I asked a question about an hour ago regarding the whereabouts of Gary North. I decided to clarify my position based on some of the respnses I got. Your comments welcome!

Here is my stance. Y2K prep was not stupid, it was prudent. I expect there will be a few problems we have not seen yet but the world is not coming to an end! What I object too are the kooks like Gary North going out and fear mongering. I have read on here about people sitting in their homes with a loaded gun just waiting to switch over to their generator whether the pwer goes off or not! Others I have read about have quit their jobs thinking this was the end of the world. Gary North sold nothing on his website but fear. He tapped into the fears of the most paranoid among us and raised those fears to a fever pitch for his own personal gain. By that, I mean as much for his own personal ego gratification more than I mean financial. He probably beleives all of the stuff he wrote himslef. I don't doubt it but he does have victims he is responsible for even if half of what he predicted comes true.

Preparing = Prudent Becoming an obsessed sociatal drop out over this = 1. Probably manipulated and scared into by the likes of North 2. A life that will need re-building after the "danger" has past. That is the true destruction that will be the legacy of Y2K.

North has helped fuel some of that and his "contribution" should be noted.

-- David (tdavidc@arn.net), December 31, 1999

Answers

Gary North did MUCH less than the US Government to "scare" us. Yet, you probably think the Government is wonderful. JUST marvelous. Perhaps your paycheck or food comes from them, I don't know.

The Government spent $40 million on a BUNKER and that's just the Fed in D.C. and it doesn't count the costs multiplied by many cities in the US. Yet, they didn't want YOU and I to preapre, no, just for a 3- day storm. A 3-day storm does not warrant a $40 million bunker.

I believe that we should form a class-action suit against the Government, whom you fail to mention, for the money and time they wasted on this non-event. If you were consistent, you would blame relative to the costs and damage.

-- Greg Perry (Dittos@email.msn.com), December 31, 1999.

By the way, it appears that my other question regarding the whereabouts of Gary North has been deleted by the SYSOP. What is this? No room for a divergent opinion?????

-- David (tdavidc@arn.net), December 31, 1999.

Face it dude, Y2K preps = scam of the century.

Sorry to have to be so blunt.

Of course the market bubble will stop growing someday. When the feds add some more interest rates and the clamor over the new year settles down... but it won't have anything to do with Y2K failures or whatever. Don't congratulate yoursleves for having been DUPED into buying into YET ANOTHER $$$$$ MAKING SCAM.

-- (just@the.truth), December 31, 1999.

Gary North is a true christian who is committed to bringing this country under Gods dominion. His website has nothing to apologize for he was spreading God's word those who disgree are free to do so but they are actively going against history as written in the Bible and as Jesus commanded. This is a dangerous thing to do you will be chastised. Y2K will bite hard you can rest assured of that these first few hours mean nothing and then Gary will be held up as the hero he is for correctly predicting catastrophe and helping millions of God-fearing Americans to prepare and bring their families and loved ones to safety. We sold our house and moved to the country and put all our earthly cash into survival supplies and the like and we know that we will be tested but we will see this through. God bless Gary North for guiding us and God bless America. The next few days will be bloody but we are safe in our knowledge that we lie in the bosom of Jesus Christ and are guaranteed eternal life forevermore Amen.

-- Candle Man (candleman@aol.com), December 31, 1999.

David, Did you prepare at all? We were done preparing by the time we stumbled accross Mr Norths site. The naive see danger comming and do nothing. Give this 6 months and then pull out you six shooters. But not now.

-- Rich (quiverful8@earthlink.net), December 31, 1999.

I certainly do not work for the government. I am one of those independcent business people who just spent around 5K changing out my old computers because they were not compliant. I needed to and I don't regret it. I think I said, preparing was prudent. Fear mongering is irresponsible.

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), December 31, 1999.

Crow: For both our sakes, I hope North is wrong. If he is, I hope you are able to recover from this. If he is right, I will gladly eat crow. (No pun intended) I will probably have to!!!

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), December 31, 1999.

Blaming Gary for anything is absurd. Only a tiny tiny TINY percentage of Americans (much less foreigners) have ever heard of him and/or visited his site. Most Americans don't even have web access. Those who do spend most of their time shopping, chatting, & visiting porn sites. Gary can only dream of being a fear-mongerer. Don't take my word for it. Ask people. All you'll hear is "Gary who...?"

-- he never heard (of@you.either), December 31, 1999.

Blaming ANYONE for ANYTHING is absurd. It is abundantly obvious (and always has been) that NO ONE KNEW. It just seemed entirely possible that the Y2k issue could, in fact, wreak havoc. To blame Gary North, the government, or anyone else for their reacitons to possibilities that could not be confirmed or debunked until now is ridiculous.

-- Stoid (stoid@pacbell.net), December 31, 1999.

First let me say, I read Gary North's site and I do not feel like he is a fear mongerer. I am perfectly capable of reading and researching on the internet. If you are able to post to this forum, then I imagine that you too are capable of doing your own research. Anyone so easily led by one person, needs to look within if they have a problem with what they did to prepare.

There is absolutely no reason, for anyone who prepared to feel foolish, embarrassed or bitter about their preps. Most of the people in the United States pay insurance premiums for one form of insurance or another. I am certainly not embarassed because I do not end up in the hospital, in a wreck or experience a housefire every year. I look at my preps as a once in a lifetime insurance policy that I purchased in the event that something devastating could occur. I do not apologize to anyone for suggesting they prepare.

If we make it through the next couple of months without a major recession, then I think we have done wonderfully. As long as oil holds out and the lights stay on, everything else is of little consequence to most of us. If the economy takes a nose dive and people lose their jobs, then for the unemployed Y2K will be a nightmare.

If everything remains okay, then congratulations to those who 'guessed' right.

I have learned a lot throughout the last 18 months, thus I have been enriched. I have enjoyed immensely this forum and those who frequent it. Some of you are truly gifted with a wonderful sense of humor. I have laughed and cried with many of you. I wish all of you the happiest of New Years and beyond. May God Bless and be with each of you.

Dian

"You pays your money, and you takes your chances."

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), December 31, 1999.

It isn't over till its over. I thank God for Gary North. I've studied his 7300 articles plus at least 10 other sites since July 98. Read 3 books and am convinced that he is right. The worst is I have a store of food as my grandmother had. I have 5 married kids, and 15 grandchildren. We are all glad we have prepared. I am not fool enough to believe the media, president, Koskinen or other Pollys. The Bible says in Proverbs The prudent see the danger and prepare, the fool goes on and is punished. I would rather err on the side of safety, (if I did) than to be sorry.

Because of people like Gary, the world listened enough to get prepared, I would hate to see what the result would have been without them.

Sandi

-- Sandi Harris (SaHarris77@aol.com), December 31, 1999.

So, at this point in time ( 1:40 am EST) what is the consensus on Mr. North? IMHO, I think he will eventually latch onto the next possible end-of-the-world scheme (as shown from his past exploits) and resurface with a whole new approach.

-- Steve (sron123@aol.com), January 01, 2000.

OK, I seem to be taking a lot of flack from people thinking I was saying it was stupid to prepare. I DID NOT SAY THAT. What I said was it was prudent to prepare. It is however dangerous tho take it to the extremes North and his devotees did. Like I said, many quit jobs, sold houses, spent there last dimes on pork and beans to last until the year 3000! These folks could, if everything holds, windup with a large cash of canned spam, thousands of dollars in generators and wood burning stoves and no job because they quit and be in financial ruin because they counted on this to happen. North and others like him, made a strong argument, a plea that is, for the complete collapse of society. Those who beleived him gave up everything in many cases. Now they must start re-building lives.

If society does not collapse, those who have dropped out already based on his fear tactics are going to be trying hard to catch back up.

Preparation; I still say it was a good idea. Some of his ideas were not without merit. Adopting a "bunker" mentality, however is ultimately harmful. North's tactics were shameless and many lives have been profoundly effected and not necessarrily for the better.

Let's kep this going!

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), January 01, 2000.

"live up to what he has done" ?

Idiot. It's late and I'm tired.

Unable to sort out one part of a person's ideas from another.

Without any interest in North's (or just about any Christian's) religious ideas, I and mine were able to read and appreciate the FREE information he offered one and all over the Net. (We subscribed, for 90-something dollars, so as not to be total freeloaders.)

Got rich. Yeah, right. Asshole.

Sorry, readers, I'm tired. I guess I don't have to deal with sub- geniuses very often in real life, just here. Good night.

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), January 01, 2000.

Hey, I'm not here to be inflammatory. I would like serious opinions on my statement regarding North and his like minded followers. Calling me names, etc. is not what I was hoping to ellicit. In regards to the last post, I don't think i ever said North got rich.

I do think he fed his ego and got off an creating a sub culture of "doomers" that hunkered down and waited for the end of modern civilization with him.

AGAIN, I beleive preparation was prudent, going to extremes as many have, destructive! Someone address the comments!

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), January 01, 2000.

One has to wonder.......

Why would anyone listen to a preacher (or a pig farmer for that matter) on IT issues?

Preachers should preach and pig farmers should farm pigs.

Unless they're both crazy as hell.

I may be on to something there..........:-)

Deano

-- Deano (deano@luvthebeach.com), January 01, 2000.

David,

I sincerely believe that those who gave up their jobs and moved to what they consider a safer place, wanted a change of lifestyle and used this as an excuse to do so. To blame Gary North is riduculous. Even the Jim Jones of this world require a following that empowers their ability to lead. It sounds very much like a witch hunt to start pointing fingers at any one. An awful lot of discussion on this forum has been about personal responsibility. The only person responsible for the lifestyle changes that were made, are those that made the changes.

-- Dian (bdp@accessunited.com), January 01, 2000.

Dian: Thanks for the intelligent response. You are right. Everyone is responsible for their own actions. I just sincerely believe that Mr. North held himself out there as someone to be followed; as a sort of doomsday prophet if you will and many beleived him. He has said (long before y2K became the big issue) that he longed for the day that some catastrophic event to bring about a societal collpse so that he and others could bring the country around to Chritian Fundamentalism. As soon as I finish posting this, I will go find the article and post a link to it. Just makes you wonder about his motives.

Again, I am not here to argue or ridicule, that is not my place. I chose to beleive there would be glitches but no catastrophe, that was my choice. I am just sincerely interested in the whole psychology of this thing.

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), January 01, 2000.

Sorry. I try to be reasonable. You sound that way, and don't deserve my low-level venting. We're probably both quite interested in the same aspects of GN, and I did over-simplify your words -- sorry!

My goal is to be asleep in 7 minutes before it hits midnite here W. Coast. Good nite all and thanks for making the ride much fun! Candy, I tell you, you're all just irresistable!

-- jor-el (jor-el@krypton.uni), January 01, 2000.

..." I am getting support from a handful of laymen who perceive that they are at risk, society is at risk, and secular humanism is at risk. To lay blame effectively, you must be willing and able to predict the event. That's what I'm doing. I'm also laying the groundwork for handing out the blame. The battle for the minds of men after 1999 will, to a great extent, be a battle to assign and evade blame for the millennium bug. Christians will be in a position to win this battle." Gary North

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), January 01, 2000.

..."The y2k crisis is systemic. It cannot possibly be fixed. I think it will wipe out every national government in the West. Not just modify them -- destroy them. I honestly think the Federal government will go under. I think the U.S.A. will break up the way the U.S.S.R. did. Call me a dreamer. Call me an optimist. That's what I think."

Gary North

"This will decentralize the social order. That is what I have wanted all of my adult life. In my view, y2k is our deliverance."

Gary North

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), January 01, 2000.

"This will decentralize the social order. That is what I have wanted all my adult life. In my view, y2k is our deliverance."

Gary North

-- DAVID (tdavidc@arn.net), January 01, 2000.

Gary North is a hero and is solely responsible for alerting the world to this terrible Y2K problem. If it weren't for Gary, we would all be dead right now. We all owe him our lives

-- (gary@gary.gary), January 01, 2000.