On Thu, 08 Feb 2007 20:52:27 GMT, "Bob Weinberger"
wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
On 8 Feb 2007 02:11:48 -0800, "riverman" wrote:
snip
I think the bottom line is there are lots of folks at least two places,
the Navy and NASA, that don't want too many folks realizing that they
spent millions and millions of (tax-payer) dollars testing and training
a loony, who they then let play with billions and billions of
(tax-payer) dollars' worth of toys.

TC,
R

You're probably right about that. The problem is that there is often a very
fine line between people with the type of overachiever personality, that is
best suited to those types of NASA and Navy positions, and those people who
suddenly go off the deep end. Though only anecdotal 8), all three people I
have known who suddenly went off the deep end, without any other outward
indications that they might do so, were overachievers and somewhat
perfectionists. One of them was a Navy Captain who, all who knew him
agreed, was on a fast track to make Admiral. Like the current case in the
news, his also involved a love triangle - killed his former girlfriend, her
new boyfriend, and attempted to kill himself, all with a hunting knife,
after making detailed plans of how he would do so.

I'd offer that I'd find no reason to disagree with most of the
above...well, up until the part about the double-murder-attempted-
suicide part evidence of much with regard to others, anyhow. I've known
a fair share of people that shared one of more of high-intelligence,
high-achiever, and/or perfectionist traits, and I've seen plenty of
folks of every personality type and mental ability put into high-stress
situations, both real and self-induced. What I've noticed (also
anecdotally...) is that it isn't so much that this type or that type
freaks when the **** hits the circulator, it's that those standing
around them tend to be able to make less sense of it when it was someone
_they perceived_ as somehow golden, versus when it someone who they
"just knew was a bomb waiting to go off..." IOW, smart and
outwardly-promising doesn't provide an telltale of mental stability.
That's why I look at, generally, Captain Pampers being just an another
example of plain old garden-variety nuts.

TC,
R

Bob Weinberger La Grande, OR