Ok folks, here's the deal: there are literally thousands of very well-funded bad people who have clearly stated that they have a stake in the upcoming election. Given their historical tactics in attempting to effect political change... I think it's time to buckle up.

We have seen again and again that the fact that nothing has happened yet is no guarantee of the security of the many systems we rely on in our day to day lives.

What would you do if the water from the tap was unsafe? What if the power went out? What if gas hit $5/gallon and we had rationing and lines like the 70's? What if our transportation systems were disrupted by disease or radiation contamination? Do you have enough food and medicine?

Remember that it took weeks to get things working again after Hurricane Andrew. Imagine if a dozen of our major cities were disaster areas.

You CAN purify your own water. You CAN store a few weeks of food in your closet. You CAN keep your gas tank at least 1/2 full. (I know more than one person who had to wait in line on 9/11 because they were out of gas. And things were back to normal the next day in that case!)

In the longer run, it may be a good idea to put a slightly larger portion of your money into more stable investments. Precious metals have been rising for the past several months. Land tends to be good too. Of course the best hard-times advice I ever heard was to get out of debt.

I'm not saying that anything IS going to happen but it certainly seems like conditions are ripe.

posted by Rachel 3/07/2004

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