17 YEAR PROBLEM FOR MICROSOFT

Microsoft has had a vulnerability for 17 years, finally being patched in the current security update. Update security patches are to your computer what dead bolts, peep holes, and security systems are to your home. They eliminate the use of bug spray. Nevertheless, having gotten tons of updates, which presumably fix problems of security by automatic updates, it doesn't end up simplifying our lives. The bad guys find new holes as soon as Microsoft can fix them.

The ancient bug was discovered by Google security researcher Tavis Ormandy in January 2010 and involves a utility that allows newer versions of Windows to run very old programs. Mr Ormandy has found a way to exploit this utility in Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and 2008 as well as Windows Vista and Windows 7. for the whole article on BBC today, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8499859.stm.

So update and feel safe for the few minutes it takes for a hacker to find another way to mess up our computers. Like mountain climbers who climb because it is there, hackers hack 'because it is there'.

SANCTITY, MISGUIDED POSSIBLY, BUT SAFETY WITHIN THE FAMILY?

A thirteen year old girl has escaped her family after watching her father and brother sacrifice her nine year old sister as a suicide bomber and tried to get her to do the same. She is currently within the safety of the police and her story is truly frightening. To see it, click here. Meena told her story to BBC Pakistan correspondent Orla Guerin. Her brother and her father work for the Taliban and promised her she would reach Paradise before them. Fortunately, Meena was able to think for herself, as her story suggests. She watched her sister strapped to a heavy bomb which wrapped around her arms, body and legs, who complained it was too heavy to walk and was told she would be completely comfortable once she was sitting in the car. As she was led away, her mother fainted. Meena never saw her sister again.

Can any family member relate to this? We who don't believe in Paradise as a result of killing innocents find that the worst sort of promise. It is hard to think of these people as human rather than animals except that those of us who love animals know that even they are kinder to their families with very rare exception, probably brain damage.

DELIVER US, OH LORD, FROM THOSE WHO WOULD PUT WORDS OF THEIRS IN YOUR MOUTH

There is a suggestion, made by Mr. Peter String of the Family Research Council which wishes to criminalize gay sex. Now that we know that other primates have sex with same gender of their species we night begin to believe that homosexuality is NOT a choice...but these self-proclaimed morality setters, perhaps latently homosexual themselves as has been found in so many who are so verbally homophobic, might begin to listen to researchers, physicians and other professionals who have been studying this for years...but it probably won't happen!

An article, by Adele Stan can be read if full by clicking here. Be sure to watch the video clip at the bottom of the article. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, made a very sincere plea to rescind the current taboo of admitting gayness in the military. He made it an issue of integrity and raised the shame of this country expecting these many loyal-to-America patriots to defend our country while having to lie about who they are.

John McCain who used to be for the change before he was against it, is said to be for it again, now that Colin Powell has strongly endorsed getting rid of the 'Don't ask; don't tell' idiocy. I for one am happy he was not elected to be our President and regret that the Republicans ridicule those whom they call flip-floppers in derogatory fashion while turning their eyes away from their own flip-floppers.

TROUBLE: STUPID CAN'T BE CURED

Joshua Holland wrote another provocative article. This time he writes:
You Can’t Have Bipartisanship if the GOP Base is Psychotic After defining psychosis, he justifies his diagnosis by the following statistics:

• “Do you believe Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?” Yes 42%, No 36%, Not Sure 22%.

• “Do you believe Barack Obama wants the terrorists to win?” Yes 24%, No 43%, Not Sure 33%.

• “Do you believe ACORN stole the 2008 election?” Yes 21%, No 24%, Not Sure 55%.

• “Do you believe Barack Obama is a racist who hates White people?” Yes 31%, No 36%, Not Sure 33%.

• “Do you believe your state should secede from the United States?” The answer here is Yes 23%, No 58%, Not Sure 19%. On this basis, Kos declares: “42 percent of Republicans aren’t really patriotic.” Among Republicans in the South, secessionism is stronger at Yes 33%, No 52% Not Sure 15%.

He qualifies his observations by saying, "But only on its face. They’re not actually psychotic, because the reality they hold was carefully crafted for them not only by extremists on the wingnut blogs, but by the mainstream leaders of their party and by Fox News, a major cable outlet." For the entire article, click here. If only the Republicans could have a magic mirror that shows them things as they really are!
Rather than assuming these people are psychotic, they seem to resemble sheep who will follow a wolf in sheep's clothing, misleading them all the way to their own losses for which they take no self-responsibility.

ROGER AILES - OUT FOR RATINGS, NOT TRUTH

Every small child learns the safest course when you have done wrong is to deny your responsibility. Most mature adults out grow this childish tendency and face the consequences of their actions. In this world of technology, video, and fast news transmission it is even more amazing that there are still those who try to get away with this tactic.

Last Sunday, January 31, 2010,
Roger Ailes, CEO and American president of the Fox News Channel, was a guest on a talk show of another channel. During the Round Table discussion, he denied that Glenn Beck ever used the word slaughter. Today several shows had a field day play video tapes of Glenn Back doing just that. Ailes inaccurately said Beck was talking about Hitler and Stalin, patently wrong from the context in which it was said. He is quoted: "They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered.

Regarding Health Care which Ailes and Fox are clearly against. Ailes weaseled out of a reasonable explanation as to why they stopped showing the President 20 minutes before it was over when none of the other channels did.

Roger Ailes On "This Week": Defends Glenn Beck, Insists Fox Is No Longer At War With Obama

Fox News Channel President Roger Ailes insisted on Sunday that his network was no longer at war with the Obama White House and defended Fox's Glenn Beck over some of his more inflammatory statements.

Appearing for the first time on ABC's "This Week," Ailes said that Beck's often over-the-top rhetoric was politically legitimate, even if it ruffled a few feathers.

Reminded by HuffPost's Arianna Huffington that Beck has warned of "slaughter" and a "killing spree" for those not on board with the Obama administration's agenda, Ailes insisted that the reference wasn't to this president but rather to murderous dictators.

"Well, he was talking about Hitler and Stalin slaughtering people, so I think he was probably accurate," he said. "I think he speaks English, I don't know. But I don't misinterpret any of his words. He did say one unfortunate thing that he apologized for. But that happens in live television."

Ailes was wrong. Beck's reference was, indeed, to Obama. Here is the "killing spree" quote from October 2009:

Spread the wealth -- hello, Mao -- that is what this is all about. And anybody not on board, look out because you too could be the next victim of the killing spree. Is it far fetched to think that [pay] Czar [Kenneth] Feinberg could go into Walmart and argue it that it is just too important to the economy if Walmart fails? I mean it's the biggest store in the world. We feel you are being reckless in your pay structure Walmart. We have to bring the unions in to control your pay. What about Rupert Murdoch? if News Corp failed would it be harmful to the economic health of America?... Obama has repeated over and over again just how dangerous, old and unworkable our economy is.


And here is Beck warning of a possible impending "slaughter" in November 2009:

I told you yesterday, buckle up your seatbelt, America. Find the exit -- there's one here, here, and here. Find the exit closest to you and prepare for a crash landing. Because this plane is coming down, because the pilot is intentionally steering it into the trees!

Most likely, it'll happen sometime after Christmas. You're gonna see this economy come up -- we're already seeing it, and now it's gonna start coming back down again. And when you see the effects of what they're doing to the economy, remember these words: We will survive. No -- we'll do better than survive, we will thrive. As long as these people are not in control. They are taking you to a place to be slaughtered!


From the Huffington Post: "Lamenting what he felt was the "word police" nature of the questions being directed at him, Ailes tried to turn the tables by saying that he had been subjected to some ridicule on the pages of the Huffington Post. The remarks he cited, however, did not come from a Huffington Post employee, but were written by a blogger, longtime TV critic Bill Mann. What's more, Ailes misquoted what Mann had said about him. Mann did not, as Ailes claimed, describe him as "a malignant tumor." Here is what he wrote: "So, while Fox News, as the Times story stresses, may be a financial success story, it's also a malignant tumor on the body politic. For that you can thank Roger Ailes."

TRYING TO FIND DEFINITIONS FOR WORDS I READ

For several months I have indulged myself reading 19th C romantic novels...because the format for them demands a happy ending. Sometimes I develop a list of twenty or more words I do not understand (though I can guess at the meaning by the context though, compulsive soul that I am, I force myself to confirm that I have guessed accurately. My double volume, minuscule-print, OED (Oxford English Dictionary)has been so little used since searches have usually been on the computer/Internet. I need a ladder to reach the OED. However, I am currently being driven to yank it down because our modern dictionaries do not have most of these words; a loss for the language.

Whether the author's sources vary from mine, words are either misspelled or have changed. This makes it even more difficult to trace definitions. Pride and Prejudice sequel authors who, properly, try to write in the language of the times, give me the most look-ups. Words like alt, amanuensis, chary, concupiscence, ensorcell, fubsy (a definition of me), impuissance....and, no, I am not going to give you all the definitions. However, I can let you know that there is a great free dictionary on these words if you check out http://dictionary.reference.com/. Good luck if you care enough to work hard at understanding the world and words.

SOME OF THE MANY REASONS I AVOID TRAVEL

Machu Pichu represents a 'you can't get there from here' mentality. I can't imagine why one would want to hoist themselves to an altitude where breathing is difficult to see a landscape. Personally, since the advent of improved cameras and television, I love to sit in my living room and travel with my remote.

Now, on BBC, I have more confirmation as to the unexpected nature of disasters.

This site tells of a 29 year old woman stabbed in the neck and murdered this month in Antigua. Travel Editor Peter Greenberg Gives Tips for Keeping Yourself and Your Belongings Safe When You're Traveling Abroad He wrote on 1/29 from New York, How to Protect Yourself in Paradise He suggests, male or female, don't go out alone at night. Leave your passport in the hotel safe but carry a copy with you at all times. Don't use fanny packs or backpacks to carry your money...carry as little as you may need and use a money belt. For the whole article,click here.

People who are afraid of terrorists bringing down a plane haven't an inkling of the many dangers in foreign places. To me, it is like willingly walking through a mine field that I don't have to choose. When I was in Athens last, 32 years ago, they were digging to build the Metro. Now done, they have made a museum of the artifacts right in the corridors for the world to see as they stroll by for a train.





Another site I would like to see again this many years later is the Akrotiri digs on Santorini (Thera). Fortunately, friends have visited recently and I have learned that I probably saw as much then as there is to see now...most of what they are finding is in boxes still and it will take many years for it to be labeled, identified, and ready to be shown to the public.

Museums all over the world, beautiful statues, church windows, art, people, views, all these can be seen easily through DVD collections, the Internet, and friends' travel pictures and descriptions. It's almost as good as being there without the hassle of getting there, spending money, risking security and exhaustion to name but a few of the less attractive aspects of travel today.