Bombs Away! #atozchallenge

One of my favorite shows of all time is the short-lived Jericho, in which the citizens of Jericho, KS try to survive after half of the United States is taken out in massive nuclear bombings. For most of the show, no one has a clue whodunit or why they done it, and the town must deal with everything from an all out war with a neighboring town, to lawless contractor companies, to a bomb hidden inside the town, to a new government with questionable motives, to a lack of resources.  

There are about a million novels and movies with similar themes out there. When we think apocalypse, bombs tend to rank pretty high on our list of possible causes. And why not? I mean, we've seen just how catastrophic these suckers can be. When Little Boy was dropped from Enola Gay on Hiroshima during WWII, the city was devastated. Thirty percent of the population died immediately, and thousands of others have died in the years since from medical issues related to the bombing. The story is the same in Nagasaki, also bombed during World War II.  

Enola Gay by OMD (about the bombing of Hiroshima)

If we're all going to die in some horrible kind of way, nuclear bombs would certainly do it! You've got the immediate death from, you know, being bombed by kilotons of TNT, and then the horrible radiation sickness, cancer, burns, injuries, the crazies that survive and find other unpleasant ways to kill you in a post-apocalyptic world... It's rather horrible to think about!  

About a year ago, The Husbinator started reading The Atomic Bazaar by William Langewiesche. The book is an investigative journalist's report on nuclear weapon production, specifically by nations and groups who we don't necessarily want having such capabilities. Langewiesche basically traveled around the world, trying to ascertain how difficult it would be for just such a nation or group to obtain the materials needed to make a nuclear weapon. His conclusions are pretty grim. (You can read an interview with him and an excerpt from the first chapter here.)

aka How I Became Paranoid in 179 pages.

For some reason I've yet to understand, I picked up the book when The Husbinator was finished, and bombs have since become the number one way I don't wanna die. I was paranoid for weeks that we were all going to die any minute in explosions to rival those in Jericho. I may be a wee bit overdramatic in my paranoia, but seriously... explosions should be contained to abandoned buildings, fields of cocaine, the MythBusters, or action movies. Cities, people, the entire planet? Not such a good thing! With so many nations and groups attempting to get their hands on nuclear weapons, it's not as crazy an armageddon scenario as we'd like to think.

And what really creeps me out is the fact that cockroaches could potentially survive, thus proving, once and for all, that the suckers really are protected by evil forces. I mean seriously. How crazy is it that those itty bitty, demonic bugs are fifteen times more resistent to radiation than oh, I don't know, the humans they already torment? Plain cruel and unusual if you ask me.

Things that make you go Hmm.

That said, since reading the book, I've come to the conclusion that the only sane thing to be in a post-apocalyptic world is the girl in charge of toilet paper distribution. Only a madman would kill the girl standing between him and a handful of butt-chaffing, unsanitary leaves. Or possibly the girl in charge of the Raid. From the looks of things, we just might need it!

What about you? What's your post-apocalyptic career plan?

"C" you tomorrow,

A.K.M.

You can read other Letter B posts from all across the blogosphere here.