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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.

lchic - 11:17pm Aug 22, 2002 EST (# 3914 of 3920)

Ann Coulter features in GU talk thread - WOW!
http://www2.observer.com/observer/pages/frontpage5.asp
http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?50@@.2cbe70ab/1

lchic - 06:10am Aug 23, 2002 EST (# 3915 of 3920)

STATUS (2)

the relative position or standing of things or especially persons in a society
http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=status

Greek Gods had Status :
""traditional view was that the gods are like mortals, but better.
They live longer (forever, actually), they're more beautiful (or at least some of them are), they have more power --- in a word, life is easy for the gods http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/002/lectures/lecture7.html

Socrates taught Plato who in turn taught Aristotle

Socrate's philosophy focused on ethics and political thought relevant to life in a Greek city-state

Plato explicitly address the nature of the gods, public worship vs. private piety, etc., and these become themes that reoccur throughout later Greek philosophy .... ... his philosophical god was depicted as ruler of the cosmos, infinite in extent and somewhat remote from the phenomenal world ---

Aristotle was a student of Plato who founded his own school when Plato died (the 'Peripatos'). His philosophy is highly original; he had strong interests in biology and history in addition to philosophy as we think of it. His version of the philosophical god is even more transcendent than Plato's

CHARACTERS OF ANCIENT GREECE

ROGUE - The Greeks were fast-talking individuals, entrepreneurs and opportunists - all except the Spartans, at any rate! There were many rogues in Greek society, from the mythical Odysseus, to the Athenian playboy Alkibiades and the traitorous shepherd who led the Persian army around the pass of Thermopylae. In the 4th century BC every major city-state has its underworld of rogues; a secret society of thieves and con-men, assassins, spies, black-mailers and burglars. Some are free citizens; some are immigrants (metics) while others might even be slaves. A Rogue character begins with an affiliation to one such secret society, whether it is the Corinthian Pirates, the Red Thebans, the Elean Underworld, the Long Walls Gang of Athens or the Krypteia (Sparta's own anti-helot secret police). These societies work for themselves and often freelance their espionage and assassination services to factions within the city. Use the Rogue class.

http://www.geocities.com/zozergames/delphi-characters.html

lchic - 06:28am Aug 23, 2002 EST (# 3916 of 3920)

"" Do you know, I said, that governments vary as the dispositions of men vary, and that there must be as many of the one as there are of the other? For we cannot suppose that States are made of "oak and rock," and not out of the human natures which are in them, and which in a figure turn the scale and draw other things after them? ----Plato, The Republic

from:
Theoretical and Philosophical Foundations For Understanding Conflict and Violence *****
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/THEORY.HTM

See also - SOCIAL POWER - http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/TCH.CHAP20.HTM

"" The history of our time is a history of phrases, which rise to great power and then as suddenly pass away: (includes atomic power) ... At the time of their currency, few men have had either the courage or the resources to stand up to these tremendous shibboleths. They develop unpredictable authority. Men are destroyed by them, and others are raised to power, and others are rallied to a fighting cause, and wars are declared, and people driven from their homes. And after all this havoc has been wreaked, suddenly the phrase disappears and is powerful no more--indeed, is lost and forgotten and replaced by something else, very likely its exact opposite.... It is terrifying... Where, in all this, is truth. ---- Russell Davenport, The Dignity of Man

lchic - 06:31am Aug 23, 2002 EST (# 3917 of 3920)

<| explore the above interactive sight |>

lchic - 06:37am Aug 23, 2002 EST (# 3918 of 3920)

Rummel :

I conclude that nobody can be trusted with unlimited power. The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/FREEMAN.INTERVIEW.HTM

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