The sole practical result of the [ABM] program, over the whole of its existence, has been to pour money into the pockets of American defence contractors. [1]
God Bless Stupidity.[2] You often have to get it wrong to get it right. Both sides have been terribly overcharged by their respective military-industrial complexes for more than 60 years, and the financial drag on each economy now dominates any conceivable threat they bear each other. The US and Russia are both waste deep in economic quicksand and they have to shed themselves of the excess weight of those silly WMDs immediately or they’ll sink out of sight.
Yes, Doomers, it was a typo, but I couldn’t bear to correct it 
———————
[1]: "U.S. and Russia are pressing the "reset" button", by Gwynne Dyer, Georgia Straight, March 7, 2009.
[2]: "Button gaffe embarrasses Clinton", BBC, March 7, 2009.
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John,
You are soo right. The powers at be are so greedy, they will stop at nothing. Please read the click on the link below
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090227/Bird_Flu_090227
I do not think this was an accident.
Twist,
Sorry that I did not include you (especially with your science backround)
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20090227/Bird_Flu_090227
surak -
I’ve got a modest science background too. In the spring of 1972 I was completing my training as a medical lab tech, and they gave us a tour of the new regional TB lab. I happened to note an obvious flaw in their setup (there was a hatchway from the media room into the max-infective area, and two workers had both ends of the thing open at the same time chatting). Let’s just say that my observation after we got back to the community college was not met with great enthusiasm.
Well, lab work in the Maritimes, and I’m sure elsewhere, is still not suffering from an overabundance of whistle-blowers or strict quality control. Botched tests in Newfoundland and (I think) New Brunswick that had been going on for years are still being straightened out. The power-dynamics aren’t really all that different from the circumstances that frustrated Markopolos.
Anyway, my helping-professions career didn’t last very long, but at least I did discover the fundamental theorem of organic chemistry while I was at it. What you lose on the swings, you gain on the roundabouts (*sigh*)
Surak-
Having spent a little time in the lab myself, I tend to be a big believer in Hanlon’s razor. [Especially since it seems like a majority of my college lab reports dealt with why what should have happened didn't happen.]
twist -
Knew the saying, but not the name for it. Wikipedia has a discussion, and my favorite variant there is “Grey’s Law,” obviously influenced by Arthur C. Clarke, that “Any sufficiently advanced incompetence is indistinguishable from malice”
Igor thinks we’re all a little “mad,” or else he’s making a comment about Madoff.
John and Twist,
Thanks for the feedback. I guess I have a hard time believing that major corporations could be that incompetent. I tend to believe more that greed is a driving factor.
Igor says nogood
The Associated Press would like Americans to believe that our representatives have no clue what they are doing. Judging from comments on the various message forums Americans are gullibly buying the simplistic explanation that our State department supposedly doesn’t know how to translate the word “reset” into Russian. Nonsense! The Russian word peregruzka appears at the top of the button, spelled in latin letters. If this was meant to be a literal translation, why would the letters be in Latin? The english translation for this word is “overload” and anyone that knows how to type a few letters into an online translation website can easily figrue that much out. An english word appears below the button and that word is “reset”. These words do very much make sense together: when something is overloaded (like a circuit), you reset it.
Continued here:
http://rebellionbrewery.com/?p=312
That reset button is the dumbest thing I’d seen in the news all week. Everybody wants to be a hero.
rb (#7) -
Regret the delay. I have no idea why Igor put you in spam jail, but now he’s “sad.”
I just hope that the superpowers don’t decide that war has gotten countries out of economic problems before, so it’s worth trying again.
That’s a depressing line of thought, though, so here’s a cute, happy, video of a bunny.
See, isn’t that so much happier than the military/prison industry complex? Not a lot of practical value, but there’s enough bad news out there for the moment.