Our Nuclear Arsenal

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The following is a quote from a Time Magazine article:

"Officials insist that America's nuclear arsenal is more or less fail-safe, which means that if the computer systems go haywire, the missiles won't launch. Whether the same is true of Russia's nukes is an open question."

Now, my question is we're pretty sure they won't go off because of a Y2K problem, but will they work if we need em? seems that could be just as big a problem, reliability thing you know. I've never seen this aspect addressed. Any thoughts?

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), June 16, 1999

Answers

I hope to God you don't actually think there would ever be a need to "use 'em". What good would it possibly do anyone? Counter strikes? Premptitive nuclear annhilation of those "commies"? Boy, what a wicked world we have created in the last fifty years. If there is ever a nuclear exchange then I'm going to sit on top of my house smoking a joint and waiting for the big bright light, because there would truly not be any reason to live in a world like that.

-- (planetz@zranch.org), June 16, 1999.

planetz, I agree with you regarding the insanity of even getting close to pusing the button, but...I think it's that old time argument of "mutually assured distruction" and the fact that by having them operational that we deter agression against us or our allies that makes the nukes valuable. If the nukes are useless then we might be looking at a hard, bloody, close fight. Either way, IMHO, it pretty much sucks.

Mike ===============================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), June 16, 1999.


God forbid we should ever have to use them. BUT if the need were there then yes I would hope they would work. Its that threat thats kept us out of any major war for 50 years. Remember Tacitus: " If you would have peace, prepare for war..."

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), June 16, 1999.

dagnabbit, I really need a spell checker...

Mike ===================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), June 16, 1999.


Kozak your right, didn't mean to get testy with ya, sorry. It's that fear of mutually assured destrcution that has kept man in a no holds barred cage match (read: arms race) since the end of WWII. I guess if there is no way of getting rid of them then yeah, I hope ours would work as well as the next guy, so the next guy wouldn't get any funny ideas. Mike hit the nail on the head though...either way definatley sucks.

-- (planetz@zranch.org), June 16, 1999.


Bought our Potassium Iodate last night. One supplier was sold out; 3 camping stores never heard of it, snickering on phone; one Emergency Prep store had it. With the Koreas threatening 'n shooting, and NutsoVeer still unsettled, the Russians outright announcing they'll nuke us as a Y2K "mistake," the terrorists rubbling their hands, and good ole Nostradamus' 7th month of 1999 almost here ... seems like a reasonable time to be Thyroid Block ready.

Reading up on nuclear fallout ... hhhmm, seems prudent to have Potassium Iodate on hand if one is anywhere near a nuclear power plant.

Hope we never have to pop those pills!

xxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxx xxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.


A & L...please stick around. I don't like thinking of the world without you two on it.

Mike @ ground zero ===================================================================

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), June 16, 1999.


Dear A & L, I have seen both potassium iodate and iodide mentioned. I found a site for potassium idodide, but can you explain the difference between the two? And why you chose one over the other? Thanks!

-- Mumsie (Lotsakids@home.com), June 16, 1999.

Well, we chose Potassium Iodate mainly because it was all that was available. The guy who sold it to us said they have a Web site, but all we're getting today is a front page with no links. Also, they're really into "Medical Corps," and gave us *that* web addy; nothing. We *may* have been scammed.

Here's the printed page they gave us:

"POTASSIUM IODATE
"150 mg Tablets

"Potassium Iodate is a superior form of KI (buffered Iodine) and carried only by Medical Corps. Each factory sealed bottle contains 100 fresh tablets of Potassium Iodate 150mg.

"The shelf life of Potassium Iodate is exceptional and should last a generation. Because of the extra molecule of oxygen in Iodate, Medical Corps can guarantee Iodate's stability without adding stabilizers.

"Medical Corps recommends that each family member should have at least one bottle in their emergency kit. KI is the only known chemical available on the market which will shield (or block) the Thyroid and prevent it from absorbinb radioactive Iodine.

"Unlike other blockers, Medical Corps' stock is NOT government surplus 130 mg tablets. It is also chewable and especially recommended for children because our youngsters are extremely susceptible to thyroid cancer after exposure to radioactive contamination.

"Remember, be it a spill, accident, war or terrorism, Potassium Iodate is the only chemical which will protect you and your children. For those who are interested, it can be used for your pets also.

"1 Bottle = 100 150mg pills.
"Use during a Nuclear Emergency ONLY
* For the first 14 days take 1 tablet twice a day. This is a total of 2 tablets per day.
* For the next 76 days take 1 tablet per day.

"Potassium Iodate 150mg is a superior form of "KI" because of its extended shelf life and lack of bitter taste. The extra molecule of oxygen in Potassium Iodate 150mg (actually K103), can guarantee the Iodate's continued freshness without adding stabilizers. Keep the bottle sealed, dry, and out of sunlight. It should remain stable for a generation.

"Why should it be used?
"During a Nuclear Disaster, such as War, Terrorism, a MeltDown or Spill, great amounts of Radioactive Iodine-131 are often released. Even though I-131 is radioactive, it is still Iodine ... and Iodine is what the Thyroid requires to operate correctly. The Thyroid does not know the difference between "good" iodine and "bad" iodine and will readily absorb Radioactive 131 if allowed to. What must be done in case of a nuclear accident is to SATURATE the Thyroid with the good Iodine so that the bad iodine cannot do irreparable damage. The blocking must be done on a daily basis at least 12 hours BEFORE the nuclear emergency starts and it must be continued for at least 80 days.

[ well now that last sentence sounds sorta idiotic -- as if anybody will have advance warning of 12 hours! The guy said 10 days -- HA! Like we said, we bought it because it was the only thing available. In 2 weeks something else may be available. We may return this bottle if we've been scammed. ]

OK, now any of you ever hear of "Medical Corp" ???

"Medical Corps is an organization of retired United States Armed Forces personnel united to bring to the citizenry of the nation education and training in survival and emergency medical techniques.

"Ralph Charles "Chuck" Fenwick is the founder and chief administrator of Medical Corp.

Address label on bottle:
"Medical Corps
45161 State Route 821
Caldwell, OH 43724

"New Important Information
[ the guy said this has been the case as of the last year, and the military is switching over to Postassium Iodate. He told us some info that we KNOW is not true, so we're being cautious ]

"New Thyroid Blocking Power
Did anyone besides Medical Corps understand what it means to have 100 suitcase Atomic Bombs unaccounted for by the former Soviet Union? Or maybe it is just a coincidence, but the US Government has instituted an NBC crash training program for emergency medical personnel in 120 cities nation wide! Medical Corps is involved with just that sort of training and has been for two years. One of the emergency procedures being taught is the use of the Thyroid Blocker called KI. This is the only chemical which will protect a human from absorbinb Radioactive Iodine 131. Iodine 131 is deadly and is especially toxic to children.

"Medical Corps now carries a superior form of KI. In the past we have marketed Potassium Iodide 150mg. Now we can offer a new product called Potassium Iodate 150mg.

"Medical Corps is the only company which carries this superior form of KI. Potassium Iodate has an extra molecule of Oxygen which makes it more shelf stable than Iodide or Iodine. It is not as bitter as Potassium Iodide and can be chewed. Unlike the government surplus 130mg Iodide, Medical Corps chose the 150mg strength, as this will extend the thyroid blocking.

Now, the store is called "American Family Network," and their website is at
http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com

We're using MS Explorer and cannot find ANYTHING to click on that website.

They gave us this addy for Medical Corp:
http://www.medicalcorp.org

All we get is "specified server could not be found."

SO, the big question for us is:

HAVE WE BEEN SCAMMED?

Where's those debunkers when ya need them!
Maybe our browser just doesn't show the links on the one website we can call up?

Anyway, there's the info we were able to get. We've read so many opinions re what the dosage should be, what the length of time taking it should be, etc, that we aren't sure what the truth is.

One thing that is maddening about Prepping is all the scams and misinformation flying around. Also all this takes way too much time and research and hunting for details.

All of which will pay off if something ever does happen ...

Help us out here, folks!

xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.


I have a Potassium Iodide substitute: A Smith and Wesson steel jacketed 185 grain hollow point, cause if those nukes ever fly I'm not going to sit around puking up my intestines and pulling hair out of my head while changing the gauze on my bloody sores and watching my sperm mutate into tiny little Ted Bundys. Sorry for the visuals... but hey, study up on what the "survivors" of Nagasaki and Hiroshima went through and you'll see what I mean. My "PITEONF" - Plan In The Event Of Nuclear Fallout goes something like this:

BANG!

-- (not going to @ be irradiated. at home), June 16, 1999.



To answer all of the above: http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vKF and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000vD4 and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000v59 and http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000puv and of course http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/IODINE.TXT and the source http://www.advance-scientific.com item # POT590 125g for $53.oo and 500g for $108.oo + shipping reagent grade purity 99.0%.

The iodate is not hideous tasting like the iodide is. However, it's cheaper and the idea is to prevent thyroid cancer, not be an epicurian.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.


Uhhh, Guys, and Gulls,

Take a look at you 26 oz. salt shaker, the one with the IODIZED lable on it? Look at the ingredients, Mine says " Salt, Dextrouse, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Bicarbonate, and prussiate of Soda. Look at the 3rd ingredient.

Your Fed has been takeing care of this problem for years.

-- CT (ct@no.yr), June 16, 1999.


CT - Not even close, unfortunatly. The amount of idoine in iodized salt is enough to prevent goiter, period. The amount of iodized salt that you would have to ingest to flood your thyroid with iodine would be more than enough to kill you. Nice try though.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.

Hey there, Ken, thanks for all those links! We read thru them all, in between converting to Know Nuttins, deciding to get a Computer Programming degree, and learning some HTML ;^)

Anyway our questions were not answered but we did learn more about what we did already know, err, didn't already don't know, whatever.

Anybody out there hear of Medical Corps or potassium iodate? I.O. Date, heeheeheehehehehe. Right!

xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.


Up to the top to see if anybody can answer our questions!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 16, 1999.


Not to worry. They have a manual workaround!

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 16, 1999.

One more item. The only difference between potassium iodide and potassium iodate is that the iodide tastes awful and the iodate tastes okay.

Now potassium iodide is KI. Potassium iodate is KIO3(?) and therefore has a different weight. Therefore you can NOT exchange them milligram per milligram. Stick to the FDA doses for each one individually to get the correct amount of I.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 17, 1999.


Just dawned on me that all these years we've been reading about
Mutual Assured Destruction
what they really meant was
Mutual Absurd Destruction.


-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), June 17, 1999.

Ummmm...back to the original question...yes, Kozak, our stuff works. Test launches have been conducted. The silo's have several backup systems in case of power loss, etc. ((They are located in an area of the country subject to power loss from blizzards and such)).

-- Don (dwegner@cheyenneweb.com), June 17, 1999.

A&L

It looks like the site, http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/ has frames. So, all the links are in the frame to the right.

It also appears that MedicalCorp is part and parcel of American Family Network.

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), June 17, 1999.


J, *thank you*! So it's our browser that is the problem; it doesn't support those frames, apparently. We'll go to a store that has a PC that may show those. Thank you so much!

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 17, 1999.

A&L

Save some fuel. You have IE, so go to preferences or whatever and set it to use or see frames. Should work, after all, the website we're talking about offers an upgrade for IE on the home page.

It's just a matter of adjusting your settings, that's all.

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), June 17, 1999.


Thanks, J. Looked under "preferences," show frames is checked ?? only Java is not enabled (does weird stuff), so enabled it. Will try again. Thanx for fuel-saving tip.

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 17, 1999.

A&L,

That java drives me nuts, too! And that site has it! It takes so long to load the first time, but without it we miss a lot, as you have experienced.

Were here to help each other. Anything else? Just ask!

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), June 17, 1999.


Oopsie, our browser just crashed. Apparently wrong version of Java. Disabled again now. Gotta upgrade buncha software, too busy reading this Forum to get to life's duties. Every time we say, OK, no more Forum, some really juicy piece of news/proof captures us again. Never been addicted to nuttin before til this Forum! Drivin us nutso.

Well, at this point it feels OK to have this bottle of I.O.Date. Just sorta fits the mood ;^) So J, have you looked at any of the Medical Corp pages? Does it seem legit? We were hoping some military folk might confirm/debunk it on here. What's the scoop? ???

xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 17, 1999.


A&L

The first link is called 'reparedness New' at http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/newspage.htm

and it appears that they meant to write 'Preparedness News and Information' This link contains links to the following: Y2K Weatherman News at http://Y2kWatch.com

Alert America at http://www.alertamerica.net

CNN News Y2K News Link at http://cnn.com/US/9810/10/y2k.survivalists/

______________

The second link is called 'Visit Our Headquarters' at http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/headquar.htm

which links to:

American Products Corporation at http://www.american-products.com

learn About America at http.//www.learnaboutamerica.com

Picture America at http://www.pictureamerica.com

_____________

The third link is called 'Food Storage Programs' at http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/bestbuylnk.htm

and starts out with this wording: Robert Shangle's America's Best Buy "Long-Term Food Storage Programs"

It has buttons labeled, 'America's #1 Best Buy' http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/bestbuy1.htm?B1=America%27s+%231+ Best+Buy

'Freeze Dried #10 Cans' http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/mountain_house.htm?B1=Freeze+Drie d+%2310+Cans

Bulk Best Buy http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/bulkbestbuy.htm?B1=Bulk+Best+Buy

______________

The fourth link they have is called 'Medical Support' http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/medicalcorps.html

with links to Medical Corp history at http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/history.html

http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/quarn.htm

http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/bioresponse.htm

http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/special1.htm and this one is probably the same as the pamphlet you received from them about Iodate.

Also there are links to their articles on Field Medicine, classes pertaining to Field Med School and Survival article 'Making a fire'

_________________

Then there is a link to Chemical and Biological Safety at http://www.americanfamilynetwork.com/special1.htm

Gas Masks and Suits pricing and ordering...

___________________

Do you want more?

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), June 17, 1999.


As to legit, well, I will not opine. If I had run across this site three years ago, I would have labeled it as a nut site for the extremist militia bozos.

Now, today, well, um, let's say that I wouldn't label it as such.

-- J (jart5@bellsouth.net), June 17, 1999.


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