-
- Y2K was not a non event. It was a beginning; even if
only as an intellectual exercise.
-
- The end of the twentieth century was not an end, as all
endings are a beginning. May our beginning be the genesis of apperception
by mankind that we are at the end time of our planet. Even if the comet
does strike us, or the killer asteroid from hell arrives, or the tenth
planet passes us too close for safety - perhaps the explosion in the center
of our galaxy will remove all life from this world. There are many ways
in which the "end" may become reality, but even these are a beginning.
-
- The overwhelming likelihood is that we will destroy ourselves
even without these terrible events. Destruction. Destruction - by hatred,
selfishness, greed and the belief that we are invincible. We are not invincible,
we are nothing more than a delicately constructed life form, becomming
more and more dependent on those things we've created which even as I write,
are destroying us by degree. Strange isn't it, that we create "good"
things which destroy us. We even know this to be, but refuse to acknowlege
it. We are a strange race.
-
- There is hope however. The hope is in our new beginning.
-
- And so to you and yours, from docca Morty and his long
suffering wifey, the beautiful Rosemarie, we wish you the blessings of
love, health and happiness. And a toast to our new beginning.
-
- When I woke up this morning, the first thing I said was,
"I made it through another night without a visit from those who would
take from me, everything they can steal." That was a really wonderful
present from on high and perhaps, represents a new beginning for me in
that part of my life which has been fraught with terror for 56 years.
-
-
- Jim & Rosemarie Mortellaro _____
-
-
- The Day After: A Challenge for Pollyanna
-
- By Stuart H. Rodman <JRodman527@aol.com 1-1-00
-
- The jury is still out about the amount of disruption
and misery Y2K will bring on those dependent on technology and infrastructure.
Most industries remained mothballed over the weekend and the demand for
utility services remains low, perhaps at about 40% of demand in the case
of the electric utilities.
-
- Hopefully the apparent success of the remediation effort
will hold up as the world returns to work next week. Perhaps it won't.
However, despite the euphoria in most of officialdom, glitches and failures
have already been reported around the world, from Asia to the breadbasket
of America.
-
- So far the major media have remained consistent in their
coverage of the facts; they see only what they want to. Clearly the media
has thus far shown a far greater preference for showing pictures of revelers
than doing in depth reporting of any hard news, including the nuclear problems
in Japan, the stock market computer crash in Pakistan, or the shutdown
of nuclear plants in this country.The reporting of problems will take time
and may be even slower to find its way into mainstream consciousness. But
thats the way this story has been played all along. January 1st has changed
nothing.
-
- Pollyannas are said to be claiming victory. Some hard
working truth seekers are said to be discouraged and unappreciated. But
the story is just beginning. Is it suddenly not true then that American
industry remains largely non compliant, unaudited, and surrounded by a
Congressionally granted shroud of protection from accountability? Has the
"disconnect effect" afflicting our National media suddenly rolled
away along with the 2nd millennium?
-
- More than likely we still have our work cut out for us.
History shows that the battle for the truth has never been easy. Knowledge
is power. Whatever happens to our infrastructure and technology our institutions
of democracy have been diminshed by the barriers erected to shelter industry
from disclosure. Public Law 105-271, the Year 2000 Information and Readisness
Disclosure Act keeps the public in the dark and makes it easier for Pollyanna
to have her day. Its message? The details of Y2k readiness planning as
it affects even our drinking water, power, safety and health is none of
our business!
-
- Jim Bell, President of the San Diego Y2K Action Group,
has said the disaster has already started,
-
- "As Americans we have all been brought up to believe
that our most precious of all possessions is freedom and the institutions
of democracy that assure it. The new Year 2000 laws have enabled the special
interests to use Congress to undermine the power of ordinary citizens."
-
- By all accounts our recently renovated infrastructure
appears to be held together by the high tech equivalent of duct tape and
rubber cemment. The world wide remediation effort has resulted in many
quick fixes and work arounds but much of the inherently flawed hardware
and code remains in place. Little has been replaced and most probably won't
be.That is the truth that industry has been working so hard for so long
to keep from us. Take note Pollyanna, whatever happens to our infrastructure
after January 1, Y2K has now assured itself a place in history as the bug
that ate our civil liberties.
-
- Open your corporate books Pollyanna and say it ain't
so!
-
- Stuart H. Rodman www.stuarthrodman.com _____
-
-
- Doomsday Postponed...This Time Indefinitely
-
- By Michael Goodspeed <gspeed@teleport.com
& Franco Vitalis http://www.geocities.com/michael_goodspeed
1-1-00
-
- December 31, 1999 has come and gone, and God has seen
to fit to bless the human race with safe passage into the year 2000. It
seems that Y2K will turn out to be one of the most over-hyped, non-events
in recent memory, the predicted return of Jesus Christ is once again on
hold, and the global economies and banking systems could well be stronger
than ever. So the question now is: How long will it be before the doomsayers
start selling another date for civilization's end?
-
- In my twenty-four years, I have witnessed more prophecies
of doom go unfulfilled than someone living 100 years ago would have in
a lifetime. As interesting as the topic of psychic phenomena is, I tell
you in candor than I have NEVER seen an alleged seer correctly assign a
date to a specific catastrophe or event. 2 years ago, I sat by my radio,
bemused grin on my face, as Ed Dames told an audience of 8-12 million listeners
that, in the spring of 1999, 90% of life on Earth would be eradicated by
a "kill-shot" solar flare. For 7 years, I've listened attentively
to the predictions of Gordon Michael Scallion, as he forecast everything
from the discovery of Atlantis, to the breakup of the west and east coasts,
to the sinking of Japan into the ocean, to the manifestation of a second
sun in our sky. And over time, I've grown more and more wary of sensationalists
using talk radio to sell this schlock. Isn't it time that we demand accountability
from these hucksters?
-
- What many of you probably don't know is that a ledger
HAS been kept of the hits and misses of said "prophets", and
this record is available to everyone with Internet access. The source for
my recent article, "The Absurdity of Gordon Michael Scallion,"
was found through a simple word search using Scallion's name. I found no
less than a dozen web articles originally published in the early 90's,
containing his predictions for the last 7 years. As I've already documented,
not ONE of them has been correct.
-
- It seems a distinction should be made between the field
of "prophecy" and other psychic disciplines. People like Sylvia
Browne, Dannion Brinkley, and Louis Turi display an uncanny ability to
"read" from people the most intimate details of their psyches
and personal lives. There are documented instances of law enforcement successfully
utilizing professional psychics in criminal investigations. Perhaps this
is because the psychics are asked only to uncover those events that have
ALREADY taken place. What does this say about the dimensions of time? Logic
dictates that if human beings truly have free will, then the future MUST
NOT EXIST.
-
- For those of you who still cling to the idea that the
die has already been cast by Nostradamus, Edgar Cayce, Elizabeth Clare
Prophet and Ruth Montgomery, take a look at this short list of dire predictions
over the last 1000 years that never came true.
-
- (source: http://www.seattlep-i.com/lifestyle/ends28.shtml)
-
- 999: Christians aware of the calendar count that began
with the birth of Jesus believe the Second Coming will occur at the end
of the first millennium.
-
- March 21, 1843, to March 21, 1844: Led by William Miller,
the Millerites, a sect of more than 50,000 based mostly in Massachusetts
and New York, abandon their material possessions and take to the hills,
where they wait for the world to end.
-
- 1844: Again the Millerites wait for Armageddon. Miller
sets the date as Oct. 22. The apocalpytic no-show is dubbed "The Great
Disappointment."
-
- 1891: In 1835, Mormon leader Joseph Smith predicted the
Coming of the Lord 56 years later.
-
- 1914: Jehovah's Witnesses (an offshoot of the Seventh-Day
Adventists, who are an offshoot of the Millerites) await the Second Coming.
They believe Christ returned in 1884 but chose to remain invisible.
-
- April 22, 1959: In Texas, the Branch Davidians believe
they will be killed and resurrected.
-
- 1975: Word of the impending apocalypse spreads through
the Jehovah's Witness membership, though the church never confirms the
prediction.
-
- 1984: The Jehovah's Witnesses suffer another unfulfilled
prophecy of doom.
-
- Oct. 2, 1985: The Jesus of Burien (a k a William E. Peterson)
claims Armageddon came on this day and he is already well into his reign
as Christ returned.
-
- April 19, 1993: The Branch Davidians, now led by David
Koresh, think the world will end this year. The cult's standoff with government
agents ends in a fiery tragedy, resulting in 80 deaths.
-
- March 26, 1997: The Heaven's Gate cult carries out a
mass suicide. The 39 members believe that hidden in the tail of comet Hale-Bopp
is some sort of self-aware life form coming to prepare us for what they
call a "galactic evolution."
-
- Oct. 23, 1997: Archbishop Ussher, a 17th-century archbishop
of Armagh in Ireland, calculated that God created the world on Oct. 23,
4004 B.C., and that the end of the world would come on this date 6,000
years later.
-
- March 31, 1998: A Taiwanese UFO cult, Chen Tao, anticipates
God's return -- in human form -- in Garland, Texas. The leader, Hon-Ming
Chen, claims the Lord's return will set off a series of events leading
to the world's end in August 1999.
-
- September 1999: Nostradamus' prophecies include a meteor
hitting the Earth sometime this month, -- according to those who translated
his predictions to our current calendar -- setting off a chain of disasters
(earthquakes, hurricanes, famine, etc.) leading to the end of the world.
-
- September 1999: Shoko Asahara, leader of the Japanese
Aum Shinrikyo cult, predicts the world's end this month.
-
- Why is Doomsday anxiety (or is that hope?) still so prevalent
after such a dismal record of unfulfilled prophecy and relative uneventfulness
in nature?
-
- Students of the late Immanuel Velikovsky believe that
doomsday anxiety is caused by the indelible scars left on the collective
psyche from very real catastrophes in the past. It's their claim that the
planets in our solar system once moved on unstable courses, even tumbling
out of their orbits and suffering near collisions with the planet Earth.
They find evidence for this in the global testimony of early civilizations,
which tell a coherent story of celestial chaos in the ancient past. This
is not the place to examine Velikovsky's thesis, but those who are interested
should listen to Jeff Rense on January 10, when he will interview Velikovsky
scholars David Talbott and Wallace Thornhill. [<http://www.kronia.comwww.kronia.com]
-
- I've never bought into the notion asserted by some new
agers that a great "purging" of our planet by global catastrophe
could benefit mankind, creating a harmonious Utopia to reign on Earth.
The Heavens Gate tragedy was a telling example of how self-destructive
such beliefs can become. Hopefully, our uneventful New Year will instill
a desire to find truth in the HERE and NOW, rather than seeking escapism
in fatalistic reverie.
-
- (ALL COMMENTS ARE WELCOME) email: gspeed@teleport.com
_____
-
-
- Hold On
-
- By Koz <Koz@kozmik.com 1-1-00
-
- Hold on- the millennium isn't new yet. It's finally here:
the last year of the 20th century, the last year of the millennium.
-
- Any new year is cause for celebration, but festivities
for the "new millennium" or the 21st century are 12 months premature.
-
- This is not a mere technicality or the niggling of purist;
it is simply a matter of counting correctly in round numbers.
-
- To belabor the point, there was no year "0".
In the chronicle of human history, the year 1B.C is followed by the year
A.D.1.
-
- The first century therefore consisted of the years 1
trough 100. The first millennium was 1 through 1000. The second millennium
began Jan. 1 1001, and will not be complete until Dec. 31, 2000. A new
century and a new millennium will always begin with a ending in a 1.
-
- On the other hand, any period of 100 years (say, 1899
to 1999) is "a century". And although the 21st century begins
in 2001, the "2000s" indisputably begin today. and all manner
of futurists have book marked 2000 as a turning point.
-
- Writing in 1989, Isaac Asimov foresaw the hopelessness
of trying to stanch the "mythic value" of Jan. 1, 2000. "There
will be the full clamor and noise that will mark the beginning of a new
millennium". He wrote in a book about the history of the world, "and
all the pedantic voices that will say, 'no, no, we must wait another year,'
will be drowned out and ignored."
-
- So, go ahead and celebrate if you must. But stow the
party hats. You can use them again next year. _____
-
-
- A message to my friends:
-
- By Neal Owen Kruse <nokruse@email.msn.com>
- 1-2-2000
-
- I had a vision last night. OK, maybe not the kind where
someone materializes out of thin air and starts talking, but it was a vision
nevertheless. The last few days, I have been wondering about all the effort
we put into Y2K, the community work, the preparation, dealing with the
possibilities and trying to understand our responsibilities to our loved
ones and to each other. I already have friends telling me I was wrong about
Y2K and asking me if I have finally decided to give up the role of "doomsdayer",
a title which I still don't quite understand. I was raised to "expect
the best, and prepare for the worst". I thought that was what we were
doing.
-
- Nevertheless, it has been a time of introspection. Were
we wrong to try to create awareness about the possible dangers of Y2K?
Did we waste our time? Was this all for nothing?
-
- Then, last night, at a friend's house, I watched Koskinen
speaking on CSPAN before the press. He talked about the success of the
efforts made by corporations and people around the world. He talked about
cooperation between something like 170 countries, many in open conflict
with each other, but all of them letting down their guards long enough
to get their Y2K vulnerable information systems working in sync. And then
he said something extraordinary. I will have to paraphrase. He said that
the international cooperation around the Y2K issue has created a community
of nations second only to the United Nations itself. Please remember, I'm
paraphrasing. But that is when the light went on.
-
- I thought of all the community groups around the country
that started as a result of Y2K, all the businesses that became strong
and more flexible in dealing with it's potential threat. On the radio the
other day, the City Manager of San Francisco talked about his delight with
the state of readiness of the city services on every level as a result
of Y2K. I thought of all the people around the world who came together,
whether as nations, or individuals or businesses, and took time to work
TOGETHER, because they all wanted something more than their fighting with
each other could ever give them. They all wanted to be part of the global
network. Not the New World Order one, not the one being offered up by the
United Nations, but the one being now assembled by the ordinary people
of the world, people like you and me.
-
- Koskinen almost had a shine on his face as he was speaking
so very politely to the press. I realized that he saw the vision too. I
realized he was trying to be subtle, but that he was also telling the reporters
not to get lost in the details, not to overlook the greater vision of what
has begun to happen around the Y2K issue. Humanity has perhaps found a
rallying point that no one was looking for, a reason to lay down the weapons
and talk, a need for common ground. And he was very clear that he thought
it would continue, almost insisted that it continue, as every country would
realize no matter who its enemies, the one time it would be forced to participate
and cooperate would be when it wanted to connect to the marketplace of
the world. Y2K proved that.
-
- We are far from done dealing with the issue of Y2K, not
to mention the increasing change in the weather, the increase of armed
conflict around the globe, the constant international bickering between
governments and nations threatening war. We are not in the clear. But what
Y2K has shown us, if we just take the time to look in the right direction,
is that every country and every person benefits far more from being a part
of the world community than they do from holding onto their petty grievances
that keep them apart from it.
-
- So it may be with the other challenges coming our way.
Like Y2K, we will find a reason for neighbor to help neighbor, for country
to help country, a reason why we should all work together that just may
keep this planet going for yet another millennium.
-
- I am proud to have been, and to continue to be, part
of a local citizen's Y2K community group and to have worked for the betterment
of my friends and neighbors and the world.
-
- You should be too.
-
- Neal
-
-
- A Positive Vision of the Future
-
- From Clifford Ribaudo
- <cribaudo@earthlink.net 1-3-99
-
-
- Dear Jeff,
-
- I thought it necessary to make a few comments on Y2K
and your site. For the last year I have watched with interest and sadness
as prediction after prediction of "End Time" demise scrolled
across your pages. I guess in the final analysis I am sad and disappointed
that seemingly so few people, at least the ones you choose to represent
on your site, have a positive outlook for the future. What is it about
humanity that often causes it, in the face of the unknowableness of the
future, to assume the worst rather than the best?!
-
- I have seen little on your site commenting on the tremendously
positive events of the day. Those of us who watched with utter amazement,
joy and often tears in our eyes at the pageant of the Lord's one great
humanity that marched westward across the globe with the sun could hardly
believe what was happening. This day, predicted by many to be the end,
was in fact a beginning of the New Age. An age which leaves behind the
past, dark and war ridden Millennium. One characterized by the dark and
limited conceptions of the Christian view of "End Times" and
Armageddon etc.
-
-
- This is a new age and belongs to our generation. It
is ours to shape and mold. It is up to us to construct a new and positive
vision for our world. It is my opinion that because people are often inherently
negative, and because they are lacking in any clear conception of what
a positive vision for the future might be, they assume the worst. However
if one considers carefully what just happened on this past New Years,
there was the inklings of the New Age and a New Vision. It began with
that first island in the South Pacific with the local king and his son
lighting a light for the world and getting into a boat to sail across
the sea to carry this light to all men! These so called "Primitive
Heathens" said more in that simple and most beautiful gesture about
the true Spirit of the Christ, as the messenger of the Father, than most
Westerners can even comprehend! Nation after nation crossed into the New
Millennium with it's own offering to the watching world. And many of them
were incredibly beautiful, deeply spiritual and positive messages! For
one brief 24 hour period the world was united in a global celebration
with each Nation offering to the rest it's own unique message.
-
- Can you not see the beginnings of something in this.
If there is only one God who created all then must it not be true that
he will express himself in many diverse ways via the many cultures on
this planet. Can we not see the inklings of a vision for the future when
the world is united in a spiritual conception of a single humanity, with
each saying to the others in the language of it's own culture: "Hail
thee Brothers!".
-
- If the Spirit of Peace was not upon the Earth on this
day then I will eat my keyboard. There was such an overwhelming aura of
Peace and brotherhood and friendliness everywhere and for a brief period
we suspended our preoccupation with bad news and turned our attention
to "The Good, the Beautiful and the True." Christ did walk amongst
men that day. He was everywhere in the hearts of all men. We may not see
His body yet, but His Spirit was everywhere!
-
- It is time to stop giving the microphone and platform
to those with a limited and negative conception of the future. This is
our generation and our world to shape and mold, and I for one will no
longer stand idly by and listen to these idiots dupe the poor and unthinking
masses with their retarded and dark vision. I am setting forth to create
a positive vision of a New Civilization and Culture. I hope you will
join me in this, for: "Where there is no vision, the people perish"
but I would re-write this to say: "Where there is no Positive vision,
the people perish." And why can we not create one?! Every business
man knows that to successfully build something you must first have a clear
conception of it, then execute the plan for it's building. So let us create
the clear positive vision, as a first step to the building of a New Civilization
and Culture!
-
- Hearty Good Wishes!
-
- Cliff Ribaudo
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