Heres just one of many inane, poorly thought-out articles today. Stop at Year2000. com (Press clippings) for 2 or 3 more that make even more fun of preparing.

Just wanted to reaffirm that the DENIAL that we in the US could ever sink so low as to have "problems" is alive and well.

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Evidence points to sky not falling on Jan. 1, 2000 By Andrew J. Glass Cox News Service

WASHINGTON  It has been said that most Westerners who actually make money in Russia do so by getting into the business of telling Westerners how to make money in Russia. In the same vein, consultants have cleaned up by showing managers how to meet the millennium computer challenge. Forests have been felled to print reports on what might happen when computers roll over to Jan. 1, 2000 but fail to sense that the "00" doesn't stand for the year 1900. Pundits can play it safe by predicting that not all the Y2K problems will be solved when the new millennium arrives in six months' time. But at least to this computer maven, it looks as if the failure to meet the deadline might not mean all that much. We need ask not only what might fail, but also whether it really matters. It might be vexing for a writer to be told by a faulty machine that his or her finest millennial ideas were stamped as having been written on Jan. 3, 1900. But should that kind of error drive us bonkers? The convening in late June of a special U.N. conference to deal with potential disruptions from Year 2000 computer woes suggests the problem isn't all it has been cracked up to be. With the possible exception of the refugee issue, no U.N. conference in living memory has been known to solve the problem at hand. Presumably, in the course of their deliberations, many visiting delegates were able to dine at fine New York restaurants. But will any of those grand salons be forced to close on New Year's Eve, or soon thereafter, for want of a date-functioning cash register? They'll probably get by even if their $100-a-plate tabs must be calculated on an abacus. Here in Washington, Congress has been dragging its feet on passing even the mildest form of Y2K remedial legislation, thereby offering yet another sign that the sky is not about to fall on our digital desktops. In those rare times in the life of the nation when a true crisis looms, lawmakers have a way of ending their bickering with breathtaking dispatch. In an era when powerful computer networks have revamped Wall Street to look and feel more like a Las Vegas casino, it's quite possible to place bets on whether the Y2K glitch will land a telling blow on the economy. As of now, the futures traders who play this game for a living are gambling that there's no action to be had from Y2K. On the other hand, there has been lots of action in the stocks of companies who repair Y2K defects. The smart money bought such stocks in 1995, rode them up for huge profits by mid-1997 and then dumped them. Most Y2K issues now sell well below their pre-1995 values  another clue to what is not to come. Now that the white-hot crisis between East and West over Kosovo has been dampened to a slow burn, Moscow correspondents have pounced on the Russian mutant of the year 2000 bug. Russia has all of 8 million computers, about the same number the feds have in Washington. Perhaps every one is faulty. We know consultants will make lots of rubles suggesting fixes. But we should also realize that, whatever happens, the Slavic soul will endure.

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Andrew J. Glass is a columnist based in Washington, D.C., for Cox Newspapers. His e-mail address is aglass@coxnews.com

-- Jon Johnson (narnia4@usa.net), June 28, 1999

Answers

Thanks, Jon ;^)
I'm one of the few weeples who think there will be no panic until after Christmas, if at all. The herd, from my view, is thoroughly anesthetized and hypnotized into a pleasant zzzzzzzz slumber, functioning only enough to chase Dollar Images somnambulently.

Fear of ridicule and black-sheep labelling has even the hesitant maybe-GIs sneaking around with their soup cans.

The Spin Indoctrination has wound it's lethal silky coocoocoon. Comfort Prison rules. Cloroform homogenity.

I'll be surprised but not shocked if we do see any real panic and overt movement in the herd.

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-- Leska (allaha@earthlink.net), June 28, 1999.

Andrew J. Glass is a columnist based in Washington, D.C., for Cox Newspapers.

Don't you find it ironic that this moron is based D.C.? Poetic justice maybe?

-- Cary Mc from Tx (Caretha@compuserve.com), June 28, 1999.

Bio from the "Capital PC User Group" Website on one Andrew J. Glass

Born in Poland. Explains that last comment about the "Slavic soul"...

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), June 28, 1999.

Jon,

I don't think there will be any great reaction to the DeeCee story either. Most people are in the DWGI camp and will remain there until they see a stampede start. That's it. However, and excuse the hurricane analaogy, but if you want to consider yourself (along with a whole bunch of us here) as weather forecasters, then we are only looking at the data coming in to see if our statements are valid. We are not, and can not be, causing the public to respond. We look at the indicators, make our judgements, issue our opinions. Best we can do. A lot of weird data is starting to come together now though, isn't it?

-- Gordon (gpconnolly@aol.com), June 28, 1999.