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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 - 08:10am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5030 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

It's easy for people to assume they have power, they have the 'right' to subjucate another nation using bombs from the air!

And yet - were the tables turned - they wouldn't feel happy for either themselves or their families to be set-up as human targets!

lchic - 08:13am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5031 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

A question to ask is

Why don't a family in country 'Am' see a comparable family in country 'Ir' or 'Pa' as being in need of exactly the same civil opportunities as they themelves.

Why do Fundamental Extremeists of supposed religion 'I' think they have a right to exterminate civil nationals of country 'Ba' and visitors to it?

lchic - 08:15am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5032 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

In this age of communications how hard is it for people to see others as replications of themselves???

lchic - 08:18am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5033 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

When the arts: film, drama, comedy

are available - shouldn't they be used as vehicles of expressive conversation - to pass around, across and through C21 ideas and thinking!

Rubbery Figure puppets of all the leading players - would be one means of attracting attention to discussions - and through satire

offering revelations into chaotic ludicrous thinking patterns that need sifting and sorting

if we are to move to a 'better world'!

commondata - 09:10am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5034 of 5047)

When the arts: film, drama, comedy are available ...

If the arts: film, drama, comedy are available ...

Hollywood's dirty little secret:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/Guardian/0,4029,815186,00.html

But on top of the growing pile of films not released on commercial grounds are those that have been held back because they are seen to be potentially offensive to American audiences in the post-September 11, pre-Iraq war climate.

Most notable among them is The Quiet American, directed by the Australian Philip Noyce and starring Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser. Since Fraser's character is responsible for terrorist attacks in which Vietnamese civilians die, the film was deemed to be a risky bet by Miramax who are handling it. It was ready to run last year but has not yet been released.

lchic - 09:18am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5035 of 5047)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

A while back i mooted the concept of Bin and Bush in the sumo ring ....

(A thought that was picked up in other threads!)

My thinking wrt using 'The Arts' would be, not so much a million dollar block buster, rather the utilisation of the interactive potentials of the media.

Structured to give varying viewpoints.

The use of comedy and satire.

Through 'rubbery figures' for example ... people can see and hear the international leaderships 'think' ...

The pluses and minuses of that quality of thought can be revealed.

Through getting on-board the main navigational channels of thought --- people will have a chance to develop their own reasoned thinking --- they will see the pitfalls and foley.

Doesn't thinking have to be an 'interactive' process to actually get 'home'?

Is thinking something more than digesting 'given' fodder?

commondata - 09:23am Oct 19, 2002 EST (# 5036 of 5047)

Simpson berates 'hysterical' US networks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,814967,00.html

Fox News was "dysfunctional, grotesquely patriotic and embarrassing" and had mislead the American public after September 11 with "hysterical, excitable reporting", he told an audience at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, where he was reading from his new book, News From No Man's Land.

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