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 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  /

    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.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (7260 previous messages)

rshow55 - 06:13am Jan 3, 2003 EST (# 7261 of 7270) Delete Message
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.

http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?224@@.ee74d94/5493

Attack On The Ad-Man

This trumpeter of nothingness, employed
To keep our reason dull and null and void.
This man of wind and froth and flux will sell
The wares of any who reward him well.

Praising whatever he is paid to praise,
He hunts for ever-newer, smarter ways
To make the gilt seen gold; the shoddy, silk;
To cheat us legally; to bluff and bilk
By methods which no jury can prevent
Because the law's not broken, only bent.

This mind for hire, this mental prostitute
Can tell the half-lie hardest to refute;
Knows how to hide an inconvenient fact
And when to leave a doubtful claim unbacked;
Manipulates the truth but not too much,
And if his patter needs the Human Touch,
Skillfully artless, artlessly naive,
Wears his convenient heart upon his sleeve.

He uses words that once were strong and fine,
Primal as sun and moon and bread and wine,
True, honourable, honoured, clear and keen,
And leaves them shabby, worn, diminished, mean.
He takes ideas and trains them to engage
In the long little wars big combines wage…
He keeps his logic loose, his feelings flimsy;
Turns eloquence to cant and wit to whimsy;
Trims language till it fits his clients, pattern
And style's a glossy tart or limping slattern.

He studies our defences, finds the cracks
And where the wall is weak or worn, attacks.
lie finds the fear that's deep, the wound that's tender,
And mastered, outmanouevered, we surrender.
We who have tried to choose accept his choice
And tired succumb to his untiring voice.
The dripping tap makes even granite soften
We trust the brand-name we have heard so often
And join the queue of sheep that flock to buy;
We fools who know our folly, you and I.

A.S.J. Tessimond.

- 02:03am Aug 13, 2002 BST (#4486 of 4486)

kalter.rauch - 06:45am Jan 3, 2003 EST (# 7262 of 7270)
Earth vs <^> <^> <^>

rshow55 1/3/03 6:11am

...who knows? Maybe Saddam or Jong Il, is they saw this thread, would be so out of it that they'd look at the magnitude of the effort, and the sharpness of the words, and think something important was going on...

Have you COMPLETELY lost your ever-loving MIND?!?!?

Hussein and Jong Il BOTH have a hobby of watching videotaped torture sessions of their poor victims...FOR SHEER ENTERTAINMENT!!!

They would like nothing more than to strap you onto the rack and savor your stereophonic pleadings through wide-range HEADPHONES, you sap!!!

Look, Rshow, if it comes down to brass tacks...as I suspect it will VERY SOON...some exotic brassboard circuits will be drafted into service such that we'll see Jong Il's squealing pig face on TV, begging for mercy, as blood squirts from his ears and porcine NOSE!!!

......and then we'll proceed to fry Sodom Hussy's fat rear...the old fashioned way...IN NAPALM!!!

kalter.rauch - 06:59am Jan 3, 2003 EST (# 7263 of 7270)
Earth vs <^> <^> <^>

It's UGLY, Rshow!!!

The time for peace is past and the TIME FOR WAR IS NOW!!!

Donate your aluminum pots and pans to the effort......BUY BONDS!!!

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