Kinda hate linking to Faux News, but it’s Mike Rowe, so I guess I gotta.

More than a year after the coronavirus arrived in the United States, American are “starting to understand the importance of balance again,” Mike Rowe told “The Story” Friday.

“Several months ago, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said no measure, no matter how draconian, could be deemed unwise if it saves but a single life,” the “Six Degrees with Mike Rowe” host told Martha MacCallum. “I got a lot of flak when he said that, because I said, ‘That is a safety-first way of thinking, and deep down we’re not a safety-first society.

Correction: we weren’t. Then again, we also weren’t a nation of docile, bleating sheep either, and our national motto wasn’t “Americans do as they’re told.” We’ve come a long way, baby.

“Now we’re starting to see the price of safety is devastating,” Rowe added. “What is happening right now in the energy industry is really the thing that I think we ought to be focused on, because there feels to me, and feels to a lot of people I talk to on a day-to-day basis, like a concerted effort to wage a kind of war against energy. It’s not a war we can win, especially with regard to fossil fuels and all of the jobs that are wrapped up in that industry. I don’t mean to sound like an apologist, but I know of no greater investor in alternative energy than the fossil fuel industry.”

MacCallum brought the discussion back to the issue of safety, saying, “We’re a country that was built on risk-taking. We want to take wise risks, we don’t want to be reckless, but that element of being strong and fighting through is something that I think is such an American value.

I repeat: was. It’s hard to find much trace of that noble heritage nowadays, sad to say.

“Risk is the only four-letter word that matters,” Rowe agreed. “It impacts and informs every decision we make, from driving a car to walking around without a mask or wearing one mask or two masks.”

“We’re starting to see,” Rowe concluded, “if you elevate the business of staying alive to the very, very top of all things, then the only thing you’ll ever do is stay alive. You won’t go anywhere. You won’t try anything or build anything.”

Present-day Americans have lost all awareness of the all-important distinction between “staying alive” and LIVING. The only context in which Duh Sheeple seem to have retained any of that traditional bold, pioneering spirit is in their total fearlessness when it comes to donning a sundress and declaring themselves “women,” although most of these nominal “transgenders” do seem to recover their core pusillanimity when it comes to actually chopping their dicks off. The proper attitude towards risk versus safety, a hero’s death versus a coward’s existence, was laid out in Braveheart:

Mel Gibson’s soul-stirring pre-battle pep talk to his wavering Scottish rabble-army (ibid) should likewise be indelibly graven on Real American hearts:

It is to our eternal shame how thoroughly so many of us have forgotten those fine sentiments. If we do not soon remember, honor, and redeem them, then American liberty will be no more than a rapidly fading memory as well—and our disgraceful fate will have been well and rightly earned.

Update! Wes is thinking along similar lines, including the Braveheart reference.

I don’t even know where to begin. What will it take for Americans to wake up and take back their freedom? A hoax of a virus is being used to control and divide us. People are blindly obeying the wishes, yes wishes because there is no law, that you should wear a mask and avoid contact with people. People’s lives and businesses are being ruined because people refuse to stand. Have people lost the ability to critically think for themselves? That face diaper you are proudly wearing with your cute little sayings printed on it doesn’t do a damn thing to prevent a virus. You are virtue signaling that you are a good little peasant and will follow the orders of your evil government. There is no pandemic. We were lied to. Period. If there was an actual pandemic we wouldn’t have to be told about it on television. We would know and see it with our own eyes.

This is all about our government dominating us and wanting us to submit to their every whim. This is about control. This evil government is pushing us and testing us. They want to see exactly what they can get away with and what we are willing to accept. At this point it is anything. Very few have the courage to speak out or do anything. Although speaking out against this tyranny we face will now get you labeled as a domestic terrorist. At least now I know what to refer to myself as. Ha!

A question was asked on another post here “Isn’t there anyone out there who is brave enough, patriotic enough, and who cares enough to rise up and take America back?” My answer to that question is yes, however I am but one man and I do not want to be a martyr. So how do we begin to fight? You know what happens if we continue to do nothing? It (is) quite the conundrum we find ourselves in.

It’s my belief that there’s a goodly number of valiant souls left out there who have every intention of fighting back, but who are also fully awake to the fact that engaging before the time is fully ripe would be an invitation to catastrophe. These are momentous affairs indeed—a genuine turn of history wherein planning, preparation, and mature judgment constitute the fulcrum upon which success or failure will pivot. An anarchic berserker blitzkrieg is definitely NOT the way to go, seems to me. The grind of a stealthy, slowly escalating campaign of attrition is much more likely to win the day for Team Liberty. When there is no realistic chance of overwhelming the enemy, victory can only be achieved by wearing him down—sapping his will, exhausting his resources, convincing him that your own commitment is so deep that you will never surrender.

As the man says, it’s quite the conundrum. Excessive delay will only increase the duration, difficulty, and sheer bloodiness of the struggle. George McClellan, an outstanding motivator and leader of men, demonstrated that well enough; though his courage and competence were never in serious question, a surfeit of caution proved to be his ruin. Still, going off half-cocked without a plan, both tactical and strategic, is a sure-fire recipe for disaster, as any experienced combat veteran could tell you.

After decades of looking on helplessly as our country was defiled and then destroyed by thieves, thugs, and witless fools, it’s all too easy to let impatience dissolve into despair, leading on to bitter resignation. A delicate balance between recklessness and restraint, between overthinking and disregard, must now be struck. The fog of war, even fickle, unpredictable Fortuna Herself, will also have their own parts to play as the battle to reclaim a once-great nation widens and intensifies.

Delay can be costly; premature action, disastrous. But despair is fatal, the very worst of the three. Don’t give in to it. Plan. Prepare. Nurture your rage, but don’t let it rule you. Ignore the deceit and self-serving manipulations of the lying Left; rage is more than justified, a fair and fitting answer to the long train of abuses and usurpations inflicted by them. Battle is coming, with Justice at the wheel and Vengeance riding shotgun.