And let us not forget the defense industry, the industry that miraculously responded to Pearl Harbor and carried us through fifty years of Cold War. Where would we be without all that weaponry innovation and production while so many other industries have deserted the homeland in search of cheaper nonunion labor?

We sure showed those commies, didn't we? What arrogance to think that a socialist country with half our population could compete in the theater of big bucks.

President Bush just returned from a trip to Russia where he and Putin agreed to reduce the number of nukes pointed at each other by two-thirds. They are not getting rid of them, they're just doing what I did long ago when I took the clips out of my guns, removed cartridges from chambers, and stored the ammunition in a drawer the kids couldn't get at.

Of course, kids are smart nowadays. Computer literate, they know how to pick locks and come in through the back door. I'm still trying to figure that last one out. I hear that if I get something called "a firewall" I can be protected.

It's nice that we're not going to be pointing so many nukes at each other as we gradually put some of them into storage over the next decade. Two thirds is a substantial reduction. It means that instead of being able to knock the earth off its axis nine times and send it hurtling into the sun, we'll only be able to do it three times. Makes me feel a whole lot better, how about you?.

Pedro Horowitz told me that the only way we're ever going to get rid of all of the atom, hydrogen, cobalt, and other nuclear bombs and missiles is to recruit and train an international nuclear swat team. He says this team would have to be trained to seek out and disarm all of them, and would probably need a James Bond license to kill anyone found within fifty feet of such a device, a button, or any of the components.

I laughed and said half of the American workforce would have to stay home when they came. Besides that, the INS would certainly know when they enter the country and where they are. We would probably obliterate them with the new COIL disintegrator before they got very far. This latest addition to our arsenal doesn't even leave a DNA trace.

It was an interesting idea though. Do you know where your nukes are?