CNN has been feasting on the illness and its implications. Panels have been rotating around the clock it seems at MSNBC and Fox News. The papers, the pundits, and the chattering class all weighing in with their ever self important opinions on what might be happening. There is nothing more enlightening than a mob of talking heads pontificating and interviewing each other about their own opinions.

The doubt and the division in America may actually drive the country into a needless and avoidable recession for the first time in a dozen years. The blood bath on Wall Street continued again with the market dumping more than 1800 points, after posting an incredible record one-day increase the day before.

I do have some important questions about the state of things in America today.

I was in Costco Wednesday when Michigan State University announced it would join a growing list of colleges and universities around the country telling kids for the next month all of their classes would be offered online only.

The announcement came about the same time more cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in Mid-Michigan. The store went from an ordinary weekday to pandemonium. The hordes of panicked peasants flocked to the aisles to stock up on bottled water and toilet paper.

In fact, I saw carts so weighed down with bottled water they nearly buckled. As for toilet paper, there was not a sheet to be found. Not even single ply and trust me it would have been an end of the world scenario for me to use single ply.

Which does raise a couple important questions.

Does Covid-19 trigger some level of defecation over achievement? Or do people live with some recurring nightmare they will be condemned to sitting down without paper for the rest of their lives. Seriously, do bowel movements go into overdrive with Covid-19? I have extra toilet paper in the house and a few other things. I realized years ago, now and then we have big storms and the power goes out. Sometimes we get snowed in. Sometimes we get sick and have to stay home for a few days. If you don’t have a little extra toilet paper and other essentials, you are probably not really on top of things.

It’s always a good idea to follow the Boy Scout Motto, Be Prepared.

So that brings me to another observation from the big outing at Costco. Does it really make a lot of sense to shut down colleges and universities as we kick off March Madness? Ivey and I saw lots of college kids who just learned they won’t have class again until late April stocking up on all the essentials. I saw jugs of vodka, tequila, and cases of beer rolling out the door cart after cart. Other staples like frozen pizzas, chips, and pretzel bites accompanied them.

If the idea was to send kids home to keep them from being in close contact and prevent spreading the illness, well that was an epic fail. Not only will they be together, they are going to be partying and watching college basketball games without being interrupted by those annoying college classes. Which means they will be together longer and making decisions diluted by the steady flow of alcohol.

Does any of this matter anyway?

AOC and Bernie told us we would be dead in ten years from climate change. So, if we all get drunk like the kids that are on an extended Spring Break what difference, at this point, does it make anyway?