If You Don't Like Satire Don't Read This

Hello brothers and sisters throughout the world!

It's my honor to share a new philosophy with you that will positively change your life if you practice the teachings of its founder - Alfred E. Neuman. 

Are you excited yet? We all want a better life, right? 

Imagine if you could meet every challenge in your life with the same confident calm and lack of concern. Amaze your friends with your newfound power of stoic stupidity. You'll be the life of any party.

Are you ready?  Focused?

Okay. You need to chant "What Me Worry?" at least three times a day. Some eager newcomers even chant the sacred words a dozen times a day. 

In between your daily chants you'll learn to roll with whatever life offers up and not get bummed out. If someone tells you that your house burned down just say "What Me Worry?" This sage statement is your gateway to being happy regardless of what happens in your insignificant life.  

If America's Felon-In-Charge, aka Trump, is getting on your nerves just remember to say, "What Me Worry?"  

No matter how outrageous Trump's lies are you won't lose your cool when you say the magic words. Your newly acquired superpower has no limits. Think about that for a moment.

There are more philosophies than fleas on a junkyard dog, so I won't bother listing them. Absurdism comes closest to Founder Neuman's philosophy by stressing humanity's failed efforts to find meaning in the universe. Founder Neuman took it to the next step - who gives a damn? - or "What Me Worry?"

I propose that Americans adopt this new philosophy right now during these perceived Days of Destruction of America's Democracy as presented by the orange dictator waddling around the Oval Office. There's always the chance that justice will be meted out to Trump and his minions. Meanwhile... don't worry about it.

As it Stands, I proudly pledge to practice this new philosophy-so help me Alfred E. Neuman.

About Multiverses and Superheroes on the Silver Screen

Legendary comic book writer and editor (Stan Lee) who co-created many Marvel characters, always used the phrase "Onward and Upward" to show Marvel's spirit of innovation and ambition.

 

Hence...

Marvel Entertainment opened up an age when superheroes leapt from the comic pages to the big screen.  Throughout the adventures of various super characters there was - from the very beginning - an underlining theme that grew more popular over the decades. Exploring the multiverse.

Say what? 

Basically, the multiverse is a hypothetical set of all universes. Together, these universes are presumed to comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and all the physical laws and constants that describe them.

The concept of multiple universes, or multiverse, has been discussed throughout history. It has evolved and has been debated in various fields, including cosmology, physics, and philosophy.

Despite their efforts to analyze data in search of evidence for other universes, scientists say there's been no statistically significant evidence found. But that's not the end of the story.

In 2015, an astrophysicist said he found evidence of alternate or parallel universes by looking back in time to a time immediately after The Big Bang (not the TV series silly!). He's yet to find another authority that agrees with his claims. Still, there are some scientists today delving into the mysteries of the multiverse.

Frankly I have a hard time wrapping my small brain around the whole concept of alternate or parallel universes. 

As a Marvel fan dating back to early Captain America adventures, I've always enjoyed plots with twists. When those plots were transferred to the movies, I was excited. It was a fan's dream.

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Overview of the Marvel Cinematic Universe

The Infinity Saga: Phase One (2008-2012)

Iron Man (May 2, 2008) plus 6 other releases.

Phase Two (2013-2015)

Guardians of the Galaxy (Aug. 1, 2014) plus 5 other releases.

Phase Three (2016-2019)

Captain America: Civil War (May 6, 2016) plus 10 other releases.

Phase Four: The Multiverse Saga (2021-2022)

Black Widow (July 9, 2021) plus 6 other releases.

Phase Five (2024-2025) 

Deadpool & Wolverine (July 26, 2024)

The Thunderbolts was released on May 2, 2025.

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As it Stands, sometimes I feel like I'm living in a parallel universe where America has crowned a king, and I really need to get back to the real world where America isn't a police state.

John Wayne: Forgiving an American Idol

Vietnam 1970 - I had been in country one week when my squad leader said, "We don't need any John Waynes in this squad."

At first, it was hard for me to understand why everyone seemed so down on the duke.

At 19 (photo right) I knew very little about politics. 

I learned that Wayne used his iconic status to support conservative causes that kept the war going. That included rallying support for the Vietnam war by producing, co-directing and starring in the critically panned Green Berets in 1968.

That movie was propaganda, pure and simple. 

After a while, I understood why his name had come to represent the establishment and the senseless war we were fighting. 

I found out firsthand that there were no heroes like the ones in the movies. Just survivors. 

Most of the South Vietnamese (who we were supposedly fighting for) I met wanted us to go home. I slowly became aware we were just invaders, not saviors.

I never saw anyone cry out, "For God and Country" and charge into enemy bunkers with M-16 blasting away. That's not the war I saw. I saw corruption on the South Vietnamese side and the American side. A thriving black market. Master sergeants in supply getting rich. And lots of Americans doing drugs.

How could my boyhood hero have supported such a massive mistake? What made Marion Mitchell Morrison side with the bad guys? 

Time hasn't been kind to him.

People still hold John Wayne in contempt for the paradox between his early actions - he never went into the military - and his rampant patriotism in later decades.

His widow suggested he was that way because he felt guilty, and not because he was a hypocrite.

I once use to work as a security guard at the gated community where he and his wife Pilar lived in Newport Beach (1974), and I saw him there regularly. 

He was easy to talk with. We had many interesting conversations, him in his non-descript Ford station wagon, and me standing there in a rent-a-cop uniform at the front gate.

When Wayne found out I was a Vietnam veteran he treated me with even more respect, which at the time was a rare experience for Vietnam veterans throughout the country. 

One day, when I told him I was getting married, he gave me a cigar and wished me the best of luck.

You know what? I forgave Wayne a long time ago for being a hawk during the war. I believe he meant well.

As it Stands, I wonder what that cigar would have sold for at auction. I'll never know because I smoked it to a stub the first chance I got.

Not So Friendly Skies and Airplanes for Dictators

I can still hear that 1965 United Airlines slogan, "Fly the friendly skies" with a touch of nostalgia.

Since then, it's been updated to, "Good Leads the Way," which has nothing to do with flying and sucks as a slogan.

One thing is for certain; the skies are not so friendly these days as air traffic controllers lose contact with pilots in what's becoming a common occurrence in American aviation recently. Newark Airport's problems, like losing radar for short periods of time are terrifying to say the least. It turns out that United Airlines is bearing the brunt of Newark airport's chaos. 

The issue at Newark, where nearly 70% of the flights are operated by United, has been financially disastrous for the company as cancellations and delays have taken a heavy toll. The summer travel season, typically the industry's most profitable period, is fast approaching. 

The blow comes as the industry grapples with slowing travel demand following the economic fallout of Trump's ridiculous trade war. 

While we're on the subject of airplanes did you hear the one about Trump wanting a flying palace so that he could keep up with his dictator friends? 

The Qatari royal family plans on giving Trump his very own palace in the sky (worth about $400m). 

This "gift" is a blatant violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S. Constitution that prohibits officials from accepting gifts, emoluments, office, or titles from foreign government without the consent of Congress.

Trump doesn't care what anyone thinks. He wants a new fancy airplane to increase his profile as a dictator. Some of his minions are trying to make the bribe look like a legitimate offering by suggesting the airplane is being donated to Defense Department and will eventually go to the Donald J. Trump Library. Three guesses who could then fly in it anytime he wanted to.

I have to admit I'm surprised that some of Trump's biggest supporters have serious reservations about the deal. MAGA influencers have described the move as a "bribe," grift, or an example of the high-level corruption that Trump himself has consistently promised to root out. 

Anyone who thinks Qatar is giving Trump a $400m jet out of the goodness of their sweet little hearts is wrong, according to conservative commentator Ben Shapiro during a recent podcast. Even MAGA nut Laura Loomer criticized the move, calling it "a stain" and posted a cartoon of the Trojan Horse, redrawn as a plane and filled with armed Islamist militants.

Apparently, Trump's memory is pretty poor because he accused Qatar of being "a terrorist state" during his first stint in the White House. Funny how things can change when the bribe is big enough.

As it Stands, I had to laugh when Trump's Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt recently told reporters that "this administration is committed to transparency." In the real-world Trump's regime is about as transparent as a triple thick brick wall.

Evolutionary Social Flaw? Why is it so Much Fun to be Afraid?

I’m fascinated by predators like lions, sharks, and lawyers. Stories about rats creep me out, but I continue to read them. I’ve got a hunch there are others like me who get a perverse thrill from shuddering in terror.

Why else would authors like Stephen King be so popular? I remember watching the original black-and-white movie Frankenstein on late night television in 1960. Like most 10-year-olds, I had an active imagination and couldn’t go to sleep afterwards. I nervously waited for the sun to rise, listening and waiting for Frankenstein to appear. I was sure he was lurking outside my room.

For some reason I thought no monster would dare appear during the day. I knew that was the case with werewolves and vampires, and just assumed Frankenstein was a nocturnal monster as well.

Look at roller coasters. They’re all about scaring us witless. The combination of speed, sudden turns, and gravity defying dives nearly always produces screams of sheer terror from riders. Yet afterward, when the world stops spinning and stomachs stop churning, they get back in line for another go!

I’ll never forget my first Zombie movie. It was October 1968, and my best friend Tom (later to become my brother-in-law) and I went to a drive-in theater to see “The Night of the Living Dead.”

For those of you who remember going to drive-in movies back then, the food was terrible. Probably the worst, but most popular item, was pizza. It was like eating cardboard with tomato sauce and cheese smeared frugally on top. We ordered one that night.

Ten minutes into the movie we stopped eating our pizza. Miraculously, our appetites disappeared as we watched people chewing on other people. By today’s standards the movie was tame. At the time, it was considered groundbreaking gore on the big screen and paved the way for countless other Zombie movies. Look at their popularity now.

Talking about scary movies, who can forget when “The Exorcist” came out in 1973? I can still see that disturbing image of demon possessed Linda Blair twisting her head completely around and snarling at the camera.

People liked being terrified by the Exorcist so much it reaped 10 academy award nominations and was the first horror movie ever up for Best Picture. “The Sting” won that year.

I totally blame the movie “Jaws” (1975), for my fear of sharks. Prior to the movie I thought nothing of swimming at Huntington Beach, Redondo Beach, and numerous other beaches in Southern California. Haven’t been in the ocean since 1975.

I don’t care if the movie happened on the East Coast. We have plenty of Great White Sharks on the northern coast of California. There’s been more than one incident in Humboldt County of someone attacked by a Great White while surfing in the frigid waters.

So why do I like being scared for entertainment? I have no idea. I know I’m not alone, however. Fear sells. Write about the world ending or a Zombie invasion of downtown Keokuk, Iowa, and it’ll sell.

Of course, you’re going to have a lot of competition because countless others are also dreaming up terrifying global scenarios to scare our pants off. I read somewhere that because man has no dinosaurs chasing him around anymore, he misses that primal instinct of running for his life from something that wants him for dinner.

In other words, we need an adrenaline rush. People love visiting with lions or tigers while safely separated from their teeth and claws. The same goes for shark aquariums. Watching those cold eyes search for prey sends shudders up our spines.

I think the most feared predators in our society today are lawyers. They look like you and me on the outside, but beneath those suits lurk soulless predators going for our money in court cases.

I’m only half-kidding here. Few things can scare people more than knowing their rival in a lawsuit has a high-powered (translation: unscrupulous) lawyer. How many times have you wondered if someone escaped justice by using a “good lawyer” (translation: one who is famous and wins every time)? That’s scary.

As It Stands, here’s an interesting thought: Is our fascination with wanting to be scared an evolutionary social flaw that contributes to the violence in our violent society today?

Originally published in May of 2013, in the Times-Standard

A Short, Humorous Look at the Long History of Cuisine

Camera pans in; 338,000 years ago, somewhere in Ethiopia two early humans are discussing the merits of meat:

Ug: “I’m sick and tired of eating grubs and berries!”

Nug: “Me too. You know what we got to do?”

Ug: “Yep. Risk our lives hunting down meat that is many times bigger than Nug and Ug. It’s dangerous business, but a good dinosaur steak is hard to beat when you want something good to eat.”

Nug: “Not according to Oop. He says he won’t eat anything with a face and is fine grubbing around for berries and insects.”

Ug: “That’s because Oop is too lazy to hunt down a meat meal. Besides, he’s never been right since getting smacked by that big lizard’s tail.”

Nug: “OK, then. I’ll go get my spear and tell the little lady we may be gone for a few days.”

Ug: “Sounds good. My mouth is watering just thinking about the feast we’re going to have!”

Two months later Nug’s wife and Ug’s girlfriend are now with new hunter-gathers that don’t like meat!

Fast forward to 306 BC Rome. Three wealthy diners are gathered in the triclinium (special dining room) lying on specially design couches (Lectus triclinaris).

Around the table, the mensa, the three diners recline on their lectus and casually eat exotic food brought to them by slaves.

Over a spoonful (cochlear-type spoon with a needle-thin grip, which is also used as a prong to eat snails and mollusks) one of the diners speaks between mouthfuls of lentils imported from Egypt:

Petronius: “Food this good should never be on a dirty peasant’s table. They wouldn’t appreciate the refined flavors.”

Cassius: “Let them eat fava beans, chickpeas, and lupins, I say!”

Marcellus: “Let them eat what we deposit in the vomitorium this very day!”

A hearty round of laughter is followed by gulps of imported wine.

The following morning a city-wide slave revolt results in a round-up of wealthy Romans. It doesn’t take long before fava beans and chickpeas become Petronius, Cassius, and Marcellus’ favorite (and only) food.

Fast Forward to the American Civil War, 1863:

When on campaign, soldiers were issued rations of hardtack crackers (generally nine or 10 crackers) when bread was not available, which was most of the time. Some of the common problems with hardtack were being too hard, wet, moldy, or infested with maggots and weevils. If they boiled their hardtack in coffee they could scrape the weevils off the foam.

Grumbling about hardtack was common and there was a popular song called “Hard Times.” The chorus went,

” ‘Tis the song and the sign of the hungry,

Hard crackers, hard crackers, come again no more!

Many days have lingered on our stomach sore,

Oh, hard crackers, come again no more!”

Soldiers through the ages have complained about rations, and the North and South armies were no different. They did, however, exhibit a wonderful sense of humor when discussing their cuisine!

Fast forward to today.

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Lettuce … lettuce who? Lettuce in and we’ll tell you!

We eat some pretty weird foods in the good old USA. Sometimes I don’t know if I should chuckle or upchuck. Here are a few examples:

Snake. No, it doesn’t taste like chicken. Take it from me. I tried it. Try frog legs, alligator, or even quail, with a gamey seafood flavor. If you really want the whole experience, you should catch your snake and cook him up yourself. Just remember to carry some antivenom in case he’s quicker than you.

Brain sandwiches. Deep-fried calves’ brains can be found in restaurants all along the Ohio River Valley. I read that squirrel brains were a popular Appalachia food for thought. Unless, that is, you get the wrong squirrel carrying a variation of mad cow disease!

A popular Arizona restaurant serves Chaplines, aka grasshoppers. It’s a traditional food in Mexico and is said to taste like grass, hay, or shrimp. That’s quite a spread. Which is it? I’m not really tempted to find out.

As It Stands, “Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside.” — Mark Twain

Originally published April 14th, 2013, in the Times-Standard

Sometimes Joking is No Laughing Matter

 What?

Can't take a joke?

It's the battle cry of those who actually want to make other people feel bad by disguising their insults as "Just a joke."

When was the last time you heard that one?

Some people are just dense. They mean no harm when they don't get a joke's punchline. It just flew over their head like a flock of flamingos into the sunset.

Then we have people who just don't have a sense of humor. 

They're out there milling around the population like bumps on a log, looking for something to get angry about. 

Anything short of praise pisses them off.

To be capable of understanding humor and separating that from hate seems to be quite the challenge in our stressed-out society. Politicians weaponize humor to troll their opponents.

People who don't get offended by jokes, regardless of how vile, are deemed "good sports." They'll take jokes about themselves in stride and laugh at the drop of a punchline. They are generally good-natured and just want to have fun. There're just not enough people like that these days. 

The difference between a merry prankster and outright troll is vast. We love comedians but loath trolls, especially when they are going after us like rabid skunks.

Just for fun here's some other words for "playing a joke."

* Pulling someone's chain.

* Fooling around.

* Pulling someone's leg.

* Playing a prank.

* Jesting.

* And making a monkey out of someone.

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A sense of humor is a blessing, if you ask me. Think about being able to laugh regardless of the weary world around you that is often devoid of humor. I agree with Reader's Digest that Laughter is the best medicine. And that each one of us should be able to joke about life without negative consequences.

As it Stands, "Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac?" - George Carlin

The Art of Diversion Exposed

If I wasn't able to divert my thoughts, I'd go crazy.

When daily Trumpian antics become too much, I direct my attention towards more pleasant things. 

Like watching an NBA playoff game. Or a baseball game while quaffing a good stout beer and rooting for the Dodgers.

When life becomes so tedious or serious concerns dominate your attention for hours or days you need a break. It's time to recharge your batteries with some positive ions. Participating in activities you enjoy should be a no-brainer.

Unfortunently that's not always the case. Not everyone can sit down in front of a TV and watch their favorite sport as a diversion for a whole host of reasons. Time is a big factor in making it hard to divert your attention. Availability can be a hurdle.

This is key.

The art of diversion involves a vivid imagination. One that allows you to soar above the idiocy surrounding you and to go places unrestricted by reality whenever you feel like it. In a blink of an eye your sipping exotic beverages on a beautiful beach in the Meditterean somewhere.

You have to be careful not to let on your diverting your attention when confronted by teachers, bores or bosses. I recommend a facial mask of apparent interest regardless of how you feel at the time. A stoic face also works. 

I've been practicing the art of diversion all of my life. It's a passive agressive way of getting some satisfaction without getting into a confrontation. When my math teacher in high school lectured me on division and multiplication, I escaped by imagining him doing a belly flop (he was quite heavy) in a pool the size of a dog bed. It was that easy. And fun. Of course, I failed math but that's another story.

You might even compare my approach to diversion with the hilarious 2013 movie, "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" based upon James Thurber's most famous short story.

To summerize, Walter Mitty (Ben Stiller), an employee at Life Magazine, spends day after monotonous day developing photos for the publication. To escape the tedium, Walter inhabits a world of exciting daydreams in which he is the undeniable hero.

I know. That's going a bit too far. We all can't live in a dream world and get away with it like Walter. However, a good imagination will always serve you.

As it Stands, hopefully I diverted you long enough to be entertained today.

America Has Slid into a State of Idiocracy

It's fair to say Trump's efforts to establish an autocracy in the United States has led to an idiocracy where low intelligence is esteemed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson's repeated warnings that our nation is turning into an idiocracy has come to pass with Trump's accession to The White House for a second attempt to destroy our republic. 

To be perfectly clear, an ideocracy is a form of government or social system where abstract ideas or ideologies, rather than practical considerations or evidence, are the primary guiding principles. It's essentially a society where beliefs and doctrines dictate laws, policies, and social norms.

In essence, an ideocracy is a society where the power and authority of an ideology or set of beliefs are paramount, influencing all aspects of life and potentially leading to a rigid and often authoritarian social structure.

Sound familiar?

If you're living in America today, you're learning all about ideocracy. Depending on how old you are you may have seen the cult classic Idiocracy when it came out in September of 2006, giving you a heads up on the younger generation. It was a social parody that never got a wide screening because 20th Century Fox was uneasy with it. 

Who knew it would someday come down from the screen one day and become our reality?

Here's what passes as presential in these dark days:

* Trump mocks the recently deceased Pope infuriating one billion Catholics worldwide. 

Then he publicly denied posting a picture of himself on his Truth Social account dressed up as the Pope and knew nothing about the photo's mysterious appearance on the internet.

* After watching an old movie about Alcatraz in his Mar-a-Lago lair Trump was inspired to restore the infamous prison to its former state and enlarge it. Why? No one really knows. Apparently, Trump is turned on by all the suffering and the fact Al Copone was held there thrilled him. "The great Al Copone, they called him," he recently told a gaggle of MAGA media reporters.

* New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney met with Trump in the Oval Office and bluntly told him Canada "is not for sale," despite Trump's assertions that it should become the 51st state. What was Trump's idiotic reply? "Time will tell. It's only time. But I say never say never." 

* Asked if he has to "uphold the Constitiution" Trump told NBC News, "I don't know."

The nation has been on a slippery slope since Trump slithered into our politics promoting hate, lies, and misinformation. He has cultivated a cult of idiocracy that is rapidly turning into a deadly autocracy. 

In less than four months Trump has managed to sow chaos throughout the country by ignoring the Constitution and dismantling government agencies that Americans desperately need.

The idiots in this country decided they wanted one of their own in power. Trump has liberated their conspircies and promised them paths to power though him. And he's working hard to fulfil that future shock every day.

As it Stands, it's up to sane Americans now to flip this script and run these idiots out of our besieged government before the damage is permanent. We must keep pressure on them by exposing lies and fighting back against their assault on the rule of law in the courts. Democrats - at the very least - must take the House in the midterms. A blue Senate would be a bonus for the republic. Anything is possible when you stand up to idiots.

Walk on the Wild Side: Sniff Like a Dog

People have always admired dogs' super sense of smell. 

That's why we use them for multiple societal tasks, from tracking down lost people, to sniffing out hidden illegal drugs.

They know when we are happy, sad, or sick thanks to their amazing snouts.

(Photo - my dog Mollie gives me backyard tours of things to smell every day.)

Here's a fun fact, dogs have two dedicated, separate routes in their snouts for sniffing and breathing making them natural detectives.

They can use their highly sensitive olfactory organs to locate substances that we never thought had an odor: cancer cells, minute quantities of TNT; three-day old footprint left by a missing person.

Would you like to have a dog's super sniffing power? C'mon don't tell me it wouldn't be interesting. We may not have the same internal snout system, but all is not lost. We already have the equipment, a nose (albeit not as sophisticated as a dog's).

Recently, John McGann, an associate professor at Rutgers, published a review in the journal Science reminding us that human do, after all, have an olfactory bulb. Swedish professor Matthias Laska has extensively demonstrated that in detecting some odors, such as amyl acetate (which smells like a banana), we are plenty sensitive.

Our experience of the flavor of food is mostly due to smell, experienced through the back of the mouth - retronasal olfaction - instead of through the nostrils.

There's no way humans will ever achieve the mastery of smell that dogs enjoy but there are some ways you can improve your sense of smell.

 I recommend reading Alexandra Horowitz's book, "Being a Dog: Following the Dog in the World of Smell."

The author set out to improve her sense of smell by following a dog's lead, as well as that of some olfactory experts, among them a perfumer, a sommelier, and a pair of animal trackers. Dog's excepted, few of these experts were born noses.

Her advise seems pretty simple and straightforward - Stick your nose in it. Consider a dog's daily behavior and contrast it with the frequency with which you see a person with nose smashed against a surface, inhaling calmly and confidently. No comparison. Humans just have to get closer to the source in order to bring more odor molecules into their noses.

It's a worthy read if you love dogs and wish you could improve your sense of smell. Don't worry, you don't have to follow people around sniffing their butts to recognize them when they come into a room!

As it Stands, there are so many odors we don't stop to take the time to appreciate like the smell of freshly mowed grass or the advent of spring.

The Internet is the Worst That Ever Happened to Mankind

Some people may find it amazing to know that the world actually functioned without an internet once.

It's the one modern invention that keeps on attacking...and upsetting societies with floods of misinformation that no other media has been able to match in modern times.

The internet is an evil Pandoras box that disgorges lies, filth, and hate 24-hours a day. Since the early 1990s when the internet became available in homes with dial-up internet the flow of filth has increased yearly, until now it's one of the biggest threats to our society and civilization overall.

There's no doubt in my mind Trump would not have been able to do what he has, turning our democracy into an autocracy, without the help of the internet and the bad actors who abuse it. The original intent of the internet was to allow information exchanges in real time, with a data base that included pathways to knowledge never experienced before. Mountains of information available on every possible subject was part of the package, but it came with unexpected side effects that have grown more deadly every year.

There's never been a propaganda device that can rival the internet's steady streams of lies 24 hours a day. Truth has become a casualty and people don't know what to believe anymore.

Please...don't try to sell me on the benefits of the internet. I would gladly do without it. I would happily give up blogging to see an end to this threat to civilization. I'm confident I could get by without it and so could others. We did once. Remember?

What are the risks of using the internet?

For starters, viruses and hackers. Users' personal information gets extracted by bad actors and their world is never the same after that.

* Malware, also known as malicious code or software is a constant threat.

* Ransomware. It limits users from accessing their system via malware.

* Distributed Denial of Service (DOS) attacks are also common.

* Spam and phishing are a daily challenge and if the user doesn't have protections they are going to regret it. Sometimes these precautions fail to the sophisticated attacks.

* Corporate Account Takeover (CATO) where a company gets held hostage until they pay a fee.

* Automated Teller Machine (ATM) hacked by sophisticated software. 

But the threats don't end there.

You have to protect your children when they use the internet. 

Because there are so many sites designed for kids, they also have become easy targets for bad actors. Predators prowl video games and chat rooms looking for easy victims.

It just gets worse.

Cyberbullying has led to teen suicides. Then there are hackers posting the personal information of young people that will later come back to haunt them. Teens are easily scammed. They also accidently download Malware and infect their computers.

Cyber risks users have to be aware of.

* Drive-by-Cyberattack.

* Poor cyber hygiene.

* Cloud vulnerabilities.

* Mobile device vulnerabilities.

* Poor data management.

* Inadequate post-attack procedures.

As it Stands, I firmly believe that the internet is a threat that has gotten out of hand despite its original intent to benefit mankind.