To answer your queries, briefly:
I am guessing that a intellect fried on booze still produces more
intellectual property, then one fried on sweet sensamilla. However that is
debatable. It also makes me think of a middle aged man still narfing down of
maui wowee seem incongruent to me
SDI bought us little, but it helped collapse the Soviet economy. If one
believes that their mentality was mired in Stalinism (as it was) then it was
still worth it, by far.
One area under development was the free electron lasers used by TRW and some
Israeli scientists to shoot down those short range katyuska rockets. We shall
see if this research is as good as it has been pimped by the DoD.
Another more fertile area might be using star wars free-electron and eximer
lasers to instantly to vaporize water into hydrogen and oxygen for fuel
cells. Also fuel cell research has advanced a bit, with capacitors and such.
Toughness matters only in the perception of people who desire to be your
enemy. With some people (peoples) passivity has mean weakness, and weakness
must be exploited. Its a values and perception mentality.
What you stated in your thread, reminded me of what the late Futurist, Herman
Kahn, had to say. He said he was a social -democrat pacifist untill WW2. He
noticed that the Germans had the best generals, the best trained troops, the
most modern equipment, and until 1941, were winning all the battles. His
point was that fear makes warriors of us all. One is forced to make choices.
In a message dated 11/17/2000 9:34:48 AM Eastern Standard Time,
jwjr@panix.com writes:
<< "Spudboy100@aol.com" apparently wrote, about Carl Sagan:
...
> He was brilliant as a inspirer and sharer of scientific knowledege. He was
> also big time into the Ganja and this at age 55-60! ...
So what? I hope that members of this list are smart enough not to buy
the ridiculous lies of entities like the U.S. drug warriors and others
for whom mere marijuana consumption is some kind of moral taint.
Especially given that many on this list openly enjoy the far more
dangerous drug alcohol for conviviality.
> ... He was a big time
> schmuckeroo when it came time to face down the Soviets, when they wished
to
> Glom West Asia and Western Europe--and glom it they would have, had not
the
> West and Old Man Reagan showed them a fist, and the will to use it. Carl
> Sagan was chicken ala Carl on the money for SDI, and basically viewed the
> world so pessimistically, that surrender was better then
> annihilation ...
So you're basically saying he wasn't macho enough for you? Please
spare me.
I for one am no enthusiast of an imperial US power and support the
libertarian position of ending the income tax. It's kind of hard to
do that while trying to establish imperial peace around the globe. I
think a US that looks after the bare minimum of its self defense is
ultimately in the world's best interest, and immediately in its own
national interest, and I have no enthusiasm for my government's
playing world's policeman. While this may not be official list
politics anymore, there are many similarly minded people here, still,
I hope. I, too, would have counselled caution and parsimony in
experimental military expenditures, and allow me to ask this: what did
the SDI money buy us? When did the benchmark for sensible policy on
science and technology become "how tough are you?" as opposed to
showing results? I'd rather be right than tough every time.
>>
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