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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.

wrcooper - 11:40am Jul 30, 2003 EST (# 13184 of 13267)

rshow

You wrote:

I'd be enormously grateful if someone on NYT staff would tell me how to make email or telephone or mail contact with Howell Raines.

I'm not on the staff of the NYTimes, but you are aware that Howell Raines is no longer Executive Editor of the newspaper. Joseph Lelyveld has been named as interim Executive Editor. Mr. Raines no longer works for the newspaper.

You can reach the Executive Editor at executive-editor@nytimes.com. However, that will probably not get you to Raines. I'd suggest sending a snail mail letter to Raines addressed to the NYTimes with a request that it be forwarded. Or else pick up the phone and call the paper's main switchboard and ask for Mr. Raines' contact information.

However, once again, my response to your letter posted above is that it's disorganized, prolix, vague and mildly paranoid in tone. I would throw it away if I received it myself. You say nothing of substance. You need to focus your message, recite documentable facts and state your grievance openly and precisely and concisely. Furthermore, if you think that important people--at the newspaper or in government--are monitoring the Missile Defense forum and following the thread of your endless, bloated posts, you're sadly, how shall I say it, out to lunch, Bob. How will Raines react when he reads your letter, if he ever does, or reads it further than the first sentence or two, when he comes across your claims that you've been in "jail" and have been posting in the Forums, etc., etc.? He'll probably twirl his index finger around by his temple and go "Cuckoo, Cuckoo" and toss it in the circular file. I would.

If you were in "jail" or under "house arrest," you wouldn't be able to go on vacation, as you are now, or come down to Chicago to meet me. Your belief that you can't move forward in your career because of alleged past activities is just a psychic excuse, Bob, a rationale for your inability for your personal paralysis. It's not real. Nothing's preventing you from working other than your own mind. You could apply your skills and knowledge to any number of problems that have nothing to do with whatever you worked on in the past. It's clear to all of us in this forum that you're stuck in a psychic vortex of your own making, Bob. The sooner you acknowledge that, the better. You have a supportive family and friends, which puts you in a far better position than many people to obtain help and assistance in sorting out your psychological and emotional issues. Give up this insane quest.

That said, I know you won't. You'll be back, as strong as ever, posting your calls for "checking" and "connecting the dots" and on and on. I feel sorry for you.

I do like your idea for a towed solar array in equatorial waters, however. That's the best thing you've said in this forum, in my opinion. Why not take the idea farther? Produce a real plan. Use your engineering expertise to draft a preliminary blueprint, cost it out, etc. You could take it to a company that would have the whereiwthal to make it happen and sell your services as consultant or, even possibly, a full-time employee. That'd be positive, bob. What you're engaged in now is just plain crazy; it's spinning your wheels.

almarst2002 - 08:26am Jul 31, 2003 EST (# 13185 of 13267)

US scraps nuclear weapons watchdog - http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1009497,00.html

Julian Borger in Washington Thursday July 31, 2003 The Guardian

A US department of energy panel of experts which provided independent oversight of the development of the US nuclear arsenal has been quietly disbanded by the Bush administration, it emerged yesterday. The decision to close down the national nuclear security administration advisory committee - required by law to hold public hearings and issue public reports on nuclear weapons issues - has come just days before a closed-door meeting at a US air force base in Nebraska to discuss the development of a new generation of tactical "mini nukes" and "bunker buster" bombs, as well as an eventual resumption of nuclear testing.

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