Friday, March 13, 2009

Thoughts of Thomas Jefferson

John Kennedy once said to a assembled group of scholars in the White House, "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone."

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe  
Thomas Jefferson

 

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. 
Thomas Jefferson

 

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. 
Thomas Jefferson

 

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. 
Thomas Jefferson

 

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. 
Thomas Jefferson

 

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. 
Thomas Jefferson

 

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. 
Thomas Jefferson

 

The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. 
Thomas Jefferson
   
 

In light of the present financial crisis, it's  interesting to read what
Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:

Banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. 

Thomas Jefferson (1802)

 

I have always thought, we will not be conquered by another nation's army. We will be conquered/over thrown from within by the power brokers!

Thomas Jefferson

 


Thursday, March 12, 2009

Rights of Property Owner

Recently there have been letters to the editor wishing their rights as property owners would be respected. How ironic. Here in East Tennessee where the Cherokee roamed where he wanted until the white man arrived and crammed him onto the Reservation. Or how about the families forced off their land to make a place for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Rights of property owners? How naive..

 

Bernie Madoff

Bernard Madoff has pleaded guilty and has assured us and the judge that he is very very sorry. "Profanity inserted here!" Justice will not begin to be served until he is in jail for the rest of his life; every property in the Madoff name has been confiscated; all monies in the Madoff name in whatever form has been impounded; and his family are living in a 2 bedroom apartment somewhere.
 
He has ruined thousands of people. Maybe justice will not be experienced until he has died in jail...

 
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179 cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

WHY ATHLETES CAN'T HAVE REGULAR JOBS!

You have to admit these people are the elite of our society...


1. Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson on being a role model: "I wan' all dem kids to do what I do, to look up to me. I wan' all the kids to copulate me."

2. New Orleans Saint RB George Rogers when asked about the upcoming season: "I want to rush for 1,000 or 1,500 yards, whichever comes first."

3. And, upon hearing Joe Jacobi of the 'Skins say: "I'd run over my own mother to win the Super Bowl," Matt Millen of the Raiders said: "To win, I'd run over Joe's Mom, too."

4. Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins: "He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings."

5. Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann, 1996: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."

6. Senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh: "I'm going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes." (Now that is beautiful!)

7. Bill Peterson, a Florida State football coach: "You guys line up alphabetically by height." And, "You guys pair up in groups of three, and then line up in a circle."

8. Boxing promoter Dan Duva on Mike Tyson going to prison: "Why would anyone expect him to come out smarter? He went to prison for three years, not Princeton."

9. Stu Grimson, Chicago Blackhawks left wing, explaining why he keeps a color photo of himself above his locker: "That's so when I forget how to spell my name, I can still find my clothes."

10. Lou Duva, veteran boxing trainer, on the Spartan training regime of heavyweight Andrew Golota: "He's a guy who gets up at six o'clock in the morning, regardless of what time it is."

11. Chuck Nevitt , North Carolina State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice: "My sister's expecting a baby, and I don't know if I'm going to be an uncle or an aunt."

12. Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player: "I told him, "Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?" He said, "Coach, I don't know and I don't care."

13. Shelby Metcalf, basketball coach at Texas A&M, recounting what he told a player who received four F's and one D: "Son, looks to me like you're spending too much time on one subject."

14 Amarillo High School and Oiler coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips, Phillips responded: "Because she is too damn ugly to kiss good-bye."




Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Cars are more important than People

We live in a country that allows people to receive lots of money for very little if any real work and they are not required to share. Jay Leno is giving a free show to the unemployed. But do not forget he would rather own more cars than he can drive while children go hungry. The super-rich have more money than 99% of the people in the world will receive in their life-time but still want more.
 
How much is enough, a house valued at $5 million $10 million $100 million? I know they do not have to but if they are so generous why not share with people or organizations that need help. I new a millionaire who gave 90% of his income to help others.
 
As the people leave the auditorium after Jay Leno's show, Jay will go back to his cars and the people will go back to their homes, with no food and maybe no heat.

 
Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179 cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Limbaugh, who?

During the campaign for President, John McCain was more conservative that Barack Obama, any Republican who did not enthusiastically support John McCain showed them selves to be just complainers with no solutions. 
 

Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179 cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Monday, March 09, 2009

The Stock Market vs Online Gambling

The Stock Market used to be for investing but it has turned into on-line poker. It is not logical that a company can be valued at $30 billion one week, $40 billion a month later and $25 billion 2 months later and they made no changes. The reason is the Stock Market is nothing more than gambling. The Internet plus the Day Trading mentality has changed the overall market and the market will never be as it was. The $50 trillion lost world wide was vapor. It never existed. Unethical, dishonest, and immoral accountants, CFOs and CEOs cooked the books.

Regards,
John Jenkins
 865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Saturday, March 07, 2009

How Can They Not See it?

Mr. President:
 
When you raise taxes on corporations they raise their prices to make up for the added expense. That means the purchaser is the eventual taxpayer. Less corporate taxes is the way to create growth. Less individual taxes gives the people more money to spend. Less Federal and State taxes means government gets off the taxpayers back. How can you not see that?
 
Stop taking our money. Stop spending money you do not have....

Regards,
John Jenkins
 865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Friday, March 06, 2009

Moronic Government Workers

Whoever made the mistake with the Clinton restart button and used начислено (overcharged) instead of рестарт (restart) should be fired.
If our government can't translated a word correctly how do they expect to do anything correctly. Sad...


Regards,
John Jenkins
865-803-8179 cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Crockett on the Power to Make Charitable Donations

Crockett was then the lion of Washington. I was a great admirer of his character, and, having several friends who were intimate with him, I found no difficulty in making his acquaintance. I was fascinated with him, and he seemed to take a fancy to me.
I was one day in the lobby of the House of Representatives when a bill was taken up appropriating money for the benefit of a widow of a distinguished naval officer. Several beautiful speeches had been made in its support, rather, as I thought, because it afforded the speakers a fine opportunity for display than from the necessity of convincing anybody, for it seemed to me that everybody favored it. The Speaker was just about to put the question when Crockett arose. Everybody expected, of course, that he was going to make one of his characteristic speeches in support of the bill. He commenced:
"Mr. Speaker -- I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has no power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. This government can owe no debts but for services rendered, and at a stipulated price. If it is a debt, how much is it? Has it been audited, and the amount due ascertained? If it is a debt, this is not the place to present it for payment, or to have its merits examined. If it is a debt, we owe more than we can ever hope to pay, for we owe the widow of every soldier who fought in the War of 1812 precisely the same amount. There is a woman in my neighborhood, the widow of as gallant a man as ever shouldered a musket. He fell in battle. She is as good in every respect as this lady, and is as poor. She is earning her daily bread by her daily labor; but if I were to introduce a bill to appropriate five or ten thousand dollars for her benefit, I should be laughed at, and my bill would not get five votes in this House. There are thousands of widows in the country just such as the one I have spoken of, but we never hear of any of these large debts to them. Sir, this is no debt. The government did not owe it to the deceased when he was alive; it could not contract it after he died. I do not wish to be rude, but I must be plain. Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as a charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much of our own money as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks."
He took his seat. Nobody replied. The bill was put upon its passage, and, instead of passing unanimously, as was generally supposed, and as, no doubt, it would, but for that speech, it received but few votes, and, of course, was lost.
Like many other young men, and old ones too, for that matter, who had not thought upon the subject, I desired the passage of the bill, and felt outraged at its defeat. I determined that I would persuade my friend Crockett to move a reconsideration the next day.
Previous engagements preventing me from seeing Crockett that night, I went early to his room the next morning and found him engaged in addressing and franking letters, a large pile of which lay upon his table.
I broke in upon him rather abruptly, by asking him what devil had possessed him to make that speech and defeat that bill yesterday. Without turning his head or looking up from his work, he replied:
"You see that I am very busy now; take a seat and cool yourself. I will be through in a few minutes, and then I will tell you all about it."
He continued his employment for about ten minutes, and when he had finished he turned to me and said:
"Now, sir, I will answer your question. But thereby hangs a tale, and one of considerable length, to which you will have to listen."
I listened, and this is the tale which I heard:
"Several years ago I was one evening standing on the steps of the Capitol with some other members of Congress, when our attention was attracted by a great light over in Georgetown. It was evidently a large fire. We jumped into a hack and drove over as fast as we could. When we got there, I went to work, and I never worked as hard in my life as I did there for several hours. But, in spite of all that could be done, many houses were burned and many families made houseless, and, besides, some of them had lost all but the clothes they had on. The weather was very cold, and when I saw so many women and children suffering, I felt that something ought to be done for them, and everybody else seemed to feel the same way.
"The next morning a bill was introduced appropriating $20,000 for their relief. We put aside all other business and rushed it through as soon as it could be done. I said everybody felt as I did. That was not quite so; for, though they perhaps sympathized as deeply with the sufferers as I did, there were a few of the members who did not think we had the right to indulge our sympathy or excite our charity at the expense of anybody but ourselves. They opposed the bill, and upon its passage demanded the yeas and nays. There were not enough of them to sustain the call, but many of us wanted our names to appear in favor of what we considered a praiseworthy measure, and we voted with them to sustain it. So the yeas and nays were recorded, and my name appeared on the journals in favor of the bill.
"The next summer, when it began to be time to think about the election, I concluded I would take a scout around among the boys of my district. I had no opposition there, but, as the election was some time off, I did not know what might turn up, and I thought it was best to let the boys know that I had not forgot them, and that going to Congress had not made me too proud to go to see them.
"So I put a couple of shirts and a few twists of tobacco into my saddlebags, and put out. I had been out about a week and had found things going very smoothly, when, riding one day in a part of my district in which I was more of a stranger than any other, I saw a man in a field plowing and coming toward the road. I gauged my gait so that we should meet as he came to the fence. As he came up I spoke to the man. He replied politely, but, as I thought, rather coldly, and was about turning his horse for another furrow when I said to him: 'Don't be in such a hurry, my friend; I want to have a little talk with you, and get better acquainted.' He replied:
"'I am very busy, and have but little time to talk, but if it does not take too long, I will listen to what you have to say.'
"I began: 'Well, friend, I am one of those unfortunate beings called candidates, and --'
"'Yes, I know you; you are Colonel Crockett. I have seen you once before, and voted for you the last time you were elected. I suppose you are out electioneering now, but you had better not waste your time or mine. I shall not vote for you again.'
"This was a sockdolager [a knock down blow -ed.] .... I begged him to tell me what was the matter.
"'Well, Colonel, it is hardly worthwhile to waste time or words upon it. I do not see how it can be mended, but you gave a vote last winter which shows that either you have not capacity to understand the Constitution, or that you are wanting in the honesty and firmness to be guided by it. In either case you are not the man to represent me. But I beg your pardon for expressing it in that way. I did not intend to avail myself of the privilege of the constituent to speak plainly to a candidate for the purpose of insulting or wounding you. I intend by it only to say that your understanding of the Constitution is very different from mine; and I will say to you what, but for my rudeness, I should not have said, that I believe you to be honest .... But an understanding of the Constitution different from mine I cannot overlook, because the Constitution, to be worth anything, must be held sacred, and rigidly observed in all its provisions. The man who wields power and misinterprets it is the more dangerous the more honest he is.'
"'I admit the truth of all you say, but there must be some mistake about it, for I do not remember that I gave any vote last winter upon any constitutional question.'
"'No, Colonel, there's no mistake. Though I live here in the backwoods and seldom go from home, I take the papers from Washington and read very carefully all the proceedings of Congress. My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown. Is that true?'
"'Certainly it is, and I thought that was the last vote which anybody in the world would have found fault with.'
"'Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity?'
"Here was another sockdolager; for, when I began to think about it, I could not remember a thing in the Constitution that authorized it. I found I must take another tack, so I said:
"'Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did.'
"'It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week's pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. The congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution.'"
"I have given you," continued Crockett, "an imperfect account of what he said. Long before he was through, I was convinced that I had done wrong.
He wound up by saying:
"'So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you.'
"I tell you I felt streaked. I saw if I should have opposition, and this man should go to talking, he would set others to talking, and in that district I was a gone fawn-skin. I could not answer him, and the fact is, I was so fully convinced that he was right, I did not want to. But I must satisfy him, and I said to him:
"'Well, my friend, you hit the nail upon the head when you said I had not sense enough to understand the Constitution. I intended to be guided by it, and thought I had studied it fully. I have heard many speeches in Congress about the powers of Congress, but what you have said here at your plow has got more hard, sound sense in it than all the fine speeches I ever heard. If I had ever taken the view of it that you have, I would have put my head into the fire before I would have given that vote; and if you will forgive me and vote for me again, if I ever vote for another unconstitutional law I wish I may be shot.'
"He laughingly replied: 'Yes, Colonel, you have sworn to that once before, but I will trust you again upon one condition. You say that you are convinced that your vote was wrong. Your acknowledgment of it will do more good than beating you for it. If, as you go around the district, you will tell people about this vote, and that you are satisfied it was wrong, I will not only vote for you, but will do what I can to keep down opposition, and, perhaps, I may exert some little influence in that way.'
"'If I don't,' said I, 'I wish I may be shot; and to convince you that I am in earnest in what I say I will come back this way in a week or ten days, and if you will get up a gathering of the people, I will make a speech to them, Get up a barbecue, and I will pay for it.'
"'No, Colonel, we are not rich people in this section, but we have plenty of provisions to contribute for a barbecue, and some to spare for those who have none. The push of crops will be over in a few days, and we can then afford a day for a barbecue. This is Thursday; I will see to getting it up on Saturday week. Come to my house on Friday, and we will go together, and I promise you a very respectable crowd to see and hear you.'
"'Well, I will be here. But one thing more before I say good-by. I must know your name.'
"'My name is Bunce.'
"'Not Horatio Bunce?'
"'Yes.'
"'Well, Mr. Bunce, I never saw you before, though you say you have seen me, but I know you very well. I am glad I have met you, and very proud that I may hope to have you for my friend. You must let me shake your hand before I go.'
"We shook hands and parted.
"It was one of the luckiest hits of my life that I met him. He mingled but little with the public, but was widely known for his remarkable intelligence and incorruptible integrity, and for a heart brimful and running over with kindness and benevolence, which showed themselves not only in words but in acts. He was the oracle of the whole country around him, and his fame had extended far beyond the circle of his immediate acquaintance. Though I had never met him before, I had heard much of him, and but for this meeting it is very likely I should have had opposition, and had been beaten. One thing is very certain, no man could now stand up in that district under such a vote.
"At the appointed time I was at his house, having told our conversation to every crowd I had met, and to every man I stayed all night with, and I found that it gave the people an interest and a confidence in me stronger than I had ever seen manifested before.
"Though I was considerably fatigued when I reached his house, and, under ordinary circumstances, should have gone early to bed, I kept him up until midnight, talking about the principles and affairs of government, and got more real, true knowledge of them than I had got all my life before.


"I have told you Mr. Bunce converted me politically. He came nearer converting me religiously than I had ever been before. He did not make a very good Christian of me, as you know; but he has wrought upon my mind a conviction of the truth of Christianity, and upon my feelings a reverence for its purifying and elevating power such as I had never felt before.


"I have known and seen much of him since, for I respect him -- no, that is not the word -- I reverence and love him more than any living man, and I go to see him two or three times every year; and I will tell you, sir, if every one who professes to be a Christian lived and acted and enjoyed it as he does, the religion of Christ would take the word by storm.


"But to return to my story. The next morning we went to the barbecue, and, to my surprise, found about a thousand men there. I met a good many whom I had not known before, and they and my friend introduced me around until I had got pretty well acquainted -- at least, they all knew me.
"In due time notice was given that I would speak to them. They gathered up around a stand that had been erected. I opened my speech by saying:


"'Fellow-citizens -- I present myself before you today feeling like a new man. My eyes have lately been opened to truths which ignorance or prejudice, or both, had heretofore hidden from my view. I feel that I can today offer you the ability to render you more valuable service than I have ever been able to render before. I am here today more for the purpose of acknowledging my error than to seek your votes. That I should make this acknowledgment is due to myself as well as to you. Whether you will vote for me is a matter for your consideration only.'


"I went on to tell them about the fire and my vote for the appropriation as I have told it to you, and then told them why I was satisfied it was wrong. I closed by saying:

"'And now, fellow-citizens, it remains only for me to tell you that the most of the speech you have listened to with so much interest was simply a repetition of the arguments by which your neighbor, Mr. Bunce, convinced me of my error.


"'It is the best speech I ever made in my life, but he is entitled to the credit of it. And now I hope he is satisfied with his convert and that he will get up here and tell you so.'
"He came upon the stand and said:


"'Fellow-citizens -- It affords me great pleasure to comply with the request of Colonel Crockett. I have always considered him a thoroughly honest man, and I am satisfied that he will faithfully perform all that he has promised you today.'


"He went down, and there went up from that crowd such a shout for Davy Crockett as his name never called forth before.


"I am not much given to tears, but I was taken with a choking then and felt some big drops rolling down my cheeks. And I tell you now that the remembrance of those few words spoken by such a man, and the honest, hearty shout they produced, is worth more to me than all the honors I have received and all the reputation I have ever made, or ever shall make, as a member of Congress.
"Now, sir," concluded Crockett, "you know why I made that speech yesterday. I have had several thousand copies of it printed, and was directing them to my constituents when you came in.
"There is one thing now to which I will call your attention. You remember that I proposed to give a week's pay. There are in that House many very wealthy men -- men who think nothing of spending a week's pay, or a dozen of them, for a dinner or a wine party when they have something to accomplish by it. Some of those same men made beautiful speeches upon the great debt of gratitude which the country owed the deceased -- a debt which could not be paid by money -- and the insignificance and worthlessness of money, particularly so insignificant a sum as $10,000, when weighed against the honor of the nation. Yet not one of them responded to my proposition. Money with them is nothing but trash when it is to come out of the people. But it is the one great thing for which most of them are striving, and many of them sacrifice honor, integrity, and justice to obtain it."

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Rules of the Internet

Hi, Dwight and Howard,

 

An unsolicited comment…

 

I'm reading a book on the subject of businesses working with the new rules established by the Internet.  The author is Jeff Jarvis. Jeff runs buzzmachine.com an influential Blog. I will assume you know what Blogs are but if you do not I can tell you.

 

Jeff writes about purchasing a Dell computer which was a lemon. He got so frustrated trying to work with Dell he gave up bought a different brand then wrote about it on his Blog. He titled it "Dell Sucks." A bit crude but it appears to have become an Internet standard. That reminded me when I was with IBM I found if you want to know what the public thinks about a company do a search (Google, Yahoo, Technorati, Icerocket, Blogpulse, Facebook, YouTube to mention a few) of your company name, abbreviations, followed by the word sucks. ("company name sucks").  If you search for "dell sucks" the search returns 296,000 references.

 

Michael Dell eventually decided he had to do something. He started writing a Blog and so did others in the Dell upper echelon writing on subjects interesting to their customers. They recognized problems, explained what the company was doing to correct and the customers returned the favor and wrote nice things about Dell when their problem was fixed.

 

Have you ever considered writing a Blog addressing problems or concerns of your customers or what's on the horizon etc? Have you ever searched using AllState or Mountain National Bank followed by the word "sucks?"  

 

Check out your competition. You might be surprised.

 

Jeff thinks your worst customer is your best friend; your best customer is your partner.

 

The end.....

 

 

Regards,
John Jenkins
 865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

"I don't know who discovered water, but it probably wasn't a fish."
---Marshal McLuhan

Laptop Computers


I am looking to buy a new laptop computer. I want one that has lots of RAM, large screen and that will run Windows applications. MAC or IBM compatible is fine. Do you have any suggestions you would be willing to share? Thanks.....

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Laws Associated With the Internet



Law of Diminishing Returns: As transaction costs in the open market approach zero, so does the size of the firm.

 

Law of Disruption: Social, political, and economic systems change incrementally, but technology changes exponentially.

 

Metcalfe's Law: 1) The number of possible cross-connections in a network grow as the square of the number of computers in the network increases. 2) The community value of a network grows as the square of the number of its users increase.
 

Moore's Law: In 1965 Gordon Moore observed, "Since the invention of the integrated circuit in 1958, the number of transistors (micro-components) that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit (micro-chip) has increased exponentially, doubling approximately every two years."  


The Internet

I've been reading….

 

In 1986 a book titled The Alchemist was published. Since its original release in Brazil it has sold more than 65 million copies world-wide making it one of the most popular books of all time. This is in partly due to the author's skill at marketing. In Russia, for example it had sold less than 1,000 copies and the book and author were dropped by the Russian publisher. The author found a different publisher and took the unusual step of making a free, digital Russian-language version available on his website. Immediately sales of the print edition picked up. In the first year it sold 10,000 copies, then next year it sold 100,000 copies and by 2008 1,000,000 copies were sold in Russia.  The author says that offering his work for free on the Internet was key to stimulating sales of hard-copy editions, and urges publishers to adopt this counterintuitive marketing strategy to keep print books alive. In 2007 Suze Orman offered an online version for Women & Money for free on Oprah's website for 24 hours. After readers downloaded more than 1 million copies, sales of the print edition took off.

 

The world is upside-down, inside-out, counterintuitive and confusing. The premier question for business is how to navigate in a world that has changed radically and forever.

 

Who would have imagined a free classified service could have had a profound and permanent effect on the newspaper industry that kids with cameras and internet connections could have larger audiences that cable networks could, that loaners with keyboards could bring down politicians and companies and that college dropouts could build companies worth billions?  They didn't do it by breaking rules. They operated by new rules of a new age:

 

·          Customers are now in charge. They can be heard around the world and have an impact on huge institutions in an instant.

·          People can find each other anywhere and coalesce around you---or against you.

·          The mass market is dead, replaced by mass niches.

·          The Cluetrain Manifest published in 2000 considered a primary work of the internet age wrote: "Markets are conversations." That means the key skill in any organization today is not marketing but conversing.

·           We have shifted from an economy based on scarcity to one based on abundance. The control of products or distribution will no longer guarantee a premium and a profit.

·          Enabling customers to collaborate with you---in creating, distributing, marketing, and supporting products--- is what creates a premium in today's market.

·          The most successful enterprises today are networks---which extract as little value as possible so they can grow as big as possible---and the platforms on which those networks are built.

·          Owning pipelines, people, products, or even intellectual property is no longer the key to success. Openness is.

 

Google's founders understand the change brought by the internet. That is why they are considered the fastest growing company in the history of the world. The same is true for Facebook, Craigslist. Wikipedia, Amazon, and Digg.

 


Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Our Lady of the Curd:

In the early 3rd century, Vivia Perpetua converted to Christianity, even though the Roman emperor Severus had outlawed the fledgling religion. Perpetua was arrested and she faced a grim decision---either renounce Christ or meet a gruesome death. Perpetua chose the latter. While she stewed in prison before her execution, she experienced a vision of a white-bearded shepherd who offered her some sheep's milk cheese. In the dream Perpetua ate the cheese. Then, just as she heard the word "Amen," she awoke to a taste of overwhelming sweetness. The vision of the heavenly curd reassured her of God's purpose and prepared Perpetua to die for her faith, which she soon did. Perpetua was publicly flogged, trounced by a cow, and then hacked to death in a botched decapitation. But the account of her vision---believed to be the first Christian text written by a woman---inspired millions and secured her legacy as one of the most influential martyrs in history.

 

Perpetua, one of several Holy Women Transformed by Cheese...

Regards,
John Jenkins
 865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
---Everett Dirksen

Second Amendment

Ms Downs:
 
As I mentioned when we spoke on the telephone I am sending you a copy of the note I sent to Senator Alexander.
 
An aside: I received a letter from the senator today and I apologize if I appear to be a complainer but Governor Bredesen and Senator Corker at least mention the topic of my comments. Senator Alexander's reply is obviously a canned reply and can be used for any communication to the senator on any subject. Politicians are a real trip. Thank you for your time and effort directed to at least getting the senator or his staff to admit they received an email..
 
 
The Second Amendment to our Constitution reads:
 
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
 
When George W Bush became president he had an agenda to make the Executive Branch more powerful than the other two branches of our government. When Barack Obama became president he has his agenda. Our Representatives and Senators as well as our governors and state legislators stood by quietly as they watched George Bush violate our Constitution. I hope you will not continue to remain silent.
 
The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that the citizens of the United States bear arms that will allow them to protect themselves from the Federal government. The Second Amendment is not about hunting or target shooting. It is about the right of the people to protect themselves from the people who represent us.
 
I encourage you to leave the Second Amendment alone and encourage your fellow senators to protect the Constitution.
 
John Jenkins
425 Patterson Lane
Gatlinburg, TN 37738
 

Regards,
John Jenkins
 865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
---Everett Dirksen

Second Amendment

Governor:
 

The Second Amendment to our Constitution reads:

 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

 

When George W Bush became president he had an agenda to make the Executive Branch more powerful than the other two branches of our government. When Barack Obama became president he has his agenda. Our Representatives and Senators as well as our governors and state legislators stood by quietly as they watched George Bush violate our Constitution. I hope you will not continue to remain silent.

 

The Second Amendment of the United States Constitution provides that the citizens of the United States bear arms that will allow them to protect themselves from the Federal government. The Second Amendment is not about hunting or target shooting. It is about the right of the people to protect themselves from the people who represent us.

 

I encourage you to speak up on behalf of the citizens of Tennessee and their constitutional right to bear arms, any arms.

 

 

John Jenkins

425 Patterson Lane

Gatlinburg, TN 37738

jrjenki@yahoo.com


Re: Fw: A black woman's view on the election

Hi Ray,
 

Interesting point of view. Obama was not as elected as much as a Republican was not elected. Quiet similar to when Reagan defeated Carter. Reagan was not as much elected as Carter was not elected. That year a pumpkin could have defeated a democrat. This year a pumpkin could have defeated a Republican and he just might have. Only time will tell.

 

Reagan was a good speaker so is Obama. Reagan was a nice looking man, so is Obama. Reagan kept smiling, so does Obama. Reagan blamed the Democrats for the problems the country was experiencing, Obama blames Republicans. Reagan attacked Granada. Time will tell what Obama attacks. Reagan sold guns and drugs to finance operations that violated our Constitution. Reagan did not "recall." We can be assured Obama will "not recall." Both the National Budget and the National Deficit were larger when Reagan left office than when he entered. As they will be with Obama after one or two terms. The country survived Reagan and it will survive Obama.

 

We either believe God raises up nations and takes nations down and that he raises up leaders and takes leaders down or we don't.

 

Job 12:23

    He makes nations great, and he destroys them;

        he enlarges nations, and leads them away.

 

Daniel 2:21

    He changes times and seasons;

        he removes kings and sets up kings;

    he gives wisdom to the wise

        and knowledge to those who have understanding;

 

There were good people in Israel when they went into captivity. Our job is to be Daniels and Mishaels and Hananiahs and  Azariahs.

 

The church has fallen on its face. It just might be time for us to standup, shake off the dust and get busy. We are told to pray for our leaders that we might live peaceful lives BECAUSE God wants everyone to be saved. We have prayed for our leaders so that we can live peaceful lives so that we can collect money, go on vacations and store up treasures on earth. It just might be a good time to rethink what we really believe.



 
Regards,
John Jenkins
 865-803-8179  cell
Gatlinburg, TN
Email: jrjenki@yahoo.com 

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money.
---Everett Dirksen


--- On Mon, 3/2/09, Ray & Martha <arandm@charter.net> wrote:
From: Ray & Martha <arandm@charter.net>
Subject: Fw: A black woman's view on the election
To: "Alta & George Rowell" <garowell@frontiernet.net>
Date: Monday, March 2, 2009, 8:07 PM

 
 
 
 
 
The truth is the truth,  no matter   what you believe....
this is excellent....




Finally----an incredibly intelligent black woman speaks out about our new President.
 


  
   
 
   
 REFRESHING READ!
 

 

 
A Black Woman's View on the Election
   
 
ANNE WORTHAM
 
 
 Anne Wortham is Associate Professor of Sociology at Illinois State University and continuing Visiting Scholar at Stanford University 's Hoover Institution. She is a member of the American Sociological  Association and the American Philosophical  Association.
 
 
 She has been a John M. Olin Foundation Faculty Fellow, and honored as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education.
 
 
 In fall 1988 she was one of a select group of intellectuals who were featured in Bill Moyer's television series, "A World of Ideas." The transcript of her conversation with Moyers has been published in his book, A World of Ideas.  
 
 
 Dr. Wortham is author of "The Other Side of Racism:  A Philosophical Study of Black Race Consciousness" which analyzes how race consciousness is transformed into political strategies and policy issues.
 
 
 She has published numerous articles on the implications of individual rights for civil rights policy, and is currently writing a book on theories of social and cultural marginality.
 
 Recently, she has published articles on the significance of multiculturalism and Afrocentricism in education, the politics of  victimization and the social and political impact of political correctness.  Shortly after an interview in 2004, she was  awarded tenure.
 
 This article by her is something.
 **************************************************************************** *
 
 Fellow Americans,
 
 Please know: I am Black; I grew up in the segregated South. I did not vote for Barack Obama; I wrote in Ron Paul's name as my choice for president. Most importantly, I am not race conscious. I do not require a Black president to know that I am a person of worth, and that life is worth living. I do not require a Black president to love the ideal of America .
 
 I cannot join you in your celebration. I feel no elation. There is no  smile on my face. I am not jumping with joy. There are no tears of triumph in my eyes. For such emotions and behavior to come from me, I would have to deny all that I know about the requirements of human flourishing and survival - all that I know about the history of the United States of America , all  that I know about American race relations, and all that I know about Barack  Obama as a politician. I would have to deny the nature of the "change" that  Obama asserts has come to America ..
 
 Most importantly, I would have to abnegate my certain understanding that  you have chosen to sprint down the road to serfdom that we have been on for  over a century. I would have to pretend that individual liberty has no value  for the success of a human life. I would have to evade your rejection of the slender reed of capitalism on which your success and mine depend. I would have to think it somehow rational that 94 percent of the 12 million Blacks in this country voted for a man because he looks like them (that Blacks  are permitted to play the race card), and that they were joined by  self-declared "progressive" whites who voted for him because he doesn't look like them.
 
 I would have to wipe my mind clean of all that I know about the kind of people who have advised and taught Barack Obama and will fill posts in his administration - political intellectuals like my former colleagues at the Harvard University 's Kennedy School of Government.
 
 I would have to believe that "fairness" is equivalent of justice. I would have to believe that man who asks me to "go forward in a new spirit of service, in a new service of sacrifice" is speaking in my interest. I  would have to accept the premise of a man that economic prosperity comes from  the "bottom up," and who arrogantly believes that he can will it into  existence by the use of government force. I would have to admire a man who thinks  the standard of living of the masses can be improved by destroying the most productive and the generators of wealth.
 
 Finally, Americans, I would have to erase from my consciousness the scene  of 125,000 screaming, crying, cheering people in Grant Park, Chicago irrationally chanting "Yes We Can!" Finally, I would have to wipe all  memory of all the times I have heard politicians, pundits, journalists, editorialists, bloggers and intellectuals declare that capitalism is  dead - and no one, including especially Alan Greenspan, objected to their assumption that the particular version of the anti-capitalistic mentality that they want to replace with their own version of anti-capitalism is anything remotely equivalent to capitalism.
 
 So you have made history, Americans. You and your children have elected a Black man to the office of the president of the United States , the wounded giant of the world. The battle between John Wayne and Jane Fonda is over - and that Fonda won. Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern must be very happy men. Jimmie Carter, too. And the Kennedys have at last gotten their  Kennedy look-a-like. The self-righteous welfare statists in the suburbs can feel warm moments of satisfaction for having elected a Black person.
 
 So, toast yourselves: 60s countercultural radicals, 80s yuppies and 90s bourgeois bohemians. Toast yourselves, Black America. Shout your glee Harvard, Princeton , Yale, Duke, Stanford, and Berkeley. You have elected  not an individual who is qualified to be president, but a Black man who, like the pragmatist Franklin Roosevelt, promises to - Do Something!  You  now have someone who has picked up the baton of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.   But you have also foolishly traded your freedom and  mine - what little there is left - for the chance to feel good.
 
 There is nothing in me that can share your happy obliviousness.

   


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