I know the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully

When I first started worrying about the bomb, the use of nuclear weapons as a "deterrence only" was a kind of glass case to be opened only in an emergency. And there was only one kind of emergency that warranted breaking the case: a nuclear attack on the United States.

Bush and Cheney broke that glass in 2004 when Rumsfeld approved a top secret "Interim Global Strike Alert Order" that in effect directs the U.S. to strike first if it perceives a threat. Can you think of a more scarey thought than that?

Keep reading, it gets worse. After 9/11 they also restructured Stratcom (whose headquarters are here in Nebraska) so that it oversees not only nuclear weapons, but also conventional weapons. And that line between the two is getting fuzzier with the concept of new, low-yield, penetrating mininukes.

Critics argue that adding low-yield warheads to the world's nuclear inventory simply makes their eventual use more likely. In fact, a 1994 law was signed to prohibit the nuclear laboratories from undertaking research and development that could lead to a precision nuclear weapon of less than 5 kilotons (KT), because "low-yield nuclear weapons blur the distinction between nuclear and conventional war." However, low-yield weapons are the future, believe me.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...the perfect storm. With all of this going on, I am certainly glad we have a government we can trust, aren't you?