Ben and Jerry Meet Dr. Strangelove

This came up on my radar screen as much for the visual effect as for the politics.

People are always tossing out a trillion here, or a billion there, but the terms don't paint any kind of a picture.  Even charts and graphs -- lately finding a new vitality -- have a hard time when it comes to conjuring megatons. 

I'm not saying Ben is setting new standards, but I think he does a vivid job illustrating how close we can get to becoming phish food.

To see Ben do his thing, visit True Majority here.

(referral: Victoria at imtalkinghere.typepad.com)

Comments

[Cannuck]

Great ad.
Problem though, is that a massive amount of Americans spend their time and careers building/designing/engineering the machines to wipe other people off the face of the earth.

Galbraith called it The Culture of Contentment. Eisenhower called it The Military Industrial Complex.

They're the same thing.
America largely functions on this line of work and WalMart greeters.
Americans who vote will continue to vote for any party that won't take away what they feel they're entitled to. And Americans feel they're entitled to a lifestyle which, even were they successful in exporting the lowest possible form, (ie: "Poor Americans" are still far wealthier than most people on earth) would ensure that the world's resources would be gobbled up in a generation or two.
The idea of America re-evaluating its priorities after having spent the better part of the 20th century arming itself to the tits against "enemies" that didn't and don't exist beggars belief.

Not gonna happen.

Still, if one missile accidentally took out a large American city because Pvt First Class Rufus Dumbfuck forgot to bolt something down properly, there might be some contemplation on the whole value system - though I doubt it.

Me thinks the first thing that would happen in that ugly scenario would be to pin the blame on some other country (American Moduse Operandi #1) and then flatten the shit outta them; all the while, waving widdle flags and slapping themselves on the back for a "job well done".

Sign it sure - but don't hold your breath.

Too many would be jonesing for jobs at Lockheed so they can put little Ashley and Chip through a nice school...

[aethorian]

Nuclear weapons can be terribly beautiful in that quiet, unpretentious, world-destroying sort of way. However, 20,000 of them would get a little repetitive, especially after the audience has left (along with the theater).

Global Nuclear Stockpiles, 1945–2002
November/December 2002 pp. 103-104 (vol. 58, no. 06)
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Nuclear Warheads — 2002
• United States ... 10,600
• Russia ... 8,600
• China ... 400
• France ... 350
• United Kingdom ... 200
• Israel ... 200
• India ... 45-95
• Pakistan ... 30-52

Robert S. McNamara's count of U.S and Russian warheads is now less, but his article Apocalypse Soon in the current issue of Foreign Policy, warns that:

It is time—well past time, in my view—for the United States to cease its Cold War-style reliance on nuclear weapons as a foreign-policy tool. At the risk of appearing simplistic and provocative, I would characterize current U.S. nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. The risk of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch is unacceptably high.

This in a nutshell is what nuclear weapons do: They indiscriminately blast, burn, and irradiate with a speed and finality that are almost incomprehensible. This is exactly what countries like the United States and Russia, with nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, continue to threaten every minute of every day in this new 21st century.

On any given day, as we go about our business, the president is prepared to make a decision within 20 minutes that could launch one of the most devastating weapons in the world. To declare war requires an act of congress, but to launch a nuclear holocaust requires 20 minutes’ deliberation by the president and his advisors. But that is what we have lived with for 40 years.

Thankfully we have bigger nuclear threats to worry about today, like North Korea.

[atomicBridsong]

hahaha! Go Serendipity! I just had my own personal most awesome amzing experience watching this. I'm on a laptop, and I've been using it in my back room space for about two hours now.

I launched this video, and just as all the beads started raining hard my computer went, *beep* and the screen turned black! and the computer shut off! hahahahah! dead battery! hahahaha! It was perfect!!!

But, Great Public Announcement Spot even without the whole system shut down! Thanks for the link!