RM’s views

Preparedness

• Toilet paper? Really? Look, if the current impending collapse of civilization and world ending time paradox has you thinking seriously about preparedness, that’s a good thing. However…if you really believe that you will need 500 rolls of toilet paper should you be stuck at home for a couple of weeks, allow me to suggest you rethink your approach. A case of ramen would be a much better purchase.
  • Once the current cycle of impending doom and destruction comes to an end, if your response is to abandon preparedness, then you will have learned nothing.
• People are just starting to get a little weird as they cozy up to panic. My recommendation is to keep that in mind when out and about. If you’re shopping at SAM’s and people start acting at all hinky, just leave your cart and go home. Even if it’s a cart full of toilet paper.
• I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, but it bears repeating. Preparedness is part of a normal, healthy lifestyle. If your version leads your friends, family and neighbors to stay away because they all think you’re weird, the odds are that they’re correct.
• Here are what I think of as the top three when it comes to preparedness. I suggest saying them repeatedly to yourself if you are buying for any sort of emergency preparedness.
  • Water
  • Food
  • Security

Coronavirus

• There’s a decent chance you’ll become infected. Unless you fall into one or more of the high risk groups, the odds are very low that you will wind up in the hospital. Again, unless you fall into one or more high risk categories, the odds are even lower that you will die of COVID-19.
  • Scared, angry people are a much bigger threat than the virus of which they are so terrified.
• With the above in mind, even if coronavirus doesn’t get you, I can guarantee you that one day, unless Jesus returns first, you will die. So will all your friends, neighbors and family.
• No. If your person, whoever that might be, had been or is elected, that would not have prevented the current pandemic. Why, you ask? Because it would have made no significant difference in our response to it. It’s fun to pretend otherwise, but that’s just an exercise in self-deception. Which is not healthy.
• Unless you have and are wearing a properly fitted N-95 mask, wearing a face mask will not provide protection. None. Zip. Zero. Nada. No, it will not “help a little.” What it will do, if you think it will provide any protection, is make you sloppy. “Oh, I can (insert stupid activity for those who are concerned about becoming infected) because I’m wearing a mask.” As it turns out, stupidity is a risk factor for becoming infected.
• Wash your damn hands!

Politics

• Contrary to a rather popular belief, a nation’s woes will not be cured by getting the “right people” into office.
• If you really believe that your person cares enough about you to do something that will somehow make your life better, I submit you need to seriously reconsider your focus. No one should be more concerned about your life than you. Neither Donald Trump, nor Joe Biden, nor Bernie Sanders is going to fix you and your mess. Don’t abandon absolute personal responsibility and accountability, and the freedom they bring, for the security of having someone else take care of you and yours. Slavery is slavery, even if the collar is made of gold.
• No, we most assuredly do not need to embrace socialism in the US. My recommendation, my heartfelt and serious recommendation, is that you not try to force it on your fellow citizens, for we do not wish to do the thing.
  • If your response is any version of “roads, public parks, the military, etc are socialism,” you are either a liar or an idiot. Or both.

Gun control

• If you are a supporter of the right to keep and bear arms, there is something you must recognize. To wit, gun control supporters will never stop. It does not lie within busybodies and authoritarians to abandon their efforts to control you for your own good.
• If you are a gun control advocate, allow me to be very clear. I have gone as far as I will go. Regardless of any further restrictions you might somehow get legislated into law, I will not comply. Ever. Under any circumstances. You are hereby cordially invited to go pound sand.