Ethics

The Eternal Cluelessness of Phyllis Schlafly

By Ed Brayton

Here's an amusing column from the ever-dull Phyllis Schlafly. She claims that the Navy shooting down that satellite a couple weeks ago proves Ronald Reagan right that missile defense works:

The U.S. Navy gave Ronald Reagan a dramatic 25th anniversary gift on Feb. 21. A Navy missile raced into outer space and destroyed an orbiting satellite, thereby providing new proof of the vision President Reagan proclaimed in his then-sensational televised address on March 23, 1983.

While the Navy SM-3 missile didn't knock down an incoming nuclear missile, the direct hit on a satellite proved again that U.S. anti-missile technology is mature and reliable, and that an effective anti-missile system is within our grasp. Traveling at 6,000 miles per hour after being launched from a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser in the Pacific, the SM-3 missile was even more accurate than anyone had predicted because it struck precisely at the satellite's dangerous fuel tank.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).