Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

We've all heard stories about women who live with husbands that slap them around and otherwise hurt them..sometimes quite severely. Broken nose, black eyes, maybe a couple cracked ribs. And we, aghast at this, say “Get out of there. Pack your things and go!” and she says that he isnt a bad husband, its just that sometimes he gets drunk.or she 'makes him do it'…or otherwise makes excuses. And we ask, after she's had to wear a scarf to hide the handprints around her neck, why she doesnt leave? And she says that she cant make it on her own, or that she wants the security and its worth the tradeoff, or that her kids need his help, or something similar.

Now, lets replace a few words…..

We've all heard stories about women citizens who live with husbands governments that slap push them around and otherwise hurt abuse them..sometimes quite severely. Broken nose, black eyes, maybe a couple cracked ribsNo knock warrants, punishing taxes, curtailed liberties. And we, aghast at this, say “Get out of there. Pack your things and go!” and she they says that he it  isnt a bad husband government, its just that sometimes he it  gets drunk on power..or she they 'makes him them do it'…or otherwise makes excuses. And we ask, after she's they've had to wear a scarf to hide the handprints national ID around her their neck, why she doesntthey dont leave? And shethey says that she they cant make it on her their own, or that she they wants the security and its worth the tradeoff, or that her their kids need his governements help, or something similar.

Next time someone says that the goal of government is to take care of those who cant take care of themselves, think about that battered woman in the doublewide. You'd urgently try to convince her that she didnt need that abusive husband and that she could do fine without him and she could do fine on her own…same situation.

And, like the abused women who stay with their scumbag husbands/boyfriends, if you continue to stay after everyone has tried to convince you how bad and dangerous it is….well, you may not deserve what you get but youre going to get it anyway. (It is worth noting that there is almost universal satisfaction when one of these abusers is shot by the abusee…)

I think about this because I think the events of the last several weeks are going to push alot of fence-sitters into one of two camps – the 'government is there to help the helpless and if they cant do it then we need to make government bigger and more powerful' camp, on the left side of the fence. On the right side, we have the 'government cant pour piss out of a boot if they printed the instructions on the heel..I'm going to do all I can so that I'll never need to depend on them' camp. If youre reading this I can imagine which side of the fence youre on.

It would be very easy to say that the people who had literally nothing left but the clothes on their back approve of the government supporting them, at least for the short term. And it would be very easy to say that the folks that rode out the storm and survived quite handily through their own foresight and resourcefullness would be disdainful of making government even bigger to enable it to react better/faster.
But thats not necessarily the case…there were plenty of 'clothes on their back' refugees who shunned the FEMA man and beat feet to a relatives or friends home and 'kept it in the family'. And theres folks that had plenty of food and water who were more than happy to head down to the FEMA tent and collect free goodies they didnt need. So, you cant really pigeonhole a particular survivor into one of those two scenarios…it goes to who the person fundamentally is, not what the circumstances made them.

My point is, I think, that in the future it will be very interesting to see what side wins out, who got bumped from one ideal to the other, and who is supporting a particular ideal. Personally, Im of the opinion that government is very rarely the answer for personal safety and preparedness against disaster. National defense? Sure. Building roads? I suppose. Protecting me from natural disaster? Hardly. I'll take care of that on my own, thanks.

Also, given the phenominally poor response of the 'gov, coupled with the sheeple doing their sheeple thing, its obvious that .gov can't protect you…at all. So if youre counting on them to keep you safe, youre really, really screwed and should come over to my side of the fence before its too late.