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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 - 06:09pm Jun 22, 2002 EST (#2683 of 2687)

I want to take a break, and go for a walk. But I feel justified in repeating MD2641 rshow55 6/20/02 1:00pm . . .

Does anybody blame me for this? Or for this: I'll do whatever I can to keep the world from blowing up, which it easily could now. And do what I can to keep people from butchering each other, when that happens to seem possible.

I'm not asking anybody to defer to me, or trust me. I'm doing my very best to let people check - it only they had the courage to do so.

I could be wrong, but it is my personal judgement that if people would actually talk to me, and learn a few things, we could have a good shot at real, stable peace in the Middle East. Some other good things might be possible, too. I think I've been useful already, with the stunning, graceful help of lchc , who is plainly smarter than I am in many decisive ways. MD2000 rshow55 5/4/02 10:39am

rshow55 - 06:29pm Jun 22, 2002 EST (#2684 of 2687)

I think I could be a military asset in the fight against terror, as well. I think it is stupid for the government to isolate me as they have.

lchic - 07:27pm Jun 22, 2002 EST (#2685 of 2687)

Good that you enjoyed the movie Showalter

Of it Charles Taylor commented:
Monsoon Wedding is going to be a big art-house hit because it's one of those movies that reassures audiences that people in other countries are just like us.

^{http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/monsoonwedding
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/monsoonwedding}

rshow55 - 08:39pm Jun 22, 2002 EST (#2686 of 2687)

Talked to another phud day before yesterday - - and he said, obviously repeating a conversation he'd had with another phud, that

"paranoid schitzophrenia is characterised by construction of ornate scenarios that cannot be checked....."

or some other such claptrap. It was delivered over the phone in such a way that I think anybody perceptive could have told it was a dump from a previous conversation.

How much checkable material can anybody want?

More? Well, sure. Ask.

Face to face, we could get closure on a great deal -- I'm not asking anybody to trust me, just to understand enough so that checking is really possible.

When I met with the phuds at Cornell, there was something very interesting -- something that surprised me a lot. No one even mentioned the "Ishmael hypothesis" -- though they'd read my stuff. Why on earth not?

Fact is, they didn't.

I think I deserve, by now, to be checked - - - in ways that work.

The Cold War has so perverted our culture that, far too often, checking is forbidden.

This is something that has to be changed, and something that people in other nation states ought to insist that we change.

. . .

I had a nice, vigorous, sweaty walk, and I'm on beer #1 - and knocking off for the day.

rshow55 - 09:04pm Jun 22, 2002 EST (#2687 of 2687)

But did notice this fine, interesting story.

Former Officials Say Enron Hid Gains During Crisis in California By DAVID BARBOZA http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/23/business/23ENRO.html

HOUSTON, June 22 — The Enron Corporation used undisclosed reserves to keep as much as $1.5 billion in trading profits off its books during the California energy crisis, according to six former managers and executives who handled or reviewed the accounts.

MD1839 rshow55 4/28/02 5:48pm MD1888 rshow55 4/29/02 4:56pm

MD1238 rshow55 4/10/02 6:40pm

Bush and Cheeney have been very close to the Enron corporation. They are comfortable with predators because, much too often, in much too many ways, they are predators.

Nation states all over the world should be following what is happening here.

To trust George Bush or his administration, in light of the facts, ought to be considered treasonous stupidity. Things should be checked.

If that were done, the world would be much safer, and more prosperous. Some real peace should be possible

The George Bushes, father and son, should be ashamed , and sensible Americans should be ashamed of them.

MD2569 rshow55 6/17/02 7:14am ....

The Bad Old Days at the F.B.I. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/16/opinion/16SUN2.html bears careful reading.

MD2666 rshow55 6/22/02 8:45am

The things Eisenhower warned of in his FAREWELL ADDRESS of January 17, 1961 http://www.geocities.com/~newgeneration/ikefw.htm have happened. The subversive, cancerous patterns developed, after much borrowing from Germany, to fight the Cold War have evolved, and now diffused all through government, politics, and business. At the same time, our nuclear controls have been left, almost untouched in decisive ways, for thirty years, and we are in a new world. There are things that need to be checked about those controls, lest the world perish.

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