For all you civil service types

[Pete]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
Not sure what the status of Star Wars is. But I don't really expect something that sophisticated to work the first time out.

One more thing: think about all the jobs defense spending creates. Shoot, EVERYONE at Pax is only there because of defense spending. Then there are the homebuilders who are making money building houses for them. And the restaurant owners who making money feeding them. And the store owners who are making money suppling them with goods.

You can say it's better to spend less on defense and more on some social program, but the fact is that defense spending keeps people off the breadlines.

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
Not sure what the status of Star Wars is. But I don't really expect something that sophisticated to work the first time out.

One more thing: think about all the jobs defense spending creates. Shoot, EVERYONE at Pax is only there because of defense spending. Then there are the homebuilders who are making money building houses for them. And the restaurant owners who making money feeding them. And the store owners who are making money suppling them with goods.

You can say it's better to spend less on defense and more on some social program, but the fact is that defense spending keeps people off the breadlines.

I believe the Star Wars program was brought about during the Reagan administration in the 80's and was a hot-topic back then. It is now 20 years later and it's still crap and doesn't work - its another case of "the fleecing of america"

 

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by dems4me
I believe the Star Wars program was brought about during the Reagan administration in the 80's and was a hot-topic back then. It is now 20 years later and it's still crap and doesn't work - its another case of "the fleecing of america"

Well, to be fair, it hasn't really had a lot of research done since 1992. If you get my drift. But, again, I don't know the status of it. I'll do a Google and see what's up when I get a moment.

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
Not sure what the status of Star Wars is. But I don't really expect something that sophisticated to work the first time out.

One more thing: think about all the jobs defense spending creates. Shoot, EVERYONE at Pax is only there because of defense spending. Then there are the homebuilders who are making money building houses for them. And the restaurant owners who making money feeding them. And the store owners who are making money suppling them with goods.

You can say it's better to spend less on defense and more on some social program, but the fact is that defense spending keeps people off the breadlines.

I stand corrected -- as of June 2000 it had flunked 14 out of 16 tests. 2 did pass but I think that may have been a computer glitch.

 

[vraiblonde]

Here's your timeline:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/missile_defense/page.cfm?pageID=565

 

[vraiblonde]

And another one:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/missile/etc/cron.html

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
Here's your timeline:
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_security/missile_defense/page.cfm?pageID=565

Vrai this refers to the NMD program overall -- Star Wars is a program inside of the NMD

Here's an article I found

http://www.clw.org/pub/clw/coalition/ny012000.htm

 

[SurfaceTension]

Originally posted by dems4me
I believe the Star Wars program was brought about during the Reagan administration in the 80's and was a hot-topic back then. It is now 20 years later and it's still crap and doesn't work - its another case of "the fleecing of america"

By this standard, welfare programs should be gone as well.

Actually, ballistic missle defense is getting better all the time - and has secondary benefits as well...Look at the improvements to the Patriot system last year as compared to '92 (remember the Dem chants "you can't shoot a missile with a missile?). The system has improved dramatically.

And, you could effectively argue that the "Star Wars" program was the straw that broke the Soviet Union's back, desparately trying to keep up research to match the US.
(Admit it...That's really why you're sore, right?)

 

[dems4me]

I believe Russia was already starting to collapse before the introduction of Star Wars.

Welfare I think is a good thing. I have no problem helping out those less fortunate. -- You know... blessed is the giver?

 

[vraiblonde]

I'm confused as to what we're talking about. The Strategic Defense Initiative was nicknamed Star Wars. I thought missile defense fell under that heading, not the other way around.

Someone help me!

 

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by dems4me
I believe Russia was already starting to collapse before the introduction of Star Wars.

SDI was introduced in 1984. The "Tear down this wall" speech was made in 1987. So that tells me Russia was NOT starting to collapse before SDI. Unless you consider that they were already a collapsed society anyway and just looking for someone like Reagan to come along and kick the final stone out from under them.

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
I'm confused as to what we're talking about. The Strategic Defense Initiative was nicknamed Star Wars. I thought missile defense fell under that heading, not the other way around.

Someone help me!

Star Wars was a failed program in our National Missle Defense program. There are other programs but Star Wars was not a success and had nothing to do with Russia's economic collapse.

 

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by dems4me
Star Wars was a failed program in our National Missle Defense program. There are other programs but Star Wars was not a success and had nothing to do with Russia's economic collapse.

My World Almanac for Kids (woo hoo!) says the SDI program was abandoned under Clinton, not that it had failed.

 

[SurfaceTension]

Originally posted by dems4me
Star Wars was a failed program in our National Missle Defense program. There are other programs but Star Wars was not a success and had nothing to do with Russia's economic collapse.

Please!
Firstly, research continues to this day...for a primer on the mulituded of space-based defense programs, I'd suggest
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/bmd.htm
Spend a few hours there (at least) before making such broad statements.

Second, you obviously have little experience in the sciences or engineering...Tests are not to demonstrate a fully deployable system (99.9999% of the time) but rather to LEARN WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW. The most successful test is one that fails, as it reveals one more obstacle on the way to true success.

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
My World Almanac for Kids (woo hoo!) says the SDI program was abandoned under Clinton, not that it had failed.

Ok Vrai -- I'll bite -- don't you think it is because it was a failure that it was abandoned????????

 

[Otter]

Originally posted by SurfaceTension
Please!
Firstly, research continues to this day...for a primer on the mulituded of space-based defense programs, I'd suggest
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/bmd.htm
Spend a few hours there (at least) before making such broad statements.

Second, you obviously have little experience in the sciences or engineering...Tests are not to demonstrate a fully deployable system (99.9999% of the time) but rather to LEARN WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW. The most successful test is one that fails, as it reveals one more obstacle on the way to success.

Thanks, ST..

 

[vraiblonde]

Originally posted by dems4me
Ok Vrai -- I'll bite -- don't you think it is because it was a failure that it was abandoned????????

Well...no. It's pretty obvious that it was a lack of defense committment on the part of the Clinton Administration that led to the abandonment of SDI and the reduced funding of our military in general.

 

[SamSpade]

Originally posted by vraiblonde
Well...no. It's pretty obvious that it was a lack of defense committment on the part of the Clinton Administration that led to the abandonment of SDI and the reduced funding of our military in general.

And quite possibly, because SDI had *accomplished its mission* - ending (and winning) the Cold War.

I've little doubt from reading Gorbachev, that a missile defense system absolutely horrified the Soviet Union. Their entire military threat rested on thousands upon thousands of nuclear warheads - which could be rendered completely useless by the Americans.

 

[dems4me]

Originally posted by SurfaceTension
Please!
Firstly, research continues to this day...for a primer on the mulituded of space-based defense programs, I'd suggest
http://www.globalsecurity.org/space/systems/bmd.htm
Spend a few hours there (at least) before making such broad statements.

Second, you obviously have little experience in the sciences or engineering...Tests are not to demonstrate a fully deployable system (99.9999% of the time) but rather to LEARN WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW. The most successful test is one that fails, as it reveals one more obstacle on the way to true success.

I never said we discontinued our National Missle Defense program at all. I said Star Wars is defunct and never worked. If you had looked this up say 15 years ago -- you would see "Star Wars Program" underneath the link of National Missle Defense as one of a NMD programs.

Any thing that has to do with democrats v. republican issues on this webcite is like speaking with :childrenofthecorn: - you can feel free to lay your rose tinted glasses down somewhere after your fantasy perfect republican bubble pops.

 

[Otter]

Originally posted by dems4me
Any thing that has to do with democrats v. republican issues on this webcite is like speaking with :childrenofthecorn: - you can feel free to lay your rose tinted glasses down somewhere after your fantasy perfect republican bubble pops.

And you don't???? Were the folks here looking at Dean with rose tinted glasses or were you??