Hibakusha

The name for those who survived the Atom bomb.

200,000 were vaporized on this date in 1945, and the hibakashu are still dying from exposure to what they originally thought was Buddhist Hell.

Painting by Ashitsuka Mura,

who was 27 at the time of
the bombing of Nagasaki
Buddhist Hell?

No. Just pain old Hell.

And it looks like BushCo is gearing up to do it again, Strangelove Style.

In the FY06 budget...

Funding for nuclear weapons increased by $6.63 billion

This level is more than one and a half times the amount the U.S. spent on average during the Cold War.

Funding for environmental cleanup and waste management cut $548 million

This is a 7.8% drop in 1 year.

Funding for environmental cleanup and waste management at seven weapons sites is cut by about $18 million

This is a 9% drop.

Funding for the Reliable Replacement Warhead is $9.35 million

So much for our commitment to the NonProliferation Treaty to eventually disarm our nuclear stockpile.

Funding for the construction of the National Ignition Facility (NIF) is $141.9 million

This level is an increase from $129 million the prior year and adds to the $4 plus billion cost overrun of the project. The Strangeloves at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where NIF is based, want to perform additional plutonium experiments not in the NIF baseline.

Look, I'm all for defense.

It's the offense that, well, offends me.

Today is the perfect day to ask yourself: Do you trust the George W. Bush administration not to go all Strangelove on more innocent people?

I don't.

Mean and Stupid are a deadly combination.

Add the element of desperation-- brought on by a special prosecutor and an angry planet-- and the catastrophe cocktail is in the shaker.

Drink up...

The Doomsday Clock says you only have 7 minutes left.




We can do better, America.

We have to.

If you simply have to teach your children to fear hell, at least don't make them grow up fearing any kind of manmade hell.

File this under: It's Not Too Late!