Stormbringer's Thunder

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen The most effective way to keep your identity, finances, privacy, and so on safe online is to never go online. Easy enough... Unfortunately, since internet activity is ubiquitous and even expected, it is impractical to stay offline and live in this world. There are owlhoots looking to get information and money, and many are very skilled. Software developers are constantly updating against viruses, phishing, and other hacks — which is one reason to let your operating system, virus scanner, and other software update itself. Cybercrime warning, Pixabay / Gerd Altmann (geralt) Okay, we know that most folks cannot completely avoid going online to do certain minimal things. Sneaky people still find ways of causing people harm. Education is extremely important, and I reckon a good measure of suspicion is useful. Experience is helpful but getting that also has risks because people are exposed to sites that may be harmful. Suspicious Facebook Messenger message with link (

Way back in 1066 AD, William the First took a notion to extend his power from Normandy and conquer England. People who have been invaded are not too fond of the idea. Bill knew this, and acted quickly to keep control, so he built a passel of strongholds. These castles could be built rather quickly with available wood. (Later, castles would be made of stone.) The wide area that was protected which was known as the bailey . The nearby hill, existing or manufactured, had the top leveled off for the greater stronghold, the motte . This is where the keep , often a tower, was built. Windsor Castle with motte and bailey, Flickr / Mike McBey ( CC BY 2.0 ) The basic idea of a motte and bailey was successful , since attackers would have to get through the outer defenses first, then they would have to fight the greater defenses going uphill. When the attack was thwarted or abandoned, the people would leave the motte and return to bailey life. This layout has been applied to a particularly deviou

Those of us who have been riding the Apologetics Trail for some amount of time know that professing atheists (Rom. 1:18-23) on the internet are, for the most part, weak thinkers. While some may have a modicum of skill at philosophy, most make serious logical and philosophical errors. For example, demanding scientific proof that God exists is a category error , because God is not a material object. We also see ridiculous professing Christians used as examples to say that all religion is evil, which is a hasty generalization . (You can see more of the common informal logical fallacies that misotheists use on the logic lessons page .) Worse, though, is that atheists are forced to believe antiscience because of their worldview. Darwin antiscience, modified from a Pixnio image Examples of why molecules-to-misotheist evolution is unscientific are in many places, including Piltdown Superman  and this weblog. Evolution is foundational to their belief system. (Yeah, I know, they "lack bel

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Something flew under my radar that I would have missed except for a post from WHYOutreach . So anyway, while there are some folks who imagine occult symbolism and conspiracies everywhere they turn (such as the CERN collider causing the end of the world ), this imagery is blatantly obvious. People who know their Bibles and biblical history are aware of the demon known as Baal. How do you pronounce it? On Stargate SG-1  and other places, it's pronounced ball , like bouncy. Some say bail , like what you do when the boat is filling with water (I use this one). Others insert a gap, Ba'al, making it buh-ALL . However it is pronounced, it is a generic way of saying lord. Then it became a proper name. Since I can't find a legal image, here's the Palmyra Temple of Baal-Shamin, WikiComm / Dosseman  ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) So who was this sidewinder, anyhow? Basically a fertility deity for Canaan and Phoenicia — better yet, read " Who was Baal? " Differ

Expressions resembling "Never let a crisis go to waste" have been attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli, Winston Churchill, and Rahm Emanuel. Nowadays it appears to be a motto, especially for leftists attempting to increase political power. I suspect that there is a second part: "If there is no worthwhile crisis, manufacture one or take an existing problem and magnify it." Leftists and their obedient sheeple have been finding and causing crises for years. For a while, global warming had been on the back burner (heh!), but it was brought back with a vengeance, even using brainwashed children to manipulate emotions in the public. Global Warming, Pixabay / Pete Linforth As we have seen, the secular science industry will saddle up and ride with any leftist saddle tramp that comes to DC town. They have a worldview based on atheistic naturalism, so they reject the Creator (and his promises to sustain the earth) out of hand. In addition, the secular science industry has shown

Addendum added 2 July 2022. We have seen many times in the past where the secular science industry has supported leftist causes, and now it is increasing. This is indeed unfortunate for the scientist who wants to do science stuff. Many of us can relate, having to earn a living trying to do what is best for the patient or customer. Indeed, if a prospective employer reads this and rejects me, their company is not worth my talent. Abortion is a sacred sacrament to leftists. Although fake science gave abortion a veneer of deniability with, "The fetus is not human yet, it is just going through past evolutionary stages", people know full well that the fetus is an unborn human baby. Fetus means  baby. They want to kill it anyway. In  Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization , the United State Supreme Court overturned the terrible legislation of Roe v. Wade  from 1973. Abortion has been an important aspect of the Democrat Party for many years, so they and other leftists are incen

by Cowboy Bob Sorensen My calendar reminder tells me that today is the anniversary of this, my first weblog. I think it was a contact in a newsgroup who encouraged me to do one. As expected, many things have changed and I have learned a great deal. When I started, I had no idea what to say, so I did a getting to know me thing. The subjects were about whatever struck my fancy, and Stormbringer's Thunder was written in a conversational style. This still covers a variety of subjects, but I focus on logic, refutations of atheism, and internet things such as browser security . Quick fun facts about the Edge browser. It has Immersive Reader to make a page more, well, readable. In that is a Read Aloud function (Natasha is my favorite voice). It also does a read aloud thing even if the site is not conducive to Immersive Reader. Like other browsers, Edge will open up PDFs. Here's what was fun for me: Using the Reader View by Yokris extension , a user can annotate and mark up a web pa