Yearly Archives: 2022
THE IDEAL ESCAPE HATCH
What would be an ideal place to escape from all the lunacy washing over our country – for a few days to a second home?
Let’s see… it would have to be a First World country with all the civilized amenities of modern life, and a cultured, educated, and welcoming people many, many of whom speak English.
A First World country that brushes aside all Woke nuttiness engulfing the US as silly rubbish to be ignored, and traditional Christian family values revered instead. That is not much farther away than a US cross-country flight. That has Goldilocks weather, not too hot, not too cold. That has sunsets in the ocean, fabulous food and wine, incredible castles in the sky, history that’s thousands of years old yet so hip and current it’s the cultural capital of its continent.
We’ve had Glimpses of this place before: The Europe That’s Still There, and The Portuguese Riviera. Yes, the Ideal Escape Hatch for us is Portugal – a quick overnight flight getting there, a morning flight return.
For 10 days in mid-October, Rebel and I are conducting a Portugal Exploration for TTPers. Please consider joining us – Rebel and I and your fellow TTPers will love to have you. Just click on Portugal Exploration – Oct 12-21, 2022 -- you owe it to yourself to be entranced by the photos, for a glimpse of this ideal place. (Glimpses of our Breathtaking World #157 ©photo Jack Wheeler)
THE PSYCHOPATH AS PHILANTHROPIST
The real title of Gates’ How To Prevent the Next Pandemic
There’s a joke being told in my house this week: Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend, a little-known and slightly autistic high school dropout named Bill Gates has a new book out this month. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?
Unfortunately, of course, we have all heard of him.
From Borneo to Boston, the entire world is only too familiar with the man who wants to inject you into the future. Bill Gates is the front man — the public face — of Big Pharma’s global COVID tyranny.
Who else would be dumb enough to evangelize that all of the world’s problems could be solved with the tip of a syringe?
That’s an idiotic message because it’s so obviously untrue. Gates doesn’t have any interest in people shaping their own future — he wants to shape your future, and he would really appreciate it if you’d get out of the way.
UNBLOCKING UKRAINIAN PORTS TO PREVENT MASS GLOBAL STARVATION
“Sanctions on Russia have no connection to the unfolding global food crisis. The sole reason for shortages, rising prices, and threat of hunger is the Russian military physically blocking 22 million tons of Ukrainian food exports in our seaports. Demand Moscow to end its blockade.” –Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine Minister of Foreign Affairs, May 28, 2022From the beginning of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian war, the Russian Black Sea Fleet moved in to block or occupy all of Ukraine’s ports on the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports is contributing to a growing human calamity that extends far beyond the immediate region.
“We are on the precipice. 10% of the global population may be facing mass starvation. You’re looking at a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions, probably the worst since the Black Death of the 14th century.” – James Rickards, international economist and investment banker, May 26, 2022
Around 70 merchant vessels loaded with grain and other critical cargo have been unable to leave Ukrainian ports for the past three months due to the high danger of armed attack from Russian forces (Fakty.com.ua, May 9). 22 million tons of food products, including grain, barley, sunflower seeds and more, remain stuck in port (Ukrinform, May 21).
THE MOST CHRISTIAN ISLAND
Waitangi Bay, Chatham Island. 530 miles east of New Zealand lies an isolated island of windswept rugged beauty that few people have ever heard of. Yet Chatham Island may be an ultimate Christian example of how to prevail over monstrous evil.
In the early 1400s, a Polynesian people calling themselves Moriori sailed from New Zealand across an unknown empty sea to reach an island they named Rekohu, meaning “misty sky.” For 400 years they lived in peace among themselves – and in utter isolation from the world.
But in 1835, another people arrived, and brought Hell with them. They were a group of 500 Maori cannibals from New Zealand determined to take Rekohu for themselves. The Maori killed them like sheep, men, women, children, and babies, and ate them.
The British Governor of New Zealand ignored the Maori Genocide. There were about 2,000 Moriori on Rekohu (renamed Chatham) when the Maoris arrived in 1835. Only 101 Moriori were still alive by 1862. It was Western Christian missionaries who put an end to Maori killing, eating, and enslaving Moriori. Today on Chatham Island there is a Moriori resurgence – but without rancor. The past is past, they say, what counts is the future. Like few other peoples on earth, the Moriori understand the Christian power of abandoning resentment and grievance.
Come to Chatham to experience a unique place in our world, and a people with their souls at peace. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #176 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE BAG OF DEAD CATS
“Disturbing new video obtained by The Post shows demented Robb Elementary School shooter Salvador Ramos grinning as he holds up a bag of blood-soaked dead cats.” New York Post, May 30, 2022As some have argued in response to the relentless push to disarm law-abiding Americans after the mass shooting in Uvalde, TX, things are so much more complicated than just the gun used.
That’s become clear after an unearthed video of the shooter raised every red flag imaginable, showing Salvador Ramos holding a bag of dead cats. If this video was otherwise seen by authorities prior, it’s inexcusable that it wasn’t acted on.
Why wasn’t it?
CAN WE PUT AN END TO GUN-FREE ZONES NOW?
In the aftermath of the massacre of 19 children and two adults at the elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, all the usual suspects are pushing for more gun control laws. None of their proposed laws will reflect any lessons learned from what went wrong and which cost so many innocent lives.
One reason is that none of them address the vulnerability created for schools and churches by the misguided policy of “gun-free zones.” We need to get rid them, and here’s how.
THE TIGERS OF SAMARKAND
The magnificent Sher-Dor Madrassa, built in the early 1600s, is part of the Registan public square complex of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Samarkand. “Sher-Dor” means “Adorned with Tigers” in Persian – flaunting Islamic blasphemy of living beings in art. Here is the mosaic depiction of a tiger chasing a deer and on its back a rising sun deity with a human face. This is honoring the pre-Islamic history of Samarkand that goes back almost 3,000 years.
It was centuries old when Alexander conquered it in 329 BC. For a thousand years as Central Asia’s great entrepot on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, it was a cosmopolitan center for Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Nestorian Christianity. Incorporated into the Islamic world in the 700s, sacked by Genghiz Khan in 1220, rebuilt by the time Marco Polo in 1272 described it as “a large and splendid city,” Tamerlane made it his capital in 1370.
Colonized by Czar Alexander II in the 1860s within the Russian Imperial Empire, and by the Soviets in the 1920s within the Uzbek SSR, Samarkand is flourishing today in independent Uzbekistan. Come with me to explore Samarkand and so many other wonders of The Heart of Central Asia this September. It will be like a dream come true. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #208 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
RONALD REAGAN’S MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGE TO AMERICA
On this Memorial Day of 2022, we need a President Reagan more than ever.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY UNDERSTANDING EXCELLENCE
Air Jordan
What makes the difference between a Mozart or a Beethoven and somebody who can play quite well? What makes the difference between a Michael Jordan and a good overall basketball player?
There is a role for raw talent, of course. You have to be capable of accomplishing such feats as these incredible masters to begin with. There is a role for genius and natural ability. There is also the role played by parents and mentors from an early age, which is usually significant.
But there are plenty of people with loads of talent and ability who never, ever come near their potential. There are a lot of people with very high IQs who never really challenge their mental capacities. Here’s what makes the difference.
WHAT AILS AMERICA
FLASHBACK FRIDAY MEMORIAL DAY SKYDIVE
My skydiving buddy Chris Wentzel and I made this flag jump on Memorial Day years ago to pay tribute to those in our military who gave their lives for America. I’m on the right, Chris on the left. The jump was performed at the Skydive Perris drop zone in Perris, California. It’s only fitting I post this on TTP in honor of those whom we memorialize in gratitude on this Memorial Day weekend. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #207 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/27/22
“A single death is a tragedy – a million deaths is a statistic” --Stalin
Here are the world’s two most infamous mass-murdering psychopaths of this week. It’s understandable that the shock, horror, and mourning over the victims of the one on the left is now far greater than over those of the one on the right.
You see the pictures of the 19 4th grade children (along with their two teachers) senselessly slaughtered in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday (5/24) and your heart breaks. The only miniscule bit of recompense is that the monster who took their lives got his head blown off as he deserved.
Such a fate should be the least of what the other monster above deserves, since his senseless crimes in Ukraine dwarf those of Uvalde by many orders of magnitude. Yet that is the terrible irony of Stalin’s observation. The crimes being perpetrated on the people of Ukraine are so massive it overwhelms us.
*****
As Russia continues its slide into collapse, let’s take a look at its big neighbor to the east – China. What’s going on there right now has to be the strangest event currently on earth: Chicom China is in the process of committing suicide.
SKYE’S LINKS 05/26/22
Got food? When up to 700 million people don't next winter, thanks mostly to Putin destroying Ukraine’s capacity to produce and export it on purpose, expect serious unrest and huge mass migrations:
Rickards: "We Are On The Precipice"
Musk versus the woke mob - he knows exactly what he is doing:
Federal Judge Dismisses Fraud And Defamation Lawsuit Against Elon Musk Amid Week Of Controversy
"I am out for blood," says Musk about Hillary disinformation; the man who has put over a thousand satellites in orbit goes nuclear against the Clinton and Twitter cabals:
A CABINETCY OF DUNCES
As the nation sinks inexplicably into self-created crisis after crisis, debate rages whether President Joe Biden is incompetent, mean-spirited, or an ideologue who feels the country’s mess is his success. Let’s settle the debate and say he’s all three.
A second national discussion revolves around who actually is overseeing the current national catastrophe, given Biden’s frequent bewilderment and cognitive challenges.
But one area of agreement is the sheer craziness of Biden’s cabinet appointments, who have translated his incoherent ideology into catastrophic governance. “Stupid is as stupid does” fits them all to a T.
THE REMOTEST CHURCH
Baihanluo Catholic Church is the remotest Christian Church on earth. The isolated village is in a roadless region high on a Himalayan mountain ridge deep in “The Great River Trenches of Asia” – one of our planet’s most dramatic geological features where four major rivers – the Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, and Yangtze all spill off the Tibetan Plateau coursing south in tight parallel for 100 miles.
In the late 1800’s, French Catholic missionaries made their way far, far up the Mekong from the French colony of Laos to befriend the Nu and Lisu tribespeople up here. They responded by building this beautiful wooden church that has been lovingly cared for by the local parishioners ever since.
I led an expedition traversing all three of the great trenches twenty years ago (2001). We were welcomed so warmly by the devout villagers. It’s hard to get more remote than this, yet they have retained their faith for at least four generations now. You can imagine how powerful and experience it was to be with them. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #138 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE TO AMERICA TODAY
So hard to think or report about anything else after watching the Texas school “massacre” which took place yesterday. Thank you to the great wisdom and bravery of our Law Enforcement Professionals, and condolences to all who are suffering so gravely with the loss of those incredible souls so close to you. No words can express the sorrow and grief of this absolutely horrible event. It is a moment in time which will never be forgotten!
Posted on Truth Social, May 25, 2022
HAS THERE EVER BEEN A MORE CRUEL, TONE-DEAF OVAL OFFICE OCCUPANT?
All that is left of Joe Biden's never very bright mind is his viciousness.
Biden's speech after the Buffalo mass shooting was as obscene as his speech in the wake of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas was last night (5/24).
He was barely there — frail and blank, reading the teleprompter with no emotion until he got to blaming guns. Then he yelled with thoroughly phony anger at all Americans who revere the Second Amendment.
It never occurs to leftists like Biden that had one or two or three of the staff at the market in Buffalo or the school in Uvalde been armed and trained, those nineteen children might be alive. Israel figured this out decades ago.
THE ROCK PALACE OF YEMEN
Dar al-Hajar, the Rock Palace, was built by Yemen’s ruler, Imam Yahya Muhammad Hamiddin (1869-1948), atop a rock pinnacle as his summer residence. It lies in a valley about 10 miles outside Yemen’s capital of Sana’a. While an iconic example of Yemeni architecture, it’s impossible to visit now with civil war raging in the country. Someday we’ll be able to safely return to Yemen again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #143 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE LION ROCK OF SIGIRIYA
Rising 600 feet above the jungles of central Ceylon (Sri Lanka) is a gigantic rock column revered for millennia as Sigiriya – Lion Rock from Sanskrit. It’s flat on top, used over centuries as a Buddhist monastery and a fortress by kings. In 480, King Kashyapa had the image of a lion carved into the rock as the entrance gate to his fortress-palace on top. All that’s left are the lion’s paws that you see.
It was a risky climb via stone stairs carved into the rock getting to the top. Today there’s a much safer wooden staircase. It’s a pilgrimage site for Sri Lankans where they get to celebrate their history and enjoy the gorgeous view on top. It’s a marvelous experience for you to participate in. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #158 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HILLARY DID IT
[This photo caricature is what The PIAPS should look like right now. The battle cry at Trump rallies throughout his presidency was “Lock her up!!” – but it never happened. Four years ago in the spring of 2018, a friend warned, “Somebody has to go to jail, some top Dem has to be wearing an orange jump suit for the Russia Russia Hoax, or people will lose faith in our system and the GOP will lose the House” – both of which happened and is how we got Speaker Pelosi. And how we got a stolen presidency two years later. Today America is fast becoming a banana republic with corrupt leaders still above the law. They have to go to jail – starting with The PIAPS. Lock her up!! – JW]
The Russia-Trump collusion narrative of 2016 and beyond was a dirty trick for the ages, and now we know it came from the top—candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
That was the testimony Friday (5/20) by 2016 Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook in federal court, and while this news is hardly a surprise, it’s still bracing to find her fingerprints on the political weapon.
MONKEYPOX FEARPORN
I keep getting asked the same question again and again; is this outbreak of monkey pox a real threat, or is this another case of overstated and weaponized public health messaging? Let’s find out.
The monkeypox virus, which originates in various regions of Africa, is related to Smallpox (Variola), which are both members of the genus Orthopoxvirus. However, it is important to understand that Variola (major or minor) is the species of virus which is responsible for the worst human disease caused by the Orthopox viruses.
For example, Cowpox, Horsepox, and Camelpox are also members of this genus, none of which are a major health threat to humans, and one of which (Cowpox) has even been (historically) used as a Smallpox vaccine. My point is that just because Monkeypox is related to Smallpox, this does not in any way mean that it represents a similar public health threat.
Anyone who implies otherwise is basically engaged in or otherwise supporting weaponized public health-related propaganda. In other words, spreading public health fearporn. Two examples provided below are Bill Gates and CNN.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH PLAYFULNESS
A relationship can have complex and unique needs at any given time, so there isn’t really a one size fits all panacea for troubles. But of all the specific actions we can take to improve our relationships, I have found none that apply as often or as effectively as this:
Be playful.
Sounds easy, doesn’t it? But it’s more challenging than meets the eye, and there are clear guidelines for it to work. Here’s how to do it.
RIZONG GOMPA
Rizong is a Gompa or monastery for lamas or monks of the Gelugpa or Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. It is built like it is virtually glued onto a steep cliff in a hidden side valley of the Upper Indus River in the remote region of Ladakh or Indian Tibet.
Ladakh is culturally and geographically Tibetan, yet the British were able to sequester this region for India and away from Chinese-Occupied Tibet, so it is here that real Tibet still flourishes. Visiting Rizong is one of the many extraordinary sights and experiences we have on our India Tibet Expedition this coming August. Hope you’ll be with us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #206 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THANK YOU FOR FLYING US
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – YESTERDAY AND RIGHT NOW
I took my son Brandon on our Indian Tibet expedition when he was 10 years old in 1993. Here we are about to whitewater run the Zanskar River right through the Himalayas. Look at that smile – now there’s an ecstatically happy boy. Wouldn’t you like to see a smile like that on your son or grandson?
You can. Come with me and Brandon with your son or grandson on our Indian Tibet High Adventure – August 14-27, 2022
this summer – or your daughter or granddaughter, ladies are welcome! Don’t say you’re too old – I’m 78!
Indian Tibet 2022 is an absolute true high adventure that both of you will always treasure. Click on the link, absorb the photos, make the experience of actually being there real to you, throw any excuses in the trash, and let me know you’re in. See you in Delhi! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #205 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/20/22
On Monday (5/23), TIME Magazine will publish its Time 100 issue, listing who its editors, past awardees and readers consider to be the 100 most influential people in the entire world for 2022. Odds are very high that gracing its cover will be the single most influential of all – Volodymyr Zelensky.
Almost singlehandedly, he has rescued his nation of 44 million from obliteration by a foreign evil the like of which Europe has not seen since Nazi Germany, and is on his way to militarily defeating it. He has welded his fractious people into a unified, patriotic whole, creating a fully sovereign Ukraine rising like a Phoenix from the ashes of the horrors of Russian attempts to destroy it over the last three centuries until right now.
If Time had an award for Loser of the Year, no doubt it would be Vladimir Putin. Here’s his consolation prize:
There’s lots more, and not all about Ukraine!
JUSTICE IS COMING FOR THE “DIRTY INTEL 51” HUNTER LAPTOP LIARS
The Dirty 51’s Liar-in-Chief, Obama CIA Director John Brennan
One of the most galling aspects of the Hunter Biden laptop saga is that the 51 former intelligence officials who played such a critical role in suppressing the news and giving Joe Biden cover before the 2020 election have never been brought to account.
The “Dirty 51” lied by painting the stories as Russian disinformation in an Oct. 19, 2020, letter they signed and delivered to Politico five days after The Post exposé and three days before the final presidential debate of the election campaign.
The arrogance of these Deep Staters tells you that they believe they will get away with lying to influence an election. But there’s one person with a bee in his bonnet who isn’t going to let the story go: Donald Trump.
The former president has sicced uber-attorney Tim Parlatore on the Dirty 51. Yesterday (5/18), Parlatore launched the first stage of a multi-prong strategy to make those who signed the letter pay for the damage they have wrought to freedom of the press, election integrity and the welfare of the nation.
IMPRESSIONISM’S ISLAND
Bangaram Atoll, Laccadive Islands, India. The “Lacquered” islands or Laccadives are legendary for the glossiness of the Indian Ocean surrounding them. There are three dozen of these coral atolls over 150 miles off the coast of southwest India – but moorkh Indian bureaucrats insist on calling them “Lakshadweep,” Sanskrit for “100,000. Go figure.
Paintings of the French Impressionists of the 19th century merged dreams and reality. Here that is for real. The beauty in the Laccadives can be so astonishing that it seems surreal – like when the ocean and sky merge into one in a palette of pastels straight from the brush of Monet. Come to Bangaram and you’ll find yourself living inside a painting. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #172 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 05/19/22
Got baby food? Maybe not if its infant formula. Here is why (hint - the FDA did it):
How Bad Government Policy is Fueling the Infant Formula Shortage
Lots more details here:
America’s Infant Formula Crisis and the ‘Resiliency’ Mirage
Babylon Bee on the lighter side of issue:
With Formula Shortage More Babies Switching To Whey Protein Powder
You’ll learn a lot and have fun doing it with this Skye’s Links!
SUFFERING THE WORTHLESSNESS OF WOKEISM
We are witnessing a number of radical military, social, and political revolutions that are changing the United States—and the world—in fundamental ways that we still have not appreciated.
There is also a revolutionary vacuum occurring abroad. Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea are trying to figure out whether there is still any old-style American deterrence, or whether the woke progressives now in power in Washington dislike the customs and traditions of the United States even more than they do.
In the West in general, and in the United States particularly, we are seeing a final fruition of decades of woke self-loathing.
So what should we expect in the next few years? For example, Ukraine has been our Spanish Civil War for nearly three months, a laboratory of strategies, tactics, and weapons of wars to come. What are the lessons so far from that conflict?
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF UKRAINE
Street billboard in Ukraine: "You shall not covet your neighbor’s country or freedom, otherwise your ass will be pierced with his pitchfork!"
Some observers think that the United States has committed acts of war against Russia through sanctions, provisions of war materiel, and intelligence and that we are, therefore, partly responsible if Russia is “driven” to attack us with nuclear weapons.
This is not true.
Russia also claims that her “special operations” are not an invasion. Russia claims she is merely trying to “de-Nazify” Ukraine for the good of the Ukrainian people and take the Donbas Region of Russian loyalists, crucial ports on the Black Sea, and anything else she can conquer, as the true sovereign of Ukraine.
If these mendacities are not enough, the Russian propaganda arm is in full swing scaring the daylights out of people with the veiled threat of nuclear war. The United States is not committing acts of war. Instead, we are honoring an agreement we signed with Russia and Great Britain to defend Ukrainian sovereignty.
LETHAL BEAUTY
Want to get this close to a leopard – and safely? Come with me on a safari in Africa and I’ll show you how. Yes, she’s lethal – to the animals she hunts, not you. Yes, you can make such lethal beauty an indelible part of your life.
We really do only live once on this Earth. You really do owe it to yourself to make the most of it. You really can’t take it with you. It really is time to live your dream, to fill your soul with life-memorable experiences. Life lasts but a snap of the finger.
So what adventures have you always dreamed of? Let me know and maybe you and I can make them become real together. I’m only an email away: [email protected]. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #204 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE INDIA LESS TRAVELED
This is Mysore Palace, home of the Wadiyar Rajas who ruled Mysore from 1399 to 1950. It is one of the many wonders of Southern India that’s far less known than traveler’s meccas up north like Agra and Rajasthan.
There’s the Nagarhole Tiger Sanctuary, more Asian elephants than anywhere else in the world, over 100 tigers, scores of leopards, their prey in profusion. Christian churches founded by Christ’s disciple St. Thomas in the 1st century AD. Towering Hindu temples covered with tens of thousands of eye-popping multi-colored sculptures. The gorgeous beaches of Goa, the serene peace of the Kerala Backwaters – “one of the most beautiful locations on earth” according to National Geographic, that you explore by luxury houseboat. It goes on and on.
And here also you find the business metropolis of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India. We did all of this and more a few years ago, and may again in ’21 or ’22. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #81 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
“TWITTER DOES NOT BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH”
Murugesan is an interesting man because he concedes two important things: (1) working at Twitter has turned him into a leftist because that's the mindset of the entire company, and (2) he's beginning to think Elon Musk is making sense when he says free speech is important. Murugesan's open-mindedness may flow from the fact that he's been experiencing some cognitive dissonance.
According to Murugesan, it's unquestionable that "Twitter does not believe in free speech." However, he hasn't quite grasped that this hostility to free speech is about power and control. Instead, Murugesan attributes it to Twitter's (and Facebook's and Instagram's) unwillingness to allow "bullying and harassment" on the site. As he understands it, free speech is all about preventing "bullying and harassment."
Here´s what Murugesan misses.
A TALE OF TWO MASS SHOOTINGS
In the span of one month, there were two mass shootings. One perpetrated by Payton Gendron in Buffalo on May 14, the other by Frank James in New York City on April 12.
Both took place in New York. Both were racially motivated. Both shooters were violent extremists. But the media tied only one of them to a mainstream political party. Can you guess why?
This is why.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY THROUGH MEASUREMENT
Aristotle 387-322 BC
Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it. ― H. James Harrington
It is the mark of an educated mind to expect that amount of exactness in each kind the nature of the particular subject admits. – Aristotle
There is a whole field of study of psychophysiology and biofeedback that is dedicated to helping people learn to control aspects of their physiology, including certain brainwaves, in order to achieve greater relaxation, lowered blood pressure, and other psychological and health benefits.Thomas Jefferson once said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. I would say that goes for the price of self-ownership and effective living, too. Aristotle would also.
THE PORTUGUESE RIVIERA
A cliff-top fishing village on the Italian Riviera? Nope, Azenhas do Mar – Watermills of the Sea – is on the Portuguese Riviera. This is a magic place of fairy tale castles, thousand year-old fortresses, luxury boutique hotels, fabulous food, great wine, gorgeous beaches, and postcard-perfect scenery everywhere.
The Portuguese people are among the kindest in Europe, while Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world. Of all the planet’s First World countries, it’s hard to find one more friendly, calm, and welcoming than here.
Who’s the pretty girl? Lucky me – she’s my wife Rebel, mother of our two grown sons, my business partner, and my best friend. We’ve had a home here for many years. Rebel loves Portugal so much she taught herself to be fluent in Portuguese.
If you’d like a personal experience of the best of Portugal, come with Rebel and me on our Portugal Exploration this October. Let me know if you’d like to have too much fun here with your fellow TTPers: [email protected]. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #123 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE MOSCOW VICTORY PARADE, MAY 9, 2022
27,000 dead so far is a lot of hearses and coffins
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – CLIMBING MOUNT OLYMPUS
August, 1971. Here is where the Ancient Greeks believed their 12 Olympian Gods lived, on the summit of the highest peak of Olympus – Mytikas at 9,571ft/2,918m. There are 52 jagged prominences of Olympus, but if you want to commune with Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena and the rest, this is where you go.
It takes just two days: morning drive from Athens (4 hrs) to Litochoro, then the roadhead at Priona (2,500ft). Afternoon hike of some 3 hours through pretty pine forests to the comfortable Spilios Agapitos refuge (6,700ft) for dinner and a bunk bed overnight. You’re up at dawn for a strenuous but not technical climb up to Skala peak at 9,400ft. In my photo, you’re looking at Mytikas from Skala. It’s a Class B rock scramble – no ropes or gear, but this shouldn’t be your first mountain rodeo. Be careful!
I was by myself at the Mytikas summit and no selfies in those days, so I said my greetings to the gods, and I was back down at the refuge by lunchtime. You’ll be back at the Plaka below the Acropolis in Athens for ouzo and dinner. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #45 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/13/22
Welcome the Friday The 13th HFR! It’s the only Friday the 13th of the year, 2022, so let’s make the most of it by seeing who’s having a real bad luck day today.
First, though, let me take a moment to thank Mike Ryan for his marvelous HFRs of the last two weeks while I was in the Himalayas. Thanks so much, Mike!
We start with the Great Impostor, who on Wednesday (5/11) tried to ridicule the man he stole the presidency from as “The Great MAGA King”. The senile buffoon thought it was an insult, when the majority of Americans think it an accolade. So POTUS quickly riposted with himself as Aragon, hero of the Lord of the Rings. Classically cool.
The Impostor had an inspiring run of bad luck this week. All par for the course from a man who recently said on the White House lawn that “America is a nation that can be defined by a single word…”