New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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.

wrcooper - 06:08pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3279 of 3327)

rshowalt   (# 3277 3278 )

Maybe I'm wrong about you, Cooper.

No, you are wrong.

[I]f you object to my proposal for checking, the proposal can be modified, perhaps at a little cost to me....

I'm not going to turn over my personal telephone number to anyone I don't know personally.

When did I accuse you of lying (some time back)?

It was indeed a long time ago, a number of years, in one of George Johnson's now defunct "Mysteries of the Universe" forums. I think there was only one board you posted on regularly, so it was probably on that one. I asked you to apologize or else, and you apologized. I thanked you, and that was that.

Why not check?

Why should I accomodate such an insane request? Just because you have the paranoid idea that I and others on the forum are the same person, does that mean I should humor you by participating in your bizarre scheme to "check" whether your paranoid fantasy is true? Go back and look at the posts that made you suspicious. Get an objective person--maybe your shrink--to examine them and offer an opinion as to whether they appear to have the same authorship. Do some checking on this, Bob. All you've done is sit in your armchair and fantasize, hatching suspicions and brooding over imagined telltales.

Attribution of insanity is a serious thing...

Yeah, and I'd say that your paranoid musings about the CIA and Johnson and Condaleez Rice and all the rest of it comes close to what I'd call cuckoo.

My relationship with George Johnson goes back a long ways.

Have you ever met him? Have you corresponded with him outside the forums? Has he cut off your correspondence with him? Have you written to him, making these same looney accusations? Have you told him you think he's in cahoots with the CIA? Have you written Condaleez Rice and told her you think she's posting under a pseudonym on the NYT forums? Think, Bob! This is totally nuts-sounding.

(Now, the reasons that this makes sense to me could be wrong -- but they aren't crazy just because they could be wrong - they could be checked. If I find I have reason to apologize, I will surely do so.)

So check! Have you asked Johnson if he works for the CIA? Have you asked the CIA if Johnson works for the CIA? Have you contacted Johnson's known employer, the NYT, and asked them if their employee is working for the CIA as a contract agent? What is it that Johnson does for the CIA, in your sane and sober opinion? How did Johnson practice fraud, by the way? What did he say that ticked you off??

 I do agree with you that the wrcooper postings, by and large, not counting the attribution of insanity just lately, have been pretty reasonable.

lchic - 09:22pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3280 of 3327)

Audit/Consulting

One thing the Wacko reactionist redneck republicans in Congress are refusing to do is to determine that Auditing and Consulting be split and with two different entities - as per Sweden. Raises the point how many Congress men have 'interests' in shonky companies that are being gutted from the inside robbing shareholders of value!?

lchic - 09:26pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3281 of 3327)

The American EMPIRE

How's the empire going GeorgeWB?

A post above talks about TRUTH and EMPIRE.

To some extent those under an empire are vulnerable - just as are those who live in institutions. The line of command is distant. Bad things happen. Whose documenting all the bad things and making a record. Did all those civillians and children need to die from bullets, land mines, HIV and starvation ?! Who are the record keepers?

lchic - 09:28pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3282 of 3327)

Re-read an article from 2000, in which the journalist visited missile silos.

How many silos are there.

How many old rusty nukes are primed - READY?

How much is spent in useless wages?

What if one of the keepers of the missiles turned out to be psycho and didn't behave with propriety!

Who asks the questions?

Are questions asked?

lchic - 09:31pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3283 of 3327)

Is strategic arms reduction a thing of the past?

lchic - 09:32pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3284 of 3327)

Missile - silo - http://www.af.mil/photos/Oct1999/991911c.html

lchic - 09:34pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3285 of 3327)

the last intercontinental ballistic missile silo in Ukraine is gone http://www.ripnet.org/strategies/citygates/ulnmsd.htm

Lucky Ukraine

Poor USA - has over 500 to be costed and serviced

lchic - 09:37pm Jul 24, 2002 EST (#3286 of 3327)

Where do all the missiles point?

If they used to point towards Moscow

and Moscow is now a friend

where do the missiles point?

Can old rusty arthritic missiles actually climb over the USA coast line ... or would most just plummet to earth over populated areas of the USA - NY for instance?

How does the USA know for sure that the directional guidance on the Missiles still goes to a direction - which direction?

(41 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense