Actually, Flood, it is very similar over here….a bunch of candidates from all the parties (Republican, Democrat, and independent) all debate against each other until ‘favorites’ are picked by the voters and the media, the frontrunners whose policies seem to offend the fewest/impress the most….from there the debates continue until each party has its Convention, at which time the LEADING candidate with the BEST chance of getting into office is selected by his party (IE Kerry or Bush as in this past election)…after that the two of them debate and stump all over the country trying to gain votes and friends in high places until…finally….MERCIFULLY…November comes around and the good people of the US vote for whom they wish to be President….and in January that President is sworn in, having already gone through the dossiers of his rivals and his friends and selecting who he wants to fill his cabinet…and this usually means that olive branches are extended to the losing party and a few republicans are selected to cabinet positions in a largely Democratic presidency, or vice versa…and then we have the usual olive branch also extended to Minorities over here to show the world that Blacks and Hispanics and Indians and such also have a voice in US politics….and that in a nutshell covers it…..one flaw in the system…it takes about two years from the start of the campaign to taking office in January…a VERY long process that can REALLY get on one’s nerves, especially when the Telly shows nothing but campaign ads during the last two months!!

Mark

Very nice…

But no Corsairs…

do Corsairs…you’ll sell more paintings…

out.

M

Used to love astronomy but never had a big enough telescope…only had the 2″ refractor and it was always ‘iffy’…living in the mountains of Evergreen, Colorado afforded some nights skies that were nice enough (just a little light pollution from nearby Denver), Ialways wanted a 4 1/4 inch reflector tele but never got one….the best thing I ever saw in the night sky was Saturn through the University of Denver’s 20″ inch refractor at a star party once, the planet was about as big as my hand…VERY cool…

Maybe someday I’ll get back into it again…and take nice photos like you have…

Mark

The attacks by the chairs in the FlyPast enclosure concerns me….is this a frequent occurence?

M

For some reason this forum seems much more ‘chatty’ to me, questions get answered much quicker here because there are more folks in here than on WIX, I keep a membership oing over there but only check it once or twice a week whereas I check in here every day, sometimes multiple times a day…I like this forum because I actually know a few folks in person on it and am going to be meeting more later this summer and that adds a nice aura of familiarity to it…

Mark

I’m not saying I know WHO it was in the Mustang, I had just always heard it was Hoof who did the flypast waving at the kid….I would think you lot in the UK would know DEFINITIVELY who it was…are you telling me you don’t? No one remembers who it was that was doing the piloting in one of the most memorable scenes in aviation film history? I find that hard….and distressing….to believe…!

Mark

Hmmm…both have good policies…who to vote for, Phil or Damien? Course, I’m American, so I can’t anyway……and neither of you two put in the required two years on the Presidential campaign trail that we Yanks get so sick of every time an election rolls around over here, so neither of you could be PRESIDENT…

Guess it’s up to the rest of the forumites….Gentlemen?

Mark

Tara is definitely better looking than Susannah in my opinion…but then I do prefer brunettes…

M