When you buy heating oil, you may think there WAS a Y2K disaster! (Marcia) Jan 22, 16:18 It's cold tonight in NC and our wood stove is crackling! I knew the firewood would come in handy even without a Y2K disaster!

But wait my friends. When you folks in the northeast get your next heating oil delivery, you may think there WAS a Y2K disaster. Did you know heating oil DOUBLED in the past week alone? Did you know you will be paying well over a dollar a gallon for #2 heating oil when it was 32 cents last winter? You may not even be able to GET #2 oil; quotas are already in effect on Long Island and elsewhere.

What in the WORLD is going on?

There has NEVER been so much oil refinery capacity disabled in the memory of 15-year veterans of the petrol industry. Heating oil and kerosene prices have NEVER been so high. And they are still climbing. Why? Because some refineries reduced production because of a shortfall of crude input. Other refineries are down for "planned maintenance" (yeah, uhuh, i.e. replacement of faulty embedded controllers). Some of the very large ones are on unplanned downtime due to fires or explosions, with no certain restart date. There have been deaths. Others are unable to deliver their product because major pipelines are inoperable. Natural gas is going way up too, as firms look for alternate sources of energy.

COULD IT BE THOSE NASTY LITTLE EMBEDDED CONTROLLERS that the pollies thought were OK? Could they be blowing up pipes and tanks with wrong pressure readings? Could they be cracking wrong petroleum compounds in the refinery, with a lower flash-point, and exploding? Could they be opening valves at the wrong time and letting naphtha out when it isn't supposed to and catching fire? Could they have mixed the wrong additives in at the wrong time and caused 3000 of Australia's 5000 small aircraft to be grounded, causing untold economic loss and hardship in that country?

Paul: "Oh, noooooooooo, it just couldn't be that. Jan. 1st passed and we didn't have a Y2K problem, so there isn't going to be one."

Polly: "Anyway, Maria Bartolomo on CNBC didn't mention these problems so they don't exist. It is just rumors cooked up by a bunch of crazy stupid doomers."

Can we ponder the imponderable?

What nature credited, mankind has in its utter folly DEBITED. If we participated in this crime, we did WRONG. It is RIGHT to grow the food you eat, burn firewood you cut yourself, and live a simple lifestyle where your needs are very few. Don't borrow. Don't create more fiat. Don't contribute to the immoral system of debt-creation. Just say NO to fiat!!!! You don't need it! You don't need to CONSUME so much. THINGS don't make happiness. Happiness comes from nature and simplicity.

A research report from one of our leading universities showed that after your basic needs are taken care of (food, shelter, healthcare, etc.), any additional money you get only makes you 6% happier. Forget it - that's the ceiling - SIX PERCENT happier.

Satisfied? I didn't think so.

This society is HOOKED on credit (=DEBT). We're all hooked. Kick the habit! You don't need it. Find your original naturalness! Then you can get 100% happiness, not a paltry 6%! I mean it.

January 1st: new millenium resolution. I hereby swear to go on a low-fiat diet...

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), January 22, 2000

Answers

Ed: I'm sorry. You still don't really understand.

#1) Things just happen. There are no reasons. Life is confusing. Who knows what is real?

#2) In the absence of reality, we create our own! I believe it, therefore it is.

Don't you get it Ed?

If we believe in all these problems, then they are real. But if we just put all our faith into the Market then everything will be 'o.k.'

Remember Ed, the Market will save us. If only we believe!

The Market will save us.

The Market will save us.

The Market will save us.

-- tim phronesia (phronesia@webtv.net), January 22, 2000.

Oh, and Ed: Just a warning. Don't try to pop my bubble. I might get hostile. Remember, thing happen.

-- tim phronesia (phronesia@webtv.net), January 22, 2000.

Tim, if you want to pick a fight with somebody, pick a fight with me because I wrote it. On second thought, just don't bother me.

If you don't believe it, please study my summary of current oil and refinery problems, at Outage Charts Outage Charts http://www.nckodokan.com/charts/crude.html

Ed, thanks for cross-posting.

- marc1a

-- marc1a (marcia@nckodokan.com), January 22, 2000.

Marca:

I was being ironic.

-- tim phronesia (phronesia@webtv.net), January 22, 2000.

And Marcia:

Thank you for your wonderful work on that chart.

-- tim phronesia (phronesia@webtv.net), January 22, 2000.

Tim you are so wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG, WRONG! It's actually:

"Oh, mighty Fed Reserve! Please protect us! Oh, mighty Fed Reserve! Please protect us! Ohhhh, mighty Fed Reserve! Please protect us! Baaaaa! Baaaaaaaaa! Baaa!"

WW;)

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), January 22, 2000.

Marcia, great site. Thanks for the effort. I've bookmarked it and will print it out monday. Again thanks.

-- Ed (ed@lizzardranch.com), January 22, 2000.