Signs of a Sick Society, Episode XXXIX

And given my firm belief that the worst, by far, is yet to come, our generous and kind society should become really thoroughly fucked up in the coming days. It is clear that our government is generously responsible for a lot of these sorts of results, given the amount of fear-mongering that has taken place since September 11, 2001. Everyone participating in this selfish nonsense should be ashamed.

Richard Jehn / The Rag Blog

Panic buying left many gas stations empty in Nashville, Tenn., on Friday after false rumors over gas shortages ran rampant through the city. Photo: Mark Humphrey, AP.

Nashville Gas Runs Dry as Rumor Spreads
September 22, 2008

Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy: An estimated three-fourths of gas stations in the Nashville, Tennessee, area ran dry Friday, victim of an apparent rumor that the city was running out of gas.

“Everybody has just gone nuts,” said Mike Williams, executive director of the Tennessee Petroleum Council.

He said he has no idea about the origin of a rumor that there was going to be no gas in Nashville. One reporter called him, saying she had heard that Nashville would be without gas within the hour, he said.

Hearing the rumor, drivers rushed to fill their cars and trucks.

CNN called 13 Nashville gas stations at random. Only two reported having gas, and one said it was almost out. The stations said they were being told they would not get more until Monday or Tuesday.

Katie Givens Kime, visiting from Atlanta, Georgia, was trying to fill up her tank for the trip home when she ran into trouble — when she was already low on gas.

“We panicked and looked online,” she said. “And holy cow, there is no gas in the city. … It has definitely gripped the city, for sure.”

One store clerk told her there was no way she could get gas to go back home, she said.

Williams said some drivers were following gas trucks to see where they were headed, and lines at some stations were a mile long. Fuel was continuing to enter the city, however, as pipelines were working and barges were coming in.

He likened it to Southerners rushing out to stock up on bread and milk when they hear it might snow. As stations began running low, the situation snowballed, he said.

One station reported selling as much gas Friday as it usually does in a weekend, Williams said.

The phenomenon seemed to be isolated to the Nashville area, he said.

Givens Kime said she found a station online that still had gas and waited more than an hour to pump it.

“People were freaked out,” she said. A “renegade bunch” of men helped direct traffic to and from the pumps, even taking drivers’ cash inside for them. She described people filling cans and other containers as well as cars.

She said that the station was not engaging in price gouging but that “emotions were running very high” among drivers.

© 2008 Cable News Network.

Source / America On Line

The Rag Blog

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1 Response to Signs of a Sick Society, Episode XXXIX

  1. And today I read 3,000 gallons had been delivered to a gas station in Atlanta; in less than 12 hours, it had all been sold at $4.49/gallon.

    It’s time for people to BOYCOTT; to BE BRAVE, to not follow the road that those responsible for all of this, have PREDICTED AND LAID OUT FOR US.

    They have the computers to study cause and effect; they know our behavior (thanks to the likes of B. F. Skinner and other scientists who published enough on this topic back 40 years ago).

    We are like little trained critters who will run the wheel and chase up and down the hamster trail, so they know where to put the sunflower seeds and chicken scratch.

    We fool them (or at least throw them a curve) by NOT REACTING the way they have predicted we would.

    The only problem is a greater percentage of our citizens are either too chicken-shit to stand their ground, or too damned dumb to even understand what is happening.

    Pigs, cows, the likes of the ‘animal farm’, all walk toward the food supply not even noticing there’s a shot-gun ready to blow their brains out.

    The sad thing is all the bible-thumpers that see this, think it is just the ‘prophecy’ being fulfilled, so they’re even EAGER to race to meet their maker and catch up with their long departed friends.

    Religion is one of the most dangerous concepts of any time; in any place, and in any form.

    Blow up a building or sacrifice yourself just so you can get to see the big guy (or gal).

    Gad, it is like a black comedy and one can only counsel their loved ones to stay steady; stand strong, and don’t play into their hands.

    Just as your blog is a jewel to be discovered, very few are looking to find it.

    Better to have your ‘home page’ set at CNN or Yahoo or Google or Fox, so you can ‘get the propaganda’ from a reliable source, than to dig for the real news and information on some small ‘blog’ out in the middle of cyberspace.

    We’re settled into the hotel; had dinner, and I’m catching up on my reading. /ds

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