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Buy the Book
One Second Too Late: America's Fate?
One Second After
By William D. Fortschen, with a foreword by Newt
Gingrich
(Forge Books, 352 pages, $24.95)
Author William D. Forstchen, who has co-authored six books with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, has novelized one of America's worst national security nightmares in One Second After. The nightmare -- a rogue state's dream -- is that of a single missile launched from a barge several hundred miles off the coast of the continental United States, its atomic warhead arcing to a point 300 miles above Dorothy's Kansas and detonating. (The author uses three missiles; one can suffice.) The normal effects of a nuclear explosion close to Earth would not harm us from space: The resulting blast would be far too distant to send a lethal shockwave destroying anything on the ground beneath, a thermal pulse to incinerate anything, and would not create noticeable radioactive fallout.
But a little known effect of nuclear explosions would cause instantaneous, catastrophic harm to the entire continental United States. The blast would generate an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) series, striking a geographic circle 2,940 miles in diameter. Traveling at the free-space speed of light, EMP would reach ground in about one millisecond.
The author's own website gives a harrowing description of what would happen when the intense gamma rays generated by the blast hit the ground:
As the Pulse strikes the Earth's surface, with a power that could range up to hundreds of amps per square yard, it will not affect you directly, at most you'll feel a slight tingling, the same as when lightning is about to strike close by, and nearly all the energy will just be absorbed into the ground and dissipate. The bad news, however, is wherever it strikes wires, metal surfaces, antennas, power lines it will now travel along those metal surfaces (in the same way a lightning bolt will always follow the metal of a lightning rod, or the power line into your house.) The longer the wire, the more energy is absorbed, a high tension wire miles long will absorb tens of thousands of amps, and here is where the destruction begins as it slams into any delicate electronic circuits, meaning computer chips, relays, etc. In that instant, they are overloaded by the massive energy surge, short circuit, and fry. Your house via electric, phone and cable wires is connected, like all the rest of us into the power and communications grids. This energy surge will destroy all delicate electronics in your home, even as it destroys all the major components all the way back to the power company's generators and the phone company's main relays. In far less than a millisecond the entire power grid of the United States, and all that it supports will be destroyed.
In point of fact the EMP thus generated comes in three successive pulses: E1 is the super-fast high-voltage pulse that bypasses surge protectors, which are designed to stop pulses that build up slowly, and fries all affected electronics. E2 is akin to the electromagnetic charge emitted as lightning strikes; they are low frequency and ordinarily would not get past surge protectors, except that with E1 having fried the protective equipment E2, like a burglar who enters an open door, gets in. E3 is akin to the geomagnetic storms generated by solar flares: it is en extremely low frequency pulse that lasts tens, even hundreds of seconds. Though weaker, because of its duration it builds up enough strength to knock out large components like electric grid power transformers, and reaches deep into the ground. (One significant exception: fiber-optic links are unaffected, because optical frequencies lie outside the ranger of EMP frequencies; but computers and telephones, etc. are electrical, and will be hit.)
EMP effects generated by nuclear blasts in the 1950s were not noticed, as the blasts were low-altitude detonations. But in 1962 both the United States and the Soviet Union conducted high altitude tests. The American test, "Starfish Prime," detonated a 1.44 megaton bomb 250 miles above the Pacific Ocean; electrical damage was caused in Hawaii, 800 miles away. Though smaller in scale, the Soviet "K Project" tests, a series of three 300-kiloton blasts over Kazakhstan, caused far greater damage, including a power plant fire.
Why did the American test of a bomb nearly five times as powerful as the Soviet blasts cause less collateral damage? The Earth's magnetic field, which is perturbed by EMP (the so-called Compton Effect, named after its discoverer, physicist Arthur), is far stronger over land than over water. EMP effects are also non-linear with yield: pulse intensity does not scale with warhead yield. In other words, a Hiroshima size blast (14 kilotons -- less than 1/20th the K Project yields and less than 1/100th that of Starfish Prime -- will do very nicely. Indeed, counter-intuitively, a hydrogen bomb (thermonuclear fusion), with yields in the megaton range, short-circuits by "pre-ionization" -- an ion is created when an electron is added or subtracted from an atom or molecule (agglomeration of atoms); the H-bomb blast generates a negative pre-ionization that negates the positive EMP charge -- most of its own EMP effect. H-bombs thus cause less EMP damage than the less powerful A-bomb (atomic fission), whose yields run in kilotons. EMP effects do not result from deep space detonations, because the gamma ray emissions dissipate long before reaching the Earth's magnetic field. Low-altitude nuclear detonations generate vast blast, heat and radiation damage, but as they explode below most of the Earth's magnetic field and thus generate minimal EMP.
What happens when the nation's electric and communications infrastructures are destroyed? Put simply, America would return in an instant to 1875, before Thomas Edison's gave us electric power. We have seen in the past six months how devastating the failure of our financial networks is. Compared to what EMP will do, a financial meltdown is a Sunday picnic in the park.
Your lights won't work. Your phones won't work. Your computers won't work. Your fax machines won't work. Neither will your televisions, radios or other electric appliances -- think ovens, no-gas stoves, refrigerators, heating, ventilating and air conditioning, cars made in the past 30 years. Forget about modern hospital services. Food delivery will stall. Restaurants will close. So will grocery stores. Planes and trains and buses won't run. Planes in the air when hit will have to land under visual flight rules -- possible on clear days, as radar won't work; only if they have hydraulic back-up will they even fly -- in the air, without non-electric controls, they will plummet to earth like meteors. At any given moment on a typical day, there are several thousand airliners aloft, carrying, on average, 75 passengers.
Recovery will take at minimum months, perhaps more than one year. Unlike local disasters such a Hurricane Katrina, there would be little "edge" community assistance -- healthy neighbors helping those in distress. If thousands die at first, millions would ultimately die. Trillions in economic wealth would disappear as economic activity grinds to a halt. International aid would be late and limited. Widespread anarchy -- looting, home raids -- could persist in defiance of martial law.
After a slow start, with ominous hints at evils to come, Fortschen's book picks up the pace near the halfway mark. His protagonist lives in a small town near Asheville, North Carolina. He sees civil order rapidly breaking down. Two junkies loot a nursing home, leaving residents dying gruesomely for want of medication. They are executed publicly, to make a point about martial law and protecting the weak. Two small towns face a deliberately engineered forced exodus of thousands of hippies from Asheville (now a hippie Mecca). The towns form a medieval war alliance to share resources, guard two highway bottlenecks, and try to keep the growing refugee flow passing through. They threaten Asheville with cutoff of water reservoir supply, which is located in one of the towns, if Asheville does not stop encouraging refugees to leave. The isolated locals learn that the national government is virtually non-functioning; Air Force One took off with the President on board but crashed when its anti-EMP protection failed; the Secretary of State, fourth in line of succession, is President. Confirmation comes weeks after the attack.
Critical to the desperation felt by struggling communities post-attack is lack of communication with the larger world:
"People are hungry, scared. We are spoiled unlike any other generation in history, and we forgot completely just how dependent we were on the juice flowing through the wires, the buttons doing something when we pushed them. If only we had some communication. If only we knew the government still worked, a voice that we trusted being heard, that would make all the difference.
"My grandfather used to tell me how back during the Depression the banks started to collapse; there was panic, even the scent of revolution in the air. And then FDR got on the radio, just one radio talk, reminding us we were all neighbors, to cooperate and help each other, and though the Depression went on for seven more years, the panic ended.
Comments
Leave a Comment
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Craig| 5.1.09 @ 6:23AM
Yikes!
Craig| 5.1.09 @ 6:24AM
Yikes!
Craig| 5.1.09 @ 6:27AM
Yikes!
Appleby| 5.1.09 @ 7:06AM
No more binkies! No more wireheads!
All those people who routinely walk right smack into me because they are madly twiddling their thumbs across that two inch screen, all the kids walking into trains, buses, street cars and five ton trucks because their TUNES were cranked up to eleven ... that woman in the elevator shouting into her cell phone about her urine sample ... ALL GONE!
No more garbage from Hollywood! No more teevee addresses by Obama, whose teleprompter will also be off line! No more playoffs! No more NA$CAR! No more Montel, Oprah, or Sally Jesse! No more Jay Leno, David Letterman, or Daly Show!
I am trying to think of something bad about an EMP and so far I cannot come up with a thing.
Darin| 5.1.09 @ 7:48AM
Appleby. You can't think of something bad about an EMP? How about the following:
Where do you get your food? If you don't have your own garden or farm, you're in trouble. Further, what devices do you use to plant/harvest? Tractors may not work (not to mention problems getting gas and oil). Food canning will have to be done by putting jars in a kettle over an open fire - no gas or electricity for a stove. Getting feed for any livestock may prove difficult.
Water. Unless you have a well with a non-electrical pump, fresh water may be a problem.
Heat. If it gets cold at any time, how do you heat where you live? Even if you have a fireplace or woodstove, how are you going to get the wood (or coal if you have such a furnace)?
Security. Even if you have the above items covered, can you protect them? They will quickly be highly valued items, and there are people who don't see a problem with taking from others.
Andrew B.| 5.1.09 @ 7:53AM
What has always worried me most about any large-scale catastrophe is how totally unprepared we are for it. Not just in terms of infrastructure and emergency services, but in terms of mental preparedness.
My mother made clear to me that the Depression made little impact on her and her family. They were dirt-poor Oklahoma farmers. Before 1929, they lived in poverty and privation. After the Stock Market Crash...it was just more of the same. She grew up hunting for bullfrogs, snakes, possums and any other source of free protein. The New Deal didn't make any difference in that.
Today, even the poorest Americans are used to regular, plentiful, affordable food, electricity and transportation. What would they all do if, tomorrow morning, none of that was available?
I shudder to think. As for me and my household, we will keep the larder and the ammunition supply stocked.
Ed| 5.1.09 @ 8:10AM
This is a real threat. Are there any electronics experts out there who know if a home gun safe could serve as a Faraday cage and protect a cache of electronics? Would it work better grounded or not grounded?
blackelkspeaks| 5.1.09 @ 8:53AM
There is no doubt in my mind that this country would explode in absolute savagery should this happen. We now have an entire nation with a "whats mine is mine, whats yours is mine" attitude. There is a reason guns and ammo sales are through the roof. No thinking person can expect anything from our current asinine government but utter mayhem and fatal incompetence. Remember what occurred when the power went out in some eastern states for a few days, shortly after 911. Even in the best of times, whole cities ground to a halt, with people losing power for days on end. An EMP burst would be orders of magnitude worse. This is not 1930; people today simply could not handle such a thing as an EMP disaster. One of my slams against Bush was to see how FEMA reacted to Katrina, given that the Dept of Homeland Security had been in place for years after 911; yet their response to Katrina was like watching a Chinese Fire Drill. The time to move to the hinterlands of Idaho is before this occurs. You've all been warned!
Pingback| 5.1.09 @ 9:00AM
Topics about Electromagnetic-pulse | The American Spectator : One Second Too Late: A links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Stammon| 5.1.09 @ 9:16AM
We live on a farm with lots of ammo so we are safer than most. But a radio would be nice. I'm going to take my emergency windup radio and wrap in in Aluminum foil. Why? The foil will make a Faraday Cage and protect the radio's electronics against the EMP pulse. Kinda a tin foil hat, but it works. Wrap it in foil twice and put it on the emergency shelf. My tractor is a diesel, (no ignition wires), my heat is wood. I'll miss the bagels though.
Alan Brooks| 5.1.09 @ 9:30AM
if Newt co-authored six books with this guy then he must be a real prescient intelleckshuel.
Stammon| 5.1.09 @ 9:38AM
intelleckshuel???
Woof!
Do you even know what a Faraday Cage is? Have fun in the city when the bombs go off. Oh, wait that can't ever happen because Republicans are retarded and we all know that if we love them enough they will just love us back.
Time to wake up! My kids will live!
ccc| 5.1.09 @ 9:44AM
One more reason to put some solar panels on the roof.
TL| 5.1.09 @ 11:30AM
The plot for this bears similarities to S.M. Stirling's Dies The Fire series, which posits a worldwide event that causes electricity, gunpowder, and other forms of high-density technology to cease working. Without water, food distribution, and transportation, the residents of southern california and the desert southwest die in the tens of millions in futile attempts to escape north and west (the vague descriptions of stacks of dried corpses who made it only as far as the CA-NV border are chilling). The major cities of the south, northeast, and midwest are racked by starvation, plague, and even decades after the event are only inhabited by roving bands of cannibals. What civilization survives exists in the northwest and in isolated, rural areas well served with water supplies elsewhere. Stirling was using a magic event as a way to tell his story, but the event that begins Fortschen's book has a real, scientific basis in fact.
Steve| 5.1.09 @ 12:15PM
Prospective readers of Fortschung's book might want to know: the author is a terrible writer. His book is virtually unreadable. His dialogue is especially awful. And there's a lot of dialogue in the book. Fortschung is one of those authors who uses dialogue between characters to explain everything, to advance the plot. It makes for painful reading. It's also excruciatingly dull, and slow. I bought the book because I liked the idea, but I couldn't finish it. I'm sure the movie will be good, however.
JP| 5.1.09 @ 12:30PM
One thing this book (whatever its literary value) highlights is the continual shrinking of our military force. I am still undecided whether Rumsfeld's ideas concerning a smaller, lighter military was all that smart. But one thing that should alarm everyone is the reduction of our navy.
This has been going on since 1992 when the Cold War ended. And to some degree it made sense. However, one could argue that of all the forces, the USN if anything should have expanded since the end of the Cold War.
After the 1991 Gulf War, the Army disbanded 7th Corps (4 heavy divisions +headquarter staff); likewise the USAF reduced the number of active fighter, bomber, and airlift wings. Stateside, the Army also reduced the number of combat brigades, and put many of its support units into the Guard and Reserve. Therefore, our force projections were reduced considerably. The WOT only underscored this fact, as the Army continuely has to borrow from combat brigades in other theatres in order to fully staff its combat rotations.
In a pinch, a USN carrier task force can prevent a lot of mischief. Just look at the Horn of Africa. Islamic pirates for several years have preyed on civilian merchant ships. The USN just doesn't have enough ships to provide protection. Ditto for much of the Pacific.
Now add pressure to reduce our R@D on ship bourne missle defence, The Aegis isn't perfect, but it is the best anyone has. Research is continually improving its accuracy. In a nation that a few years ago had a $13 trillion/year economy, a $50 billion price tag is cheap (we spend that much on porn each year).
Sec Gates, BTW is considering a further drop in the USN to 270 ships. This feels like 1976 all over again.
Seeker| 5.1.09 @ 1:26PM
Loathsome Luddites like "Appleby" epitomize why paleoconservatives (Right) and the Khmer Rouge (Left) are just kissin' cousins.
I want my MTV. Hooray for Hollywood.
ds80| 5.1.09 @ 2:47PM
Was that cathartic, Seeker? Let me try:
MTV whores like "Seeker" epitomize why Obama-fascists and Marxists are inbred abominations.
I feel so much better. It was clear to me that Appleby's post was tongue-in-cheek.
Dave Williams| 5.1.09 @ 3:10PM
To continue with Appleby's tongue-in-cheek vein...best of all after an EMP...NO MORE DRIVEL FROM DAVE MATHEWS!!!
Michael L. Hauschild| 5.1.09 @ 5:27PM
Somehow I do not think the Flintlock mechanism on my Tennessee Mountain Rifle will be disabled by an electromagnetic pulse.
William| 5.1.09 @ 5:30PM
Colin Powell's vaunted 'urban values' (snicker) will surely keep the cities benign oases of calm.
Hmmm. All sarcasm aside, it would certainly cull the herd, would it not?
Pingback| 5.1.09 @ 5:35PM
The American Spectator : One Second Too Late: America's Fate? | CarElectros.Com links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Seeker| 5.1.09 @ 5:53PM
No, ds80, I don't take Appleby's comments literally. But I do understand the poisonous sentiment behind them. Anyone who takes liberty seriously should oppose people like him.
Threats to liberty can come from the Right as well as the Left. Though I'm a committed conservative and Republican, I happen to despise radical "culture war" extremists. They are all war and no culture.
Michael L. Hauschild| 5.1.09 @ 5:57PM
Note to Netanyahu: Altitude 480 Km, Lat. 32.63 – Lon. 54.84
Note to USS Texas: Altitude 300 Miles, Lat. 40.25 – Lon. 126.62
Brian B| 5.1.09 @ 6:15PM
-No, ds80, I don't take Appleby's comments literally. But I do understand the poisonous sentiment behind them. -
You can certainly understand a lot about alleged luddites and paleoconservatives from a harmless and kind of funny joke.
In fact since he said 'no more NASCAR' and 'no more playoffs' I suspect he may be nothing like what you described him as.
Why not worry about whether you're going to get your EMP rather than whether Appleby is going to take your MTV?
Old Texican| 5.1.09 @ 8:09PM
I love the humor here.....but...
Some of you guys are missing the point. Forget MTV, without a car or power most of you become dark age cannibals before you starve. I am going to have to expend priceless ammunition shooting you idiots instead of shooting birds to feed my family.
I don't like that scenario, but the idiots will force me to be mean...and effectively so. I read a funny investor joke today: "Investor calls his broker..."What do I buy these days? Broker: "I reccomend canned goods and ammunition."
El Texas| 5.2.09 @ 12:14AM
Go to frugalsquirrels website and download "Lights Out" for free. Very similar plot.
moron| 5.2.09 @ 8:26AM
No more drivel from Matthews??? Hahaha!!! He has hoarded Snickers and moon pies. After the religion of peace pirates locate his microscopic testicles he would be blaming the evil Bush, but his tongue was taken 1st.
moron| 5.2.09 @ 8:34AM
The good news is, civil war here would be between the armed and the unarmed. When given a lemon, make lemonade!! Damn, wish I had more than cyber addresses!!!
dennisl59| 5.2.09 @ 8:51AM
But would Global Climate Change be stopped? If so, then we should launch the Missile ourselves and commit suicide to save Mother Earth.
Freya| 5.2.09 @ 5:08PM
I forget the URL, but I read a report online about hardening our infrastructure against just such an eventuallity. It would be easier (and cheaper) than most people think (and would make our power transmission system more reliable to boot).
If this scenario comes to pass, we'll only have ourselves to blame.
Richard Baker| 5.2.09 @ 6:35PM
This Starfish Prime blast in 1962 is familiar. My Dad was stationed at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii then and we stood outside his quarters one evening and watched the midnight sky become almost daylight after the blast, which we knew was coming. This blast was, by the article, 800 miles from Hawaii and had this effect and, as stated, the EMP damage which happened. So, the idiots in North Korea could develop their capabilities, after all what's a little starvation for the citizenry, and greatly damage this country. So, with no defense against this sort of action by one of many rogue states, or China or Russia, we can do exactly what to safeguard ourselves?
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 2:51AM
=>“Secretary of State, fourth in line of succession, is President. Confirmation comes weeks after the attack.” [John C. Wohlstetter]
I guess that those who said that the Clintons would stop at nothing to have Hillary made preseident were right, no?
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 2:52AM
=>“if Newt co-authored six books with this guy then he must be a real prescient intelleckshuel.” [Alan Brooks| 5.1.09 @ 9:30AM]
Yep. The Al Gore of the Right.
Very good Alan. Good comment.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 3:15AM
=>“So, the idiots in North Korea could develop their capabilities, after all what's a little starvation for the citizenry, and greatly damage this country. So, with no defense against this sort of action by one of many rogue states, or China or Russia, we can do exactly what to safeguard ourselves?” [Richard Baker| 5.2.09 @ 6:35PM]
Hi Richard:
North Korea: It would be the last thing that miserable little country ever did.
The People’s Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China: It would be suicidal (especially the PRC; Russia could take us with it).
We can do what were do now: Posses a retaliatory capability that would make such an act suicidal.
Nuclear-powered submarines alone, make it unrealistic for any one of these three to try anything.
The same goes for Iran, in case you’ve been frightened by the rubbish of the Iranians developing a nuclear weapon.
As to the doom, gloom, and back to the dark ages stuff, then forget it. Uncomfortable yet. Regressing back to that level. No.
With the Joint Chiefs of Staff North America Command and NAFTA, at the minimum, then all of this is fantasy.
North America Command will ensure no change in our current highly centralizred government (Nartional Security Council, via departments of Defense and State).
Mexico and Canada have been transformed into vast corporate farms (much like Ireland was to Britain during WWII).
The port system, interstate highway system, air network, and Japanese and British maritime logistics and capabilities would negate any possibility of knocking out the U.S.A.
“On The Beach” and “The Day After” were more realistic than this pap ever will be.
Those pieces of sensationalistic fiction weren’t realistic either.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 3:22AM
=>"How many would he trade to kill 270 million of us?" [John C. Wohlstetter]
Americans would be more realistic to worry about being led into a general war by our own government than this nonsense.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 3:48AM
=>“Loathsome Luddites like ‘Appleby’ epitomize why paleoconservatives (Right) and the Khmer Rouge (Left) are just kissin' cousins. I want my MTV. Hooray for Hollywood.” [Seeker| 5.1.09 @ 1:26PM]
Hi Seeker:
Hollywood is a cesspool.
That may make you a human turd (i.e. someone who's formed himself as human excrement).
The paleo-conservatives are a sham.
The creation of the self-named paleo-libertarians.
All of this libertarianism and self-named neo-conservatism is nothing more than the ethical pollution of the right.
“Conservative” movements formed and led by ex-Marxists, red-diaper babies, and a tiny bunch of sneaks advocating of a 19th Century form of British capitalism that never took root in the U.S.A. until the past 20 years; and especially the past ten.
None of these parasites could ever have survived openly, 40 to 30 years ago.
But now, due to the deforming of younger Americans and death-rate of older Americans, the parasites are ‘coming out,’ killing, and discarding the host that these human vermin have used for the past 25 years.
So, yes, to some extent you're right. The paleo-conservatives, being the creation of the self-named paleo-libertarians, which provided the self-named neo-conservatives with much of their economic theory, and the Khmer Rouge are just kissin' cousins.
This whole rotten, corrupt bunch are kissin' cousins to the Khmer Rouge.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 3:53AM
=>Appleby| 5.1.09 @ 7:06AM
Hi Appleby:
I don't know what you call yourself and could care less about the vitriol from "conservative" leftists like Seeker.
I enjoyed your comment.
You're right. All the garbage that you list can make an EMP look pretty good.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 4:28AM
=>This whole rotten, corrupt bunch are kissin' cousins to the Khmer Rouge.
The whole rotten, corrupt bunch, includes the so-called neo-liberals as well.
They’ve demonstrated it in their roles in the American experiment” of 1967-present.
They’ve demonstrated this in Iraq since 2003 and since last October have now been demonstrating it in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It’s been demonstrated in southwest Asia, on the Balkan Peninsula, in north Africa and in south-central Asia since at least 1991.
Actually, compared to this post-1989 crooked-as-a-dog’s-hind-leg government (National Security Council, via departments of State and Defense), and these blood-thirsty cheerleaders and enablers (neo-conservatives, paleo-libertarians, and neo-liberals), then the Khmer Rouge are being made to look like pikers in comparison.
Just to be fair to the Khmer Rouge. . .
At least Pol Pot didn't conduct his social revolution, murders, re-education, and tortures under the pretenses of being:
"kinder and gentler,"
following "A New Convenant,"
"a pro-life president"
or saccharine slogans like "Change We Can Believe In."
Again, just to be fair to the Khmer Rouge. . .
Pingback| 5.3.09 @ 7:31AM
One Second Too Late: America’s Fate? links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ChuckD| 5.3.09 @ 9:40AM
Steve, hate to tell you this, but you unwittingly gave the book a great review. As a novel writing hobbyist, I go to a lot of writing conferences and seminars. Without exception, every publisher says to sell a manuscript you have to write your story exactly the way you described, dialog and action have to move the plot. No internal monologues, avoid narrative, and shun description.
And like you said, it will make great movie. That's why they do it that way. You write it like a movie so you will sell more books -a la James Patterson. That way you can reach the reader with even the smallest attention span. And I hate it, too. Welcome to the M-TV generation.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 12:05PM
=>“That way you can reach the reader with even the smallest attention span. . . . “Welcome to the M-TV generation.” [ChuckD| 5.3.09 @ 9:40AM]
Hi Mr. D:
The sons and daughters of the Me-Generationers & Generation X.
The Xer contingent (to be sure) is: The Kentucky Fried Movie-National Lampoon’s-Animal House-AC/DC-Aerosmith-Punk Rock-Hank Williams Jr-Bruce Springsteen-Cocaine-Red Dawn-The Day After-Vietnam War movies-&-MTV videos generation.
All of this pack falling within this age bracket will be in middle age (40-59 years old) by 2013.
“They Grow Up So Fast.. . .”
But, hey, David Zucker, and Myrna Sokoloff, and a few others, have turned “conservative” in the past 5 years also. So now Hollywood has some new conservatives and the libertarian-&-neo-conized Xer & Me-Gen conservatives (i.e. the leftist-formed conservatives) have their own disgusting & debauched entertainment now too.
This latter batch should love any ‘1 Second After’ movie too (Wow, man, things move so much faster these days than when these people were kids and it was The Day After!).
This should be a movie for The Whole Family, for tens of millions aged 45 years old and younger, and millions aged 45 years old and younger.
Just to be clear on the terms:
Generation X: Born about 1960-73; now aged 35-48 years old; all will be in middle age (40-59 years old) by 2013.
The Me Generation: Born about 1953-73; now aged 35-56 years old.
Paul Crowley| 5.3.09 @ 12:14PM
=>"This should be a movie for The Whole Family, for tens of millions aged 45 years old and younger, and millions aged 45 years old and younger."
Ooops. Make that millions aged 55 years old and younger.
If they make it as a cartoon (A.K.A. animated motion picture), then, hey, extend the age of the millions category to 65 years old and younger. . .
The majority of American adults (emotionally & intellectually speaking), are now dead, and dying off rapidly.
Cpm| 5.3.09 @ 2:01PM
Thank you Paul Crowley for getting all that off your chest.....you must be relieved.
Paul Crowley| 5.4.09 @ 12:37AM
=>"Thank you Paul Crowley for getting all that off your chest.....you must be relieved. [Cpm| 5.3.09 @ 2:01PM]
Hi Cpm:
You're welcome; anytime.
But, no, not relieved.
There was no buildup or any so-called "venting" or "ranting" (others have made this mistake, even if you're not) and I'm not into the catharsis stuff. . . (From my experience, those who try to “vent” are only made worse and more neurotic by it, seriously).
So nothing to get off my chest. But, I can understand why others would confuse this as something pseudo-therapeutic. . . It’s how people have been taught and formed.
A lot of this is pretty basic after 30-40 years of going through it and paying closer attention for the past 25 years (Unavoidably). I also have a reasonably good memory and I'm also methodical.
I never did expect any good to come of this mess. The last ten years have been confirming the uneasy suspicions and the explicitly bad expectations.
And, it's not really that I'm typing so much, but that so many type so absolutlely little (pure surface scratching).
Lastly, it’s just another slow Sunday. :)
Country Boy| 5.4.09 @ 1:19AM
I have to admit, a successful strike like this would be devasting for the U.S. Recovery would not be in one year. Most people would be dead in a month or two. If the strike happened in winter, things would be worse.
The only silver lining is that most of the structures in gov set up to prevent this are somewhat on auto-pilot, or maybe autonomous. Structures like the CIA and the DOD. Without being political, Reagan was fully aware of this category of attack, and created missions to deal with them. I have no idea what kind of funding this stuff has now, but nothing in Washington ever dies.
Pingback| 5.6.09 @ 7:00PM
» Southern California Supermarket strike of 2003-2004 Holbrook Mann MacNeille links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 5.7.09 @ 4:26PM
And our slavish devotion to computers advances our safety just How? When a puny country like North Korea can potentially unravel our computer based society that means computers, like any other dependency, are really an advantage? How did the world ever survive before personal computers?
Pingback| 5.8.09 @ 10:44AM
Topics about Electromagnetic-pulse | One Second Too Late: America’s Fate? links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Richard Baker| 5.10.09 @ 7:32PM
To Paul Crowley:
So, let's see if I understand. No defense against it AND we have to let the North Koreans, or whoever, EMP the country and potentially cause the death of thousands. As an aircraft mechanic I understand the computer- centric nature of the airline industry, as one example. Care to guess how many thousands are on airliners at any moment? Why do Americans have to suffer one wit and THEN we take action? With liberals, the answer seems to be why should our enemies die when Americans can instead?
Merlin8047| 5.10.09 @ 11:04PM
Another precursor novel was "Lucifer's Hammer" - Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Except the protagonists in that novel managed to save a nuke power plant. . . . .
Trackback| 5.13.09 @ 3:48PM
巨乳 出会い系 無料, on 広島のセフレ, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Trackback| 6.17.09 @ 1:25AM
Magnet Wrap, on Magnet Wrap, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
ejhickey| 7.20.09 @ 2:02PM
Saw the author on TV kast night and read this article as well as his website. I take this seriously enough to buy two copies for my local library and step my own survuval contingency plans. It is also an incentive to buy an old Mustang or a 1950's chevy.
Bill| 10.28.09 @ 3:04PM
Beans, Bullets and Beer! Along with bottles of booze to trade !