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Science
Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's
war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars"
defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make
the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an
application of science be successful? Is a militarized space
inevitable, necessary or impossible?
Read Debates, a
new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every
Thursday.
 
  (781 previous messages)
lchic
- 09:41am Mar 23, 2002 EST (#782
of 791)
WHO is this guy - Bush?
Free-traders, who thought they had Mr. Bush's allegiance, are
horrified by his imposition of tariffs on imported steel, for
example, a naked move to shore up Republican support in Ohio,
It turns out that Mr. Bush is an activist, deficit-spending,
interventionist president.
been wondering what "compassionate conservative" means, there
you have it. It is not the liberal safety net or the noblesse
oblige of the first President Bush, but the compassion of the
strict parent who says, "This is for your own good." Or the drill
sergeant who says, "Suck it up!"
In the tug of war between the go-get-'em, nuke-brandishing
civilians of the Pentagon and the coalition-minded pragmatists of
the State Department, conservatives are now convinced Mr. Bush's
sympathies are gung-ho. The Weekly Standard, which has overcome
personal strains with Mr. Bush to become something like the
president's conservative superego, has taken to calling this "The
Bush Doctrine."
"On tactics, he may be listening to Colin Powell," said Norman
Podhoretz, the influential conservative editor and author. "But
he's very clear as to his strategic objectives — not just to clean
up Al Qaeda cells but to effect regime changes in six or seven
countries and to create conditions which would lead to internal
reform and modernization in the Islamic world."
Whether the president will, in the end, take us to a multitude
of wars in the cause of liberating the world from evil, or whether
the mission will lose some of its energy when the cost (literal
and political) grows, I can't tell. But I think Mr. Podhoretz
correctly reads the president's heart. extracts from :
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/23/opinion/23KELL.html
Interesting point re trade and agriculture ... say one thing - do
another.
The farm grants given - and big ones to Texas Cotton farmers -
can be thought of as a pay-off re the way folks vote!
Is there a table of where the $'s are being allocated ... and how
those, to whom they are given, vote ?
rshow55
- 10:15am Mar 23, 2002 EST (#783
of 791) 
manjumicha2001
3/23/02 1:28am includes
" Remember, after all, it is easy to shoot down
a "marked" target (with multiple electonic "flags" attached to it)
no matter how many decoys are deployed. The question is whether
such distinction would be possible when, electronically speaking,
the warhead and decoys are rendered indistinguishable from each
other under the laws of physics as currently understood......"
MD752 rshow55
3/22/02 7:38am . . . includes
" It is easy to have fairly large numbers of
identical balloons - which each reflect light or radar just the
same - with the warhead in only one of them. At best, an
interception probability of 1/N , where N is the number of
balloons. That's one easy countermeasure -- and a number of other
countermeasures, that have also been discussed for years, are also
easy."
I find I'm having modem problems again. But I notice that the
Jason group resisted being packed -- and got sacked.
rshow55
- 10:22am Mar 23, 2002 EST (#784
of 791)
MD601 rshow55
3/16/02 11:31am
Now, if the job was to hit incoming missiles without
countermeasures - or only with stupid countermeasures - for enough
billions -- that could be "efficiently" done.
But that's not the job.
The US is building a system where the countermeasures probably
cost less than a ten-thousandth -- maybe less than a millionth --
the development and deployment cost of the system itself.
mazza9
- 02:17pm Mar 23, 2002 EST (#785
of 791)
Louis Mazza
lchic:
One of my congregation friends just returned from Sierra Leone.
She accompanied our Bishop to deliver aid and comfort to this war
ravaged country. She is in my Toastmasters club and has prepared a
speech which she will deliver to conregations and religious
gatherings throughout the synod. Her slide show displays the church
building and social support that we are bring to the men, women and
children of Sierra Leone. They are my children as are all to whom I
give charity and support.
"Sick puppy" is a coloquialism for an individual who is weak and
unprotected like a puppy without a mother. Maybe you should question
your own charity and behaviors before you sit in judgement of
someone else...
LouMazza
lchic
- 06:49pm Mar 23, 2002 EST (#786
of 791)
..... so sayeth mAzzA as he ends his lesson for the day .... Ah!
MEN!
The UN refugee agency said that it had found evidences of
´extensive´ sexual exploitation of refugee children in West
Africa, allegedly by local aid workers http://www.sierraleonenews.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/special_report/1999/01/99/sierra_leone/newsid_251000/251251.stm
Nigeria - good news - civil law is IN! The woman - stoning case -
may be over!
lchic
- 08:05pm Mar 23, 2002 EST (#787
of 791)
War's no good for TOURISM
Come to think of it ..
War's no
good for anything
or anybody!
should be less of it ..
lchic
- 08:15pm Mar 23, 2002 EST (#788
of 791)
Now this IS real war ...
Corsets, braces, garters and suspenders as well as tights
and "brassieres of all types" are included .... reprisals – €2.5bn
worth – are designed to hit Mr Bush where it hurts: in the swing
... states
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