The Dear Abby in today's paper printed a letter from Carl Schutte, from Chuta Vista Caif. The letter states how y2k is only a scam. Abby wrote. "I am confident the computer geniuses will exterminate the y2k bug". The letter is quite long and I don't have a scanner. It made my heart sick to see this in her column. So many people put faith in her opinions. How can we get our neighbors to take us serioulsy after Dear Abby says everything is just peachy.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), August 08, 1999

Answers

She is simply an annexation of the media---and an ignorant one at that. Wonder if she was "confident" that the US would not send troops into Viet Nam also? Best bet---do your own research and make your own informed decision as to how you want to handle Y2K. Encourage others to do the same.

-- M. Jewell (jetav8rx@theglobe.com), August 08, 1999.

See...this is more evidence for Hoff and Flint. If Abby says it's gonna be a non-event, then, why, it would be downright rude if it turned out otherwise. Wonder what her advice on the hedge fund market is? "I am confident that Alan Greenspan will pull another fix out of his rectum."

-- Perplexed in SC (@ .), August 08, 1999.

Do more research and analyze your discoveries.

Take appropriate measures for securing more preparations.

Ignore DGI columnists and other brainwashed media "experts".

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), August 08, 1999.

IRS COMMISSIONER, CHARLES ROSSOTTI, (April 22, 1999), quoated in the Wall Street Journal: "If we don't fix the century date problem, we will have a situation scatier than the average disaster movie you might see on a Sunday night. Twenty-one months from now, there could be 90 million taxpayers who won't get their refunds, and 95 percent of the revenue stream of the United States could be jeopardized."

CLICK HERE

-- Y2K PRO (Y2KPro@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

TRY AGAIN

-- Y2K PRO (Y2KPro@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

My Dear y2k Pro

Sir, you do keep a fellow confused. Here all the while you have come across as a person with about two ounces of gray matter between their ears. And now, suddenly you post a DOOMER like post! There is hope for the pollies yet! I would have hated the thought of going through a post y2k world with no food, no fuel, no communications...And no pollies to get my daily laugh from.

Seriously though...Thank you for renewing my faith in human nature. That the human mind is capable of levity,objectiveity,and weither an optimist or a realist.And That even optimists can reconize danger when it presents itself. I do so hope that you hve managed to put back stores for you and yours.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Shakey~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-- Shakey (in_a_bunker@forty.feet), August 08, 1999.

The real Y2K Pro is an arrogant bastard!

The new Y2K Pro obviously is an imposter!

-- smitty (smitty@sandiego.com), August 08, 1999.

Abby is a typical establishment shill. Anyone that takes her advice seriously -- whether re "relationships" or Y2K deserves the crap they sink into.

The species is long overdue for a "pruning". Abby and people who take here seriously will be example of "evolution in action."

-- A (A@AisA.com), August 08, 1999.

The Dear Abby letter easily looks like the sort of thing that Stephen Poole would put together. It asks, "Will the electricity go out", and says probably not, but if it does, why it will be back on in 2 hours, no problem. Pokes great fun at anyone preparing. In fact, anyone who follows the Red Cross guidelines for Y2K preparing would like like a fool if you read today's Dear Abby.

Oh, and OF COURSE, the usual don't take your money out of the bank. But do keep records. Right.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

You guys need to study more. For the record, before Abbigail took up giving out bad and uninformed advice, she was a COBOL programmer on an old IBM 2A (kersosene powered, wood memory banks).

Seriously, you guys would have been "go Abby" had she carried the standard doomer line..;)

Regards,

-- (FactFinder@bzn.com), August 08, 1999.

Those following the Red Cross guidelines for Y2K preparation are not fools. They are just very, very, gullible.

Regards,

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), August 08, 1999.

Yes that's it. Lets take y2k advice from a manners columnist, and morals advice from a slut (Dr. Laura) who's nude photos have been circulated on the Internet.

-- (@ .), August 08, 1999.

Dr. Laura, like so many who were wild and crazy in their youth, has turned super moralist in their old age.

Also, consider the father who shagged everything that moved in his teens and twenties, and now wants to put a chastity belt on his daughter. No kid is "good enough" for his daughter, but really just jealous that the kid might be getting some of it and he isn't.

-- A (A@AisA.com), August 08, 1999.

yes @,

Lest we forget-Have as our commander in chief- Fellatios-r-us!

Wacky times!! We live in

-- David Butts (dciinc@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

In the past I read Dear Abby because I thought her advice was well worth following. In recent years her answers are far from reality and I read her more for entertainment than actual personal problem solving. Her column is more like an adult comic and brings out a few chuckles. The letters are serious, her replies are the joke.

-- Linda A. (adahi@muhlon.com), August 08, 1999.

King of Spain,

Dear Abby = Stephen Poole??? He needs to get a better wig...

-- (The horror_@t Abby's.house), August 08, 1999.

You guys crack me up. It amazes me how many different spins can come from one post.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), August 08, 1999.

I'd seriously suggest Mrs. Abigail Van Buren read this link and then rethink her position about Y2K Only 37% of 911 Centers Are Y2K-Ready, U.S. Panel Says.


-- Butt Nugget (nubuttet@better.mousetrap), August 08, 1999.

KoS reads Dear Abbey? Y2K Pro has turned doomer? Where's my mind medicine? Quick.

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

Hey, not only do I READ Dear Abby, but I have written her a letter, hopefully to be published very soon. It concerns my frequent experiencing of wet memes, and if this is normal. (I also have a letter in to Heloise re best way to clean sheets.)

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 08, 1999.

If anyone cares, here's the letter:

DEAR ABBY: I am the computer operations manager for a large company. As the year 2000 draws closer, people are becoming more concerned about the Y2K bug. The following is my response. If you think your readers would find it interesting and/or helpful, please feel free to print it. -- CARL SCHUTTE, CHULA VISTA, CALIF.

DEAR CARL: While I'm confident the computer geniuses will exterminate the Y2K bug, I frequently hear on the news about people going to great lengths to prepare for it, so I'm sure many readers will be interested in your commonsense commentary. Read on:

Y2K HYPE REPORT A number of people have been asking me about how Y2K will affect them. First, I got out my crystal ball. Then I cobbled together some thoughts on the subject:

99.693 percent of the Y2K HYPE is to get you, the consumer, to buy, buy, buy! (If you spend enough money, you will be OK, etc.)

I'm sure everyone has seen or heard ads telling us to buy bottled water, long-term storable food (enough to last six months at the least), water filters, wind-up radios, flashlights that use LEDs rather than bulbs, guns and ammunition (go NRA!), computer software that will "fix" any Y2K bugs on their computers (as if it would be the end of civilization if the computer fails), and anything else some nutcase can think up. Then, once all of us have mortgaged our homes to buy all this junk, we are urged to take the rest of our money, stocks, bonds and anything else of value we might have and buy (there's that word again!) gold because that will be the only currency accepted on Jan. 1, 2000.

Most of these people are the same ones who claim that when you use your ATM or "rewards" card at the supermarket, the CIA/FBI is tracking your buying habits to produce a "profile" on you.

So much for fantasy. Now for a little reality:

Vital utilities or government agencies have been preparing for Y2K for some time now. Could your power go out? Yes. Will it be out for more than an hour or two. Probably not. (Has your power ever been out before? Didn't you live through the outage?)

Will you receive a bill from VISA for $43,554,238,490.32? Probably not. If you do, don't pay it. Call the bank.

Will the bank lose all your checking and savings balances? Probably not. If they do, you have records, they have records, and it will get fixed.

Remember that most of the services affecting you are someone else's livelihood! These companies aren't going to vanish. Any major problems will get fixed FAST. Minor problems will get fixed a little later -- that's why they are called minor problems.

If you will stay calm, don't panic, use your head and don't do something stupid, everyone will get through Y2K JUST FINE.

I picked it up from http://www2.uclick.com/client/pco/da/1999/08/08/

It was the "Most of these people..." crack that bugged me.

-- yerfdog (yerfdog@netscape.net), August 09, 1999.

If you read her column, or respect her opinion, or believe anybody respects her opinion, then you (each different reader out there) MUST write her and rebut this guy's opinion.

Hints: be polite, but firmly remind her of at least FEMA and the Red Cross's warnings for at LEAST 3 days of food, heat and water. Then remind her gently, but again firmly,that the administration, and all of the supporters have a MUCH GREATER need to keep Clinton's poll numbers and his popularity up by keeping people misinformed and unconcerned about the future. These are the people who have money, power, and their political future at risk, NOT those few who are preparing.

The most simple things about being prepared: (candles, Campbell's soup and a gallon a water per person per day) could mitigate the potential severe discomfort of millions. If she doesn't listen - she has only herself and her advice to blame for their discomfort, perhaps their lives.

Then ask her why FEMA is concerned about not getting the truth so they can plan, why 19 of the 21 largest cities are threatened - and why less than 1/3 of the schools are even making plans to fix their salary and tax programs. Why only half the county governments appear to be ready?

Ask her why the ONLY attack people have against those who are preparing is "profit-taking" - and "fear-mongering?" Why dear reader, can they not argue simple "insurance" and at least give those preparing the sense to forstall potential problems? Would they prefer everybody cancel their fire and car insurance - since most people don't expect a fire next year?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 09, 1999.

I wouldn't worry too much about how people react to Dear Abby. Anyone who would say, "Gee, I can rest my mind, now", because of what is said by some advice columnist says, was hell bent on denial, anyway. The people who proclaim something is true, because Dear Abby says so, are really close kin to the people who cite the National Enquirer as their authority. The evidence is really pretty abundant that there is a good chance that SOMETHING will happen. From where I sit the only debate to take seriously, is between the people who say it's the coming downward spiral and collapse of civilization, and the people who say it's a few months of misery, and then things begin to gradually normalize. Both view points lead to preparations, just a difference of degree. If someone really wants to stick their head in the sand and pretend this will all go away, neither you, I nor Dear Abby would change their minds.

-- Bokonon (bokonon@my-deja.com), August 09, 1999.