Physicist Robert Bacher Dies at 99!

Henry Spencer wrote:
In article ,
Jim Oberg wrote:

A lot of people, better informed (i.e., not hollywoodized), believe
that nukes prevented the BIG ONE with a paranoid Soviet Union.
They made war, big nation-to-nation war, literally unthinkable, and
scared world leaders into uneasy 'peace' for half a century.


Indeed, a period of over half a century with no war between the major
powers is historically *very* unusual.

In many major countries, two whole generations have grown up without being
marched off en masse to die. Many people are even starting to believe
that this state of affairs is normal and proper, which is a very hopeful
sign.


There used to be two great powers with Mutual Assured Destruction
holding each in check.

Now the U.S. is the single great military power. The gap between the
U.S. and the 2nd greatest power is large. And will grow much larger if
the Bush administration achieves the goals set forth in New American
Century's paper "Rebuilding America's Defenses".

If one of the goals “the ability to assure access to space, freedom of
operations within the space medium, and an ability to deny others
the use of space” is achieved, the U.S. will have supremacy.

What then would be the deterrence to prevent the U.S. from abusing its
power?


(This was arguably the single biggest factor in the fall of the Soviet
Union: it started to come apart because two generations had passed since
the last invasion, and so the Soviet people and leaders increasingly had
no memory of what it was like and no real conviction that the threat was
credible.)


--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

"Hop David"
What then would be the deterrence to prevent the U.S. from abusing its
power?

Give examples of what you would consider abuse of overwelming power.

In article ,
h (Rand Simberg) wrote:

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 11:58:09 -0700, in a place far, far away, Hop
David made the phosphor
on my monitor glow in such a way as to indicate that:


What then would be the deterrence to prevent the U.S. from abusing its
power?

What it has always been--the American people.

(Damnit, why do I let myself get drawn into **** like this?)

That's not an overwhelmingly strong deterrent, is it, in light of the
results of the recent election when few seemed to care how much their
freedoms have eroded in recent years, nor how much power to snoop into
private lives the U.S. government has seized in its' vain effort to
ensure "security" and "safety".

Bah. Go ahead and invoke Godwin's Law, I don't care; Hitler was
elected, too. :-/

--
Herb Schaltegger, B.S., J.D.
"Never underestimate the power of human stupidity."
~ Robert A. Heinlein
http://www.angryherb.net

Jim Oberg wrote:



What then would be the deterrence to prevent the U.S. from abusing its


power?

Give examples of what you would consider abuse of overwelming power.


Forcing the French to eat McDonald's hamburgers under the threat of
nuclear annihilation.
And now, Hardee's fields The Doomsday Burger:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...ixnewstop.html
When will this mad escalation end?
How many megatons of cholesterol is enough?
How many more H-Gutbombs do we need, given that we already have massive
"Overfill" from our existing triad of supersized burger (SSB),
supersized fries (SSF), and supersized soft drink (SSSD)? :-)

Pat

Rand Simberg wrote:




What then would be the deterrence to prevent the U.S. from abusing its
power?



What it has always been--the American people.


Why don't you ask the Native American people how well the American
people treated them? :-D

Pat

Rand Simberg wrote:
On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 13:50:02 -0600, in a place far, far away, Pat
Flannery made the phosphor on my monitor glow in
such a way as to indicate that:


What then would be the deterrence to prevent the U.S. from abusing its
power?



What it has always been--the American people.


Why don't you ask the Native American people how well the American
people treated them? :-D


A stain on our history,

Then you admit the American People _haven't_ always been a deterrence
from abuse of power?

unlikely to be repeated.

After our war with Mexico, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo gave property
rights to those Mexicans who had homes and ranches on what then became
U.S.A. territory. These property rights were thrown out the window to
accomodate the influx of fortune hunters during the California Gold
Rush. In my opinion, this crime against Mexicans was a repetition of the
same crime commited many times against the Native American people.

Now we prevent
genocide, and are abused for doing so.

And this proves that the American People have always deterred abuse of
power?

--
Hop David
http://clowder.net/hop/index.html

"Pat Flannery" wrote in
Why don't you ask the Native American people how well the American
people treated them? :-D

Far, far better than they treated each other --
I guess your 'history' has been PC'ed too...

"Hop David" wrote in message
After our war with Mexico, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo gave property
rights to those Mexicans who had homes and ranches on what then became
U.S.A. territory. These property rights were thrown out the window to
accomodate the influx of fortune hunters during the California Gold
Rush. In my opinion, this crime against Mexicans was a repetition of the
same crime commited many times against the Native American people.

ROTFLOL!

So those Anglos (few of them the ancestors of today's Americans)
were thieves for not preserving the 'ownership' of the thieves
who had stolen the land from the Navajo (who, the Hopis point
out, stole it from them -- but the Hopis don't want to talk about
the humans who were in the land first, but as DNA shows,
contributed nothing to current gene pools -- something 'Hopi'ed'
to them, perhaps).

So whose land are today's Americans in the process, or in the
threat of, stealing?

Too bad for the ravaging plagues among the New World nations,
a tragedy that would have followed any sustained contact, either way,
by any sea-faring culture. Fortunately in the balance of ethical results,
European medicine has saved ten lives for every life lost in that
epididemiological holocaust. That's a better balance sheet than
any other culture anywhere on this planet.

"Pat Flannery" wrote in message
...
Why don't you ask the Native American people how well the American
people treated them? :-D

I'm a native American, and I've been treated alright.

Hop David wrote:


A stain on our history,


Then you admit the American People _haven't_ always been a deterrence
from abuse of power?


Then there's that little insurgency in the Philippines in the wake of
the Spanish-American war, when the Filipinos suddenly discovered that we
weren't there to liberate them, but to transfer the ownership of their
country from Spain to the U.S., as our new coaling station for our
Pacific fleet.
Let's see, what were the causality figures on that little escapade again?
Ah, yes: http://www.historyguy.com/PhilipineAmericanwar.html

CASUALTY FIGURES:

U.S.-- 4,234 dead and 2,818 wounded.

Philippines-- 20,000 military dead and 200,000 civilian dead.
(approximate numbers). Some historians place the numbers of civilian
dead at 500,000 or higher.

Just think....if the Navy had never switched from coal to oil, we maybe
would today have around 100,000 troops in Wales, liberating it from the
foul tyranny of Queen Elizabeth II and her suspected weapons of mass
destruction.
....and the poor Welsh wouldn't even have a volcano that could erupt and
make us leave.


After our war with Mexico, the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo gave
property rights to those Mexicans who had homes and ranches on what
then became U.S.A. territory. These property rights were thrown out
the window to accomodate the influx of fortune hunters during the
California Gold Rush. In my opinion, this crime against Mexicans was a
repetition of the same crime commited many times against the Native
American people.


Our enlightened administration of Cuba also had somewhat unexpected
consequences....didn't it, comrade?



Now we prevent
genocide, and are abused for doing so.


And this proves that the American People have always deterred abuse of
power?


We're on good terms with China, and we know exactly how they deal with
the concept of democracy.
You can still probably smell "democracy" on the treads of some of their
tanks.

Pat