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Missile Defense

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?

lunarchick - 11:50am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1683 of 1693)
lunarchick@www.com

I read that 3% of males (that's a lot) lack 'emotional' wiring ... (autism - variants) .. that may be why the prisons fill up .. although i did hear another reason re prisons .. that 'stupid people never learn' .... then again that prisons are often filled with people from groups that lack 'identity' .. may suggest that people need to live in an orderly world that is accepting of them.

lunarchick - 11:52am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1684 of 1693)
lunarchick@www.com

'I'm sleepwalking out on the boards ... nite!'

rshowalter - 11:53am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1685 of 1693)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Now if something analogous could occur with Iraq that WOULD be a miracle.

Conditions, then, for full world peace would be well within reach. The US administration might be the last major power to agree to it. But American opinion is often, after a lag, sensible.

The world might become a much better, safer place.

rshowalter - 11:54am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1686 of 1693)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Sleep well, Australia ! You've worked hard and done well.

dirac_10 - 11:55am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1687 of 1693)

lunarchick - 11:50am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1683 of 1683)

I read that 3% of males (that's a lot) lack 'emotional' wiring ... (autism - variants) .. that may be why the prisons fill up ..

The people in American prisons (over twice as many as 10 years ago by the way) are, almost without exception, poor people. Don't get me wrong, many of them belong there.

almarst-2001 - 11:55am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1688 of 1693)

dirac_10 3/29/01 11:37am

"Modern western democracies have a pretty good system. The leader of the country is never permitted to have any real power. Never trust them."

Probably true regarding the INTERNAL policies. Not so on foreign policies and military issues, mostly hidden from the public, especially if assumed to be inconsequential for or undetectable by the voter.

dirac_10 - 11:59am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1689 of 1693)

almarst-2001 - 11:55am Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1688 of 1688)

Probably true regarding the INTERNAL policies. Not so on foreign policies and military issues, mostly hidden from the public, especially if assumed to be inconsequential for or undetectable by the voter.

Nah, the Council on Foreign Relations and similar groups have a lot of say on the international behavior of presidents. The foreign policy is pretty independent of political party or man in office.

rshowalter - 12:01pm Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1690 of 1693)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Independent of political party and man in office -- maybe -- on nuclear policy, we've been running on the basis of a "hidden conspiracy" since the Eisenhower administration -- and since Kennedy, the elected officials have had amazingly little to do with crucial "details" that have been essential to getting us into the current impasse.

rshowalter - 12:03pm Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1691 of 1693)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The one place (and a crucial place) where essentially all the usual controls of our democratic society have been set aside has run amok, become intellectually and I have to believe economically corrupt, and is making the US ridiculous, and imperilling the world.

rshowalter - 12:04pm Mar 29, 2001 EST (#1692 of 1693)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I've been working rather hard to make that point, from time to time, around here and on the Guardian boards.

Because I've felt morally compelled to do so.

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