Not Even Twice A Day

Remember the "Doomsday Clock," the fantastically successful anti-war stunt of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists? Started almost 60 years ago, the Bulletin calls its clock "the world's most recognizable symbol of nuclear danger," supposedly reflecting the planet's proximity to atomic armageddon. The magazine's directors claim to monitor geo-political developments and:

move the hands taking into account both negative and positive developments. The negative developments include too little progress on global nuclear disarmament; growing concerns about the security of nuclear weapons materials worldwide; the continuing U.S. preference for unilateral action rather than cooperative international diplomacy; U.S. abandonment of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and U.S. efforts to thwart the enactment of international agreements designed to constrain proliferation of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons; the crisis between India and Pakistan; terrorist efforts to acquire and use nuclear and biological weapons; and the growing inequality between rich and poor around the world that increases the potential for violence and war.

Suspiciously, listing "What it would take to turn back the clock," each BAS condition assigns the burden of reducing nuclear risks to the United States.

The clock's hands last moved in early 2002. Laurence Simon wonders what warrants the nuclear freeze:

With all the goings-on in Iran, why haven't the Board of Directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists set the Doomsday Clock closer than seven seconds to midnight? . . . I guess a bunch of mad imams running an Islamic theocracy and telling the world that they're going start up their own reactors, centrifuge their own materials, and wipe another nuclear-armed country off of the face of the earth doesn't bother the Board of Directors at all.

Good point! Could Simon be right that the Bulletin only spot-checks "the activities of a certain racist, sexist, imperialist, fat, lazy, Israel-supporting, energy-wasting, Muslim-bombing global superpower?"

Emperor Darth Misha says "yes":

IT'S ALL THE FAULT OF THE U.S.!

Things that WILL move us closer to midnight:

1. The U.S. defending herself against attack without getting Jacques Chirac’s permission.



2. The U.S. not doing enough to disarm herself.



3. The U.S. dropping treaties made with states no longer in existence.



4. The U.S. not shredding the Constitution and handing her sovereignty over to foreign potentates and, of course,



5. The U.S. not taking enough of her citizens’ money and giving it to the poor of the world.

Things that will most emphatically NOT move us closer to midnight:

1. Fundamentalist, psychopathic, medieval theocrats who are on the record as wanting to wipe out a nuclear nation working to acquire nukes.

All of which prompts a new postulate: "BAS's assessment of nuclear risks is inversely correlated to actual threats."

(via NIF)