Arsenal

The spirit of Dr. Strangelove is alive and well. The Sun's fawning coverage of Boeing's Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the Air Force's newest weapon, and the casual talk of enemies (the locker room lexicon of war as if war were play) made me wince, but it shouldn't surprise anyone ("Big bomb's away for Boeing," Nov. 18). Predictably, protecting soldiers was noted to justify this latest bunker-busting gizmo. But all these advances in American weaponry are predicated on our perpetual quest for world hegemony - and the continual deployment of soldiers in endless war. John G. Bailey, Edgemere

While Angelenos are mourning the loss of their favorite basketball team's patriarch, basketball fans in the other corner of the country are scratching their heads over a comment by rapper. Welcome to your online trends for Tuesday, February 19. Jerry Buss, the man credited by many with bringing glamour back to basketball as the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, died yesterday at the age of 80. Meanwhile, two of the world's greatest soccer -- ahem, football -- teams are scheduled to play today, bringing them one step closer to European dominance.

The new minor-league team in Aberdeen has a name: the Arsenal. Aberdeen is home to a government weapons testing facility and the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum, which has one of the world's largest collections of military equipment. Nine people suggested Arsenal in a two-month competition to name the team that drew more than 1,000 entries. Merv Mawhiney of Joppa, one of the nine who suggested Arsenal, had his name picked out of a hat and won season tickets for life. The franchise is part of the West Chester, Pa.-based Atlantic League, an eight-team independent league comprising mainly players cut by major-league teams during spring training, six-year minor-league free agents and foreign players trying to make an impression on major-league scouts.

President Barack Obama's call during the State of the Union address to reduce the threat of nuclear war could not have been more timely. The day before the president spoke, North Korea tested a primitive nuclear device, and the following day reports surfaced of Iranian attempts to buy technology that would greatly speed up its production of weapons-grade uranium. Mr. Obama's remarks focused on cutting the U.S. and Russian strategic arsenals in a way that maintains their deterrent function but reduces the chances of a conflict breaking out by accident or miscalculation.

Charles Wesley Banks, a retired Edgewood Arsenal supervisor who later worked as a bank courier, died of kidney failure July 2 at St. Agnes HealthCare. The longtime Edmondson Village resident was 87. Mr. Banks was born and raised in Cambridge, where he graduated from city public schools. After graduating from high school, he worked as a salesman until being drafted into the Army during World War II. After being discharged from the Army in 1945, he began working at Edgewood Arsenal as a warehouse supervisor.

On March 6, 1918, Lt. Col. William H. Walker was made commander of the Gunpowder Reservation, a new installation established to help the U.S. military adapt to the new methods of gas warfare. On April 22, 1915, the first gas attack in World War I introduced a new era of war. Two years later, the United States entered the war, but the country was unprepared. Immediate action was initiated, by the surgeon general's office to develop gas masks, by the ordnance department to develop a gas shell, and by the trench warfare section to procure the poison gas to fill the shells.

G. Taylor Watson, a retired director of applied technology at a Philadelphia arsenal whose World War II experiences took him to both theaters of that conflict, died of prostate cancer Saturday at his home in McDaniel. He was 85. Born in Perryville and raised in Delta, Pa., he went to work as a ballistics tester at Aberdeen Proving Ground after graduating from high school in 1939. He joined the Navy in 1943 and was assigned to the destroyer USS Harding as a member of its bombardment group.

(TC WASHINGTON -- Although they are intended for an entirely different purpose, the television commercials President Bush's campaign is running these days define in the starkest terms the puny political arsenal at his disposal in seeking a second term.The spots are remarkably free of specifics about Bush's accomplishments and intentions at a time when there is so much reason for genuine concern about the national direction.One of the themes Bush is emphasizing, for example, is "family values."

The evening started in grand fashion with Vi Ripken, the first lady of Harford County baseball, tossing a strike on the ceremonial first pitch and a small but spirited crowd gathering at Thomas Run Park for the county's first professional sporting event in 50 years. No one seemed to mind the low-lying lighting or the makeshift bleachers that greeted the Aberdeen Arsenal to Atlantic League baseball. On the field, everything was proceeding neatly, with Aberdeen leading the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds by two runs entering the ninth inning.

Against the backdrop of a makeshift community college field, the Aberdeen Arsenal makes history tonight when it becomes the first minor-league independent team to play in Maryland. Aberdeen launches its Atlantic League season against the Lehigh Valley Black Diamonds at Harford Community College with lofty expectations tempered by reality. Game time is 7: 05 p.m. Response to Maryland Baseball Limited's new venture has been lukewarm so far while fans await the construction of the nearby $26 million complex that will house state-of-the-art Ripken Stadium.

The rifle Adam Lanza used to kill 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School is a descendant of the military's M-16 rifle. The bullets it fires are not as large as those used in some other rifles, but the gun's high muzzle velocity makes it particularly powerful, and deadly. Mr. Lanza brought with him hundreds of bullets in 30-round magazines, which enabled him to shoot individual victims as many as 11 times. Authorities believe that, if the arrival of police on the scene had not prompted him to kill himself, Mr. Lanza would have continued his rampage.

Here's an assumption any post-9/11American might make: Someone in a dark room full of computers and video monitors deep inside one of our snoopy federal law enforcement agencies is tracking the purchases of large caches of weapons and ammunition by anyone at any time anywhere in the country, including Anne Arundel County. Isn't that the sort of thing we've been paying for with our federal taxes over the last decade? People who buy explosives for bombs or enough weapons to outfit a small army - they're monitored by someone deep inside the Department of Homeland Security and our vast array of federal agencies, right?

It's no secret that the success of Orioles rookie  Wei-Yin Chen this season will depend on how the Taiwanese left-hander adjusts to opponents once they've seen him a while. But Chen looks like he's trying to beat batters to the punch. Sunday was Chen's 14th major league start, so teams have plenty of tape on the lefty. It was the first time he faced the Braves in his big league career, but with every week, teams are getting their second look at Chen. Newness lasts only so long.

President Obama achieved a major foreign policy goal in 2010 when he concluded the New START Treaty committing the U.S. and Russia to reduce the size of their long-range nuclear arsenals by a third within six years, to 1,550 warheads on each side. But as the president made clear in remarks at the time, even those cuts didn't go far enough. The world, he said, wouldn't be safe from the threat of these terrifying weapons until they were eliminated entirely. It was to be expected that Mr. Obama's critics in Congress would dismiss such views as either wishful thinking or as dangerously naive.

Francis N. Craig, a retired Edgewood Arsenal scientist, died of respiratory failure Thursday at the Broadmead Retirement Community in Cockeysville. He was 100 and had previously lived in the Loreley section of Baltimore County near White Marsh. His daughter, Dorothy Parker Craig of Seattle, Wash., said that the centenarian enjoyed two martinis a night and smoked a pipe until last year, when his retirement community prohibited it. He also took daily walks and played bridge. He drove until he was 98. Born in Englewood, N.J., he was the son of a DuPont chemist and a kindergarten teacher.

SUNDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS M. bask. Bryant@Boston College CSN1 Holy Cross@Connecticut MASN1 Loyola Marymount@Florida State ESPNU3 Mount St. Mary's@Penn State BIGTEN4 Virginia@Oregon CSNP, TCN5:30 Eastern Illinois@Northwestern BIGTEN6 Villanova@Saint Joseph's (T) CBSSN8 Mount St. Mary's@Penn State (T) BIGTEN12:30 a.m. W. bask.

A top Russian official says Moscow's nuclear arsenal peaked seven years ago at 45,000 warheads -- 12,000 more than generally believed, twice the number held by the United States at the time and exceeding all estimates save those of the most hawkish analysts.The official, Viktor N. Mikhailov, head of Russia's Ministry of Atomic Energy, also says the national stockpile of highly enriched uranium is more than twice as large as commonly believed. Uranium in this form is a principal component of most nuclear weapons.

WASHINGTON -- During the past six years, the Bush administration has spent almost $100 million on a highly classified program to help Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's president, secure his country's nuclear weapons, according to current and former senior administration officials. But with the future of that country's leadership in doubt, debate is intensifying about whether Washington has done enough to help protect the warheads and laboratories, and whether Pakistan's reluctance to reveal critical details about its arsenal has undercut the effectiveness of the continuing security effort.

The spirit of Dr. Strangelove is alive and well. The Sun's fawning coverage of Boeing's Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the Air Force's newest weapon, and the casual talk of enemies (the locker room lexicon of war as if war were play) made me wince, but it shouldn't surprise anyone ("Big bomb's away for Boeing," Nov. 18). Predictably, protecting soldiers was noted to justify this latest bunker-busting gizmo. But all these advances in American weaponry are predicated on our perpetual quest for world hegemony - and the continual deployment of soldiers in endless war. John G. Bailey, Edgemere