I’m certainly not the only European who is very happy with the new president-elect of the United States: Barack Obama! Not only because he will be the first Black president of the US, but also because he seems to be a man with common sense, a quality that was sadly lacking in George W. Bush who will, without any doubt, enter history as the worst president the good citizens of the U.S.A. were ever stupid enough to vote into the White House - twice!

The election of Barack Obama brings hope to the world. He doesn’t seem to be overmuch fond of starting illegal wars, like Bush and his crowd are. He also knows that America is only a relatively small part of the world that, unfortunately, has managed to earn itself the reputation of ”Evil Empire”. In short: he might prefer God to bless the world, instead of only America.  

Due to recent pleasing developments, there are already many “Barack Obama memorabilia” on the market. I would strongly advise collectors of Black Americana, African-American memorabilia or Presidential collectables to invest right now in the relatively rare objects, instead of going for the obligatory campaign buttons. We have witnessed an important piece of history - our descendants will love us for preserving at least some of it.

Jon Leger is a well-known internet guru: a programmer and the creator of many clever pieces of internet marketing software like 3WayLinks, Instant Article Wizard, and lots of others. These little programs are generally good, but when it comes to customer relations Jonathan Leger sucks majestically, and where common human decency is concerned he can’t even pass my admittedly fairly liberal standards.

On August 15 or thereabout I signed up for the beta version of a new project of his. I will honor my promise not to prematurely divulge name and exact character of this project, so you’ll have to wait for these data until it comes out of beta and goes public. It’s somewhat like his 3WayLinks program, and that’s all you’ll hear from me right now.

Anyway, yesterday I resigned in total disgust from that program, firstly because of Jon’s policy on rejecting postings and/or links to be promoted with it - or rather: to the total lack of policy. The programs beta forum shows many upset threads about the total arbitrariness with which Jon decides what is acceptable, and what not. Some famous examples of stuff that was rejected are postings containing words like “romantic”, “liposuction”, “meditation” or “yoga”, or links to websites about these or other subjects that are interpreted by Jon as “religious” or “sexual” in nature.

I have no problem whatsoever with Jon wanting to avoid subjects like religion, sex and politics in this new system for indeed: those are subjects that often whip people into a great frenzy, and induce them to start the most remarkable and spectacular flame wars (wide grin)! But what I do have problems with, is Jon’s very personal, peculiar, unpredictable, highly unusual and ever widening interpretation of what’s politics, sex, or religion, and what’s not.

Secondly, I have problems with the way he treats his customers when they protest against his weird and unusual judgements. Jon Leger simply refuses to consider their position and arguments, and now he has even begun locking threads about the subject, not to mention his announcement that he’ll delete future threads about these issues.

The third reason for me declining to do any further business with Jon Leger, is his hypocrisy: he refuses to take a stand on his way of running the place, but blames others instead. He repeatedly states that words like “meditation” or “liposuction” are unacceptable because people who will see them posted on their donor blogs will object to them and start a row - but he simply fails to recognize that on the forum there are many people who beg him to allow these words… and not a single person who wants him to disallow them! Nobody on “the program” sees anything inappropriate in yoga or liposuction but Jon himself, yet he lets his own opinion prevail over those of the people who pay his bills, to wit us. So the problem is Jon - not the members.

Reason four: Jon turned down a truly innocent website, Yahrps Pick and Shovel Store, because it promoted ClickBank products and… ClickBank has also links to products about dating, religion and hypnosis - but Jon disapproves of hypnosis, dating and religion, the latter of course only as long as it isn’t his own: Jehovah’s Witnesses. Well now, do I have news for Jonathan Leger! If for that infantile reason ClickBank is taboo, then the whole of internet should be taboo to Jon, because the net is the very epitome of links to uncountable subjects that our misguided guru despises and condems. So Jon, matey, if you’re really sincere you should go look for another source of income than internet business. Of course you’ll have to take a step back financially, but that shouldn’t be a problem - should it?

Five: Jon Leger turned out to be a bigot. Another posting was refused by him not because of a “bad word”, but because of the following sentence (I don’t remember the exact wording, but this comes very close): “Marriage counselling is not only suitable for married couples, but also for couples who are living together, and for same sex couples“.

Well well well, mister Leger is homophobe too! It is pretty clear that Jonathan Leger will not tolerate anything which doesn’t conform to his own religion or cult. But since he can’t ban everything else without banning Christianity/Jehovah’s Witnesses too, he pretends he has no choice but to ban all religion, or anything which could be construed as such.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear… all these rejections together suggest to me that Jon Leger is a narrow minded bigot, and I do not want to pay money to the likes of those. So I’ll simply take my business elsewhere. Or nowhere: using such a program as his sure brings in money, but actually I care relatively little for the stuff. I can only squeeze one potato at a time into my mouth anyway. My peace of mind is much more valuable to me, and if something or somebody threatens it, I simply follow the advice Mr Miyagi gave when asked how to win a fight: “No be there” (wide grin)!

Ladies and gentlemen, I’m retired now, but I have been a non-denominational chaplain (military and civilian) for several decades, and during my years of chaplaincy I’ve seen many people like Jon. I have always ministered and will always minister to them without any hesitation, I have always helped and will always help them wherever I can, I have always prayed and will always pray with them and for them - but I will not, repeat not, give them my money for any sort of bigoted business. Good grief: I may be a chaplain, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have principles (wide grin)!

Be well!

Rev. Dr. Jaap Verduijn, AKA Yahrp.

Being a ClickBank affiliate never made anybody poorer, but it made a lot of people richer! You guessed it: I am a ClickBank affiliate (wide grin)! One of the best ways to sell clickBank products is via an automated storefront, like I have at Yahrps Pick and Shovel Store. Now what do picks and shovels have to do with internet marketing? Easy: just like the gold-diggers of yore could only mine the yellow stuff with good tools like shovels and picks, so can internet marketers only make their bundle with the tools of their trade! The site sells an enormous lot of such tools, but that’s not all: you can also get yourself a similar store there! Y’know, not many gold miners struck it rich, but all venders of picks and shovels retired early, and very wealthy!

Having been born in a time when autism was hardly known to “us” and only slightly better to doctors, I was already in my late fifties when I got finally diagnosed with an autistic spectrum disorder that’s pretty much, but not quite, like Asperger’s Syndrome. This careful diagnosis suits me fine, because I prefer my doctors not to take themselves and their opinions deadly serious. Too many people in my family have been mutilated and even killed… after a diagnosis that the doctor was “absolutely sure” of… was wrong.
 
But, whether diagnosed or not, I have been autistic all my life - so I am aware that some educational aids, specifically tuned to the learning process of autistic people, would certainly have made my school years somewhat more pleasurable and much more effective. No, I’m not complaining. Eventually I became a fully self-taught man, being able to “out-intellect” just about everybody around me, but it could all have been so much easier. That’s why I am so happy with all the educational tools that are available now for autistic children and others with related special learning needs. Many decades after Asperger and Kanner blew the whistle, educators and authorities have finally perceived the sound. Good oh!

Every now and then I see a picture that makes me remember my younger and duly virile years. It’s not that 63 barren winters have actually extinguished my enjoyment of getting laid or the simple pleasure of watching beautiful girls and women, but hey, let’s be serious: at my age, at least once or twice a day a thought enters my head that is not kind of sex related (wide grin)! Sure, it is quickly and spontaneously replaced by more erotically tinted ponderings, but still: I’m not obsessed anymore!

I encountered the picture shown on the left on istockphoto and, being a basically honest guy, I didn’t pirate it but bought the non-exclusive reproduction rights. I use a lot of pictures from this service, for very little money one gets very good photos, illustrations, flashes or videos for ones websites. The thoughts this pic triggered definitely were sex related, for I’ve always maintained that a beautiful woman wearing just one little skimpy thing, tends to be more sexually exciting than a totally naked woman. Sure, after a while everything comes off (happy grin!), but initially the pleasing view of a spectacular lady in equally spectacular lingerie is quite sufficient to get the juices flowing!

Actually, good lingerie even recalls the olden days of our very early youth, when birthday presents and Christmas gifts were so much nicer, so much more appreciated, when we had to unwrap them from beautiful paper. Sometimes we even appreciated the paper more than the gift inside - but that was taking it a bit far. Although… I probably would go bankrupt if I had to buy a drink for all the guys on this planet who, grown up and all, rather fondle the bra than the boobs! I, being a greedy person, want it all: first fondle the goodies while they’re still gift-wrapped, then unwrap them and caress them without. Yes, it takes all sorts to make a world.

Oh, well… some men have a “thing” about fine feet in high heels, others can’t hold themselves in check anymore while viewing a leather clad female body - let me be deliriously happy with my predilection for pretty boobs in beautiful bras (wide and lecherous grin)!

Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently stood up and publicly aired his professional opinion that the “internet is a cesspool”, referring to its general lack of good content and the amount of false and/or idiotic “information” on it. Although I am the last person to object to Schmidts description, I am mightily pissed off that he ventilated it in his function as Google honcho. Google is nothing more for the internet than what a telephone directory is for the telephone net: a directory. Googles only function is letting us search for whatever we want to search for, and it should refrain from making public any judgement or opinion regarding the content of the internet and whatever happens to be part of it.

I don’t want the publishers of my local phone directory publicly stating that the calls from and to my telephone number tend to contain more bullshit than useful info (even though it’s true: I have two teenage daughters - grin!), or that the conversations via our local exchange are no better than a cesspool. Of course they’re clever enough to keep their trap shut: if they flapped their gums too much, such a phone directory would pretty soon find itself without advertisers and other means of income - and so should Google. It’s not up to a fugging directory or search engine to judge whatever people are looking up or searching for. Google should make it easy for us to find what we want, and refrain from getting out of line by negatively judging their customers - to wit us. They should do their frigging job, and nothing else.

I’m not in the habit of recommending lots of stuff to my readers, for some very good reasons. Firstly because I prefer everybody to make their own mistakes without hitch-hiking along on my coat tails, secondly because I’m sick and tired of the endless whining about “affiliate links”, and thirdly because most of the “plug-in-for-perfect-profit-money-making-monsters” are pure, house-high stinking, undiluted piles of shit anyway.

If and when I finally recommend something, it’s because I use it and like it. I want you to go to Happar ME and have a damn good look around. Bloody site is confusing as hell, and doesn’t even come close to making clear what an astonishingly useful piece of software it is about. So take your time, digest as much as you can, and if you’re interested in ordering go to the “Buy” page and then straight to the “Deal of the Century”. Completely disregard all the other offers - just grab the “deal”.

Now why should you do that? Simple: because I did. No, you shouldn’t mindlessly do everything I do just because I say so, but when it comes to Happar ME it’s not a bad idea at all… on account of the sales site being too laid back to make even remotely clear what gem Happar actually is. Only last week I took the plunge myself, and since then I’ve been smiling and giggling every time I sit down behind the computer constructing my Happar sites. To put it the short way: I only discovered its amazing potential and qualities after I bought it - and so will you.

In this case my initial three reasons for not recommending things to you don’t apply: Happar ME is not a pile of shit, the link I provide is not an affiliate link, and in this case I do not mind you holding on to my coat tails because otherwise you either wouldn’t have discovered it, or would have laid it aside on account of its woolly promotion.

Lemme finally add that I don’t give a fiddlers fugg whether you buy it or not. I just thought I’d mention this little gem to you.

Be well!

Yahrp.

In only eight years George W. Bush, the Republican president of the United States, has almost but not yet fully managed to destroy his country, although it’s not for a lack of trying, lying and dying - the latter having been done by more than 4000 young American soldiers, the other two by mister president himself.

Unfortunately (although not unexpectedly) the Republican Party hasn’t learned a bloody thing from this disastrous presidency. On the contrary: they seem to be hell-bent on destroying their country even further. Y’know, back in 2000 the Republicans considered McCain a worse presidential candidate than young Bush, pulling the former out of the race and helping the latter into the White House. In other words: Republicans believe Bush to be better presidential material than McCain. So what do they do now, with the 2008 elections coming up? Apparently they think Bush wasn’t bad enough, so they give the 2008 presidential candidacy to the man they consider inferior to him: McCain. Now that’s pretty creative thinking, if you ask me.

Sadly though, the new candidate is old and feeble - if elected president, he may not live long enough to misgovern the US fully back into the palaeozoicum. But that’s where the vice-president comes in! By definition, vice-presidential candidates are less competent than presidential candidates - otherwise their roles would have been reversed. So if McCain croaks, an even lower rung on the ladder of competency will be reached with “running mate” Sarah Palin, of whom I can only say that I’d rather see her legs wrapped in ecstasy around my butt than “running” for the mightiest office in the world.

The United States should worry less about the enemies outside than about the enemies within: their own (vice-)presidential candidates, and the Republicans who cheer them on.

Due to a rather picturesque array of neurological ailments I’ll never pilot an aircraft again: I’m so thoroughly grounded that I’m almost subterranean (grin)! This doesn’t mean though that I’ve lost my interest in, and my love for, aviation and flying, on the contrary! Regularly I take to the virtual air in my flight simulator, and when I finaly tire of this enjoyable make-believe, I polish up my aircraft sales website and make a bit of money. The most recent addition is a fully fledged aviation and aircraft search engine, not only bringing up search results but also articles, pictures, videos and more. It’s a money making addition to a site that’s already a money maker!

It’s often said that 95 percent of all internet entrepreneurs fail within a year. That’s the optimistic view: pessimists speak of 98 percent. Either way, it’s a bloody lot and in most cases it’s sad - but fortunately every now and then you also see some braindead duffer fail on account of being greatly deserving of the disaster.

Like the incredible galah whom I encountered this week on one of the many internet marketers forums, where the backward twit wished to be informed on how to create text links in postings. Now the use of html is, of course, basic kindergarten stuff that should be known by every would-be internet millionaire long before they consider internet marketing as a profession - so I replied: “The exact same way as you do it anywhere else: simple html”. Back came the disgusted reaction: “I have to learn html?! I don’t think so!!”

It’s mentally substandard drongos like this, who take the piss out of me. Nobody will even think of building a brick and mortar store without knowing how to use a trowel. Why then does this kind of dressed-up-in-suit bonobo endeavour building an internet store without wanting to learn the use of its basic and essential tool: html? Is it sheer lazyness, ignorance, or plain oldfashioned stupidity? Probably al three. Fugging idiot!