Word: shields
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With scant public debate, the U.S. is on the verge of building an ever more costly missile shield. You are forgiven the doubletake. You are not, however, back in the Reagan era with its dream of a Star Wars anti-missile defense system. Reaganites and indeed many Russians believe Ronald Reagan's threat to develop such a system contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union (a thesis examined by historian Frances FitzGerald in her recent book Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan and Star Wars and the End of the Cold War). Critics then scoffed at the viability...
Last week the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that a system with 250 land-based interceptors, backed by many congressional Republicans, would cost $60 billion--more than double the $25.6 billion the Pentagon projected for a 100-interceptor system. The U.S. space shield's satellites would detect the launch of an enemy missile and cue ground-based radars to find it. Data on its path would be downloaded into the interceptors before their launch from mainland Alaska bases, with updates radioed to them in flight. Four interceptors, fired two at a time, would be dedicated to each incoming warhead...
...discuss homosexuality, some care deeply about it. Opponents of gay equality--not just Scout officials but also Fundamentalist Christian landlords who don't want gays to move in, and conservative charitable groups that don't want to serve gays--are increasingly using the First Amendment as a shield. At the heart of these conflicts is this question: If all Americans must eventually associate with gay people, even in a close-knit setting like a Scout troop, how will some continue to express their contrary moral views about gays...
Medical benefits, according to McCavana, are "standard at Harvard." He says TFs are provided with Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance...
...many companies obey the rules, others still try to use waterways as dump sites. American environmental-enforcement officials have been bombed, shot, run over and sued while trying to perform their duties. But the most demoralizing blows invariably come from their employers: the Governor or commissioner who wants to shield a political contributor or recruit polluters to the state by shutting down environmental enforcement. Some environmental cops must dodge both bullets and their bosses to protect the public from pollution...