North Korean Nukes

Vader has his Death Star. Dr. Evil had his "Death Ray." Kim Jong Il has his nukes. Small nukes, granted (1 kiloton is considered a small tactical nuclear weapon in our arsenal) but nukes nonetheless. Run away. Hide the kids. Ready the survival bunkers-- we have enough condensed milk and hash to survive the coming storm!

Seriously, what is it we are afraid of, again? A short, odd-looking madman has come into possession of a weapon that has the potential to kill hundreds of people at a time. I'm sure the wepons he has already sold to fellow dictators and terrorist groups around the world has killed thousands more, and besides, al Queada already borrowed some of our own planes to do more damage than that.

But nuclear weapons have radiation and, you know, you can't see it and it's icky. This is the same line of reasoning that has kept us from lessening our reliance on foreign oil by expanding our nuclear power generation capacity. Like radiation is any more dangerous then CO2 emissions our toxic smog. Like allowing our economic future to be held hostage by camel-humping towelheads is any worse then the possibility of another 3-Mile Island. Less then 100 people died as a result of that accident; how many more have died in Iraq?

But we fear nukes-- unreasonably, in my opinion-- so our politicians must roar and bluster and blame. And we must cower and hide and tremble. The mighty United States, brought trembling to it's knees by what is, compared to our power, a mere firecracker. Iran must be loving this.

Personally, I'm a lot more terrified of missing a payment on a credit card or watching the Bears lose to Arizona. My fears, while more mundane, are eminently more likely to cause me grief then are the nuclear weapon of Kim Jong Il.