Dimwit Of The Week
The god-believing skydiver whose parachute didn't open and who subsequently fell face-first into a parking lot:
Although badly hurt, she survived -- and doctors treating her injuries discovered she was pregnant. Four surgeries and two months later, Richardson said she and the fetus are doing fine."Just this last week we went and saw the doctor and we've got arms, we've got legs. We've got a full face. The baby is moving around just fine. The heart rate looks good. So not only did God save me but he spared this baby," she said.
If god's such a great guy, why did he let you break your face?
If you had been through such an experience, it might adjust your psychology a bit too.
Todd Fletcher at December 14, 2005 8:14 AM
I read this yesterday and thought about you and your blog Amy.
I totally agree. People are so silly to think that God saved them. That god exists? Why because they jumped out of a stupid plane and hit the pavement at 50 mph and didn't die. Oh and her unborn fetus that she didn't know she was carring lived?
Who cares. Least of all some mythical god.
alex the sea turtle at December 14, 2005 8:52 AM
And how many people who've prayed for missing limbs to be restored have gotten them? Zero. That's right. So either God's not listening, doesn't care, or is a fictional construct.
Russputin at December 14, 2005 10:44 AM
That's a great example for all those people who say there is a god and prayer works.
Amy Alkon at December 14, 2005 10:46 AM
You believe in the placebo effect, don't you? Then you can't deny that someone's faith could have the same effect. You don't have to acknowledge the existence of God to recognize the potential power of a person's faith in their recovery process. How is that a bad thing?
Theologically, God gave man free will. He didn't push her out of the plane. She chose to jump. What good is free will if someone is always going to rescue you from your mistakes. Any parent knows that's not the way you raise a child.
nash at December 14, 2005 4:44 PM
Maybe if she were more rational, she wouldn't have jumped out of the plane to begin with. People who believe god is watching out for them would do better to believe that nobody is watching out for them.
"God gave man free will"? Oh, theologically. You don't defend fairy tale beliefs with more fairy tale beliefs.
Parents who are smart raise their children to be rational.
Amy Alkon at December 14, 2005 5:23 PM
You asked a theological question and you're upset that you got an answer based on theology?
This is from Tammy Bruce, a feminist lesbian, and I think it applies to your preoccupation with religion:
On the left, I’ll tell you, (there were) meetings I attended where the discussion was how everyone was working to destroy us. I’ve described (this) in, “The Death of Right and Wrong,” as malignant narcissism and narcissism – and to a lot of people it’s the belief that you’re great, but it really is quite the opposite. It’s based in victimhood and it’s the belief that everything that is happening is happening because of you and as a result, imagine a leadership of a political wing of this country truly believing that everyone who is on the other side is obsessing about them, and making choices based on them, and plotting and planning to hurt them.
So it is a self-obsession based in victimhood. Now I was raised on the left to believe that in fact this was life and death, that we’re going to destroy you before you destroy us. Now that is almost non-existent on the right, if you will. I don’t see that kind of – there’s certainly some paranoia when it comes to the extreme right – but the level of paranoia and narcissism really drives all the decision making (on the left).
I’ll give you an example when it comes to gay marriage. If Christians are against gay marriage, the gay elite don’t believe that’s because the Christian is concerned about tradition, concerned about the future of this nation, or has a series of issues (with it) surrounding their faith, instead, of course, the gay elite says, “Oh, they’re homophobes.”
They’ve made a decision because they hate me, that they’re thinking this way because of me, that they’re making that decision because they want to hurt me – as opposed to, that they may be against gay marriage because, again, of faith, because of the importance of the tradition of marriage. In fact, God forbid should they ever consider that it might not have anything to do with homosexuals at all, but it has everything to do with (people's) families, that kind of deeper thinking beyond one’s self, they’re incapable of.
That’s why on the abortion rights front there is no consideration that a pro-life individual is... really just a person of faith and really truly believes that (conception is) when life begins. Instead it’s about misogyny. It’s about hating women, it’s about controlling women, it’s about men’s jealousy of women, it’s all about us...
I’ve grown, I’m proud to say, to realize...that thoughtful people can come to seriously different conclusions on the issues and that on the right, more often than not, it really is about the issue, and yet on the left, you have a group of foot soldiers and politicians and leadership raised and believing in the idea that everything is about them. This is a war, people are out to get them, and to suggest otherwise, of course, would completely smash the entire foundation of why the left existed in the first place. They must have an oppressor, they must have a victimizer, because their entire existence relies on it, and if it’s not there, they’ll make it up.
nash at December 15, 2005 12:35 AM
Messed up on the italics. The last six paragraphs were from Tammy Bruce. Link to the full transcript here:
http://www.rightwingnews.com/interviews/bruce.php
nash at December 15, 2005 12:37 AM
Nash quotes Tammy Bruce: "...thoughtful people can come to seriously different conclusions on the issues..." - unless they are on the left, that is, in which case "...they must have a victimizer..."
Is this meant to be funny?
Norman at December 15, 2005 12:48 AM
I was thinking about the god thing this morning while walking to work and my thoughts ran along these lines: "No, you were not individually created by the supreme creator of the universe. The truth is much more amazing than that." I liked the tone, but I don't think it's quite right. Anyone like to improve on it? (Or have I unconsciously parrotted someone else's quotation?)
Norman at December 15, 2005 12:54 AM
Not to mimimize her injuries, but according to skydivers who know her, and what happened, Shayna isn't being completely accurate about what happened and is actively courting publicity to raise funds because she was too stupid to have insurance.
Here's some information I found at a couple skydiving sites.
Her boyfriend is a skydiver and instructor, and this wasn't her first time out of an airplane. Here's a picture of her doing a nude tandem (5th picture down): http://www.skydiveradio.com/pics.htm
I registered at dropzone.com so I could read the forums and see if there was any additional information. Much of dropzone is serious discussions of incidents and malfunctions. Basically, the community is pissed at them for whoring themselves out and sensationalizing something that was their fault.
Interesting stuff I clipped from the forums:
I know the people in the video. What a crock of shit. It was her second or third freefall. Her first six or so jumps were IAD. The instructor was her boyfriend. The canopy was a Sabre2 190. She opened a perfectly good main. Her boyfriend had her doing rear riser turns. She inadvertantly fired a toggle while doing so and she cutaway a perfectly good main. The reserve opened with slider up. Appearantly she did not pump the risers to clear it. As with the main all she had to do was unstow the other toggle. This story has been all over the news in this area. All blame was put on the equipment and NONE on the boyfriend who put her under a canopy she had no business being under or the jumper herself. I talked with Shayna a couple of weeks before this incident about canopies. She was talking about something much smaller and I told her she needs to stay under something that is big and floaty. Something more forgiving than something that is ground hungry. I see this as soley the fault of her boyfriend for giving bad advise on canopy choice. Instructors should never instruct girlfriends/boyfriends as they are less likely to see a problem. The word is that they have been selling this story. What a crock of shit. This does nothing but make our sport look bad. I hope like hell that these two are shunned at all dropzones. Our sport does not need this type of publicity. I feel real bad that this had to happen as Shayna is a very sweet person. Yet, I also feel sad that our sport is very seldom shown in a positive light.
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I did fire off an email to a local station yesterday that was running this story as they kept saying crap about how the gear was at fault. Other jumpers I have spoken to are just as pissed about the flat out lie in their story. I would had been alright with this had they told what really happened and not made it sound as if it was the gear. I guess this video will soon be on RealTV. They were told that they could not train at the DZ here, as the DZO did not want an instructor romanticaly involved with a student, so they went out of state to another DZ. The DZO would had been fine with her had they had used another instructor. The name of the out of state DZ (a great place to jump) has been all over the news around here and I believe that this kinda of pubilcity will deter some first time jumpers from taking that first jump. Nothing good at all comes from this kind of stuff.
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Shayna herself broke the story to local (springfield Mo) media and every local story has a line at the end asking for donations to off set her medical expense. She does not work and her boyfriend claims to be dissabled and draws govt money.. however her boyfriend is the guy who shot the video.
It has also come to light that she is a medical write off and she is not paying any bills from the hospital. I have not confirmed this so i don't know if it is true but when you are uninsured and unemployeed then these things have a way of getting written off thru charity hospital's.
Shayna does not talk to the local skydivers now, nor does her boyfriend/instructor.. they had said they where to tired to talk about this any longer and just fields to many questions when they went to the DZ.
Weeks later we start to see her all over the media!
bill at December 15, 2005 6:56 AM
Thanks -- very interesting to see the story behind the story. Now, if only that were reported in the press, not just on my blog!
Amy Alkon at December 15, 2005 6:59 AM
As a hangglider pilot, I have to sympathize with all the people pissed off at this woman and at her boyfriend.
There are no arbitrary rules in unpowered aviation, they are all life and death, and if you ignore them you should certainly get medical care, but you should also be blacklisted and shouldn't profit from such stupidity by whining to the gullible on the evening news.
apilot at December 27, 2005 4:32 PM
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