The end of the month always seems to arrive many days after the end of your paycheck. Your mortgage is going up again due to your A.R.M. interest rate change and your car needs four new tires. Not to mention that the dentist has just informed you that your daughter needs braces and your son wants to go to summer football camp. Prices spiral directly in proportion to family needs and you continually wonder how you are going to financially adapt.

Your relative few moments of relaxation are early in the morning as you sip your coffee and peruse the morning paper. Yet even here rarely can you find articles or reports that do not focus on the failing economy and the difficulties we all currently face. Fear not for you can always read the international news to take your mind from our national problems.

Whoops! Right there on the front page in bold type…North Korea Nuke! How about that, something to worry about. Or is it? Nation after nation develop the ability to have and use (or abuse) the atom and the power derived from it. France, Japan and others use these powers to heat and light their homes and businesses. Other nations take the atom to the seas as power for their submarines and aircraft carriers. That leaves only the "crazies" who seemingly want to bully their worldly neighbors with the fear of total annilhation from the "bomb". North Korea has joined this last group.

Or have they? Isn’t it a bit much to believe that a leader of any country desires to commit suicide by "nuking" a neighboring country. Retaliatory actions from this type of movement would be instantaneous and disastrous to your own country. Bombing your neighbor would have minimum (if any) economic return. And surely your personal longevity would be short-lived.

Aahhh…BLACKMAIL! Now there is possibilities here. If you THREATEN to develop a nuclear weapon. If you THREATEN to wipe out those you call enemies of your country. If you THREATEN to push a button and start a global conflagration with the ensuing return fire. There you have a real weapon. Countries will flock to peace talks with your government. The United Nations will pounce on you and promise to ban all trade or foreign aid to your nation. So what is to gain through this blackmail?

How about attention; the world will come to a standstill as the populace waits for your next move. Headlines proclaim your actions day by day. Other world leaders call for summit meetings to defuse the situation. And the nations friendly to your point of view will flood you and your country with promises of economic and/or military help. Basically you are in charge of all national government leaders as they scramble to meet or counter-meet your every wish or demand. Hmmm…maybe that is what you were after all along?

Oh yea…the guy reading his newspaper as he sips his coffee also holds his breath in anticipation of the worst thing that could happen to this world. And during this time football camp, bald tires and past due mortgage payments take a temporary back seat. Maybe your day starts about the same way?