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Opinion By Ted Baldwin
23 and Counting...

written: 5/24/99
Every once in a while you read something so idiotic you have to stop and take a deep breath.

Regarding the Cox report:

Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, appearing today on ABC's "This Week," said the committee's findings "are not conclusive yet" and that the problems are being corrected. "There was lax security in the labs in the 70s, the 80s and the 90s," Richardson said. "But we cannot politicize this issue. We cannot over-dramatize conclusions that are not conclusive yet." Richardson acknowledged that the Chinese stole nuclear secrets that "probably accelerated their design" of nuclear weapons. "But we have to put this issue in perspective," he said. "We have...6,000 warheads. The Chinese have 23." --Copyright 1999 by United Press International All rights reserved

Well now, that is good news. Only 23 multimegaton warheads. Here is your perspective for you.

  1. New York, specifically Manhattan Island.
  2. Los Angeles
  3. Chicago
  4. Houston
  5. Dallas/Fort Worth
  6. New Orleans
  7. Baton Rouge (because I am here, pointing out their 23 warheads, also 300 chemical plants)
  8. Boston
  9. Washington, DC
  10. Rhode Island (they can get a whole state; big publicity coup)
  11. Denver
  12. St. Louis
  13. Atlanta
  14. Miami
  15. Philadelphia
  16. San Antonio
  17. Seattle
  18. San Francisco
  19. Columbus
  20. Detroit
  21. Birmingham
  22. Cleveland
  23. Pittsburgh

The results, conservatively?

  • Loss of major intellectual, cultural, communication, manufacturing centers.
  • Loss of viable farmlands, interstate travel and transportation routes from destruction or contamination.
  • Loss of governmental infrastructure.
  • Loss of means to feed those not killed by the blasts - starvation.
  • No basic medical services within reach of blast centers - widespread illness.
  • Available supplies used up, contaminated, lost due to theft or fire.
  • Waterways damaged and contaminated.
  • Widespread loss of electronics due to electromagnetic pulse generated by blasts.
  • Widespread martial law, loss of basic liberties and free speech restrictions.
  • Besides myself, possible loss of Mr. Richardson and 100 million others, just for starters.

I would like to publicly thank Mr. Richardson for putting that into perspective for me.

The "conventional wisdom" that says it is better for there to be a
" balance" of power than for us to have it all is sheer lunacy. Why in God's name would we want Communist China to have power on a par with us? Does giving a bully a stick make him less likely to beat you with it? Must be their record on Human Rights...		 Amusing, isn't it?