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An excess of nationalism
Trinidad News ^ | 10/09/2004 | Gwynne Dyer

Posted on 10/09/2004 7:37:48 PM PDT by KevinDavis

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I don't know what the hell his problem is...
1 posted on 10/09/2004 7:37:50 PM PDT by KevinDavis
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To: RightWhale; Brett66; xrp; gdc314; sionnsar; anymouse; RadioAstronomer; NonZeroSum; jimkress; ...

2 posted on 10/09/2004 7:38:31 PM PDT by KevinDavis (Let the meek inherit the Earth, the rest of us will explore the stars!)
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To: KevinDavis

"The problem is not the fact of American nationalism-a huge surge of nationalist sentiment was inevitable in the United States after the appalling events of 9/11-but the in-your-face coarseness with which it is increasingly being expressed. A psychologist might wonder how much this is driven by the need to deny the inevitable relative decline in America's power over the coming two or three decades, as first the Chinese economy and then the Indian grow to rival the US economy in size. In any event, triumphalism has become a normal mode of expression right across the US political and media spectrum in the past few years."

This guy is full of it.


3 posted on 10/09/2004 7:41:17 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar (Who would the terrorists vote for?)
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To: Jet Jaguar
to quote "team america,"

AMERICA! EFF, YEAH!!!!

4 posted on 10/09/2004 7:42:47 PM PDT by wildwood
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To: Jet Jaguar

"This guy is full of it"

Yes, but, more importantly, it's an overt display to hide the real resaon.............Jealousy!

Goooooooooooo.....Burt!


5 posted on 10/09/2004 7:46:46 PM PDT by Puckster
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To: wildwood

Well I for one am proud to live in a country where dreamers and entrepreneurs can do what they did in the mojave desert. What is so wrong with being proud of that? I'm glad I'm not a european who lives on a decaying continent whos governments stiffle the lives, dreams, creativity and entrepreurial spirit of their people. I for one am proud that we are different then the rest of the "developed" world and share a common spirit and bond with our countrymen and are proud to be American's! It has served us well over the last two centuries.


6 posted on 10/09/2004 7:51:22 PM PDT by elephantman96
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To: KevinDavis

> I don't know what the hell his problem is...

It's right there in the first sentence:

"... SpaceShipOne, designed, built and flown by American
private citizens ..."

This "London-based independent journalist" evidently
would have preferred that the prize be won by the
nationals of some other country.

And it could have been - the contest was open world-wide -
but it wasn't.

The ironic thing is that the SS1 success is both grand
and embarassing for the US. Yes, US citizens did it,
but they also did their whole program, with three
launches, for less than the incremental cost of one
Space Shuttle launch, and probably less than the
adjusted program costs of the X-15.


7 posted on 10/09/2004 7:52:47 PM PDT by Boundless
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To: KevinDavis; AmishDude
Luddites are on the Internet now?? =o)

Next the Amish!

8 posted on 10/09/2004 7:55:32 PM PDT by GeronL (I was gone for about 2 months. I was depressed and sad. I am back now and am trying to get my wings)
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To: Boundless

NASA could duplicate SS1 for 10 times the cost


9 posted on 10/09/2004 7:56:45 PM PDT by GeronL (I was gone for about 2 months. I was depressed and sad. I am back now and am trying to get my wings)
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To: elephantman96

Stick to rum and cigars, Gwynne.


10 posted on 10/09/2004 8:07:40 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks
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To: Boundless

This is why most of the space program should be turned over to private business. The government should not be involved much at all except for creating the overall goal. For example, we want a moon base? Offer a corporation a $10 billion prize for the first to create one that functions within certain parameters. Same with a mars mission. Turn it over to private business and entrepreneurs. Those that are willing to take some risks and think innovatively. Look, this is not a knock against NASA, it has done some great things, and continues to do so from time to time, however, being a bureaucratic mess, it is massively inefficient.

Look at SpaceShipOne, what an incredible success story, because they could make a business case for it, and they had innovators who were willing to take chances. I loved the Discovery Channel show on the program. When designing the ship they decided they needed some hand holds so Rutan sent an engineer to the junkyard to get some off of old cars "because they make some pretty good ones". NASA probably would have spent $1 million to put 10 engineers on it, do 100 tests and develop the most ergonomically perfect handhold ever designed, let alone whether it is necessary. Just put a $5 handhold on there!


11 posted on 10/09/2004 8:10:01 PM PDT by elephantman96
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To: KevinDavis
When the World Values Survey asked the citizens of fourteen countries if they were "very proud" of their nationality in 1999-2000, no European countries except ultra-nationalist Ireland and Poland reached the fifty per cent mark. Americans ended up at 72 per cent...

This guy doesn't know much about Americans does he?

It could be that our love of country is why we pull other countries out of trouble instead of them helping us out.

When Americans do something exceptional they boast about it and thank God for it. That's something a modern European doesn't get, so they watch our achievements and write articles whining about our nationalism.

12 posted on 10/09/2004 8:22:29 PM PDT by Noachian (A Democrat, by definition, is a Socialist.)
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To: Boundless

> This "London-based independent journalist" evidently
would have preferred that the prize be won by the
nationals of some other country. And it could have been ...

Indeed. Several non-US groups are reasonably close, including Da Vinci of Canada. Personally I hope the Canadian Arrow team is successful. Of all the designs, theirs is the one that screams "rocketship" the loudest.


13 posted on 10/09/2004 9:16:36 PM PDT by orionblamblam
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To: elephantman96

> The government should not be involved much at all except for creating the overall goal.

Well, that and basic research, NACA-style. The government can afford to spend millions developing some new technology - a new propulsion system, for example - that private industry would not dare risk.


14 posted on 10/09/2004 9:18:44 PM PDT by orionblamblam
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To: KevinDavis
I don't know what the hell his problem is...

Volatile mix of envy, jealousy, and frustration.

15 posted on 10/09/2004 9:22:49 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: Boundless

There was a time when European engineers and invetors in various countries WOULD compete with one another in making achievements. The philospohies they live by nowadays don't promote competition and invention.


16 posted on 10/09/2004 9:28:06 PM PDT by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: KevinDavis

Once again, a uro-peon doesn't like being second to Americans. How's it feel to sleep under an AMERICAN moon? It ain't your flag standing on the surface.


17 posted on 10/09/2004 9:54:17 PM PDT by Brett66 (Dan Rather, the most busted man in America.)
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To: KevinDavis
Gwynne Dyer is Canadian, I believe. He had an antimilitary book and film series (shown on PBS, of course) called War decades ago. He's a rather brainless conventional leftist, a true believer in silly utopian ideas about one-worldism and seething with hatred for America.

to deny the inevitable relative decline in America's power over the coming two or three decades, as first the Chinese economy and then the Indian grow to rival the US economy in size

The U.S., like every other country in history, will decline and eventually fall (a process that is being hurried along by adopting just the sort of social beliefs Mr. Dyer holds) but it takes a sick mind, twisted by all consuming hate, for a westerner to gloat over the prospect of China becoming the world's most powerful nation.

18 posted on 10/09/2004 11:13:28 PM PDT by jordan8
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To: KevinDavis
Let us imagine for a moment that it had been a Japanese team, not an American one, who were the first to get their space vehicle up twice in a fortnight and win the Ansari-X prize. And suppose that the successful pilot had then climbed up on his vehicle, unfurled a huge Rising Sun flag, and thanked his ancestral gods that he lived in a country where such a thing was possible. You might not have said anything out loud, but what would you have thought in private?

Not a damn thing, Gwynne. Not a damn thing, other than 'attaboy.' But I do get a nice snapshot of your own point-of-view from your question....

19 posted on 10/10/2004 5:35:40 AM PDT by atomicpossum (If there are two Americas, John Edwards isn't qualified to lead either of them.©)
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To: orionblamblam

> Several non-US groups are reasonably close,
> including Da Vinci of Canada.

And a couple of these teams have had some spectacular
test failures. With the competition now over, and the
deadline rendered moot, I'd like to think that the
alternative designs will now take some extra time to
stay safe.


20 posted on 10/10/2004 8:59:57 AM PDT by Boundless
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