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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 - 11:22am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9622 of 9644)
lunarchick@www.com

Didn't notice an 'English' option on the site cited. Has calendar.

rshowalter - 11:22am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9623 of 9644)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Perhaps these pictures and short descriptions, which say "we're talking about human beings here" say more than any words of mine can say.

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/index_MISSING.html

MD9583 rshowalter 9/21/01 8:00pm

lunarchick - 11:29am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9624 of 9644)
lunarchick@www.com

Yes, Americans may see these people as human beings .... because they assume they are equivalent to themselves. They understand who they themselves are.

Yet, on the 'Tragic Tuesday - Talk about it' site .. posters were quite prepared to withdraw essential food from starving civilian Afghans .. whom they regarded as 'OTHER' - not people.

james22h - 11:30am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9625 of 9644)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1555000/images/_1556117_crying_ap_150.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1556000/1556117.stm

rshowalter - 11:32am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9626 of 9644)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I've said a number of times, for reasons that have seemed statistically reasonable, though not certain, that I thought gisterme was Condoleezza Rice.

I hope that's right. It would mean that someone close to Bush was following this thread.

If I were Mrs. Bush, and I saw George Bush getting emotionally connected to Condoleeza Rice, I'd worry. She's very smart, very well connected, and a real dish.

I know I find her attractive. Some people I talked to around Stanford did, too, and thought it gave her an edge.

lunarchick - 11:34am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9627 of 9644)
lunarchick@www.com

Delving back to literature. In story telling there are many instances of 'the reader' having to change places with a character. This widens undersanding. Say the Prince and the Pauper.

In film there are 'parallel universe' situations where the father-son, mother-daughter change. The head-mind of the one, inside the body of the other. Giving the viewer insights into two roles.

What is required currently is a parallel universe exchange between an American and a third worlder ... so there is a fuller appreciation.

In the west many people glean tips, sift rubbish, looking in bins for food. Most often there is brain injury.

In the third world there aren't even bins to sift. Drought stricken peoples get food aid - or die.

lunarchick - 11:38am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9628 of 9644)
lunarchick@www.com

rshowalter 9/22/01 11:32am don't all women fit this category ... haven't you heard of Equal Opportunity? No lights flashing, no alarm bells ringing!?

What the Journo commented on was the closeness to the right ... yet didn't say how right.

rshowalter - 11:43am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9629 of 9644)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

If Bush is now seeing resolution of the "war on terrorism" in religious terms - - - that isn't necessarily a bad thing. I'm not sure I disagree. But if he does, I hope he's careful about his religious terms, and what constitutes common ground, and a valid position for a leader of the United States.

If Bush does see the struggle with terrorism in religious terms, there would be definite plusses for him to have Condoleezza Rice close to him.

Rice has been able to live successfully -- very successfully, in a tolerant, "ecumenical" institution - - Stanford University.

That's also a place where, subject to some ornate obstructions based on status, facts are respected. We need facts to be respected now.

People, too.

rshowalter - 11:44am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9630 of 9644)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

lunarchick 9/22/01 11:38am

Like her or not, Rice is an exceptional person.

And an exceptional woman.

lunarchick - 11:50am Sep 22, 2001 EST (#9631 of 9644)
lunarchick@www.com

People in Pakistan are getting upset. It's not easy to watch footage of guys beating others with rods as civil strife erupts.

I posted Clinton's speech (to a paid audience, when fundraising for children here, prior to TragicTuesday). In it he noted the value of ONE computer to a community using aged books.

If the people of countries - such as Afghanistan had access to such, with printer, and funded - then they could access knowledge. Giving an opening for them to start to enter the heavenly knowledge kingdoms.

What a pity the money now being outlayed 'wasted' .. couldn't have been diverted to good.

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