Storm'n Norm'n: Re-setting the doomsday clock ~ Are we just a half minute before midnight?

by Norman E. Hooben

Doomsday Clock

Back in 2009 Leonard Eiger wrote a piece called "It's 5 Minutes to Midnight. Do You Know Where Your Nukes Are?" In that essay Eiger clearly states his position on nuclear weapons. A position I take as very dangerous to the existence of the so-called free world we live in today. Those of us who have lived through all the Cold War years remember the doomsday clock that warned us how close to war we were with the Soviet Union.
Originally set at seven minutes to midnight by the designers based on the political climate of the times, it was my personal feeling that we were much closer to midnight during the Cuban Missile crisis (See: CIA briefings for JFK shed new light on Cuban missile crisis). The Cuban thing was dominant for me because it was within a year or so after I entered the United States Air Force so I would surmise that the clock was less than five minutes before all hell was to break loose...but I would be wrong. The closest the clock got to midnight was in 1953 when both the Soviets and the United States were testing nuclear bombs at the same time. That clock was set to two minutes before midnight for that event and has never got closer since.

Just as I was wrong about where the clock should be set, Mr. Eiger seems to think that because we have a new guy in the White House that we can turn the clock back; here, let me quote him:

"With a new president in The White House we have just the opportunity we need to turn back the clock. But it will require the engagement of the American People in an issue that most have found untouchable since the dawn of the nuclear age. President Obama has stated his desire to rid the world of nuclear weapons, but is taking a cautious approach."

Although I haven't seen any official position by anyone of note, the doomsday clock is within seconds to midnight since the arrival of Obama so Eiger is dead wrong... More wrong than I ever was, if I could say so myself!
What prompted me to write this piece was a voice I was listening to over satellite radio while on a recent cross-country trip. I didn't get the interviewer's name nor the one being interviewed but the overall conversation was very interesting seemingly coming from very knowledgeable people. It was the interviewee that stated, "The doomsday clock is one-second before midnight."
Now I played around with my own doomsday clock several years ago. No, I wasn't concerning my self with all the world's events that may be leading us into hell, I was studying the catalyst that would nudge the second hand to that magic hour and that catalyst is none other than the guy in the White House. I made the following without regard to a second hand; just the hour and minute hand. (I believe my depiction of Obama was more accurate than Eiger's.)

This clock was set in June of 2008 if I had to reset it today (Oct 27, 2014) I

would set the minute hand within a half minute to midnight. ~ N. Hooben

UPDATE October 2016 ~ As long as Barack Hussein Obama, John F. Kerry
and Hillary Rodham Clinton are in power we can be assured that war will
break out any second...they're setting the stage for it to happen.

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