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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 - 06:28pm Sep 2, 2002 EST (# 4135 of 17697)
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.

When information flows are degraded, and other patterns are manipulated, can we be reduced to thinking and acting like children?

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.

rshow55 - 06:44pm Sep 2, 2002 EST (# 4136 of 17697)
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.

I don't know enough about Cooper to judge in some areas (if Cooper is a real person) - but looking at the works of George Johnson from the perspective of Piaget is interesting, too.

wrcooper - 07:17pm Sep 2, 2002 EST (# 4137 of 17697)

No, I'm not a real person, Bob. I'm actually George W. Bush.

Hiya, partner.

My lieutenants told me I'd better check you out, because you're causing great consternation in the high councils here in our nation's capital. Damn, boy, I wish to hell you'd just shut up.

Listen, I've had my security people watching you for a while now. I hope you don't mind. Some influential journalists, like my good friend Ann Coulter, have been following you, too. We're using you to gauge the opposition to my BMD program. So goes Showalter, so goes the nation. We don't like what we're seeing.

Sorry me and my good friend George Johnson are using the same login name here. It was the easiest thing to do. What can I say? You want me to say I regret it? Okay, I do, but I did it for national security reasons. I had good reasons, Bob.

Listen, I just hope we'll persuade you, boy. We're working hard to make this thing work, and it's for all our benefits. Why don't you lay back for a spell, and give me and the fairhaired boys down at the Pentagon a chance to make this thing work. We know we can do it, and everybody'll sleep better at night if we do.

I admire your gumption, Bob, but your passion's misplaced. Give it a rest, will you?

Thanks.

--George W. Bush, aka Cooper, Johnson, gisterme, et. al.

PS Now that I've let the cat out of the bag, I hope you'll ease up on me. Give us in Washington a chance to do our work in peace...for peace.

Bye!

rshow55 - 07:26pm Sep 2, 2002 EST (# 4138 of 17697)
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.

MD4116-4117 rshow55 9/2/02 9:07am

This thread has many of the difficulties, and strengths, of pretrial discovery.

I said that it seemed likely that gisterme is Condoleeza Rice, and gave my reasons.

People could check.

- - -

4058 rshow55 8/31/02 9:32am

Casey wanted better answers.

He didn't know how to do any better than he did, given the risks he saw, the situation he was in - and the terrible stupidity and ignorance both around him and within him.

He was stumped.

So were the Russians.

We can do a lot better now.

- - -

I've got plenty of reasons to work on this thread - both in terms of duty, and for straight economic reasons, too.

And it will be worthwhile to discuss the work of George Johnson (not that he's Cooper at all - but he does have a certain point of view) in terms of Piaget. And truth that is, somehow, too weak.

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