One of my all-time favorite Simpsons moments:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701151/quotes

[Mr. Burns is reminiscing about his grandfather's old Atom Smashing Plant]
Burns' Grandfather: Come on, men! Smash those atoms! You there, turn out your pockets.
[Two goons seize a waifish worker and turn out his pockets]
Burns' Grandfather: Aha - atoms! One, two, three, four... SIX of them! Take him away!


...and what is bound to become one of my all-time favorite quotes from a politician:

http://weblogs.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/politics/ blog/2008/07/obama_the_speech.html

"With that wall gone, we need not stand idly by and watch the further spread of the deadly atom."


UPDATE: It's not the first time he has alerted us to this threat!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/ 07/15/AR2008071501311.html

"In those years after World War II, we worried about the deadly atom falling into the hands of the Kremlin."

UPDATE 2: Ah, this explains it... he's just ripping off JFK!

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/ John_F._Kennedy%27s_Inaugural_Address

"But neither can two great and powerful groups of nations take comfort from our present course--both sides overburdened by the cost of modern weapons, both rightly alarmed by the steady spread of the deadly atom, yet both racing to alter that uncertain balance of terror that stays the hand of mankind's final war."