Posts Made By: John Whitby

Marriage is a convention of religion.

Civil unions are a convention of politics and society - creating a legal, contractual arrangement between two people (at least for today).

The two should be separate. Let governments require civil union contracts in order for couples to benefit socially from that union.

Let churches administer marriages, which should be moral contracts, as they wish. Marriages would be contractual only as far as churches would allow amongst themselves(like baptisms).

If one church wants to 'marry' homosexuals - that is the church's choice. If another wants to marry for all eternity, so be it.

Get the government and politics OUT of marriage - it is a religious and moral institution which should offer no civil protection.

If your daughter wants a "church wedding" she and her husband could execute a civil contract on the side.

I'm signing on to a NASA news conference in about 15 minutes about the discovery of a new body orbiting our sun, called Sedna, roughly the size of Pluto. Anyone else hear about this?

I heard Hans Blix say on the news that in his gut he thouight there were WMD's in Iraq as late as the fall of 2002. Oh, I guess Bush misled him, too.

He said he did not believe Bush misled anyone. He blamed Iraqi nationals who overstated the facts to the intelligence community.

Poll shows 65% of Americans believe terrorists would prefer Kerry as president. Let's hope they think of that when they vote!

I'm willing to bet my dog that Kerry implodes before Labor Day.

Sept, 2002 New York Times op ed by John Kerry:

"For the sake of our country, the legitimacy of our cause and our ultimate success in Iraq, the administration must seek advice and approval from Congress, laying out the evidence and making the case."

I remember that the administration did that, and JFK voted for it. Now why don't we hear Rather, Brokaw and Jennings talking about this?

"Then,in concert with our allies, [the administration] must seek full enforcement of the existing cease-fire agreement from the United Nations Security Council."

Let's see, Res 1441 passed unanimously by the security council.

"We should at the same time offer a clear ultimatum to Iraq before the world: Accept rigorous inspections without negotiation or compromise. Some in the administration actually seem to fear that such an ultimatum might frighten Saddam Hussein into cooperating."

This ultimatum was given, and at first Saddam appeared to blink. Hans Blix and his crew returned to Iraq.

But they did not receive cooperation "without negotiation or compromise." as Hans-y reported to back to the UN.


More Kerry: "If Saddam Hussein is unwilling to bend to the international community's already existing order, then he will have invited enforcement, even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act."

Wow! Sounds like Bush did exactly what Kerry recommended.

There is probably a wealth of knowldge as well as some mis-information out there, but I'd like to know what WE know about private-labels on eyepieces.

One of the previous posts here mentioned that the Apogee 8-24mm zoom = Nikon. Any others?


By the way, I can offer this - the Premium store label dry dog food at WalMart is made by the same producer as the better known "super premium" dog foods (begin with I or E)

Where does one go to get a telescope tested on an optical bench? This assumes one is not a physisist with friends in the lab at USC...

Are there commercial or other venues - east coast, west coast, in between?

If "God" showed up I wonder what the reaction would be. By show up I mean really smacked the world up the side of the head. Some argue God is already doing this. However, I believe the curses and evils of the world are made. WE allow these things to happen, not God.

Anyway - here's what I think could happen. God would say to everyone who believed in God (in their own way) Here am I am. Here's what I look like. Let me clarify a couple of things for you. Thank you for trying to be good people. Now move to the right.

To those who did not believe in God, but were not evil, God could say basically the same thing.

To the truly evil, unscrupulous, etc (and we'll let God decide) God might say - OK, you all move to the left.

I won't speculate on eternal rewards or punsihments...

But my point is this. Do you think that appearance and self-revelation would change anyone's mind?

Or would we resist "The Q" like Captain Piccard?

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040524/opinion/24cartoon.htm