Originally published at Notes From The Bunker. You can comment here or there.

WASHINGTON – “The zombies are coming!” the Homeland Security Department says.

Tongue firmly in cheek, the government urged citizens Thursday to prepare for a zombie apocalypse, part of a public health campaign to encourage better preparation for genuine disasters and emergencies. The theory: If you’re prepared for a zombie attack, the same preparations will help during a hurricane, pandemic, earthquake or terrorist attack.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency hosted an online seminar for its Citizen Corps organization to help emergency planners better prepare their communities for disaster. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year first launched a zombie apocalypse social media campaign for the same purposes.

You know, I first posted about this about four years ago how zombies were becoming the metaphor for preparing against the end of the world. When you you push that cart with six cases of canned tuna through the checkout at CostCo and folks give you that weird look you somehow get more miles out of replying with “I’m preparing for the zombie apocalypse” rather than “Im preparing for the eventual economic collapse of this country”. Strange but true…it’s more acceptable to prepare for the zombies than it is for the ‘real’ disasters.

Additionally, I don’t think .gov is really thinking this through. If a person isn’t motivated to prepare for the real threats that are out there what makes .gov think that they’ll prepare for the imaginary threats? Do they really think that the folks in New Orleans who can’t be bothered to prepare for hurricanes will bother to prepare for zombies?

If .gov really wants folks to prepare then , by Crom, let them show some real willingness to help….open up the military bases to allow civillians to purchase surplus clothes and gear at rock bottom prices, donate unused military bases to state governments as emergency command centers, promote tax-free purchases on survival related gear, etc, etc, etc. Tell you what, man…if I were president (or even governor of my happy little state) I’d be all over that stuff….