Pat Shannan's MUSINGS
IS PREPAREDNESS A THREAT?
Is there no end to the depths of news media deception? Is nothing sacred? Just at the very moment I sat down to write this, Dan Rather came on to quote President Clinton's remarks about the "Zooming, booming, U. S. economy!" As I consider the boarded-up storefronts across America's small towns, look at the hyper-inflated Dow-Jones at 10,000+, and ponder this deceptive rhetoric, I wonder, How close are we to the crash? Yet it is not this but the pending Y2K problem and its potential results vs. the news media belittling of preparedness which concerns many of us.
Regarding the reports from the establishment news media - megaphones for government propaganda - there seems to have been an evolution in recent years to only two kinds of Americans: Those who believe everything they read in the papers and hear on television, and those who believe nothing. The majority still being on the side of believers. However, there is a small portion of us who strain to decipher the half truths from the few whole truths and many non-truths heard from these Disciples of Dis-Information.
If hundreds of government experts had predicted that on January 1, 2000, an earthquake would devastate most of southern California, would Peter Jennings then tell Californians, "Don't worry about it?" Or if a killer storm brewed up in the Caribbean and was headed for Florida and the Gulf Coast, would Tom Brokaw tell us that it would dissipate before reaching the mainland? Of course not!
Then what is all this disparaging media rhetoric about Y2K being "overblown?" Other than in the alternative press, why did he hear nothing at all about Y2K before January of this year, and then, suddenly, it was everywhere? Did someone high-up finally realize, "What a great opportunity for martial law?" While the consensus opinion is that the panic and paranoia from the Y2K threat will prove to be much greater than the real problem, what prevents some dude from FEMA from pulling the utilities plug in a number of cities at precisely midnight December 31st, and then blaming it on Y2K?
"Speaking of paranoia, Shannan, you have really gone over the edge now!"
Well, maybe, but while I don't doubt the literary depths to which the rattlesnakes will crawl, I am only reporting the opinion of many others, which I hear often as I travel the country. And if I don't doubt, it is because I remember the "Showtime" attacks on innocent people at Waco and Ruby Ridge, as well as the charade at Oklahoma City. It makes no difference whether or not Americans believe the cover stories. With the megaphone, the professional deceivers can get away with danged near anything today.
Somehow, Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees became the media spokesman against patriots, constitutionists, and truth. ( I am crushed that our publisher, Jim Thomas, has made Dees' "Top Ten Most Dangerous Americans" list and I have not. Like the Academy Awards come-close-wannabes, I sit in hope until next year. But be careful, Mo. We have in hand your divorce trial transcript, and ol' Jim ain't afraid to publish it.) Now, apparently too busy spending his millions garnered from foolish American donors, Dees has passed his deceptive torch to Mark Potok, editor of the SPLC's "Intelligence Project." So when the Y2K Preparedness Expo came to Sacramento last February, Peter Hecht, Staff writer for the Sacramento Bee turns to Potok, 2,000 miles away, for a deep scoop of wisdom.
"This is a classic preparedness exposition," Hecht quoted Potok as saying. "It's a mixture of white supremacy, anti-government militia groups, and granola salesmen." Those of us who didn't believe it and attended anyway had a good laugh but wondered how many dupes subscribed to this moronic deception.
"Now the people selling dried lentils for a living," continued the Potok quote, "are making money in a way they've never imagined in their wildest dreams." This amused us too, because often times the vendors do not even make expenses. Fortunately, the Sacramento show drew over 10,000 people and was a success for all or most vendors. Would someone tell me how and why hard work and the free enterprise system have managed to become evil in America?
But the media deception didn't stop in California. We had already seen the disparagement in Denver in December, where the headlines trumpeted, "Bean sellers and Doomsdayers meet at Expo," and the opening paragraph talked about "Separatist Randy Weaver, whose wife and son were killed in the infamous standoff with the FBI, came with copies of his book about the siege at Ruby Ridge." So what? Did they expect him to be invited to the National Press Club?
In St. Louis, the television newscasters were careful to capture interviews with many of the vendors but then only air those who were of the most radical stretch. A book seller could have everything from Gone with the Wind to Mother Goose, but if that spread included Mein Kampf or The Turner Diaries, those were the ones, with the great stigma attached, which were mentioned in the article - with no mention of Mother Goose.
A St. Petersburg Times editorial chastised locals against attending a preparedness show at the state fairgrounds on June 18-20 at a cost of $8 a day to get in the door, saying, "The state will hold free Y2K seminars in October." Perhaps if the State of Florida had not charged promoter Dan Chittock $20,000 for the weekend's usage of the facility, this one might have offered free admittance, too.
In Nashville, we were ignored totally. In Oklahoma City, which was much like St. Louis, we wish we had been. Oklahoma City's Daily Oklahoman had been voted as "the worst newspaper in America" by both the Columbian Journalism Review and the American Journalism Review in recent years. From its cover-up of the 1995 Murrah Building bombing, we already knew that but we saw why again. The Kansas City Star, a full two weeks before the Preparedness Expo came to town, ran a front page picture of Bo Gritz bigger than that of most visiting dignitaries - under the headline: HERO OR HUCKSTER? It then proceeded to present a questionable biography of Gritz filling three pages. The story was written by Judy Thomas, who readers will recall was sued by Terry Reed for her libelous name-calling last year, following her STAR piece as well as her scathing radio report on a local talk show.
What is the bottom line here? Has someone issued the order to discourage preparedness? If so, why? Is it that crisis-prepared people present a problem to government controllers? ============
INTERNET RUMOR DEPT.
Has anyone heard how Al Gore lives a Christ-centered life? He gave a big speech recently about how important his faith is to him. The amusing part came when he said his favorite Bible verse is John 16:3. Of course the speech writer meant 3:16 but Gore wasn't familiar enough with the Bible to catch the error. At John 16:3 we found Algore's foot in his mouth with: (Christ said) "And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father nor me." ===================
YOU MAY BE INTERESTED TO KNOW DEPT.
Did you know-
· Every 13 seconds one of America's 70 million gun owners uses a firearm in defense against a criminal?
· American women use handguns 416 times a day in defense against rapists, which is a dozen times more often than rapists use a gun?
· A gun kept in the home for protection is 216 times as likely to be used in defense against a criminal than it is to cause the death of an innocent victim in that household?
Stopping Power: Why 70 Million Americans Own Guns, J. Neil Schulman