You know...34000 extra deaths in a year in this country would just be a statistical blip...

No, you fly up along next to them and look in the windows, and if they're wearing Czech uniforms you request that they land at the nearest airfield... [/Gary Hart]

In DC. Airspace isn't that closely monitored for small aircraft everywhere else. If some bozo decides to turn his transponder to the wrong frequency, shut down his radio, and go traipsing across controlled airspace, there's damn little anyone can do about it. Air traffic control radars aren't designed to get returns off skin paints, even from large aircraft. It was, is, and will always be very easy to sneak a small plane into the controlled airspace of your average American airport (which I believe most of the airspace above Manhattan is). As it is, they're lucky it was just a condo that blundered in front of the pilot, and not a Boeing.

Meatloaf?