tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post8530859605050115642..comments2023-08-27T06:53:36.768-06:00Comments on LANL: The Rest of the Story: Frank Younghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02134775226991383924noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-29211491773039512972009-01-20T14:41:00.000-07:002009-01-20T14:41:00.000-07:00"Only a few more hours left until Obama takes cont..."Only a few more hours left until Obama takes control of America along with the backing of a very liberal Democratic party. This should get very interesting. Pass the popcorn.1/19/09 9:00 PM"<BR/><BR/>Market down 330 today. I don't think it responds well to political speeches.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-48711853592346664112009-01-19T21:00:00.000-07:002009-01-19T21:00:00.000-07:00Only a few more hours left until Obama takes contr...Only a few more hours left until Obama takes control of America along with the backing of a very liberal Democratic party. This should get very interesting. Pass the popcorn.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-31298042863206130012009-01-19T06:01:00.000-07:002009-01-19T06:01:00.000-07:00"For one reason, they are capable of annihilating ..."For one reason, they are capable of annihilating most cellular life on earth..."<BR/><BR/>Perhaps he's referring to Cellular Phones :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-51801238945461208322009-01-17T22:53:00.000-07:002009-01-17T22:53:00.000-07:009:04 pm: "Nuclear weapons are morally reprehensibl...9:04 pm: "Nuclear weapons are morally reprehensible misappropriations of human creative power on the greatest of scales. For one reason, they are capable of annihilating most cellular life on earth..."<BR/><BR/>Huh? "Cellular life"?? Would you care to define that phrase (in other than liberal-speak, perhaps in real scientific language)? And please give references to your claim of destroying all such life? Come on, at least try to be a member of the real world, not just of Santa Fe (or San Francisco, the Santa Fe of the West).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-996295210143820572009-01-17T22:50:00.000-07:002009-01-17T22:50:00.000-07:00My point in the concluding paragraph of my previou...My point in the concluding paragraph of my previous comment, 9:20, was that the US largely provoked North Korea into developing nuclear weapons via a decades-long pattern of coercive diplomacy and military threats (threats fortified by the Korean War experience). Meanwhile, the US has contributed to the starvation conditions in which millions of North Koreans are living by enforcing economic sanctions.<BR/><BR/>Nothing I wrote regarding North Korea was a defense of the leadership of that country, which I described as "authoritarian." <BR/><BR/>Unfortunately, US policy historically has helped create the conditions for exactly this kind of regime to hold the reins of power there.<BR/>http://www.amazon.com/Origins-Korean-War-Vol-Liberation/dp/0691101132/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232255060&sr=1-3<BR/><BR/>Rather than continuing to pursue the same coercive diplomacy as has been the trend for decades, the US government should actively support the "Sunshine Policy" that former South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung has promoted since 2000 -- in other words, progressive steps toward peaceful reunification. The Agreed Framework negotiated in 1994 was actually a step in the right direction from the US side. <BR/><BR/>Getting back to the original point of this discussion: Sadly, the politics of anti-nuclear nuclearism make it unlikely that the US will head back in that direction any time soon.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-36544985471915146142009-01-17T21:20:00.000-07:002009-01-17T21:20:00.000-07:00North Korea is a criminal state that starves its p...North Korea is a criminal state that starves its people and is run in an almost Mafia fashion.<BR/><BR/>That you would defend them, Will Parrish, is reprehensible. I hope you have the fortune to live in a totalitarian state like North Korea some day. It might open your eyes. Perhaps you should plan on visiting there for your next family vacation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-70081378052920593322009-01-17T21:04:00.000-07:002009-01-17T21:04:00.000-07:00"What established US position on nuclear weapons d..."What established US position on nuclear weapons developmewnt has ever been subject to this ridiculous 'selling' strategy??"<BR/><BR/>Try all of them. Nuclear weapons are morally reprehensible misappropriations of human creative power on the greatest of scales. For one reason, they are capable of annihilating most cellular life on earth, a rubicon the US and the USSR/Russia have nearly crossed on multiple occasions. The vast majority of people in the world recoil at them -- always have. That fact compels the spear carriers of nuclear-armed hegemony to promote a "declared" policy that is much different from "actual" policy (distinct categories expressed by Paul Nitze in 1956), which invariably means varying degrees of "selling."<BR/><BR/>The neutron bomb, ABM/Safeguard, Star Wars, Stockpile Stewardship, RRW -- it's hard to fathom how anyone familiar with these programs could possibly argue that they weren't subject to promotional propaganda designed to win the support of key political actors, including politically influential segments of the US public. <BR/><BR/>And that's only to mention some of the most egregious examples.<BR/><BR/>As a newly retired plasma physicist at Livermore recently told me, "Remember this whenever you listen to Lab managers and other nuclear weapons lobbyists; their mouths will fill with whatever combination of words they have calculated will soften the mental faculties of their critics, the congressional committees they appeal to and the public, to get the money. Whatever any of them say, there is no other purpose -- really."<BR/><BR/>In relating that quote, I understand that the idea of nuclear weapons lobbyists, much less Los Alamos and Livermore managers as nuclear weapons lobbyists, probably doesn't exist in the worldviews of most people who read this blog. But you don't have to take it from me. Harold Agnew described it nearly as succinctly when, for instance, he bragged about how he talked Jimmy Carter out of pursuing the CTBT in the '70s. You may consider Agnew an anachronism, but at least he was being sort of honest about the "selling" aspect of his job -- a far cry from his successors in that respect.<BR/><BR/>6:44 a.m., please clarify. Are you really trying to say that the US' nuclear weapons stockpile is inferior to North Korea's, or is that just how it comes across?<BR/><BR/>By the way, if you don't want a post-colonial state run by an authoritarian government to develop nuclear weapons, try killing roughly one-fourth of its people (Korean War), threatening to nuke it eight times, positioning roughly 600 nuclear weapons roughly 20 miles from its border for upwards of three decades, enforcing sanctions that consign millions of its people to conditions of near-starvation, revoking a carefully crafted give-and-take diplomatic agreement whereby its leaders previously agreed not to develop nuclear weapons (Agreed Framework, 1994), labeling it a member of the "Axis of Evil," and soon thereafter invading one of the two other states that comprise said Axis. That'll definitely work!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-14380248529628066382009-01-17T06:44:00.000-07:002009-01-17T06:44:00.000-07:00"North Korea has "weaponized" its p..."North Korea has "weaponized" its plutonium, producing four to five warheads, but hopes for better ties with Washington under President-elect Barack Obama, a U.S. researcher who visited the North said Saturday."<BR/><BR/>Non-Proliferation doesn't work & our blackmail payments didn't either.<BR/><BR/>If the NORKS want better relations with us in the future, tell them we want our $$$ back that we paid them to not develop nuclear weapons.<BR/><BR/>Maintaining our inferior & decaying stockpile is producing great results. :(Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-39123890678513761032009-01-16T20:01:00.000-07:002009-01-16T20:01:00.000-07:00"This country will soon become bankrupt, not only ..."This country will soon become bankrupt, not only economically, but also in terms of its ability to find the will to continue putting up a strong and overwhelming strategic defense.<BR/><BR/>The future belongs to those countries who loan us vast sums of money, almost like a narcotic, so that we can descend further into total collapse and bankruptcy."<BR/><BR/>Once you're bankrupt, what difference does it make as far as creditors are concerned?<BR/><BR/>If it's gets that bad, might as well launch all the nukes, eh?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-23407120939143043792009-01-16T17:50:00.000-07:002009-01-16T17:50:00.000-07:00Perhaps you are not reading other submissions. Tha...Perhaps you are not reading other submissions. That nice fellow we will call 7:20 has already pointed out that we have no problem making bombs that will go off. What do you think the difference is if the bomb is "sophisticated"? How about the use of Latin or French on the markings - to be read before detonation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-5685274682528581512009-01-16T12:46:00.000-07:002009-01-16T12:46:00.000-07:00I predict the new Administration and Congress will...I predict the new Administration and Congress will enact massive cuts in the nuclear weapons budget in a mis-guided attempt to show the world that "we care" when it comes to non-proliferation. It will be a huge mistake.<BR/><BR/>This country will soon become bankrupt, not only economically, but also in terms of its ability to find the will to continue putting up a strong and overwhelming strategic defense.<BR/><BR/>The future belongs to those countries who loan us vast sums of money, almost like a narcotic, so that we can descend further into total collapse and bankruptcy. <BR/><BR/>Teach your children to speak Chinese. It will serve them well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-80532593071448629972009-01-16T09:35:00.000-07:002009-01-16T09:35:00.000-07:00"What established US position on nuclear weapons d..."What established US position on nuclear weapons developmewnt [sic] has ever been subject to this ridiculous "selling" strategy?"<BR/><BR/>RRW is the most recent example. Read the numerous press accounts of this warhead's origin and career. The labs and their allies pulled out all the stops to convince Congress and the US public that RRW is necessary and desired. Failed sales effort, but surely it'll continue.<BR/><BR/>The B61-11 is another good example of Los Alamos' ability to "sell" weapons to the military. The weapon's origins were rooted in policy proposals coming from LANL and allied think tanks.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-82244929818343030712009-01-16T07:38:00.000-07:002009-01-16T07:38:00.000-07:00But the real question to ask is "When are we going...But the real question to ask is "When are we going to get daycare at the lab?"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-58784587999997015462009-01-16T07:20:00.000-07:002009-01-16T07:20:00.000-07:00The expertise we are losing is how to design and c...The expertise we are losing is how to design and certify *sophisticated* nuclear weapons. Crude ones are easy to build, it's the fissile materials that are harder to get, and we have plenty of those on hand in the U.S.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-24536071969766647262009-01-16T05:10:00.000-07:002009-01-16T05:10:00.000-07:00We forego our technology strengths, continue to pa...We forego our technology strengths, continue to pay the blackmailers with no real assurances whatsoever, and we reap an inferior & decaying stockpile & NWC capability.<BR/><BR/>An Iran with nuclear weapons is going to be an extraordinary time in the world.<BR/><BR/> And there were no more bad people and we all lived happily ever after :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28220200.post-13894266571233948842009-01-15T21:59:00.000-07:002009-01-15T21:59:00.000-07:00From the article: "For any of this to happen, the ...From the article: "For any of this to happen, the RRW, or the RRW by another name, will have to be significantly repackaged and re-sold to the U.S. public and international community so that it appears as a design intended to reduce U.S. dependence on nuclear weapons and facilitate large cuts in the stockpile, alongside a downsizing of the weapons complex."<BR/><BR/>This is absurd, parochial, and naive, all at the same time. What established US position on nuclear weapons developmewnt has ever been subject to this ridiculous "selling" strategy?? None. The US public doesn't care, and the "international community" is a farcical fantasy of diplomats that doesn't really exist, and thus can't have a defined opinion either way. This statement is just a flacid attempt at global (i.e., US) disarmament. Yawn...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com