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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?

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rshow55 - 08:42am Jul 15, 2002 EST (#3070 of 3085)

Carl Sagan, an old teacher and investor of mine, explained that there were things to be expected when dealing with "forces greater than himself."

He mentioned two cases especially. Going home to see his mother, and testifying before Congressional Committees.

Those were times to get a haircut.

I may never again testify before a Congressional Committee, but if I ever know I'm going to meet someone from the New York Times, I'll get a haircut. MD1591 rshow55 4/21/02 2:08pm

Especially with a NYT columnist. Columnists are powerful, influential, distinguished people!

William Safire wrote a chatty piece "The Spook Awards" http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/opinion/11SAFI.html that I thought might, perhaps, be a suggestion of an opening for me. I know I may have been mistaken. Still, it occurs to me that Safire might be an ideal contact between me and CIA - if he were willing to serve in that capacity - or to make contacts that would function otherwise. It seems to me that it makes sense for me to write to Safire - asking for a chance to call him on the phone, and seeing if this could be pursued. If it could, it might simplify a great deal.

Safire could, if he wished, solve some problems of mine that have blighted my life -- and very easily. For instance, if he could put me up as a guest at the Cosmos Club for a week (I would pay all bills) that would probably let me sort out any problem I have with the government that I really deserved to have solved - breaking a log-jam. Especially if I could buy him lunch once.

I'd be able to present some "credentials" to people I met there -- in the form of a CD archiving the NYT Missile Defense forum, from May 25, 2000 to 10 July 2002 - with some search notes of mine. (I have such a CD now, and may be able to improve it and update it from time to time.) Not that anybody would want to look at such a CD, which contains the equivalent of 45 1 1/2" notebooks of text from this forum. But people could. They could judge my own abilities by sampling, if they wished to do so.

Safire could solve my problems in many other ways. So could any other NYT columnist.

rshow55 - 08:42am Jul 15, 2002 EST (#3071 of 3085)

Would such a contact be inappropriate? (My calling columnists seems fair enough -- but could someone of rank at the TIMES decently take such a call, and respond?) Given the chasm in status between me and people near the masthead at the NYT, it would certainly have to be done as an exception.

The exception would have to be based on some background. Here is some. I've been making some postings on the NYT Missile Defense board for a long while. They have been extensive, and there are ways to argue (indirectly, but perhaps clearly) that people have read them. I floated an idea in MD2977 rshow55 7/10/02 10:29am and got a response from Mazza in MD2978. Mazza often seems to represent administration interests, and I took his response as a request for more information about what I'd like to debrief about - an opening I'd been hoping for. I posted some responses in MD2979-2988 rshow55 7/10/02 1:33pm that I hoped clarified some things.

I've recently posted this, http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.eece621/15 and hope it clarifies some concerns I have, that make me want to have such contact. It speaks of priority ordering: ""I'm running a negotiation, involving a paradigm change, and I was carefully coached on the need for priority ordering some years ago, by a wise bureacrat. "

I'm dealing with circumstances that are some ways awkward, for reasons that some might understand. MD2770 rshow55 6/29/02 7:59am , deals with some concerns of mine, and some context that might clarify some of the "boxes" I've felt myself to be in and some of the obligations I've felt .

I'll be sending a copy of this note, and some other materials, to William Safire this morning - with copies to the other columnists, and a copy to a senate staffer of my acquaintance. One may argue that doing so, with this public posting involved, is in very bad taste. Ordinarily I'd agree, but I feel an exception is justified here, because of the awkwardness of some of the circumstances involved. My respect for both William Safire and the CIA is very great - but I fear them both - for reasons that seem sensible to me. And, on the basis of a conversation that I hope was taped, and that I hope some NYT columnist can listen to - I'm concerned that some at CIA may fear me. If I'm right about that, I have good reason, without disrespect, to fear the CIA, for reasons of symmettry.

My phone number is (608) 829-3657

lchic - 08:54am Jul 15, 2002 EST (#3072 of 3085)

My hunch is that that phone number is in the Madison Directory - Right!

rshow55 - 09:20am Jul 15, 2002 EST (#3073 of 3085)

Yup. But you'd be amazed - in dialog -- how much the grammar -- the ordering -- the explicitness -- determines the decisions that are actually made.

Be fun to do a little debriefing about that , too.

- - -

For example, might point out how often newspapers "point with alarm" at problems -- make a fuss about problems - - but in ways that they know are going to be ineffective. So that they can have it both ways -- be for reform, and against it, at the same time.

The Wall Street Journal does that - - and so does the National Enquirer ; the Washington Post ; the Guardian Observer ; and a lot of other papers, too. Also magazines, and other media outlets.

For a lot of good reasons. And a lot of other reasons.

But maybe for reasons that ought to be subject to exception, from time to time, when it really is important to get some things to closure.

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