How self sufficient are you ? Honestly ?

[Rob-D]

Rob - We are the same age....that is so shocking to me. From your last post I find that we have little to nothing in common except currently not having to take meds to stay alive....I do however believe in modern medicine and the good doctors and nurses...You have made your own choice to die when you get sick instead of taking medicine...that is your choice to make...God Bless....I am done with this now.

I take no meds to stay alive or any other reason, neither do any of us in our group.

We both have tractors, we both have an interest in being prepared, we both believe in God, etc.

Life is a choice, I've held dying loved ones in my arms, I know a lot about dying, I know about meds and dying with dignity. The medical profession has nothing to do with dignity, the medical profession is about profit just like the pharmaceutical industry. Who here thinks the pharmaceutical industry wants you to get well and stop taking drugs?

"Create your own system or be enslaved by another's."

William Blake

 

[OldMcDonald]

You folks in the US of A really are an angry lot. Calm down, leave your gun in the cabinet. You do know that most of the world considers you, as a country, to be ill-tempered and warmongers. This thread confirms it. You will all blow each other to bits in a very short time. Actually, I can see that the US will be populated mainly by females, because only the men will shoot each other. I can take all the flack back, because it is just words coming out of the end of your fingertips. Your blood pressure will rise, mine will not. Step back, think about what might or might not happen, assume you will not be as fast or accurate as John Wayne, Billy the Kid, Bat Masterson, whoever, and you die first in a gunfight. Then what happens to all your dearly beloveds? Some foreigners come in, and being the only males available.......................................

Rob-D, I had you all figured out as different to the crowd, now you tell me you go for an annual check-up. Why? Of course I am not on any medication, nor my wife, and I beat you a wee bit on age. Neither of us has consulted a doctor for a very long time. We have been in Portugal for 10 years and have no idea who should be our doctor, or where he or she is situated. Apparently it depends on where you live, and we are supposed to be registered. In an emergency, and under the present availability of telephones, etc., dial 112 and somebody will come and see to us.

I think our lack of need of medical attention is our diet and lifestyle. We are fit and active and eat a lot of fruit, vegetables and oily fish. That is to work up an appetite. We eat at least a half pound of butter a day, meat twice a day - usually red apart from the fish, lots of cheese at night after the main course, often paté before the cheese, and always nuts afterwards. I have drunk at least a bottle of wine a day since 1979 (more red than white) have Port with the cheese and Moscatel de Sétubal with the nuts. Sometimes I have a brandy before retiring for the night. On a rare occasion I have a Malt instead of the brandy.

You are right though, that anybody who is on prescription drugs has no chance of survival if they cannot live without them, and No, in a breakdown of society they most certainly will not be available at the local drugstore, and neither will anything else.

The way we live is easy, anybody can do it, they need to want to live this way though, and most folks will not even consider it. When the crunch comes it will be too late. You need to have learned to live the way folks did in the US a hundred years ago, which is the way rural people in parts of Europe live now.

 

[Jesse masterson]

One thing should be noted ,I am health compared to some granted I'm not 30 anymore I'm only 50 but I can still run a10 min mile and I don't train anymore, however no matter how healthy you ae now , if you live long enough you'll need a hospital, never think your bullet proof, and I think we all need to take a deep breath, ahhhh, and get rid of some anger! Life's too short and death is too long, enjoy today and relax a little more.and by the way old McDonald I'm from the US and I'm a nice guy but sometimes you have to be strong my dad fought in ww2 , if it wasn't for us the world would be speaking German . If you get my drift. Everybody turns to us for help and when we help were warmongers. If it wasn't for the good, and I so mean good old us everyone else would be screwed. You don't call ghost busters, you call the good old US another thing while I'm at it we have the most massive hurricanes in our history hit us and I'd like to know what kind of aid we got from Portugal . Nobody ever helps us and we break our bank helping everyone else and nobody send us squat. But I'll tell, we're learning who our friend are, and aren't. No anger there just fact.

 

[groundcover]

The obvious answer is Soylent Green ! Box of .22 longs and make your own !:laughing:

 

[Egon]

<As for meds, doctors go to medical school paid for by pharmaceutical companies, they become nothing more that pill dispensers. You go to a doctor and he puts you on a pill. It's the old Abe Maslow story, "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!" Your health is your responsibility and keeping yourself healthy is part of that but people want a doctor to tell them it's not them who is making them self sick. Rubbish. Sure we can all get sick but most of it is how we eat and think.>

Most of it involves genetics. And I doubt if any can pick their parents.

 

[Deere Dude]

.and by the way old McDonald I'm from the US and I'm a nice guy but sometimes you have to be strong my dad fought in ww2 , if it wasn't for us the world would be speaking German . If you get my drift. Everybody turns to us for help and when we help were warmongers. If it wasn't for the good, and I so mean good old us everyone else would be screwed. You don't call ghost busters, you call the good old US another thing while I'm at it we have the most massive hurricanes in our history hit us and I'd like to know what kind of aid we got from Portugal . Nobody ever helps us and we break our bank helping everyone else and nobody send us squat. But I'll tell, we're learning who our friend are, and aren't. No anger there just fact.

X2 Glad you said it. I don't have to now, but how many angry Americans died and how much treasure was lost helping countries that were in a jam. A couple million for sure and these were people with families that when asked, they were glad to help out.

 

[Rob-D]

Rob-D, I had you all figured out as different to the crowd, now you tell me you go for an annual check-up. Why? Of course I am not on any medication, nor my wife, and I beat you a wee bit on age. Neither of us has consulted a doctor for a very long time. We have been in Portugal for 10 years and have no idea who should be our doctor, or where he or she is situated. Apparently it depends on where you live, and we are supposed to be registered. In an emergency, and under the present availability of telephones, etc., dial 112 and somebody will come and see to us.

Mac,
That's a good question. The reason I go is not to get medical attention but to be diagnosed. Healing myself is my responsibility but I have nothing against diagnostic tools, Lipids,cholesteroll, stress tests, etc. I use the info to modify my diet. By the way, I took a stress test a few years ago and my pulse went up to 170, the doctor told me I lasted longer on the treadmill than anyone he ever sent for a stress test. I don't do anymore stress tests!

But remember, health and fitness are two entirely different things. Fit people die everyday (the runner Jim Fixx, for example) and while I have no symptoms and am very healthy I will still use the system to my advantage. I used to get a prostate exam but the doctor told me not to come back anymore obviously I have no problems.
As far as butter, I wouldn't go over board with it, while each of us has a different genetic make up, eating a lot of butter is asking for trouble.

As far as people getting hot here, I personally don't understand it. I'm happy to disagree with people but give me logic, heck I'm not angry at anyone! My life works great and the reason it does is because I'm honest with myself and the people around me but I think you're right, the US is a hot headed country. If someone says something to me and it makes sense, I change, what's the problem but if someone thinks they are going to get meds when things get tough, well I hope they do but I think if you're in that boat, you're already well behind the eight ball!

 

[Rob-D]

X2 Glad you said it. I don't have to now, but how many angry Americans died and how much treasure was lost helping countries that were in a jam. A couple million for sure and these were people with families that when asked, they were glad to help out.

You don't want to go down this road, read some history. Manifest Destiny, The Spanish American War, and yes, WWII, etc., etc.

You know what Ike's Sec of State said?

"America doesn't have friends, America has interests." He was known for his exploitation of Latin America.

America is a country, it's got good and its got bad just like most other countries in the world. We're not out to save the world, FDR went into WWII for two reasons, one because his New Deal wasn't bringing us out of the depression fast enough and he knew a war would change that and two, Winston told him they could beat the German's without us. It had nothing to do with saving a people anymore than Kuwait did. If we cared about saving a people we would have gone into Tibet when China was slaughtering Buddhists... we gave China favorite trade status. Wars are only fought for two reasons, God and money.

There are no great countries only great people.

 

[Eyeshade]

I didn't read all the posts ( great topic for dialogue) but I think a lot of people are confusing self-suffiency with preparedness. Having a diesel generator with a 1000 gallon tank makes one prepared until the diesel runs out, not self sufficient unless you refine your own diesel from your own oil well. Using the logic of a well stocked diesel tank or pantry makes a person in NY self-sufficient.....as long as they have a week's worth of food and water. I think most arguments in this thread are arguing about how preparded one is rather than how self sufficient they are.

 

[Jesse masterson]

You can't help everybody but a country is made of its people, you have some country's that lie back and want everyone to improve there life and you have country's ( like the good old US )who says come , broken come, down and out, come.all we ask is you to pull your load and well make it together. You may say we have alterior motives , I say sometimes maybe, but as a whole no other country had brought prosperity to the world like the US. MOON , INTeRNET, that by the way your enjoying now. Thanks to the US.miracles in medicine, aids research , heart disease. The odds are if you had cancer you would head to the US. Just give us ,US out due credit we deserve. I do believe we're different, we may lose or direction at times, but the US remains a light on a very dark hill, many have Shed there blood to help , they were not driven by political views , they trusted. Maybe sometime naive, but they fought on , what about the picture of ****** in front of the Eiffel Tower, do you think he left Paris on his own, I think not, we kicked his a-- out. And France treats us like a second rate country. What an insult.yea I'm proud of this country, were not perfect but we continue to learn. And we are a relatively young country, were Learning folks, and when we figure it out watch out, like the emperor of Japan said after Pearl Harbor 'we have awoken a sleeping giant" and by the way Ike was 1 man and does not speak for the nation. And he's dead.