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jcokos
Staff
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 171
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Posted: 2004-Jun-25 19:47
Recently, we as a nation (speaking for the United States Citizens) mourned the loss of one of the greatest men of our time, President Ronald Reagan. He was a man, not unlike our own Jim Wilson, who touched the lives of everyone in a very profound way, and most certainly, as did Jim, left the world a better place than he found it. In all of the TV coverage of his passing, there were ample stories and anecdotes shared by those who knew him. One of them hit home for me, and I thought that I'd share it with you as my rambling for the week...
A man was blessed with 2 healthy sons, one an eternal optimist, one the quintessential pessimist. The boys were so diametrically opposed that psychologists wanted to test them.
They placed the pessimist into a room full of toys; the optimist in a room full of horse manure.
They looked in on the pessimist and they found the toys untouched, not played with at all...
"I just know if I touch one I'll break it," the pessimist said.
They looked in on the optimist and found him digging into the manure with his hands, a huge smile on his face.
"Why?" they asked.
"With all this manure, I know there must be a pony in here somewhere," the optimist said.
What a great life lesson... spend your life looking for the pony, folks, and the horse-bleep you come into contact with every won't seem quite so bad. Now, where's my shovel?
(Edited to fix the linebreaks and color of the quote -- jc)
[ Message was edited by: jcokos 06/25/2004 02:05 pm ]
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lhaase
Joined: Apr 08, 2004
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 2004-Jun-25 21:27
Oh yes, what a great man he was. First the coke dealing, gun running Iran/Contra affair. Then he tried to restrict women's rights to a safe abortion. He also invented the gag order so that other countries did not receive any money if they so much as mentioned abortion, esp poverty stricken countries with no birth control. He refused to pay our United Nation dues. He petitioned for the USA to be exempt from War Crimes committed by our soldiers.
And there was the time that he declared that Ketchup was a vegetable so he could cut the costs of school lunches. Then he opened up logging on restricted areas using the line 'A tree is a tree. How many do you need to look at?" (Apparently he was so far gone that he didnt understand about oxygen production by trees)
He attacked a resort island (Granada)and called it a war. He spent a fortune chasing Noriega for dope dealing when in actuality Ollie and him were selling the coke to Noriega was selling.
Under his administration, unemployment was at 10.5%. He forced those with 4 yr degrees to work at McDonalds. His wife was running the country by astrology. He managed to break all national debt records (Until GWB JR.). He tried to give a legitimate platform for TV Preachers. He threw out the homeless and mentally ill to cut the costs of their health care. He declared there were no homeless when the unemployment was at 10.5%.
He apparently had Alzheimers many years before he even left office. So, how many of his decisions and policies do you think were made in his delusion?
The only thing that could be worse than Mr. Reagan is George W. Bush Jr.
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lhaase
Joined: Apr 08, 2004
# Posts: 18
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Posted: 2004-Jun-25 21:29
Iranian hostages were kept for an additional 53 days at his request so that he could win the next election. In trade, he promised them weapons, which he provided.
If this is your version of a great man, this is a scary thought.
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jcokos
Staff
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 171
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Posted: 2004-Jun-25 21:53
So, facilitating the end of the cold war, the knocking down of the Berlin wall, fixing a crucified economy, and restoring pride in America means nothing to you?
Thanks to R.R. you still have the right to be as ignorant as you choose to be.
Thank god you can only vote once 
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Robert Charlton
Joined: May 28, 1999
# Posts: 615
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 05:14
I think John's political opinions are way out of place in a newsletter of this type. I for one will be cancelling the subscription that I've let continue for much too long.
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nameplace
Joined: Nov 18, 2003
# Posts: 9
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 06:48
"So, facilitating the end of the cold war, the knocking down of the Berlin wall, fixing a crucified economy, and restoring pride in America means nothing to you?"
They would be great achievements if they were the result of one man's efforts rather than actually occuring in spite of Reagan's presence. And in what way did he fix the economy? As far as I can remember he destroyed more than he fixed, probably on the advice of any behind-the-scenes wheeler-dealer whom the cosmic forces favoured on that day.
And what sort of airy-fairy statement is "restoring pride in America"? How do you judge that to have happened? I didn't see Reagan hammering away at the Berlin wall. Just like an American to take credit for any important world event. (Seen "Band of Brothers"? I was sure the English, Canadians and Australians made more than just a cameo appearance in WWII).
I think you need to look a bit deeper before elevating Reagan to the status of a modern-day deity.
Reading through the latest newsletter (aren't they supposed to come out every two weeks?) the most prominent items are a paid mention for a second-tier PPC (which somehow comes out in the wash as a "Top 10 PPC", John's nonsensical right-wing ramblings, some guff about John not liking "Friends", eBay consignment stores (what does that have to do with running a website?), more grovelling to the web host John uses and an article insulting anyone who thinks Gmail is an improvement on other web mail services.
The Gazette is now a shadow of it's former self. It's time to put this newsletter back on track - cut out the political w**k-fest and get more content that real website owners can use.
"Now, how about the guy that sold me a Trampoline for my son, but neglected to tell me that my homeowners insurance wouldn't cover it for liability (nor would almost any reputable insurance company)? Now I have a 12 foot trampoline in my backyard that my 5 year old is in love with, that I have to take down and throw away, because the store won't take it back, and I can't with a clean conscience allow another family with young kids to have it."
Dude - do some basic research!
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jcokos
Staff
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 171
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 07:14
Sheesh, can't a guy rant on once in a while ?
The Gazette will return (hopefully soon) to a bi-weekly publication. I've been incredibly busy with lots of personal things, and haven't had the time to be "on it" as I would like to be.
This issue, beyond anything else, was supposed to give you a bit of a giggle. Some funny scumbags, a neat eBay idea, some good advice about selling a website, a very astute observation on how Google is able to basically say "Hi", and have all of us do their marketing for them.
We're spreading JimWorld out a bit, moving beyond SEO, and getting more into other areas ... namely running the business side of things. I want to focus more on the nuts and bolts of web site building, and more into the business aspect of things. The eBay article is the beginning of that ... just exposing ways to think outside the box.
As far as "right wing ramblings" go, I believe that if you re-read the Gazette, I slammed GW Bush pretty hard, and posted a very cute story by Reagan. Nothing right wing about it, just some observations. The Gazette has always been about much more than just webmaster stuff, it's always been, and will always be a little bit of everything. Hopefully, something you can put to use, hopefully something that'll crack a smile, and hopefully, something that'll tick you off a bit ... that's just my way.
There's a million newsletters out there that just give you boring, flat, plain old information. Our newsletter gives some of that, but I think a whole lot more.
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EyesCoffee
Joined: Jan 31, 2004
# Posts: 204
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 07:40
Hi John
If they don't like the it, let them unsubscribe. Write whatever you want. Unless Jim magically comes back, the Gazette will always have critics.
But if too many people unsubscribe you'll know that you need to change the layout of the Gazette - won't you?
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nameplace
Joined: Nov 18, 2003
# Posts: 9
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 08:10
Sheesh, can't a guy rant on once in a while ?
When we're bombarded with your war-mongering rants every issue, no.
The Gazette will return (hopefully soon) to a bi-weekly publication. I've been incredibly busy with lots of personal things, and haven't had the time to be "on it" as I would like to be.
At what point will you stop advertising that you send it out every two weeks? You claim that the site and the Gazette help people in marketing their websites, what sort of an example are you setting? Sending the newsletter out on time is on the first page of the "Succesful E-mail Newsletters 101" textbook.
This issue, beyond anything else, was supposed to give you a bit of a giggle. Some funny scumbags, a neat eBay idea, some good advice about selling a website, a very astute observation on how Google is able to basically say "Hi", and have all of us do their marketing for them.
Astute observation? You're basically saying they're lazy and that people who want their product are idiots (or "lemmings". You should consider sharpening your writing style so that the humour is recognisable from a bitter rant.
We're spreading JimWorld out a bit, moving beyond SEO, and getting more into other areas ... namely running the business side of things. I want to focus more on the nuts and bolts of web site building, and more into the business aspect of things. The eBay article is the beginning of that ... just exposing ways to think outside the box.
All well and good. Pity it looked like you just tacked it on as an afterthought while thinking about kicking the butts of people who aren't as keen on Iraq War ver 2.0 as you think they should be.
As far as "right wing ramblings" go, I believe that if you re-read the Gazette, I slammed GW Bush pretty hard, and posted a very cute story by Reagan. Nothing right wing about it, just some observations. The Gazette has always been about much more than just webmaster stuff, it's always been, and will always be a little bit of everything. Hopefully, something you can put to use, hopefully something that'll crack a smile, and hopefully, something that'll tick you off a bit ... that's just my way.
From what I read you got up Bush for NOT bombing the bejeezus out of the Iraqis hard enough. Am I wrong? That and the Reagan epitaph that stopped short of proposing Ronny for canonisation by the barest of margins.
My apology for calling you a right-winger drips with sarcasm.
There's a million newsletters out there that just give you boring, flat, plain old information. Our newsletter gives some of that, but I think a whole lot more.
There *are*, but there are also a million more that give information, humour and personality *without* putting the reader off their dinner.
I think you've gotten a little flack for pushing out a very tardy, very patchy effort at a newsletter (with one article that could be of any help lost in a sea of crud). You're trying to blow it off with "just trying out new material, folks, it's all in good fun, what a card I am". You're running the Gazette into the ground, but you think that anyone who disagrees and unsubscribes should be treated in a patronising manner and their objections to your inflicting the death of a thousand cuts on the Gazette are as water off a duck's back.
Consider me unsubscribed from the hollow shell of the once enjoyable JohnWorld er... JimWorld Gazette. It's your show, do what you want with it, but I won't waste my time watching it flounder in the shallow waters of your intellect.
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jcokos
Staff
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 171
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 09:34
See Ya !
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nameplace
Joined: Nov 18, 2003
# Posts: 9
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 17:40
Thanks for forthrightly responding to the complaints of a long-time reader and contributor to the fora, John.
The world needs more people like you, who aren't afraid to say "I'm screwing up a something that I was entrusted to nurture and grow and I'm not willing to listen to criticism". Champion.
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jcokos
Staff
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 171
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Posted: 2004-Jun-26 19:10
I can take, and most often enjoy, the criticism. What I don't have time for is ideological discussions like this that never get anywhere. I'll never convince you to see things my way, and vice versa.
Rather than agreeing to disagree, or at the very least, just debating the issue, you would rather launch personal attacks at me ... "watching it flounder in the shallow waters of your intellect."
If that's what you want to bring to the table, then I really don't want to waste any more time talking with you. If you want to seriously debate the issue, that's fine, and I welcome it. If you want to complain that the Gazette doesn't have enough SEO stuff in it, that's fine too. In fact, I'm on your side on that one ... I do need to make it have a little bit more web based stuff in it, but I'll also continue to stir the pot a bit too. Jim did it, I've been doing it since the first issue, and that whats separates it from other ezines, IMO. For everyone like you that goes haywire on this sort of thing, I get triple the amount of emails thanking me for making the Gazette something that's interesting beyond the "intended audience" expectations. Most people like the mixture of internet and commentary. You obviously don't. So instead of calling me a moron, just unsubscribe.
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Curt
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3747
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Posted: 2004-Jun-29 09:14
Ronald Reagan was responsible for a huge national debt, no doubt about that. It wasn't until Clinton got into office that it was reversed. Then George W. Bush reverted our national debt back to RR's level. However, the democrats are largely responsible for a decay in personal morality in this country with pro-abortion and all. Guess we take the good with the bad from both parties. Think it's time for an independent party to win this next election.
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joaopiko
Joined: Jun 29, 2004
# Posts: 0
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Posted: 2004-Jun-29 09:34
Ronald Wilson Reagan who George Bush is trying desperately to emulate was -- A Serial Liar Who Made Americans Feel Good About Themselves.
Read on:
This "American hero" was an apologist for apartheid.....writes Derrick Jackson.
President Bush proclaimed this week: "Ronald Reagan believed that God takes the side of justice and that America has a special calling to oppose tyranny and defend freedom." In the first three days of news reports on the death of the former US president, not a single major American newspaper, television station, or politician dared to exhume the following counterpoint to the Reagan's legacy: "Immoral, evil, and totally un-Christian."
These were the words of Bishop Desmond Tutu, spoken on Capitol Hill at a US committee hearing in late 1984. It was just after Reagan's easy re-election. Tutu had just been awarded the Nobel peace prize for his non-violent struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Throughout the United States, a rising number of Americans were calling for American companies to stop doing business there.
Reagan ignored them. The president of so-called sunny optimism attempted to blind Americans with his policy of "constructive engagement" with the white minority regime in Pretoria. All constructive engagement did was give the white minority more time to mow down the black majority in the streets and keep dreamers of democracy, such as Nelson Mandela, behind bars.
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In the weeks leading up to his appearance on Capitol Hill, Tutu said in speeches that it seemed that the Reagan White House saw "blacks as expendable" in South Africa. The white government forced black people from prized lands and into horrid townships. Migratory labour laws split families for 11 months at a time. Education was gutted for black children. There was virtually no due process for black defendants. Tutu said it was "reminiscent of Hitler's Aryan madness". Tutu declared that "constructive engagement is an abomination, an unmitigated disaster".
On Capitol Hill, Tutu became a public relations disaster for Reagan. Tutu started off the hearing by saying apartheid itself "is evil, is immoral, is un-Christian . . ." I was there, and all breathing stopped.
Tutu continued: "In my view, the Reagan administration's support and collaboration with it is equally immoral, evil, and totally un-Christian . . . You are either for or against apartheid and not by rhetoric. You are either in favour of evil or you are in favour of good. You are either on the side of the oppressed or on the side of the oppressor. You can't be neutral."
Tutu received an unprecedented standing ovation by the committee. Even Reagan's Republican allies told the South African embassy they would reluctantly support sanctions if Pretoria did not move to end apartheid.
Reagan was not moved. Over the remainder of his presidency, at least 3000 people would die, mostly at the hands of the South African police and military. Another 20,000, including 6000 children, according to one estimate by a human rights group, would be arrested under "state of emergency" decrees.
Yet Reagan had the gall to say in 1985 that the "reformist administration" of South Africa had "eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country". In 1986, Reagan gave a speech where he said Mandela should be released but denounced sanctions with crocodile tears, claiming that they would hurt black workers, who were already ridiculously impoverished.
Reagan's go-slow speech was denounced by Tutu, who said: "I found it quite nauseating. I think the West, for my part, can go to hell . . . Your president is the pits as far as blacks are concerned. He sits there like the great, big white chief of old."
Later in 1986, Reagan made his greatest demonstration yet that black bodies were "expendable". Congress had finally had enough of the carnage to vote for limited sanctions. Reagan vetoed them. Congress overrode the veto. Reagan proceeded to put no muscle behind the sanctions. Mandela remained in jail and at least 2000 political prisoners remained detained without trial.
In 1987, Reagan published a report that said additional sanctions "would not be helpful". The gleeful South African foreign minister, Roelof Botha, said Reagan "and his administration have an understanding of the reality of South Africa".
Reagan's and Botha's "reality" was rendered a fantasy by the force of world opinion and a more enlightened leadership inside South Africa.
Only a year after Reagan left office, Mandela was released. One can only wonder how much sooner he would have been released and how many lives would have been saved had Reagan not behaved like the white chief of old.
President Bush this week said Reagan believed God was on the side of justice. On South Africa, Reagan was on the side of one of the most demonic governments on the face of the earth. He chose to assist tyranny and ignore brutality.
Ronald Reagan's death has been followed by relentless descriptions of him as a president of sunny optimism. On South Africa he was no sunshine. He was the cloud who dimmed the skies as apartheid rained death upon black people.
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More Stuff on Reagan:
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/7340/
http://www.counterpunch.org/gaspar06062004.html
---------------------------------------------------------
Computer Technology Products
http://tinyurl.com/3a7qp
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kevchadders
Joined: Feb 18, 2002
# Posts: 581
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Posted: 2004-Jun-29 12:54
While in holiday in Cancun, we were watching the American Network channel... (it rained for two of the days)
this was at the time when he was being buried... I remember them mentioning that he got the country into a hell of a lot of debt... but he also made the America people fell proud about themselves again.
ps. American channels puts far too many adverts in between programs!!!!
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WinningWays
Joined: Eons Ago
# Posts: 3433
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Posted: 2004-Jun-29 23:07
"ps. American channels puts far too many adverts in between programs!!!!"
No chit. 
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