Posts Made By: James Brown

From Torrington, Wyoming

Astro-Physics Traveler
Astro-Physics 1100 GTO
Canon 6D

Jim

This is two frames combined together and slightly sharpened. I think I can do better, and show more dynamic range if I can figure out how to stack multiple images of this type. My normal routines in Maxim DL are not working well. I had the camera programmed to automatically take shots at varied f-stops during totality, so I have lots of images to work with. Since I can't get them to stack properly in Maxim, I am stuck with relatively limited dynamic range and relatively higher noise. I'll keep working on it, but it might involve manual alignment.



From Torrington, Wyoming

Astro-Physics Traveler
Astro-Physics 1100 GTO
Canon 6D


Jim

As most of you know, I agree with Scalia's reasoning in Heller and support the right to bear arms for household and personal defense, hunting and recreation. No Constitutional right is unlimited however. Public safety concerns can limit the scope of our constitutional rights. This is why it is generally deemed appropriate to ban the private ownership of bombs, artillery, and in all but carefully regulated instances, fully automatic weapons.

The "bump stocks" used by the Vegas killer were previously unknown to me.

https://youtu.be/hCCT8JtwQeI

Bump stocks are legal at the federal level and legal in most states (I think). I personally would support a ban of these apparatus and other apparatus that can be used to modify a rifle to shoot at a nearly automatic rate. Video show the Vegas killer shooting at about 9 rounds per second. I recognize that bump stocks have not previously been used in crimes like this, I presume that a reasonably skilled criminal could make his own, and It certainly appears that no reasonable gun law would have stopped this killer.

Still, I would support a ban on bump-stocks and similar devices for the same reason I support bans on most fully automatic weapons and larger military weapons systems - The public safety concerns outweigh the utility of this type of accessory for defense, hunting or recreational gun use.

Jim

The reduction in the US corporate tax rate - standing alone as a policy achievement - justifies being a Republican. I doubt that any of the Democrats on Capital Hill actually believe that the reduction in the US corporate rate is anything but good for the US and good for the economy. Notwithstanding their "end 'o the world" rhetoric.

It is a shame that Trump is such an ass, I really wish he had not captured the nomination, but this is one of the main reasons we desperately needed an R president.

Jim

Just kidding about this being something different, this is another gun post, but I lost my way trying to navigate the monster thread below.

I just read this article this morning. the article describes a program that might be an effective tool to reduce school shooter type violence. I wonder why I have never heard of this program before? (Rhetorical question there, I have my opinion as to why). Anyway, if you have a minute, read this. It is a lefty program endorsed by a righty in a righty publication.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/02/gun-control-republicans-consider-grvo/

In my view, When gun control measures are "debated"* after a massacre, a fairly understandable reply is always, "OK, but would that law have made any difference?" In this instance the described GVRO program might have made all the difference, because those close to the shooter were well aware of the threat. The authorities failed to do anything though. Maybe there was nothing they could do. In any case liberal California has GVROs and according to the article has issued restraining orders over 80 times in the past year. Have lives been saved? Maybe. Richard wrongfully denigrated the domestic relations restraining order process below. In the difficult early stages of my career I did a lot of work in the trenches of divorce court - I think the restraining order/TRO process works pretty well- even though it fails sometimes.

We have a legal apparatus in place for GVROs now. Properly limited, a GVRO is an acceptable imposition on the gun owner - he only loses his guns temporarily and only upon an adequate evidentiary showing by someone like a parent, spouse or sibling. A GVRO program might prevent a shooting like the one in Florida. A GVRO program does not penalize the rights of the huge and vast majority of gun owners, who do not make and publish credible threats to go on a rampage.

Jim

* "debated" is in air quotes because the shouting matches that occur after a shooting, here, and on the national stage, have little to do with debate.

I think the only practical things your co-worker or any of us who are not in charge of an operation like Iraq can do is vote or protest. If the co-worker choses not to follow the war news that is maybe not desireable, but none of us (except the omniscient few, you know who you are)can be fully briefed on every issue we periodically elect a representative govenrment to deal with.

I do not think that Kerry will win.

"STOP THE WAR !!!!!!"

This is politics by slogan at its finest. The coalition could pull out, but does anyone believe that the war would stop and that the various factions would sit down to negotiate a new Iraq? The mother of all bloody civil wars is more likely.

On the other hand a lot of well reasoned arguments can be made that the coalition presence makes matters worse, and prolongs the killing. These are tough issues, hardly addressed by sloganeering.

Also, are the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis exterminated by Sadam any less dead because it was not a "war"?

My own opinion is that "STOP THE WAR" presumably by a coalition pull out does not equal "END THE KILLING." Again in my opinion, the best chance for lasting peace and minimizing the killing is to stay the course, hand over the reigns of government in as orderly a transition as is possible, and be prepared to help a lot in the security and stabilization realms for a long time.

Whether the coalition or the U.S.A. should have gotten involved in the first place is a separate issue. We are there now and we must do our best to help stabilize Iraq.

Beat him how? What were the apples and oranges being compared? It does not seem plausible that it would be total listeners given Rush's huge market penetration because I thought that Franken was only on the air in a couple of big city markets. If it was head to head in a given market, like L.A. or NYC, it is hardly surprising. I don't listen to either (Franken is not in my market yet, and I feel guilty enough looking at A.Mart periodically at work, without tying up my workstation streaming a radio show!