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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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rshow55 - 08:47am Jan 25, 2003 EST (# 8024 of 8040)
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.

Gisterme , I didn't miss your last postings - but I'm hesitating to get into a fight with someone who either is, or is close to, the President of the United States. When I do it, I want to serve the interests of the United States, as Bill Casey would expect me to do - and want to strengthen the president, and the US, when it is right. And correcting him and his associates in ways that they can use - and ought, after a little time, to appreciate.

Some serious mistakes are being made - millions of lives may be blighted, and very many lost, unless we sort some things out that we can sort out now.

U.S. May Not Press U.N. for a Decision on Iraq Next Week By ELISABETH BUMILLER and STEVEN R. WEISMAN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/25/international/middleeast/25IRAQ.html is an important piece - and represents decisions on the part of the US that could be very constructive. It was the lead piece in the Wisconsin State Journal, as well as the NYT this morning. It is worth reading many times, as people think about what it means to "collect the dots" to "connect the dots" - and to persuade in the way that is needed most fundamentally - by saying "here, look for YOURSELF."

I'm being careful - and I do not have to hurry to rough up either myself, or gisterme - when with a little more care - constructive things can be done.

Gisterme might learn some useful things about oscillatory solutions - and how they depend on order , symmetry , and harmony for a particular purpose. So that with proper sorting - "rough" components can do precise jobs. It is also useful to know how a digital volt meter is analog - and how it is digital.

Also, it is a fact that the good experimentalists I know, when they look at digital meters on measurements and setups they care about - pay a lot of attention to the fluctuatios of the last digit(s) - for very good reasons.

I'm hopeful. Keller and Eakin did wonderfully in the paper today - and I wish Casey and Steve Kline were alive to see things now. I think they'd be both hopeful and proud.

I'm trying to help the Bush administration keep the promises it cares most about - and do so in ways that further the interests of the United States - and other people as well.

rshow55 - 09:41am Jan 25, 2003 EST (# 8025 of 8040)
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.

Christianity and Islam are quite different religions, with different priorities.

To come to workable accomodations - key facts have to be understood -whether we happen to like them, or not. And we have to respect the feelings of people whose feelings and cultures are different from our own.

There are many differences between Christians, and the Christian tradition has changed a great deal over time. But for Christians, the Sermon on the Mount is fundamental - and when reasoning gets down to basics, the question of consistency to the Golden Rule is a bedrock theme - and an important test of Christian propriety.

There are differences between followers of Islam, as well, and Islamic religious and cultural patterns have changed a great deal over time. Followers of Islam acknowledge the importance of Jesus as a profit - but the central concerns of Islam are different from the concerns Jesus adressed. For followers of Islam, the sexual rules and relations of a proper Islamic marriage - where women are subordinated to husbands, and men subordinated to Allah, are fundamental - probably as central to Islamic doctrine as the Golden Rule is to Christian doctrine. When reasoning gets down to basics, questions of consistency to the Islamic marriage rules are a bedrock theme of Islam - the question what does a man need to boff his wife or wives in the religiously and culturally expected way? is fundamental - and is discussed and thought about again and again and is a vital test of Islamic propriety.

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