permaculture

["paul wheaton" <paul@richsoil.com>]

> What a bunch of silly wimps. Put pure tea tree oil on as a repellant and to 
> treat bites.
> The itching goes away immediately and healing begins; also good for tick, 
> chigger
> and mosquito bites. Fleas are easy to get rid of; if they're in the carpet, 
> throw it out.

I think the message I am trying to convey is ....   that I am utterly
flabbergasted at the mighty power of ignorance combined with fear.
And that these people were not (are not) fools.  Two are CPD's.  They
all share a passion for the principles of permaculture.   I know that
I feel humbled by such awesome power.  The power of fear.  The power
of fear for one's own life.

Each person has a day job, and they don't have the time to thoroughly
research fleas.  They probably popped onto google and searched for
"fleas" and read the first page that came to them.  I do know that an
e-mail was circulated copying information from some web site going on
and on about the plague.  And then there was a reference to something
about one flea generating 67,000 offspring in a month.

I guess what I am taking too long to say is:  have any of us ever made
a poor choice due to misinformation and fear?  I think the lesson here
is, we should be wary.  All of us.  Even CPDs can be swayed.