TWO COOL MOUNTAIN TAJIK KIDS AT THE FIRST PEARL OF SHING
The high hidden Valley of Shing in western Tajikistan holds, as we learned in Glimpse #52, a series of seven stepping-stone lakes called the Seven Pearls of Shing. The valley is dotted with tiny villages of Mountain Tajiks, descendants of the ancient Sogdians who fought Alexander the Great.
Alexander fell in love with and married a Sogdian princess named Roxanna – and the girls of Shing are often named Roxanna to this day. The Mountain Tajiks of the Shing are a special people – strong, independent and free. They are also warm and welcoming. The kids – the girls just like the boys – grow up vibrant and confidant. These two young brothers exemplify that.
Each of the seven pearls have a unique breathless beauty, for they are of different colors and change according to the time of day. We are here at Mijnon (Eyelash), the first pearl, followed by Soya (Shade), Hushnor (Vigilance), Nophin (Navel), Khurdak (Little One), Marguzor (Blossoming), and Hazor Chasma (Thousand Springs). Towering above us are snow-laced mountains 18,000 feet high.
Perhaps you’d like to join your fellow TTPers to make the Seven Pearls, and so much else, a part of your life? Let me know! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #53 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY UNDERSTANDING SELF-ESTEEM
In a study by Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, she found that college kids today are more likely to call themselves gifted and driven to succeed, while their test scores and hours spent studying are decreasing. Their tendency toward narcissism has also increased over the last 30 years.
Today I want to look at what I consider one of the sources of this trend: the phony self-esteem movement.
Many years ago, when I was young psychology graduate student studying with Nathaniel Branden, I remember him talking one day about how he had been invited to be part of The California Task Force to Promote Self-Esteem, led by California State Assemblyman John Vasconcelos.
Nathaniel couldn’t see why he would be involved in that, since he did not see a role for government in the development of self-esteem. Nonetheless, the Task Force carried on, and created guidelines for building "self-esteem" in a way that Branden would never have advocated. For these guidelines are causing the mess so many college kids are in today.
TWO PRESIDENTS
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – BRANDON AT LAMAYURU
High in the Himalayas of India in the remote moonscape of Tibetan Ladakh is the gompa (Tibetan monastery) of Lamayuru. It is older than Tibetan Buddhism, for it was originally a gompa for the lama monks of Bön, the ancient animist religion of Tibet. I took my son Brandon here on an expedition through Tibetan India in 1993. Brandon had his 10th birthday here. Behind him is the enormous statue of blue-eyed Sakyamuni Buddha in the central prayer hall.
Brandon has never forgotten Lamayuru as anyone who has been here never does. We’ll be here again this August – and Brandon will be leading the expedition (Glimpses of our breathtaking world #151 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/25/22
Now that his astoundingly accurate predictions are coming true, Reuters reported ereyesterday (3/23) that the Kremlin wants him in jail: Top Russian Journalist Defiant in Face of Fake News Investigation.
But before a sitrep on how catastrophically bad the Russian military is doing in Ukraine, I need to tell you a story. And no worries, this HFR will be about lots of other stuff, not just Ukraine. Now let’s relax and settle in, it’s storytime.
SKYE’S LINKS 03/24/22
How to hit the ground running; House GOP members train and prepare to launch an onslaught of oversight investigations in 2023:
Russia, Ukraine, China, Taiwan – The West’s unanimity in punishing Putin are a shocking wakeup call for Xi regarding Taiwan:
China Wins A Little, Loses A Lot From Russia’s War On Ukraine
China's plans for Russia:
GOP Rep. Palmer: China's Intent Is to Make Russia a Vassal State
KETANJI JACKSON IS TOO SUPREMELY STUPID TO BE A SUPREME COURT JUSTICE
Even before Ketanji Brown Jackson's extraordinary statement that she does not know what a woman is, I'd concluded that she's a dim bulb and, really, the judicial equivalent of Kamala Harris: an uninspiring Black woman who's floated effortlessly upward through affirmative action and fealty to leftism.
I'd spent the day mentally writing an attack on her, only to see Tucker Carlson hold forth with an incendiary monologue that attacked her "I'm not a biologist" lunacy, the whole transgender madness that the left is advancing, and the real agenda of remaking society in an ugly way, especially through the death of free speech.
I’m posting it below since it’s over 15 minutes long, so please finish reading me before you watch him, okay? Here we go…
HOW CLOSE CAN YOU GET TO A BABY SPERM WHALE?
This close – if you’re at the right place at the right time in the right boat. That would be the Canal do Faial channel between the islands of Faial and Pico in the Azores, populated by more spawning sperm whales that just about anywhere else. It’s also a haven for many other whale and dolphin species on their migratory route between the North and South Atlantic.
In June, this is one of the world’s best whale-watching sites – and we’ll be right there on our exploration of Atlantic Paradises June 24-July 2.
You won’t believe how truly paradisical Madeira and the Azores are. Not just the weather and the beauty, but how safe, calm, and serene they are, how friendly everyone is – so friendly because everyone here is at peace with themselves. You’ll discover your inner peace here too. While never being bored as there’s always something exciting to see and do. Like being this close to a baby sperm whale.
You owe it to yourself to make these Atlantic Paradises a part of your life. (Glimpses of our breathtaking world #195).
ONE PICTURE, FOUR COUNTRIES, AND A SURPRISE
This is the Wakhan Corridor traversed by Marco Polo on his way to China in 1273. The river is the Amu Darya, known to Alexander the Great and the ancient Greeks as the Oxus. The Wakhan is the finger of northeast Afghanistan designed in the late 19th century to prevent the Russian Empire in Central Asia from touching the British Empire in India. It now separates Tajikistan from Pakistan with its fingertip the only border Afghanistan has with China.
Thus you’re looking at four countries. The river forms the Tajik-Afghan border – Tajikistan is on the left, Afghanistan on the right, in the center distance are the Hindu Kush mountains of Pakistan, while in the far distance are the Karakorum mountains of China. This is a fabulously exotic remote part of our world with people living here tracing their ancestry to the troops of Alexander. Oh – and the surprise? I’ll tell you soon. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #77 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHEN WILL THE WEST SEE THAT UKRAINE IS WINNING?
One of thousands, died for nothing NATO: Up to 40,000 Russian Troops Killed, Wounded, Taken Prisoner or Missing in Ukraine Wall Street Journal March 23, 2022
When I visited Iraq during the 2007 surge, I discovered that the conventional wisdom in Washington usually lagged the view from the field by two to four weeks. Something similar applies today.
Analysts and commentators have grudgingly declared that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been blocked, and that the war is stalemated. The more likely truth is that the Ukrainians are winning.
What follows is an analysis of how and why they are winning, how and why the Russians are losing, and why both will quite likely continue to do so.