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New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone



 
 
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  #11  
Old September 21st 06, 07:22 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
El Puerco
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Posts: 11
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

wrote in message
oups.com...

Sea Wasp wrote:
wrote:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable


It's always been thinkable. We did it twice to stop a much longer,
more drawn-out war from continuing. Push us or anyone else similarly
armed into a sufficient corner, we or they will do it again. There is
no weapon yet made that people WON'T use, just ones they are more or
less reluctant to use.



Oh, how long can trusty Cadet Stimpy hold out? How can he possibly
resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase his very
existence? Will his tortured mind give in to its uncontrollable
desires?
Can he resist the temptation to push the button that, even now,
beckons him even closer? Will he succumb to the maddening urge to
eradicate history? At the MERE...PUSH...of a SINGLE...BUTTON! The
beeyootiful SHINY button! The jolly CANDY-LIKE button! Will he hold
out, folks? CAN he hold out?


And a big ROFLMFAO to you sir. Thanks for the memory! Damn was that a
rilly good shew.


  #12  
Old September 21st 06, 10:31 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Caleb N. Diffell
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Posts: 1
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

I could be wrong, but for a second there I actually thought you said
that a major American TV network was doing political dirty work for a
REPUBLICAN president...now THAT would make a good SF TV show.

  #13  
Old September 21st 06, 11:11 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Sea Wasp
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Posts: 34
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great FunFor Everyone

wrote:
Sea Wasp wrote:

wrote:

http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable


It's always been thinkable. We did it twice to stop a much longer,
more drawn-out war from continuing. Push us or anyone else similarly
armed into a sufficient corner, we or they will do it again. There is
no weapon yet made that people WON'T use, just ones they are more or
less reluctant to use.




Oh, how long can trusty Cadet Stimpy hold out? How can he possibly
resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase his very
existence? Will his tortured mind give in to its uncontrollable
desires?
Can he resist the temptation to push the button that, even now,
beckons him even closer? Will he succumb to the maddening urge to
eradicate history? At the MERE...PUSH...of a SINGLE...BUTTON! The
beeyootiful SHINY button! The jolly CANDY-LIKE button! Will he hold
out, folks? CAN he hold out?


*SPACE MADNESS!*

--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/

  #14  
Old September 21st 06, 11:47 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Gene Ward Smith[_1_]
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Posts: 119
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone


Caleb N. Diffell wrote:
I could be wrong, but for a second there I actually thought you said
that a major American TV network was doing political dirty work for a
REPUBLICAN president...now THAT would make a good SF TV show.


What, like ABC? Fox, maybe?

  #15  
Old September 21st 06, 11:56 PM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
[email protected]
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Posts: 1,516
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

Earlier bomb shows were generally a bust. Remember the day after. So
sad it was cut dramatically in length and still was a ratings bust. I
still wonder what happened to the guys who hid in the outer bomb launch
silo, the controllers were safely behind sealed blast doors with food
water and safe air.

back to this show frankly i found it interesting, and hope it continues

WE SHOULD ALL PLAN FOR DISASTERS BOTH NATRURAL AND MAN MADE.

everything from terrorist disrupting energy in the winter so some
freerze to death, to food shotages if say contamination occurs, imagine
the spinach scare effecting all types of food, perhaps it will be no
gasoline for our vehicles, or no water from power failures.

our infrastructure is old and aging, run on the cheap, it lacks
redundancy.

EVERYONE should make some bare minimum plans like having a woodstove
and some firewood, safe water purifying supplies, extra food etc etc.
it need not be a years supplies in a bomb shelter

  #16  
Old September 22nd 06, 12:40 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
[email protected]
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Posts: 276
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

quoted, in part:

apparently from
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html

Also, the whole detached observer quality of the photo
subliminally says nuclear catastrophe is no big deal, something that
can safely be survived at a distance.


Actually, I don't see how a show like this would convince Americans in
general that they don't have to worry about World War III. After all,
it certainly won't convince people who *live in big cities* that they
have nothing much to worry about from a nuclear attack.

And aren't the people living in the small towns already voting for
Bush?

No, if there _was_ an evil plot to keep the Republicans in power, it
would consist of gerrymandering.

John Savard

  #17  
Old September 22nd 06, 12:43 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
[email protected]
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Posts: 276
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

quoted, in part:

from
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html

Also, the whole detached observer quality of the photo
subliminally says nuclear catastrophe is no big deal, something that
can safely be survived at a distance.


But this isn't enough to get everyone to vote for Bush. This only works
on people who live in small towns, and they vote for Bush already.

Thus, it's a waste of time to sway public opinion with shows like these
- although it may help in keeping Bush's core voters loyal. What the
Republicans *really* need is gerrymandering.

John Savard

  #18  
Old September 22nd 06, 01:21 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Frank Glover[_1_]
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Posts: 353
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great FunFor Everyone

wrote:
Sea Wasp wrote:

wrote:

http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable


It's always been thinkable. We did it twice to stop a much longer,
more drawn-out war from continuing. Push us or anyone else similarly
armed into a sufficient corner, we or they will do it again. There is
no weapon yet made that people WON'T use, just ones they are more or
less reluctant to use.




Oh, how long can trusty Cadet Stimpy hold out? How can he possibly
resist the diabolical urge to push the button that could erase his very
existence? Will his tortured mind give in to its uncontrollable
desires?
Can he resist the temptation to push the button that, even now,
beckons him even closer? Will he succumb to the maddening urge to
eradicate history? At the MERE...PUSH...of a SINGLE...BUTTON! The
beeyootiful SHINY button! The jolly CANDY-LIKE button! Will he hold
out, folks? CAN he hold out?



The leaders of Iran and North Korea are my biggest concerns on this
issue...and I doubt that anything CBS airs or doesn't air will alter
their views either way.


--

Frank

You know what to remove to reply...

Check out my web page: http://www.geocities.com/stardolphin1/link2.htm

"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the
human spirit."
- Stephen Hawking
  #19  
Old September 22nd 06, 03:11 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Midnighter
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Posts: 19
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone


"Iain King" wrote in message
ups.com...

wrote:
http://letterfromhere.blogspot.com/2...thinkable.html


Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Making nuclear war thinkable



What's wrong with this picture? To begin with, if it weren't a
Hollywood special effects shot, the guy would probably be blind from
looking right at the exploding nuke -- he clearly didn't duck and
cover. Also, the whole detached observer quality of the photo
subliminally says nuclear catastrophe is no big deal, something that
can safely be survived at a distance. The biblical name and hint of a
halo even hint at something transcendent.

In other words, CBS is helping make the use of nukes a little more
thinkable.

I wonder how this thing ever got off the ground. Maybe it went
something like this:
You guys have been in the doghouse for a couple years now, ever since
the Janet Jackson costume malfunction and the Dan Rather mess. Getting
Katie for the news was a start, but you need to do more. Here's a
thought. How about a "high-concept" TV soap featuring a plucky red
state small town with a biblical name surviving nuclear catastrophe
while those sinners in the big cities apparently burn in hellfire and
disappear? How cool is that?
CBS seemed to buy it. They signed for at least 13 episodes, and the new
series "Jericho" will air weekly, starting this Wednesday.

A drama about what happens when a nuclear mushroom cloud suddenly
appears on the horizon, plunging the residents of a small, peaceful
Kansas town into chaos, leaving them completely isolated and wondering
if they're the only Americans left alive. Fear of the unknown propels
Jericho into social, psychological and physical mayhem when all
communication and power is shut down. The town starts to come apart at
the seams as terror, anger and confusion bring out the very worst in
some residents. But in this time of crisis, as sensible people become
paranoid, personal agendas take over and well-kept secrets threaten to
be revealed, some people will find an inner strength they never knew
they had and the most unlikely heroes will emerge.

Again, what's wrong with this picture?

More than 20 years ago, in the early years of the Reagan
administration, loose talk about "survivable nuclear war" created a
huge outcry, here and abroad. ABC produced a TV movie called "The Day
After." While operating within the constraints of network TV, the show
tried to communicate some of the true horror of a nuclear war. The
Reaganites learned their lesson and shut up.

Now, little more than two decades later, CBS is about to show nuclear
war as something that happens elsewhere, off-camera except for a
mushroom cloud or two on the horizon, nothing that can't be survived by
good people learning to work together in a small town far from Ground
Zero. Yeah, right.

Call me a cynic, but I don't think it's any accident that this show is
airing at the very time that the Bush administration is trying, through
a disingenuous combination of leaks, diplomatic initiatives and
gradually escalating threats, to build support for a preemptive strike
-- possibly with nuclear "bunker busters" -- against Iran. And while
they insist they haven't made up their minds to go to war yet, chances
are -- based on past performance -- they've already made their
decision. It's not a matter of "if," but "when" -- and how to sell it.

The neocon strategists know they don't have a snowball's chance in hell
of selling another preemptive war to the public through rational
argument. What they can do, without ever discussing the real issues, is
make emotional appeals to their base, get them worked up, and then use
them to bludgeon political opponents of preemptive war.

Who knows? "Jericho" might do the job. On the one hand, it stirs
anxiety about nuclear war, and thus builds support for a "preventive
war" against Iran. On the other hand, showing nuclear war safely going
on in the background while people are fine and going about their lives
in the foreground helps desensitize the audience to the horror of
nuclear weapons and makes nuclear war less unthinkable. It helps erode
taboos about a U.S. nuclear first strike -- should that become
necessary to get rid of those underground labs in Iran.

It just might work.

Holy ****! (Update): Here's executive producer Jon Turteltaub on Sci Fi
Wi
Jon Turteltaub, the executive producer of CBS' upcoming
post-apocalyptic drama series Jericho, told SCI FI Wire that he did
research about what might happen after a nuclear attack and was
surprised by the answers he found. "This is going to sound odd, but a
nuclear bomb is not as bad as everybody thinks," Turteltaub in an
interview. "Without question on the scale of things in the world, it's
on the bad scale of things that can happen. Puppies are on the really
good side of things [laughs]. But sometimes we have this image that one
nuclear bomb would take out all of New York City and Brooklyn and
Queens and parts of New Jersey."

That wouldn't be the case with the initial blast, Turteltaub (National
Treasure) added. "Part of the question is how much of the area is
uninhabitable versus how much in our perception and our fears is
uninhabitable," he said. "Coping with our own panic may be a greater
enemy than the reality of these things."
Just in case there was any doubt about where these guys are coming from.



Well, OK. Sure. It's a TV show.

More importantly - no-one knows the nature of the catastrophe. It
could be missiles, bombs, terrorists (gasp). Equally, it could be
aliens. Since a big part of the suspense in the show seems to be them
trying to work out what exactly happened, simply assuming it's a
nuclear attack seems a little dumb.

Iain


I doublt its going to be the usual nuclear war option, too normal for that
situation


  #20  
Old September 22nd 06, 03:54 AM posted to alt.society.liberalism,alt.anarchism,rec.arts.tv,rec.arts.sf.written,sci.space.policy
Mike Schilling
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Posts: 172
Default New CBS TV Series Making Nuclear War Thinkable And Great Fun For Everyone

Caleb N. Diffell wrote:
I could be wrong, but for a second there I actually thought you said
that a major American TV network was doing political dirty work for a
REPUBLICAN president...now THAT would make a good SF TV show.


Didn't see the 9/11 miniseries, eh?


 




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