Mark's Views, Perhaps — from behind my eyeballs
Yahoo! News reports:
Microsoft releasing emergency patch for perilous IE flaw
Microsoft will release an emergency patch on Wednesday to fix a perilous software flaw allowing hackers to hijack Internet Explorer browsers and take over computers.
The US software giant said on Tuesday that in response to “the threat to customers” it immediately mobilized security engineering teams worldwide to deliver a software cure “in the unprecedented time of eight days.”
Lighthouse Trails Research reports in their blog:
On Monday, December 1, a SWAT team with semi-automatic rifles entered the private home of the Stowers family in LaGrange, Ohio, herded the family onto the couches in the living room, and kept guns trained on parents, children, infants and toddlers, from approximately 11 AM to 8 PM. The team was aggressive and belligerent. The children were quite traumatized. At some point, the “bad cop” SWAT team was relieved by another team, a “good cop” team that tried to befriend the family. The Stowers family has run a very large, well-known food cooperative called Manna Storehouse on the western side of the greater Cleveland area for many years.
There were agents from the Department of Agriculture present, one of them identified as Bill Lesho. The search warrant is reportedly supicious-looking. Agents began rifling through all of the family’s possessions, a task that lasted hours and resulted in a complete upheaval of every private area in the home. Many items were taken that were not listed on the search warrant. The family was not permitted a phone call, and they were not told what crime they were being charged with. They were not read their rights. Over ten thousand dollars worth of food was taken, including the family’s personal stock of food for the coming year. All of their computers, and all of their cell phones were taken, as well as phone and contact records. The food cooperative was virtually shut down. There was no rational explanation, nor justification, for this extreme violation of Constitutional rights.
What’s the rest of the story, I wonder.
Here. I’ll do a quick Google news search. (A regular Google search actually yields more results than the three I just got with that one.)
At least be careful.
Well, at least, make sure you have up-to-date anti-virus software on your computer(s).
| Destructive Koobface virus turns up on Facebook
Facebook’s 120 million users are being targeted by a virus dubbed “Koobface” that uses the social network’s messaging system to infect PCs, then tries to gather sensitive information such as credit card numbers. It is the latest attack by hackers increasingly looking to prey on users of social networking sites. […] McAfee warned in a blog entry on Wednesday that its researchers had discovered that Koobface was making the rounds on Facebook. […] “People tend to let their guard down. They think you’ve got to log in with an account, so there is no way that worms and other viruses could infect them,” Boyd said. […] McAfee has not yet identified the perpetrators behind Koobface, who are improving the malicious software behind the virus in a bid to outsmart security at Facebook and MySpace. |
Alternate solution: Cease and desist from using Facebook.
And that’s my best offer. 😆
That’s what crossed my mind as I read her article.
OK, so I’ll call some her way. 🙄
| Giving Up on God
As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit. Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D. I’m bathing in holy water as I type. To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn’t soon cometh. |
Ma’am, God is a great big problem. You got a problem with that?
She continues:
| Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. |
Armband religion — that’s the problem, not God!
What everyone needs is a heart-strings, shoe-strings, purse-strings religion — sincere, genuine, committed, liveable.
And there’s more from KP:
| So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners. |
I say the world needs more preachers “doing” the Gospel on wooden crates on street corners rather than “doing” politics on plush platforms in religiousy buildings.
Then, enveloped in smoke while blindfolded, she adds:
| Which is to say, the GOP has surrendered its high ground to its lowest brows. |
Oh my! 😯 What makes them “lowest brows”? (Please note: The question does not imply disagreement with the statement.)
And what do you make of this assertion?
| And shifting demographics suggest that the Republican Party — and conservatism with it — eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one’s heart where it belongs. |
It belongs there, yes.
But not to stay there!
And if that’s true of religion, it’s far more true of Jesus Christ.
He belongs in the privacy of your heart. And from there He will live out His life through yours.
Now, one more comment from Kathleen Parker:
| Meanwhile, it isn’t necessary to evict the Creator from the public square, surrender Judeo-Christian values or diminish the value of faith in America. |
Oh?
Breaking News Thought: Does this mean she supports nativity scenes in the public square?
Now for the funniest part of the article:
I think somebody at the Washington Post better fix that!
HT: Harris, commenting over at WorldMagBlog.
God has chosen to elevate you as President-elect of the United States of America, just as He chose to elevate Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, Ford, and Nixon before you. (And many others, of course.)
May God be exalted in your administration. And in this country as a result of your administration.
May He keep you and your family.
And may God’s people find in Him the grace and renewal they need for the dim times in which we find ourselves…and for the darkening times which hover on the horizon.
Meanwhile, in other news, Israel launches first airstrike on Gaza since June. I wonder if this portends the trend in the Middle East over the next two months, as the Israelis prepare for President Bush’s departure from office.
Oh, and I’m glad I can not expect Mr. McCain’s disappointed legions to resort to riots and street battles and violent protests.
Catholics, Muslims open landmark talks at Vatican
Senior Vatican and Islamic scholars launched their first Catholic-Muslim Forum on Tuesday to improve relations between the world’s two largest faiths.
The three-day meeting comes two years after Pope Benedict angered the Muslim world with a speech implying Islam was violent and irrational. In response, 138 Muslim scholars invited Christian churches to a new dialogue to foster mutual respect through a better understanding of each other’s beliefs.
In their manifesto, “A Common Word,” the Muslims argued that both faiths shared the core principles of love of God and neighbor. The talks focus on what this means for the religions and how it can foster harmony between them.
The meeting, including an audience with Pope Benedict, is the group’s third conference with Christians after talks with United States Protestants in July and Anglicans last month.
Jesus is the Word. (See 1 John 1.)
How can Muslims have a common Word with Catholics?
Or with Christians?
Fraud Alert!
| Democrat Barack Obama came up a big winner in the presidential race in Dixville Notch, N.H., where the nation's first Election Day votes were cast and counted early Tuesday.
Obama defeated John McCain 15-6. Independent Ralph Nader was also on the ballot, but received no votes. The first voter, following tradition established in 1948, was picked ahead of the midnight voting and the rest of the town’s 19 registered voters followed suit in Tuesday’s first minutes. |
That may well summarize this whole election thing.
If Barack gets an extra vote for every twenty cast, he should be settin’ pretty well before this time tomorrow night.
😯