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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

lchic - 12:11pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8113 of 8122)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Showalter referred to the Sermon on the mount as being 'the golden rule' that helped folks to co-exist (back then) http://www.mustardseed.net/html/psermtv.html

lchic - 12:14pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8114 of 8122)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Islamic 'Golden/Non-Golden Rule'

http://www.submission.org/sex/misconduct.html

see also

http://www.google.com/search?num=20&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&q=Islam+rules&btnG=Google+Search

lchic - 12:20pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8115 of 8122)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Formalised religions grew from 'tythes' ... 10% to the church .... to makework jobs .... to the Landlord ... to the development of 'virtual scenarios' ... to the binding of people to 'common purpose' ....

wrcooper - 12:40pm Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8116 of 8122)

In re: commondata - 09:37am Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8092)

commondata wrote:

Tap "wrcooper" into a search of this thread. Look back through his last 30 or 40 posts. Everything he has written is consistent with somebody who is interested in missile defense, who opposes it (note opposes it) and who has consistently and repeatedly denied being either George Johnson, the president or anybody else with 'status'. I think we have no choice but to take him at his word. I know that to do that is to diminish the value of your work on this thread in your own eyes but I don't believe that you have any other rational choice. You're stuck in a local minima and need a good shake.

I occasionally skim this forum and when I come across an article or news announcement regarding missile defense that piques my interest, I chime in with a comment or two. I’ve placed rshow and lchic on my "Ignore List" and hence never read their turgid, repetitive and disturbing (from the POV of their personal psychological health) posts, which makes skimming this forum a whole lot easier. But I’m amused that, despite my virtual absence, they still cling to the delusion that I am George Johnson, author and NYT special correspondent. I’m not. I’m a guy who lives in Chicago.

In the past, when the real George Johnson hosted the "Mysteries of the Universe" forum suite, I first encountered the poster Bob Showalter in a forum dedicated to a discussion of the relationship between math and the physical sciences. That’s when the "Map vs. Territory" discussion got rolling. I’ve read somewhat in the philosophy of mathematics and contributed regularly to that forum. I must have impressed Bob with what I wrote, because he thought I was a professional scientist (I’m not).

Bob divulged certain facts about his personal struggles with a neurological disorder and with what he believed to be a conspiracy to block his ideas about neuronal signal propagation from getting a fair hearing in the scientific community. I took an interest in him and his affairs and offered what advice I could. We became friendly online, writing emails back and forth privately.

At that time I was taking math classes through the School of Continuing Studies at Northwestern University (I’ve subsequently earned a second undergraduate degree in mathematics from that institution). I invited Bob to come down from Madison to attend a math lecture and to have a chane for us to meet face to face and have a beer together. He didn’t come.

Alas, despite my continuous display of friendly interest in his private affairs and my offers to help, he suddenly and mysteriosuly turned against me in the forums, accusing me of lying about some issue or other (I forget what it was now). I was appalled and dismayed and hurt, personally. I went overboard in my reaction and threatened to write his department head to detail what I saw as his scurrilous behavior, unless he publicly apologized to me in the forum. I fully admit I took the whole matter far too seriously, and I should never have made any threats to discredit him or embarrass him before his superiors in Madison. Bob finally did apologize in the forums, and the matter dropped, but ever since then I have not been friendly with him, nor has he been friendly with me.

Let me assure one and all, I still am a guy who lives in Chicago. I'm not the elusive GJ, though I’ve exchanged a few emails with him, actually. The last one was to congratulate him on the publication of his latest book. GJ lives in New Mexico, and I think he’s one of our country’s finest science popularizers. But he’s definitely not me, nor I him. (I do wish I had his resume.)

In re: commondata - 11:55am Jan 26, 2003 EST (# 8110)

OK, I've read a little more wrcooper and a little more Johnson, and I'll concede a similarity of style. He likes rshow's map vs. terr

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