Ain't Complicated

Six Free Ways to Stay Secure

Each year, consumers and businesses spend a considerable amount on security-oriented software and/or services. As January approaches, and with it the end of the fiscal year not to mention lowered bank balances and exhausted budgets due in part to a spate of December gift-giving, it’s easy to find oneself or one’s business a bit short on funds. Fortunately, you don’t necessarily need to spend money for top-notch security software. If you resolve to stay secure in the New Year, here are a half-dozen no-cost ways to do it.

His main points:

Go Gratis for Anti-Virus/Anti-Malware
Encrypt Your Data
Start Using Real Passwords
Keep Your Software Patched
Switch Your DNS
Go Virtual

For the details, please take the time to read (and act on) what Joseph Moran says here: 6 Free Ways to Stay Secure in the New Year.

Imperfect Good Samaritan

Of course all these cases were more complex than a brief mention can convey. And of course US foreign policy, under presidents from Nixon to Obama, has accomplished enormous good in the world — including, at times, the saving of many lives.

Yet the good America has done is dwarfed by the good America could have done. Too often we have been willing to disregard unspeakable evil in the mistaken belief that preventing atrocities is not “an American concern.” Kissinger’s words to Nixon that day in 1973 were repellent. The mindset behind them has been all too common.

Those are the closing two paragraphs of Yes, genocide is ‘an American concern’ by Jeff Jacoby.

I’m wondering, though, what lessons the article has for me as a Christian — lessons in responding to the needs of those who are outside my various circles and thus don’t touch or affect me directly.

Anabaptists.org — Among the Ancient

This morning I read an email that begins:

In this season of miracles, consider this: JWR is among the oldest surviving non-corporate sites on the web, having just had its 13th birthday — its “bar mitzvah”, if you will.

A miracle? Well, maybe not in the biblical sense. But certainly one by modern standards. Consider how many other sites have come and gone. Ones that had millions invested in them have disappeared into the ether.

Yeah, in public Web time, that’s a long life span.

So is 15 years and almost 5 months — how long Anabaptists has been on the Web…almost exclusively on the founder’s nickel (which even JWR can’t say). 😆

Speaking of nickels, a while later I read another email that winds down this way:

So these greatly-appreciated gifts, $1280 in all, bring our total to $5545.61 for 2010. That’s just $11,574.39 short of our goal for the year. Gulp. Of course, if there were just 11 other churches like the one on the East Coast — it’s doable. Lacking that, we would need about 116 extremely visionary types to each kick in $100. Or any combination of the two.

And if those 116 extremely visionary types are extremely so, they can do more kicking here. 😯

Or maybe I mean 🙄 — or even :oops:.

See ya.

Security Software Recommendations

What McAfee failed to prevent in real time and what Malewarebytes Anti-Malware failed to detect later:

PC Tools Spyware Doctor warring for Mark Roth!

So I was twice disappointed. Read it all

What Are You Reading These Days?

I ask the question (using different words) over at my business blog: How’s Your Reading Compare?

In that post I tell you from which two books I read yesterday.

And give you the opportunity to reveal what (if anything) you’re reading from A Certain List. 🙂

So click the link above and join the conversation (as “they” say).

Inspiration in Ixchel

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, invoked the ancient jaguar goddess Ixchel in her opening statement to delegates gathered in Cancun, Mexico, noting that Ixchel was not only goddess of the moon, but also “the goddess of reason, creativity and weaving. May she inspire you — because today, you are gathered in Cancun to weave together the elements of a solid response to climate change, using both reason and creativity as your tools.”

[…]

“Excellencies, the goddess Ixchel would probably tell you that a tapestry is the result of the skilful interlacing of many threads,” said Figueres, who hails from Costa Rica and started her greetings in Spanish before switching to English. “I am convinced that 20 years from now, we will admire the policy tapestry that you have woven together and think back fondly to Cancun and the inspiration of Ixchel.”

Source: Cancun talks start with a call to the gods

Maybe you should bone up a little more on Ixchel as well as Hero for the Planet, Christiana Figueres.

Beyond that, I have no comment, so don’t ask. 🙄

Non-Accountable Christians — What’s With That?!

Many of the exhortations in the Bible are not popular in today’s world. But a new study by the Barna Group indicates that one of the least favorite biblical principles might well be “Obey your spiritual leaders, and do what they say. Their work is to watch over your souls, and they are accountable to God. Give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow” Hebrews 13:17, NLT.

Because the underlying theme of the Christian life is one of being transformed from a selfish and self-driven individual to one who lives for and surrenders control of one’s life to God, the practice of accountability for life choices and behavior is central to that process of transformation. Yet, a national survey by the Barna Group among people who describe themselves as Christian and involved in a church discovered that only 5% indicated that their church does anything to hold them accountable for integrating biblical beliefs and principles into their life.

As a member of a congregation with a written set of (minimum) standards, I find this to be an interesting poll/study/survey.

And I’m curious where you and your congregation would have shown up in it.

That aside, here’s a little more from the above article:

“Barna Group studies among pastors and other church leaders have consistently shown that such leaders have a distaste for initiating any type of confrontation and conflict with congregants. Another barrier is that many followers of Christ are uncertain about the difference between judgment and discernment. Not wanting to be judgmental, they therefore avoid all conversation about the other person’s behavior—except, sometimes, gossip.

“One of the cornerstones of the biblical concept of community is that of mutual accountability. But Americans these days cherish privacy and freedom to the extent that the very idea of being held accountable by others—even those with their best interests in mind, or who have a legal or spiritual authority to do so—is considered inappropriate, antiquated and rigid. With a large majority of Christian churches proclaiming that people should know, trust and obey all of the behavioral principles taught in the Bible, overlooking a principle as foundational as accountability breeds even more public confusion about scriptural authority and faith-based community, as well as personal behavioral responsibility.”

Anyway, here’s the full story: The Barna Group – National Study Describes Christian Accountability Provided by Churches