Review (PDF) Almighty
On a tranquil summer night in July 2012, a trio of elderly peace activists infiltrated the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Nicknamed the "Fort Knox of Uranium", Y-12 was reputedly one of the most secure nuclear weapons facilities in the world, a bastion of warhead parts that harbored hundreds of metric tons of highly enriched uranium - enough to power thousands of nuclear bombs. The activists - a house painter, a Vietnam war veteran, and an 82-year-old Catholic nun - penetrated the complex's exterior with alarming ease; their strongest tools were two pairs of bolt cutters and three hammers. Once inside, the pacifists hung freshly spray-painted protest banners and streaked the complex's white walls with six baby bottles' worth of human blood. Then they waited to be arrested. With the symbolic break-in, the Plowshares activists had hoped to draw attention to a costly military-industrial complex that stockpiled deadly nukes and drones. But they also triggered a political, legal, and moral firestorm when they defeated a multimillion-dollar security system. What if they had been terrorists with a deadly motive? Why does the United States continue to possess such large amounts of nuclear weaponry in the first place? And above all, are we safe? In Almighty, Washington Post reporter Dan Zak explores these questions by reexamining the 70-year history of America's nuclear weapons programs and its attendant madness. At a time when we are rightly concerned about proliferation in such nations as North Korea and Iran, the United States' massive arsenal is plagued by its own questions of security. This truly life-or-death issue is unraveled in Zak's eye-opening and terrifying account. From the influential biophysicist who first educated the public on atomic energy to the prophet who predicted the emergence of the Oak Ridge facilities to the jury who convicted the Plowshares activists under the Sabotage Act, Zak's Almighty reshapes the accepted narratives surrounding America's atomic weapons. Powerful, illuminating, and ambitious, Almighty makes the case that, more so than any other global peril, our greatest modern-day threat of nuclear disaster begins at home.
Audible Audio Edition
Listening Length: 10 hours and 49 minutes
Program Type: Audiobook
Version: Unabridged
Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Audible.com Release Date: July 12, 2016
Whispersync for Voice: Ready
Language: English
ASIN: B01E97QFNK
Best Sellers Rank: #45 in Books > History > Military > Weapons & Warfare > Biological & Chemical #45 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > Arms Control #106 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Politics & Current Events > International Relations
Please, for the love of our species, read Almighty. Please wake up and remember the existential threat we created with nuclear weapons. These bombs roam the oceans on submarines and hide in mountainsides, perpetually ready to strike. These bombs do not discriminate, killing all who lie in their path, doctors, children and mothers. Please scream that trillions of dollars are thrown away to just maintain our American stockpile, forgetting Eisenhower’s warning: “Every dollar that is spent on armaments is a theft from the poor”How did we get here? How have we gotten saddled with this deadly and expensive inheritance? As Americans, even though the War Department knew that Japan was ready to surrender, we used these weapons to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. The federal spending on nuclear weapons is higher than at any point in history and to simply modernize these weapons and facilities will cost more than $1 trillion through 2040. Why are there no plans to end nuclear stockpiles and no actions to reduce the taxpayer costs? And in an age where politicians scream about global terrorism and national security, how was an 82-year old nun, Sister Rice, and her two elderly companions able to break into America’s largest highly enriched uranium facility and remain undetected for hours?Almighty dives to deep to answer these questions, threading 70+ years of nuclear history and science with achingly beautiful prose around the story of a few humans struggling to sound an alarm against this menace and the bumbling bureaucracy that thoughtless perpetuates it.
Almighty The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to God: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Almighty
