Milne: Pollanna hypocrisy at its finest

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Subject:More Polly Hypocrisy. This Time It Takes The Cake
Date:1999/09/29
Author:Paul Milne <fedinfo@halifax.com>
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Wednesday, September 29, 1999
Electric company grocery spree food for thought!
 
By BERNARD PILON, EDMONTON SUN
  Alberta's major power supplier is stockpiling huge pallets of groceries and other emergency items should Y2K bugs turn out the lights, The Sun has learned.
 
Two weeks after city-owned EPCOR snapped up a backup generator should Jan. 1, 2000, turn into a computer-fouling disaster, TransAlta Corp. admitted yesterday to buying up to $15,000 in supplies, mainly canned goods, at a Save-On-Foods outlet.
 
The huge grocery bill - rung up last week at the B.C.-based chain's Sherwood Park location - is one of several being rung up so as many as 500 TransAlta workers can eat and see in the dark if Y2K woes strike any of its 250 remote switching stations. "If nothing goes wrong, we've got a bunch of groceries for the food bank," said TransAlta's Y2K project leader, Gary Steeves.
 
"We're pretty confident things will be all right. We just have to look at the worst-case scenario for critical times." Steeves didn't know how much TransAlta will ultimately spend on emergency foodstuffs.
 
Food and other items will be parcelled out to rural switching stations - all of which will be manned when Dec. 31 ticks down to 2000 - so TransAlta crews won't go hungry should they have to tackle a Y2K bug, he said.
 
Steeves calls the grocery list prudent planning.
 
 
=========================
 
 
Name just ONE pollyanna that has faulted this electric company with their 'prudent' planning.
 
This is the GROSSSSSS hypocricy of the pollies. You see, if you SAY that you think things will be bad AND you stock up, you are a damnable fear-mongering misanthropic son of a bitch. If you stock up on tons of food and SAY that you DON"T think things will be bad and it is just in case of a worst case scenario, then you are lauded as the prudent man.
 
What is the difference between the ACTIONS of the two entities? NONE AT ALL. Both have made substantial preparations in order to be able to eat.
 
Does the Electric utility warn others to do what they have done? NO. If it is prudent to do so, why not??? But, when someone stocks up and WARNS others to do so because they believe it will be a GOOD thing for them to prepare, then that person is harangued as a hateful, filthy FUD-Merchant who 'wants' people to die.
 
The point is that it has ALWAYS been a smart thing to stock up for Y2K. It is unquestionably the smartest thing to do no matter what your position on the severity of the consequences.
 
What is REALLY funny is the gross hypocricy of the pollies who think that it is perfectly acceptable to stock up only if you **DON"T** think it will be bad and you are an ass to stock up if you **DO** think it will be bad.
 
This is about the best possible example of the flawed pollyanna reasoning about just about everything.
 
"If you DON"T think it will be bad, that's OK! STOCK UP! You're just being prudent."
 
" If you **DO** think it will be bad, stock up, and warn others, you should be committed to an asylum. "
 
http://www.canoe.ca/EdmontonNews/es.es-09-29-0009.html
 
--
Paul Milne
"If you live within 5 miles of a 7-11, you're toast"



-- a (a@a.a), September 30, 1999

Answers

Another recent thread on the Edmonton Sun article is at:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=001UXK

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 30, 1999.


Paul seems to constantly be pissed off with 'Imaginary Man'.......There are very few people that frequent here that are down on making prudent preparations......you could probably count them on one hand.

Where the so-called 'Pollies' part company is not with those preparations at all, but rather when the 'Doomers' get into their NWO, 7-11 goofy cliche, school bus burying, shotgun carrying, government hating tangents.

I'm glad they are stocking food. It is called contingency planning. This is IN CASE problems arise, not PROOF that they will arise.

-- Craig (craig@ccinet.ab.ca), September 30, 1999.


Other Canadian contingency planning:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/990904/2816348.html

-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), September 30, 1999.


"I'm glad they are stocking food. It is called contingency planning. This is IN CASE problems arise, not PROOF that they will arise."

This is called talking out of both sides of your mouth. True, it doesn't prove there will be problems, but it proves that the power company that is telling it's customers everything will be OK, obviously disbelieves its own assurances to the point that they are willing to spend 15 grand to feed their own people. It demonstrates to any observer with real-life experience that there are 2 standards here, one for the general public, and one for those 'in the know.'

One reason Maine is keeping its y2k reports secret is to prevent 'criminals' from learning about the 'stockpiling of valuable items'. Now, I seriously doubt that an individual burglar is going to try to break into NG armories or state warehouses in Maine to steal these unenumerated 'valuable' items. No, that isn't what burglars do, that's what angry, desperate crowds of otherwise law-abiding citizens do.

The actions of Maine and the Edmonton power company are indications that there is a sense of panic underneath their publically reassuring exterior. This is why the happy face, BITR PR bullshit from governments and corporations- who have no motive whatsoever to tell the truth, especially when its bad news- simply does not pass the smell test. And this doesn't even account for the past record of government and industry, as far as veracity goes. They don't tell the truth, they never have. Why should it be any different now?

What they have done that is positive, however, is send a clue to those with ears to hear, that it is time to get ready, it's going to be bad.

"Fema is ready, we don't think there will be any unmanageable problems from this storm" (unnamed Fema official before Floyd).

CYA!

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), September 30, 1999.


Craig,

Why shouldn't we hate the Government for KNOWINGLY LYING to us???? They've done it for a long long time. Or are you one of these folks who thinks that what they see on the Evening news is what's really going on int the world. Look at the recent examples of WACO, Clinton and China, Clinton and Sex, .. . . No secret war in Cambodia, Laos, on and on.

The recent meetings of the IMF and World Bank point to the ONE WORLD GOV. Scenario. Are you blind? Do you believe that we have a $115 billion surplus this year, or do you realize we have higher taxes and lots of inflation. Are you one of the minipulated masses?

I guess you answered that already.

-- Gregg (g.abbott@starting-point.com), September 30, 1999.



Craig is too busy laughing at people who believe in ESP to realize that it is he who has been brainwashed.

-- a (a@a.a), September 30, 1999.

This is called talking out of both sides of your mouth.

LOL, that's what this is called too:

One Side

True, it doesn't prove there will be problems.

The Other Side

What they have done that is positive, however, is send a clue to those with ears to hear, that it is time to get ready, it's going to be bad.

It doesn't prove there will be problems, but it's going to be bad.

LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

-- (LOL@LOL.LOL), September 30, 1999.


OK, I should have qualified:

It doesn't prove CONCLUSIVELY that there wouldn't be problems

THen:

IT shows they EXPECT it's going to be bad.

I'll have two cups of coffe instead next time, and see if I can post a little more Socratically.

-- Forrest Covington (theforrest@mindspring.com), September 30, 1999.


Forrest, you said:

"IT shows they EXPECT it's going to be bad."

Not quite. It shows that they believe that there is a non-trivial chance of things being bad, and that they consider the chances great enough to prepare for. To use the often over-done fire insurance analogy, they aren't buying insurance because they EXPECT their house to burn down, they are buying it because they believe that the chances of it burning down are high enough and the consequences of it burning down are severe enough to merit preparations.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), September 30, 1999.


What kind of stuff did they buy for $15K/smakers???

Sardines, beans, crackers???

That's alot of stuff!!!

-- no talking please (breadlines@soupkitchen.gov), October 01, 1999.



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