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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?

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lunarchick - 10:37am Nov 22, 2002 EST (# 6146 of 6164)

RU - need for LAWS to calm racial hatred

""An atmosphere of ethnic hatred and xenophobia was created in the heart of Russia long ago, in the Krasnodar Territory in particular, where the home-bred fascism of ex-governor Nikolai Kondratenko has become a factor in local "big politics". While Putin, in the Kremlin, was urgently discussing what measures and laws are necessary to eliminate national intolerance and stave off attacks on ethnic groups in the future, Alexander Tkachev, who succeeded Kondratenko as governor, confidently promised at a territorial conference to drive "the aliens and dissenters" out of his region. If these initiatives contradict the law, so much the worse for it, he added, because the high interests of society are not governed by law.

Almost the whole population of the Krasnodar Territory approves this hatred of aliens and such an attitude to the law.

http://www.newtimes.ru/eng/detail.asp?art_id=271

lunarchick - 10:54am Nov 22, 2002 EST (# 6147 of 6164)

LIES - Detection

" .. responsibility of the investigator to identify a guilty suspects deceptive attempts, while at the same time the suspect is strongly motivated, by the potential loss of freedom, to be an excellent deceiver. Unfortunately, due to the common usage of deception in our every day lives, individuals are more practiced at deceiving then at detection (deTurck & Miller, 1990). The difficulty in identifying deceptive behavior has lead to scientific investigations into the nature of deceptive behavior and its assessment. http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/forensic_psychology/54807

lunarchick - 11:04am Nov 22, 2002 EST (# 6148 of 6164)

Mimicry

Mimicry re weapons is the human affliction.

lunarchick - 11:11am Nov 22, 2002 EST (# 6149 of 6164)

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almarst2002 - 11:30am Nov 22, 2002 EST (# 6150 of 6164)

"Solicitor General Theodore Olson testified that U.S. officials have the right to lie to American citizens."

They surely have the right. Taken by power.

The moral is: If you want to have RIGHTS better be sure to have the POWER first.

rshow55 - 01:11pm Nov 22, 2002 EST (# 6151 of 6164)
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.

Rights, responsiblilities, and powers are connected. We live in a world where we all must be, many times, interacting along a continuum of trust and distrust.

Telling the truth has costs. Connects to responsibility for consequences, to self and others. Involves an exercise of power - has consequences not only for self, but for others.

Telling lies has costs. Connects to responsibility for consequences to self and others. Involves an exercise of power - has consequences not only for self, but for others.

There has to be a balance - often a balance involving some kind of power - some kind of force.

Is there a right to check - and an obligation to accept checking?

If not - there are difficulties and costs - but some benefits.

If so - there are difficulties and costs - but some benefits.

Lunarchick and I have been arguing - in many ways - that there have to be circumstances where there is an obligation to check and be checked. And that there have to be circumstances where that obligation can be backed up effectively enough to get the checking done.

Standards on when checking can and should happened are not at all clear - in most human affairs - and in international relations, and some commercial relations - they need to become clearer than they are.

International relations and international laws are in flux now - and a lot of things are being rediscussed and renegotiated. The rights and obligations associated with lying and checking need to be involved in these discussion - because so many things are going crazily wrong that the need to get the situation improved is becoming practically compelling.

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