Its not even April 1st.
Jeffrey
----- Original Message -----
From: "David McInerney" <davidmci67@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <poststruc-radpols@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 3:14 AM
Subject: Fw: divine intervention
>
> --- begin forwarded text
>
> WASHINGTON-President George W. Bush announced an initiative to develop a
> faith-based missile defense. "For too long, military planners have been
> denied the use of the supernatural in attempting to protect American
> citizens from attack," Bush declared today in a speech to the National
> Association of Amateur Submarine Captains. "There is no reason why we
> cannot maintain a healthy separation of church and state while still
> calling on divine intervention for the Pentagon budget. Faith-based
missile
> defense will be constitutional and fully consistent with the way the
> Founding Fathers expected this great nation to handle ICBM threats," the
> president said.
>
> The faith-based defense would be nondenominational and designed to protect
> Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Wiccans, as well as Christians, officials
> said. (For technical reasons, it is unclear whether nonbelievers can be
> protected.) Pentagon sources say the system is code-named Rapture.
>
> Initial plans call for Rapture components to be hidden in the steeples of
> churches, which are about the size and shape of rockets, and possibly in
> Catholic cardinals' miters. "If we put a Rapture anti-missile missile in
> every church steeple in America, even small towns will be defended, and
the
> spending will be distributed to all congressional districts," an informed
> official said. The schedule for development and construction is uncertain,
> depending on how quickly cost overruns can begin.
>
> White House officials insisted the system would pose no threat to the
> religions of other nations and said that leadership at the Vatican,
> Constantinople, Mecca, Amritsar, and other key world-faith sites would be
> fully briefed on the project. "However there is some concern about what
> would happen if this technology fell into the hands of the Lubavitchers,"
> one senior aide said.
>
> While operational details of the system are apparently still being worked
> out, during an attack by an ICBM launched by a "rogue state" or possibly
by
> Marc Rich, computers for the faith-based system would rapidly activate a
> "prayer circle" of persons who will register with a database as being
> willing to pray for national survival. Automated cell phone and
> instant-messenger messages would instruct the persons in the prayer circle
> on the altitude, azimuth, velocity, and orbital trajectory of the incoming
> threat; they would then employ prayer to guide the Rapture defensive
> missiles to the intercept point. "It's a pretty cool concept
> technologically, although there is a danger of fire when each missile
> blasts out of its housing in the steeple," one official said.
>
> Critics said the system could be fooled if incoming warheads were
> surrounded by a cloud of Torahs, Korans, Upanishads, and Gospels as
decoys.
> In secret tests conducted last month on a remote Pacific Ocean island, a
> prayer-circle guidance team proved unable to distinguish between a dummy
> nuclear warhead and a specially reinforced hymnal when both were
> re-entering the atmosphere at speeds in excess of 8,000 miles per hour.
>
> President Bush also authorized the creation of an Office of Faith-Based
> Research and Development at the Pentagon and named evangelist James Dobson
> to head the project. (Lockheed Martin will provide management services.)
> Dobson told reporters that he envisioned moving the Defense Department
> beyond tanks, fighters, and aircraft carriers into an entire new
generation
> of faith-based munitions. "Lightning and swords will be the weapons of
> Armageddon, so America must begin to stockpile the most lethal,
> technologically advanced blades and energy-bolt projectors that our
science
> can design," Dobson said. "Saddam Hussein isn't working on plutonium, he
is
> trying to develop seven-headed dragons and gigantic armored locusts. We're
> going to have a little surprise ready when he tries to use them."
>
> Dobson displayed a prototype faith-based infantry weapon-a gilded staff
> that, he said, could hurl a powerful lightning bolt, scorching into powder
> whatever it was pointed at. He urged onlookers to try the weapon at a
> hastily arranged demonstration range. But when several reporters attempted
> to fire the staff, nothing happened. "That's because you're all
> journalists," Dobson said. "It only works for believers."
>
> Separately, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that George W. Bush
> favored changing the slogan on U.S. coinage and tender from "In God We
> Trust" to "God Help Us." This phrasing "better reflects the president's
> feelings about the coming four years," Fleischer said.
>
> --- end forwarded text
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> DAVID F. RUCCIO
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Department of Economics Tel: 219/631-6434
> University of Notre Dame Fax: 219/631-8809
> Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA http://www.nd.edu/~druccio
>
>
Jeffrey
----- Original Message -----
From: "David McInerney" <davidmci67@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <poststruc-radpols@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>;
<foucault@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 3:14 AM
Subject: Fw: divine intervention
>
> --- begin forwarded text
>
> WASHINGTON-President George W. Bush announced an initiative to develop a
> faith-based missile defense. "For too long, military planners have been
> denied the use of the supernatural in attempting to protect American
> citizens from attack," Bush declared today in a speech to the National
> Association of Amateur Submarine Captains. "There is no reason why we
> cannot maintain a healthy separation of church and state while still
> calling on divine intervention for the Pentagon budget. Faith-based
missile
> defense will be constitutional and fully consistent with the way the
> Founding Fathers expected this great nation to handle ICBM threats," the
> president said.
>
> The faith-based defense would be nondenominational and designed to protect
> Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Wiccans, as well as Christians, officials
> said. (For technical reasons, it is unclear whether nonbelievers can be
> protected.) Pentagon sources say the system is code-named Rapture.
>
> Initial plans call for Rapture components to be hidden in the steeples of
> churches, which are about the size and shape of rockets, and possibly in
> Catholic cardinals' miters. "If we put a Rapture anti-missile missile in
> every church steeple in America, even small towns will be defended, and
the
> spending will be distributed to all congressional districts," an informed
> official said. The schedule for development and construction is uncertain,
> depending on how quickly cost overruns can begin.
>
> White House officials insisted the system would pose no threat to the
> religions of other nations and said that leadership at the Vatican,
> Constantinople, Mecca, Amritsar, and other key world-faith sites would be
> fully briefed on the project. "However there is some concern about what
> would happen if this technology fell into the hands of the Lubavitchers,"
> one senior aide said.
>
> While operational details of the system are apparently still being worked
> out, during an attack by an ICBM launched by a "rogue state" or possibly
by
> Marc Rich, computers for the faith-based system would rapidly activate a
> "prayer circle" of persons who will register with a database as being
> willing to pray for national survival. Automated cell phone and
> instant-messenger messages would instruct the persons in the prayer circle
> on the altitude, azimuth, velocity, and orbital trajectory of the incoming
> threat; they would then employ prayer to guide the Rapture defensive
> missiles to the intercept point. "It's a pretty cool concept
> technologically, although there is a danger of fire when each missile
> blasts out of its housing in the steeple," one official said.
>
> Critics said the system could be fooled if incoming warheads were
> surrounded by a cloud of Torahs, Korans, Upanishads, and Gospels as
decoys.
> In secret tests conducted last month on a remote Pacific Ocean island, a
> prayer-circle guidance team proved unable to distinguish between a dummy
> nuclear warhead and a specially reinforced hymnal when both were
> re-entering the atmosphere at speeds in excess of 8,000 miles per hour.
>
> President Bush also authorized the creation of an Office of Faith-Based
> Research and Development at the Pentagon and named evangelist James Dobson
> to head the project. (Lockheed Martin will provide management services.)
> Dobson told reporters that he envisioned moving the Defense Department
> beyond tanks, fighters, and aircraft carriers into an entire new
generation
> of faith-based munitions. "Lightning and swords will be the weapons of
> Armageddon, so America must begin to stockpile the most lethal,
> technologically advanced blades and energy-bolt projectors that our
science
> can design," Dobson said. "Saddam Hussein isn't working on plutonium, he
is
> trying to develop seven-headed dragons and gigantic armored locusts. We're
> going to have a little surprise ready when he tries to use them."
>
> Dobson displayed a prototype faith-based infantry weapon-a gilded staff
> that, he said, could hurl a powerful lightning bolt, scorching into powder
> whatever it was pointed at. He urged onlookers to try the weapon at a
> hastily arranged demonstration range. But when several reporters attempted
> to fire the staff, nothing happened. "That's because you're all
> journalists," Dobson said. "It only works for believers."
>
> Separately, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that George W. Bush
> favored changing the slogan on U.S. coinage and tender from "In God We
> Trust" to "God Help Us." This phrasing "better reflects the president's
> feelings about the coming four years," Fleischer said.
>
> --- end forwarded text
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> DAVID F. RUCCIO
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Department of Economics Tel: 219/631-6434
> University of Notre Dame Fax: 219/631-8809
> Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA http://www.nd.edu/~druccio
>
>