THE WORLD IS PAYING A DEADLY PRICE FOR BARACK OBAMA’S FOREIGN POLICY LEGACY
If a belligerent state launched 185 explosive drones, 36 cruise missiles and 110 surface-to-surface missiles from three fronts against civilian targets within the United States, would President Joe Biden call it a “win”?
Would the president tell us that the best thing we can do now is show “restraint”? What if that same terror state’s proxy armies had recently helped murder, rape and kidnap more than 1,000 American men, women and children? What if this terror state were trying to obtain nuclear weapons so it could continue to agitate without any consequences?
This is what Biden and the Barack Obama acolytes, Iranian dupes and Israel antagonists he’s surrounded himself with demand of the Jewish state.
THE MAGIC OF MADEIRA
The island of Madeira in the Atlantic some 320 miles west of Morocco was first discovered, uninhabited, by Portuguese explorers in 1418. It has been a part of Portugal ever since. In the 1600s it became renowned for its Madeira wine, with English wine makers settling there and exporting it to England and the American colonies. The English consul Charles Murray built a beautiful estate, “Quinta do Prazer”, Pleasure Estate, high above the capital of Funchal, which by the late 1800s was converted into the Monte Palace hotel.
100 years later, Portuguese entrepreneurs developed the property into one of the most spectacular tropical gardens in the world, with lakes, waterfalls, and exotic tropical plants turning it into a fantasy wonderland. You can spend hours wandering around relaxing and luxuriating in this peaceful paradise. It’s just one of the magically beautiful places and truly relaxing, energizing experiences we have on Madeira and the Azores early this summer. Join your fellow TTPers on our Atlantic Paradises exploration to enjoy them – lots more photos in the link. Life goes by so quickly, Carpe diem! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #243 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE ROAD TO AGRA
[This Monday’s Archive was written on July 21, 2006, while my son Jackson (then 14) were in India. It is my “nutshell history” of India, apropos today with voting in national elections now underway. India with 1.45 billion and growing has overtaken China with 1.4 billion and shrinking as the world’s most populous nation – while India is the world’s largest democracy and China the world’s largest tyranny.
Compare these population links: India is young and has time to get rich before it gets old, China is already old and dying. India has a future, China doesn’t. That’s why it’s important to understand India’s complex history of 4,500 years, summarized here.]
TTP, July 21, 2006
If I ask you to think of India, the image that most likely appears in your mind's 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 (in addition to that it was raining when I took it), however, for the great majority of folks in India: the Taj Mahal isn't an Indian building. It's Moslem, and thus for Indians a symbol of Islamic imperialism.
The Moslem invasion of India had begun with Mahmud of Ghazni (now in present-day Afghanistan) in 1001. Historian Will Durant observes:
“The Mohammedan Conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history. It is a discouraging tale, for its evident moral is that civilization is a precarious thing, whose delicate complex of order and liberty, culture and peace may at any time be overthrown by barbarians invading from without or multiplying within.”The Taj Mahal is in Agra, about 120 miles south of New Delhi – and it was on the road to Agra that I reflected on the extraordinary complexity of Indian history.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: A REAL RUSSIAN CHURCH
This is the wooden Russian Orthodox Church in Karakol, Kyrgyzstan. I was here years ago and now again today. It was built in the 1890s when Karakol was a garrison town in the furthermost reaches of the Russian Imperial Empire with China just on the other side of Tien Shan Mountains. In the atheist/communist Soviet Union it was used variously as a school, gymnasium, and warehouse, anything but a church.
After Kyrgyzstan gained its independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was lovingly restored by the people of Karakol. All the various ethnicities comprising Karakol are welcome here – Christian Russians and Christian Kyrgyz, Uighur Moslem refugees escaping Chicom China, ethnic Han Chinese Moslems called Dungans escaping for the same reason, Buddhist and pagan Kazakhs. The interior is lavishly decorated with Christian art and paintings of Christian saints – no Islamic or Buddhist or any other religious art, just Christian. Yet all are welcome to pray in this haven of refuge and peace in their own way.
This is a Russian Church very distinct from those controlled by Moscow run by the Kremlin as a propaganda arm of the KGB/FSB. It is a real Russian Christian Church instead. Come here to feel to the spiritual serenity for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #221 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
MASTERS
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/19/24
On Wednesday (4/17), the London Economist ran: America’s Trust In Its Institutions Has Collapsed. This is extremely good news. Now add this metric Gallup has to its April 17 report:
So now you can see why all this is such good news: the blame for the current and sudden collapse of confidence falls squarely on the Dems and the electorate knows it.
Like an alcoholic who must fall to rock bottom before he realizes he has to quit, so now have many Latinos, Blacks, Independents, and non-woke Dems realize they can’t vote Dem this November. The best news of all is that this results in such a wide voter disadvantage for the Dems it cannot be overcome by cheating. You know the adage: If the vote isn’t close, the enemy can’t cheat enough to win.
Except for this……
LOOKING INTO A BABY LEOPARD’S EYES
There are not many places in Africa where you can do this, where a leopard mother has no fear of your getting this close to her cub. The best place in all Africa is a region of Zambia called South Luangwa, where iconic African wildlife is in vast profusion yet uninhabited by people. And where you can stay in a safari lodge so luxurious it’s hard to believe you’re way out deep in the African bush.
I’ve been traveling to Africa for 50 years now – since 1971 – and have been to every country on the continent, so I know how unique a South Luangwa safari is. If you have a dream of experiencing an African safari once in your life, you might consider here. I can hardly wait to come here again. Care to join me, to look into a baby leopard’s eyes yourself? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #117 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 04/18/24
This week has much more good news than last week. Israel magnificently held off Iran’s first direct attack, SCOTUS comes through for both the Fifth Amendment and for Property Rights. Another state ends sales taxes on precious metals, and NASA has found aliens…or has it?
Though inflation is still ugly, at least Powell is doing the right thing. Even some lefties are coming to realize how bad Leftist policies are. And while jocks aren’t normally known for their economic prowess, a winning UFC fighter certainly knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to f’ing say it! [profanity alert]
Very impressive! Great accomplishment!
IDF: 'Significant Strategic Achievement' as Israel Stopped 99% of Iran's Missiles, Drones
THE INSPIRATION OF AMERICA
Next to the entrance of The Red House, the Parliament of Trinidad and Tobago in the capital of Port of Spain, there is this marble inscription. It is clear that it is inspired by our 1776 Declaration of Independence and America’s founding principles. Trinidad’s population is 99% either Indian (from India), African, or a mix of the two. 64% are Christian, 21% Hindu, 6% Moslem, others undeclared – and all have these principles as a common bond between them.
Here in the Caribbean’s Trinidad is such a clear example of how America’s founding moral principles are such an inspiration to all humanity, of all cultures, creeds, and ethnicities. They are universal, America’s heritage as a gift to the world. This is the heritage of all Americans – something we need to hold on to and hold dear as we persevere during this current period of our country’s cultural, moral, and political lunacy. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #152, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
DISMANTLING THE “TRANSGENDER” NARRATIVE
Common sense and the realization that trans activism is the tyranny of the few are starting to make public opinion swing back to sanity.
Science continues to prove common sense on the gender front. A new study has reaffirmed what has already been posited: that most children who struggle with gender confusion grow out of it by adulthood.
This study comes from the Netherlands. Over the span of 15 years, researchers followed 2,700 children. Starting at age 11, they asked the participants every three years whether or not they felt confused about their gender. The results are what one might expect.
Discomfort in their own bodies began to manifest at around age 11 (the onset of puberty). Girls were more prone to this feeling of gender discontent than boys. But by age 25, a significant majority of these children — 96%, in fact — no longer felt discomfort with their biological sex.