Dr. Jack Wheeler
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/22/09
Grab a seat, folks - a ringside seat to the Greatest Show on Earth. What more exciting fun could there be than watching Zero's Washington caught in a vise between California and England, struggling vainly as it gets squeezed to death? From California comes what America needs more than anything else, a Tax Revolt. California voters didn't buy the extortionist threats from its girlie-man governor and the Dem crooks who run the Legislature. They prefer state bankruptcy to more thieving taxes. Such bankruptcy would be the solution to its woes, for e.g., all contracts with public employee unions would be voided. What fun... That the federal government is also headed towards Bankruptcy City can be seen by this observation in Bloomberg: The Dollar Is Dirt, Treasuries Are Toast, AAA Is Gone. As the dollar disintegrates, unemployment and inflation explode into deep double digits, and taxpayers decide to spend what money they have on food, clothing, and shelter instead of government thieves, the fury of what's happening now in England is going to be replicated here.
MARRIAGE AND THE MISSING LINK
Our immediate human ancestor, Homo Ergaster, emerged 1.7 million years ago. The males of Ergaster's ancestors, Australopithicus and Habilis, were twice as large as the females - meaning they were polygamous. In species where males have a lot of competition for access to mates, the bigger the male is the greater his selective advantage. The more sex he has with as many females as he can, the more his genes get replicated. This changes with Ergaster. The males became 50% bigger than their ancestors, while the females became 70% bigger. This reduction of dimorphism signals that the greatest revolution in human society was occurring: pair-bonding. One man mating with one woman, the nuclear family as the foundation of a human community. "Pair-bonding" is what paleontologists call it. We call it marriage. Marriage - monogamous pair-bonding for mutual support and to raise children (human infants are far more helpless than those of other primates - this again starts with Ergaster) - is what made us human. Marriage is the missing link.
A LETTER TO AMERICA FROM A DODGE DEALER
My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business. We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
COMMENCEMENT 2009
[This commencement address was originally published four years ago. We rerun it annually at college graduation time. Feel quite free to send this to any recent college graduate you may know.] Mr. Chancellor, Members of the Board of Regents, Members of the Faculty, Honored Graduates, Families and Friends: It's funny that they call this ceremony a Commencement, for you've all reached the finish line: college, goodbye, we're outta here. Yet of course, "commencement" means a beginning, not an end. But one is supposed to at least start - commence - a talk such as this by saying funny things. So I'll start by talking about Clark Gable movies. If you've heard of Clark Gable at all, you know he was the biggest movie star in Hollywood a long time ago. His most famous movie was Gone With The Wind. He made a movie in 1955 called The Tall Men with Jane Russell as his girlfriend and Robert Ryan as the heavy. It's a pretty ordinary Western flick with outlaws and cowboys and Indians - and at the end, Ryan, the bad guy, and his henchmen get the drop on Gable, the good guy, and all seems lost. Suddenly, surprise, Gable outfoxes Ryan and triumphs. Gable makes his exit, and after he does, Ryan delivers a line that I want you to never forget.
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/15/09
Got to be careful today. So much to celebrate this week that it's too easy to say "The sun is over the yardarm someplace" and reach for a bottle of Wasmund's American Scotch (more about that later), rather than soberly wait for the sun to dip below the yardarm here in DC. For this is the week the Dems have started eating their own - beginning with, glory of glories, the quintessentially most vile, vicious, venal, corrupt, dishonest, hate-filled, anti-American House Democrat of them all, Speaker Pelosi Galore. After becoming such an object of ridicule that hyper-lib comedian Jon Stewart is making fun of her, she "rented a steam shovel," as TTP's Jack Kelly says, to dig her political grave at a press conference yesterday (5/14). Stick a fork in her, folks, she's done. Under the Dem bus. Roadkill. So when she resigns, which could come within days, you might recall that conversation I had with my friend in Paris two weeks ago.
THE SUCKER’S TRAIN WRECKS OF CHINA AND AMERICA
That the US markets are experiencing a Sucker's Rally is obvious to many experienced investors. That China's markets are experiencing the same may not be so obvious. Both economies are chugging down parallel tracks towards the same fate, a derailed train wreck, and for much the same reasons. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has shot up over 50% since its low of November 4, and gained almost 6% in the last week alone. There has been a world-wide deluge of news stories about how China is recovering from recession with miraculous rapidity, and is back on track towards 8% GDP growth this year. Who knew how many folks believe in Chinese Easter Bunnies? Evidently, even more than those who claim to see Easter Bunnies frolicking on the White House lawn portending an end to our recession and 3.5% growth by year's end. There's almost no way to describe the magnitude of the train wreck Engineer Zero is heading us towards. China's is going to be nightmarish. Ours is going to be cataclysmic.
DOES OBAMA KNOW WHO HE IS FIGHTING IN “AFPAK”?
You can not win a war if you don't know who the enemy is," teaches master strategist Sun Tzu - a commonsense maxim that needs repeating as the Obama administration seeks a way out of the newly designated AfPak (Afghanistan/Pakistan) imbroglio. As the Pakistani army battles Taliban insurgents in Swat and elsewhere, the answer to the question of who exactly the Taliban is, and what is the nature of its relationship with al-Qaeda, is of key importance in judging the chances of success for the emerging Obama strategy. For even as Washington pushes Islamabad to keep the Taliban from expanding its territorial sway in the North-West Frontier Province, the administration seems to think the real solution to the Taliban problem, on both sides of the border, lies in striking an "acceptable compromise" deal with the militants. Such thinking is a dangerous combination of ignorance and naïveté.
ISRAEL’S ALLIANCES AND THE VOID OF OBAMA
Like nature, Israel's strategic relations abhor a vacuum. In the wake of the Obama administration's decision to drastically curtail the US's strategic alliance with Israel in the interest of American rapprochement with Iran and Syria, the Netanyahu government has been moving swiftly to fill the void. On Monday (5/11), with Pope Benedict XVI's arrival and with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak at Sharm e-Sheikh, two potential strategic alliances came into view. Rather than viewing with alarm Mr. Obama's clear antipathy towards Israel, Mr. Netanyahu views it as an opportunity to pursue alliances in Israel's interest without regard to the wishes of the American president.
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/08/09
First up this week is something I should entitle Blown Away By Who You Are. We have been deluged by TTPers who wish to participate in the Achilles Heel Project (AHP) and are simply in awe of their bios. The talent pool of TTP - the variety and depth of accomplishments, experience, knowledge, and credentials in so many fields - is astounding. We're marshalling it for AHP, but I want to synergize it for TTP as a whole. So we have formed a "social networking" site for this purpose: http://tothepointnews.ning.com/. Here is where TTPers can go to meet, chat, and collaborate with each other. There are so many wonderful folks on TTP - here's how you can all get to know yourselves. Have fun and synergize! *** Next is an announcement: the TTP Summer Rendezvous - the Winning the Revolution Rendezvous - will be in Williamsburg, Virginia from Friday, September 11 to Monday, September 14. Colonial Williamsburg recreates the America of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. Nearby Jamestown is where the settlement of America began in 1607. And close by is Yorktown, where America achieved victory in its War of Independence in 1781. What more appropriate place could there be - and what more appropriate date than September 11 weekend - for TTPers to join together and commit to winning our American liberty once again?
THE REAL PROBLEM IN PAKISTAN
Mr. Obama sat down yesterday (5/06) with the presidents of Pakistan and Afghanistan to seek a way out of the existential crisis now facing those two nations. As reported by the press, Obama secured commitments from them for greater cooperation in the struggle against the "common threat," as well as assurances that Pakistan's nuclear weapons would be secure - in other words, the same promises and commitments that every White House meeting with Pakistan's leaders since 9/11 has invariably delivered. Put simply, the Taliban, murderous as it is, is not the problem. The problem is the Pakistani military and the stubborn refusal of Washington to comprehend this basic reality.
SHOULD PAKISTAN EXIST?
Let's cut to the chase. The answer is no. Pakistan should never have existed in the first place. There is no reason for it to continue to exist now. The place to start here is with The Lunacy of a British Legacy from July 2006, which gives you the background on Pakistan's creation, and that of the Taliban. You could follow that up with Moslem Terrorist Drug Lords With Nukes from November 2007, which explains the Afghan heroin production as a joint operation between the Taliban and the ISI - the Pakistan military's InterServices Intelligence Agency - and how Afghan president Hamid Karzai and his family are in on the heroin take. Mr. Karzai met with Mr. Zero in the White House yesterday (5/06), along with the leader of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari. All three men privately despise each other, and publicly professed mutual admiration and support. Ostensibly, they were meeting because the Taliban are now destabilizing Pakistan as well as Afghanistan. You can be sure Zero did not insist on solving the heart of the Taliban problem, any more than did his predecessor. Mr. Bush refused to order Afghanistan's poppy fields be wiped out via high-altitude spraying of a micro-herbicide developed by DARPA. And so has Zero.
A SHIELD FOR VIRUS INFECTIONS
[Introductory note by Jack Wheeler: Last week in Protecting Yourself From Mexican Swine Flu, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw suggested a series of prophylactic measures to take in case of pandemic. At the time, they were racing to develop a nutrient formula to provide effective prophylactic protection from the human swine flu virus. They have now done so. It is called V-Shield, and is available through their licensee Life Enhancement Products. It is designed to protect people from infectious viruses - but as they emphasize, while it can be taken in addition to any drugs prescribed by one's physician (such as Tamiflu or Relenza), it is not a substitute for them. The article below describes the scientific basis and references for the inclusion of each ingredient in V-Shield. With one exception, I have been taking them all for many years in amounts equal to or exceeding those in the formula. (The exception is quercetin, of which I'll now increase my intake!)] We decided to evaluate the peer-reviewed scientific literature indexed by the National Library of Medicine on natural products for those that have useful antiviral effects at safe dosages. The evidence led us to a protective combination that consists of the flavonoid quercetin, green tea extract, resveratrol, n-acetylcysteine, vitamin D, and vitamin C. These ingredients have been reported to have significant anti-viral effects in cell culture and animal studies, and in a few human clinical trials.
HALF-FULL REPORT 05/01/09
It's glorious to be in Paris on May Day with a beautiful woman - especially if she's your wife. We're here this week to see our youngest son who's spending his junior year in high school studying in France. On May Day, the streets of Paris are filled with sellers of muguets, the sweet-smelling flowers of Lillies of the Valley. Every man buys a muguet for his sweetheart. I am no different. Unfortunately, communists and lefties of every stripe use May Day - a happy day of celebration of springtime since ancient times - to vent their envious hatred of capitalist prosperity. Demonstrations and protests took place today in hundreds of French cities - and Paris was no exception. Seeing these angry "workers" and "students" marching along in rage and resentment demanding the world provide them with a living while ignorantly denouncing the only economic system that can provide it is an amusing "Walpole moment." As in Horace Walpole, who observed, "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." (See What We Have Got and They Have Not.)
100 DAYS OF BEING A LAUGHINGSTOCK IN PARIS
Paris, France. It is very cool to be a French intel guy. A spectacular meal at a Parisian bistro with $90 entrées and a $200 bottle of Bordeaux? No problem. I'd known this fellow since he got me out of a jam in Sudan years ago. His James Bond days are over, but still, riding a desk for the DGSE -- Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure (General Directorate for External Security), France's military intel agency - in Paris has its decided benefits. One of them is not being infected with Obamamania. "My agency considers him a joke," he confides. "Every day there is some fresh lunacy that we cannot believe. Mr. Bush would often make us angry. But at this man we just laugh." "In truth, it also makes us sad," he continued. "French resentment towards America is strong, so being able to laugh at your country feels good. But it is such a sad and strange thing to see America - America The Great! - do something so crazy as to elect this ridiculous man." "There are many people in America who think he isn't a legitimate president as he wasn't born in the US and isn't a natural citizen. What do you think?" I asked.
OBAMA’S ANTI-AMERICA DOCTRINE
After a mere 100 days, the "Obama Doctrine" for our foreign and security policies has emerged. And it's terrifying. The combination of dizzying naïveté, dislike of our allies, disdain for our military, distrust of our intelligence services and distaste for our own country promises the worst foreign policy of our lifetimes. That includes President Jimmy Carter's abysmal record of failure. The core tenets of the Obama Doctrine to date would make a charter member of the terrorist Weather Underground cheer. Here's a compilation:
PROTECTING YOURSELF FROM MEXICAN SWINE FLU
The incompetence of President Zero and his DHS secretary Janet Napolitano has now reached lethal levels in their refusal to militarily close the US-Mexico border or even airplane flights from Mexico. Yet now that the swine flu epidemic has spread from Mexico into the US, we cannot worry about Zero, much less expect him to protect us in any way. Let's focus on what you can do right now at this moment. The CDC has identified the virus as a H1N1 virus called swine influenza A. This virus has been known for over 40 years, infecting humans directly from birds such as ducks (avian flu) or pigs (swine flu). Never before could it be transmitted from one human to another. The virus has now evolved to where it can. This new human-to-human transmission is what is making the H1N1 pandemic. Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw suggest the following prophylactic measures to protect their friends at To The Point. As Durk says, "I'm afraid that you are not going to like this, but I really do know my biology..."
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/24/09
Here's the question of the week: Why do Democrat presidents insist on having evil idiot lesbians in their Cabinet? It would be very hard for an American to be more evil than Bill Clinton's alcoholic lesbian Attorney General Janet Reno - as revealed years ago in America's Saddam. Now it seems that another lesbian named Janet -- Zero's DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano - wants to try. Lucky for us, she's even more of a moron than Ms. Reno. After labeling anyone with conservative small government/prolife views a "right-wing extremist" and Iraq war veterans as potential terrorists - then completing an imbecile hat trick by blaming Canada for 9/11 - it's small wonder that demands for her resignation are growing. She has quickly become a complete laughingstock in Canada. The National Post, one of the country's major papers, wants to know how she got her job, because she is "as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo." But she's also not the only Dem laughingstock this week - here are three more.
DOES AMERICA DESERVE THIS PRESIDENT?
Does a country always get the government it deserves? Do the people of, say, Zimbabwe deserve to be ruled by Robert Mugabe? He is an apotheosis of corruption and depraved fascist evil. Millions of Zimbabweans are suffering monstrous tyranny and outright starvation because of him. Do they deserve this? Shift the perspective to ask: to what extent are people responsible for their fate? And then ask: how would America's Founding Fathers have answered this question? Certainly the American colonists suffered far, far less under the rule of King George III than Zimbabweans under Mugabe. Yet they were men and Zimbabweans are sheep. Each got what they deserve. America has been on the road to cultural and constitutional ruin for a long time. It did not start on January 20, 2009 with the inauguration of President Zero. But if Americans become like their founding forefathers and stop being sheep, it will end with his one-term presidency.
A WIMPY METROSEXUAL HOOKED ON THE COCAINE OF ADULATION
My president went to Trinidad and Tobago, and all I got was this lousy Che Guevara T-shirt. At a Caribbean resort, Obama grinned through a semi-erotic encounter with Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, then failed to answer a "strategic rape" charge lodged against America by ex-Sandinista Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua (who knows plenty about rape). Ignoring America's allies in favor of photo ops with anti-American leftists, such as Ecuador's Rafael Correa and Chavez, Obama blamed the United States for Latin America's problems. Obama needs to get up off his knees. Foreign leaders have already pegged him as the wimpiest metrosexual this side of the men's grooming-products counter at Barney's.
SHOULD PAKISTAN’S NUKES BE DESTROYED LIKE IRAN’S?
In the current era of ideological polarization, throughout the West, the Right and the Left diverge on almost every issue. One of the few convictions that still unifies national security strategists across the ideological spectrum is that it would be a global calamity of the first order if al-Qaeda gets its hands on nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, due to the rapid demise of nuclear-armed Pakistan as a coherent political unit, this nightmare scenario is looking more possible than ever. Indeed, if events continue to move in their current direction, it is more likely than not that in the near future, the Taliban and al-Qaeda will take possession of all or parts of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal. Given the failure of the US's political strategies of securing Pakistan's nuclear arsenal by supporting Pakistan's government, and fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, it is becoming apparent that the only sure way to prevent the Taliban/al-Qaeda from taking control over Pakistan's nuclear weapons is to take those weapons out of commission.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/17/09
We can raise a full glass of your favorite adult beverage to all the Tea Party participants - and to the one group of Americans the Zerocrats despise above all others: our soldiers in the US military. All of us want to raise our glass the highest this week to the Navy SEALs who popped those three Somali pirates. And I'm sure you want to hear the real story of what happened. Especially because there is a revoltingly opportunistic and cowardly side to it. Guess which side Zero is on. Why, for example, did it take SEAL Team Six (aka DEVGRU, Navy Special Warfare Development Group, the Navy's equivalent of Delta Force) over 36 hours to get to the scene? Because Zero refused to authorize the SEAL deployment for those 36 hours, during which the OSC - the on scene commander, Cmdr. Frank Castellano of the USS Bainbridge - repeatedly requested them.
FATS AND FAIRNESS
"Hey, guys! Got a hot date? Be sure you treat her to a nice salmon dinner!" That's the message young bachelors could get from a recent study. Another message of the study is that socialism may get less attractive to Americans as they age. How could the same research study have both of these results? It all has to do with the relationship between fats and fairness. The research is in the new interdisciplinary field of Neuroeconomics, which studies how the brain makes economic decisions. It was conducted jointly by the Interdepartmental Center for Research in Molecular Medicine and psychiatrists in the Department of Applied Health and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Pavia in Italy. The implications of the research are politically vast.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/10/09
Ahh, Friday. Here in the US, folks say TGIF. Our British cousins, however, say THITWA - thank heavens it's the weekend again. Time to settle in to a quiet corner booth in the HFR Saloon with a pint of Theakston's Old Peculier real ale, and enjoy reading a good British newspaper, the London Telegraph. Particularly today (4/10), as the Brits simply unload on Zero, giving him a new nickname, President Pantywaist. Calling him "the new surrender monkey" for his performance at the G20, they note his Europe trip is "the most successful foreign policy tour since Napoleon's retreat from Moscow." And you thought he was losing popularity on our side of the Pond. *** Let's stay overseas for awhile. Some good things are happening.
CHINA’S ZERO-SUM GAME
The evidence is now as high as Everest that America's greatest foreign threat is not a bunch of illiterates chanting verses of the Koran and willing to blow themselves up in order to have 72 whores in heaven. It is Red China. Yet the Chicoms are not simply a threat to America. They are the greatest threat to freedom world-wide. A good example as any is a fellow named Joel Fitzgibbon. He's the Defense Minister of Australia, and he's in town (DC) today (4/09) to meet with his American counterpart Defense Secretary Bobby Gates for the annual Australia-US Ministerial (AUSMIN) meeting. Gates and his aides will be very cautious in talking to him, however - because Mr. Fitzgibbon has been having an affair with a spy from Chinese Military Intelligence. The scandal has now exploded all over Australian newspapers. Not only will Fitzgibbon have to resign, but so might the man who appointed him - because Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's best friends are all Chicoms. He speaks Mandarin fluently, travels to China at every opportunity, promotes China buying up Australia's natural resources, and consistently takes China's side in most any dispute. To many Aussies, it looks like their leader is as much of a Manchurian Candidate as America's.
THE SPRING APOLOGIES TOUR
The real climax of Mr. Obama's Spring Apologies Tour wasn't his photo op with our troops in Baghdad or even his "American Guilt" concerts in Western Europe. While fans in the press cheered wildly at every venue, the real performance came in Turkey. And it was a turkey. For those who believe Obama means well - or that Jimmy Carter, his policy godfather, meant well: the road to embassy takeovers and strategic humiliation is paved with good intentions, coupled with distressing naïveté. On every stage, Obama draped Lady Liberty in sackcloth and ashes, drawing plentiful applause but no serious economic or security cooperation in return. Then, in Turkey, he surrendered our national pride, undercut our interests and interfered in matters that aren't his business.
THE BURSTING OF MR. OBAMA’S GREEN ENERGY BUBBLE
With the selling of Mr. Obama's economic agenda now reported in full gear, it is an opportune moment to take another look at what he has told us he would do and, more importantly, what he hasn't told us about the economic cost of his energy plans. The answer to the former question is straight forward. In his address to Congress, he pledged to double the production of renewable energy in the next three years, lay down thousands of miles of new transmission lines and introduce a "market-based cap on carbon pollution" to promote clean energy, fight global warming and "put Americans to work making homes and buildings more efficient." Perhaps the best place to start seeking answers as to how costly and realistic this agenda is likely to turn out is to look at the record of the three countries Mr. Obama specifically mentioned as leading the United States in the renewable energy revolution: China, Japan and Germany. That record shows that such a revolution is a fantasy and that the green energy bubble has burst.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/03/09
Well, that settles that - he's a Moslem. No one, much less a President of the United States, who is not a Moslem would deeply bow to a Saudi Wahhabi tyrant in an act of utter submission. 
This is the most disgraceful act of any president in American history. Wahhabism is the most evil religion on earth, a religion of hate which the Saudi king spends billions promoting around the world. To bow to its principal proponent is submission to evil, an announcement of one's true beliefs. No patriotic American can ever again, upon seeing this picture and understanding its meaning, consider this man to be the legitimate president of his country.
WHEN MONEY DIES
Inflation is a way that governments can pay off their debts (albeit with depreciated currency) without outright default or overt tax increases. In the U.S., government debt has grown to impossible-to-pay levels. Yet the spending is rapidly accelerating. The immensely costly new programs being created on an almost daily basis by the Obama Administration and the Democrats (mostly) in Congress come at a huge price, most of which (along with the continuing burden of Medicare and Social Security, etc.) can only be paid for by continually increasing the money supply into hyperinflationary territory. It is thus highly instructive to read the best account of what actually happened during Germany's hyperinflation of the early 1920s. Until now, this was difficult and very expensive to do. Amazon, for example, has only one single copy of When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse by Scottish writer and Conservative politician Adam Dugdale Fergusson. The price is $2,500! Now there is a way to read it for free.
WHERE IS JOHN GALT?
All readers of Ayn Rand's masterpiece, Atlas Shrugged, know its central question, "Who is John Galt?" Written over half a century ago, it is clearly the greatest and most influential novel of the 20th century. Over six million copies have been sold, averaging 77,000 copies per year in the 1980s, 90,000 in the 1990s, 137,000 in the 00s - until recently. 200,000 copies were sold in 2008, and sales so far this year are at triple those of last year. This is because, according to the Ayn Rand Institute, "there are uncanny similarities between the plot-line of the book and the events of our day." We discussed these similarities last December in Atlas In America. Reading Atlas for the first time in 1966 was the single most intellectually thrilling experience of my life. And yet, there was something that bugged me. Asking who is John Galt presupposes there is a John Galt. As I witnessed the cultural destruction of America in the 1960s, I realized the terrible truth that there is no such person. He is a Platonic invention. Today, the fascist nightmare that is destroying America is hideously similar to that described by Rand over fifty years ago. But if we ask today, not who is John Galt but where is John Galt, the question echoes in the wind with no answer.
TIME TO BOOGIE
Want to take a break from the nonstop fascism emanating from Washington? Then let's boogie! The happiest, most irresistibly foot-stompin' music has got to be Boogie-Woogie. The greatest boogie-woogie piano player in the world is Silvan Zingg from Switzerland. What's more, the two greatest boogie-woogie dancers in the world are also Swiss - Maéva Truntzer and William Mauvais. For the last 8 years, Silvan Zingg has sponsored the International Boogie Woogie Festival in Lugano, Switzerland. Thousands of folks from all over Europe will be at the one this year, April 16-18. Yes, the Swiss, believe it or not, really know how to boogie. Who knew? So sit back, turn up your computer speakers, listen to Silvan Zingg, and watch Will and Maéva boogie like you've never seen. This is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, while your feet won't be able to stay still. You won't be able to watch it just once - so anytime you want to feel happy and put the Zero Blues aside, here it is:
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/27/09
The HFR raises a glass of Newcastle Brown ale to the British hero of the week, Daniel Hannan. As a Member of the European Parliament for Southeast England (Kent, Surrey, Sussex et al), he delivered a 3-minute speech on Tuesday (3/24) directed at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who was attending the session in Brussels. It is the most devastating skewering of a politician right to his face in modern memory. His accusation that Mr. Brown has "a pathological inability to accept responsibility" applies equally to Democrats in Congress and their president. As you watch the speech - only 3 minutes - you'll probably ask: Where is our Daniel Hannan? Where is an American politician with the wit, the eloquence, and the courage to similarly skewer Zero?
ZERO IS LESS THAN ZERO
On a beautiful sunny day in 2004, the villagers of Banda Aceh in Sumatra were peacefully minding their own business when out of nowhere a tsunami washed them away: 
Substitute the Before photo with America today. The After photo is what America is going to look like in the wake of Zero. If you think this is hyperbolic then you haven't come to grips with the consequences of hyper-inflation. If you did, you be like what the Banda Aceh folks would have been if they'd had any warning: in panicked flight to higher ground. And here's the kicker: with hyper-inflation comes hyper-fascism. The worse our economy becomes, the more our freedoms will be taken away. Folks - this is being done on purpose. If it were all due to sheer stupidity or incompetence on Zero's part, you would expect, as "Skye" observes on the Forum, coin-flip outcomes with at least some of them correct. But when all actions are taken to disincentivize wealth creation and expand government control, to destroy the worth of the dollar and not increase it, then the damage is malicious and purposeful. So here is what is really going on: the President of the United States is making a conscious concerted effort to replace capitalism with fascism. And not just in the United States but world-wide.
AN INVESTMENT STRATEGY FROM A BILLIONAIRE
[To The Point is honored to have legendary investor Robert Agostinelli tell us his investment strategy in what he calls "Obambi Land."] With the zealot flame of blind activism taking advantage of the dislocation in the banking and real estate markets, we are faced with near unprecedented conflagration in the global markets that we all rely on to manage our wealth. Absent this opportunist attempt to "melt" down the free market system and impose a social democrat's illiberal and centralized dream on all Americans, my advice would be more measured. However this is not the reality with which we are confronted. Thus, here are my thoughts on investing in Obambi Land for my friends at To The Point.
A FOREIGN POLICY OF ARROGANT COWARDICE
America's enemies smell blood and it's type "O." All new administrations stumble a bit as they seek their footing. But President Obama's foreign-policy botches have set new records for instant incompetence. Contrary to left-wing myths, I wasn't a fan of the Bush administration. (I called for Donald Rumsfeld to get the boot in mid-2001.) But fair's fair. Despite his many faults, Bush sought to do good. Obama just wants to look good. Vice President Dick Cheney was arrogant. Vice President Joe Biden is arrogant and stupid. Take your pick. Don't worry about the new administration's ideology. Worry about its terrifying naïveté. And ask: At what point does naïveté become cowardice?
LOWERING YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE IN THE AGE OF ZERO
Living in the "Age of Zero," where every action of Congress and the White House seems designed to ruin our economy and expand government control, can definitely raise your blood pressure. It turns out that there may be a very simple and very inexpensive way to reduce (often dramatically) your blood pressure - and much more. Studies of potassium bicarbonate supplements in humans report: *Reduced Blood Pressure *Increased Muscle Mass *Decreased Bone Loss *Reduced Risk of Stroke *Improved Endothelial Function *Reduced Dietary Acid Load Our diet has changed radically from what our ancestors ate 50,000 years ago, and not all of these changes have been for the good. Our modern diets are likely to contain far less potassium, far more sodium, more acid forming nutrients, and less base forming nutrients than those enjoyed by our ancestors when our species evolved. Fortunately, an inexpensive potassium bicarbonate dietary supplement can help you to eat more like a Caveman without all that Stone Age food hunting and gathering work.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/20/09
Let's have cup of coffee and talk. The HFR Saloon is closed for the week after too much toasting the greatest Irish-American in our history - Ronald Reagan - on St. Patrick's Day. So we'll go next door to the HFR Coffee Shop. I'm sure you've seen the news reports on how President Teleprompter thanked himself due to his teleprompter foulup. Note, however, while the media of course videoed the gaffe - it is nowhere to be seen, not on YouTube or anywhere else. Not only has the video of "Obama thanks himself" vanished, but try clicking on any website claiming to have it. Up will come a security alert trying to gain access to your computer. This happens not just on US websites, but world-wide. And it happens with search engines world wide, not just Google. The video of Zero thanking himself would go instantly viral once posted on the Web. But not only has its posting been prevented, they will try to damage your computer as well. Zero can't stand to be laughed at, and will try to hurt you if you do. Fortunately, not even he can stifle Gutter Ball gaffes when they are made with Jay Leno. Speaking of gaffes, did Secretary of Homeland Defense Janet Napolitano call the President of the United States a terrorist?
A YEAR OF ANNIVERSARIES MAY CATALYZE FREEDOM IN CHINA
2009 may be a year of "interesting times" for China's communist rulers, for it is the: 90th anniversary of the student-led revolt against imperial rule (the model for the Tienanmen Square student protest). 60th anniversary of the establishment of Communist seizure of power. 50th anniversaries of the Tibetan Revolt against Chinese occupation and the Dalai Lama's flight to India. 20th anniversary of the Tienanmen Square massacre of students protesting for democracy. 10th anniversary of suppression of the Falun Gong nonviolent spiritual movement. What might happen? Let's start with Tibet.
THE EVIL OF ZERO
Is Zero a fascist dedicated to destroying the life savings of Americans, or is he criminally incompetent? The answer is yes. So let me tell you about Gao Xiqing (gow shee-ching). He's one of the smartest Chinese you'll ever meet (and that's saying something). Graduate of Duke law school, worked at a major Wall Street law firm, returned to his native China to direct the CIC, China Investment Corp., the Chicoms' trillion dollar sovereign wealth fund. In other words, he's the guy who owns $700 billion of US Treasurys, the guy who Zero is depending on to keep buying. Should he not show up at the next Treasury auction, the dollar disintegrates the next day. A friend of mine has gotten to know him (don't ask me how). "Gao is super-smooth, sophisticated, speaks English as good as you or me, and knows America inside and out," he says. "He can talk the language of high finance and international capitalism as good as anyone - yet he is a hard core Chinese Communist who regards America as China's enemy. He despises Obama as the epitome of American weakness." Gao also thinks that gold is going to $5,000 an ounce and that the dollar's goose is cooked.
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/13/09
I plopped onto a barstool at the HFR Saloon and ordered a Maximus. "So you're into Double IPAs, eh?" noted the bartender as he served it in a frosty mug. "Best beer in America," was my response. "Well, you look like you need a best of something," he observed. "What I need is a refuge from insanity. That's why I come here - the HFR Saloon is a refuge from the insane asylum America is becoming. Just today, the big headline in my paper [The Washington Times] is "Obama Vows to Get Tough on Earmarks." He said this as he was signing legislation that had 9,000 earmarks. If the nation doesn't laugh itself silly over that, then we have a nation of retards. "But maybe the whole world is going insane. Again today, the guy who runs Blackstone declares that "45% of the world's wealth has been destroyed" in this global economic meltdown. What does that mean? That close to half of all the homes, cars, commercial buildings, all the gold and silver in bank vaults, all the stuff that everybody owns in the world has been demolished? Is this guy nuts? And yet it makes headlines. I paused to quaff my Maximus. I was beginning to draw a crowd.
PROPOSED DIVORCE AND SEPARATION AGREEMENT
Dear American Liberals, Leftists, Social Progressives, Socialists, Marxists, and Obama Supporters, et al: As a law student, I have drawn up a divorce & separation agreement on behalf of my fellow Conservative Americans and you. We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know, we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but, sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot, and will not ever agree on what is right, so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences, and go our own way. Here is a model separation agreement: