BALLOONS OVER BURMA
From the 900s to the 1200s, the Pagan Empire built over 10,000 Buddhist temples. 2,200 remain on the plains of Pagan today, one of the world’s most wondrous sights – especially if you see them from above in a hot air balloon. It is truly astounding how much there is to explore and experience in Burma. We’ll be there once more for it all next February. I hope you will be one of your fellow TTPers to join us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #33 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE MAN IN THE OVAL OFFICE IS NOT REALLY THERE
We have a president who doesn’t even pretend to be working night and day to beat back inflation, save the economy from a recession or tackle rampant crime and growing political violence.
He looks to be on automatic pilot when the nation desperately needs strong leadership. Through May, the president spent 188 full or partial days away from the White House, on a pace to spend 553 days away over a full term – the most of any modern president
This is more than bad optics. It’s a sign Biden is tuned out and merely going through the motions of being president without making a fulsome effort to right the ship of state. He is the president who’s not really there.
BIDEN: WE MUST DESTROY AMERICA’S ECONOMY TO GREEN IT
The Left got what it wanted. Since January 2021 it has all but destroyed the idea of American energy self-sufficiency.
Yet Biden remains shocked that his long-sought victory to make fossil fuels unaffordable is despised by the American people, whose votes he now needs to stay in power.
So how does Biden square his circle of continuing or accelerating policies that ensure high gas prices while trying desperately to lower fuel prices before elections?
The Biden people have three strategies.
THE TO SUA SWIMMING HOLE OF SAMOA
“To Sua” means “giant swimming hole” in Samoan. It’s a collapsed lava tube hole on the south coast of Upolu in Samoa. On top of lava cliffs overlooking the South Pacific, you clamber down the ladder for a memorable swim. To Sua is but one of the attractions of Samoa: gorgeous waterfalls, marvelously friendly people, and the historic home named “Valima,” of Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), where he and his wife Fanny spent his last years.
On a hilltop rising above Valima is the gravesite of “Tusitala” – Stevenson’s Samoan name, meaning “Telling of Tales.” Engraved on the side of his tomb is his famous epitaph he wrote himself:
Should you be lucky enough to come here, you’ll fall in love with Samoa as did Tusitala. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #136 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY SLAYING THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER
Envy is an ugly emotion with awful effects. Many religions forbid or warn against it, as with the 10th commandment in the Old Testament. Storytellers show its awful effects, we all know that it’s bad on a feeling level -- yet envy persists as a powerfully destructive force.
It isn’t about having very little; we aren’t particularly unhappy when we have very little. But we do become very unhappy, depressed, and bitter when we dwell on having less than our neighbor.
Yet there is an antidote to envy: empathy, admiration, and the effective redirection of our initial impulses. It can also help to more fully understand this destructive and bitter emotion.
THE ARK OF BUKHARA
The ”Ark” was the palace-fortress of Bukhara rulers since 500 BC. The ancient Silk Road oasis has a history of 5,000 years. Today Bukhara is in Uzbekistan, one the Stans of Central Asia. Each are uniquely enchanting. Together they comprise one of the most culturally, historically, and scenically spectacular, yet mysterious and unknown, regions on our Earth. Let me know if you’d like to experience them with me by joining your fellow TTPers to explore The Heart of Central Asia – Sept 18-Oct 4, 2022. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #36 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TAMPON SHORTAGE SOLVED
Tampon Supply Shortage Solved By Emptying Out Tampons In The Men’s Bathrooms
In their desperation to find tampons, some women have resorted to entering the men's restroom and taking tampons designated for trans men.
"As a lady, I would normally never enter a dirty, disgusting men's restroom for any reason," explained Ann Elizabeth, "but I'm completely out of tampons while the men's restrooms are stocked with an abundance of tampons that haven't even been touched!"
According to sources, this simple trick of women getting their tampons from the dispensers in the men's room has swept the nation and completely brought the tampon shortage to an end.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE MAN-EATER OF DALAT
Dalat, South Viet Nam, 1961. I was 17 years old. A friend of my father’s, Herb Klein, came by our house. He was a prominent businessman whose passion was big-game hunting. He had just returned from the mountain jungle highlands of South Viet Nam and regaled us with stories of the Montagnard tribespeople who were plagued by tigers with a taste for human flesh. He told me that after climbing the Matterhorn, living with Amazon headhunters, and swimming the Hellespont, hunting a man-eating tiger should be my next adventure.
“You’d be saving so many lives, Jack,” he told me. “There’s one I heard about from the Co Ho Montagnards that’s killed and eaten almost 20 of them in the forests outside the town of Dalat. I know who can guide you, he was mine, his name is Ngo Van Chi.”
Somehow, I talked my parents into letting me do this. I had saved up the money from giving tennis and judo lessons. So there I was, in pitch dark in a “mirador” of branches and leaves, holding a .300 Weatherby with a flashlight wired to the barrel, waiting for this man-eating tiger to come for the rotting water buffalo we set out as bait. Chi and I heard the tiger, I put the rifle barrel out, Chi clicked on the flashlight, I saw these two enormous red eyes, and fired.
And there he is, the Man-Eater of Dalat, who would never kill another human being ever again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #175 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 06/17/22
Will Mike Ramirez’s prayer – the prayer of everyone pro-life – be answered at 10AM DC time this Monday June 20? The Chief Justice may hold out one more week – the 27th being the latest delay possible – but odds are rapidly increasing the 20th will be D-Day, with D for Dobbs.
Per the May 2 leak of the draft decision, should the Court as expected repeal Roe by deciding there is no constitutional right to abortion, a dangerously large number of Lefties are going to violently lose their minds. That’s why it’s imperative for pro-lifers to make plans now for physically going to their nearest Catholic church or pro-life pregnancy center immediately upon the decision’s announcement to prevent attacks upon it.
Bring mace, bear or pepper spray, be armed if you’re in a can-carry state or district, and be prepared to use whatever you have in defense. Adequate self-defense is the only proper response to the initiation of violence.
As you know, such attacks on pro-life centers and churches have been occurring all over the country since May 2 and are going to explode if Dobbs repeals Roe. This violent madness of crowds must be stopped by whatever defensive force is necessary.
THE SUBORDINATE CITIZEN
I recently led a group of about 100 citizens on a tour of Israel for nearly two weeks. Before returning to the United States, all participants had to indicate their vaccination status and take a COVID-19 test for reentry.
Contrast this to the tens of thousands of foreign nationals now mustering to cross illegally into the United States this summer, as exampled in the video above. They follow the already 2 million who’ve entered the country unlawfully since Joe Biden became president.
Does any foreign national worry about being tested for COVID-19, much less fear being turned away if he tests positive or lacks proof of vaccination?
Or do we scrutinize far more carefully U.S. citizens entering their own country legally than we do noncitizens crossing our borders unlawfully?