![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans
for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be
limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI
all over again?
    (2268 previous messages)
rshowalter
- 07:31pm Apr 15, 2001 EST (#2269
of 2273) 
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
Consistency relationships are the key thing we must use, if we
are to better work out what is true, and not just what sounds good.
rshowalter
3/15/01 8:23am Your examples and thoughts are good ones.
Examples and thoughts that one can match to. And in that way, refine
understanding, and avoid mistakes.
rshowalter
- 07:34pm Apr 15, 2001 EST (#2270
of 2273)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
almarst-2001
4/14/01 10:04pm
I understand you're not Putin himself. How could I not, after
what you've said. But you come up with ideas and insights that may,
in some ways, connect to ideas that Putin might have, and I feel
honored to converse with you. I believe, by doing so, we focus
issues of interst to both our countries.
You've been asking very insightful, well researched questions for
more than a month -- I was very impressed with the detail of you
excellent posting of almarst-2001
3/14/01 10:56pm with its key question
" What are the reasons today for hostility
between nations?
and its thought provoking list of hot spots.
Looking back at rshowalter
3/17/01 4:57pm which cites an Economist article criticising
Putin for taking an unannounced "vacation" -- it seems to me that,
diplomatically, and in terms of internal Russian politics, Putin's
done well in the last month, since taking that "vacation."
lunarchick
- 08:33pm Apr 15, 2001 EST (#2271
of 2273)
lunarchick@www.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/15/opinion/15SUN1.html
is an unattributed opinion.
Rather than talk about Am&Ch as new born military rivals ...
isn't it America that has a new born, as in 'wet behind the ears'
President ?!
Opinion articles are some journalist or other having to push out
copy for mass consumption, they put forward ( i just wrote putward
.. new word) lots of ideas and suggestions .. the reader reading the
page then colours these in with their own mind ... if they have a
political mind then political colour, if they have a business mind
then business colouring. The reader brings everything they have ever
done, learnt, thought, absorbed to the page and goes on to take from
it these thoughts and concepts along with others that are
inductively conjured.
rshowalter
- 08:36pm Apr 15, 2001 EST (#2272
of 2273)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
And that's the power of a free and diverse press !
rshowalter
- 08:50pm Apr 15, 2001 EST (#2273
of 2273)
Robert Showalter
showalte@macc.wisc.edu
Read by a free people capable of critical thinking, and
debate.
And it often works..
**
But not, alas, when emotions run too high, or when problems are
too detailed, or stretched out in time, so that people don't focus
on the problem as it is, and forget key points.
With respect to nuclear terror, the checks and balances of a free
press have not worked well, nor have other things worked well. The
world is in danger, and corrupted, and we need to do better. I think
we can.
***
For us to do better, free journalists, and free, responsible
journalistic organizations, have a vital role to play.
Russia needs a vital, free journalism.
America's journalists to do a better job of living up to the
ideals they so often brag about. Sometimes that bragging is
justified. It needs to be this time, too.
Nuclear weapons are obsolete menaces, that threaten the
survival of the world. We should take that damn things down.
If we could make shift to tell and face the truth, we could.
  
 
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