It is my view, both sides of the aisle need a good dose of Ethics and Conduct 101! Maybe Swift's idea of the best acrobats get to govern is not so outlandish after all!

God Bless America!

I hope somebody out there was able to observe the Mercury transit today. Since yesterday, I've been glued to the weather and radar and it did not look promising. I had promised to bring my 8" Meade telescope up to work so that anyone who wanted could check it out. It was heavily overcast after rain the past few days here. I knew that there was a break, it was just a matter of if it was to happen after dark. It started at 2:12 p.m. E.S.T. and didn't end until 7:12 p.m. or so. Anyway, I went ahead and took the scope up to work and it was fruitless. About an hour before sunset after I had gone home, I noticed the clouds breaking a little. I hurriedly set up my scope and was able to view the transit! Then clouds obscured it for about fifteen minutes before I could look again. Then, I was able to look for about five minutes before the sun sunk behind the trees. In between clouds, I was finishing reading Dracula. Ironically, in the story, they were also in a race with the sun. After I broke my scope down, I was sitting on the back of my Blazer, and looked up and a bat was fluttering in circles right above me. How weird was that! I'm going to try and post a couple pictures. I took them holding my digital up to the eyepiece. What you'll see on the left side is the edge of the viewing field through the eyepiece. On the right side is the edge of the sun which will give a good size orientation for you. On the upper right is a huge sunspot probably bigger than Earth and in the lower left you'll see a small dot that is the planet Mercury moving across the sun.

mercury110806_016.jpg (57 Kb, 13 downloads)

A few more for your pleasure.

mercury110806_013.jpg (61 Kb, 9 downloads)

Last one, its a sunset shot.

mercury110806_039.jpg (61 Kb, 12 downloads)

Back a few posts, pertaining to the elections...

...may I point to the fact that many wars have reported enormous demonstrations against it. Activist Cindy Sheehan's arrest tonight and her 80,000 petitions against the Iraq war is nothing new. There were identical things happening in both World Wars, and Korea, and Vietnam. The civil war was no different. Many thousands were against it. The Mexican-American war was won by the US only because the Mexican government itself got thrown in a civil war over the conflict. Otherwise we would all be speaking English as a second language today. Every generation discovers the events for their generation as something unique in history. It's not. Never will be. During the Vietnam, I marched in San Francisco for the support of the unknown crew of some submarine that went mutiny. I don't think we considered this march as something unique. We actually never gave it a thought. We just went out. The ramifications and meaning was lost on most of us. What did we know? Throw any youngster into conflict! What do any know? They may be fundamentally good, with loyal instincts and the need for right to prevail. It used to be like that in previous wars with other countries, perhaps. It doesn't seem to be like that now, but what do I know? I do know that 8 year old are calling for the overthrow of America, while shaking rifles in the air that they can barely hold with two hands.

The fact that we all grow up and grow old and die doesn't make much sense either, especially since when as a youngster you thought life went on forever...and it did! But it's never a perfect world. There is a law the wars against what we perceived as truth. Instinctively, something inside says this sense of life going on forever when you are young is tapped into a permanent truth that escapes us as we grow into the realities of a world that winds-up with strong lies for us. Everything possible slams against our windshield as we travel at higher and higher speeds thru life.

There are no perfect Presidents.

No perfect world.

No perfect speeches.

No perfect victories. No perfect ideals. No perfect political parties. No perfect people. But buried deep into every individual, there is a sense of it. But not for here, and not for this life.

But what was bleeped? Why is nobody talking about that? Nobody. Anywhere. Like it didn't happen. The bleeping occurred while he was responding to a question by NBC's David Gregory. Bush was definately frustrated at whatever the question was but I don't think he was swearing when he was bleeped. As I recall he was telling of something the Vice President had told him a few days earlier. Judging from the words prior to the bleep and right after the bleep it was my impression that it would have been some kind of a proper noun (like a name) that was bleeped.

This was "live". How many seconds are these live broadcasts delayed, and how many seconds would someone need to make the call on whether "to bleep or not to bleep", especially if it isn't a simple case of profanity. And who the heck makes that call?

Weird. Like he said, "stuff happens".

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grasstains! BLEEP are you worried about BLEEP!

Don't you have other BLEEPING BLEEP things to worry about?

Forget all this BLEEP and go the bed.
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the contents of this posting have been altered to conform to standards of the standard standards

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It's BLEEP late anyway!

No. I want to know why the President of The United States of America was bleeped. I also want to know why nobody else is talking about it. It's not time to go to sleep. It's time to WAKE UP!!!

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Well I for one am going to Google this question and storm the ramparts if necessary. What did they bleep? I need closure!

Well, I wasn't paying the closest attention, but I don't recall any bleeps.
Anyway, we shouldn't gripe too much. We have the best politicians money can buy!

BrII, you said it! When you dig out that O'Henry "Train" tale, be sure to enjoy the story's final line! Old William Sidney Porter, a financial prestidigitator in his own right, knew of which he wrote!

Here's a couple links where the bleeping is being discussed, both as it happened and afterwards.
On this link the bleep is first mentioned at 6:18.
http://www.rushmessageboard.com/cpmb/lofiversion/index.php/t3097.html

On this one the first mention is at 1:22 p.m. and then someone else mentions it happening as Bush was quoting Cheney.
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/crooks/100111800

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Bush told reporters Thursday that he respected the results of this week's elections that propelled Democrats to power and said he was "open to any idea or suggestion" that will help the U.S. achieve its goals in Iraq.

Good job Dubya, but you're about three and a half years too late!

"The great thing about America is, everybody should vote."
- George W. Bush, Austin, TX; December 8th, 2000

Doug,

Swing carefully with that thar bashin stick. You are probably in the minority in these parts, and others are likely to respond with flamethrowers.

psst... secretly, I totally got your back, my brotha.

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"Go, Nancy, go!"

Maybe time to go off topic. I once had an anatomy and physiology professor who made my 8:00 am coffee and newspaper very enjoyable. A brilliant man, surgeon, and tangent-spinner extraordinaire. I just didn't understand a word he said that early in the morning, in a seminar of 150 students!

Although the idea of having "aqueous humor" in my eyeballs always seemed kind of funny. And the word "coccyx" is second to none in getting one to sit up straight and just guffaw.

RB's "stuff" says it all.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: fjp451,