NUKE THE WHALES: Gotta Nuke Something

In this new age, a lot of young people don't think about death a lot like they used to.

We have too many things to do: go to school, go to work, see the latest "Lost" episode, talk about it for hours on the message boards, finish those quizzes on Facebook, go on dates, imitate vacuous celebrities, go to concerts, etc.

To each his or her own.

So it is quite interesting to know that our grandparents, and for some, our parents, were traumatized with the nuclear bomb and its effects with death being a constant reminder. They had to go under desks, be informed by the animated "Bert the Turtle" to duck and cover, and repeatedly be told that they would probably never live to be middle aged because "the Reds" would come and annihilate the United States without warning. This paranoia some state, is why the hippie revolution and the excess of the 70s, with its "live today like it was your last," philosophy happened. They lived in excess because who knew when that flash of light would happen.

So with the news of North Korea testing missiles a few weeks back, and according to the Los Angeles Times, with the country now preparing to test launch a long range missile which will be able to reach  up to 4,000 miles (meaning  it can reach Alaska and Japan), is history repeating itself?  Will we have to think of death all the time like our grandparents?

Along with all the fears we have already, do we have to add this one to the list?

I must admit the whole nuclear bomb thing scares the living shit out of me. I'm such a wimp, I cringed in the latest Indiana Jones movie when he had mere seconds to live because a nuclear bomb was about to blow and he had nowhere to go, with his wrinkled face looking helpless before he went into a lead lined fridge that "saved" him. I read in the papers and online about the North Korean situation that the United Nations is trying to make tougher sanctions and President Obama calling it "a serious threat." While according to the Huffington Post, Kim Jong Il in April threatened that if the United Nations gives something as much as a scolding, they will continue with nuclear testing with White House experts speculating that North Korea might test that long range missile when South Korea's president Lee Myung-bak meets President Obama in Washington on June 16.

These guys mean business and for us living on the west coast, it's a bit nerve-racking to think that if the U.S. is hit, we'll probably be the first ones hit. I try not to let those thoughts loom over me.

The only time the U.S. has come close to nuclear war was when President Kennedy and leader of the U.S.S.R. Nikita Kruschev in 1962 almost pushed the A-Bomb button.

After the prevention of the end of the world, the A-Bomb became something that was so assured it would never happen because of the aftermath and seriousness of the crisis, the absurd comedic Stanley Kubrick film "Dr. Strangelove: or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" came out with the portrayal of national leaders slap-fighting, being drunk, and even riding an atomic bomb which became controversial pop culture images of the 60s.

I believe this is history repeating itself, what happened in the past, Hiroshima, Missile Crisis, the INF agreement to not launch nukes in the 80s, has been totally wiped from Kim Jong Il's mind who chooses not to face the consequences of the devastation that could occur. Why do we need nuclear weapons in the first place? For evil aliens from outer space? Like a wise professor once told me, "Most leaders of the world are never good historians." I am starting to believe that.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki are something any leader should know before they push the nuke button, where 220,000 people died of radiation poisoning, leukemia, cancers, with family members still suffering after more than 60 years have passed. If that doesn't get them to stop, they could at least consider that their favorite actor or sports team will no longer exist if they push the button; no more James Bond movies, which the North Korean leader is known to love.

This current situation could all be about bluffing and intimidations, so don't kiss your sweetheart goodbye, go bungee jumping, do everything you always wanted for fear of this bomb.

But hearing of this news, I will try to lay off the Facebook and do more activities I always wanted to do. Not think of death exactly but of life and to live it to its fullest, because who knows