Posts Made By: James Brown

Rod Kaufman said:

It's nice to hear the commander-in-chief telling it like it is to the amorphous entity known as the tea party:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/16/obama-says-tea-partiers-owe-him-a-thank-you/?fbid=f9Gbf1i2IyA
Other than Palin, I doubt if very many of them make 250,000/year to be affected era by Reagon-era tax burdens. Do you?
So what does the tea party do? Those haters respond by calling the Obama administration, "gangster land". The relentless BS of those and their ilk that yell marxism, socialism, communism, Armageddon, death panels, you'll disconnect granny from the ventilator, etc, etc...

Rod; the tea partiers are "haters" now? Sheesh, you sure know how to demonize people you've never met. Anyway, I've been meaning to bring up the recent NYT/CBS poll of self-identified tea partiers.

Here is the data:

http://documents.nytimes.com/new-york-timescbs-news-poll-national-survey-of-tea-party-supporters?ref=politics#document/p1

I was particularly surprised by the following question:

[COLOR="Red"]#40 Do you think Sarah Palin has the ability to be an effective president, or not.

General population: Yes 26% No 63%
Tea Party: Yes 40% No 47%[/COLOR]

Hmmmm. In view of that, I wonder why the press and you guys here keep acting like she's the presumptive nominee?

In any case, this poll has some interesting info.

Jim

Mike Strieber said:

fixed the illegal immigration problem here over the last few days. Let's move on. Mike

Mike:

They can take my immigration thread when they pry it from my cold, dead, hands.



Charlton Brown

Andreas Saldivar said:

On May 15 some friends and I are going to do an astronomy night for about 20-25 girl scouts. This will help them get their astronomy badges. Part of the program is teaching them to use a star chart. I wanted to use planispheres but each one I found was too expensive. That is until I was pointed towards this link.

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp?pn=3009227&cmss=planet+locator

You can get 25 8" planispheres and instruction booklets for $49.95 plus shipping. That's a good deal.

Andreas

Hi Andreas:

I did the same thing with cub scouts a few years back. We made planispheres from photocopied sheets downloaded from the web. It was almost free. The kids liked making their own quite a bit. Here's one site, I think there are several others.

Obviously this only works if you have a few nights, one to make planispheres and another to use them under the stars.

http://www.washjeff.edu/physics/plan.html

Jim

Jeffrey Counsil said:

"Second Amendment rights, just like the First Amendment right to free speech, cannot be unlimited. "

Our "inalienable" rights and no longer inalienable...

Jeffrey:

What Lieberman said is 100% correct. I don't think that even Charlton Heston, were he still alive, would argue that the 2nd Amendment grants unlimited rights.

I glanced at the linked article. Apparently 91% of people on the federal terrorist watch list who applied to buy a gun were approved. This is what had King, (R-NY) worked up. Maybe these people should have been approved, since they are law abiding citizens, in which case there is a problem with the list. Maybe these people are terrorists though.

I certainly don't want to deprive you or any other law abiding citizen of the right to own as many hunting, shooting or defensive weapons as you might like, but I'm OK with laws that restrict the right of terrorists or other groups like felons to buy guns. Entirely constitutional laws have always limited your 2nd amendment rights. Don't believe me? Go ask your gunsmith for a bazooka.

In other words, what exactly is wrong with the position taken by King and the others quoted in the article in the context of the article (the watch list)? Do you really intend to argue that the 2nd Amendment is unlimited? Are you in favor of selling guns to suspected terrorists?

Jim

Jeffrey Counsil said:

Again these progressives have stepped over their boundaries of authority. To use the churches to spread propaganda is to ignore the "separation of church and state" statute. As I see it, it's just another "nose up" at The Constitution. More proof they think they are "gods" and are above the laws. They already believe they have the power to "grant" rights to us (and as such take them away too).
They're getting desperate fearing this November and will stop at nothing to keep their power over the people. You watch, it's going to get worse. It wouldn't surprise me if O'Blame-a attempts to invoke martial law at some point claiming a "national emergency" after the loons incite rioting not unlike what is happening in Greece today (incited by the Unions by the way).

Jeffrey:

I assume you are joking. Obama is not going to cancel the elections or invoke martial law to consolidate power. Hysterical hand waving is hardly what we Republicans need now. We need solid candidates.

Your post cracked me up because this is the exact same type of irrational thing that the looney-tunes left was saying before the 2004 elections. You never know if these are tongue in cheek or not... I can find posts from Astromart circa 10/04 that mirror yours almost word for word.

Jim

Floyd Blue said:

The thing that I do not understand is this. Why is this forum here, it is just a place for people to ridicule others that are Religious or only for the debunking of Religion? Where is the ability for believers to discuss Religion in a forum dedicated to the topic?

Floyd:

From time to time a believer will post a topic here requesting dialog about some aspect of religious belief or interpretation. I have seen these types of posts include a polite request that the responses be limited to actual religious discussion. I think the non-believers here are polite enough (by and large) to not convert that type of conversation into religion bashing.

For what it's worth, whenever I've posted something along the lines of my sincerely held religious beliefs, the non-believers are extremely gracious. So, in my experience, I would deny that much genuine religion bashing occurs here at all.

What about Doug you might ask? I would say that Doug was not ridiculed because of his religious beliefs. On the contrary, he was ridiculed because of his posts that feebly tried to contradict basic science. In other words no one ridiculed Doug because he believed in God. We ridiculed him because he tried again and again to argue that trans-species evolution does not exist, that Genesis is science, that the universe is 6000 years old, that the flood is fact. He might have been treated better if he just said, "this is what I believe" Unfortunately he had to go one step further and attack the entirety of evolutionary, biological, geological and astronomical science to justify his religious viewpoint.

No one should have expected Doug to get away with fundamental attacks on science in a science oriented forum.

Jim

Paul Kammueller said:

So with Crist being more or less ousted from the party, and with Tea Party candidates promising to flip incumbents in a number primaries elsewhere, is there any room for moderates or center-right figures in the republican party anymore? Or is this the final purge of moderates from the party from the old 'big tent' days, and these folks doomed to run as independents for the forseeable future?

I find it ironic that this is occurring at a time when the R's could really make headway with the swing-voters if they really tried -- but instead the party seems to be going out of its way to marginalize itself in advance of the November elections.

Hi Paul:

My guess is that this is a short term blip. The Tea Party is highly reactionary to Obama or course and may not last beyond the end of his term or terms. The best Republican candidates (i.e. Reagan) have a strong fiscal conservative/defense message, but more importantly they project an aura of competence and restraint to the center right and center left. The ideal candidate is a uniter. Reagan virtually swept the Electoral College.

To the extent the Tea Party candidates upset more moderate Republicans, the party's viability is diminished. I have no time for those whose "principles" cause the coalition to disintegrate, guaranteeing that the opposition wins. I think that things will settle down in time for '12.

Jim

Hi Paul:

That is a disturbing article. I spend enough time on this forum trying to explain the historical underpinnings of the Constitution and other founding documents to the likes of Doug as it is. The last thing we need is a population even less well informed in US history.

I shouldn't say anything else, because some will no doubt interpret my next comments as meaning I support historical revision, which I don't.

Still, your post reflects some degree of naivete. I have looked at a few Colorado social studies texts used at the grade school and junior high level. These books are simply full of lefty bias bordering on lefty propaganda. I think it has been that way since the 60's.

Things are a lot better in high school. My eldest son is taking European History this year. It is an amazing class, taught at a very advanced level. They do not use "textbooks" at all, the teacher uses relatively heavy-weight but still accessible history books written for a scholarly/interested adult audience. The class has talked about an author's historical bias at length (author bias is of course unavoidable). For example, the European History class covered these books and others this year; these are three I had to order through Amazon because the local store did not stock them:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0547086334/ref=oss_product

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/037572575X/ref=oss_product

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345375564/ref=oss_product


This incredibly engaging European History class is one of many examples of classes my kids are taking in high school that exceed the level of similar classes I took in college. This is why I am a supporter of the public school system and the teachers I have met. That is another thread though... :S

Jim

Everywhere we looked in Cinque Terre was beautiful. It was almost impossible not to take personal-best charming pictures.

Jim

Vernazza; another of the Cinque Terre villages. This is literally the view from a hillside restaurant where we had pesto lasagna that was unbelievably, completely out of this world, good.

Jim