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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.

rshow55 - 06:09pm Jun 18, 2002 EST (#2618 of 2630)

Pardon me for moving slowly, I'm trying to be careful, and so I'm taking my time. And trying to stay rested. I feel progress has been made, and have hopes that more can be made.

At the same time, I'm in an area of logic, and evidence, where I have to expect strong and passionate resistance.

People want, sometimes want desperately, not to check, not to have checking happen. They don't dare imagine that anything they've trusted can possibly be wrong. It is all very human, and terribly dangerous.

We have soluble problems here - and we know most of what we need to know. I'm going off to relax, and take my dog on a nice long walk.

I'm posting a sermon that some may have heard already - and after the first 9:24 it is entirely secular -- and it tells a story that might be a fiction - but that sets out patterns that I think James Slatton believed, and expected his congregation to believe. The sermon is about nuclear risks. It was given to a distinguished, economically very successful, and very Republican congregation, which my parents belong to, and I once proudly belonged to. It is a story about dangers of world destruction that are with us still - whether the story is true or not. The congregation, I feel sure, basically believed the story . . and did nothing.

http://www.wisc.edu/rshowalt/sermon.html

I find the fact that the congregation felt that nothing could be done interesting. It is hard for certain patterns to be changed.

Unless checking is morally forcing - - it is impossible.

MD2531 rshow55 6/14/02 6:34pm

For not much money, much of my stuff can be checked - - for facts, and for internal consistency with respect to the corpus of my writings. If I can find a way to get that done, in a sufficiently credible way -- there will be a lot to hope for. If I could get THAT from Turner, that would be wonderful, and much else would follow.

I'm not asking to be followed as a leader. Don't think I've ever done that.

I'm not asking to be trusted or believed unconditionally - and think that would be dangerous. I don't think it is either morally right or safe for people to trust leaders unconditionally.

I'm asking to be checked, and asking that some key facts be checked - if not to the level of certainty, to the level of judgement of probabilities. One may disagree with my request - but if you doubt how much I care about that request - look at how I've spent my time.

I'm doing what I think is right, and, whether you believe any or all of my story or not, I'm doing, as well as I can figure it out, exactly what I think Bill Casey, or any of a number of responsible people of a previous generation, would want done. The Cold War should be over, and the terrible compromises of American principles made to fight to Cold War should be unmade - not perpetuated.

I'm trying, as best I can, to get "completely unshackled", in a way that makes sense and is safe, for me and for others. I'm feeling pretty hopeful, and wish I could move faster.

I'm more hopeful than I've been in ten years - - and think that's plenty of reason for me to be careful. I'm hoping, soon, to get to the point where I can call Ted Turner, call people associated with Crusader, and call some other people, too. But I don't want to be ripped apart - and I have some good reasons for some fears - reasons that would be easy for a journalist to check.

lchic - 10:14pm Jun 18, 2002 EST (#2619 of 2630)

GulagOdecision making:

AS gives the following example of how insane the decisions of the central authoriities worked out in practice
^{http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/gulag.htm http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/10/cahill1.html http://www.nationalalliance.org/gulag.htm http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/solz-gulag.html http://past.thenation.com/cgi-bin/framizer.cgi?url=http://past.thenation.com/issue/991122/1122cockburn.shtml http://www.teenliberty.org/An_American_GULAG.htm}

lchic - 01:10am Jun 19, 2002 EST (#2620 of 2630)

Dowd: On the recent Moscow trip, Condi Rice told reporters she had given the president "Crime and Punishment" to read

How soon before these guys appear on Gerry Stringer?

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