Posts Made By: Chuck Cunningham

After watching this sort of thing for many, many years, I'd have to conclude that it is not a Democrat/Republican or Liberal/Conservative "problem". It doesn't even seem to depend much on whether the culprit is a "Family Values" person or a raging Libertarian (although I have to admit, I enjoy it a little more when the "holier than thou" guys get caught). This is just human behavior. People will say what they need to say, do what they can't refrain from doing, and lie like hell when they get caught. I used to think that it was because people in positions of power feel like the rules don't apply to them, or that they won't get caught (like, you think nobody's watching?). Like most here, I think the conflict between stated position and activities and the blatant lying to cover up bothers me more than the acts themselves. One can be a good person in many ways and, at the same time, be a really bad one in others. If someone is a competent legislator who supports things I happen to agree with and also plays well with others, that is so hard to come by that I'm not sure I much care about what they might do in their personal life. Apparently unlike many people who make a lot of noise about this sort of thing, I haven't been without sin enough to find it worthwhile to gather a big box of stones to start throwing.

I'm a little surprised that he has put it off for so long. Given that he is the only one to have a viable network in place and probably owns the army, I wouldn't think he'd have any problem still running the place if he were not officially the president.

Because our news media is always more interested in covering "the action" than in covering "the issues", I think we don't a very good idea what the revolution is all about. If a revolution is primarily about getting rid of a corrupt regime, but lacks a well-defined agenda, then it creates a void that will quickly be filled by the biggest thugs who have a semblance of an agenda that they can sell. What are the potential unifying issues in Egypt around which someone might be able to organize enough people to take charge? Islam, hatred for Israel, hatred for the U.S.? These may not even be the primary focal interests for the majority of Egyptians, but they don't need to be. They only need to form the largest, most aggressive plurality in order to take over in the face of an otherwise disorganized population which has no experience with self-government. I am not optimistic.

Hey, I thought you "fiscal conservatives" were suppoed to be "free market" supporters. You want Government to step in every time there's a problem?

If there really were "a Higher Judge", I'd expect to see some smiting in cases like Phelps.

That doesn't extrapolate to a very encouraging price drop next time around, does it?

Do you have a Barlow lense? If so, you can easily make the easiest and best collimation device I have found so far.

Well you can -- but it's done kind of like making "stone soup".

Thank you for including NGC3077. I remember stumbling across it one day when I was panning around with M81 and M82. I had no idea it was there. It was kind of exciting: almost like "discovering" a galaxy!

The sad thing is that it probably actually was the burning of the Koran (or the report of the burning) that triggered the killings. Stupid, nasty event; stupid, nasty response. Sometimes I wish we could build a big enclosure and put all of the stupid, nasty people inside it and let them work out their differences. Lately, however, I'm afraid there could not be an enclosure bug enough to hold them all. Maybe we are living in that enclosure already -- and working out our differences.