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Posts Made By: Rod Kaufman

September 25, 2022 03:25 AM Forum: Politics

The New Gestapo...

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Richard Davis
In Joe Biden's 2022 America , err..... (Pre-WWII Germany like) New United States:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pro-life-activist-arrested-swat-171717669.html

Congratulations to those of you who voted in the Tyrannical Leftist Democrats 

Hopefully for your sake, they don't come knocking on your door.  
I guess a legally executed warrant doesn't mean much in your book unless the "right people" get served, huh?...
This post by Rich is also just another example of Trump's right wing outreach outrage that the gubermint is coming for you, too...

September 29, 2022 03:57 AM Forum: Eyepieces

UWAN 16mm is only 14mm

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Henrik Bjørslev Andersen
Hello, recently I made some comparisons of various EPs in my binoviewer and found out that TS UWAN 16mm is not 16mm at all!! It's exactly 14mm, I can place an ES14 in one side and a TS UWAN 16mm in the other side and get a sharp image, they give exactly the same enlargement. The UWAN has a slightly wider field though. I find it amazing that such an eyepiece can be manufactured for years with so misleading specs, why hasn't it been changed? Many people must have detected that before me!

Now I wonder, if UWANs from other manufacturers than TS Optics have the same problem? Nirvana, Lacerta and others look exactly the same, I suppose they are identical, just with different brand names. But the UWANs from Williams Optics look different. Does anyone have experience with these, are they any better than TS UWANs, which have a tendency for blackouts, if you want to see the complete field, and are they actually 16mm or 14mm as the others?

Thanks for your time,
Henrik.
Well, there's more than one ES 14mm model available: the ES 14mm 82AFOV and the ES 14mm 100AFOV. I have the latter and not the former and I guess the 82AFOV is what you're referring to in your post. I suspect the ES eyepieces have the correct focal lengths while the 16mm is off but it's not too surprising to me since I've seen focal lengths misstated before, especially in zoom eyepieces.

September 30, 2022 01:57 AM Forum: Politics

Alito: Questioning SCOTUS Legitimacy "Crosses An Important Line"!

Posted By Rod Kaufman

“It goes without saying that everyone is free to express disagreement with our decisions and to criticize our reasoning as they see fit,” said Alito, one of six conservatives on the court. “But saying or implying that the court is becoming an illegitimate institution or questioning our integrity crosses an important line.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/3666845-alito-questioning-supreme-court-legitimacy-crosses-an-important-line/
Lol! Here's what crossing an important line:
1. Advocating for cases and causes prior to hearing the case in court. Sure, any judge does that, right?
2. Traveling to another country and advocating on behalf of the decision overturning Roe vs Wade. How legitimate is that?
3. Failing to recuse oneself when a spouse openly advocates and contacts elected officials in order to overturn the results of a free and fair election. Who could possibly question the legitimacy of the court knowing that?
4. I can go on and on but you get the idea. Alito, among others, doesn't...

October 2, 2022 12:04 AM Forum: Politics

Hunter Biden Photo Hidden In WH AC Unit!

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Do you think the GOP will investigate this?
"A Trump administration staff member crammed pictures of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden into the White House’s air conditioning unit during the presidential transition, breaking it, according to a new book set to be released on Tuesday."
"The action by the employee, who worked for then-Presidential Personnel Office Director John McEntee, was one of several examples of ways members of the Trump administration sought to undermine the incoming administration,..."
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/3670267-trump-administration-staffer-crammed-pictures-of-hunter-biden-into-white-house-ac-unit-book/
Additionally, Trump's team was dumbfounded by Biden's requests to see daily intelligence briefings because Trump never looked at them... 

October 2, 2022 11:57 PM Forum: Politics

"Coco Chow"

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Trump rallied the troops around his heated feud with Mitch McConnell saying he has a "death wish" and calling McConnell's wife, who was his transportation secretary, "China-loving Coco Chow"
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2022/10/02/senator-rick-scott-response-trump-attack-tweet-mcconnell-elaine-chao-intv-bash-sotu-vpx.cnn 
Of course, the cons on the forum don't like Trump, they just like his policies...

October 4, 2022 12:51 AM Forum: Politics

Shocking, and Embarrassing

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by James Brown
"At the beginning of the current academic year, nine law school student groups at the University of California at Berkeley's School of Law amended their bylaws to ensure that nobody who supports Israel or Zionism is invited to speak."  https://www.newsweek.com/uc-berkeley-law-schools-jew-free-zones-latest-progressive-trend-opinion-1748218

"Multiple student groups at the UC Berkeley School of Law passed a bylaw on August 21 stating that they would never invite any speakers that support “Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.”

The bylaw, which was spearheaded by UC Berkeley’s Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP), stated that not inviting such speakers is necessary for “the safety and welfare of Palestinian students on campus.” It also stated that any student organization that adopts the bylaw is required to hold a “Palestine 101” training hosted by LSJP “to create a safe and inclusive space for Palestinian students.” The student groups who adopted the bylaw include the Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association, Middle Eastern and North African Law Students Association, Womxn of Color Collective, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Queer Caucus, Community Defense Project, Women of Berkeley Law, and Law Students of African Descent."  https://jewishjournal.com/news/351239/berkeley-law-student-groups-pass-bylaw-pledging-to-not-invite-pro-israel-speakers/


This is embarrassing to me as a lawyer and a human being.  What the hell are these kids thinking, what are they being taught?  Berkeley is an elitist liberal enclave of course, but this sort of anti-Semitism is beyond the pale.  No lawyer or law student should ever vote to stifle contrary opinions.  When and why did the left abandon Israel anyway?  The school and it's students should be ashamed of themselves.

More detailed analysis:  https://jewishjournal.com/commentary/opinion/351854/berkeley-develops-jewish-free-zones/

"Anti-Zionism is flatly antisemitic. Using “Zionist” as a euphemism for Jew is nothing more than a confidence trick. Like other forms of Judeophobia, it is an ideology of hate, treating Israel as the “collective Jew” and smearing the Jewish state with defamations similar to those used for centuries to vilify individual Jews. This ideology establishes a conspiratorial worldview, sometimes including replacement theory, which has occasionally erupted in violence, including mass-shooting, in recent months. Moreover, Zionism is an integral aspect of the identity of many Jews. Its derogation is analogous, in this way, to other forms of hate and bigotry."

I could not agree more.  The above is from Kenneth L. Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which has represented Jewish students in the New Paltz, Tufts, and USC cases discussed in the article above. 

The Jewish Student's measured response:  https://medium.com/@jsabl_48322/jsabl-board-statement-97de2e3f7e77

Jim
This sort of thing goes way-back at Berkeley. Nothing new here and it's sad to see nothing changed...

October 4, 2022 08:48 AM Forum: Politics

US Response If Putin Nukes

Posted By Rod Kaufman

"US will destroy Russian army if Putin uses nukes, says former CIA director"
“Just to give you a hypothetical, we would respond by leading a Nato – a collective – effort that would take out every Russian conventional force that we can see and identify on the battlefield in Ukraine and also in Crimea and every ship in the Black Sea,” Petraeus told ABC News’ “ABC This Week” anchor Jon Karl.
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-718911

October 5, 2022 03:42 AM Forum: Politics

Is Georgia really going to elect this bozo?

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Jim Moscheck
Herschel Walker's son:  “Family values, people? He has four kids, four different women, wasn’t in the house raising one of them,” Christian Walker said in a tweeted video. “He was out having sex with other women. Do you care about family values?”

Christian Walker also accused his father of lying when he denied a Daily Beast report published Monday that Herschel Walker had once paid for a girlfriend’s abortion. The Senate candidate, who has adopted an unyielding stance against abortion rights while on the campaign trail, on Monday threatened to sue the Daily Beast after it published the report.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/10/03/herschel-walker-daily-beast-abortion-00060160

Have we moved beyond the scandals that have buried candidates in the past? Got to vote for your team regardless of the candidate's morals and actions in the past? If the GOP supports this guy they are hypocrites to the highest degree and they can no longer be the family values party.    
"If the GOP supports this guy they are hypocrites to the highest degree and they can no longer be the family values party."
That's only exceeded by the (majority) of evangelicals who support Trump...

October 17, 2022 01:54 AM Forum: Mounts

Vixen GP made in Japan

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Originally Posted by Pete Yeomans
Hi, I have an older green Vixen GP with dual axis drives and Lumicon DSCs installed. Can anyone give me an estimate on the weight limits of this mount? Been using with a Synta 120 8.5 and a AR102 without issues. I'm mostly a reflector guy and I'm contemplating an 8" f8 mirror in an ultralight truss to try on the GP.  I have a 15" Dob that I love but would like some tracking.                
Well, if it's this model: "it is rated to carry telescopes to 4 inch refractor, 8 inch SCT or 6 inch Newtonian size."

https://www.astromag.co.uk/vixengp.html

October 7, 2022 12:27 AM Forum: Politics

America Last

Posted By Rod Kaufman

Oli producers already had thousands of leases they didn't act upon well before any of this appeared on the horizon. In the case of Texas, it couldn't even supply its own energy needs and would have suffered a grid failure if it didn't have the 20-30% production of electricity from wind/solar. And nobody sees Valenzuela as a savior for oil at anytime.
The WH and some in congress, have characterized what OPEC has done as a "hostile act" in cooperating with Russia on the production cuts. Thus, the following legislation has been proposed:  "Reports say Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-New Jersey) suggested the US should pull troops and missile systems from the UAE and Saudi Arabia."
“This is a hostile act by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, designed to hurt the United States and our allies and to help Russia, despite President Biden’s overtures,” he wrote. “I’m introducing legislation with Rep. Sean Casten [D-Illinois] to withdraw our troops from both countries.” There is “no reason why we should defend a Saudi dictatorship’s oil fields if it is using its control of oil markets to tank our economy and help our enemies.”
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-719013