Now I get it.

If you are overtly preparing for a Y2K mess, you are a white supremacist baby killin' flag burnin' manifesto lovin' wacko.

No, sir, I wouldn't want to be considered one of those people, so I guess it's time to go underground with my preps. This is straight out of a big city newspaper:

It's T-minus 204 days and counting.

As Y2K approaches, believers in a coming apocalypse will be among those who gather this weekend at the Fort Washington Expo Center for Preparedness Expo '99.

Promoter Dan Chittock says the show will offer "practical information for the uncertain times we live in."

But critics say it offers something else - "a queer mix of people interested in organic farming and political extremism," in the words of Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog group that monitors the radical right...

Philadelphia Inquirer

-- Dan Webster (Dan_Webster@flashmail.com), June 11, 1999

Answers

Elizabeth Armstrong says "It's dangerous to alarm the public needlessly", which is perfectly true. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have noticed that "needlessly" doesn't apply. Luckily for most of the Titanic passengers, no one alarmed them needlessly until it was too late.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), June 11, 1999.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is known for having a very very wide paint brush and usually doesn't bother to get their facts straight if they can grab a headline first. They see grand conspiracies behind every tree.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), June 11, 1999.

You two seem to be completely oblivious to the term "Public awareness". You think you possess some divine gift of awareness which no one else could possibly have.

Chickenshit.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), June 11, 1999.

I have to admit that organic farming is quite interesting, but waaaay too much like Hard Work. Political extremism is more entertaining than it is interesting.

And idiotic generalizations from some shyster who wouldn't know a date field from a date palm don't interest me in the least...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), June 11, 1999.

Please excuse, another posted before I was aware.

Same opinion.

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), June 11, 1999.

dang that's how it goes! didn't mean you Mac, not in the least

timing is everything...."I'm ready for my close-up Mr. Yourdon..."

-- Chicken Little (panic@forthebirds.net), June 11, 1999.

Kinda figured that, CL. I did enjoy Sunset Boulevard, though...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), June 11, 1999.

Yep- that's me; organic farming and political extremism. where do I sign up??

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.net), June 11, 1999.

Hey ya'll, don't forget to cover your license plate when you get to the show, some flatfoot gov. agent will be working overtime!! WOW, what a country! heck no, I ain't no queer! What a travesty that right down the road at Valley Forge 200 years ago a "radical right wing extremist zealot" named George Washington along with other patriots gave their lives for something they never got to enjoy: FREEDOM from government tyranny! I used to use the Philly Inquirer to clean up dogshit in my front yard, it worked great!! Morris Dees (S.P.L.C.) ain't in no poverty, he's financed by the "extremist left" who by the way weren't at Valley Forge that winter - dying for their young country!!

-- wont be long now (look out @paranoia.com), June 11, 1999.

wow, you said a word look-out, george washington prayed, nowaday,s if you pray your considered,wierd. have you ever read the visions of g.wash.??about seeing 3rd world war???

-- al-d. (catt@zianet.com), June 11, 1999.

Won't Be Long..

Right On Patriot.....

Those wacko freedom-lovers sure were "extremists". Extremists..... Another word/phrase with no meaning like racist, moderate, "bump-in- the-road", Y2K Ready.

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), June 11, 1999.

Hey al-d, as a matter of fact Ashton posted those visions of George Washington onto this Forum. We'll root around the archives and try to link it fer ya. Long time ago, don't remember the thread ...

xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), June 11, 1999.

Here it is (ah, the golden age of the Forum, before the, um, you know):

Feds Prepared To Take Over

"Among respected accounts of the current age is the experience of George Washington, a revelation bestowed on him by a heavenly being during the dark days of the American Revolution, in the year 1777. His was a vision of the future of a great nation arising on the American continent. An angel, "a singularly beautiful female," appeared to him; "a new influence, mysterious, potent, irresistible, took possession of me. ...Everything about me seemed to rarefy, the mysterious visitor herself becoming more airy and yet more distinct to my sight than before....I heard a voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn.'" A remarkable scene of "a dark, shadowy being like an angel, standing or rather floating in midair, between Europe and America" unfolded a vision representative of the American Revolution and America's ultimate victory. Similarly, a second vision unfolded, predicting the Civil War.

"And again I heard the mysterious voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn.'" At this, a third vision of great conflict was revealed to him. Then "the dark shadowy angel placed his trumpet once more to his mouth, and blew a long fearful blast. Instantly a light as of a thousand suns shone down from above me, and pierced and broke into fragments the dark cloud which enveloped America. At the same moment the angel upon whose head still shone the word 'Union,' and who bore our national flag in one hand and a sword in the other, descended from the heavens attended by legions of white spirits. These immediately joined the inhabitants of America, who were well-nigh overcome, but who immediately taking courage again, closed up their broken ranks and renewed battle. Again, amid the fearful noise of the conflict, I heard the mysterious voice saying, 'Son of the Republic, look and learn.' As the voice ceased...the dark cloud rolled back, together with the armies it had brought, leaving the inhabitants of the land victorious....

"...I found myself once more gaping upon the mysterious visitor, who, in the same voice I had heard before, said, 'Son of the Republic, what you have seen is thus interpreted. Three great perils will come upon the Republic. The most fearful is the third, passing which the whole world united shall not prevail against her. Let every child of the Republic learn to live for his God, his land and Union.'"

Condensed from "Washington's Vision," National Tribune, Vol. 4, No. 12, December 1880.

mmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmm m

-- Ashton (allaha@earthlink.net), June 12, 1999.

What you mean extremists? I'm not like that pinko Russian Limburgh (or whatever his name is...the one on Radio on the mainalnd).

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), June 12, 1999.

Barry Goldwater was right: "Extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice."

-- kozak (kozak@formerusaf.guv), June 12, 1999.