On This Day Pre-Y2K
Confused by any of the jargon you see below? Check the Y2K Glossary!
December 28, 1998 Permalink
The Executive Director of the President’s Y2K Commission, Koskinen’s deputy, made it clear in a recent broadcast of the United States Information Agency that the press is expected to present balanced coverage of y2k. It must not sensationalize y2k. What is “sensationalize”? This was not said.
It is obvious that a worldwide y2k panic will hit before the end of 1999. The y2k threat is systemic; every system that supports this civilization is at risk. The earlier that people figure this out, the earlier the bank runs will begin, followed by panic selling of stocks and bonds, followed by frantic quests to buy basic survival goods that are no longer easily available.
The code is broken. It cannot be fixed. The panic is inevtitable. It’s a question of when.
Bureaucrats have the answer: “Later.”
—Gary North, garynorth.com, 12/28/98
The only way I can even begin to deal with this is by bringing along a lifetime distrust of government, big business, and our house of cards economy. That alone made me receptive to learning about Y2K. If it wasn’t for that offbeat attitude I would have passed by without noticing. I would have no fears today, few cares, I would be able to laugh. Laugh....Kim says I never laugh anymore. Humor is a flash, no more. Nothing is funny when you are buying ammo by the case and wheat by the ton, just in case. Nothing is funny when the finest government in the world fiddles while their systems burn. Nothing is funny....when the dragon is mortally wounded but doesn’t yet know it’s dead.
I have been studying Y2K in every way possible to me since October of 1997. On a daily basis. How many hours? I don’t want to know. In that time I have become convinced that we are going to get blasted. Big time blasted. Infomagic blasted. I have learned enough to get real damn scared, scared motionless like a rabbit facing a snake.
Then I learned enough more to get slightly past that and begin getting my family ready for as much as possible. All it takes is one of your WRP’s to bring back the snake for a while. That’s why I NEED them, I MUST face the fear down, for my family. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the enemy, fear is the demon that stills your hands and leadens your feet. Screw the snake! I’ll feed it to my dogs before this century is out.
Cory, I don’t scare easily. I am 6’2”, 340 pounds, and built like a bear. I can let my wife hit me full strength just so she gets the excercise.
I can put 8 .45 slugs into the heads of 4 B-27 targets in 2.4 seconds with my good hand, and 3.6 with my off hand. I can match that at 35 yards with an M-1 carbine, and almost match it with an M-14. I can shoot a woodchuck in the ear at 300 yards on purpose, 4 out of 5 times from the first shot out of a cold barrel. I fear no man on this earth. I FEAR Y2K.
—Art Welling, Cory Hamasaki’s DC Y2K Weather Report, 12/28/98
