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Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Solving the problem, changes the problem. -- IT Axiom]

The big difference between Y2K and some ‘natural disaster’ is that we had some control over Y2K. It being a predominantly man-made ‘situation’.

We might not have much control over some natural disaster event; errant comet/asteroid [think the Shewmaker-Levi/Dino-Killer, mega earthquake, ChristmasDayAfter Tsunami, 21st Century Thera, etc., etc., etc.

What to do then? Especially if you AND YOUR NEIGHBORS were not prepared in the first place. Would you trust your neighbors to act with restraint....

....if they were desparate and you had a 2-year supply of food?

It's a Twilight Zone scenario....

...unless your neighbors are as well prepared as you are.

Think about it....

...get better organized.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Solitude is impracticable, and society fatal. We must keep our head in the one and our hands in the other. The conditions are met, if we keep our independence, yet do not lose our sympathy. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson]

“That the question even arises (”…Paranoia or Preparedness?”) demonstrates how far down the road even so-called “conservatives” seem to have gone toward paternalistic expectations of government… — J David

I doubt if any REAL ‘conservatives’ expect the government to come to their aid in a REAL disaster situation.

I’m a REAL conservative. And I’ve sat in on government agency plannings for a number of different scenarios; ranging from major earthquakes, through killer pandemics, to limited ‘cosmic-flashcubes-over-the-world’. And believe me….

….conservatives don’t expect much, if anything, from the government in any such scenario.

As I asked the local government reps during the bird-flu pandemic scenario….

“Do you expect the governor to come to your door and give you a fruit basket?”

“Will a county commissioner bring you a bottle of Perrier?”

“How about the mayor? Will he/she park an ambulance in your drive way?”

It ain’t gonna happen in a real-world situation. You’re pretty much on you own. And you won’t have anyone to count on unless your neighborhood is better organized than your city/county/state government is.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Men in combat do not fight for ideologies. They fight for their friends. -- SLA Marshall, Men Against Fire]

“One can use an apocalyptic scenario as an excuse to learn skills. Remember Y2K? I didn’t believe the hype, but I used it as an excuse to learn how to grow heirloom vegetables (a failure) and load my own cartridges (a success).” — notaclue

The reason Y2K was not the disaster everyone was afraid it could be was because everyone, with more than a couple of synapse to rub together, decided they’d be prepared.

As a result, SanFran or LA, I can’t recall which, discovered their sewer system would back up with the roll-over, before it occurred. [Note: Something to do with an on-line test of their utility systems; untreated human waste welling up through the man-holes in some city park.....messy business that.]

In the meantime, when the actual event happened some court in Spain lost ALL of it’s records because the staff had NOT been ‘prepared’.

And despite Mary Jackson’s snide and stupid remark, you’ve a good point.

TO: Mary Jackson
RE: Your Brother

“Notaclue above, whose name is too modest, recalls the scaremongering about the “millennium bug”. I got a few extra cans of food in, then my brother, who works in computers, told me that can-openers wouldn’t work because of the bug.” — Mary Jackon

You go ahead thinking that way girlie-girl…..

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Look upon it as evolution in action.]

Where it reads….

• cooperate — Check [Boy Scout]
• act alone — Check [Independent Thinker]

It SHOULD READ….

• cooperate — Check [Boy Scout]
• act alone — Check [Boy Scout]

My apologies to that wonderful organization for not remembering how it taught me to do both.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Be prepared. -- Boy Scouts Credo]

“A human being should be able to:

• change a diaper — Check [two daughters]
• plan an invasion — Check [US Army Command & General Staff College]
• butcher a hog — Check [Will you accept a snake?]
• conn a ship — Check [competitive sailing]
• design a building — Check [I have drafting tools and modify my own house]
• write a sonnet — Check [English Comp, anyone?]
• balance accounts — Check [Wrote my own duel-entry general ledger application]
• build a wall — Check [What material do you want used?]
• set a bone — Check [Battle Field First Aid,anyone?]
• comfort the dying — Check [don’t go there....my Mother-In-Law has an aggressive cancer]
• take orders — Check [Sergeant, US Army]
• give orders — Check [Lieutenant Colonel, US Army]
• cooperate — Check [Boy Scout]
• act alone — Check [Independent Thinker]
• solve equations — Check [Is that anythink like writing a computer application?]
• analyze a new problem — Check [Design an ad hoc database system]
• pitch manure — Check [Summer Job, U of N Animal Pathology Lab]
• program a computer — Check [See above, but I prefer REALbasic]
• cook a tasty meal — Check [My knickname is The Gourmet Grunt; Killer Cuisine]
• fight efficiently — Check [Airborne-Ranger-Infanty good enough?]
die gallantly — Check [Haven’t had to do that....yet....but not unwilling to try...if the cause is righteous]
“ — Heinlein’s Guideleins

….Heinlein’s version of the 21st Century Renaissance Man?

Gawaoon!

“Specialization is for insects.” — Heinlein

True.

Regards,

Chuck(le)
P.S. Sorry ladies. I’m already committed to a monogamous relationship, sworn to before God and witnesses.

It would only be a crime if the government made it such. And, according to some things I’ve seen since 9/11, there are some aspects that would make it such.

Cases in point:

• A while back someone was complaining about people behaving like Mormons, i.e., keeping a two year stock of food in the house.

• In immediately post-Katrina New Orleans, the police were rounding up guns and/or abusing people who had guns. In the meantime, the same police were perpetrating crimes against people who—if they HAD guns—could defend themselves.

Still and all, I think it is better to be prepared than to be totally unprepared and therefore subject to being terminated by events, as opposed to being terminated by what passes for ‘Law’.

I suspect that the PC environs of larger metroplexes would be most likely to suffer from a natural disaster or national emergency. So many people depending on the government dole and being totally unprepared for coping with reality when the government dole is no longer there for them.

Oddly enough, I’m re-reading Niven and Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer at this time….

Regards,

Chuck(le)
[Chance favors the prepared mind. -- Louis Pasteur]