Are Preppers Really the Crazy Ones?

Having survived the Arctic Vortex of Winter 2014, and the behavior of the general public, I’m left wondering, “Are Preppers really the crazy ones”?

Officially FEMA now suggest we all store at least two weeks of food and water. As soon as news hit of our impending bad weather our local grocery stores were besieged by people not only buying out the supply of milk, bread, and eggs, but all manner of snack foods up to and including selling out of broccoli.

Pretty much with modern weather reporting we knew that we were likely to be snowed in, or at least have travel restrictions, for only 2-3 days max. I could not help but wonder how people would react if suddenly their local grocery stores could not guarantee ANY new supply of food? What would you do to feed your children or yourself if suddenly the store shelves were bare tomorrow? Finally what are the real chances of this really ever happening?

There seem to be many different types of Preppers. Some Preppers save for the recommended two weeks, some save for even longer, and some even save a few bullets to protect the supplies they keep. Say what you will about Preppers but they were not standing in line at the stores and braving subzero weather to buy milk, bread, eggs, or snacks for a weather event that was clearly only going to last a couple of days. So go ahead and sneer at them, watch the extreme ones on TV, but in the end are Preppers really the crazy ones?

When is a law not a law?

ABC NEWS on its website reported a story about the possibility of homosexual athletes and fans at the 2014 Olympics being prosecuted under its new law that forbids, "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" around minors. This will include public displays of affection like holding hands or displaying gay pride rainbow flags. Russians citizens face fines and possible jail time, foreigners could additionally face deportation.

A Russian lawmaker, Vitaly Milonov, was quoted saying,

"If a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn't have the authority," he reportedly said, stressing that he has not heard anything different from Russian officials.

In our country we have a similar system of government where congress makes laws and our president signs them into law. We however have allowed our president the ignore laws he does not agree with, like D.O.M.A. and the employer mandate on the A.C.A., with no repercussions.

I want to make it perfectly clear that I personally do not agree with the Russian law, although I do acknowledge they have the right to make laws that they want to live by, as do we in our country. If they or we do not like a law we vote in politicians that are more in line with our personal beliefs and have the law amended legally, it is unlawful to simply ignore a legal law in either country. My question is when is it ok to simply ignore a law, and if it's OK to ignore a law I don't like how can I complain when someone chooses to ignore a law I do agree with?