The life of a Californian is stressful to say the least! Not only do I have to worry about random freeway shootings, but now I have to worry about some megalomaniacal dictator dropping the bomb on my ass simply because I am within range.
Asked by Senator Hillary Clinton whether North Korea had the ability to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead, [Vice Admiral Lowell] Jacoby responded:
“The assessment is that they have the capability to do that, yes, ma’am.”
He said North Korea also had the ability to deploy a two-stage intercontinental missile that could successfully hit US territory. [Yahoo News]
To stress me out even further, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said this morning that we are overstretched in case we have to fight another war. The LA times reports:
The strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back new acts of aggression, launch a pre-emptive strike or prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff concluded in a classified analysis presented to Congress today.
Feeling rather afraid and hopeless, I made my way over to the website of the ONE institution that I can always rely on to make me feel safer. I wanted to know what I should do in case of a nuclear attack. This is what my government advises me:
I was confused. According to the picture above I can survive a nuclear blast that occurs less than a block away from where I’m standing?? Unlike the United States which (perhaps until now) has not been seriously threatened by ICBMs since the fall of the Soviet Union, India and Pakistan live under constant threat from each other. How do they advise their populations to prepare for nuclear hellfire? What advice does the government of India have for its citizens? Well I’m not exactly sure. I couldn’t find an official website (no surprise). I did however find this document on the feasibility of nuclear civil defense in South Asia:
We have looked at the effects of typical nuclear weapons believed to be in the arsenals of India and Pakistan, if used against a city. We showed that there is a combination of blast, thermal and prompt nuclear radiation that creates an inner zone around the nuclear explosion, out to distances of 1.5 km for a 10-20 Kt weapon, and about 3.5 km for a 200Kt weapon. Our analysis shows that for people unfortunate enough to be within this inner circle and exposed to the full impact of the explosion, there is no defense.
Sh*t. That’s not very comforting AND it flies in the face of what the Department of Homeland Security is telling me. The plot below that I found in the South Asian assessment didn’t assuage my fear either. “Human Organs…destroyed?”
The life of a Californian sure isn’t what it used to be. Maybe I should just find a nice girl and make use of what’s left of my time.
