Stay Safe, Stay Strong: The Facts About Nuclear Weapons

This information movie from the US Air Force purports to tell it audience how safe they are from nuclear accidents. Drop a plane from the sky, set it on fire, send trucks with sirens blaring past you, you can be sure that there won't be an accidental nuclear detonation.

None of this was assuring to me when I saw it in grade school, and it is even less assuring today. Even assuming it was accurate, I thought then, I wasn't worried about accidental atomic explosions, but was -- and am -- very worried about explosions on purpose, and not just nuclear ones. Tell me that that cloud of black smoke is an A-bomb carrying plane that has fallen out of the sky and is burning, but don't worry, because the plutonium is not going to go supercritical -- and critical is more than bad enough, thank you very much -- and I am going to worry. And I challenge you not to.