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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?
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(16974 previous messages)
wrcooper
- 11:29pm Nov 8, 2003 EST (#
16975 of 16986)
In re: http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.QYGebtFbWso.2337228@.f28e622/18660
lchic:
Showalter's account was different than mine? How?
We met at the Art Institute of Chicago. We paid our
admissions and sat in the coffee shop in the lower level. He
and his wife sat across from me. We talked for about an hour
or so. I showed him my driver's license to prove my identity.
I was carrying an autographed copy of George Johnson's book
about Murray Gell-Mann. Johnson sent it to me because I had
written him several times, and he thought I was a loyal fan. I
greatly appreciated the gesture. The picture of Johnson on the
back cover and my own, very different, visage, proved I am not
George Johnson, which is who Showalter had claimed time and
time again I was, even though I had denied it. Showalter even
had called me a liar for insisting I wasn't Johnson. Oh, well.
At our meeting we discussed a number of issues--his perceived
difficulties with the government and posts I had written and
he had saved and printed out. He was particularly aggrieved
about a post I wrote and didn't remember writing, in which I
pretended I was Johnson and said something very silly and
sarcastic and the CIA being after him or something. I even
forget its exact contents now. I was mocking him, but he took
it as some sort of genuine admission that I had been faking my
identity. Anyway, he refused to believe I didn't remember
writing it. Fact is, I was probably tipsy when I wrote it.
I've done that sometimes--gone online at night after having
gone out partying, perhaps, and sat down and written posts.
The results aren't always, shall we say, pretty. I don't do
that anymore. Anyway, I apologized right there and then to him
and to his wife for any discomfort that post may have caused
them, and I asked him to apologize to me for having called me
a liar. Actually, I had asked him before our meeting, I
believe it was, to apologize to me once he saw the truth for
himself. But he didn't, and subsequently refused to do so,
even though he had been proven out and out to have been wrong
about my identity and wrong about my having lied. So from that
moment on, my concern for Showalter's welfare diminished. He's
not honorable. He stated he would apologize once proved
wrong--once he had "checked" the facts--but he reniged. So
then that's about it. He explained some things to me about his
past, which I didn't fully understand, about his having been
hired to do some math research related to fluid dynamics and
then was hung to dry somehow and now feels that he's bound by
some sort of security oath not to carry on with his life. I
think actually he blames all sorts of people for his
difficulties, scientists, coworkers, the CIA, the New York
Times, and so on and so forth. It's quite Byzantine and
incomprehensible.
Look, I think Bob Showalter is probably a decent enough
fellow. He seemed quite low-key and nice and calm and even
reasonable at the time I met him. But what he believes about
himself and about the world-shaking significance of this forum
is entirely mad. He's a bit like Nash. Maybe he's not a
full-bore hallucinating schizophrenic, but he's certainly
delusional and paranoid and grandiose. He's cooked up an
alternative reality for himself that his wife apparently has
signed onto also. Some of what he says about his past is
probably true. But what he actually did for the government and
what its significance was is probably not exactly as he says.
Why the government owes him money, as he claims, something
like a couple of million dollars, is also a bit mysterious,
since the government doesn't make deals with young contract
workers, so far as I know. Anything such researchers discover
becomes the property of Uncle Sam. Anyway, none of us will
ever know the truth, certainly.
I feel sorry for him. He's a fine mind overturned. He's
cracked. Barmy. I hope that he'll get the help he needs an
wrcooper
- 11:30pm Nov 8, 2003 EST (#
16976 of 16986)
CUT OFF
I feel sorry for him. He's a fine mind overturned. He's
cracked. Barmy. I hope that he'll get the help he needs and
will settle down and get back on an even keel.
Meanwhile, this forum is going to almost certainly be the
last we see of him in the NYT forums. They probably won't
block him, but I suspect they may do what they do with other
more or less undesirable posters. They'll routinely remove his
posts, usually within a day or so. I'm not sure they'll do
this, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's what happens. I
suspect Bob will take the hint, then, and turn his efforts
elsewhere. That will only be to his ultimate benefit.
Cheers
lchic
- 02:59am Nov 9, 2003 EST (#
16977 of 16986) ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has
to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong
foundation
klsandford0 - forums come and forums go
The forum is a database
The people who post are real-meat
Their minds are self-cast in culturally contrived
virtuallity
That's why the lifeline of truth is important
If you found today's postings of 'no value' even though the
USA leadership and technology often starred
Then K should ask himself - why is he HERE on the forum -
what is he doing here - who is he representing - why stick
around if it is of absoluly no interest
---------------
Cantabb still had nothing original to post on MD
Should ask himself - ditto
---------------
Cooper --- took me off 'ignore' ..... and admits it!
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