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President Trump Relaxes US Cyber-Attacks Rules:
President Trump has signed an order relaxing rules around the use of cyber-weapons, the Wall Street Journal reports.[*]
It is a reversal of guidelines, drawn up under President Obama, which required a large number of federal agencies to be involved in any decision to launch a cyber-attack.
[...] The US administration is under pressure to deal with cyber-threats, amid growing concerns that state-sponsored hacks could hit critical infrastructure.
Prof Alan Woodward, a computer scientist at the University of Surrey, told the BBC: "We are in a era when certain governments are acting aggressively in cyber-space, and that is rightly condemned by governments such as that in the US.
"To respond in kind is not necessarily the way to de-escalate the situation."
He added: "You wouldn't allow a pre-emptive physical attack without thorough analysis and approval at the highest levels, so why would cyber-attacks be any different?"
[*] Paywalled.
Let's hope extreme care is taken to identify the actual source of an attack, rather than the apparent source.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Friday August 17 2018, @08:25PM (1 child)
I'll give you most of this, except for the very first one. Claiming the Old Testament was about "welcoming and treating foreigners well" is absolute nonsense. The Yahweh of the Old Testament was a tribal god, mostly protecting "His People."
Keep in mind one of the primary narratives of the Old Testament is about the time in Egypt, where the Israelites were foreigners. And yes, the OT reminds the Israelites of that later, so they shouldn't treat foreigners with contempt for no reason. BUT, look at the story of how foreigners are treated in the Exodus narrative. The Egyptians would have reasonably let the Israelites go, except Yahweh apparently deliberately "hardened Pharoah's heart" to refuse them up to the point that Yahweh could justify a genocidal purge of all firstborn in Egypt. After that Yahweh leads the Israelites to a "promised land" -- except there are a bunch of people already living there. The latter parts of the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges are basically the story of battles that often became nearly genocidal purges of the native population until the Jews could receive their "promised land."
Outside this primary narrative, there are numerous examples in the Old Testament of the Jewish people slaughtering, massacring, mutilating, gang raping, etc. those who were not part of their "tribe." Yes, there are occasional verses that are about welcoming STRANGERS and showing hospitality, but the general "foreign policy" of the Old Testament was about killing and maiming those from outside the tribe, claiming their "gods" were BS, and generally disrespecting foreigners (even if they weren't outright killed). Leviticus claims no gift animals from foreigners were acceptable as sacrifices -- Yahweh obviously didn't trust them. Leviticus also allows non-tribal folks to be taken as slaves. Ezra and Nehemiah are horrified at the kind of miscegenation that would occur by mixing Jewish blood with foreigners. I could go on.
Yes, there are notable counterexamples (e.g., Ruth, though arguably that story is mostly there to point out there can be exceptions to the widespread stereotype of foreigners). And there are verses that are more positive or call for protection. But the ACTIONS of the Jewish people toward other tribes are the most notable in the Old Testament. And even if outsiders were tolerated sometimes and treated with basic respect, they were never accepted into the religious community unless they basically gave up all of their own culture and beliefs.
I take your general point that most of the biblical messages aren't necessarily practiced by those who claim to be "Christian." But I definitely wouldn't hold up the Old Testament as a guideline for how to treat foreigners.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday August 17 2018, @09:24PM
You summarize it very well. And indeed the text is very clear that God hardened Pharoah's heart. (There are a few instances sometimes translated Pharoah hardened his heart, but not all.)
There are instances where God then rebukes the Israelites for this and many other things. Not just the idolatry. The major and minor prophets often spell out exactly the reason for the coming judgement. And among these are instances of the things I mentioned.
The Electoral College voting is an affirmative action program for low populated states.