Practicing Alcoholic - Professional Sot

Welcome to the short version of the life of a friend of Bill W. When dealing with the intoxicated, you might want to keep in mind the caveat of Oklahoma's Favorite Son and the esteemed movie actor, cowboy philosopher, political humorist, and Cherokee Indian Will Rogers who proclaimed, "I have Indian Blood in me. I have just enough white blood for you to question my honesty!".

He countered the white man always ready to take pride in and brag about how his ancestors arrived in America by quipping, "my ancestors didn't come over on the Mayflower but they met it". A thought that gives the Tennessee Mountain Man a chuckle to this day.

To Watch Click Picture

What has Will Rogers to do with this subject? Well, for a teetotaler who has been dead since 1935 he had some sage insights into modern day politics as well as the fallacy of over imbibing in fire water. Insights appreciated by the Criminal Defense Lawyers Association like, "Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators" (ouch!), and he has at least one Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Chapter as well as a Rehab and Recovery Center named after him.

A few days ago the computerman unexpectedly met some former colleagues and friends of Bill W. They had once enjoyed a close relationship. Soon a young man in their company looked at the computer man and asked, "are you a practicing alcoholic?". To which he replied, "no... no I'm not", and walked away with a smile on his face.

Just before getting out of hearing range, an alcohol and drug counselor was heard explaining to the young man, "He used to be our chaplain".

"Really?"

"Yep, and you would have been better off asking him if he drinks."

"Why?"

"His answer would have been, not since the invention of the funnel."

"So, you know him pretty well, and he does have a problem?"

"No. No problem. And, he will tell you he stopped practicing in 1968 when he found Chevas Regal. He had found the answer. He was a professional. He no longer had a problem drinking - his practicing was over. He had learned to love it. His trouble was with stopping which he didn't do until 1990. He was one of the few people a bar tender couldn't switch to the house brand after a few drinks. He liked what he liked, and he knew every time someone tried to switch him. It would be like trying to sneak a Sprite in on you when you were expecting a Dr Pepper."

"Okay. So, he no longer drinks? Or, does he?"

At this point the conversation was lost, so let us hear it straight from the horse's mouth - uh, pen.

There being no legal booze in the state, the computer man lived next door to a bootlegger as a child. Like the drug dealer, the old man used up all his profits. Having seen the bootlegger setting passed out, upright in a straight, ladder back, chair with a white foam stretching all the way to the floor the child said, in his mind, "I will never be like that".

Then came a war in a far away land called Vietnam, and the child - now a young man with a wife and children of his own found himself in a strange land he did not know, among a people he could not understand with strange religions and customs and living in fear. Here he learned to never say never.

There were, of course, too many reasons to count. But then any friend of Bill's knows any excuse will do. How about the reasons to keep it together? Like many soldiers there he got his Dear John Letter, his wife had an affair with another, and had their children seized by the state which was hard to do in those days. Upon securing the return of the children, they were told they did not have a daddy - he got killed in Vietnam.

At the height of his addiction, he drank a gallon and a half of Scotch Whiskey a day... every day... seven days a week until he was in DTs and could no longer afford it. Bouncing checks where ever he could get one cashed, he was drinking the cheapest whiskey he could find at the unbelievable rate of three (3) half gallon bottles a day..

His liver? Oh, God is good. It still works. And, although he would drink nothing for years, he now drinks one or two shots of Scotch or a beer most days. The remainder, he consumes no alcohol. His primary care physician says, "look, you have CHF and cancer - if it makes you feel better use it man".

He does not however, recommend it to anyone. AA is right in their stance that alcoholism and addiction are diseases of mind, body, and spirit. It doesn’t simply attack one of these areas, but all of them to some degree.

Susan Yarrawonga sums it all up on Yahoo! Answers in her answer to the question, "Is it possible for a true alcoholic to only drink socially or on the weekends?".

She said, "There are practicing alcoholics and non-practicing alcoholics. A non-practicing alcoholic is a teetotaler who used to be a practicing alcoholic.

There is a saying that for an alcoholic one drink is too many and 100 is not enough.

Most alcoholics who try to drink socially or only at weekends fail miserably. With supreme and extreme will power an alcoholic may perhaps be able to drink in moderation but this is highly unlikely."

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in website design at computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online web based computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Ralph Nader and Nader's Raiders Strike Again

The republican party got an early Easter Basket Sunday, 24 February, 2008 when Ralph Nader announced on NBC's Meet the Press with Tim Russert (the same forum where he announced his 2004 presidential run) that he was tossing his hat into the ring for the Office of The President of The United States of America.

In 1992 a third-party candidate, H. Ross Perot, claimed a large share of the American vote, nearly Twenty (20) percent , playing a role the Republican base will never forget.

The day following Nader's announcement, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is apparently contemplating his own independent presidential bid, defended Ralph Nader's right to seek the Nation's Highest Office.

So while Nader may be the nemeses of the democratic party, it may be that the republicans have a spoiler of their own on their hands. If so, like H. Ross Perot, he has enough money of his own to make the country take him seriously - at least for a time.

Nader is a member of the Green Party. He came to prominence in the 1960s as a consumer advocate. His most significant program to the mind of a car lover, like the Tennessee Mountain Man, was spearheading the demise of what he dubbed the coffin on wheels - the Chevy Corvair. Computer Man saw one of Nader's rolling coffins in mint condition traveling on Rossville Boulevard in Chattanooga, Tennessee just a week or so preceding Nader's announcement, and wondered if "the spoiler" would show again.

Given Nader's ego and his apparent thirst for power, he could have done no less. Having run unsuccessfully in 2000 and 2004, the 2008 bid will be Nader's third run for the office. Will the third time be the charm? Surely not.

Although Nader attracted just 2.7 percent of the vote nationwide, the democrats have not forgotten, nor forgiven, Ralph Nader for what they believe cost Al Gore the 2000 election. In 2004 he garnered only 0.3 percent of the vote, and yet he once again finds himself vilified in the Blogosphere as being in bed with The Grand Old Party.

Obama, who briefly organized with a Nader influenced group as a young man, taking the high road, said, "Ralph Nader deserves enormous credit for the work he did as a consumer advocate, but his function as a perennial candidate is not putting food on the table of workers." Obama did opine, that Ralph Nader in recent years tended to assume that candidates are fatally flawed if they fail to recognize the wisdom of his views.

Hillary, talking with reporters onboard her campaign plane said of Nader's run “Obviously it’s not helpful to whomever our Democratic nominee is, but it’s a free country" . In reference to the AL Gore - George Bush race of 20000, she suggested that Ralph Nader's Green Party candidacy cost the nation the "greenest president'' it could have had. She believes Nader's new candidacy for the White House, at best, poses an unwelcome distraction.

Nader has run as both a Green Party candidate and an independent in past elections. He has not yet declared how he will run in the upcoming general election. Whatever his decision, he will be a power with which the Democratic Party Nominee will have to contend.

Not surprisingly, the Republicans were not so dismissive. On the other hand, Ward Harkavy, in the Village Voice Blog, dubbed Nader, "America's Suicide Bomber" while The Age saw him as the "Democrats bogeyman", and The Nation Blog apparently believes America still needs Ralph Nader to be Public Citizen Number One pursuing matters as a consumer advocate and not a presidential candidate.

Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee couldn't resist a little fun at Nader's expense and joked on CNN that Republicans would welcome Nader's entry into the race and hope that maybe a few more will join in. Huckabee said in a television interview that a Ralph Nader candidacy was a suicide mission and would more likely pull votes away from Democrats than Republicans, and he welcomed the longtime consumer advocate into the fray.

Ron Paul's camp believes there is unhappiness among the electorate, and that he (Paul) best captures that anger, and that Ralph Nader is not the proper vehicle for the expression of America's year of discontent. Nader, they feel, was a spoiler in 2000 and will long be remembered as being responsible for the election of George W. Bush, and that just as when he ran again in 2004 there will be few who care in the final analysis.

John McCain being the odds on favorite to benefit the most from the Nader candidacy has appropriately remained mum on the subject.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in website design at computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online web based computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

9 Keys To Starting An Internet Business

Here is a sound starting place for the would be internet entrepreneur. Nine (9) Keys for starting your own internet based business. The world wide web is a great medium for home based businesses in the 21st century. Like their counterparts, the brick and mortar businesses on main street, there are basics that should not be over looked. Nine basics that the Tennessee Mountain Man and the Computer Man website design team recommend are listed here.

1. You must have a basic idea of what you are going to do and why.

A cursory review of sample business plans will quickly press the idea that you need to define your business desires as narrowly as possible.

If your only desire is to make money and your attitude is everything and everyone else be damned, you have a hard road to hoe. And, if you manage to succeed, chances are your financial success will literally cost you everything that makes life worth living and will certainly steal all pleasure you might otherwise have enjoyed.

If, however, you can grasp the idea of helping others achieve their dreams as your main objective all things are possible. Help enough people reach their goals and yours will follow along with an enjoyable life.

2. You must educate yourself.

Using your favorite search engine or better yet a combination of search engines research your future. Learn all you can about the business and who is currently king of the mountain. How did they get there? How do they stay there? Can you compete? If not move on.

3. Write A Business Plan.

Once armed with the information you need, again using a search engine to get business plan ideas examining the designs of others in your field if you need to, create a business plan. While the business plan is not written in stone, it should be sufficient to keep you going for awhile. It can always and will need to be amended from time to time.

Choose a search engine and search for "business plan sample" or "internet business plan sample". You will find several... many free. Compare them. Select the business plan best aligned with your hopes and ideas and start designing your own.

4. Choosing suppliers, drop shippers, etc.

Back to research which will become a part of your routine. You must always know where you can get the best deals and service (don't forget timeliness and shipping costs) with the least amount of warehousing.

5. Build your website.

Do this on your computer then sign up for and move it to a free host for testing.

Do not promote this testing site. In fact you should place a "robots.txt" file in the root stopping search engines from cataloguing it.

Run every possible test and make sure there are no broken links and everything on the site functions properly. You will have enough problems and surprises as time goes by. Plan to succeed. Don't sabotage your own internet business before you get started.

6. Now you are ready to find someone to host your website.

Do this last. Contracts for hosting are sometimes month to month, but more usually one or two year terms and the clock starts running as soon as you say "I do". So don't start the clock until you have a website designed and ready to go up on the web.

8. Submit to search engines.

Once your site is on your new host and up (usually within 24 hours) test again. If all is well, hand submit your new site to the major search engines. Not sure which ones? Back to the search engine. You and search engines are going to become fast friends if you are to be all you can be.

If you use a "robots.txt" file on your permanent web site make sure you have removed the block or reputable search engines will not index your site.

9. Now promote...promote...promote. Why? Just like on main street, location is everything and location in this case is determined by search engine ranking and directory indexing.

If time is an issue or if you are not skilled at these you may consider the help of a firm such as Computerman Website Design, Makeover and Promotion. For more information browse to http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ .

Good Luck

Momma Always Told You, Don't Play In The Street

In the cold early morning hours of Saturday, February 16th, 2008, before the St Valentine's Day Celebrities had subsided, about twenty (20) miles south of Washington, D.C., Eight (8) people lay dead in the street along Route 210, a four lane highway, in Accokeek, Maryland. Why? Because no one listens to momma any more.

Some Twenty (20) years ago the Tennessee Mountain Man transported telephone equipment around the southern states and up the eastern seaboard for ma bell. A prominent sign was displayed at the exit for each of ma bell's maintenance shops which read, "You Are About To Enter The Most Dangerous Place In The World... An American Highway. Buckle Up!". Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other hot spots around the world notwithstanding nothing has changed and the warning is as applicable today as it was all those years ago.

Concerning the Accokeek deaths, according to FOX News, Prince George's County Police Captain Donald Frick said "there was a speed event going on". That has to be the understatement of the year. There had been an illegal drag race that resulted not only in the high number of deaths but several injuries and an unlimited number of lives that have been changed forever because the immature must play... even if it could reasonably mean they die.

A "speed event" is the Daytona 500 which was scheduled to run the following day or Power Boat Racing... events scheduled and licensed under the appropriate authority in a relatively safe place with safety precautions and viewer protection adhered to. This was a clear criminal violation which resulted in injury and death, and yet the police do not know, they say, whether charges will be filed against anyone or not. Can you say, "duh"?

The Computer man grew up in the backwoods country atop Sand Mountain in Jackson County Alabama. Running in front of the old home place about fifty (50) feet from the front door was a dirt road which mom always told us to stay out of. There were less than ten (10) vehicles a day that literally crawled down that road, but mom insisted "stay out of the road".

When one of the children was required to make a trip the three quarters (.75) of a mile to the country store that serviced the little community, mom always warned, "walk on the side of the highway... stay off the road". A toe stumped on the asphalt and bleeding (not to mention hurting) when arriving back home was a dead give away and earned an extra punishment which seemed
pretty severe until the computerman had a teenage step daughter killed by a car while she was crossing a city street.

Many years ago, Johnny Cash recorded a song about a momma's warning. It was to her young son and entitled "Don't Take Your Guns To Town".

The first verse was:

"A young cowboy named Billy Joe grew restless on the farm
A boy filled with wonderlust who really meant no harm
He changed his clothes and shined his boots
And combed his dark hair down
And his mother cried as he walked out

[Chorus]
Don't take your guns to town son
Leave your guns at home Bill
Don't take your guns to town".

As strange as it may be, that was the first thing that popped in the Tennessee Mountain Man's mind upon learning of this tragedy that happened on a dark unlighted stretch of suburban highway fifty-five (55) miles north of Boston. As the two racing cars sped away and the spectators stepped into the roadway to watch, an eighteen (18) wheel tractor trailer and a car appeared behind them from nowhere. Not being able to see the people standing in the middle of the roadway dressed in dark clothing against the dark of night compounded by the smoke from cars and burning tires there was little the operators of those vehicles could do to avoid the
by standers.

For a little fun, a restless crowd of somewhere between fifty (50) and two hundred (200) souls had assembled on a busy roadway in the dark night and gambled their life against a little entertainment, and in only a short moment in time they lost.

Listen to your momma. She warned you, "don't play in the street".

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in website design at computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online web based computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Can't Get Through The Kitchen Door

Children can be cruel to their peers - especially if there is a child that is a little different from the majority. Children go through many stages as they grow up. There is the gangly period when the girls physically outpace the boys. The boys then endure the lanky stage where they deal with two left feet while trying to come to terms with the newly discovered rib Adam had lost in the Garden of Eden. Each growth spurt carried it's own pain for most certainly - if not for all children.

Compound the normal growing pressures by adding something like being obese, and a child can find himself or herself lost in a hell from which he or she can see no escape. Many of us spend a lifetime battling our childhood insecurities. Those of us of a certain age remember cruel jokes and poems. Poems like: "fatty fatty two by four, can't get through the kitchen door". As adults we all too often find that the cruelties were not left behind at the school ground doors. They tend follow man through adulthood fed by an ever increasingly judgmental society.

It happened to Two Hundred and Sixty Five (265) pound Ricky Labit and his wife's cousin, weighing in at Two Hundred and Seventy Seven (277) pounds, on Dec. 21, 2007, when they told FOX News they were overcharged and banned by an all you can eat buffet in Houma, La. Why? Because the owners apparently believed them to eat too much. They said before finishing their meal, they were presented with a bill for $46.40, roughly double the normal buffet price. The waitress explained, "Y'all fat, and y'all eat too much." And, finally the two men were barred from the restaurant before leaving the facility.

Who knew the people of the Sportsman's Paradise could be so cruel? Certainly not yours truly. Having lived in the great State of Louisiana for five (5) years we fell in love with it. The Tennessee Mountain Man not being a light weight himself can see both sides. In younger years he certainly got his money's worth when eating at such places.

Computer man owned a restaurant at one time. Sundays were an open buffet and there was a husband and wife couple weighing in around four hundred (400) pounds each who drove over an hour to get to the facility every Sunday. They were dreaded because they were the first to arrive - usually before the doors were unlocked, and they were the last to leave. And, incredibly they were able to eat the entire time. Then you never saw them for a week when the buffet was once again open. They were a site to behold as they waddled about the place and had to turn sideways to get through the door. Unlike the skinny customers, they always had a smile on their faces. They were apparently happy and they were always treated with respect.

The treatment the two Louisiana men received at the restaurant was appalling enough. The State of Mississippi decided it should pile on. The big brother component of the legislature wants to make sure if one is of a certain BMI he or she cannot get service in a public restaurant. Mississippi is quick to say the bill is dead and will not become law. But, it has been the experience of the American people that once such a dumb move gets started it grows legs and keeps crawling along until the state manages to subdue another liberty.

Are the food police about to strike again? Back off people!

Have we found yet another way to assure that only the beautiful people dare be seen in public? Do we really want big brother regulating such things? First, the airlines started charging over weight people for two seats (explainable - see picture above), and now the government wants to bar them from even getting through the kitchen door.

Would you super size that and... give me a bag of chips and... a... diet coke, please?

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in website design at computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Valentines Day Massacre Redefined

Wikipedia and other reference and resource materials have a definition of the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre that will soon need to be updated. It must now share it's infamy.

Seventy-Nine (79) years to the day after the Scar Face Gang committed the most infamous massacre in American history with the cold blooded killing of seven (7) members of the Bugsy Moran Gang while their Mob Boss, Al Capone, lay untouchable in Florida, another young man made his unforgettable mark in the State of Illinois while his diabetic father (unlike Capone) sat unknowing in the sunshine state.

Dateline: St Valentine's Day, 14 February 2008, Dekalb, Illinois

An hour or so and just over Sixty (60) miles due west of Chicago

a skinny, troubled, Twenty-Eight (28) year old, Steven Kazmierczak,

reminiscent of a Clint Eastwood spaghetti movie, stepped from behind a curtain at a lecture hall holding more than One Hundred and Fifty (150) students and speaking not a word opened fire gangland style on the unsuspecting class. Kazmierczak had masked his inner demons with his friendly exterior.

Unlike the Chicago gangs of Capone's era the six (6) people killed by Kazmierczak were engaged no unlawful activity. They were running no bordellos, were not guns for hire, and the prohibition period of our nation's history with it's speakeasies was but a faint memory when the alumnus ended the career of six (6) of his fellow Huskies before they began.

Mid-afternoon, St Valentine's Day, 2008, while the Tennessee Mountain Man finalized celebration plans for Cupid's favorite day, a former NIU sociology graduate student, dressed in a long black coat and carrying a shotgun and two (2) hand guns was practicing the reverse of Cupid's love magic. The gunman himself was enrolled in classes at the university just one short year earlier.

The curriculum of the Computer man, in years past, while he studied law and law enforcement sciences included the Chicago underground and the lawless gangland days. While it was an interesting period to study, it must have been a fearful time for the residents of the day. And, nothing in the original St Valentine's Day Massacre prepared one for the NIU Massacre of 2008.

Not even the earlier high school and college shootings over the last few years had prepared anyone to foresee and prevent the NIU massacre. This was, after all, perpetrated by one of their own... an outstanding student by all accounts.

Having apparently spent the night before in a Travel Lodge Motel near the college, Kazmierczak boosted his nerve and smoked his brain with alcohol and cigarettes as evidenced by the beer cans and cigarette butts scattered about the room. The NIU gunman then gathered the tools to apply the trade for which he would be remembered and made his way to the school.

Leaving much more ammunition behind in his motel room secluded in a duffel bag he left many more questions than could be answered. Adding to the suspense, he apparently left no suicide note which police have come to expect to help them determine the suspect's motive and state of mind. The totality of the experience makes one ask what he planned for an encore and why he
suddenly decided to end it when and where he did by taking his own life.

Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior, responsible for the massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia almost a year earlier in April, 2007, like Steven Kazmierczak, was a young man with many demons... you may simply call them mental issues, but they are demons that haunt men day and night until some break under the assault.

Both of these men, like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, before them, who embarked on the 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School, Littleton, Colorado, have turned our educational campuses into modern day shooting galleries.

The Tennessee Mountain Man would not want to be a student on America's campuses today. Back in the day police officers and properly licensed citizens, including students, carried side arms at all times including in banks, schools, restaurants, bars, court houses, etc.

It is time we stop trying to be ostriches. It is time we get our heads out of the sand or where ever we have shoved them and reverse the course of only criminals, those with mental issues, and individuals with the propensities of the Harris', the Klebold's, the Cho's, and the Kazmierczak's carrying weapons in our society.

Guns are neither good nor bad. They are inanimate objects. But, when guns are outlawed anywhere, only the criminals or the criminally insane (by definition) will bear arms.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Two Old Angry White Guys

The primaries in Hawaii, Wisconsin, and Washington today may decide who the general election candidates for President of the United States will be in November.

The fear of the website design team and the techs at the remote helpdesk is that it will once again come down to two old angry white men.

There were other choices.

As reported by the Tennessee Mountain Man and the Computerman Website Design Blogs, It is probably too late for the republican party, but the democrats can still avoid the dilemma.

The Commander In Chief Has The Vapors.... Again

The Forty Second (42nd) President of The United States of America and his loving spouse must remember that although they currently reside in New York and rub elbows with high society they are the Clintons from Arkansas - not the Kennedy's from Massachusetts.

Bill Clinton having made the point, speaking on the stump in the 2008 Presidential campaign, that he cannot make Hillary younger and that he can't make her male, must surely understand that he can't bequeath her Presidential experience or powers by osmosis or any other means.

The lady from Arkansas who would not bake cookies found herself playing a stewardess on "Hill One" and serving donoughts to the press minions. So she may have limited experience as a waitress, and that could serve her well in the future.

At least, she has proven herself to be a mediocre actress who just might have the ability to weep on cue.

Perhaps it can be put in terms the Clintons can understand if they can visualize the Razor Backs. The Arkansas football team has an equipment manager and a water boy among others, and these kids rub elbows with the coaching staff, the real players, and the quarterback but in the final analysis irrespective of their team and personal pride they are easily replaceable support staff - not the team stars.

Occasionally these kids get caught up in the whole heady experience and forget their place. Caught up in the moment they imagine themselves kings and king makers; and thinking they run things, they begin to usurp those titles and powers that belong to others. Finding it easier to usurp work accomplished by others and assume their accolades than to earn your own, they at least try to do just that until the young lady who is unlucky enough to be the object of their affections is forced to put them in their place.

Having pushed, intimidated, and bullied their way through life the Clintons apparently actually thought they had replaced the Kennedy's as America's premier political family. They assumed and usurped Jack Kennedy's mantle until his brother Ted Kennedy, the Senator from Massachusetts publicly anointed another.

Suddenly the would be Commander In Chief who insists she wears the pants suits in her house suffers from the southern lady syndrome and suffering from the vapors comes out weeping appropriately to evoke the heart stings of any gentleman. It is inconceivable to the Tennessee Mountain Man that one can simultaneously be both the tough experienced Commander In Chief of the earth's only super power and a wilting violent in need of a woman's wiles to get her way. Itis nothing short of illusion and witchcraft.

Twenty Eight (28) years of Bush and Clinton are more than enough for the computerman. America is ready for and wants a new direction... new blood... new leadership. If they were running again for the highest office in the land in any other country, America (democrats and republicans alike) would be up in arms. The Computer Man is reminded of the fire storm surrounding the George and Lurleen Wallace comedy hour. Does America want that scenario for the nation? Have we learned nothing? Or, are we simply so politically correct and self loathing that we can't help ourselves?

No matter which way the country goes, it is back to the future! The remote help desk team believes the question to be, do we want Kennedy's Camelot or Clinton's chicanery. Does the United States want the visionary Kennedy's hope or Clinton's divisiveness with no inspiration? On the other hand there is a grumpy, angry, old white man for those who don't know who they are or where they stand on any particular issue from day to day.

Perhaps if Hillary would just buck up and stop whining to MSNBC and the public. She could take a lesson from the Tennessee Mountain Man's girlfriend who on coming across the Mountain Man in a lounge with another young lady and reading too much into the situation, swayed up to the bar and placing her hands on his leg thrust her tongue into his ear. Then whispered, "Honey, make me jealous. If I get jealous, I get hurt and then I get over it. But, please, don't make me mad. Because if I get angry, I will snatch that bitch off that bar stool and mop up the floor with her. Then I will jerk her up by hair of her head and beat you with what is left." No matter what your politics, that is the "the straight talk express".

How many times must the world see Hillary melt in her mint julep suffering the vapors to plead her case and persuade the masses?

Surely Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (محمود احمدی‌نژا) and Osama bin Muhammad bin 'Awad bin Laden ( أسامة بن محمد بن عوض بن لادن‎; ) were duly impressed.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

IRS Welcomes Hillary's IGS

The computer man has no idea who the forty-fourth (44th) President of The United States will be, but one or two things are certain. One is that the American people as a whole are fed up with forty-three (43) and with the Bush dynasty. A member of the remote helpdesk team has observed that should Hillary become number forty-four (44), it would not take two terms for the people to also have more of the Clinton dynasty than they could stomach.

America's sons and daughters think Bush - Chaney was in the pocket of big business. But, the Tennessee Mountain Man fears that a Hillary Presidency would make all previous favors won by lobbyists seem little more than the proverbial "drop in a bucket".

Mike Huckabee wanted to "nail the going out of business sign on the doors of the IRS". A great idea. Why not a fair tax? But, realistically, we know the IRS is going nowhere soon. In fact Hillary will need to create a sister agency for them. She wants a federal law forcing everyone to pay a heath care tax.

Hillary talks about it in glowing terms of health insurance for everyone. The one catch to her plan is, everyone will be required by law to purchase this coverage from companies who have always tried to avoid "preventative care". Why? Money! It is cheaper to wait until people are dying and spend a few dollars in their final days or months than to prolong their life and care for their health for extended years.

A Clinton dynasty would not only mean four (4) more years of Bill Clinton running around a White House full of young impressionable interns fishing with his trousers down, but doing so with plenty of time on his hands as the first lady simply does not have the responsibilities and demand on time the President does.

Do we really want to spend the next four (4) years suffering the Clinton's condescension, contempt, and chicanery while we are required to pay off their insurance company friends? What she has planned for those who can least afford it is a federally sanctioned good old fashion shake down in the name of universal health care.

Obama says he understands the need for universal health care but also knows the reason most people who are not insured or who are under insured is not because those folks don't want insurance. But, rather it is because they simply can't afford it, and that there has to be another way. Hillary's other way is wage garnishment or jail or both.

Here come da IGS (Insurance Garnishment Service) or some such federal bureaucracy that will make the IRS seem like the girl next door. Vern Beachy's blogspot refers to it as Hillabeast, and that sounds about right. She has taken special interest money from everyone and their brother. Ask them where Bill made all his money! It may have been American Dollars but it was not from
Americans or our friends and allies. And, they expect you and I to repay it. Obama, on the other hand, has taken no money from anyone except you and I. He owes no one but us. You must ask yourself, "to whom do I wish to be indebted for the next decade?".

The United States government already knows how much money you spend and on what. Do you recall the pony tail bandit? A girl of means, by no means. She should have been under the radar, but not hardly. Big brother is here to stay, but we need not give big sister a lift up.

It is apparently not enough for Hillary that former employers, former spouses, lending companies, financial institutions, the state, and the federal government and a host of other plaintiffs can garnish your wages. We need, she believes, another federal agency to keep the lower and middle classes of this country in line. The result - we already miss John Edwards.

If a person receiving Medicaid or Medicare needs certain services now, especially long term care, he will find his car, his home, and any funds he may have managed to put away seized. Hillary wants to do this on the front end and get it over with all in the name, again, of federally required universal health care.

In the United Kingdom, the Debtors Act of 1869 abolished imprisonment for debt and the United States soon followed suit covering most instances. Although for ostensibly different reasons and under somewhat different circumstances there are those like Jes Beard and Hillary Clinton who want them reinstituted.

The computer man lost tens of thousands of dollars because bad things happen to good people. People who never saw their financial problems looming lost their life as they knew it and because of circumstances beyond their control hurt the computerman. That does not give the computerman or anyone else the right to add insult to injury.

There was a time in the United States when you did not want to be found by the cops with no money in your pocket. It was off to jail. Now you get stopped with "too much" money in your pocket and it is off to jail. The coming twist thanks to President Hillary Clinton, should that come to pass, is to be found sick with no health insurance, and you guessed it..... Here come da IGS! And, God only knows what and who else would befall the American public to enrich the Clinton dynasty should Hillary become number forty-four (44).. Hillary's IGS would make J. Edgar Hoover look like the diminutive little ego maniac he was, and his law enforcement arm like the cub scouts.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Super Delegates vs. Electoral College

Grand Pa's Republic

All of his life, the Tennessee Mountain Man has heard the call to exercise your right to vote. Even fighting in one of the country's wars was not sufficient in the eyes of many. Voting was some how more than a right, it was a constitutional requirement of any and every son of the United States.

That worked well while America's back room whiskey swigging, cheap cigar puffing, wheelers and dealers enjoyed an illiterate voting public. Then along came Sam! No... not the cartoon character, Yosemite Sam, nor the gunslinger immortalized in song, but our Uncle Sam. The uncle fed prodigiously by President Lyndon B. Johnson in pursuit of the Great Society.

Forget a chicken in every pot! What America needed was a new car in every drive, money in the hands and pockets of everyone to buy the junk food they craved... forget the government cheese. Every day of his senior years the Computer Man's maternal grand pa asked grand ma for some jingling money, and having received same set off for the county square.

Grand pa made sure he had in his pockets his sharpest folding knife, his old old pocket watch which he set at noon everyday with the sounding of the surrounding factory lunch whistles, a stick of cedar for whittling, a twist of King-B for chewing, and a little pocket change for jingling... grand pa was now prepared for his day, indeed for the remainder of his days.

Wearing his worn out gray felt hat, grand dad would set out walking down the street. The state had long ago taken his drivers license and his children had finally taken all of his automobiles. Not that anyone wanted them. The last one the computerman recalls had the startling ability to be hand cranked. One need not necessarily be concerned with the state of the battery. It represented the old man's last ditch effort at his brand of freedom and to have a car no one would take from him. It didn't work. He was simply not safe on the road nor was anyone on the road with him safe.

As he walked along his way, grand pa jingled the little bit of coins grand ma had provided for his pockets and sang old book songs from the Hardshell Baptist Hymnal. You know... they only sang the notes, not the words... yours truly never understood that, but I digress.

Upon arriving at his destination, grand pa took a seat along side the other old timers gathered outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Scottsboro, Alabama, just before dawn, and producing his pocket knife and a newly split piece of cedar that cost him two bits he began to smooth off the edges of the stick preparing for a full day of "visiting, reminiscing, conversation and piddling". Oh! The smell of that cedar, and the sound of his booming voice which reverberated around the square.

What does grand pa have to do with anything? Well, he was not always an old man ignored by most and simply forgotten by others. No, grand dad, a Justice Of The Peace in his day, was one of those back room shakers and movers in one party or the other in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He knew the system inside and out. He was a ward captain. He decided who run for what office and made sure however he had to, including a little well placed hooch - and just maybe some of that walking around or as he called it jingling money, who got elected.

Grand dad used to say he was a republican for one reason and one reason only. I just can't remember what that reason was. Shades of the old man, I suppose. What I can be sure of is grand pa's generation never conceived of super delegates for either party. Not withstanding the republican and democratic parties are both private entities, and as such they can allow and restrict membership as they see fit. They can nominate and withhold as they wish. They and they alone decide who their power base, movers and shakers, and insiders are.

What has this to do with a democracy? Not nearly as much as grand dad had to do with politics in Alabama. As the Tennessee Mountain Man perceives the democrats since the days of LBJ to slide more and more toward socialism and the republicans to move more and more to fill the democratic shoes of yore he feels the need for independent involvement in the American Political process. A painful and foreboding journey to be sure.

Grand pa, although a self professed republican, always believed President Lyndon Johnson to be on the right track although improperly executed. He long wanted to abolish the electoral college in favor of the popular vote - the nemeses of professional politicians. Today, I often wonder how many times the old man has rolled over in his grave considering how dumb Americans have become as the state has spent more and more to educate the masses. It seems, the more we learn about less and less, the more we dumb down.

Along with the computerman, grand pa's question, today, I believe, would be "super delegates!... where in heaven's name (like that phrase? It stops the holier than thou crowd's sausage grinder dead in it's tracks!) did my republic go?".

Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design and remote online computer repair

Hillary vs. Obama

The older the Tennessee Mountain Man gets the more he finds himself contemplating the history written in his lifetime, and how that history effects the present. In the midst of the 2008 political season there are inescapable memories and applications both good and bad of yesteryear.

A recent visit between the computer man and a politically well connected lawyer friend turned on the topics of politics, the election season at hand, and how the 2008 elections bring memories of the "good run" the two men had enjoyed in their life as well as the pain they had endured. Both now finding themselves leaning right recalled their happier years growing up in democratic
households and finding that sixty (60) years of living, loving, and maturing gives one quiet a perspective.

Hillary Clinton for example dredges up memories like the Rose Law Firm, Kathleen Willy, lost files, "that woman, Miss Lewinsky", perjury, Gennifer Flowers, smoking pot without inhaling, Paula Jones, white water, Susan McDougal ad infinitum.

Barack Obama stirs up memories as well. Memories like the pride that swells up in a boy's heart for his country as he watches Chet Huntley and David Brinkley televise and report on the operations of the republican and democratic conventions in real time.

As Hillary, like Tammy Wynette, stands by her man she conjures up recollections not of The Possum (George Jones) but of George Wallace and his wife, Lurleen who ruled as Governors of Alabama during the 1960s and 1970s. A time most people would rather not revisit.

On the other hand Obama is trailed by the legacy of another young man of that era. A United States Senator, a Roman Catholic, by the name of John F. Kennedy stirred a nation and caught the imagination and hope of the American people when he dared run for and win the Presidency of the United States.

The Clintons bring back memories of Bull Conner and his attack dogs while Obama brings ringing memories of Freedom Marches, of Martin Luther King, of Jack Kennedy and of Robert Kennedy.

The Clinton's win at any price hardball back room politics bring back memories of FBI Director J Edgar Hoover and his abuse of power taping and spying on Dr King and political operatives of both parties for his personal aggrandizement. He black mailed our leaders of the day keeping the pressure on. With certain kinds of people, the end justifies the means.

George and Laurleen bought black votes by buying off the religious leaders. The fact was that they could not have stayed in power without the support of the African-Americans living in Alabama. At least one Fox reporter has said the Clinton Machine is providing Black church clerics with "walking around money" for their support against Obama, one of their own. Hello! Bill Clinton was not the first black president, but Obama could be. Clinton was and is the "other white meat", you know, the one the Holy Bible warns you against.

Obama having run a clean campaign faces a Clinton Machine which, to state only a couple of examples, first introduced racial issues into the democratic primary by race baiting, and which raised the youthful indiscretions of Obama trying to make the masses believe him to be an addict and drug dealer. What ever happened to the old adage, "don't throw rocks if you live in a glass
house"? Or the rule requiring a plaintiff to have clean hands to bring an action?

If the Clinton Machine is not bonking you they are pimping you and whether they like it or not they got caught pimping their daughter. Yet they appear to be able feign pain as well as Hillary does tears and get all out of joint when called on it. It brings back the memories of Bill's righteous indignation over what the meaning of "is" - "is". Makes one remember Hillary's "vast right wing conspiracy" which turned out to be nothing more than Bill Clinton's zipper. They don't, however, seem to have an issue with our troops fighting a war on foreign soil being referred to as pimps.

The Clinton Machine changed its collective mind and expressed a desire to seat Michigan and Florida delegates after they fudged on campaigning and managed to win an election in states that were not supposed to count for anything in the 2008 democratic party nominating process. But no caucus says Billary, we would lose that.

Billary always wanting to change the rules in the middle of the game. They remind yours truly of the kid who always managed to empty a playground by just showing up.

Hillary vs. Obama. The 2008 election truly is a choice between yesterday and tomorrow.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Unstoppable Pop Ups

Do you remember this little trick? Ever figure it out?

Or perhaps you spent hard earned money to purchase the program. Perhaps you don't have the program, but would like to know how it works. Read on. We will give it to you not for $97.95, not $67.95, not $24.95, not even $1.95 but Free!! First, however, there are a few things you need to know and understand.

Properly used the popup can dispense data, bring you extra visitors, collect e-mail addresses, and increase your revenue without being perceived as intrusive. On the other hand, abuse it and loose visitors as quickly as the pop up launches... visitors who will in all probability never return.

King Solomon said, "there is nothing new under the sun". What do you think has changed since Solomon's reign?

This neat effect has been important to websites and internet marketers since commerce and the public discovered the world wide web. There are at least two ways to accomplish the unstoppable popup. How do I know? Because some of our websites employ one or both concepts and to date both work equally well.

Pop up stopper programmers are working diligently as we speak to prevent the unstoppable pop up but have, so far, been unable to do so.

Before employing the pop up in any form webmasters must consider that there are reasons why pop up blockers are everywhere. The final nail in the coffin of the pop up was driven by adult web sites. People were tired of these sexually explicit ads popping up in mixed company, in front of their mother, on the church computer and as their children surfed the web.

According to Wikipedia, today anyway, "Opera was the first major browser to incorporate tools to block pop-up ads; the Mozilla browser later improved on this by blocking only pop-ups generated as the page loads. In the early 2000s, all major web browsers except Internet Explorer allowed the user to block unwanted pop-ups almost completely." Notice their caveat, "almost completely".

In 2004, Microsoft finally built one into their Windows XP SP2 operating system along with a fire wall and ad filtering as if it was not slow enough. Microsoft playing the role of a political hack tries to be all things to all people and while that is part of what propelled their operating system to prominence, it may prove to be their undoing in the final analysis.

Remote Helpdesk 1, back in the good old days, purchased Netscape and apparently like many others was incensed at continually having to download plug-ins for anything and everything you wanted to do. Along comes Microsoft with their operating system including a free web browser and the most commonly used plug-ins. Can you say, "jump ship!"?

Now everyone is jumping ship again. Back to the future springs eternal and Linux with its many editions is right on target. Download and install the basics and then get the plug-ins needed as they are needed. How many times have you heard your mother say, "what goes around, comes around"? And, it has been our experience that Linux (Remote Help Desk 1 and Computer Man Website Design use the Debian edition) blocks more pop ups and does much more to protect a computer than most other operating systems while maintaining open source integrity for the computer user.

Like almost everyone else, the Tennessee Mountain Man Computer Man hates to have research interrupted by the couple of seconds it takes for a pop up to launch and be dispatched especially if that intrusion (as often happens) has nothing to do with the subject matter at hand.

That being said it is simply a matter of proper programming. Don't go reinventing the wheel until it no longer serves your purpose.

Option 1: Grab the pop up that occurs at http://remotehelpdesk1.com. Copy the code from the page source and change the information to meet your needs.

Option 2: Assuming you can prepare a standard pop up script, it should have about a 5 second delay, perhaps the easiest and maybe the best way in the end is to encrypt your source code. You can do this free of cost at http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/free_webmaster_tools_of_computer_man.htm or http://remotehelpdesk1.com/html_encrypter.htm

There is a lot of hype that this or that retail (notice you have to buy it to test it and once software is opened it is yours) pup up blocker intercepts and stops all pop-ups. No... not yet anyway!

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

We Live In An Algorithmic World

Old timers like the Tennessee Mountain Man have a hard enough time dealing with all these new fangled gadgets and methods of research, advertising, shopping and communicating without the added insult of having to deal with the geek speak of the nerds. Take algorithm for instance. What is an algorithm, and why should anyone care?

Please allow the computer man to attempt to bring the algorithmic world in which we must live, worship, work, and play to a place where we old dogs can understand it.

Do you recall grade school? Our grade school is what is most often called middle school in the early 21st century. That is where much to our dismay, everything we had learned about adding, subtracting, dividing, and multiplying went up in smoke. Do you remember your introduction to mathematical skills beyond basic arithmetic? Were you frustrated with algebra, graphing, and calculus? Ever doubt that, Albert Einstein not withstanding, it was a real science?

Have you ever wished you had been more committed to the development of your mathematical skills? Ever wished you had paid more attention? Have you found the answer to every high school student's burning question, "What will I ever use this stuff for"?

In a generation where there are seemingly overwhelming problems grappling with counting by ten (10), we are now challenged to grasp a new math and count by bits and bytes or by multiples of eight (8), if you will. Forget those math tables you were forced to memorize in the second grade. With the possible exception of the multiples of eight (8) such rote memory is of little value now except to balance the checkbook. Those tables are of little use or importance in an algorithmic world where we have been forced to accept that not all things are of equal value.

Oh, an algorithm is, simply stated, a specific set of instructions for carrying out a procedure or solving a problem. It may be simplistic or unbelievably convoluted depending on the data to be analyzed, how it is to be processed, what weight or values are to be attributed or given to what information and or its' sources, whether free radicals are allowed and if so what and to what extent, and the desired outcome parameters.

An algorithm is in the final analysis just a way to get the job done, and to be fair most of us cannot articulate the protocol or reduce it to a specific applicable diagram. The Tennessee Mountain Man's father, who had only a sixth grade education, was one of those brilliant people who could apply advanced mathematical principles, but was at a loss to explain his reasoning or reduce it to paper.

The day you set down in your high school science lab and defined a protocol for the experiment you were about to conduct, you built a an algorithm in it's most simple form although we certainly did not understand it in those terms back in the day. When a math teacher said, 'your answer is correct, but show me how you got there', he was simply asking for the algorithm.

Now we begin to understand algorithms, that everything has its' own algorithm, that each of us deals with algorithms all day every day and that it is a term we should neither fear or be intimidated by.

Let us build a simple algorithm that actually happened to the computer man not long ago. On a service call the company van gave up the ghost. The transmission died a horrible death and the vehicle refused to move except in reverse. Now what to do? No time, money or need for PhD's and engineers. A little common sense would work.

The need: Rent A Van

The algorithm: 1. Get the cell phone, 2. Call Hertz, 3. Rent Van, 4. Proceed to next appointment.

Four simple algorithmic steps and problem is solved without think tanks, PhDs, engineers, committees, weeks of planning, etc, etc.

A similar algorithm or protocol, if you please, determines what operating system runs on your computer or lap top, how it processes data, how you see virtual or non existent documents on your monitor. What you see on your TV screen is real to the extent it lives somewhere, if only on film. What you produce with bits and bytes on your computer through predetermined algorithms is little more than a figment of your imagination unless and until it is produced in some tangible form such a print out or prototype. Why do you think it is called virtual as opposed to literal? Which is easier to rebuild, a virtual house design on your PC or a framed or sketched literal design?

It is an algorithmic world. It defines what you fix for and how you prepare dinner, and it determines where your website shows up in Yahoo's index and Google's Page Rank System. It is used by webmasters everyday to determine how often a page can be viewed. The answer may be always, hourly, once a day, or only once depending on the desire of the webmaster. A good example is when you install a new Microsoft operating system and on first run you are redirected to their "run once" page. Can you say, 'hello, algorithm'? It is fairly straight forward. You use it daily. Go forth and embrace it. Go forth an enjoy it.

So, the 12 steps of alcoholics anonymous (AA) is the program algorithm. There. Who says, 'you can't teach an old dog new tricks'?

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

The Demise of Yahoo!?

Johnny Cash sang an old song that appears most apropos as Microsoft launches a hostile take over attempt of Yahoo. The song reminisced about Martin, Abraham and John. Asking the question wondered about all deceased, 'where have my old friends gone?'. As the computerman lay sleepless on his bed after hearing the news he pondered the possibilities, being an old U.S. Army
Intel Officer taps even played in his head.

We can all hope that like Mark Twain, Yahoo will be able to answer in the end that the reports and fears of my death have been greatly exaggerated. In the meantime, however, the inflated price in cash and stock that Microsoft has offered Yahoo stock holders will be hard to resist. It is another important consideration for family owned or closely held businesses before seriously thinking of making public offerings which make it far too easy to lose control. In fact one has to give up control to keep the regulators happy. Such is the essence of a publicly held stock. Really? How then do certain people like the Steve Ballmer, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs manage to keep such a tight grip and control of day to day operations?

Not that Microsoft don't know how to make money, they surely do. But, Yahoo has been an old friend. I don't anyone who considers Microsoft a friend. Yahoo has been reliable. Can Microsoft claim any modicum of reliability with a straight face?

Then there are those who started, sweated and built Yahoo watching their masterpiece being reduced to just another cheap (I never said inexpensive) painting hanging in Microsoft's gallery. The Tennessee Mountain Man's heart bleeds for them.

Yahoo has produced irreplaceable targeted traffic for many a business and website including your truly. MSN has produced little. We understand Microsoft's desire to compete more vigorously with Google, but they can't do what they now do well. Why bite off more? Why ruin the reputation of a great company like Yahoo by dragging it down to Microsoft's performance and reliability level?

Remote Helpdesk 1 has received several requests to join the Microsoft product testing and evaluation team which drew the ire of several staff members who detests Microsoft. The position comes with several benefits and the appointment is for one year... much like setting on any board. But, haven't we all tested Microsoft long enough? Is it not a love - hate relationship at best? Why add to
it by using, testing, and recommending improvements to their beta products only to be required to purchase them at a later date if you want to continue to use them?

Where are the feds in this picture? In 1984 under the Ronald Reagan Presidential Administration they had no qualms about breaking up Ma Bell because, said the government regulators, it was a monopoly. In the early 21st century when the phone companies are once again forming what appears to be monopolies one has to ask where is the George W. Bush Administration. Microsoft has long been operating and ruling through fear, intimidation, and threat of legal action like a monopoly or gangster. Some of us including the European Governments as ruled by their legal systems have believed it to be a monopoly verging on evil. Again, where is the protection of the people by the feds in this scenario?

Microsoft vs. Yahoo vs. Google vs. BlogLines vs. Newsgator vs. You: Make no mistake about it there is much more here than meets the eye... more than the battle of the titans. It determines whether or not there is competition in the search engine, internet advertising, and web indexing protocols all online business depends on and which determines in great measure whether or not an online entrepreneur lives or dies.

The final disposition of this matter will determine whether or not the internet user is forced into a box of ever decreasing parameters controlled by the few, financed (like the federal government) with the publics money.

Do we want, can we afford one less independent major search engine? There are currently only three: MSN, Google and Yahoo. To let either one force out or even agreeably buy the other is not desirable.

The demise of Yahoo? Yahoo! We need it... we even like it. It is profitable as is for all of us. Maybe Congress will get involved if all else fails and say, 'no this creates another undesirable monopoly'. We hope it is not the end for Yahoo as we know it lest we all be singing where is my old friend...

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.

Your Computer Is Your Enemy

The old cliché, "If you want a friend, get a dog" still stands in the 21st Century. It is well established in the medical community that animals can do much to extend the human life span as well as improve the quality of life. Don't live on or vicariously through your computer.

A pastor once said his job was to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. Thus we have the difference between a real live pet and an inanimate electro-mechanical object - in this case the personal computer. The pet comforts while the computer, improperly used and/or over used, is a thief and a murderer.

Besides, the computer, especially if you run a Microsoft Operating System and Microsoft production software, requires much more maintenance than does a pet. This alone is enough to drive most users' blood pressure through the roof. How many times do you suspect that needs to happen before it begins to take a toll on the human body? It is even more aggravating than the days when we only received three (3) snowy channels on a small black and white television and each channel required another trip outside in the rain, in the cold, in the snow, in the heat to adjust the huge antenna attached to a corner of the house which spilled the rain directly into your face as you looked up to see in which direction the antenna was pointing. If you were lucky someone was in the house calling to you when you got the best picture.

You know what I am talking about... like when your computer locks up with a box popping up on the monitor's screen saying it needs to restart now, and won't let you do anything else until you acquiesce and reboot. There goes your last few minutes of work. Another blood pressure jump! It sure is for the Tennessee Mountain Man!

Father may know best, but mother knows even better and she always made the children set across the room from the TV concerned about it ruining their vision. Now that same mom allows the children and grandchildren to set on top of a twenty-one (21) inch monitor, even closer to a laptop, and play games ad infinitum. The result being more and more of our children are wearing glasses and contact lenses at younger and younger ages.

Mom also insisted that little ones spend much more time outside playing in the yard than obsessing over the magic box in the corner, and the children were healthier. There were fewer cases of childhood diabetes and hardly any childhood obesity.

Children learned skills greater than cheating x-box and PSP, and mom and pop never heard of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. The computer man and everyone else is seemingly required to work on or at computer consoles to some extent these days. As a result, the entire family now either suffers from a computer related ailment or is at real risk of developing one.

With the advent and prevalence of the personal computer and gaming gizmos, the heart, which is a muscle, gets little or no exercise. As if the TV did not create enough couch potatoes resulting in what amounts to atrophy of the heart muscle, the PC seems to have claimed the remainder of man.

A computer cannot hold you on cold nights or enjoy a walk hand-n-hand with you in the moonlight. It cannot comfort you when you are sick or improve your mood when you are sad. It cannot feed you when you are hungry nor give you a drink when you are thirsty... at least not yet. The PC cannot yet carry on a civil or reasoned conversation. Irrespective of one's addictions and all the attractions on the internet, it is not true social interaction and it certainly cannot satisfy the libido try as some may.

Used improperly it can and does drive wedges between husbands and wives, and between children and parents. Like a drug, once addicted, and it is addictive, it can cost one his job and it has. Like a nosy gossiping neighbor or ticked off lover, it has the propensity to tell the world (friend and foe alike) everything it knows (both good and bad) about you. And, in case you didn't
know, there are hackers from people with malicious intentions, to your employer, to Microsoft, to insurance companies, to financial institutions, to the government who have the ability to ask your computer what it knows about you whenever they wish. And, your computer... your friend in whom you confide everything, like a spurned lover is more than willing to betray her paramour and spill her guts literally.

My computer... my friend? With such friends who needs enemies?

If you don't know how to protect yourself from a gabby computer you might want to seek the help of professionals like the folks at Remote Helpdesk 1. Now shut the glib computer down, and go outside and play.

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in computerman website design computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online computer repair. Reprint authorized with credits.