Dr. Jack Wheeler
THE DOOM OF RUSSIA
Last week, Vladimir Putin was re-elected President of Russia with over 70% of the vote. Does this portend the re-animation of the Soviet Russian Empire, led by a man with an unchallenged grip on power, possessed with a deep nostalgia for the glory days of the USSR, and determined to bring back those days again? No, it means that Russia has taken itself out of the global game. It means that Russia has no future. It means that Russia is resolutely determined to screw itself.
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIA
A SHORT HISTORY OF RUSSIAJack WheelerJanuary 1985[Note the date. Written in 1985 during the Cold War, Russia formed the basis of the Soviet Union]At various times in her history, America has been at war with and has had as deadly enemies: the French, the English, the Spanish, the Germans, the Italians, the Mexicans, and the Japanese. All are today our friends and allies. There is nothing in the nature of things that makes it impossible for this to someday be the case with the Russians as well.Yet it is important to understand how the Russians are not like us -- how their history enabled them to transform themselves into Soviets running an Evil Empire called the Soviet Union.
THE SOUTH ASIA MEXICAN STAND-OFF
A good case can be made out that the most arrogant military leaders in the world are the Brahmin generals who run the Indian Army. The hatred and intransigence they have towards Pakistan knows no bounds. Get them in their favorite easy chair at their gentlemen’s club in New Delhi and pour some single-malt scotch into them, and they’ll tell you of how someday nuclear war will be inevitable, that, yes, India will lose a few score million -- but what’s that to a nation of over a billion souls? -- but Pakistan will be wiped out and then India will divide Pakistan up into four Indian provinces and that will be that. You listen and you think these guys need to read some Greek tragedies about the fatal perils of Hubris. For the mind-blow truth is that in a nuclear showdown between Pakistan and India, Pakistan holds the high cards.
IS NORTH KOREA FAKING IT?
Last January, a team of US scientists, led by former Los Alamos lab director Sig Heckler, was allowed to visit the Yongbyon nuclear facility in North Korea. The North Koreans produced a heavy glass jar containing a funnel-shaped piece of metal that was “blackish with a rough surface,” according to Heckler. The jar was warm -- plutonium generates heat -- and “seemed about right in terms of weight” for Heckler. A Geiger counter registered radiation. At a subsequent press conference in Beijing, the scientists announced North Korea has reprocessed enough plutonium for at least four bombs. A few days later, the North Korean government offered to freeze its nuclear weapons program in exchange for massive aid and the lifting of sanctions. The question arises: is this all a con?
CHINESE CASTRATION
Have you ever noticed that the older you get, the scarier the world gets -- because you keep noticing that many of the folks who run it are not very smart?I was at a private luncheon in Washington earlier this week and among the guests were two guys from the CIA. Not only were they clueless -- we were discussing Russia -- they were just not bright. OK -- so picking on folks from the Three Bad Words is too easy. Let’s raise the bar and talk about the Chinese.There are a lot of people here in DC who constantly worry about the Chinese, and predict the Chicoms -- China’s Communist rulers -- will soon pose the greatest threat to America’s security. The worriers offer considerable evidence for their argument and they may well be right. But here’s a question:If the Chinese are so smart, how come they are busy surrounding themselves with neighbors who can aim nuclear missiles at them?
CONSERVATIVES AND THE WAR ON TERRORISM
[This is the text of a speech I am giving today, March 5, in San Diego, to members of the Council for National Policy. CNP was formed in the early 1980s and is composed of the leaders and principal activists of the conservative movement throughout the United States - i.e., the “conservative elite” of America. CNP members played the principle role in creating popular support for the Reagan Doctrine. This speech calls upon them to do the same for the Bush Doctrine of taking the War on Terrorism to the terrorists. - JW]
SHUT DOWN
Tach it up, tach it up, buddy gonna shut you down.Growing up in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s, my favorite Beach Boys song was Shut Down, released in 1963. Every time I hear it on a Golden Oldies station, it brings back memories of all the teen-age street drag races I had in my ’52 K2 Allard with a dual-carb 350hp Cadillac engine.And so I found myself singing the lyrics of the Beach Boys’ ode to street racing as I was reading the text of President Bush’s speech to the Republican Governors Association here in Washington earlier this week.
DANA AND DORNAN
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) is being challenged in the Republican primary next Tuesday (March 2) by former Congressman Robert “B-1 Bob” Dornan, who barely lost his inland Orange County seat to Loretta Sanchez in 1996 due to stuffed Hispanic ballots. Dornan had never forgiven Dana for sweet-talking him into running in that redrawn 46th Congressional District back in 1992 while Dana stayed in a cozy coastal safe-for-Republicans 47th seat next door. Hispanics flooded into Dornan’s new district, Sanchez got a community organization called Hermanidad Mexicanos Nacional to create thousands of phony voter registrations, she claimed victory by 984 votes, Dornan claimed voter fraud, the spineless Republicans in the House were too terrified of getting Hispanics mad at them to investigate, and Dornan has been living in Bitterness City ever since. He was totally trounced when he ran against Sanchez in 2000. Dornan blames Dana for all his travails and electoral humiliations. So, at age 70, he decided to go after Dana and in typical B1-Bob fashion -- with loud-mouthed smears.
The French In Afghanistan
At a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan on February 12, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin announced that France will be “increasing its military participation in the international security force” in the war-stricken country. A NATO army unit called Eurocorps, composed by France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Luxembourg, will be deployed in Afghanistan by August. “We want to do more,” Villepin declared. “We want Eurocorps to take the lead.” This was the wire story carried by AP. What was not disclosed is the particular nature of France’s participation. While other countries will be providing soldiers for Eurocorps in Afghanistan, France will be providing intellectuals.
ENDING STALINISM IN EUROPE: The Heroic Diplomacy of John McCain
The most amazing conference took place earlier this month in Riga, Latvia. It was entitled The Conference on The Future of Democracy Beyond the Baltics -- and it was organized by Arizona Senator John McCain... This is no Euroweenie peace-through-dialogue morally-equivocating diplomatic drivel. This is full-throated American moral heroism. John McCain wants Alexander Lukashenko in a spider hole.
WE OWE US: The Real Case For Reparations
Late last month, on January 26, a lawsuit brought by descendants of slaves against companies whom they claimed profited from slavery was dismissed in federal court. Unfortunately for those who thought that this act of judicial sanity will put an end to the “Reparations” cause, the case was dismissed “without prejudice,” which means the plaintiffs can file an amended complaint -- which they intend to do. Thus we are due shortly for another round of racist demands from “slave descendants” that billions of dollars be extorted from American taxpayers and deposited into their beggar bowls. There is only one way to put an end to the Reparations argument, and that is by explaining just who owes reparations to whom.
How Can TTPers Help? — and Mormons and Monogamy
Our new monthly rate makes it really easy for most anyone to subscribe. If you know of any websites or "blogs" whose readers would be in tune with To The Point, you could suggest that they link to us.... ...The schism [between monogamous and polygamous Mormons]will perhaps not be resolved until the LDS leaders remove Joseph Smith’s revelation of July 12, 1843 sanctifying polygamy from the canonized Doctrines and Covenants, one of the four standard books of the Mormon Church.
The WMD Guinness Book Red Herring
Even in a time of an unceasing barrage of demagogic drivel from the Bush-haters, the manufactured flap over the “missing WMD” has got to set some kind of world record for red herring chutzpah.
PHM: THE NEXT INSANITY
My friend Tony Perkins, who capably runs the Family Research Council, has been issuing dire warnings in the wake of Massachusetts’ outlaw Supreme Court creating an alleged right for homosexuals to marry out of constitutional thin air. “Senator (Rick) Santorum (R-PA) was right when he predicted that demands to legalize polygamy would come in the wake of homosexual marriage,” Tony says. “What argument could the Massachusetts Supreme Court offer today against legalizing polygamy?” Tony is right, but more right than he knows. For the loudest demands to legalize polygamy will not come from heterosexuals -- it will come from homosexuals. Get ready for it, folks. The next cultural insanity will be a movement to legalize Polygamous Homosexual Marriage: PHM.
Xers
Another positive aspect of Xers that I have found is their no fear attitude toward starting businesses. I believe they will go down as the most entrepreneurial generation in USA history.
THE COMING PALESTINIAN CIVIL WAR
Ariel Sharon’s announcement on February 4, that the 7,500 Jews hunkered down amidst 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have to leave, is giving heartburn to Israel supporters like Mort Klein, head of Zionists of America. Mort thinks Arik (Sharon’s nickname) has lost his nerve and is selling out. The reality is that Mort only sees the settler’s trees and not a sovereign Israeli forest. Sharon is a strategic genius and just as Machiavellian as ever.What Sharon’s critics and all supporters of Israel need to understand is this: Sharon is building his Security Fence in order to precipitate a Palestinian Civil War.
The Great Souled Man
Today is the 93rd birthday of the greatest American of the 20th century: Ronald Reagan. More than any other American of our day, he embodied the moral ideal personified by Aristotle as the man of Megalopsychia, the Great-Souled ManThe Great-Souled Man had a character of such integrity, inspiration, and achievement in the real world that his life expressed, for Aristotle, the Kalon, Moral Beauty. Five years ago, I wrote the following tribute to this extraordinary man. It will be published in To The Point on every February 6th from now on.
THE CURSE OF THE XERS
To go beyond all the outraged wailing and shocked gnashing of teeth over the MTV Super Bowl Half-Time Show, and understand what is really going on culturally, the place to begin is with William Strauss & Neil Howe’s 1991 book, Generations: The History of America’s Future-1584 to 2069.
You Don’t Have To Win To Win
If you were to describe in one word the Democrats fantasizing they can beat Bush in November, you would say Dean is a hothead, Clark an egomaniac, Sharpton a hustler, Edwards an ambulance-chaser, Kucinch a kook, Lieberman a moderate, and Kerry…?The word that Democrats want to apply to Kerry is “electable.” What does this mean? Exactly nothing, for that’s all he is -- that somehow he possesses some magical capacity to defeat GW.
ISLAM’S ANTI-OSAMA
It is often claimed, especially by those who maintain that the war between Civilization and Moslem Terrorism is at root a “War of Ideas,” that we -- America, the West, Civilization as a whole -- are not at war with Islam, but the Jihadist interpretation of Islam; that our enemies are not any and all Moslems, but those “radical” or “fundamentalist” Moslems who have bought the Wahhabi-Jihadist version of Islam. Such claims frequently come with the plea for an “Islamic Martin Luther” to lead an “Islamic Reformation” that would rescue Islam from medieval Jihadists. Yet there is no such Anti-Osama savior, and the pleas dissolve into hopeless and forlorn fantasy. But then -- maybe not. Maybe we don’t have to hope in vain for a leader of the Islamic Reformation to emerge someday in the distant future. Maybe the Anti-Osama is already here -- and he lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
“Jack, what about South America?
I’ve received a number of TTPer inquiries asking, in effect, “Jack, what about South America? There are 350 million people down there! How come you never talk about them?”
THE SOVIET SAUDI UNION
The critical insight about the Soviet Union that led to its downfall was -- as I explained in countless Reagan Doctrine briefings during the 1980s -- that the Soviet Union didnt simply possess an imperialist empire of colonies beyond its borders: it was itself a colonial empire within its borders.
It’s Not About Immigration and It’s Not About Jobs
Well, if Bush’s immigration reform proposal isn’t about either, then what is it about? Special interest politics, of course. Please pardon the redundancy — for all politics in the US today is about special interests.
Black Sea-American Lake
The Greeks called it the Euxine Sea. Jason and the Argonauts sailed across it to steal the Golden Fleece from the King of Colchis. The great city of Byzantium was built at its entrance, which became Constantinople, which became Istanbul.The 20th Century didn’t hear much about the Black Sea because, except for its southern Turkish shore, it was a Soviet lake. Early in the 21st Century, however, to the chagrin of the Russians and the joy of non-Russians who populate its shores, George Bush is transforming the Black Sea into an American Lake.
TTP Intelligence Bulletin
• Has Al Qaeda Surrendered?• President Pander.
Replies from Dr. Jack
John King writes:I loved Michael Crichton's article, as I do all your articles, on the environment. Would it be possible to obtain some references for some of his statements, e.g. DDT is not carcinogenic, etc?Thanks. Keep up the good work.John --The definitive research studying a possible connection between DDT exposure and women’s breast cancer was conducted by Harvard University in the Harvard Nurses’ Health Study of 121,700 women in 11 states. After extensive analysis, the researchers found that women with high levels of DDT and its metabolite DDE were not at higher risk than women with the lowest levels. The findings were reported in the October 30, 1997 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine...
THE ALLAH THAT FAILED
Let’s say there’s this fellow named Joe. He makes a living as a highway bandit robbing travelers. Any victim who gives him any trouble he kills. Joe has a special hatred for Jews. “Kill Jews wherever you find them,” he tells the members of his gang. At age fifty, Joe tells his best friend that he fallen in love with his daughter and wants to marry her. She is six years old. They are married and Joe starts having sex with the little girl when she is nine years old. Joe tells his gang that God talks to him. As the Messenger of God, every word of Joe’s is the Word of God. Anyone who refuses to believe this, Joe has his gang members kill them. Here’s the question: Is Joe a criminally insane pervert and moral monster, or is he worshipped by hundreds of millions of devout followers who deeply believe that he is the most moral human being who ever lived? The answer is: he is both. Joe’s real name is Ubul Kassim, an Arabian bandit chieftain who became known as Mohammed (“The Praised One” in Arabic) and founded the religion of Islam…
Whatever Happened to Never Again?
It wasn’t that long ago that a good many European Jews swore an oath: Never Again. Never Again will Nazi-like anti-Semitism be tolerated. Never Again will Jews be meekly herded down a path that leads to Zyklon-B showers. So in response to the explosion of anti-Semitism in France, what is the advice of France’s chief rabbi, Joseph Sitruk? Replace yarmulkes with baseball caps. "I ask young Jews to be alert, to avoid walking alone, to avoid wearing the yarmulke in the street or in the subway and consequently becoming targets for potential assailants," Rabbi Sitruk cautions. "I ask them to replace the yarmulke with the baseball cap.” This is the best way, he warns, “to protect our young people." Au contraire, Monsieur Rabbi. The best way for your young people to protect themselves would be for them to learn how to beat the crap out of those who attack them. Someone needs to make Rabbi Sitruk write 500 times on a blackboard the French translation of: The Best defense Is A Good Offense…
TO YOUR HEALTH
The older you get, the more staying in shape is like being the Red Queen of Wonderland: You have keep running faster and faster to stay in the same place.I want to wish you all a healthy and strong 2004. I can’t tell you how to achieve this, however, because I’m not you and we all have our individual differences and preferences. What I could do is tell you what works for me. This means I don’t have to insert any boilerplate blather about “consult your physician before doing any of this stuff.” You get to make up your own mind about that, and adapt for yourself whatever you think may be useful...
THE INTELLECTUAL’S CURSE
None of all the momentous events that occurred in 2003 -- the recovery of the US economy, the invasion of Iraq and military overthrow of Saddam’s regime, the capture of Saddam, the capitulation of Libya’s Kaddafi, you name it -- was the most important. The single most important event of 2003 is the one that didn’t occur: there was not one single successful terrorist attack in the United States.This is the single greatest achievement of the year -- and note the identifier achievement. This is not a lucky accident -- although luck and chance played a role as in most everything else in life. But those who are truly wise know that to a very considerable extent, you make your own luck, and this is what George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Ashcroft have done.One of the most amusing sights of 2003 was to see so many people turn their brains into jello over John Ashcroft. Anyone who has personally known Ashcroft can testify to his decency and integrity. Yet he and his Patriot Act became the focal point of hate for both the Loony Left and the Loony Right -- the Hollywood Left and Dizzy Dean Democrats see eye-to-eye with Jane Fonda Libertarians like Lew Rockwell, Pro-Moslem Conservatives like Grover Norquist, and Hate-Israel Paleocons like Pat Buchanan…
The First Day of Christmas
Merry Christmas! Wait — that was yesterday, wasn’t it? Nevertheless, today, December 26, is the First Day of Christmas. Ancient Christians celebrated “The Holidays,” as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th, the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas.
You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in
THE ENGLISH GODFATHER OF PALESTINIAN TERRORISM
The founder of the Palestinian terrorist movement was Amin al-Husseini. As Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, he organized Arab rampages killing Jewish settlers in Palestine throughout the 1920s, formed an alliance with the Nazi Party of Germany in the 1930s, met with Adolph Hitler in Berlin in November 1941 to encourage him to slaughter Jews in Europe so they couldn’t escape to settle in Palestine, ordered Arab families to flee Israel upon independence so Arab armies could invade in 1948, founded the Palestine Liberation Organization, mentored his nephew Rahman Abdul Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini, and turned the leadership of the PLO over to him. His nephew assumed the alias of Yasser Arafat.
ONE BILLION ALLIES
If I ask you to think of India, the image that most likely appears in your minds eye would be the Taj Mahal. Arguably the most famous building in the world and considered by many to be the most beautiful structure mankind has ever created, it was completed in 1648 by the ruler of India, Shah Jehan, to immortally entomb his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal.There is a painful problem with this image, however, for the great majority of folks in India: the Taj Mahal isnt an Indian building. Its Moslem, and thus for Indians a symbol of Islamic imperialism.
Bitterness and Bad Karma
Bill Safire is normally the only thing worth reading in the New York Times, and he proved it with his latest column (datelined 12/8/03), which is devoted to completely messing up the mind of every Bush-hating Democrat in America.
THE MOSLEM MYTH OF JERUSALEM
It is a commonplace in a story or article about the Arab-Israeli conflict that mentions Jerusalem to repeat the Moslem mantra that “Jerusalem is the third holiest city in all Islam, next to Mecca and Medina.” You’ve heard this innumerable times -- but how come? Just why is Jerusalem so important to not just Jews and Christians but Moslems as well?
Why Bush is Scared in 2004
This is a black day, a day for anyone associated with the Republican Party to be ashamed and embarrassed. Piling a new trillion-dollar Medi-Pander entitlement to appease geezer-beggars on top of all the others that the Republicans should be busy eliminating is way, way beyond scandalous. Why, then, has the Republican Party from President Bush on down become determined to betray its basic principles?
THE CHINESE CHRISTIAN CRUSADES
Let’s play fill-in-the-blanks. In general, Americans and Europeans are Christians. Arabs are Moslems. Indians are Hindus. Chinese are _________? If you have trouble filling in the last blank, it’s because the answer is blank. From time immemorial, the Chinese have been the least religious of any of history’s major civilizations. Daoism, Confucianism, Chinese Buddhism are rationalistic quasi-religions lacking any personal relationship with a transcendent deity or deities. The ancestor- and spirit-worship of Chinese folk religion is individualized to families only.
Why Bush Will Win in 2004
A year from now you and I will be celebrating George W. Bush’s re-election. It’s in the bag, and the reason why is deeper than the economy or Iraq. It’s because GW figured out Bill Clinton’s secret while the Dems forgot it.
Good Vibrations – How Dick Cheney Can Find Saddam’s Hidden Weapons
I love the way President Bush mispronounces the Iraqi dictator’s name: SAH-dum, not sah-DAM. Whereas the latter pronunciation in Arabic means “One Who Confronts,” the former means “Barefoot Beggar.” Be assured that when GW says SAH-dum in his speeches broadcast to the Arabic world, he is doing it on purpose.
The Barefoot Beggar has finally agreed to let in UN inspectors because he is confident he can hide his WMD — weapons of mass destruction — from them. But if GW tells Dick Cheney to give his former colleagues at Halliburton a call about utilizing oil field discovery technology, that
The Anti-American Right
Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it? It's the Left -- liberals, left-wingers, socialists, commies, pinkos, the Noam Chomskys and Alec Baldwins and Barbra Streisands -- that hates America. But the Right -- good old flag-waving patriotic God Bless America conservatives? How could they possibly be anti-American? It sounds ridiculous.Yet whatever sense or nonsense it makes, Anti-Americanism is seeping into the entire conservative movement and is threatening to splinter it into pieces.