Sunday, April 19, 2020

Keep healthy habits, help others

(My Eastern New Mexico News column for March 18, 2020)




How will you spend your time now that civilization has been canceled by executive command? Is it time to brush up on your stone-age skills?

This would be a good time to familiarize yourself with the edible wild plants growing in your yard and to learn the natural substitutes for toilet paper.

Learn to make and use an atlatl and stone-tipped spears in case you need to bring down a mammoth. Pool cues might be a good raw material for this sort of thing. Of course, the recent scarcity of mammoths could put a kink in this plan.

A bonfire in the backyard for roasting your kill would probably attract the wrong kind of attention anyway. This should be a last resort.

Perhaps you could choose to go to the opposite extreme and retreat to a virtual world for a fortnight or two, where your biggest dangers are ransom-ware and scammers promising eternal love in exchange for airfare to America.

Or will you ignore the hoopla?

I'm always in favor of taking precautions against unnecessary risks, but people can go overboard. There are times precaution gets replaced by panic. Politicians love taking advantage of panic since they rarely pay a price for being wrong. They claim the credit if people believe they got it right, but you pay the price every time they are wrong.

I'm going to hope you're a regular reader of this column and as such you've listened to my frequent suggestions to be a "prepper" and stock up on essential supplies in case of unforeseen circumstances. This means you were already prepared and didn't get caught up in the last-minute scramble for essentials... or for the luxuries some people consider essential.

Aren't you glad you listened?

The phrase "May you live in interesting times" is said to be a curse. I'm not certain it is. Would you rather be bored to death? Times can be interesting, but-- when you're ready for whatever life throws at you-- not cursed.

This too will pass. You'll be fine when all is said and done. There are lessons in all this. Smart people will learn and remember these lessons; others will stay clueless.

Don't let the hand-wringers and fear-mongers upset you. Do things you already know will help you stay healthy. Healthy habits haven't suddenly become dangerous. Lend a hand to those who, due to age or health conditions, may be more at risk. Together, but maybe not within coughing distance, we will get through this.

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Patriots' Day- 4/19/2020



I've previously mentioned my skepticism about patriotism. Looking into the origins and uses of the word, I'm not the only one who has my doubts about its goodness.

However, there is a generally-ignored holiday called Patriots' Day which I've mentioned in the past, and it happens to be today-- "4-19" every year. As far as semi-political holidays go, it's not so awful.

Ammo.com has a little write-up about it you might enjoy. It's history, so you probably ought to familiarize yourself just a little so you don't accidentally end up celebrating the wholly statist, government-worshiping "Patriots' Day" (Blowback Day/Consequences Day) on September 11th of every year.

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