Friday, June 27, 2008

A Message from Council for A Livable World


I promised Danny and Jerome Grossman The Relentless Liberal that I would post this and spread it as I could. This is important!

A Message from Council for A Livable World

The older generation has an important political and moral responsibility to educate the younger generation about the dangers of nuclear weapons and how these dangers can be defused.

Freed from a constant nuclear standoff as a dominant fact of international life, the younger generations have never experienced a face off with another nuclear superpower that could have exploded in mere moments into a nuclear holocaust.

Nor did these newer generations hide under their desks in elementary school as a practice exercise for nuclear war or contemplate civil defense shelters in which to survive for weeks or months.

With the median age in America now about 36; fifty percent of the nation has little memory of events before the 1980’s. Hiroshima and Nagasaki don’t carry the same emotional and moral impact.

In 2007, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino, born in 1972, confessed her mystification when a reporter mentioned the Cuban Missile crisis. “Wasn’t that like the Bay of Pigs thing?” she later asked her husband.

Now is a good time to remind all six billion humans and especially the younger generations that the global nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) had its 40th anniversary on July 1. The NPT, with its rules for nuclear weapons and nuclear power, makes it more difficult for states without nuclear weapons to obtain or build them.

The treaty has not worked perfectly, but has helped sustain a near-miracle that only four additional countries beyond the original five possessors have nuclear weapons. Equally important, Article VI of the treaty commits the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France to achieve nuclear disarmament.

The anniversary of the non-proliferation treaty should be celebrated - mainly by strengthening it and pursuing the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons. Popular education and political support for these efforts must be expanded; the older generation has the memories and the fears to lead the way

Jerome Grossman is Chairman Emeritus of Council for A Livable World

12 comments:

Unknown said...

The United States is blatantly hypocritical when it comes to it's obligations to International Treaties. Their arrogance is manifested in their 'do as I say, not as I do' attitude.

As for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the U.S. has violated, or ignored, the text of the Preamble, as well as Articles I, II, III, IV, and VI, and possibly V.

Read the Treaty, and if the violations aren't glaringly obvious to you, let me know and I will expound on it.

Also, keep in mind, that both Iran and Iraq are also signitories to the Treaty; while our friends(?) Israel, India, and Pakistan, are NOT.

As I've harped on many times, for the U.S. to continue to develop and manufacture bigger and deadlier nuclear weapons and insist on stopping others from doing so, is the height of hypocrisy.

It's like possessing a cache of fully-automatic weapons, while insisting your neighbors can only have knives.

Un-friggen-believable!!!!!!!

jmsjoin said...

Brother
I don't know if you checked his link or ever googled the Relentless liberal or anything but we talked for quite a while when we met and we had an instant rapport. I respect the hell out of him. You would be blown away at the list of his accomplishments for us and the world. Nuclear nonproliferation is just a small part. His family members seem to run everyones campaign.
I feel so bad and often apologize to him and Danny because the chief scum has undone every single accomplishment of his and everyone in the history of this country. I commented to this on his site. They know how I feel and that is probably why I was asked to post it saying I know how important it is. I do but I know how worthless it all is.
They keep telling me we have been here before but you know we have not. Normal activism is worthless. We are powerless. We have never had the sole decider of the4 world as President. We are so screwed. As you know I happen to think it is too late to stop but I won't stop trying and the Relentless Liberal is the absolute top of the food chain for peace movements and Political Activism. I'll wake them up eventually!Un-friggen-beliebvable!

Mike S said...

"International Treaties"?????? What about the DOMESTIC TREATIES with certain groups who I'll not bother to name, other than to say I belong to one group. When you start off in the toilet treaty-wise why would we expect anything different no???

D.K. Raed said...

Jim, it isn't just the fear of nuclear war -- for me, growing up a few miles from The Nevada Test Site, it was nuclear testing, right here in our own country, above-ground and below-ground. I currently live in the Downwinder Area (SW UT) and believe me, everytime the wind blows our radiated topsoil around, I worry.

I was very proud of NV & UT when Bush tried to revive The NV Test Site so he could pre-test strategic nuke weaponry last year (just another "t" he needs to cross before heading into iran). The local citizens turned out & presented all our personal horror stories (the ones who are still alive, that is, our cancer rates are horrendous). We wrote 10,000 letters of protest and STOPPED the tests! Now, Bush may still go into Iran, but at least he won't have pre-tested his tactical nukes on us. Aaaah, but with the jetstream, I guess we are ALL downwinders in one way or another.

Unknown said...

D.K.--
Good luck to you. If the moronic monkey 'decides' he needs tests, 1,000,000 letters won't stop him. He pays no attention to the Congress or SCOTUS (witness illegal wiretapping and torture etc, etc.), why would he pay attention to the citizenry. If he doesn't do it in Nevada, he'll do it somewhere else. He's got to protect us from those evil 'turrists', doncha know?

Larry said...

It isn't so much the fear of a nuclear war that bothers me but the evil that resides within the confides of our government that wants to start one.

Larry said...

This is what Bush and his ilk have planned to control our destiny Jim:


I've Seen the Future, and It Has a Kill Switch

BY Bruce Schneier

It used to be that just the entertainment industries wanted to control your computers -- and televisions and iPods and everything else -- to ensure that you didn't violate any copyright rules. But now everyone else wants to get their hooks into your gear.

OnStar will soon include the ability for the police to shut off your engine remotely. Buses are getting the same capability, in case terrorists want to re-enact the movie Speed. The Pentagon wants a kill switch installed on airplanes, and is worried about potential enemies installing kill switches on their own equipment.

Microsoft is doing some of the most creative thinking along these lines, with something it's calling "Digital Manners Policies." According to its patent application, DMP-enabled devices would accept broadcast "orders" limiting capabilities. Cellphones could be remotely set to vibrate mode in restaurants and concert halls, and be turned off on airplanes and in hospitals. Cameras could be prohibited from taking pictures in locker rooms and museums, and recording equipment could be disabled in theaters. Professors finally could prevent students from texting one another during class.

The possibilities are endless, and very dangerous. Making this work involves building a nearly flawless hierarchical system of authority. That's a difficult security problem even in its simplest form. Distributing that system among a variety of different devices -- computers, phones, PDAs, cameras, recorders -- with different firmware and manufacturers, is even more difficult. Not to mention delegating different levels of authority to various agencies, enterprises, industries and individuals, and then enforcing the necessary safeguards.

Once we go down this path -- giving one device authority over other devices -- the security problems start piling up. Who has the authority to limit functionality of my devices, and how do they get that authority? What prevents them from abusing that power? Do I get the ability to override their limitations? In what circumstances, and how? Can they override my override?

How do we prevent this from being abused? Can a burglar, for example, enforce a "no photography" rule and prevent security cameras from working? Can the police enforce the same rule to avoid another Rodney King incident? Do the police get "superuser" devices that cannot be limited, and do they get "supercontroller" devices that can limit anything? How do we ensure that only they get them, and what do we do when the devices inevitably fall into the wrong hands?

It's comparatively easy to make this work in closed specialized systems -- OnStar, airplane avionics, military hardware -- but much more difficult in open-ended systems. If you think Microsoft's vision could possibly be securely designed, all you have to do is look at the dismal effectiveness of the various copy-protection and digital-rights-management systems we've seen over the years. That's a similar capabilities-enforcement mechanism, albeit simpler than these more general systems.

And that's the key to understanding this system. Don't be fooled by the scare stories of wireless devices on airplanes and in hospitals, or visions of a world where no one is yammering loudly on their cellphones in posh restaurants. This is really about media companies wanting to exert their control further over your electronics. They not only want to prevent you from surreptitiously recording movies and concerts, they want your new television to enforce good "manners" on your computer, and not allow it to record any programs. They want your iPod to politely refuse to copy music to a computer other than your own. They want to enforce their legislated definition of manners: to control what you do and when you do it, and to charge you repeatedly for the privilege whenever possible.

"Digital Manners Policies" is a marketing term. Let's call this what it really is: Selective Device Jamming. It's not polite, it's dangerous. It won't make anyone more secure -- or more polite.

jmsjoin said...

Mike
As you know with this mis-Administration treaties are made to be broken but must be kept by the other party. I am just sick of this crap!

jmsjoin said...

Red
Damn! I never thought about you being so close. That really stinks! I wouldn't for a minute think that testing of all sorts is going on all the time and not just in your area. One of my sons has flown stuff into the area and another who is EOD has done things there too. None to be discussed of course.
I know the non nuclear MOAB was scheduled to be tested in Nevada though I do not know if it was. They are still trying to bury our nuclear waste there. That stuff scares me having guarded nukes in the 70s and gone to numerous brie4fings. Once they are here there is no getting rid of them ever.
It is the fallout that blows me away. I have in the past done at least one post on our increased diseases because of fall out. It is no coincidence that these diseases are greatest in areas of testing and fall out. Knowing the middle east will be unusable which means oil and the fallout would be right here it blows me away knowing what is happening in the worlds breadbasket right now it is mind boggling what is just unfolding. The end Of Days has to be the Goal! What else could these fools be thinking?

jmsjoin said...

larry
bingo! I know how well intention us citizens are but no longer trust why we have been in all these wars or the Government. they will do whatever they want and screw the people and any semblance of sense!

jmsjoin said...

larry
Knowing our communications can be totally controlled and has been in the middle east I am very concerned about our being able to communicate in the future. i did a post on the new internet that will be instituted! I don't know if this one will be totally gone but the new one can be totally controlled and shut down. You know it will be if we are trouble or have to be shut up. Look at the total picture! It is a very scary future Bush has set the stage for all of us regardless of who is President. Very scary!

jmsjoin said...

I keep forgetting! I posted this story as it is important to all of us. Think about it when listening to the video of the little girl at the UN Environmental Conference. It is short and she was awesome. What the hell is wrong with our so called leaders?