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#135215 11/14/04 10:58 PM
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Laika was a female, Plutarch. And something I had forgotten, she was one of many dogs shot into space by the Russians.

http://dogs.about.com/cs/generalcare/p/space_dogs.htm

I remember the horror felt in the United States by the launch of the first Sputnik. It was as if our whole nation had been judged and found wanting in terms of the science education given to my generation. We were all of us certain that Communists would parachute from satellites and take over our country.

People who did not live through those times usually don't have a good grasp on just how serious the cold war and the arms race were. Those of us who were in school from about 1952 or 1953 through hmmm, let's see, at least the Cuban missile crisis will never forget practicing taking cover under desks and in enclosed hallways, as if that would do one damned bit of good in the event of a nearby a-blast.

We all remember the national despondency when our first three or four attempts to put a satellite in orbit failed live on national television, just as we thrilled to hear JFK's challenge to "send a man to the moon and return him safely to Earth before the decade is out."



TEd
#135216 11/15/04 01:59 AM
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Oh, the memories of Sputnik! My mother was young...twenty-five years old; I was seven. She made golden sputniks to hang on our Christmas tree, golden sputniks to hang from the dining room light; she had sputnik-making parties, glue everywhere and jars of gold paint and glitter. She embraced sputniks and the excitement of the period. I really didn't experience the fallout from Sputnik until I was thirteen-years old in Fairfax County where I encountered 'the new math'--and I remember distinctly liking the new math much better than the 'old.' Cannot imagine why. It was there when the Cuban missile crisis occurred and I began to hear about bomb shelters and the possibility of World War III. That's when the 'Russian nightmares' began for me.


#135217 11/17/04 09:52 PM
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Laika barking and dieing alone in outer space. My heart breaks just thinking about it. How cruel and utterly sad. I think I was happier in my ignorance about that.


#135218 11/18/04 11:35 AM
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Well, when you stop to think what they were doing to their own human citizens at the time, I suppose killing off dogs by suffocation could almost be seen as kind ...


#135219 11/21/04 11:40 AM
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when you stop to think what they were doing to their own human citizens at the time, I suppose killing off dogs by suffocation could almost be seen as kind ...

Good point*, Capfka.

The same comparison could be made between the gulags in Siberia and the "ethnic cleansing" in West Darfur today.

The only difference is that today we know what is going on and we have the means to stop it, and we look the other way.

Perhaps if it was happening in outer space, we would take more interest in these preventable atrocities.

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2004/sudan0504/6.htm#_Toc71531703

* Subject to this caveat, Capfka. It can never be "seen as kind" or "almost kind" to cause suffering to any sentient life, whether a dog or a human. But sometimes such measures can and must be tolerated when they are undertaken for therapeutic reasons, or, in the case of animal research, to advance human civilization or human health.

I hope you will understand any suffering I may have caused you personally, or anyone else on this Board, in that light, Capfka.

#135220 11/21/04 02:45 PM
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Twat


#135221 11/21/04 02:57 PM
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You make my case more eloquently than I could ever have made it for myself, Capfka.

You are hung on your own canard.

I take no pleasure in it.


#135222 11/21/04 07:46 PM
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And I take exception to your constant, pointless, contentless multiple posts. Take the hint, big boy.


#135223 11/21/04 09:34 PM
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Take the hint, big boy.

Ah, Capfka. Will you never learn?

Offer no offence, and none will be offered to you.

There is a flip side to that equation, however.

And, one more thing, Capfka. If you must pick on someone, pick on someone your own size.

Your odds are better.



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