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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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lunarchick - 11:43am Dec 29, 2002 EST (# 7119 of 7125)

Trueman | buck stops here | exception handling

http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?BuckStopsHere

lunarchick - 12:03pm Dec 29, 2002 EST (# 7120 of 7125)

Trueman | " When the decision is up before you -- and on my desk I have a motto which says The Buck Stops Here' -- the decision has to be made." In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman referred to this concept very specifically in asserting that, "The President--whoever he is--has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job .

lunarchick - 01:19pm Dec 29, 2002 EST (# 7121 of 7125)

Watching defrag re-organise the data on my hard drive just now .... cleaning-up the drive ... removing wasted space ... leaving it neat and tightly packed and efficient --- running smoothly

a reminder that most things fit neatly into a set place

'Exception handling' is working out what to do when a few things aren't sitting in place - neatly

Showalter when you speak of yourself dealing in 'Showalter Problems' ... then exactly this, you're searching for and finding solutions that are new and novel ... that iron out a problem, can be passed down ... leaving you ready to deal with the next

Presidents get well rewarded, and have limited tenure, working through exceptions ....

lunarchick - 01:21pm Dec 29, 2002 EST (# 7122 of 7125)

..... did the CIA send you 'that' letter yet? :)

rshow55 - 02:37pm Dec 29, 2002 EST (# 7123 of 7125)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click "rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for on this thread.

The CIA didn't - but there are times when I think the CIA is right not to - if they want to serve the national interest. That's based on an assumption - that I'm writing, and being read here by people with influence - including at least indirectly the President of the United States - and can do what almost no one else in the government or the nation can do. Tell him, in detail, and none too gently, when I think he's wrong.

As a negotiating spot - it is a good perch - though there's a lot to be said against it in other ways.

Maybe I'm delusional - but it seems to me that the things Casey was hoping for me to do are getting done.

I'm scared and a bit overwhelmed now - been trying to review some things - but for the life of me, I'm hard put not to feel that a lot of things are going well - that the NYT has a lot to be proud of - that lunarchick is not only the most valuable mind I've ever encountered - but one of the most valuable minds anyone has ever encountered - - and that a lot could get better - maybe pretty soon. I thought the WEEK IN REVIEW today was awesomely good!

Are things dangerous? Sure are. But I'm having a hard time, just now, not being very hopeful. And grateful for the chance I've been given to squat here on the NYT MD thread, and write.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense