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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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gisterme - 05:56pm Jan 5, 2003 EST (# 7377 of 7380)

rshow55 1/5/03 12:22pm

"...Gisterme , I beg of you, could you read, and if necessarily reread, those bolded sections I wrote, and sort out in your own mind what it is that you don't understand about what I've said..."

No need to beg, Robert. I was compelled to re-read what you wrote there several times in an attemmt to find some correlation between my statements and your responses. There's nothing I don't understand about what you've said. What I don't understand is why you've said it. It seems that all you have done is try to evade the points you were supposedly responding to.

"...- and what it is that made what you wrote seem reasonable, ...?..."

It's reasonable because it's the truth, Robert. That's important to me whether it is to you or not.

I don't need to beg, Robert; but, for your own credibility's sake, I'd suggest you re-read your own bolded respones and the points they were intended to respond to. I won't go through the whole thing again...not even lunarchick deserves that...but following is one example of what I mean.

First, for context's sake, here's your Showalter-headache inducing question that the example exchange relates to:

" What would happen, if the people playing this "game that is not a game" set out honestly and in public what they actually wanted - in such detail that it could actually work in the (relatively few) interfaces between the "players" that have to exist for peace, prosperity, and comfort?"

From rshow55 1/5/03 8:09am :

gisterme: "Now, your question presumes honesty and good will are simply a choice to be made by the well-meaning...and they are a choice for the well-meaning. However, since the folks who cause the problems are neither honest nor well-meaning, they must lie...they must maintain that false perception before their public...they must hide the dots until their position of power is unassailable.

Showalter: That's true, at some levels, of all sorts of politicians - and questions of balance matter a great deal on how one judges the actions involved.

Either you completely failed to understand what you were responding to, Robert, or answer you gave is entirely evasive, attempting to somehow reconstitute your etherial notion that one person's beauty is as good as another's. Give it up. Reality is just not like that. Your response has nothing to do with the statement it follows. I sincerely hope that's because you had a failure of reading comprehension rather than that you were initentionally being evasive; but, whichever was the case, that example is fairly typical of your "responses" throughout your entire posts,

rshow55 1/5/03 8:04am and rshow55 1/5/03 8:04am .

I'm just greatful that I don't have to point out every instance of such apparent miscomprehension that comes from you. There wouldn't be enough time in the day. Fortunately, most can read and understand for themselves. What seems ironic to me that you, who so often ramble on about context, aesthetics, order, symmetry and harmony seem least able of all who post here to apply them to your own self. (continued)

gisterme - 05:57pm Jan 5, 2003 EST (# 7378 of 7380)

gisterme 1/5/03 5:56pm (continued)

That brings to mind another statement you periodically pump out about "go slow, there's plenty of time".

How do you know there's plenty of time, Robert???!

We can know a lot of things; but, how much time we have as individuals, governments, nations and as a species is one thing we can't know.

One thing we can know is that things will be much worse if we wait around...just bide our time...while some insane megalomaniacs finish up their WMD development programs.

It seems wiser to me to respond to what we can know than to count on we can't.

One more thing, Robert: I've never thought you were a pacifist...a verbal pablumist perhaps...but never a pacifist.

(2 following messages)

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