It's already separate (check the bottom part of my parent comment).
When you accept an unknown certificate, you're communicating with whoever is on the other side regardless of their identity.
You have to settle the identity of the other side at least once when you stablish communication[1]. Actually, you're not settling the identity, just a public key with which you encrypt the communication (which in turn is settling the identity as a desirable side-effect). You still need their public key because, well, that's how encryption works: you send a message encrypted with a certain public key, which can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key.
Fortunately, web browsers alert you not to do this because it's pointless. You see both encryption and authentication as a single step because web browsers abstract the process for you. Otherwise, why am I encrypting the connection in the first place? If someone's listening and you're not checking certificates, sending plaintext or encrypted is actually the same thing and offer ZERO encryption. I'd be able to read anything you say without effort.
When you accept an unknown certificate, you're communicating with whoever is on the other side regardless of their identity.
You have to settle the identity of the other side at least once when you stablish communication[1]. Actually, you're not settling the identity, just a public key with which you encrypt the communication (which in turn is settling the identity as a desirable side-effect). You still need their public key because, well, that's how encryption works: you send a message encrypted with a certain public key, which can only be decrypted with the corresponding private key.
Fortunately, web browsers alert you not to do this because it's pointless. You see both encryption and authentication as a single step because web browsers abstract the process for you. Otherwise, why am I encrypting the connection in the first place? If someone's listening and you're not checking certificates, sending plaintext or encrypted is actually the same thing and offer ZERO encryption. I'd be able to read anything you say without effort.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffie%E2%80%93Hellman_key_exch...