...because in all honestly, the rest of us are. I know I normally have a no politics, no religion, no war, no whatever hot topic promise on this blog, but I’m breaking it. Again. This has got to be some sort of record for me this year. Oh, and since this is about North Korea's actions you might decide you want to read something light and fluffy, go read yesterday's entry instead.

On Sunday the world received a scary piece of news – it was very likely that North Korea had finally executed an underground test of a nuclear device. This is a very scary piece of news, considering the unstable and crazy place that North Korea seems to be. Rumor had it on Monday that they probably have a range to be able to hit Alaska at this point. All it would take is someone to have a very bad day over there and we're going to be in a sticky situation. Assuming that it really *was* a nuclear test; the spooks are still trying to figure that out.

It will be the show 'Jericho' come to life should something happen. And I could think of a lot better television that could come to life than that. 'Doctor Who' for example, or 'House' (although I might not want him as my doctor, not really sure about that yet), or 'The Amazing Race' – much less scary, and much better television than 'Jericho'. (For those who don’t know the premise of 'Jericho' – mushroom cloud appears over the horizon from Jericho, Kansas and they learn of a nuclear explosion in Denver – and many other places, even though they’re cut off from the rest of the world.) Ah, but I digress.

North Korea potentially has a shiny new toy to play with, and the self-proclaimed emperor of the United States has condemned this action (as well he should) and started demanding a response from the UN Security Council. I'm wondering what his definition of "immediate" actually is, and am considerably concerned about it. If his version of "immediate" means 'within 5 minutes of these words hitting the wire' then we may have an international situation on our hands. I think our trigger happy President may be looking for a reason to get into a barfight with North Korea, and that would be a very, very bad thing.

Even the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is asking for this situation to be resolved in 'a peaceful manner' and spouts off some rhetoric about how North Korea has a history of intimidating other countries and won't get to us. I think that was just his safe way of telling Dubya that he'd better not launch another military strike, especially against the unstable crazies in North Korea. We don't have the military personnel to be able to support it, although it would be a good reason for pulling troops out of Iraq - just send them somewhere else. We also don't have enough plastic sheeting and duct tape to protect our windows and ducts from contamination should this be resolved in a more... violent or damaging manner. Personally I'd like to die of old age, and not some sort of radiation poisoning or biological warfare.

I know, I know, that sounds rather fatalistic of me. It sounds like I have no faith in the person that the masses voted into office to make all the major decisions for the country for four years. Well, it would be right, and may I remind you that it was a close race last election. Yes, I voted for the other guy – but I'm not saying which other guy since there were a few to choose from. And no, I don’t want to be labeled a "Bush-basher" but I'm not going to mindlessly follow whatever decisions he makes either. I know there are some out there, and that's fine if that's what floats your boat, but even those in charge make grave and horrid mistakes. Just open the business section and read about the indictments against HP (Hewlett-Packard) if you don't believe me.

The good thing is that every other major nuclear capable country also thinks that North Korea did a very, very bad thing and shouldn't be doing it. Even China is pissy about it, and they're allies with North Korea - they're thinking of imposing their own sanctions because they're that ticked off. As for the other countries, they're probably all afraid of North Korea and Iran getting together over drinks and deciding that playing a little "Global Thermo-nuclear War" might be a good way to pass the time. Speaking of that, have you heard they're going to do a sequel to 'WarGames' – well, not so much a sequel as a redeux, but that’s neither here nor there.

Everyone's afraid the two scary unstable countries might get together and try and build some shiny 'splosive toys together and then threaten everyone else around them. They might need to watch 'WarGames' if they haven't already because no one wins - that's the lesson in the movie. Just having the darn things is a nice threat, and it keeps other countries that have them in check, but North Korea is cracked enough to actually *use* them. And they're cracked enough to share the wealth of knowledge and help Iran build some of their own. Unless they decide to blow up Iran instead just because they can.

It's probably more of a "I want to have these because so-and-so has them" sort of situation, as it is with everything that one nation has that's desirable to the other nations, but this is one of those things that I'd prefer no one had. Even us. Everyone has wants though, and I have a laundry list of items of why this whole presumed test happened - because I want to die of old age as I said earlier, because I believe that peace is possible without war, because sitting down and talking things over is much better than shoot first, ask questions later....

...and mostly because I'd sure like my children to live to see 20, if that's ok with you.