Stormfields

3 Ways to Protect Your Online Accounts

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Image from: http://plummerchristopher.tumblr.com/post/96086325491/upon-his-return-to-his-villa-the-captain-pulls

As some of you know, I’ve now proudly earned the enmity of several alt nuts. So, let me recommend three things to protect yourself NOW rather than later from these thugs. After all, they don’t just harass, they’re actually using relatively intelligent and sophisticated cyber attacks against personal and professional accounts.

You (at a company, think tank, magazine, university) need to take serious personal precautions. That is, don’t wait for your institution to protect you.  They might not be able; they might not want the publicity; and they might just hope the attacks will go away.  You have to take charge of your own accounts.

As one of John Moser’s friends, Joe Murphy, reminded me, be proactive rather than waiting for an attack–after which you have no choice but to be reactive.

If you’re on a Mac, it’s indispensable that you use
1) a password vault. I’ve fallen in love with 1password from Agile Bits. Not only is the program intuitive, but the folks who run the program respond IMMEDIATELY to any problems. One solid company.

And:
2) Malware/virus protection (yes, even on a Mac). I recommend VirusBarrier from Intego. Once again, I can’t praise the company highly enough. I needed help immediately when the attacks came, and the company went overboard to help me.

Both companies have earned my lifelong loyalty. Again, do not wait for your institutions to provide protection. Do it personally.

And, third, for all folks of Mac, Linux, or PC persuasion,
rewatch The Sound of Music. Be Captain Von Trapp, and rip up racist rags.

Looking Back at Law School (Pulliam)

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Pulliam’s homepage.  Go, quick now, said the bird.

Mark Pulliam’s new blog is a thing of wit and intelligence.  Enjoy.

In recent years my law school alma mater has hosted an annual “celebration of diversity” event, which I recently attended out of curiosity. I thought that my law school class of long ago was quite diverse, with students from all over Texas, who had attended a variety of colleges and universities located throughout the country, representing a wide range of backgrounds—socio-economic, age, marital status, political orientation, and otherwise.

Alas, that is not what “diversity” means these days. “Diversity” connotes the politically-correct assortment of students (and faculty) from specific racial and ethnic groups that were “under-represented” in the era of primarily meritocratic admissions.  Race-conscious affirmative action at the University of Texas School of Law—once considered controversial and sparingly used—has “fixed” that.

To keep reading, please click here: https://misruleoflaw.com/2018/02/10/looking-back-at-law-school-a-lawyer-ruminates-on-legal-education/

Pray for Russell Kirk’s Beatification (TIC)

As shocking as it might seem to those who knew Russell Kirk as a bad (in terms of practice) Catholic, he deserves sainthood. Here is my case for Saint Russell of Mecosta… 1,202 more words

via Saint Russell of Mecosta? — The Imaginative Conservative

Glenn Arbry (TIC): Shaping the Culture

For much of contemporary thought, God is an invention. But the idea of God accords with the nature of reality. Belief in God is useful for human order, as it centers and grounds all knowledge… 856 more words

via Shaping the Culture — The Imaginative Conservative

Denny O’Neil Interviews

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Detective Comics #457.

Denny O’Neil has always been one of my favorite contemporary writers.  It was his Batman (along with Neal Adam’s) that I first encountered in the early 1970s with my first comic book in Hays, Kansas.

Lately, this grand gentleman has been giving lots of interviews and retrospectives on his life as a writer.  One of my favorite interviews is to be found here: https://13thdimension.com/the-denny-oneil-interviews-there-is-no-hope-in-crime-alley/

O’Neil reveals how much Dorthy Day and the Catholic Worker movement influenced him and his vision of Gotham and of Bruce Wayne.

And, O’Neil remembers a wonderful quote from Dorothy Day: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s … and, by the way, Caesar doesn’t deserve anything.”

DRAMA by Yes (1980)

Following in the footsteps of the mighty Sean Tonar and magnificent James Turner, I want to continue the DRAMA. DRAMA is one of the finest albums ever produced by Yes, and, by this claim, I certainly mean no disrespect to my heroes, Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. DRAMA is, however, exactly what the band needed […]

via PROG Should Always Be About DRAMA — Progarchy

Power Vs. Authority

This morning at The Imaginative Conservative, I get the chance to examine Nisbet’s ideas regarding power as opposed to authority, and why the former destroys community and the latter leavens it.  Hope you enjoy.

Power, in and of itself, has become an “ideology,” according to Robert Nisbet. It is, by its very nature, incapable of understanding nuance… As I had the opportunity to write in my previous essay for The Imaginative Conservative, Oxford University Press gave the grand sociologist and historian of ideas, Robert A. Nisbet, a chance to…

via How Power Destroys Community — The Imaginative Conservative

Anglo-American Chronology, 1534-1689

Anglo-American Chronology, 1534-1689

For American Heritage

–Birzer

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Sir Thomas More, executed 1535

1550s

1528/29: William Tyndale first to employ “divine right of kings”

1534: Act of Supremacy undoes over 1,000 years of Anglo-Saxon Common Law

1535: Execution of Sir Thomas More and John Fisher

1547: Henry VIII dies

1558-1603: Reign of Elizabeth I

Read More

Farewell to Kings (and Faith): Neil Peart, 1977

bradbirzer's avatarProgarchy

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the release of A FAREWELL TO KINGS.

rush farewell 40th Anniversary Edition

What followed, 1977’s A Farewell to Kings, though, had far more in common with 1976’s 2112 than it would with 1980’s Permanent Waves.  Not appearing on the market until September 1, 1977, A Farewell to Kings ended the new album every six months schedule Rush has followed thus far.  A brilliant album in and of itself, A Farewell to Kings still belongs to Rush 2.1 as I have defined it.  So does the follow-up album, Hemispheres.  Certainly, Rush tried many new things—in terms of album structure, lyrical depth and story telling, and musical complexity—than it had on the first several albums.  “We had written material that was a little beyond us, considering our level of musicianship at the time,” Lee later admitted.[i]  But the progress is in continuity…

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Founding a REPUBLIC Not a Democracy (TAC)

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A republican, armed with musket and plow.

This evening, at The American Conservative–founding a REPUBLIC not a democracy.

Even the most pro-interventionist of the American founders, Alexander Hamilton, could never have imagined or desired the kind of federal government we have now. When he wrote of “energy” in government, he meant it as a means of restraint. To give “energy” to government meant, at least to Hamilton, giving the federal government the means to execute the powers expected of it by its Constitution. Rather brilliantly, he argued that a government charged with a duty but not empowered by the specific rules of that government to accomplish its duty would merely make up its own rules, thus taking government away from restraint and toward leviathan. Though many libertarians think of Hamilton as the touchstone for all future expansive government, they’re wrong. Even Alexander Hamilton desired ways to limit the expansion of government, and whether he wanted a strong executive or not, he envisioned a small, commercial republic as the proper outcome of the American revolution.
 

We Need a SERIOUS Immigration Debate (TAC)

It’s time for conservatives (and libertarians) to have a VERY serious debate about immigration.  The issue is way too important to leave to emotions and assumptions.

As Christians around the world celebrated the arrival of the Three Kings—the Magi of the Orient—on Epiphany, the president of the United States called for $33 billion to shore up America’s borders with $18 billion for the wall.  Would the Magi have been admitted in 2018? “Excuse me, Balthasar, but I need to see that your papers are in order.  Oh, I’m sorry, but your gift of myrrh exceeds our 3.2 ounces of liquid allowed.”

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/birzer/bring-on-the-conservative-debate-for-immigration/