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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.

rshow55 - 06:46pm Nov 6, 2003 EST (# 16700 of 16704)
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.

1000 posts ago http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.ZbQFbCFDWWl.0@.f28e622/17413

http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.ZbQFbCFDWWl.0@.f28e622/17414

3000 posts ago . . On Sept 16th http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.ZbQFbCFDWWl.0@.f28e622/15391 including a nice pair 13702-3 by fredmoore .

If you want some good entertainment - with sophistication - search fredmoore .

I think that with some organization - the corpus of this thread had possibilities .

rshow55 - 06:50pm Nov 6, 2003 EST (# 16701 of 16704)
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 got more excited when Dawn Riley brought "Muddle in Moscow" http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=533129 ) to my attention.

Back then, I was convinced that, one way or another - lchic had connections to the real skinny in journalism.

Boy, was I gullible . .

I was also impressed, maybe wrongly by dialog with our "Bush administration stand-in" gisterme , starting with a powerful one in his first posting .. MD2997 gisterme 5/2/01 1:09pm ...

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2993.htm http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2998.htm

- - and the sad truth is that I've been so deluded that I've mostly worked trying to help get communication going between those two.

MD1999 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.ZbQFbCFDWWl.0@.f28e622/2484

That work involved great contributions from "stand-ins" who have taken the role of senior Russian and American officials - - a role that has continued since March 1, 2000 207 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/218

And yes, I have felt that both gisterme and Almarst have been important - if only in a "simulated" role. Much more important - by role, and posting-for-posting, than I've been.

. . .

Call me crazy - - - but I've tried to be constructive.

bluestar23 - 06:53pm Nov 6, 2003 EST (# 16702 of 16704)

Showalter's now reduced to nothing....except babbling about secret poster identities....giving no sane reasons, of course, for his paranoia....

rshow55 - 07:13pm Nov 6, 2003 EST (# 16703 of 16704)
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.

Have you guys ever looked at pretrial discovery ?

Just an analogy, I'll admit. But it involves the organization of voluminous text.

It often turns out to be useful - and there is a lot of experience using it.

Just a question. Hypothetical, of course. But interesting, as hypotheticals often are.

Suppose it were shown to the satisfaction of a judge or a jury that Jorian and cantabb and bluestar23 were New York Times employees?

What might follow.

Just a hypothetical, of course. But worth a passing thought.

There was a pretty good movie "An Officer and a Gentleman" with Richard Gere, Debra Winger, Lou Gossett http://www.olympus.net/ftworden/offgentl.html

The Gere character wasn't a perfect fit for a Navy pilot, and the Drill Sergaent, played by Gossett - worked hard to wash him out.

As some may recall - he didn't have any place to go. So he fought as best he could.

I'm in a somewhat similar case.

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md9000s/md9601.htm

I was taught a test, pretty seriously, by a military guy ( named D.D. Eisenhower ) who also taught me some things about Godel's proof. When we discussed the question

"When does a combat patrol in trouble need to be rescued? he explained the classic test.

Can they help themselves?

As they are, where they are, with the situation as it is in real details?

How are they to do so? A phrase he taught me was fundamental in several senses, but memorable. (Useful in evaluating when people need help, and useful in thinking about Godel's proof, as well.)

Ask them to help themselves? Look at their situation. If the phrase

" You cannot pull yourself out of your own as*hole"

seems apt, then that patrol (or person, or culture) needs help from the outside.

- - -

Recently, Jorian has asked why I've needed help. Well, sometimes people do.

Some simple help that the NYT could have easily given on September 25 2000, or shortly thereafter, was denied. If I'm a fraud - well - the NYT could have found out then.

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