SALT of the Earth: I held off sending this because it is extraordinarily serious. Then I watched NBC News with Brian Williams talking about the preparation one can do if confronted by a nuclear blast. Is NBC News kidding when they had Brian Williams say "maybe duck and cover wasn't such a bad idea". Really? Really, Brian Really? Our government does NOT tell us the truth. We could not even cope with Katrina which would make a nuclear blast look tame. I was So enraged by this utter NONSENSE story I decided to send the following. Make sure you DO click on the link below to UNDERSTAND what nuclear war really means!

I send this link below not because I am a pessimist, although I often am, but because I am an optimist too as the reality of nuclear war is so unfathomable, so utterly devastating, so easily could wipe out civilization on earth and even, perhaps, obliterate the earth itself, that I believe man, as inhuman as he can be at times, will be sane enough to realize nuclear war is not only unwinnable but unsustainable to life itself.

Others responded to my sentiments I sent previously to the NYTimes site and one included this link below which I think all should study. I am sure there will be those who will ignore the site because it is so frightening and that is everyone's prerogative. I say, ignore it to our peril. It is why this latest SALT treaty signed by President Obama awaiting ratification by the Senate is so gravely important. It is, though, certainly not an end to the nuclear threat but part of the beginning looking forward to the end. All foreign policy experts from all sides of the political spectrum all over the world want it. It should be ratified in as short a time as it takes to send this link.

This anti-nuclear link is phenomenal. I have never seen anything quite like it because of its thorough complexity and user friendliness. It is why everyone, everywhere in all corners of the globe should push for an end to global systemic and unsurvivable war. All war even conventional war has the potential, in our age, to lead to nuclear war. This site is a testament to the mind of man. If man's mind can create such things surely our minds can work for the greater good.

We are the only ones who can stop this madness and stop it we must and, CERTAINLY, duck and cover will most emphatically NOT be enough! I attach the link below but caution those whose children are computer savvy that this may be disturbing. This is, however, the reality we face and as Openheimer, the director of the Manhattan Project during World War II which created the nuclear bomb, said when he was interviewed about it later on a television program:

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.' "

Two quotes from "Nuclear Darkness"

Deterrence will continue to work only as long as all sides remain rational and fear death. Many extremist groups, however, are undeterred by any credible threat of retaliation, regardless of how large that threat might be. And history is filled with examples of irrational leaders and decisions which lead to war. Nuclear weapons combined with human fallibility not only make nuclear war possible, they will eventually make it inevitable.

Should we choose to accept the assertion that “there is no realistic path to a world free of nuclear weapons”, then we sentence the children of the world to a dark future indeed. We must instead reject this 20th century mindset, which is still driving us towards the abyss, through an understanding that nuclear weapons pose a threat to the human species.

I think this just about says it all!

http://www.nucleardarkness.org/index2.php

THINKING FOR ONCE: The New York Times printed an article today (December 16, 2010) entitled “US Rethinks Strategy for the Unthinkable” (Link below) which is about surviving a nuclear blast. Through interviews of various “experts” the article suggests that more can survive a nuclear blast by not leaving one’s house but by going to one’s basement. Yes, that’s right … one’s basement! The article states:

"Taking shelter in a place with minimal protection, like a car, would cut [the death] figure to 125,000 deaths or injuries. A shallow basement would further reduce it to 45,000 casualties. And the core of a big office building or an underground garage would provide the best shelter of all."

I promised a relative I would not use caps. Forgive me this lapse. The NYT article was so explosive to me (pardon the pun) I could not help but break my new promised rule just one more time. I blogged in less than my usual perfect prose (I jest) on the NYT’s site the following:

Excuse me but can I say something impertinent? This article is NUTS! Are you really kidding me? Running to one's basement MAY reduce harmful radiation and maybe more could be saved but the question is who would WANT to be saved and in what kind of Twilight Zone world would we be surviving?

I remember well the "duck and cover" age of the 1950’s. I look at past newsreels of these "teachable" moments on old films of it and laugh. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? School kids ducking and covering under a desk to "save" themselves from a nuclear blast is, to say the least, LUNACY.

Assuming we are "saved”, what kind of disruption to society do the bright bulbs in our government or ANY government think will make surviving simply the radiation a prudent goal to "save more than we think?"

Guess what you unthinking lack of cerebral ability robots? A basement will NOT save you! A nuclear BLAST -- a true BLAST -- will destroy MOST EVERYTHING of what we know and count on to survive in life. Even the article itself states

“A nuclear blast produces a blinding flash, burning heat and crushing wind. The fireball and mushroom cloud carry radioactive particles upward, and the wind sends them near and far.”… Moreover, a bomb’s flash would blind …”

Where will the supermarkets go? How will food be delivered? Will it be uncontaminated by radiation? What will happen when the gas stations explode or the oil is not delivered or worse non existent? What if the electricity is gone? What if the media is unable to broadcast or no one can tune into an HTDV or ANY TV? I assume Brian Williams may be hiding in his basement too or he may be dead! What if the police get killed and the police stations are destroyed? Let’s talk about doctors and hospitals. Are the doctors somehow caring for the injured while they expose THEMSELVES to radiation? Are the hospitals destroyed as well? Where will they practice medicine? What about sanitation, what about going to the bathroom, taking a bath, or doing ALL the routine things one does to make life livable. And oh yes, what about the children, granny, aged relatives, the disabled, and, of course, our pets? I assume they will just fend for themselves in fine fashion. Yes, let's just all huddle in our basements that will save us -- NOT.

Nuclear war is NOT an option and it is NOT survivable as much as insane men cannot wait to push the button to see the fireworks or employ their "that'll teach ya" message. It teaches nothing except it teaches death and it teaches that man lives on a precarious balance as a fiddler on the roof every day. Yes, sending us all to our basements (and by the way MY basement has no heat or water and I live in snow and ice area) will do VERY little if society is blown apart from the blast and firestorm.

Moreover, if, God forbid, it did happen here I ASSUME the nation would retaliate. If Iraq is any indication of what kind of conventional war the US wages think about what the US would unleash on ANYONE who tried a NUCLEAR blast on this country? Whatever carnage is sent to us multiply the retaliation by 10,000 or 50,000. Their civilization and ours will be GONE in the instant it takes to push the poisonous button. Hiroshima was an example of a SMALL bomb. It was an atomic bomb and not a hydrogen bomb which is much worse. I assure YOU and THEM it is NOT heaven that will await.

The question becomes NOT how to survive the blast but who would WANT to survive the blast. Count me as one of those who does not! Now it's morning here and I think I will eat my oatmeal -- while I HAVE it!


http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/science/16terror.html#