ATLANTA—I can't be sure, but I think "Russian diplomat" is closing fast on "Alaskan fisherman" and "Old-growth logger" on the list of the world's most perilous occupations. Four of them have shuffled off in about 60 days, including the Russian ambassador to the UN, whose death is being looked into by the medical examiner's office in New York county. But, more alarming to me, is the length to which Kim Jong-Un, the leader of North Korea, allegedly went to snuff his half-brother in public in a way that may have put hundreds of people at risk. From NBC:

VX is a chemical so potent that the United Nations classes it as a weapon of mass destruction. Malaysian police revealed Friday that Kim Jong Nam's body contained traces of VX, a colorless, odorless, tasteless liquid that's deadly in microscopic amounts…Unlike sarin, which is usually deployed as a gas, VX is very slow to evaporate and is therefore usually found as a viscous liquid, similar in texture to motor oil or honey. In this state, it's highly toxic when it comes into contact with skin. "You need a microscopic amount to kill one person, which is what happened to Kim Jong Nam," said Bretton-Gordon, the chemical weapons expert. It's likely that Kim at experienced pinpointed pupils, a runny nose, and nausea, before finding it hard to breathe and feeling his heart racing. He probably then had loss of bladder and bowel control, convulsions, seizures, and finally death while on the way to the hospital just minutes later.

Using this poison in a crowded airport, even if you're really good at the job of killing people, is insanely reckless. Stumble over a luggage cart and you can kill anybody within a considerable radius. But there's a lot of loose talk about deadly weapons these days. On a small scale, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu just got rid of a 100-year old state law that forbade the concealed carrying of firearms in that state. A ways up on the food chain, you were probably shocked to learn that we are losing the nuclear arms race.

Wait. There's a nuclear arms race? According to Reuters, the president* seems to think so.

In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity "until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes."Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has "fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity." "I am the first one that would like to see ... nobody have nukes, but we're never going to fall behind any country even if it's a friendly country, we're never going to fall behind on nuclear power. "It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we're going to be at the top of the pack," Trump said.

The casual use of "nukes," like he's talking about the new four-iron he picked up, may be the most alarming thing of all. But the world is arming itself up pretty seriously at the moment, from individuals all the way up heads of state, and not many of the latter seem well tied together at the moment.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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