I hope you will all forgive me for taking up more bandwidth about this. I certainly have no problem with what Chuck said and I think it was very succinctly covered by what Brent said. Was I offended by what Patrick posted - not in the least. I'm actually one that LOVES a political debate. Therein lies the rub. If something is pure politics - for me, its hard to resist jumping in and "getting into it". I belong to the OAS and consider it to be a great group of fellow amateur astronomers. But, do they all agree with me politically? I really doubt it. I really don't want to destroy friendships because of me trying to get in "equal time". With the limitations of email these types of exchanges tend to quickly devolve into flame wars. So I would just hope that we could stick to discussing issues, ideas (and - methods as Brent said), rather than discussing specific politicians and parties. However, clearly its up to the list administrator to set the boundaries. Now - back to the great stuff coming from Opportunity, etc. Clear skies, Dale.
-----Original Message----- From: Richard Tenney [mailto:retenney@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 10:01 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Re: Hubble humor
I wholly agree with Chuck on this one. Far too many people view politics AS religion (for many, it's even worse than a religious debate). I think we can and should all agree to have some thick skin here and not get our feathers ruffled too easily.
-Rich
--- Chuck Hards <chuckhards@yahoo.com> wrote:
Any administration, regardless of party affiliation, that prematurely shuts-down one of the single most effective observatories in history has made a huge mistake. And I can certainly sympathize with someone who is facing losing their job over such a decision.
Politicians, supposedly through the influence of their constituents, make science policy concerning government dollars, and thus they become a fair topic of discussion in any science or astronomy forum.
I would argue that the success of NASA's "new direction" hinging on ONE measly Hubble servicing mission is ridiculous, and the decision deserves to be reviewed and discussed.
Inevitably, some people will take offense to ANY mention of politics, and especially if it casts a member of "their" party in a poor light. I would offer an olive branch to those of BOTH the left and the right, and make my claim that such political decisions CAN and MUST be discussed in forums such as this. It's OUR money being tossed around out there, folks. We should certainly have a say in how it's spent. Further, I would argue that threads concerning the fate of Hubble & the reasoning behind it has much more to do with the science of astronomy than manned & unmanned lunar and Martian exploration does.
That said, there is such a thing as questionable taste & rude barbs, so it is imperative that any such discussions be kept at a factual & non-emotional level. I can see where Wayne and Dale are coming from in this instance, perhaps Patrick's original joke did cross the line, but the topic remains fair game. In Patrick's defense, he was passing-on insider thoughts from a member of the Hubble team itself- this shows the feelings of those at the very heart of the matter.
If all our topics were without controversy, this list would last about three minutes and be as interesting as dry toast.
Thanks for your time.
C.
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