Posted on 09/06/2009 7:04:14 PM PDT by immadashell
I have just finished reading William R. Forstchen's new novel One Second After. Briefly, it is about the instantaneous breakdown of American way of life as the result of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) which disables the nation's electrical grid as well as all sophisticated electrical components in cars (they stop), planes (they crash), telecomunications of every sort, etc. leaving the population in a world similar to that of the Eighteenth Century. Shortages of every variety create societal strains, chaos, death and destruction in a matter of weeks and months. Forstchen's book (with a forward written by Newt Gingrich), while fiction, creates a scenario which can happen to us today, since the technology already exists. The possibility of this devastation has been largely ignored by our politicians and media, and, to a lesser extent, by the military. Only a very small proportion of our citizens has ever heard about EMP. Even fewer have taken measures to deal with it. Experts on the subject have no doubt about whether we will have to eventually face such an attack. They only question when it will occur.
After reading this book, my first thought was we spend billions (potentially trillions) of dollars preparing for a hypothetical calamity we are powerless over like global warming and yet ignore preparing for this ultimate weapon of asymmetrical warfare.
I highly recommend this very frightening but readable new book. It is science fiction (#1 on Amazon) today but could be reality One Second After.
Who needs an EMP when we have a president who will achieve the same goal.
Sounds real uplifting ... read it before bed and never sleep again.
Sounds interesting. Thanks for the scoop. I may pick up a copy.
I don’t want to think about this kind of stuff. If things go badly i’ll go out in a blaze of glory defending my stuff. I’ll be like the guy riding the A-bomb out out the bomb bay (can’t remember his name)
In the book the president dies because Air Force One has not been hardened against EMP and crashes.
I read it shortly after it was published. It is a sobering and IMHO probably quite accurate prediction of what this country would be like in a post-EMP situation.
I also believe that more than likely this is exactly what Ahmadinejad has in mind for us.
MM
. Dr. Strangelove
That was the movie. Slim Pickens was the actor.
Sounds like a fairy tale. In reality, I see AF1 delivering the EMP.
I read the entire book and I recommend it highly for you guys to so!
It provided much sobering thought how a simple weapon can wreck such civilization as we know it!
And that weapon exists today!
Think about it!
No this was a cowboy...Studs terkel, no that’s not it. damn it’s on the tip of my tongue...
Major “King” Kong was the character.
Thanks!! I didn’t realize that was the movie.
Patriots is another post apocalyptic book that illustrates survival methods.
On my shelf already. Just haven’t gotten to read it yet.
That was Slim Pickins as Major T.J. “King” Kong going down with him bomb.
For 45 extra bonus points, What was the target of his bomb?
The actor's name was Slim Pickens. One of my favorite character actors from the sixties.
Too bad life isn't quite like that. It is Hobbesian. Nasty, short, and brutish. But these fools still believe the ‘police’ of today believe in service when they taser granny, or blow a pastor away in the foolishly named ‘drug war’.
They will be the first to be killed by that Hobbesian world, because they are the weak fools that think todays society is geared to protect them from the ‘bad guys’.
Fools. But they still think themselves superior. Too funny. They will die wondering what the f**k happened.
Read it a couple months ago. Highly recommended.
That was a scary, scary book, especially for an insulin-dependent diabetic. I immediately starting researching propane refrigerators and found out that RVs have them. One thing, the author doesn’t know any women who garden - I fell over laughing when he wrote about searching out old women who still remembered the lost art of canning. That was about the only bright moment in the book.
Aw jeez, I couldn’t even remember the name of the movie!!
Major “King” Kong was the character, Slim Pickens was the actor...Dr. Strangelove was the title and a character....Stanly Kubric was the director.....
That says it all! The enemy is in The White House.
Thanks for the book recommendation! I’ll have to check it out.
The ICBM complex at Barshaw.
You beat me to it.
“the instantaneous breakdown of American way of life” started the minute Obammy was elected.
lol I’m 39...and I can can. (Not to be confused with the Can-can dance.)
Seems like it would be a lot easier to wake up and find the electricity out than to turn on the TV every morning and find what new damage the failure in chief is doing.
Well YEAH - I think most of us gardeners do. He just doesn’t know any. But that really was the only light moment in the book, and it was unintentional. Don’t read it at bedtime.
What in the wide wide world of sports is a going on here? Y’all dancin around like a bunch of Kansas City faggots.
You mean that Slim Pickens?
Thanks for the reminder. I heard the author interviewed on one of the radio talk shows...very knowledgeable guy.
Quick question: Is the damage done after an EMP permanent or temporary? That is is the car’s computer and circuity and alternator fried completely, or is it stunned and then resets and can be used again. What about computer circuitry?
Slim Pickens, I think.
I put that one on my wish list. Must see if I can find it cheap somewhere.
I read it. Scared me, but I recommend it.
I had a discussion with a guy I used to work with (well educated, liberal) about the importance of being a “prepper.”
He couldn’t understand why. I used the example of the electrical grid completely shutting down, grocery store refrigeration being down, hospitals with no electricity. I said it would be a survival situation, you’d need protection and food and water.
He said, no, no, no, because we are all so interdependent, we will all come together and we’d get over such a situation in no time.
All I could think was Katrina, though I didn’t bring it up.
I was amazed at the core difference between those who depend upon and look toward various forms of Collectivism for their survival and those who rely on themselves.
God Bless our Navy and Country.
I learned about EMP in the 80s while on active duty. A 1MT device detonated 400 miles over Kansas would take out every computer chip from Maine to Baja California, not to mention the power grid and most of the stuff connected to it. Tens of millions would be dead of starvation within a couple months. This is the ultimate doomsday scenario for our miserable “what about me” culture. Not very many positives in the scenario. And with nuclear proliferation ... and many who feel they “have nothing to lose”... it will happen eventually.
The Congress was briefed EMP in the 80s, and it was after the briefing that they passed a unanimous resolution to proceed with ABM (anti-ballistic missile). That’s the way I heard it, anyway.
Unsurprisingly, Zero wants to kill the ABM program, the only thing that could prevent the EMP attack.
Extraordinary book. Hopefully for future printings they figure out that “would of,” “should of,” and “might of” are not correct. It’s an error made throughout the entire book, which is odd because it’s otherwise well-proofread.
Permanent.
A 1MT device detonated 400 miles over Kansas would take out every computer chip from Maine to Baja CaliforniaI beg to differ. Present thinking has a different perspective on this ...
Damage would be permanent. Small wires/traces/pathways melted. Anything requiring surge protection would be internally surged to death by the pulse wave, unless inside a significant ferrous metal enclosure.
Yup, that’s our guy... on a side note my old John Deere tractor with points will run OK I think.
Fried completely, forever.
I had repressed that memory. It drove me half insane reading it.
I found it in the library.
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