August 2012 ~ Volume 17

Quote Of The

Month:

The people are

the only sure

reliance for the

preservation of

our liberty.

- Thomas

Jefferson

What will define the month of August, 2012? The space program for America is over as declared by President Obama, so NASA hitched a ride with the Russians. We reached Mars in August of 2012. This is an exciting event and America will learn much, in the meantime, enjoy the pictures.

http://bit.ly/ODZAHZ Track the events on Mars here

We have all studied history at some point in our lives. Normally, we associate history with social studies learned in school. But do you realize that we are living in historical times? The fate of our Republic depends on the events of the upcoming months. During these uncertain times there are some who go back and study our history, in the hope of finding answers to the situations we face as a nation today. But where did this history come from? Why are we able to read about our history? The answer is very simple. People took the time to write about the events of their day, so it would be remembered by future generations. Without these writings, there would be very little history to remember, other than stories passed down from our elders. And like a fishing story, the truth can soon be lost, as it is human nature for the next teller to embellish a story to suit the needs of the moment. So what does all of this have to do with the Watchmen? It has everything to do with us. Who will write down the words of history, if we fail to make the time to document the events of the day? How will our great grandchildren learn about the corruption that took place on Wall Street in our times, if no one writes it down in their diary? Who will tell them about the greed, dishonesty, and treasonous actions of our elected officials, if we fail to keep a journal? What possible way could they learn about the evil that keeps us on the threshold of another world war, if it isn't jotted down in a logbook? Call it what you will. A diary, a journal, a logbook. It really doesn't matter. What does matter is that it must be done, or the truth about these times will be lost forever, and future generations will not have the opportunity to learn from our mistakes, or our successes. As members of the Watchmen of America, we can document history. A short notation in a journal that documents the important events of the week will insure that history will be remembered correctly. It doesn't require that we write a novel each week. What it does require is that we have the discipline to make the time to at least write something. Even a short notation will become priceless one day. Starting this month, I challenge each and every man and woman in the Watchman to bear the task of keeping an up to date journal. Together we have the opportunity to insure that future generations will be taught a true and accurate history of our times. And they will fully understand why there will always be a need for the Watchmen.

God Bless the Watchmen of America OldBulldog

DUTY--HONOR—COUNTRY

You ask me why ? I now find myself in my 68th year, faced with developments that I wound never have considered possible 40 years ago.

Perhaps at that time I was not astute observer. The early signs were there but I never saw them because I just wasn’t

looking. Let me explain.

I was born the year after the last great war began. During my early years GOD and family were all I knew. As I grew into my

teen years I remember a country where family values; right/wrong; pride in country and flag ; the ten commandments;

honesty; virtue; responsibility and respect for others were predominate. I grew up in the Northeast, so I knew little of the

struggle for equality that was happening in our southern states. During those years little attention was given to politics. News

happened once a day on the radio and later the TV. We trusted news reporters and did not consider them biased, perhaps

they were. We got a job, bought a car and generally enjoyed life—all was good.

Then the 60’s and the Viet Nam war changed us forever. There were hippies, flower children and peace-nicks. All of a

sudden a generation that had been brought up to respect God and country turned against everything. Free love and free sex

became sort of a national motto, we all remember “ make love not war’. Cleanness of dress was discarded for crazy looks.

Open protest against the government due to the war was wide spread. The flag, the same flag we saluted every morning as

kids, was burned in the streets. The use of drugs became a major way of escaping what reality there was.

This time warp was the initial start of the collapse of social values that our country was founded upon. Families were no

longer the same. Children were no longer brought up in the ‘old’ ways. The seeds of me, myself and mine were sown. Radical

students became the leaders of radical movements that move underground and continued their hate for the country and

system that allowed them to express their views. Greed and possessions became the new religion and God. >

Now not all individuals and families fell into this new plan for America. Many hard working folks continued to have kids

and raise them in traditional values. Ours was one such family. Despite our doing our best liberal values and thinking

brainwashed ours when we sent her for the education, we thought she needed.

This has been a lot of rambling to get me where I wish to go. I spent almost 40 years of my life in the service of my

country. Both military and law enforcement. I took multiple oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United

States.

Never in all my life did I think I would see a government as indifferent to the Constitution and the will of the people as our

current Obama administration.

We have the left over radicals from the sixties and their students driving the country I love into the waste basket.

Many problems face us as a nation. Crushing debt, erosion of constitutional liberties, excessive control by our government

in every aspect of our daily life.

For most of these I can only express my opinion in the ballot box. Then hope that new generations we choose to govern

us will lead us back to the principals set forth by our founding fathers.

I never dreamed that in my older years I would need to take up arms with those of like minds to defend the country we

grew up in from our own government. As I live in Arizona, our most pressing problem is the security of our border, which

our government could care less about. Though I am “long in the tooth”, God has kept me reasonably in good shape ---

perhaps for this very time. I can and will join others who under the rights called out in our constitution will defend our

homes and families from a corrupt government that refuses to recognize the will of the people.

I go into the field of my own sense of duty and the faith that God is with us. I know danger lurks, but this I must do. If I am

injured or worse, I will know that I have done everything in my power to return this country to the rule of law guided by our

heavenly Father.

The one major concern I have is for my wife of almost 45 years. I fear not for my safety, but for her if I become a statistic

on the battle field. I wish not to leave her alone, but I cannot ignore the current situation of our beloved country.

So, I will go with other brothers in arms. May the almighty GOD protect us and return us safely to our loved ones.

WHITEWOLF

1. Don't trust cloud providers. Do you think that cloud services offer security or privacy by default? Think again, as cloud-storage businesses are in business to make money, and that can lead to business decisions which prioritize information sharing and ease of access over security or privacy concerns. Notably, "Google's services are not secure by default," said security and privacy researcher Christopher Soghoian said in a blog post that points to comments made by Google officials that anyone concerned with government surveillance of their documents or communications--such as journalists--shouldn't rely on services like Google Docs just out of the box. But the same goes for anyone who's concerned about the security of information they store at Google, or with any other cloud storage service.

2. Use fake personal data. Mother's maiden name? Name of your favorite pet? Place where you were born? Thanks to the Internet, the personal information that many websites ask you to input--in case they later ever need to verify your identity--can be discovered by motivated online researchers. For example, Mitt Romney's personal Hotmail account was reportedly hacked thanks to the attacker guessing the name of his favorite pet. Accordingly, consider not just using unique passwords for every website that requires a password, but also inputting fake personal data for each one as well. Then use a password manager or password wallet to help track all of this information.

8 Ways To Avoid Getting Your Life Hacked

http://bit.ly/O3Tu7S

3. Regularly make local backups. Honan said he lost photos, emails, and documents that he'd been storing on his laptop, iPhone, and iPad, because the data existed only there or on cloud services. To prevent this from happening, the related fix is clear: regularly back up to an external hard drive—or, preferably, two. "Had I been regularly backing up the data on my MacBook, I wouldn't have had to worry about losing more than a year's worth of photos, covering the entire lifespan of my daughter, or documents and emails that I had stored in no other location," said Honan.

4. Avoid daisy-chaining accounts. Don't link online accounts. Notably, Honan's attacker came gunning for his Twitter account, which by the way was still linked to the Twitter account of Gizmodo, where he'd formerly worked. To get to the Twitter account, the attackers essentially worked backward. "My accounts were daisy-chained together," wrote Honan. "Getting into Amazon let my hackers get into my Apple ID account, which helped them get into Gmail, which gave them access to Twitter. Had I used two-factor authentication for my Google account, it's possible that none of this would have happened, because their ultimate goal was always to take over my Twitter account and wreak havoc."

5. Consider Google's two-factor authentication system. Per Honan's advice, Google users should employ Google's two-factor authentication system, a.k.a. "two-step authentication." It works by either having Google text a temporary password to a user whenever they attempt to log on to their Google account, or else by using a Google two-factor password generator smartphone app. According to user reviews of the service, however, it's prone to losing tokens, which then requires the user to reauthorize every device or application that's tied to Google. Still, the extra authentication might slow or stop would-be attackers.

6. Disable remote wiping for laptops. Honan's attacker was able to not only remotely wipe his iPhone and iPad, but also his laptop, using the iCloud "Find My Mac" service. But use that type of service with caution, because if breached, it gives attackers inordinate power. "Consider an independent remote wipe service, rather than relying on one which is part of the cloud offering it aims to protect," said Ducklin at Sophos.

7. Press cloud providers for better password practices. In the wake of the hack of Honan's accounts, Wired reported that Amazon and Apple have reportedly discontinued the password-reset practices that Phobia used in his social engineering attack. Apple, for example, has temporarily discontinued password resets by phone, and Amazon has stopped taking new credit card numbers by phone. That's important, because Phobia had added a bogus credit card number to Honan's Amazon account, then later called back and used the bogus credit card number to "verify" that he was Honan. From there, Phobia was able to see the last four digits of Honan's actual credit card number, which he used to validate his identity with Apple technical support, which--together with a billing address (retrieved via a whois lookup of Honan's personal site)--was all he needed to have Apple generate a temporary password, despite his not being able to answer the security questions that Apple had on file.

8. Keep fingers crossed. Unfortunately, the hack of Honan's Apple, Amazon, Google, and Twitter accounts demonstrates that a determined attacker--Phobia told Honan he was only 19--can find ways to circumvent cloud service security. As Soghoian noted in a blog post, the incident offers "a clear demonstration of how difficult it is for users to protect their data even when using tools and services created by billion-dollar corporations." Thanks to internal customer-service changes made by Amazon and Apple, these types of attacks might be more difficult, but whenever using cloud services, always consider what would be possible if an attacker does manage to gain access to your account.

Where is John Galt? By Gene Schwimmer "Who is John Galt?" That question, of course, is the opening sentence of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel Atlas Shrugged, arguably the first major novel written with a sledgehammer and the first (but, thankfully, not last) to drive generations of liberals crazy and in the most delicious and poetically justified way: by simply depicting a society in which liberals get everything they want. After 55 years and total sales of well over half a billion, I hope I can be forgiven if I "give away the shock ending" by explaining to those who have not read the book who John Galt, in fact, is. John Galt is the prime mover behind the major events in Atlas Shrugged. Specifically, he is an engineer who invents a miraculous new type of motor for his employer, the fictional Twentieth Century (I suppose one could read "General") Motors. Forced by his employer, for the "social good," to share his royalties with his fellow workers, none of whom contributed a thing to the motor's development, Galt walks out of his job, determined to "stop the motor of the world." This he does by convincing the world's major industrialists -- the "top one percent," if you will -- to destroy their businesses, stop inventing, stop creating, and withdraw from society, denying society the benefits of their genius, creativity, and productivity. Interestingly (but not surprisingly), one of the most effective ways to destroy a business is to turn it over to liberals. Anyway, deprived of the "top one percent's" talent and genius -- and with liberals firmly in control -- more and more technology and infrastructure break down until modern civilization collapses entirely. Then, as now, reviews from the liberal intelligentsia were, how you say, unfavorable. Gore Vidal described Atlas Shrugged as "nearly perfect in its immorality." The New York Times opined that the book was "written out of hate."

But one thing none of Atlas Shrugged's critics has ever said is that what happens to civilization in Atlas Shrugs -- i.e., the total collapse of modern civilization -- would, in fact, happen in the real world were the businessmen, the innovators, the creators actually to destroy or simply abandon their businesses, withdraw from society, and withhold from society their genius, talent, and creativity. The reason why no one challenges the basic premise underlying Atlas Shrugged is because no one can. The impact on the modern life if the computer-makers stopped making computers, if every car-manufacturer stopped building cars, if doctors and nurses stopped caring for the sick, and so on is so obvious that it is hard to see how any person seriously could dispute it. So instead of refuting Atlas Shrug's premise, liberals mollify themselves with the comforting delusion that events like the ones depicted in Atlas Shrugged remain, and will always remain, within the realm of fiction: it can't happen here. Well, I say it can. More than that, I believe that if we don't change course, and soon -- if we continue to allow liberals to enact their agenda -- it will. Take, for example, health care. The New York Times article I linked to above mentions that more and more doctors are declining to treat Medicare recipients. Well, I can go that one better: my own internist takes no insurance at all. So perhaps now, three years after Democrats drank the Obama-Reid-Pelosi Kool-Aid and "passed the bill so that we can learn what's in it," someone can tell me where in the Affordable Care Act's 2,700 pages it tells me how "universal health insurance" will make it easier for me to get treated by doctors who don't accept insurance. Nor does it stop there. Medical device-makers, fed up with the FDA's bureaucracy and red tape, are starting to move their operations, and jobs, overseas. No doubt, the medical device manufactures can hardly wait for the ObamaCare medical device tax to kick in next year. After all, what better way to offset the regulations prompting businesses to leave the country than by piling on a tax? >

At least, that is what one would think if one is a liberal Democrat. But for the rest of us, such as the majority of small businesses, who are not hiring, it would seem that we have passed the point where we would need to ask, "Who is John Galt?" Now, in these times, under this administration, with the Democrats controlling the White House and Senate, the right question to ask is, "Who needs John Galt?" What did John Galt convince Atlas Shrugged's fictional businessmen and industrialists to do that their real-life counterparts are not slowly, but inexorably, beginning to do voluntarily, without the need of a John Galt to talk them into it? But would it not be wonderful, would it not be to society's great benefit if there were a real John Galt? Not the one in Atlas Shrugged, mind you. Not the John Galt who abandons society, works surreptitiously to destroy it, and then delivers an ultimatum when that destruction is nearly complete. My John Galt would "recruit" the movers and shakers, the innovators and creators, and, authorized by them to speak for them, would give us fair warning today, before the damage is done, while there is still time to change course. My John Galt would tell us not what he and his ilk would do to us, but what we are doing to ourselves with the ever-increasing burden of regulations and taxes that we impose on the most creative and productive among us, making it increasingly difficult and ultimately impossible for them to create and produce the goods and services -- and above all, jobs -- on which our modern civilization depends.

That's my question. Not who is John Galt, but where is John Galt? Page Printed from: http://www.americanthinker.com/articles