Don Davis article

Yes, Don, I see I got you and Panama Red confused, sorry!

You wrote, commenting on my brilliant idea of all us anti-war folk
resolving to lead extra virtuous lives, especially regarding sexual
ethics, and thus de-arm the terrorists and use the money we'd save
for space programs, "Ha! I'm afraid the Moslem world would be
hostile to people going to the moon, something about desecrating a
sacred object (the Moon) by stepping on it."

But you see, we wouldn't tell them! It would look spontaneous! We'd
first re-criminalize the wholesale murder of unborn children (and
get ahead in the population game, too, which muslims are currently
winning by like four to one). Then we'd voluntarily hurt
pornographers in the pocketbook by absolutely refusing to buy their
products. And we'd get married and stay married. Man, they wouldn't
know what hit them!

'Cause we probably never never will win in Iraq or elsewhere in the
Muslim world, as you say. And they never never will quit. Because
unlike Vietnam which just wanted to be comfortable like the West but
by another economic path, Muslims don't want to be like us in any
way, fearing the social havoc our many freedoms bring, in their
demented way of seeing it.

But we wouldn't tell them our secret plan: to get the first space
colony with the money saved and then Party Down.

We could Out Muslim the Muslims, for space.

Hmmm?

Jan

--- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "Don Davis"
>
> --- In spacesettlers@yahoogroups.com, "janet_baker76"
> wrote:
> >
> > You restated Davis' point well,
>
> I am the author of the article.
> At the critical era of the mid 1960's America was at it's peak
of
> post war affluence, in our bravado we devoted resources to many
> initiatives, some which worked out and some which didn't. Vietnam
> became a sinkhole because major effort was put into protracted
limited
> warfare using up men and material to maintain an unstable status
quo.
> Because one intervention, that in Korea, resulted in a strong
Western
> friendly government with a thriving economy we though this could be
> repeated in the very different physical and culturel enviornment of
> Vietnam. The folly was obvious to many in the US, particularly
among
> the youth who were in line to be drafted.
> More signifently, the cultural divide which resulted in vastly
> different perceptions of the same events by millions of people in
the
> same country first really emerged at that time, and in the ensuing
> cacaphony aggresive space programs became a casualty of priorities
and
> cultural favor among too many important people. A condensed
attempt to
> grapple with this process can be found at:
>
> http://www.donaldedavis.com/DEC99NEW/DDs60s.html
>
> although space is not specifically addressed in that article.
>
> > Regarding Iraq, I would like to voice an opinion, too: that it
is
> > such an ideological war that it seems if we would cease so many
of
> > the activities that muslims object to and lead more virtuous,
family
> > friendly lives, we could save a whole, whole lot of money and
use it
> > on space projects.
>
> Ha! I'm afraid the Moslem world would be hostile to people
going to
> the moon, something about desecrating a sacred object (the Moon) by
> stepping on it...;-) Among the factors which will truly impact our
> ability to begin Space Migration are the wars in progress which sap
> our resources and periodically decimate portions of civilization.
I'm
> afraid the biggest current conflict trend is toward a clash of
> civilizations, the Islamic World against the West. This is
overtaking
> in my 'hazard index' our longest standing current war scenario, a
> military conflict with Mainland China. The 'Window of Opportunity'
to
> act on our grand dreams cannot be expected to remain open
indefinitely.