[Peace Is Coming]

bttt

[steve-b]

This defeatist attitude was born as the disarmament movement ridiculed any alternatives to their agenda. The sound Civil Defense strategies of the '60s have been derided as being largely ineffective, or at worst a cruel joke.

The 60s civil defense programs WERE an ineffective joke against the threat (a full strike from the Soviet nuclear arsenal) faced at the time. That doesn't mean that there's no point in trying to come up with a plan that would reduce the damage if some al-Kookba cell manages to cobble up a homebrew WMD.

By yielding to the temptation to settle an old grudge with a hearty nyah-nyah, the author severely weakens his case.

[parisa]

Thanks indeed.

[Chena]

BTTT

[Falconspeed]

Excellent resource.

[JoeFromSidney]

Get yourself a NUKALERT (I carry mine with me at all times) and several bottles of potassium iodide or potassium iodate (the latter digest more easily, but you need to take more of it). The stuff isn't that expensive. Keep some in your car, some in your medicine chest, some in your suitcase.

The KI or KIO3 is protective ONLY against radioactive iodine, but that's one of the most dangerous components of fallout. It gets absorbed by the thyroid gland. Saturating your body with non-radioactive iodine beforehand protects you.

[killjoy]

What possible good news could there ever be about nuclear destruction coming to America, whether it is dirty bombs, terrorist nukes or ICBMs from afar?

What are you people, on dope? I can't believe the USA has turned into a bunch of Chicken Littles running around telling everyone the sky is falling. Get a life people.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

OOOH a nuclear bomb! Will I still be able to get MTV?

And what will happen to network TV? I'll just die if I can't keep up with "Survivor" every week!

I sure hope we never have to face such an attack. Our material blessings have insulated us from some of the hard realities of life. We have thus been able to make death a mere dramatic device in movies and TV. But whether it's been danger from bands of Huns, the Assyrian army, Pol Pot or the pandemic Black Death, there's been numerous episodes of megadeath in human history. And the comforting thing is that in even all this, God is still in charge. As Jesus said in Matthew 6:19:

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on the earth, where rust and the moth consume, where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither rust nor moth consumes, and where thieves do not break through nor steal."

By all means we should prudently prepare to take care of ourselves and our families (especially if we still have our children to care for) But the best preparation while we lay up physical necessities is to meanwhile lay up treasure in heaven. That way even if the big ground zero is the ground right under our house, or if we're all reduced to living in grass huts with a 30 year life expectancy, we can rest easy because we have made preperation for our true home.

[bjcintennessee]

ping

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

I read somewhere that a 1-megaton attack on New York City would destroy 10% of the assets and kill 20% of the population, thus leaving the citizenry proportionally better off...

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

The public urgently needs to be instructed in Civil Defense basics, like the good news that thousands can be saved employing the old "Duck and Cover" tactic, without which most people will instead run to the nearest window to see what the big flash was just in time to be shredded by the glass imploding inward from the shock wave.

Naw, don't teach duck-and-cover; think of it as evolution in action.