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Missile Defense

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.

cantabb - 07:22am Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14111 of 14122)

fredmoore - 07:14am Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14109 of 14110)

Cantabb hijacks Gis..termes sub

raises periscope glub glub

spies Rhsow in the distance

who needs help and assistance

"Rig for anti-NONSENSE running" bellows Cantabb from the conn

"Load tubes one and three we got him on the run",

"target locked" and "fire", the big fish on the wire

are moving to their target , things are looking dire

oops there's tragedy a looming but torpedos miss their quarry

"Due to Canonicity, your dots were not connected and I'm really very sorry".

FM2003

One more MD regular doing more of the same .......

rshow55 - 07:31am Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14112 of 14122)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

Muddled I may be - but the collected MD works of Fredmoore are wonderful.

Made a posting on the Guardian that cites some pretty pictures:

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/483

fredmoore - 07:36am Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14113 of 14122)

There are many ways to skin an Rcat without jumping on its Rtail

and ...

many ways to Can a tabby without jumping on its head!

rshow55 - 07:56am Sep 29, 2003 EST (# 14114 of 14122)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

I'm not so poetic - but here's a similar point.

I get tired and discouraged, like a lot of people. Not as exhausted as good kindergarten teachers get. But sometimes I get a real warm, hopeful feeling - that something is ready to be learned.

I got that warm, fuzzy feeling when jorian 319 posted 13678 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.cWwGb0fGJES.2563482@.f28e622/15371 - which expressed ideas I hoped jorian319 was ready to set out clearly . .

"Wow. A list of things and people rshowalter doesn't believe will certainly go a long way toward solving the problems of the world.

"Maybe I can help. I don't believe Showalter ever worked with Eisenhower, I don't believe Showalter takes his own professed advice about "checking" . . . I don't believe anyone in any kind of position of power EVER reads this forum . . .

Gee, this is fun - impugning the motives of people I don't know, even as I solve the world's problems! </sarcasm>

I immediately responded "fair enough" - and posted some stuff that still makes sense to me - building up to 13693 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.cWwGb0fGJES.2563482@.f28e622/15386 but it was 13694 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.cWwGb0fGJES.2563482@.f28e622/15387 before I made a more detailed response to Jorian319's wonderfully perceptive 13678 posting:

Jorian - if we had mutually compelling reasons to cooperate on specific things - we ought to be able to do so, without fighting - without ageeing on any more than we do now - if we're clear - and the rules were clear.

It might be worthwhile to sort some disagreements out - and maybe change them to agreements - in spots. But there are costs of doing so, and costs of not doing so.

We don't have to fight - unless one of us really wants to.

- - -

How often do people have to fight? How many people really want to ? How many people, these days, know how to avoid fighting when they don't agree about everything they talk about?

A lot of kids in kindergarten already know a good deal about how to avoid fights. When details matter - and emotions run high - we might learn a little more. I think a lot of key stuff - that is obvious and old, but could stand some emphasis, was set out in 13693 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.cWwGb0fGJES.2563482@.f28e622/15386

I think those points are essential if the hopes of Friedman's The Lexus and the Olive Tree are to become practical in the areas where they are now going wrong.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense