Posts Made By: James Brown

Yes

Nils Schoultz said:

Too bad, I'll have to wait for another opportunity to blast Lieberman...

Nils

I'll oblige you Nils... As a matter of fact I originally replied to your post but mine got swept up instantly in the mass deletion.

Here is the point I found interesting. Lieberman say Iraq is going OK, and that we can not abandon a nation of 27 million to 10,000 terrorists. He supports his point with a recitation of voter turnout, Iraq's own citizen polling results, and what he has observed over his 4 post invasion visits.

You say that he is a Republican in disguise and that we have to take him with a grain of salt. Or worse, disbelieve everything he says.

My reply is OK. Maybe we do have to be skeptical of the optimistic picture Lieberman paints. But why is he any less credible than Murtha, who has been quoted extensively on this forum? Why is Joe any less credible than the numerous others who preach only "quagmire" when they visit Iraq (or in some cases whether they visit or not)?

I find Joe somewhat credible, because he is speaking against his own party line. He appears to be a straight shooter to me, but it has never been necessary for me to follow his career too closely. I will admit that his Iraq report matches what I want to hear. We all have biases.

I certainly see no particular reason to automatically find him less credible than the quagmire crowd.

Jim

Richard N. Lipow said:

While your thinking about that, are there any offers to adopt unwanted children who are about to be aborted?

Yes. Thousands of offers. Hundreds of thousands. Have you never crossed paths with couples who disparately want to adopt a baby? They are everywhere. Domestic adoption wait lists are legendary. Adoption parents who are well-heeled turn to China, Korea, Nicaragua and other lands to adopt.

It is a great tragedy that our poor or lower middle class childless couples languish on wait lists forever because adoptable babies simply are not available. The woman who carries a baby to term and then places him for adoption is an absolute hero. She has selflessly given the greatest gift of all to three other human beings. Nothing I, a man, can ever do will match her sacrifice.

If you want to make a pro-choice case that is your perogative. But please do not insult this forum and especially do not insult the heroic birth mothers who sacrifice so much with your ignorant, callous and vile false argument that "there is no one to adopt these babies."

>

Jim

Darrell Fichtl said:

Whatever you do, don't disagree.

This is no longer a forum for open discussion.

[SIZE="Large"]D[/SIZE]

Does this puzzle anyone else?

J

That is a spectacular image Maurice, but I am a little disappointed for the same reasons Samantha and Eric stated. The new mosaic does not seem head and shoulders above what the better amateurs are putting out.

On the contrary, last year's Sombrero mosaic, and the recent M1 from the Hubble team absolutely blew away anything I have seen from land based imagers. Maybe M42 would do that for me if I saw it at a 3x4 foot scale!

M1: http://www.skyfactory.org/hst/crab/crab.htm


Jim

Sadly, this is the fruits of the Bork and Thomas hearings coming home to roost. I imagine that all confirmation hearings for the forseeable future will follow the Ginsburg pattern. Jim

I agree Dave, what a great game. I about had a heart attack when Jerome coughed up that fumble on the 1. If Indy had come back and tied the game, it would have been an absolute crime given the horrible non-call of pass interference in the Pittsburgh end zone and the horrible overruling of that clear-cut interception all in the 4th quarter....

I am glad that the Steelers get to celebrate for a week. Sadly, it all ends for the boys in Black and Gold this Sunday.

Jim

Lee Spain said:

"My fellow Americans, the hand basket is approaching its final destination, please place your serving trays in their upright position, and fasten your seatbelts...." :S

Hey Lee:

Do you really think America is going to hell? (in a handbasket or otherwise?) Or are you merely using political exaggeration to express some displeasure with the president?

If you really think Bush is driving the bus off of a more than rhetorical cliff I am curious how you think we are going down. Civil war? Invasion? Economic collapse exceeding 1929? Nuclear annihilation?

I expect that you are displeased with many of GWB's policies and are engaging in a bit of exaggeration. That is OK by me, it certainly keeps the forum going round and round. The faults and problems we argue about so much on this forum are easy to spot and easy to focus on. It is easy to place blame.

However, on this State of the Union date, I want to chime in and say that by and large the Union is doing OK. We can and will address our national faults and problems in our own American free wheeling way. The end is not yet near. This is as predicted*. You may now return to the usual hostile discourse.

- Jim -

* http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=267194&poll_id=&news_id=&page=3

Jess, I think that if you could make an affordable large diameter grin lens that performed comparably to a traditional lens, the amateur community would beat a path to your door. Performance would mean everything though. A 14 inch objective lens would be swell, but if it couldn't form crisp images....

Good luck! Jim

The entire NPR coverage of the NSA wiretapping thing (non-issue? :S scandal? :S who the heck knows? :S ) is exemplary. Thanks for posting it Brett. The fact that W's people are also fanning the flames of this issue to posture for the next election is interesting, and an angle I'd missed before.

One thing seems certain. There is enough "grey area" here to keep the lawyers on each side billing 'till doomsday. I'll soften my previous "the wiretaps were legal" statement down to "the president's position that the wiretaps were legal seems quite defensible." In either case, I am guessing that this is a non-starter politically. It appears as well that the Rs may effectively be setting up the Ds for a major political false move.

Interesting stuff.

Jim