Posted on 06/24/2005 10:54:52 AM PDT by ExSoldier
The best way to survive a nuke blast in that region? Simple. Be on the same phone-tree as Christopher Hitchens.
But, since you won't be on that tree, get a copy of Dean Ing's "Pulling Through" at your favorite used book emporium. Best dollar you ever spent this week.
Back to Hitchens -- click on my name to read his "Night of the Weak Knees" excerpt on my profile page.
Then, pucker.
Well, the upside would be instant term limits across the board ;-)
Don't bet on it.
These are the kind of people who weren't impressed with a $25 million reward for the capture of OBL -- but, would have been wowed by an offer of 25 goats -- something of real, tangible "value" that they could wrap their minds around.
We are dealing with denizens of the dark ages -- literally. Unfortunately, they are armed with munitions of the modern era.
When the USA and the USSR armed to the teeth, it was with the idea of maintaining a standoff -- a stalemate. A deterrent.
The efficacy of that deterrent depended upon the sanity of both parties to the standoff.
The Russians, for all their faults, were sane. They didn't want to incinerate their posterity.
Contrast that to the recent bust in the U.K., in which a "nice" Muslim family (their neighbors waxed eloquent about what nice folks they were), who planned on using their baby as a vehicle for blowing themselves up in an airliner.
Totally different value system. Totally insane value system.
How do you invoke a deterrent against a foe who WANTS to die?
Simple answer: You don't.
I'll stop now. I don't need a crayon to draw a picture of exactly how ugly, exactly how bleak the situation is.
Our choices are slim, and repugnant to a civilized society. Our penalty for doing nothing but wait for the "default condition" is even more brutal.
God have mercy on our civilization.
The power is out; most stations are off the air. But government transmitters and a few private channels will be broadcasting on backup generators. And everything and everyone, from satellites to Energy Department survey planes to local firefighters, are trying to track the fallout plume. At some point — in minutes with good planning, in hours without it — those little battery-powered radios will come alive with urgent bulletins: where the cloud is drifting, what areas should evacuate, what roads are open, and where people can find shelter or decontamination sites.One terrorist attack of this kind would be a nightmare -- but a manageable nightmare.Then -- just as the first responders arrive on the scene -- the eerie wail of the Emergency Broadcast System begins again. The annoucer's voice is tight: Long Beach has gone off the air, he reports, and witnesses on the outskirts of Charleston, South Carolina and Houston, Texas are reporting "tremendous explosions and great heat".
"We've got to strike back!" exclaims the Vice President into the pickup of his secure phone. From his sleek black armored SUV in Wyoming the signal leaps to a satellite 22,300 miles overhead, then back down a secure channel to the deep room beneath the White House where the President sits. As the voice comes through the speakerphone, a Navy corpsman is bandaging the President's cut face.
Through the blood in his mouth, the President replies. "Strike back? Against who?"
That's why the terrorists won't limit themselves to just one.
And they won't put out a press release announcing to the world where to aim the missiles at, either. Instead, the parties who carried out the attack will melt coyly into the background. "World opinion" will force the President to hold off on any "vengeful and arbitrary" retaliation "unless and until the true perpetrators of this disaster" can be "found and brought to justice".
There is no way a U.S. president is going to nuke anybody in reply unless he (or she) is 100% certain that the prospective target was the source of the attacks -- and there is no way a president can ever be 100% certain. And so, with bombs going off in city after city, and no one claiming reponsibility, the president will be required to decide between striking back at "the usual suspects" and facing the outrage of every nation in the world for his "unwarranted and barbarous genocide of innocent people" or concentrating the nation's resources on rescue and rebuilding -- and allowing whomever bombed us to get away scot free.
He (or she) will certainly choose the latter. Politics will demand it.
Don Joe,
I just read the excerpt on your FReeper page, Night of the Weak Knees. Wow. Just wow. ===>
QUOTE:
'But I shall not forget how some of those in supposed authority decided that the end had come, and made it a point to keep it to themselves and their immediate friends, perhaps to stop the crowding of the roads. THAT'S HOW IT WILL BE ON THE DAY OF ARMAGEDDON, and that's why the citizen should always plan to outlive the state, rather than the other way round.'
END QUOTE
Don Joe, thanks again.
jm
I read The Night of the Weak Knees.
Why am I not surprised? At least we outnumber the politicians.
Puts all the "no indications of terrorism" pronouncments (issued within nanoseconds of various "events" -- often prefixed with "we have no idea of the cause, but, we have"), eh? (And, curiously enough, the "events" as a rule seem to be precisely the sort of thing they'd a week or so prior warned everyone to be on the alert for, due to their monitoring of "chatter". Gee, what a weird set of coincidences -- over and over and over...)
Likewise the flippety-flop "she had a screwdriver, matches, gel, and made statements about AQ" regarding the "useful idiot" from Vermont with the "boyfriend" in Pakistan the other day. (Who was it that said never to believe anything until it's been officially denied? LOL!)
If you haven't already seen it, go rent a copy of "Miracle Mile" some time.
Then there are the munitions (secretly?) stored in County buildings. In the same rural county (same as the one with the AM station ref'd above), when I was doing a lot of consulting work for the County gov't, their computer "top dog" told me that she was responsible for "the guns" (didn't go into a lot of detail, other than to mention a bunch of rifles etc.) that "the government" had issued to the County as part of the old Civil Defense program. Apparently they were never "un-issued", and from what I gathered, no one had any idea of what they wre for! Seemed like they were just "there", and she was responsible for them (kept locked up in the basement), but there were no plans etc. for their deployment.
Kinda shocked me. I'd thought I had a fairly reasonable understanding of the old CD programs, but I'd never heard anything about munitions being squirreled away around the country by the feds.
You really DON'T KNOW how crazy this death cult is do you?...
Suggest: SLAPPING yourself and getting your mind right..
For a newer car, the same would go for the "box". Might not hurt to pick up a spare "electronic control module" at the junkyard (try it out to make sure it works!), and then keep it wrapped in foil. (Likwise with the spark coil(s), and, if your car has fuel injection, spare injectors, in the event that the solenoids driving them get fried).
Other "wouldn't hurt to keep on hand" spares would be the alternator, voltage regulator, starter (and starter solenoid, and, if used in your vehicle, starter relay), electric fuel pump, fan blower motor (never underestimate the value of heating and windshield defrosting in cold weather!), and, wiper motor. Then, things like lights (and, for the headlights, the headlight relay).
Another consideration would be sparkplug wires. Resistor wire could end up as a hollow "smoked" capilary tube, as the carbon resistance/conductor was vaporized.
The more modern the vehicle, the more "electronicified" it is, the more components there are that would be subject to failure, i.e., if some critical sensors are fried (i.e., the crankshaft position sensor), you are dead in the water, even IF the main computer and everything else is OK (or, in lieu of "OK", is replaced with a "tinfoiled" spare.)
Depending on your proximity to an EMP (and the strength of the event), some or all of those components could fry. The first to go would of course be semiconductors -- but remember, your alternator has several diodes in it -- and your voltage regulator is also comprised of semiconductor components (unless it's a circa 1960's/70's or earlier dual-relay type -- which would fail with a stronger EMP).
With enough of a "pulse", even heavy-gauge magnet-wire devices like starter motors could fail (even if the damage "only" consisted of heavily arced commutators).
Next time, don't tell them your Freeper handle.
<g,d&r>
In typical Washington-area weather, Virginia, Montgomery County in Maryland, and most of the District itself are not in the fallout path at all. People in the path could conceivably walk out of the fallout zone in the 10 or 15 minutes before the dust begins to fall — if they know which way to go.
With the cold war and 5,000 nukes, it was kiss your behind good-by. With Muslims, and maybe 3 or 4 bombs, pack up, and if possible, walk away. This is a great oldie...
What Supreme Court ruling?
Every dark cloud does have a silver lining .. but I still would not want this to happen to anyone.
Bump
This is the Threat we are facing.
And the Enemy must know without a doubt....
Every man, woman, child that is muslim will be dead within hours of the event. There will be not muslim country left, from Africa to Indonesia.
I will have as much pity for the innocent muslim as the innocent muslim has for us.
"Who wants D.C. to survive? It is a dangerous cancer that a Chinese nuke would be doing us a favor."
Errr My kids live in the DC area!!
Ok, I've got to ask ... WHY? Radiation therapy for cancer?
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