At the start of a backpacking trip once, we met two men hurrying back to the trailhead, one with a large bloodstained bandage around his hand. Apparently he had decided to open a can with his large sheath knife.
I know another person whose little finger is permanently curled after he severed a tendon doing the same thing.
I have a can opener on my Swiss army knife.
“Later in life Nine Fingers would tell the neighborhood kids that a bear bit it off in a cage fight.”
Better check the contract…
“Well—” Harriman lounged back and hung a knee over the arm of his chair, “—a good many years ago I was a Western Union messenger boy. While waiting around the office I read everything I could lay hands on, including the contract on the back of the telegram forms. Remember those? They used to come in big pads of yellow paper; by writing a message on the face of the form you accepted the contract in the fine print on the back—only most people didn’t realize that. Do you know what that contract obligated the company to do?”
“Send a telegram, I suppose.”
“It didn’t promise a durn thing. The company offered to attempt to deliver the message, by camel caravan or snail back, or some equally streamlined method, if convenient, but in event of failure, the company was not responsible. I read that fine print until I knew it by heart. It was the loveliest piece of prose I had ever seen."
– Robert A. Heinlein, The Past Through Tomorrow
Damn right! I’ve got a few of them, and after buying no end of different can openers which frequently failed to open any and all cans, ie some just wouldn’t open any cans properly, one would open some cans really well, but others not at all, the only two that work effectively all the time are a battery powered one that looks like a computer mouse that sits on the top of the can, and the P-38 openers. Now, while the electric one is a brilliant piece of design, under the described set of circumstances, there really is only one option open.
Now, I’m no survivalist, but I do understand the K.I.S.S principle: it’s just sad that these assholes seem to believe that surviving ‘the apocalypse’ needs a high-tech solution.
I blame the parents, the education system…
For those who do want to learn how to survive things… watch ultralight long distance through hiker’s videos and outdoorsperson videos. They spend a lot of time in the woods, doing camping stuff.
Preppers / Survivalists seem to spend most of their time with their first love, which is sitting in their bunker worrying about stuff. Which, sadly, doesn’t leave much time for having fun going out and hiking and camping in the woods.
If you don’t know what you are doing, it’s hard to tell one from the other. The general rule of thumb is the more “tacticool” equipment they are carrying, the less likely they are to be good. (There are exceptions.)
(On Edit: @Adrian_Hillier : Might I recommend a Swing-A-Way Portable can opener for those times when portability is not a problem? It’s what I use in my kitchen all the time. There are less expensive imitation ones, but they don’t work as well. If weight is an issue, P38s work really nicely, as does the Swiss Army blade.)
Easier to chew than some of my attempts at baking bread! 
He sounds like the typical Goober that has been indoctrinated from birth with the usual RWNJ booshwa. Perhaps the Justice Department can intervene in the upcoming redistricting efforts in Texas (and other former members of the Confederacy) & undo the massive gerrymanders that exist here, as well as deal with the voting rights restrictions that have been put in.
Make the bastids in the POT (formerly GOP) prove they can win an honest election…
Yeah, that part of Texas is pretty hard-core Red, but there are pretty hard-core (surprisingly liberal) Democrats out there as well… I have relatives that still live there & others that managed to escape.
Not much you can say about a town whose existance pretty much depends on the State Prison that is located there, except that the Socialist implications have somehow seemed to escape the (former) hizonner.
ETA:
Seconded. And thirded.
Reading up on the fail that is the Texas power grid is … both eye opening and kinda what I expected too.
What do people like this imagine governments are for if it’s not to provide vital services and infrastructure?
Protecting property and chattels from theft. For Libertarians, that’s the only reason the state should exist.
I thought that’s why they have guns 
How many Heinlein characters were not smug jerks?
Well at least 30% of them.
Some reddit chatter below re the firing of the mayor’s wife. Reads as if her supervisors did not deem her attitude toward the community suitable for anything having to do with the community’s children. (Just my thought, there.)
It’s zero, right? I’m going with zero.
Sayonara, asshole.
Valentine Michael Smith didn’t strike me as smug. But there were certainly instances where he’s a jerk.
Being a radical anarchist sometines makes it really difficult not to be, and I say this as an anarchist myself. You have to be really careful about self-righteous attitudes.
I don’t know about the portables, but I have this in my kitchen and I love it:
The nice long crank handle is much easier to operate than the smaller nubby handles, and mine has lasted for years.
I’m a casual prepper like you. I take it serious enough to be able to ride out 3 days with no electricity or gas. As long as you like PB, KD, beans & rice, and tomato or mushroom soup. No guns & ammo, 'cause Canadian. Manual can openers a plenty.
I learned to take this serious after my mom spent 3 days stuck in a snowstorm. Blizzard of '77, southwestern Ontario. Luckily she was rescued by a farmer mid-second day. Might not have made it without that help. Now I make a big deal out of prepping the car every November; blankets, candles, assorted high calorie snacks, etc.
On-topic… didn’t anyone run scenarios and think out what might happen. Sure, this freaky cold is a once-in-a-100-year event. State or municipal planning? Does anyone disaster plan?
