Talk-Polywell.org

George W. Bush in the State of the Union tonight:

"So I ask the Congress to double Federal support for critical basic research in the physical sciences and ensure America remains the most dynamic nation on earth."

/drool

... starting FY2009, no doubt, when he's no longer in office. Bush was happy to do this with the planned manned mission to Mars. Also, Bush has a history, dating back to his tenure as the governor of Texas, of talking up some program or other and then slashing its budget.

If you scaled back the war even a little, you could easily double physical sciences research funding and still take steps in the direction of fiscal responsibility (i.e. a balanced budget).

Either you're with us, Joe, or you're with the terrorists.

A major attack on the US will cost a heck of a lot more than the current war budget.

Al Queda committed its resources to the battle in Iraq. Those resources, personnel, and morale are now shredded.

Iraqi democracy is well on the way. I gather that support for the Iraqi parliament is as least as high as support for the US Congress 11%. It is starting to have influence on the surrounding countries.

It is not an either or proposition. We have gotten all the easy gains out of the microprocessor revolution and biotech is not yet delivering enough to push the next wave.

We need a miracle.

I propose we get hot on cheap fusion power. If we can reduce the cost of electrical energy by 4X to 10X we can make oil replacements for less than it costs the Saudis to drill and refine oil.

We do have enemies out there. What we need to do is to cut seriously into their profits. Defeating them culturally and militarily helps with the required attitude changes.

Here is how it has worked. There is nothing like living at the hand of your friends to drive you into the arms of your enemy.

No doubt Iraq has been a disaster. A useful disaster for all concerned. Al Jazeera no longer speaks so glowingly of Al Queda. I call that progress. The US Army has learned how to fight in the Middle East. It is getting two more divisions. The Marines are getting a couple of more brigades.

What is the Navy getting? NADA.

I believe it is past time something was done about that. Onward and upward with WB-7. And engineering, and simulations. The Navy needs our help.

Plus it would be nice to have transportation fuels (for equivalent energy) under $2 gallon.

MSimon wrote:Al Queda committed its resources to the battle in Iraq. Those resources, personnel, and morale are now shredded.

"Al Queda" is not a monolithic worldwide organization. They don't all head down to the Bad Guys League and discuss strategy every night.

Oh my God.

scareduck wrote:Either you're with us, Joe, or you're with the terrorists.

I think Joe hates America.

Nah, he's just exercising his democratic right to free speech.

Regards,
Tony Barry

If I read comments about politics from MSimon (but not only him) here on Talk-Polywell forums, I am getting goose bumps. MSimon, I really admire you and respect you for all your scientific work and for your determination in making Polywell work, but I am heavily incompatible with your political views. And I think I am not alone, nearly every European (and I hope at least 50% of Americans) don't share your views (in fact, they have nearly opposite views).

If I look what George W. Bush (and other Republicans) done, I think Founding Fathers of the United States must rotate in their graves. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

scareduck wrote:

MSimon wrote:Al Queda committed its resources to the battle in Iraq. Those resources, personnel, and morale are now shredded.

"Al Queda" is not a monolithic worldwide organization. They don't all head down to the Bad Guys League and discuss strategy every night.

Decentralized organizations can have unity of purpose.

Osama or who ever was impersonating him declared Iraq to be their #1 concern.

http://www.mnf-iraq.com/images/stories/ ... slides.pdf

Here is my frame: suppose the French in 1936 had marched against Germany's re-occupation of the Rhineland. Suppose WW2 in Europe had been averted?

What would the history read like today? Unwarranted attack on Germany causes untold suffering? Wounds of WW1 reopened? French Imperialism must be resisted? Hasn't Europe had enough of war?

Sadly in History you can only do the experiment once and the rest must be accomplished by analogy. Which is never wholly satisfactory.

On the whole I prefer electrons.

Update: url added

Mikos wrote:If I read comments about politics from MSimon (but not only him) here on Talk-Polywell forums, I am getting goose bumps. MSimon, I really admire you and respect you for all your scientific work and for your determination in making Polywell work, but I am heavily incompatible with your political views. And I think I am not alone, nearly every European (and I hope at least 50% of Americans) don't share your views (in fact, they have nearly opposite views).

If I look what George W. Bush (and other Republicans) done, I think Founding Fathers of the United States must rotate in their graves. Remember what Benjamin Franklin said:

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

But Mikos. We in America look at who brought us Communism, Fascism, National Socialism, with a current resurgence of the National Socialist strain due to your inability to integrate your "guests" and think, "Those yahoos are at it again and will cause us to have to go in for a third time and clean up the mess." Europe is still too tribal for its own good.

Fortunately we are gaining recent experience in Iraq on how to solve tribal frictions and will be glad to repeat the process in Europe when you guys get desperate enough.

Demographics is destiny. Europe is not reproducing. Soon you will be old.

America seems to be holding its own now. Stuck at about age 35.

There will be a Master of the World. The British held the job for a few centuries and didn't do too badly, all things considered. India has turned out well. Even the USA is OK. Canada, Australia. China is finally righting itself after accepting British Influence (Hong Kong).

America's record is similar, except we go the Brits one better. We do not try to hold territory for gain. Only until self government is attained and then we reduce to maintenance levels.

The World will have a Master (maybe we can get over that in 100 or 200 years) for the simple reason that tyranny is way too dangerous. It produces too many malcontents. And these malcontents are not always clear about the true cause of their problems.

So given that some one has to keep a lid on trouble who would you prefer? America? China? or Russia? "No one" is not a correct answer because power vacuums will be filled. At least until everyone sees the stupidity of that. Unfortunately everyone is not so enlightened at this time.

Most Unfortunate.

MSimon: "No one" is correct answer for me. Or even better: "everyone". I will not comment rest of your article, because like I said my opinions are too incompatible with your political views and I don't want to start flamewar or something like it.

Like I said, I really respect you for your scientific work. I have only wanted to express my political opinions here, nothing more.

Btw. do you know PoliticalCompass.org? This is great project, you can see where you are really standing in political spectrum. My results are Economic Left/Right: -5.63, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.54 (it's close to Gandhi and Dalai Lama - you can look at those two diagrams with historical persons HERE and HERE).

Mikos wrote:MSimon: "No one" is correct answer for me. Or even better: "everyone". I will not comment rest of your article, because like I said my opinions are too incompatible with your political views and I don't want to start flamewar or something like it.

Like I said, I really respect you for your scientific work. I have only wanted to express my political opinions here, nothing more.

Btw. do you know PoliticalCompass.org? This is great project, you can see where you are really standing in political spectrum. My results are Economic Left/Right: -5.63, Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.54 (it's close to Gandhi and Dalai Lama - you can look at those two diagrams with historical persons HERE and HERE).

I have an interesting political history. Democrat in the 50s early 60s. Then communist for a decade or two. Drift. Then hard core Libertarian for a decade or so (Secty/Treas of my local club for 3 years). 9/11 turned me into a neo-con. I can give you the exact time. 4 seconds before the second plane hit. So I know all the arguments from all sides.

At this point in time the neo-cons (self government for everyone by any means necessary [they still have that lefty tendency ;-) ]) seem to have the best argument. Obviously I'm open to change. However, I've yet to see a good argument for:

1. Do nothing - especially nothing militarily
2. Surrender to the inevitable

BTW as long as there are unrestrained alpha males "none" is not an option. The last time we got into one of those utopian loops (1930 to 1939) we got something unexpected (1939 to 1945).

I'd rather we didn't repeat that performance.

MSimon: I am only curious, what do you think about inland politics and acts of George W. Bush and Senate or Congress in last years (after 2001)? I live in country where we had totalitarian regime for 40 years (my father fought for freedom, he was dissident), so I am sensitive to this. And I see that personal freedoms slowly vanishes in USA. In my opinion, USA is slowly becoming totalitarian regime (slowly adopting some fascist political elements - I mean fascist as strictly political term, this has nothing to do with nazism or racism, it characterizes political regime with high economical freedoms, but low personal freedoms). This politics of fear is really horrible.

And again, like Benjamin Franklin said: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.