Def-Con 2012

I remember watching the missiles coming out of the silos in the TV movie "The Day After." I remember writing my own short story about waiting for the missiles to fall when I was in high school. I survived the Cold War. We all did. The United States is 1 and 0 in wars in which atomic weapons were used. Hooray for the Red, White and Blue!
Now we fret and fuss about who might want to join that club. Iran? North Korea? Pakistan? It's not the pervasive fear that I remember from my youth. This one is more pointed, sometimes mixed with haughty superiority. "North Korea? They can't even get their missile all the way across the Pacific Ocean." I might feel differently if I on Maui, of course. And then there are the stories of "dirty bombs" that aren't intended to level cities, just kill off thousands with lethal doses of radiation. It does make me pine for the days of Matthew Broderick and the WOPR. We should all learn so much by playing a few games of tic-tac-toe.
In the meantime, those silos in Kansas are still proving to be useful for someone. Real estate developer Larry Hall has options to retro-fit War-for anyone who seeks comfort inside concrete walls that are nine feet thick and stretch one hundred and seventy-four feet underground. He is installing an indoor farm to grow enough fish and vegetables to feed seventy people for as long as they need to stay inside and also stockpiling enough dry goods to feed them for five years. The top floor and an outside building above it will be for elaborate security. Other floors will be for a pool, a movie theater and a library, and when in lockdown mode there will be floors for a medical center and a school.
It will be a place where even the most paranoid could relax and enjoy themselves until the threat of solar flares or zombie infestation runs its course. Or Obama's second term.