From: Spike Jones (spike66@ibm.net)
Date: Sat Jun 10 2000 - 23:11:07 MDT
You may have heard by now about how the national missile defense
is all a big reaganesque fantasy, etc. I was just wondering if anyone
here has any strong opinions in this regard.
The local paper, the San Jose Mercury News, decided to cash in
its credibility thus: they ran an article with a column on the front page
and the entiiiiirrrre baaack paaaage, going on and on about how the
concept is flawed, would neeeeever work, how it was all a big boon-
doggle, how 4 out of 5 defense scientists surveyed agreed it would
never work, etc. That was in Wednesday's paper. The entire back
page.
In all that verbiage, there was not one word in there, not a single word,
about the last two THAAD missile firings, both successful. I suppose
there was some bizarre line of reasoning that lead to the decision that the
fact that a feat has already been accomplished is irrelevant to the
arguement of whether or not it is possible.
The saaaammme daaaaay that the huge negative article was running, the
defense scientists at Sandia used a ground base laser to destroy an
incoming missile. Think about that for a minute. That story was
reported in the Merc, on page 10A, twoooo seeennnntences, one of
which was totally irrelevant to the event, having to do with Israelis
vs Lebanese or something. So. One sentence. Vs the back page.
I would have let it drop, but today they ran ANOTHER eeyore
article. you remember Eeyore, the donkey? Dismal, droopy
character, not extropian at all: "It'll never wooork, oh deeear,
woooe is meeee...", whereas Tigger is more my style, bouncing
around on his tail, always having fun and enjoying life: Woo hoo!
Wooo hooo!
So I fired off a letter to the editor, scolding him, asking if they
had anyone there at that paper who was responsible for *balance*.
In the Eeyore article, there was no actual news. All of it was
merely political commentary. When an actual news item happened,
they gave it two sentences. Was this the Mercury *News*, or was
it the San Jose Mercury Propaganda Sheet? Could they manage
to mix a little Tigger with the Eeyore?
I know some say the National Missile Defense could be made
to work but shouldnt. I guess we need to wait until a city
is actually nuked off the face of the earth to start developing
such a thing?
What say ye, extropians? spike
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