Category: Societal Decay

Jesse Winton: Another Casualty

G.K. Chesterton’s philosophical opponent, George Bernard Shaw is quoted as saying, “Youth is wasted on the Young.”  This is one of many ideas that came to mind while reading the latest missive from Jess Winton. Another is a quote that some have attributed to Charles Darwin; “I was a young man with unformed ideas.”

Winton and his father produced a pro-gun film called Targeted: Exposing The Gun Control Agenda. It was released at the end of last summer with the hope to inform folks about the agenda of the Left and to influence the upcoming November election. I have previously blogged about attending the premier of the film with Jesse, his father, and others that were in the film. Link: Targeted

Now, six months after it was released, Jesse Winton has decided to repudiate and renounce the film.
Here are a few excerpts of his essay.

“I regret making Targeted.”

“I spent four years of my life making a project that, for a time, I was proud of.”

“So, I regret making Targeted. I regret that it was fundamentally biased toward a particular viewpoint. I regret that it lacked empathy towards anyone that wasn’t a supporter of the Second Amendment, instead judging their motives as evil.”

Link: Why I Regret Making Targeted

I knew Winton and his family while they were making the film and know several folks that were extras in the film. Were this all that Jesse repudiated, I would still be shocked but unfortunately, he has made other more disturbing statements. The only difference is that I got a copy of this statement before he deleted it.

You see Jesse doesn’t have the courage of his convictions to stand by what he says. Twice I found Facebook posts that he initiated where as soon as he was caught advocating positions contrary to the theology of his father, he would delete the posts. One was a full throated defenses of “gay marriage”.

Jesse has left the Calvinist reservation and gone in another direction. Two themes that you will see repeatedly are his proclamation that he is a Libertarian and that he has a hatred of Donald Trump.

“Firstly, hear me say very clearly that … I am staunchly Libertarian. I have a hard time with Conservatism and the ways that it has manifested itself in our culture today.”

OK, what does this statement mean? Winton repudiates both Liberals and Conservatives and thinks that Libertarianism is a better way? Really? To some folks, Libertarians are all about live and let live; in a non-judgmental sort of way. The problem that I have with Libertarianism is that followed to its logical conclusion; it is a repudiation of Christianity. Sin is an integral part of being Libertarian. Prostitution, drug use, abortion, homosexuality, and a host of other things (euphemistically called “victimless crimes”) are perfectly fine according to a Libertarian worldview. However, all these are contrary to Biblical teaching.

Conservatism is not the same as a Biblical worldview but it often comes closer than either Libertarianism or Liberalism. Conservatives and Christians have many things in common. Politically, we both believe in limited government and that morality has a place being codified into law. The civil law exists to protect citizens from harming themselves and others, punishing crime, and defending the nation. All these are anathema to the Libertarian mindset.

Christianity does not allow room for the axiom, “My country right or wrong” or “the ends justifies the means” as some Conservatives seem to believe. The family, Church, and State have clearly defined roles. The Bible does not proscribe one form of human government as superior to all others but it does say that God’s Law is Supreme. Nations and their people are judged on the basis of how well we uphold His Standards.

This brings up to Donald Trump.

“Unfortunately, what we’re seeing now under the Trump administration is the result of years of divisive politics that gave American’s an excuse to not listen to each other. Everyone looked for ways to point fingers, we searched for methods by which we could confirm our own bias, and on a small level, Targeted was part of that. Fortunately, Targeted’s reach was limited. But it still had a reach. And I wish it hadn’t.”

This paragraph is full of nonsense from someone that should know better. Donald Trump is not now nor ever been a Conservative. Trump is outside of traditional political categories. He is President today because he said in effect, “a pox on both your houses” to the Democrats and Republicans in elected office. Trump called them frauds and said somebody needs to get off the track Obama put us on and go another way.

Last time I checked, there was a battle for the hearts and souls of men and the political divide in this country is along spiritual lines even more than policy ones.

If you look at Winton’s Facebook posts (at least the ones he hasn’t deleted yet), you will see that he endorses the Trump = Hitler meme. Last week, he has posted about Trump shredding the judiciary because Trump is not happy with the Ninth Circuit Court. The Ninth Circuit should have been dismantled back when Reagan was President, the fact that Trump is willing to say it is a good thing and long overdue.

Jesse seems to want popularity and praise more than standing for Truth. He reminds me of another film maker that departed from the faith of his father, Frankie Schaeffer.

Another thing that Mr. Winton seems to willfully ignore is that Donald Trump is there because God put him in office. And yes, ditto when Barack Obama was President. Obama was a judgement from God on our nation for rejecting His values. One of the punishments promised in Deuteronomy is the foreigner ruling over us and whether you think Obama was born in Hawaii or not, his values were not American values but something else. Obama was the first openly Communist or if you prefer, International Socialist President.

Whether Trump is another form of punishment or the savior of the American way of life is yet to be seen. So far, I have no complaints in what he has done. Trump seems content for the church and the family to carry-on without interference from the national government and from my perspective that is a refreshing change from the tyranny of the Obama administration.

Winton also spends part of his article dumping on the guests that he had in his movie. This too I find disingenuous. Unlike many bloggers, I spent part of my time in junior high school thru college in the practice of journalism. I know that part of the craft is finding quotations that help your article. You typically either go to an expert in the field or someone involved in the issue which you are writing about. Just because I quote someone does not mean that I agree with everything that person stands for. Case in point is this article when I quote George Bernard Shaw. I would find much more agreement with Chesterton than Shaw on almost any subject but quoting Shaw makes my point in that particular instance.

Speaking again about Targeted, look what Winton has to say:

I regret that it was endorsed by someone who said that Rosa Parks’ contribution to civil rights was “absurdly inflated.” I regret that it was endorsed by someone who’s sense of class prompted him to compare pictures of Hillary and Chelsea with pictures of Melania and Ivanka with the caption “Make America Hot Again.”

This appears to be the offending graphic mentioned by Winton.

Undeniable truth of life #24 comes to mind “Feminism was established so as to allow unattractive women access to the mainstream of society.”

Winton is using a classic logical fallacy of the Ad Hominem attack.

Arguments of this kind focus not on the evidence for a view but on the character of the person advancing it; they seek to discredit positions by discrediting those who hold them. It is always important to attack arguments, rather than arguers, and this is where arguments that commit the ad hominem fallacy fall down. Link: definition Ad Hominem

Winton chose who to have in his movie either because they were a subject matter expert or because he was able to get quotes to bolster his argument. Attacking their character now is way too late. Jesse, you presented them as experts on the Second Amendment and nothing that you say about them now in your current rant diminishes that expertise.

Just because somebody shares something on Facebook because they think it’s funny is not sufficient grounds to throw them under the bus so Liberals and fellow Libertarians will like you more.

Jesse had a choice to make and he chose Libertarian values over biblical ones. They may appear to start in similar places but they end in very different destinations. Jesse seems content to swap his birthright for a cup of stew and that’s too bad.

In “Ode to the Outlaw”, Gary Paxton wrote about “that prison of freedom called hell” The only people with “freedom” in our society are homeless ones, everyone one else has someone telling them what to do. As Bob Dylan said it, “You gotta serve somebody.” Jesse mistakenly thinks freedom is the ultimate value. Sorry Jesse, God’s Law is the ultimate value not personal freedom.

Post Constitutional America is Here

Former Sacramento Congressman Vic Fazio was quoted back in the 1980’s as saying “Don’t go quoting the Constitution to me, let’s get back to reality”.   Unfortunately, this Liberal Democrat was a harbinger of what has come to pass in the intervening years.

The song “Stop the World” by Randy Stonehill puts much of our wrongs into a succinct form:

We’re putting criminals in office
Cause it’s way too crowded in the jails
T.V. is our teacher now
The schools are overrun by thugs
And children skip their innocence
And graduate to sex and drugs
Right is wrong and wrong is right
White is black and black is white

Millions of people in this country have taken an oath to “…defend the country from all enemies foreign and domestic” but look at their actions, they clearly don’t believe it.

Not only have the barbarians repeatedly stormed the gates, but our leaders are inviting the barbarians—including those from the Seventh Century—to come here and stay. They are welcome to setup outposts of insurgence within our borders. Why? Because they have a common enemy: Christianity.

The American experiment in democracy appears to be experiencing its last dying breaths. The country is burdened with so much debt that all the wealth in the world could literally not pay all the obligations of government let alone the consumer debt of its people.

Yes, the United States is experiencing the same civil war that is raging in the rest of the West. Secular Humanism and Islam are uniting to destroy Christianity. Christianity is responsible for Western Culture but its heirs have forgotten God and think they can do it without Him. Each of our leaders—like their counterparts in the Biblical books of Chronicles and Kings—have done more wickedness than all the leaders before them. They glory in their wickedness. Our gods are called Choice instead of Moloch, athletes, actors, musicians, or politicians instead of Ba’al (local deities), Marvel and D.C. instead of Olympus or Valhalla and the power of the State is vested in Washington instead of Egypt.

Pluralism has the practical effect of establishing a modern Rome where you can have any god you want as long as Caesar is Lord. To hold to the supremacy of the Biblical God is anathema to our culture. This is even true of most self-identified Christians.

Sorry but it’s true. The pervasiveness of abortion, divorce, homosexuality, child abuse, drugs, tattoos, or any other metric of evil in our society is the same inside the Church or out. As a whole, there is no measurable difference between those calling themselves “Christian” and the general population. Most children of Christian families that are raised in the church leave their faith as soon as they go off to college if not before. Is it any wonder when only two colleges in the United States still believe the biblical account of Genesis? If Genesis is a myth then so is the rest of the Bible. Without “The Fall” there is no sin and no God; therefore, no need for a Savior.

The Clinton v Trump campaign may seem important to us at the moment but regardless of who wins, the trajectory of the country will continue to further decline. The vote will only determine how fast the decline will continue. The Republic is over; the only struggle now is what will replace it. Look for less freedom, more government, and more persecution. Jesus said to count the cost of following Him and we are beginning to see that even in this country the price is rapidly increasing. To openly follow Him will cost you, jobs, property, and your freedom; not in the future but now. Welcome to the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15–68

We are clearly under God’s judgment but instead of repenting, we are acting like Alfred E Newman from Mad Magazine and saying, “What, me worry?”

Alfred E Newman

The Constitution was supposed to be THE list of the powers of the national government—enumerated powers—but now it means the opposite, unless specifically prohibited, the nation government thinks its fair game to fill their coffers or interfere in you daily life. Rightly interpreted, the government created by the Constitution was so small and remote that it shouldn’t matter who is in office. As envisioned by the document, the President and Supreme Court had very little responsibility. Almost all power was to be in the Congress. (Remember that they just dumped a King and country and were looking not to repeat that mistake again.) As written, the leadership in Washington was to affect your daily lives as much as the winner of the San Francisco 49ers versus the Oakland Raiders game last year.

Triumvirates didn’t work too well in Ancient Rome and it is likely that ours will end-up in the same place. We have the Imperial President that rules by Executive Orders instead of edicts; a legislative branch that is a cheap parody of the Imperial Senate of Star Wars or Roman Senate under the Caesars. (Can you say symbolism over substance?) The only difference is that we have a Supreme Court. The Court gets to make laws too but they have become a laughingstock. They have no real power, no army or way to enforce anything and they serve at the pleasure of the President. When needed, they always fall in line to the will of the President. Lest you disagree with me, look back to Roosevelt and the New Deal. “A switch in time saved nine”  is not a nursery rhyme but an historical fact.

Someday soon, a President is not going to leave the White House at the end of his term but remain in power. He might even change his title to Chancellor or caretaker. The Court will reluctantly find it Constitutional and the Congress will standby idly wringing their hands when it happens but that day is almost here.

Germany once laughed at Hitler and his National Socialists but everything Hitler did including the Holocaust was with the blessing of their Legislature and Courts. Well socialists now run most of this country, the only squabble is will we be National Socialists or Internationalist Socialists (Globalists)?  We might even adopt a Fascist economic model just to spice things up and create the illusion of private ownership of the means of production.

I think Fazio was right; we are no long bound by the Constitution. Like people that go to church and don’t let their professed faith affect their daily lives, we pay lip-service to the founding document but don’t feel constrained to follow it. Conservative Protestants have been saying that we live in a Post-Christian world since Francis Schaeffer in the 1980’s; well I think it’s high time that we called our era in modern America the Post-Constitutional one. My only question is did Post-Constitutional America begin with FDR or Obama? I will have to ponder that one a while longer.

Target Caves Badly on Transgender Bathrooms

Your humble blogger X has witnessed one of the biggest epic fails by a corporate CEO in recent memory. This guy put his fiduciary responsibilities aside in a desperate attempt to push his liberal values on the rest of the world.  I am highlighting the horrible decision making by Target Corporation CEO Brian Cornell.  Cornell—as you may recall—instituted an “open bathroom and dressing room” policy at Target Stores nationwide in April of this year.  Hence men could now use the ladies room and vice a versa. Any customer could use any restroom or dressing room depending on which gender they felt like identifying with on that particular day.  Cornell wanted diversity and inclusivity, two hallmarks of the new Democratic Party, so he, like all liberals decided he needed to act immediately by Executive Order. Somehow he thought he could be a trailblazer on this subject.  X thinks this is chapter one in the Democrat playbook, decide you know what is best and implement immediately.

The immediate after math of this decree was not favorable. An online petition to boycott Target ensued and gathered almost 700K signatures in a matter of days.  But this was just the beginning of problems for Target. As everyone knows we live in a country with roughly a 50/50 split politically so policies like this are bound to anger quite a few people.  Not surprisingly, sales and earnings at Target fell and during their next earnings report. Analysts asked if the petition regarding bathroom policies was the reason for the drop in sales. Of course Cornell denied any correlation between the two.  X believes this is chapter two in the Democrat playbook; even if all fails, blame other factors. (In my time in the Navy, our version of this was “Deny everything and make counter-accusations”—Editor.)

While Target was shoving this perversity down the throats of consumers, the liberal media was mocking those not comfortable with the possibility that a member of the opposite sex may enter the bathroom they are using and be in the next stall.  No way a man would use a women’s bathroom to video or photo them; that could never happen, right?

During the course of the next two months, there were four reported instances of this occurring. All four instances happened where?  You guessed it, at Target shopping centers!  Game over Cornell.  The easiest way to get people to stop using your store is a mother or father thinking their child may not be safe using the opposite sexes bathroom while they wait outside.  Obviously CEO Cornell never considered that shoppers could take their business to a very small competitor from Arkansas; Wal-Mart, I’m sure you have never heard of them.

Then a strange sequence of events took place this past week.  Target Corporation reported declining profits on Wednesday the 17th. In a historically high market, it was truly a disaster when they reported that their stock plummeted 6%.  Again Cornell’s team claimed that this had nothing to do with the bathroom policy, but then after the close of the stock trading day, Wal-Mart reported their best earnings in eight quarters.  No coincidence right?  On Thursday the 18th, Cornell’s lieutenant—CFO Cathy Smith—announced the company would spend 20 million dollars to add a private, one stall unisex bathroom to all stores by March of 2017.  Clearly Cornell panicked. His Executive Order resulted in the business faltering and missing earnings projections.

Since April, over four million have signed the petition to boycott Target.  Customers—especially during these economic times—are extremely fickle. Based on earnings, it sounds like many have traded Target for Wal-Mart as their preferred shopping choice.

Cornell better hope the trend reverses quickly.  Like any desperate human being, he served up his CFO, making her fall on the sword to protect him. This may buy him time; however, X believes he should get his resume ready.  Cornell will survive. All the executive types like him do. He will blame everyone but himself. He may nominate himself for sainthood because he tried to be inclusive. Look for him to grab a golden parachute and find employment in the C-suite elsewhere.

“X” suggests he apply for a job at Kraft Foods. Specifically, may I suggest President of Kool-Aid North American division?  That way he can drink his own Kool-Aid!

Sorry, bad joke….til next time!

X

Pregnancy Scare on Airplane

When speaking about popular culture, I have heard it claimed that movies with historical settings often show you more about modern culture than they do what really happened in the past. Movies like Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot ” and Russell Crowe’s “Noah ” come to mind. I’m sure that my readers can name several other flicks that also fall into this category.

It is not often that much of pop-culture can be distilled to one single event or news story but I think I found one that covers many bases at one time.

I wish to present this gem that was offered by Microsoft Network (MSN) earlier today.

Kim Kardashian Has Pregnancy Scare on an Airplane
Article: Kim Kardashian has pregnancy scare on an airplane

Many questions and issues are raised by this one celebrity puff piece.

What is a pregnancy scare? And how does one experience a “pregnancy scare” on an airplane.

Normally I would ignore such an article but look at the context this week.

• The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is having a systematic breakdown in commercial airports all over the United States. Lines are three hours long in many areas just so passengers can get thru the security checkpoints.

• Two days ago a terrorist attack caused the crash of a flight from Paris to Cairo, Egypt. Even having three air marshals on the flight did nothing to prevent this attack.

• Now we have a genuine “pop tart” in the news because of something that happened on a plane.

Air travel is definitely in the news this week.

So how does a big time celebrity have a “pregnancy scare” on an airplane?
Did some TSA guy pull her aside for a cavity search and then act like Bill Clinton?
Did she behave stupidly and try to get into the mythical “mile high club” only to later regret it?

As the article points-out, Kardashian is married and a mother of two children. So what does pregnancy have to do with a plane flight? Doesn’t the phrase “pregnancy scare” seem like a backhanded way of portraying pregnancy as a bad thing? It seems like the language someone who identifies themselves as “pro-abortion” would use.

So the set-up is this: sex symbol woman that has virtually every crevasse of her body all over the Internet, seems worried about the consequences of sex catching up with her behavior, and somehow this all involves an airplane too. What a strange mixture of issues is converging on this one article.

As it turns out, Kardashian decided to take a pregnancy test in the midst of her flight and broadcast the results live on the Internet to all of her followers.

Kim Kardashian had a small pregnancy scare on Thursday, so she did what anyone would in that situation: She took a pregnancy test on an airplane and broadcast it to the world via Snapchat.

“I’m legit in the airplane bathroom about to take a pregnancy test because I’m having a little bit of a scare,” Kim announced in her first Snapchat video.

I’m sorry but why would someone ever share this on the Internet? Is Kim on the fetish channel?

Think about it; she is live streaming her streaming of pee to test for female hormones and then look for a plus or minus.

The letters T.M.I. come to mind. Too Much Information.

Kim do the rest of us a favor and keep your privates parts private and your martial behavior in your bedchamber.

Whoever wrote this story claiming that Kardashian “did what anyone would in that situation” is clearly living in a different world that I am.

Like I said at the beginning, this story touches on lots of aspects of pop-culture. It is a sad commentary on societal decay. As the Litany would say, from this too good Lord deliver us.

Cartoon Network: Leaven in Your Living Room

It is the belief of some fringe protestant group—possible the Amish—that claim that “Satan travels true wires” so if you don’t have electricity, he can’t target you. I’m starting to think they might have a point.

Earlier this week I was reading articles on Blastr.com. I often visit this website to see what movies are in the works; one article caught my eye.
Cartoon Network UK censoring Steven Universe’s sexuality misses the entire point of the show

Until recently, I would not be interested in what is happening in the U.K. but since Obama took office, I have found England’s U.S. news coverage more comprehensive than I usually get from American journalists. The media here is so in love with our dictator-in-chief that they are rarely objective. Often they either praise his rule by Executive Order or just ignore what he is doing—whichever they think will further his administration more.

When a website dedicated to the genre of science fiction entertainment is talking about Cartoon Network, censorship in England, and sexuality; clearly something is amiss.

Before I get into this article I want you to understand who owns and operates this website. This website is run by the SyFy Channel. SyFy is owned by NBC-Universal which is owned by Comcast. This is not some fringe place on the internet. No, this website is part of one of the largest entertainment companies in the world.

The article is an opinion piece that defends a particular cartoon and castigates the censorship by English broadcasters. The edit being complained about is rather mild in my opinion. What shocked me most was the high praise of Steven Universe for being the most openly gay cartoon ever made. Steven is gay; not just the side-kick or some peripheral character.

Steven Universe is gaaaaaaaay. It is easily the gayest kids’ cartoon in the history of western animation. And we’re not just talking about subtext, either. While Steven Universe may be innocent and cutesy, there’s no denying certain facts:

– Garnet is a gem fusion that resulted from Sapphire and Ruby being in romantic love

– Pearl is in love with Rose Quartz (as confirmed by the show’s creators), often to the detriment of her own self worth

– Amethyst shape-shifts into all sorts of forms, many of them male-presenting

– Steven and Connie have fuzed to form a genderqueer person, Stevonnie, who is, let’s be real, attracted and attractive to both men and women

– Background characters often feature same-sex couples

In short, Steven Universe is a rainbow show, kids. And everyone loves it for that.

Well, almost everyone …

 

I’m like dang! I had no idea that there was such a thing. To me this cartoon is totally out of bounds. I know that most programming on Cartoon Network is not Thomas and Friends but really! This is propaganda and recruiting in its most blatant form.

The fact that this is shown on Cartoon Network means to me that it will fly under the radar of most parents. When I think Boomerang or Cartoon Network I think of children’s programming and I likely wouldn’t give much thought to the title Steven Universe. I thought it was Jimmie Neutron for the next generation.

It’s hard to have worse programming than the pre-teen crap on the Disney Channel but apparently NBC found a way. Too bad they can’t keep homosexuals confined to their Bravo channel.

This also means Steven Universe will eventually find its way to streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. Parents, it might be a simplification that Satan travels true wires but he certainly is trying really hard to get through your television to desensitized your children to evil.

This is another reason to “cut the cord”.

Carly Fiorina Wrong on Kim Davis

Kim Davis, the defiant Kentucky county clerk that refuses to issue marriage licenses, is helping to separate the Presidential wannabees into sheep and goats.

Davis is exactly the type of person that we should rally around. Why, exactly because she is an elected official.

Carly Fiorina revealed her lack of understanding of Western (Christian) Culture when she uttered this non-sense yesterday.

“And, while I disagree with this court’s decision, their actions are clear. And so I think in this particular case, this woman now needs to make a decision that’s conscious — is she prepared to continue to work for the government, be paid for by the government, in which case she needs to execute the government’s will, or does she feel so strongly about this that she wants to sever her employment with the government and go seek employment elsewhere where her religious liberties would be paramount over her duties as a government employee,” Fiorina declared.
carly-fiorina-says-kentucky-clerk-should-issue-gay-marriage-licenses-or-resign

I have met Carly before and have a great deal of respect for her but she is just plain wrong on this issue. The two main reasons are: Federalism and “the doctrine of the lesser magistrate.”

Federalism means that both the States and the national government have their proper roles. Since the national government is a creature of the States, states retain their sovereignty.

Point number one is that this is a state issue. Under Kentucky law, Kim Davis is right. Kentucky law (as is California’s) is that marriage is between one man and one woman. This provision is in accord with thousands of years of human history. Kentucky’s law is valid because it agrees with Scripture; any law contrary to Scripture is illegitimate.

Point two is that religious values have an integral role to play in the public square. Modern humanists have tried to redefine freedom of religion into freedom from religion. They contend that religion has no place in the establishment of public policy. However, this is an ignorant position to claim when all law is inherently religious.

Point three, the US Supreme Court is only a legitimate body when it abides by the boundaries of the Constitution. The biggest problem with the Court is that its function is poorly defined by the Constitution and they often will not confine themselves to matters properly within their jurisdiction.

All power that the Court has was given to it by the Court. This is the problem with the Court. Together the President and Congress have the power to limit the Court to matters specifically given to it by the Constitution but they rarely ever act to limit the judiciary. The Constitution doesn’t even give the Court the power to declare a law “unconstitutional”, the Court took this power upon themselves very early in the Republic.

Congress is intended to have the most say in the National government. Co-equal branches and checks and balances don’t work quite like the Founders envisioned. The concept that the Court is the final word in all its decisions is just political laziness. Only in cases and controversies where they have original jurisdiction is the Court the final word. Congress can strip the court of jurisdiction of any other matters with a simple majority vote. Yep, they can strip the Court of the power to decide marriage, abortion, and lots of other issues any time they want too.

The issues of federalism and limited government have been written about extensively by many others so nothing I’ve said should be news to my readers. However, it appears to be news to folks like Carly Fiorina and Michael Reagan. Yeah, Reagan is reportedly sounding the same call as Carly. michael-reagan-jailed-christian-clerk-should-quit-her-job

 

The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate

The doctrine of the lesser magistrate is a concept in Protestant thought. A lesser magistrate is a ruler such as a prince who is under a greater ruler such as an emperor. According to many figures of the Reformation and Post-Reformation eras, the lesser magistrate has the authority to rebel against the tyranny of a supreme ruler.

The doctrine of the lesser magistrate finds its origin in John Calvin, who wrote that whereas private Christians must submit to the ruling authorities, there are “popular magistrates” who have “been appointed to curb the tyranny of kings”. When these magistrates “connive at kings when they tyrannise and insult over the humbler of the people” they “fraudulently betray the liberty of the people” when God has appointed them guardians of that liberty.

The lesser magistrate is prominent in the Lutheran Magdeburg Confession of 1550, which argued that the “subordinate powers” in a state, faced with the situation where the “supreme power” is working to destroy true religion, may go further than non-cooperation with the supreme power and assist the faithful to resist.

The doctrine of the lesser magistrate became important for the justification of the Dutch Revolt. According to Johannes Althusius in 1603 work, Politica, resistance to a supreme magistrate by lesser magistrates is justified in the case of tyranny. Althusius argued that the provincial authorities of the United Provinces were in this situation.
Description Lesser Magistrate

Kim Davis is not issuing marriage licenses to anyone—gay or straight—but few media reports will tell you that. Some folks disagree with this position. Lesser Magistrate Blog

Let’s go back to Carly’s quote.
“…this woman now needs to make a decision that’s conscious — is she prepared to continue to work for the government, be paid for by the government, in which case she needs to execute the government’s will…”

Carly talks of the government as a monolithic structure that must be obeyed because the Court has spoken.

Where is the federalism?

More importantly, where is the stand against tyranny?

Kim Davis is trying to do the right thing and the fact that so many weak-kneed politicians are hiding behind five un-elected people in black robes is really sad. Kim won’t be the last Christian sent to jail for her beliefs, she is among the first of many.

This case is a challenge to all of us to decide where to draw the line where we say “this far and no further”.  As a California resident, I know my turn is coming soon.

Ashley Madison Hack Includes State Agency

Although not mentioned in the email quoted below, clearly some state employees got caught in the hack of the Ashley Madison website. The odd thing is that the email sent out statewide is entitled “Phishing Scams.” The Ashley Madison hack was just that, a hack. It had nothing to do with phishing scams. I don’t know which is more troublesome, state employees using a website like Ashley—which by the way is blocked for 99% of network users—or that the head security guy is wrongly calling this a phishing scam.

Anyway, here is the email. Please note that links to state intranet sites were removed for this copy. Also, I added emphasis to portion on “data dump”.

Attention CDCR Email Account User,

The CDCR Information Security Office was recently made aware that several CDCR email accounts were published to a public Internet site in a data dump that was hacked by a third-party organization.  The compromised email accounts were used as logons by the users for non-CDCR related activities.  Although corresponding passwords or other personal information were not believe to have been exposed, we ask all users to:

• Do not use the same password for your CDCR account for any non-CDCR purposes such as personal email – this will reduce the risk of having your CDCR account compromised (best practice)
• Do not use the CDCR work email address for personal use such as use your email account to sign up for non-CDCR business related purposes.

Because of this data dump is available to the public, please also take the time to review regarding how to prevent against phishing attacks.

Additionally please:
• Do not enter sensitive or confidential information into any internet website unless it can be verified that the site is authentic,
• Do not reply to emails requesting any sensitive or confidential that originate from an unknown source, and
• Do not provide any sensitive or confidential information over the telephone during conversations that were not initiate by yourself.

If you have any further questions or concerns regarding this email please contact the CDCR Agency Information Security Office.

Summary of Ashley Madison Hack

Tina Turner had a hit many years before her trip to Thunderdome when she asked, “What’s love got to do with it?” After being married to Ike, maybe she really felt that way.

Supposedly other women do too. If you believe their marketing, a vast number of unhappy and promiscuous women are available on the Ashley Madison website for any man married wanting a fling. This website whose motto is: “Life is short, have an affair” was recently hacked.

Some readers many ask why I am spending time on this data breech of a sleazy website. Why? Because thus far, this is the biggest known data breech in the world…ever. Besides, how many websites do you know that dedicate themselves to violating one of the Ten Commandments.

These guys are dirtbags. They are marketing adultery with a money back guarantee.

Affair Guarantee Program Rules

•Under the AshleyMadison.com Affair Guarantee Program, (the “Affair Guarantee Program” or the “Program”) if you don’t find someone within the initial 3 months after purchasing the “Affair Guarantee” Membership Package, we’ll refund you the amount you paid AshleyMadison.com for participating in the Program (the “Refund”).

• The Guarantee Program is available for a limited time only, and open to anyone.

Of course, a certain amount of fine print applies.
Ashley Madison Guarantee

The cost of sin is high. In this case $249 CDN/$199 USD
Source Article

A year ago, the website was claiming 13 million active users. Oh, no cost for women to join. Prices above are the rates men are willing to pay.
Source Article

Distribution of Ashley Madison users by city.

Graph Source

Those with memberships were promised that for a fee of $19, their account would be deleted.

Ashley Madison sold the delete feature for $19, The Guardian reports, promising users it would remove their profiles from the site, including search results. BuzzFeed discovered that the site made close to $2 million for the service in 2014 alone when 90,000 requested such profile deletions.

However, it turns out that Ashley Madison kept a treasure trove of information for each user that’s good enough to identify that person. The company did remove the real name, username, email and profile information as promised but it retained sensitive data that can be used to find out whether a person may have had an account on the extra-marital affairs site.

The company “retained the date of birth, city, state, post- or zip code, country, gender, ethnicity, weight, height, body type and whether the user smokes or drinks,” The Guardian writes.
BGR Article

The hackers of this website call themselves The Impact Team. This manifesto—including locations of the data—can be viewed here. Impact Team Manifesto

According to Toronto Police, employees of Canadian based Avid Life Media—the owners of Ashley Madison and some similar websites—first became aware of the hack on July 12.

In the news conference, the police detailed how users were targeted in an attack that began July 12, when employees of Avid Life Media arrived at work. When the employees opened their laptops, they were met with the song “Thunderstruck” by AC/DC, and an accompanying message demanding that Avid Life shutter both websites.
New York Times

The hackers then provided samples of the hacked data to prove their claims of hacking the website were genuine. Avid Life refused to take down two of their websites so on August 20th, the hacked data was posted.

Impact Team released a 9.7GB data dump that contains over 30 million Ashley Madison user records. This includes names, addresses and emails, but it is thought that credit card details have not been compromised. Not all the email addresses are real, but up to 24 million are said to be active.

The data was posted to a Tor website meaning that it is not accessible to the general public, as well as to peer-to-peer networks such as BitTorrent. However, details are starting to leak onto the open web via screenshots on social media.

Analysis of the cache has also uncovered a number of government and military email domains. For example one researcher said that over 6,000 of the email addresses were registered as us.army.mil.

“The website has found 1,716 email addresses from universities and further education colleges using the .ac.uk suffix; 124 using .gov.uk; 92 using .mod.uk; 65 local education authorities and schools using .sch.uk; 56 National Heath Service emails and less than 50 police emails,” reported The Telegraph.

Meanwhile, security blogger Robert Graham searched the database to determine the gender balance.

“I count 28 million men to five million women, according to the ‘gender’ field in the database (with two million undetermined). However, glancing through the credit card transactions, I find only male names,” he said.

The Ashley Madison hack is bigger in scale than the recent breach at the US Office of Personnel Management that resulted in the loss of 21 million federal records.
V3-UK

A few days later, the hackers posted a second data dump of 20 gigabytes. These were all internal records of Avid Life Media. This data breech was code of the websites, Google drives of managers, emails, and other internal documents. The Sony data breech was larger in terms of size of the data files but in terms of names this is the biggest in the world.

As a result of the data breech, two people listed on the website have reportedly committed suicide. This from the police news conference mentioned earlier. Their spokesman is Mr. Bryce Evans.

Mr. Evans also said that the police have received two unconfirmed reports of suicides related to the data breach. Security experts had warned the revelations contained in the breach could lead to suicide and violence.

“Others might find the thought that their membership of the site — even if they never met anyone in real life, and never had an affair — too much to bear,” Graham Cluley wrote on his security blog last week, “and there could be genuine casualties as a result. And yes, I mean suicide.”
New York Times

Hack Touches Virtually All of the United States

Gawker’s Gabrielle Bluestone has uncovered that there are precisely three ZIP codes across the country that have no record of Ashley Madison users. That’s ZIP codes, not area codes. And what do they have in common? They’re partially lacking two things: the internet and a large number of people.
Yahoo Finance

Doriana Silva
Thus far we have learned that there are roughly six men for each woman listed on the website. However, the number of women is a matter of some dispute. Many of the female profiles on the website are reportedly fake. Some of the male profiles are also fraudulent.
In 2012, Doriana Silva filed a lawsuit that was later thrown out. Her claim of fraudulent profiles is receiving renewed media interest in the wake of this hack. Below are portions of a news article from New Zealand.

Doriana Silva

A former employee of the Ashley Madison adultery website has claimed she was told to create hundreds of fake profiles of female “members” to entice men to join up.

Doriana Silva, who worked at the company’s headquarters in Toronto, Canada, tried to sue the firm after claiming she suffered repetitive strain injury (RSI) after being given a month to input 1,000 bogus memberships.

Ms Silva, who is Brazilian, was recruited by Ashley Madison’s parent company Avid Life Media to help launch a Portuguese language website in her home country.

According to court documents in Toronto: “Her allegation is that her job entailed concocting phony profiles of alluring females and inputting these profiles into the appellants’ online dating service in order to attract male subscribers.”

She claimed she was given three weeks to create 1,000 fake profiles.

Her claim stated: “The purpose of these profiles is to entice paying heterosexual male members to join and spend money on the website.

“They do not belong to any genuine members of Ashley Madison – or any real human beings at all.”

She said she was led to believe “that doing so was some sort of a normal business practice in the industry” but found her workplace “oppressive and unethical”.

Ms Silva launched the case in 2012, claiming £10 million in damages. Avid Life counter-sued her, denying her claims, and the two sides eventually agreed to drop their cases earlier this year.

New Zealand Herald

Other Fraudulent Names

Ashley Madison claims to have 1.2 million users in the UK, which would equate to almost one in 20 of all adults between the ages of 18 and 50. Increasing numbers of supposed members whose details have been published online by hackers say they had never even heard of Ashley Madison.

Online security experts have suggested the company could have bought bulk email addresses from marketing companies to make it appear that their membership – and their choice of possible partners – was far larger than the reality.

A source close to the FBI investigation into the leak has told The Daily Telegraph that examinations of the database suggest many of the female profiles on the site were created by a relatively small number of individuals.

Ashley Madison says on its website that it cannot “guarantee the authenticity of any profile”. It relies wholly on men for its profits; women can join for free, but men pay a minimum of £39 to be able to contact other members, though there is no guarantee that they will get a response from people they message.

Peter Sommer, a visiting professor at the De Montfort University Cyber Security Centre, said: “A number of internet dating agencies are known to artificially boost the number of profiles they have in order to make them more attractive.

“They take publicly available information from other databases and added it to their own. People then pay to be able to contact other ‘members’ and it’s not until they get to that stage that they realise a lot of them are duds.”

Bulk email addresses can be bought from marketing companies for as little as 10p each.
New Zealand Herald

Identity Theft

Another possible explanation is that people using the site have simply stolen other people’s email addresses so they do not have to give their own name. People can even browse the site using entirely fake email addresses, because no verification emails are sent out by Ashley Madison to check the email is genuine.

Among those who believe they may have been the victims of identity theft is Oliver Coppard, who stood as Labour’s parliamentary candidate in Sheffield Hallam against Nick Clegg earlier this year.

He said an email address for him that appears in the leaked data is one he has not used for three years.

“It’s a bit of a mystery to me,” he said. “I have never been on the site and I’m not even married so I would have no need to use it. It doesn’t really matter to me, but I don’t know how it has happened.”

New Zealand Herald

If you want to see if you know anybody involved in the hack, you can check at these two links. Use at your own risk.

http://www.trustify.info/check

http://www.trustify.info/check

Please be aware that this hack is creating a secondary market in scammers and malware sites.

Remember that email addresses are not verified by Ashley Madison so tread lightly before accusing folks of being actual clients. There is a chance they are innocent.

For a business that is predicated on secrecy and then is hacked with the outpouring of personal details then it no longer becomes a viable business.
New Zealand Herald

Career Opportunity for The Just Us Brothers?

In the wake of the Ashley Madison data breech, a new career opportunity has presented itself for The Just Us Brothers.

The Just Us Brothers know all about data breeches. They have done it themselves so they know what information is harmful to have released on the Internet. In addition, they also have successfully purged all electronic records of CRA including information on current and former members, chapter bylaws and other records. The Just Us Brothers know how to make this information unrecoverable.

On the other hand, Ashley Madison has been charging subscribers a flat fee of $19 to have their accounts deleted from their website. In 2014, they collected almost two million dollars in such fees from a subscriber base of 37 million. Unfortunately, the website folks at Ashley clearly don’t know how to scrub such information. They still retained names, address, credit card numbers and other user preferences after they were supposedly deleted. (Frankly, Ashley Madison sounds almost as insidious as Facebook.)

The hacker group called “The Impact Team” claimed responsibility for this data breech. If you need an impact team to counter “The Impact Team” clearly the folks from “Impact Republicans” have to be on your short list of counter measures. The Just Us Brothers have a proven track record and would be an asset to Avid Life Media—owners of Ashley Madison.

Lest you doubt me, think about this, if the security folks at Ashley Madison had been the administrators of CRA’s membership records, we would still have all names and addresses of current and former members, their payment information, chapter bylaws, backups of all CRA related websites and all emails within the organization; in short, everything since 2002.

Having the right people makes all the difference. 37 million times $19 per account deleted means a potential of over 700 million in termination fees are on the table. Boys it’s time to move on from politics, other more lucrative markets are waiting for your talents.