Month: October 2024

Government

You’re On Your Own

As of today we’re still reading about the devastating impacts of hurricane Helene. Tonight another monster hurricane, Milton, is going to slam into Florida. It’s the annual reminder that no matter where you live, those who prepare are generally better off than those who don’t. It turns out, almost exactly a year ago I wrote down a few thoughts on preparedness. Nothing life changing… just encouragement to be ready. As I re-read what I wrote, I was reminded of a saying I like.

Expect to self rescue. No one is coming.

What I like about that saying is that it applies to virtually everything – not just natural disasters. Unless you are very fortunate in life, nobody is coming to save you. It’s up to you to figure out your path to success. Perhaps there’s a metaphor somewhere in there about our current generation? Assumption that there’s always a safety net (mommy and daddy?) has made us soft.

Anyway, what got me started down this train of thought is a podcast I listened to yesterday. The guest asserted that for the most part, the federal government has collapsed. Not will collapse or might collapse – it has collapsed.

Americans of the modern era have been conditioned to blindly believe in “the experts”. Of course the scientists are right – they’re scientists for gods sake. The economists and the fed know best how to manage the economy. The foreign policy experts at the state department know best how to manage diplomacy and conflict management. The EPA, the NIH, department of education, FEMA, DOE, and on and on and on… Stay in your lane plebeian and let the experts manage things.

Except that for the last 30+ years the experts have demonstrated nothing but a cascading series of incompetent fuck ups. Immigration policy, foreign policy, Afghanistan, Iraq, the ’08 financial crisis, Covid, energy policy, our current inflation, the sad state of our military, the collapse of our education system, the green energy boondoggle… it goes on indefinitely. Please – I defy you to name anything the federal government does exceedingly well and under budget.

Hurricane Helene was the icing on the cake. The federal governments response has been so pathetic it’s embarrassing. FEMA has one job. And they’ve completely failed. Yesterday people were posting that the government helpfully sent them a pallet of electric chainsaws – to an area with no power. That is the perfect representation of our federal government.

With the avalanche of evidence available today that is flashing in giant red neon lights DANGER, DANGER, DANGER – if you still have any faith in our current federal government I’m honestly speechless. I suppose every society needs a certain number of sheep and cannon fodder.

Is it too late to change course? Can the impending collapse be stopped? I don’t know. There is a movement brewing. People are sick of the bullshit. Tired of the lies. Exhausted by the nonstop woke and politically correct crap. Mainstream media is failing. Twitter/X, alternative news sources, and long form podcasts are becoming the dominant information source. Even low viewership podcasts nobody has heard of have more viewers than the average CNN hour.

I hope that people are waking up to the fact that this election is about trying to jam a stick into the spinning spokes of a massive federal government intent on consuming everything in its path. The image consultants and media manipulators (of both parties) want you to think it’s about whatever pet social cause is the flavor of the month. Don’t take the bait.

If we don’t get some sort of disruptor into the executive office soon, it’s game over. Read up on the end of the Roman Empire. Is Trump the great disruptor? Doubtful based upon his first go-round. But… if he can resist all the bad personnel advice this time and get a few good people in place, maybe he can set the stage for whoever the next/real disruptor might be. If the machine has its way and manages to insert Kamala as the next mindless puppet… well, I’m not sure things are recoverable without pitchforks, tar and feathers. Do a little peruse through history to see how that unfolds.

Expect to self rescue. No one is coming. Deep down, you know it’s true. The sooner you acknowledge it and prepare, both in physical preparedness and mental acceptance of how dangerous the federal government has become, the better chance we all have of saving the republic for future generations.

Daily Life, Diet, Health, Motivation

How Old Are You?

I’m a sucker for a good quote. While on a hike yesterday I was listening to a podcast and heard this:

”The greatest predictor of age is how old you think you are”

Time to rewind a bit. It’s been an… odd summer. To be honest, probably longer than that. Weight has been slowly piling on. Motivation has dwindled. Life events, real and imagined, got in the way. There were a couple of unexpected surgeries (my first!). One of which left me with foot pain that has been pretty significant. For a while I was sure that I would not be able to ever mountain bike or ski again. The result was me sitting in a chair for most of the summer, feeling sorry for myself. And eating. And more eating.

If you had asked me in August how old I felt, I would have given you a number ten years older than my actual age. Fat. None of my clothes fit. Everything hurt. Tired all the time. Zero interest in doing anything to actually improve my situation. I played zero golf all summer. Did not ride my mountain bike or the motorcycle. A few walks in the interest of rehabbing the foot was the sum total of my activity. In short, I was in the express lane to becoming an old man.

It’s interesting, that quote above is not a new idea. I keep a running list of quotes, sayings, and thoughts that I think might be something interesting to write about. I went through my list a few days ago and found this one I wrote down a year ago:

“How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?”

That quote is from the 1920’s. This concept of your perceived age is not new. Why that first quote resonated with me is that several years ago if you’d asked me how old I felt I would have given a number ten years younger than my age. A twenty year swing in perceived age. That hits hard.

The good news is that a little bit ago I started the process of reclaiming my health. That process sucks. It hurts. It’s demotivating because you see no progress. You’re basically just hungry and sore all the time. And then all of a sudden, the number on the scale starts trending down. Cardio starts improving. I found a way to ride my bike without pain. Energy improves. I’m able to do long backcountry hikes again.

And the best part… when I heard that quote while listening to that podcast, I can honestly say I now feel my actual age rather than older. I have an impedance scale that calculates your metabolic age based on a bunch of factors. This morning it reported my metabolic age matched my actual age for the first time in a while.

The takeaway is that the pithy quote is true. You really are as old as you feel you are. The important part is that it’s up to you. Your age feeling can go both ways. Would you rather feel older or younger? Making a noticeable change takes less time than you think it will. You just have to start. Granted, the motivation to get started is easier said than done. If I had the secret sauce to making that happen, I’d be a very rich social media influencer.

I think it’s worth honestly asking yourself – how old do you feel? If you’re not happy with your answer, make a change.

My goal these days is no longer a weight target or to achieve some physical sport or endurance goal. It’s to get back to feeling ten years younger than my actual age. Because if I feel younger, I’ll act younger and do things like a younger man. The rest will take care of itself.