Posts Made By: Paul Kammueller

Today's action after Friday's snap-bak rally was not encouraging. The downdraft in the Nasdaq pretty well engulfed the Friday rally, right after the Thursday selloff had done the same to Wednesday's.

This may be a technical manifestation of some dicey fundamental market issues. With the ongoing unwinding in the mortgage and real estate markets going on, at the same time oil is busting past $85 per barrell, with the dollar weak the Fed is increasingly getting painted into a very tight corner.

In other words, there are some fairly flaky things going on that didn't appear to be reflected in a market where the Dow was breaking record highs just a few days ago.

He's a gathering threat. We'd better bomb Moscow before the threat manifests itself in the form of a mushroom cloud over American cities.

Another schoolyard dare, along the same lines as 'bring it on'.

With this sort of sabre-rattling it sounds like he's trying hard to force another war. I think they're anticipating losing the white house and so now the strategy is one of policy-sabotage, so that the next administration will be so tied up dealing with this mess that they won't come close to bringing forth any new initiatives.

When I flocked my 6" and 10" dobs I did the whole tube. But, I do planetary observing from within the city so my light-scatter potential is a fairly extreme case, and I have to go to fairly extensive efforts to mitigate it. If you're observing from a dark-sky location, opposite the focuser and just above the primary will probably be adequate.

In Islamic 'states' that is true, but in America there are mosques and there is separation of church/state (it's been whittled away a bit in the last century, but it's still there for the most part, for the time being, anyway). Somehow they manage to practice their religion. You'll probably say they're not doing it quite right or something, but on the flip-side I don't see a lot of christians asking muslims how they should be better christians so I don't see what the point of that is. But I do find it amusing how anxious some christians are to advise muslims on how to practice their religion.

So what do you think about American muslims? Should they be 'eliminated' with the rest of Islam? Or do you give them a sporting opportunity to convert at the last minute?

I'm just trying to get at what you guys are advocating for here. The thrust of your argument is that Islam itself is the problem, not the extremists. Sooooo, how exactly do you destroy a religion? Religion isn't like Nazism: Ideologies are short-lived things spanning mere decades, often driven by a few charismatic individuals... religions last for thousands of years, outliving their host nations and empires many times over.

Well, let's play it out, destroying a religion: To begin, I suppose you have to wipe out or convert everyone who believes in the religion in some kind of holocaust. You would also have to burn all the Korans in existence so that the religion could not be recovered by any would-be revivalists. This would also require destroying all online copies on the internet, and also a one-time planet-wide demolition of all computers and backup tapes in case anyone is hiding one somewhere. This would also mean killing the people you converted, lest they rewrite parts of it from memory. But then anyone who has ever read the Koran, or passages from it, is at risk so all those non-muslims must be exterminated as well if you want to be sure. This means my head is on the chopping block. I don't mean to be selfish, but I do usually object to a plan that has my execution as its logical end result.

If that's not it then help me out, what is the plan here?

I've had 6" and 8" and frankly there isn't really enough of a difference between the two to give you a "Wow" level of difference. Everyone has a different threshold of size for inconvenience and cumbersomeness. If the 8" feels like a relative inconvenience, go with the 6". One scope in the yard is worth two in the closet.

Later when you feel the urge for more performance, then at that time you can get a 10-12" and keep the 6" for a good quick-look size. I have fond memories of my 8" and it served me well as a stand-alone scope, but it's psychologically kind of an awkward size: too big to be really convenient, too small to be long-term satisfying -- always longing for something larger and something smaller.

But with this hobby, it's always something.

Paul
10" f/8
6" f/6

There isn't a one-size-fits-all because it depends on how close the focuser is to the end of the tube. If there's a fair amount of tube extending from the focuser then 1.5x may be excessive.

Lee Spain said:
Does anyone think that monotheism is our problem and instead of needing more God in our society, we actually need more Gods in our society?

I'm only quoting to separate this response from the branch of this thread that has degerated into yet another Islam v. Christianity thread.

Anyway, it's an interesting thought. I suppose psychologically, a pantheon of gods feels like a somewhat more democratic or collaborative arrangement, where argument and debate are permitted, even expected in the hierarchy (even if one of them is the 'king') -- contrast this with a one-and-only monotheistic arrangement which I suppose psychologically paints a picture of more of a dictator sort of god who barks orders that all must obey, commands all to worship only him and leaves little room for suggestion of opposing viewpoints. Maybe there are implicit messages there.

What's a confederate flag doing 70 miles NORTH of New York City? Are some people up there getting serious about secession?

It's not an embassy. It is a fortress, a virtual city unto itself. As an embassy it is beyond comparison, this thing is the size of Vatican City. The aim is to make certain that we as a nation are married to the Iraq debacle *forever* with a commitment to a massive permanent base of operations. It also promotes the image of Iraq being a 'vassal state' to the U.S. It is clear now that the intent is that we will NEVER be leaving Iraq. Ever.