Did anybody read Senator Bennett's column in the Washington Times. Although the point of the column is how Y2K will cause a world-wide recession, he said a few interesting things about the good ole USA...

"Planes will not fall from the sky. Food shortages will be temporary. In most areas, but not all, lights will stay on, banks will have cash and phones will work."

First question - how "temporary" will the food shortages be? Second question - where won't the "lights will stay on"?

Earlier in the column he writes something very interesting....

"Perhaps most frightening is the stockpiling of food and weapons.."

Well, there you go!!! Trying to prepare, to take care of your family, is "most frightening". Gee - how about an impending crisis that the goverment knows about, but the official word is "Don't Worry - Be Happy!"

This is the story's link

http://www.washtimes.com/opinion/ed3.html

BigFurDog <- Frightening my self, by continuing to prepare!

-- BigFurDog (BigFurDog@snazzle.com), January 29, 1999

Answers

I agree with what you are saying. Instead of commending and recommending prudent preparedness, it seems like so many are categorizing these efforts are wrong or "extreme". That really bothers me. I can only think that Bennet is operating on the following logic:

"There are going to be disruptions and bad things are going to happen. But the worst thing that can happen is to have these events precipitated by "stockpiling" or other preparedness efforts."

What I keep finding is that people are drawing a false paradox and saying that if you do any preparedness, your a nut. This is really troubling to me because it is more irresponsible than any "stockpiling".

-- Alan Sneary (asnear1@tandy.com), January 29, 1999.

Now why would stockpiling food be frightening to anybody? I mean, spending money is spending money. Personally, I think people stockpiling Beanie Babies is what's frightening.

Unless............there isn't enough food manufacturing capacity, now or then, for everybody to stockpile. That would be a terrifying thought, alright.

And what IS stockpiling? I know lots of people who simply hate going to the grocery store, and their NORMAL pantry looks damned similar to my Y2K pantry. Actually, looks much more appetizing.

The only way we're ever going to know what's really in Bennett's and Koskinen's head is to deploy some Y2K Mata Haris (yes, I realize she was set up). When all else fails.....................................

-- lisa (lisa@work.com), January 29, 1999.

Can someone explain to me why storing up some food (an idea recommended by the Red Cross, GartnerGroup, various local emergency management officials, et al) is a bad idea, when it is stated that there will be food shortages in the same column??

-- Drew Parkhill/CBN News (y2k@cbn.org), January 29, 1999.

Drew, This is playing out far worse than even I would have imagined. Bennett's piece is an incredible hodgepodge of denial and mere rhetoric. There is an old adage among lawyers. When you have the law on your side, argue the law. if you have the facts on your side, argue the facts. If you have neither, pound the table. Bennett is pounding the table. All one would have to do to allay fears is to cite the plain clear evidence. Yet over and over he asserts that a 'potential crisis' is a ffot but , don't do anything yet because nobody knows. That, more than anything else is EXACTLY why preparation is needed. Not because one 'fears' the 'unknown', but because the unknown may kill you if you are NOT prepared.

This table pounding is PRIMA FACIAE evidence that we are in big big trouble. It is beyond the pale that, by this late date, they could not come to grips with something approaching definitivity. Koskinen poo-pooed everything last year and stated that we would have ample COLD HARD facts to go by early this year, January specifically. Yet they continue the mantra 'nobody knows'.

This is a categorical lie. His 'report' is an incredible combination of schizophrenia and cognitive dissonance. It is so delusional that you can hear him sweat as you read it. Just try to imagine what you would have written if you knew that we were in deep ddo-doo and you did not want to let the cat out of the bag. it would have come out just like this, replete with the 'nothing to fear but fear itself roseveltian imagery. I am convinced that it is actually far worse than even I had imagined, at this point, after hearing Bennett.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 29, 1999.

Drew, great question! It sounds like something Woody Allen would have spouted back during his funny period.

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), January 29, 1999.

Now Drew, tell us the definitive Allen answer to your question. How about this. "Good advice Senator, I'll take your suggestion and my children will just starve "temporarily." Hey, did Bennett say whether we, among hoi polloi, would be able to eat off the stash which is widely reported to fill his daughter's garage? Are there any politicians left who are not more pompous than Ted from the Mary Tyler Moore Show?

-- Puddintame (dit@dot.com), January 29, 1999.

Are there two Senators named Bennet?

Compare this on the Y2Ktoday website, fromReady or Not, Y2K Is Coming by Sen. Robert Bennett (dated 1/27/99:

"Paul Revere's ride and cry of warning is exactly the approach that other public leaders and the press should be taking. We need to state unequivocally that Y2K is indeed an event that has potentially massive and unpredictable economic, social, and geopolitical ramifications.

"Our government is not going to get all of its critical systems fixed in time for the century change. The evidence for this is overwhelming, as I recounted in my address to the National Press Club last year. The General Accounting Office (GAO) cites countless other vulnerabilities. State and local systems that process Federal benefit checks are not likely to be fully remediated. County-operated "911 systems may have failures. At the corporate level, the price of fixing Y2K problems keeps outstripping original estimates. Many companies, like Chevron and General Motors, are now conceding that they cannot guarantee their service as of January 1, 2000.

"Even John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion, has publicly acknowledged that the time to begin Y2K remediation is past, and the time has come for crisis management and contingency planning. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the American Red Cross have both issued public statements that encourage the public to take Y2K seriously. Everyonebusiness leaders, politicians, community leaders, and familiesneeds to begin calmly and rationally preparing."

I like the phrasing -- "Even John Koskinen" --- it says volumes.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), January 29, 1999.

In all fairness, Bennett is probably trying to warn us. Like that German radio announcer that slipped in hints to the troops fighting the Russians while maintaining an overall propagandistic complexion.

Heck, this article is all the proof I need for further convincing DGIs, what with the government warning of food shortages (temporary or no).

-- Lisa (lisa@work.com), January 29, 1999.

We had our third y2k community meeting last night that I started and it has steadily grown to over thirty people. Last night I gave them the latest article from Senator Bennett found exclusively on "Y2k Today" posted on the 27th. http://www.y2ktoday.com/modules/news/art

Listen to him:

"With less than a year remaining until the year 2000, our nation is at a critical crossroads in its approach to the looming y2k crisis."

"Each day brings us closer to the brink."

"We need to state unequivocally that y2k is indeed an event that has potentially massive and unpredictable economic, social, and geopolitical ramifications."

"Our government is not going to get all of its critical systems fixed in time for the century change. The evidence for this is overwhelming, as I recounted in my address to the National Press Club last year. The General Accounting Office cites countless other vulnerabilities."

"We cannot know for sure what computing failures y2k will bring, nor can we know what effects those failures will have on our economy."

THEN LISTEN TO THE INCONGRUITY. In the very next sentence he says:

"This is certainly not the time to begin bunkering down with propane tanks and money stuffed mattresses..."

He goes on to then say there "is a likelihood of system failures." "We must acknowledge that we are, indeed, facing a crisis. And because the precise dimensions of this problem will not be known until the stroke of midnight on December 31, 1999, we must focus especially on contingency planning." WELL WHAT DOES HE THINK THE PROPANE TANKS AND STUFFED MATTRESSES ARE?

So tell us Senator Beannut, when should we start our individual contingency plans?

He is obviously caught between the political y2kspeak of "don't panic the public" and "we have a problem Houston." This is our leadership speaking boys. Aren't you full of relief that we have our very own Paul Revere? The title belonged to De Jager but now belongs to North. Bennett wants the title but his words are saving no one. He is positioning himself to run for president but he'll be lucky if he's an alive senator in 2000.

b

-- bb (b@b.b), January 29, 1999.

I think Sen. Bennett is trying to tell us in his own way to prepare. We already know his daughter is stockling food in their garage and a nephew(?) is digging up the back yard and putting in fuel tanks.

Right now I don't know where those URLs are to confirm this but they are in past threads.

I also wonder how much of the articles we read have been edited to make the point the WRITER wants to make.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), January 29, 1999.

One more thing, at least Sen. Bennett is speaking out. That is more then my senator is doing. Email Sen. Bennett and let him know that it is appreciated, even if you think it is not enough. Some is better then none.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), January 29, 1999.

Linda And Lisa,

Saying that Bennett is 'trying to tell us' in 'his own way' is absolutely LAUGHABLE. Are you THAT intellectually BANKRUPT that you do not understand that this is NOT how you warn someone. You do not warn someone by coming STRAIGHT out and telling them NOT to prepare and by RIDICULING those who do prepare as bunker types and people who sleep on mattresses crammed full of money. That is not warning, That is vilification.

He calls himself the 'Paul Revere' of Y2K. ROTFLMAO. I read that in my history books.

"Paul Revere went among the village, timidly creeping from house, skulking from tree to tree, telling folks that while there was no actual consensus on the severity of the potential British Invasion, and that nobody really knew what the British were up to, that there was no reason YET, to gather and PREPARE at Bunker Hill. "No need to "BUNKER HILL" it yet," He said. And through the years it has come to be recognized that this was 'just his way' of warning folks. It was important for Paul Revere not to adulterate his credibility nor appear foolish in front of his fellow silversmith's.

-- Paul Milne (fedifo@halifax.com), January 29, 1999.

Perhaps accidently, you're axactly right Paul - now is not the time for Paul Revere to go slinking from house to house mumbling different incoherent things to different people about an invasion of Bunker Hill.

It is time for a real hero (and who is that among our politicians ? ) to shout from the rooftops about the british advancing on Lexington and Conord ....who were going there to confiscate weapons prepared ahead of time by the colonial private citizens, by the way.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), January 29, 1999.

Ask yourself: would YOU want people to stockpile food if you were planning on using the crisis to implement 1) a global currency unit, 2) Universal ID, so that the mewing masses would line up to receive their food handouts from the friendly blue hats? Naaw, you wouldn't, because people with their own food stored up are more likely to be A) tough-minded and B)skeptical about goings-on. I've wondered long and hard why all the official cautions against 'stockpiling' and 'food hoarding?' Remember last month when the British Y2K project head advised all British families to store two weeks worth of food, and three hours later had to go on the BBC to explain what she had 'really meant?' What difference could it make to our masters if people have a bunch of food stacked in their basements (or buried in their backyards, ala Milne)? Surely Archer-Daniels-Midland doesn't object. The last thing they want is self-sufficiency: it leads to other bad things, like independent thinking. I myself am going on a massive weight-gain programme: nothing but donuts and pizza for the webhead.

-- Spidey (senses@tingling.com), January 29, 1999.

Reading over Bennett's incongruous statements makes me think that he is trying to do 2 things at once; impress unpon the business world of what a crisis we're in to try to raise the motivation level at fixing (small businesses are notoriously not listening and a scary percentage are DGI's planning on doing nothing), and at the same time discourage the public from panicking and causing a bank run. So in effect his message comes across as "you must hurry to fix your problem, but don't panic and keep your money in the bank.) Which is what many optimists here on this forum are saying.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 29, 1999.

In answer to Chris:

Yes, that is what many optimists are doing. And ALL of the ignorant.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), January 29, 1999.

The truth is that Bennett is in denial flat and simple. He really cannot contemplate the alternative. He knows what it is, 'teotwawki', if it doesn't get fixed. He simply refuses to accept that possibility.

He thinks he is being responsible. 'y2kspeak' thinking wants to maximize the most time for remediation as possible. They are afraid if they tell the truth, it will the hinder the 'fix'. As politicians they really have no choice but to do their utmost to help the fix. All their eggs are in one basket. If it doesn't get fixed they are toast. There goes their power, prestige, and ambitions. No one will ever trust the government again in its present form.

When the public finally wakes up, no thanks to the pols and the media, Bennett will join the call for martial law. It is the politician's last resort to maintain their little kingdoms. It will be their last official act as leaders of a free republic.

Bennett's role in y2k is over. Like De Jager and Westergaard he is now old news. The only ones to listen to now are the survivalists and preppies.

Forget the pollyannas Mr. Milne. What was your latest good buy?

b

-- b (b@b.b), January 29, 1999.

Paul,

I agree, this is getting worse faster than I thought it would as well. I didn't expect they'd turn up the pressure on Bennett until July/August time frame.

Arlin who just realized that it's gonna get weirder than he thought it would...

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 29, 1999.

All (de Jager, Bennett, British Pr.Min., etc) is a result of the "stay calm" dis-information movement.

No need to show the chickens the hatchet before dinner time....

-- Mr. Kennedy (y2kPCfixes@MotivatedSeller.com), January 30, 1999.

After perusing Bennett's column and the apparent discord between his "Perhaps most frightening is the stockpiling of food and weapons, ..." and his other comments on food, I've concluded that the most sensible explanation, though likely to disappoint some others in this forum, is that there was an error in editing somewhere along the line, and what Bennett intended to write for the above quote was:

"Perhaps most frightening is the stockpiling of weapons, ..."

That is, the words "food and" were not intended to appear within the above phrase.

Try rereading his column after deleting those two words. Start with the surrounding sentence: "Perhaps most frightening is the stockpiling of weapons, and construction of armed camps where so many of our own neighbors will hide for fear of looting and civil unrest." That seems more internally consistent and complete than it was before my proposed correction.

I think it would be difficult to argue that deletion of those two words from that one place makes the remaining article less consistent rather than more.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), January 30, 1999.

I think Lisa, et al are right. He is trying to warn us. I won't even begin to imagine what is pressuring him into putting into semi-code. But I understand it and anyone with 1/2 a brain would too.

-- Sub-Mit (lurking@ofcourse.com), January 31, 1999.

"Perhaps most frightening is the stockpiling of food and weapons.."

I think the most interesting thing about this quote from Senator Bennett is that he is a Mormon,and has been told, for over 30 years, by our church elders to have a years worth of food stored.

I think this is a good idea and have been doing it my self for the 20 years I have been a member.

Sean in Indy

-- (SONOSONO@AOL.com), January 31, 1999.