"To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing,
if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Why Not Buy It?

by Lee

I’m sitting down eating one of my world famous bachelor dinners of top ramen and a Pepsi One, and NBC news is on in the background.  They just did a story about the proliferation of nuclear material on the black market, the type of stuff that a terrorist would use in a dirty bomb.  It got me thinking… why doesn’t the US government just buy it ourselves?

With the exception of a few die-hards, I would imagine that most of the people who are selling this material are doing so primarily for financial concerns, and will sell to anyone who is willing to meet their price.  Why doesn’t our government make it known that we will pay five times the going street price for this type of nuclear material, no questions asked? 

Sure this could end up costing quite a bit of money, but wouldn’t it be worth it?  And surely the costs of buying the material and properly disposing of it would be significantly less than the costs of a dirty bomb going off in the downtown area of a major American city, not to mention the costs associated by fear of another attack.

Why aren’t we doing this?  If you can think of a hole in my argument (and I am sure there are many) please leave a comment by clicking the link below.

Comments

<< Back to main