Doomsday Preppers — "It's not a hobby, it's a lifestyle"

So said doomsday prepper Gloria Haswell in today's USA Today story about the National Geographic Channel's new reality show, "Doomsday Preppers," (catchy title, what?),

premiering tonight at 9 p.m. E.T.

I won't be watching, as Gray Cat and I will be fluffing our pillows and otherwise preparing our comfy nest for bedtime.

But you go ahead.

Excerpts from Monika Joshi's article:

For some people, the end of the world as we know it is upon us, and there is no better time than now to start preparing.

Such is the concept of National Geographic Channel's  new reality show "Doomsday Preppers," which profiles Americans who have taken extreme measures to plan for a forthcoming apocalypse — whether natural disaster, nuclear war or economic crisis.

The channel commissioned an online survey of 1,007 adults in the U.S. and found that 61% of Americans believe the country will experience a major catastrophic event within the next 20 years, but only 15% feel they are fully prepared for it.

Each episode will feature a few individuals from the prepping subculture, and the effectiveness of their preparations will be assessed by experts. In the series premiere, viewers meet a retired couple who have 50,000 pounds of food stored in their doomsday-proof home built of steel shipping containers, an urban survivalist in Los Angeles prepping for a severe earthquake and a young, outgoing Texan ready to bug out when an oil crisis creates havoc.

"It's not a hobby," prepper Gloria Haswell tells National Geographic, "it's a lifestyle." Haswell and her husband spend 50 hours a week preparing for  a shift in the North and South poles, which could cause severe climate change.

Look at the graphic up top.

My response to the question "What have you done to prepare for catastrophe?"

Absolutely nothing.

And I never will.

Why is that?

Because you'll never see — much less hear — the bullet that's coming.

And you can quote me.

On a related note, constant readers will recall that I've long believed that annual physicals and visits to the doctor on a regular basis without a specific cause are not only a waste of your money and time but actually harmful and potentially dangerous.

Why?

Because if you do enough tests, there is a 100% chance you'll find an abnormal value which mandates a work-up and exposes you the wide, wide world of iatrogenic disaster.

But that's a topic for a future post, focusing on my friend Dr. Margaret McCartney's new book,

"The Patient Paradox: Why Sexed Up Medicine is Bad For Your Health."

Stay tuned.