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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.

kalter.rauch - 05:15am Feb 3, 2003 EST (# 8538 of 8548)
Earth vs <^> <^> <^>

Flap your clumsy inner-tube lips, Lchick......post your garbage the same as you relieve yourself beneath the baobab tree...NO ONE'S LISTENING TO YOU!!!

lchic - 05:16am Feb 3, 2003 EST (# 8539 of 8548)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Gisterme -- reads above as though you belittle Oprah -- SHE having her own Glossy Mag --- no way can you say she's tabloid.

Look at the web site. She looks to the NEEDS of people, and from that develops shows that look to those NEEDS.

lchic - 05:19am Feb 3, 2003 EST (# 8540 of 8548)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

You read like a text from the Klu Klux Klan --book on the next shuttle <^>

bye!

kalter.rauch - 05:59am Feb 3, 2003 EST (# 8541 of 8548)
Earth vs <^> <^> <^>

I wouldn't KNOW, Lchick...about KKK texts.

WHAT exactly do you MEAN, LchicK...that I "book on the next shuttle"??? Do you wish me a firey death and a world of pain...WHAT???

Look, Lchick...go curl up on a couch with your donuts, and chocolates and frigging OPRAH...purr yourself to sleep for all I care......

rshow55 - 06:51am Feb 3, 2003 EST (# 8542 of 8548)
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.

Interesting posts. There are times when, to check things, they must be checked physically.

Even then, only what has been physically checked has been physically checked - chains of inference are made more probable or ruled out, alternative stories are made more probable or ruled out.

Proving anything is a difficult business - and for a very long time - the arguments for believing something (besides faith in people or assumptions) reduce to statistical judgements.

When consequences matter - the checking can be necessary anyway - even though it is difficult, and involves costs.

"Is consistent with" is the most basic logical operator we have. With work - consistency can tell us a lot - because after a while - a great deal of narrowing the odds can be done.

rshow55 - 06:59am Feb 3, 2003 EST (# 8543 of 8548)
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.

When gisterme denies that he's a "Bush administration stand-in" - or associated with the government - especially when he denies that he's the President of the United States - it seems right to say " gisterme , I hear you - and give a certain weight to what you say." -- but it is also sensible to ask - if gisterme is closely associtated with the government - if he is the President of the United States - would he admit it? Could he, given the character traits that his postings show? My sense is that he couldn't possibly do so - and wouldn't.

Cooper's last response #8503, is interesting in some similar ways. If he was trying to do me serious injury - thinking about it hard - and working at it for a long time - would he admit it? What risks would he take by admitting that? How consistent is his "I don't remember" statement with what he actually did?

I've summarized some things if you click "rshow55" in the upper left hand corner.

The dates of the first 650 postings gisterme has made, beginning in May 2, 2001, (#2297 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2993.htm ) are listed in tables linked at #8368 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@93.Ej80aASV2IT.569588@.f28e622/9894 and can all be seen, by date, from http://www.mrshowalter.net/calendar1.htm and gisterme's postings on the current thread continue to #8379 .

With war looming, there are things that ought to be checked. If people in leadership positions in nation states wanted the checking done - it would happen.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense