SKYE’S LINKS 04/29/21
The US Post Office is spying on your social media posts. Yes, really!
In case you didn't know it, the outside of every letter and package is scanned by the USPO and the scans are sent to the NSA for permanent retention. This is called a mail cover. It was once done manually on the mail of suspected organized organized crime members. We Normals are now all under suspicion, and no warrant is needed; your tax dollars at work!
THE EUROPE THAT’S STILL THERE
It’s found here – the fishing port of the ancient village of Sesimbra in Portugal. 3,000 years ago it was called Sempsibriga – high place or briga of the Sempsi Celts. So much of Europe is gone now, steamrollered by modernity. Not here, where Portuguese fishermen sail out in their tiny boats for their daily catch as they have for countless generations. The best fish you’ve ever had is in Sesimbra’s local restaurants – wow, is the swordfish good.
While Portugal is a First World country with all the modernity you could ask for, it is unique not only for the charm of its history and post-card picturesqueness, but the sweetness of its people. They are simply nice in a way that’s so captivating. Their traditional family values are part of their nature. The country resonates with peacefulness, an at ease serenity. It’s the Europe that’s still there.
You can be captivated yourself by joining our WX Exploration of Portugal next month, June 17-26. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #126 Photo ©Jack Wheeler
WE REALLY NEED TO GET MAD AS HELL
That’s their dream, a country where you live in terror of them because you can never be sure that what you are doing or failing to do is suddenly going to be criminalized.
Take the whole imbroglio about Stabby Girl, the teen psycho in Ohio who decided to filet a girl in front of a cop.
ROME IN AFRICA
The best place to see Roman ruins is not in Rome or anywhere in Italy. It’s in Africa – specifically on the Mediterranean coast of Libya. This is the Roman theatre at Sabratha built in the 1st century BC. Over 2,000 years old, it’s still mostly intact. Starting as a Berber village, the Phoenicians founded the city as Sabrat by 500 BC. Then came the Greeks, then the Carthaginians, and after the Punic Wars came Rome.
The Libyan coast was a lush fertile place back then. So much so that Sabratha and the other major Roman city nearby, Leptis Magna, produced several million pounds of olive oil per year – sale of which to Rome enabled them to achieve great wealth. It’s a shame that Libya remains today in chaotic civil war. Hopefully the day is not off when experiencing Rome’s most magnificent remains will be possible here again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #79 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE PARENTS AMERICA NEEDS
WHAT THE PARENTS WE NEED BELIEVE
Who are they? What is the evil they are fighting and winning against? Read on…
PARTY BALLOONS TIED TO A BURNING STAKE
"Racism is the witchcraft of the 21st century, and cancel culture is the stake at which you are burned."
—Jack Carr, The Devil's Hand
Did you watch the 93rd Oscars Sunday night (4/25)? Hardly anyone else did either. Down 58% (!) from last year, less than 10 million worldwide tuned in.Most Americans knew exactly what to expect and opted out of the three-hour "horror story," as Piers Morgan put it. Piers was exactly right when he wrote:
"The tragic truth is that the Oscars as we know it died last night — woked to death by a craven collective desire from those involved to preach not entertain, to lecture rather than make us laugh, and to virtue-signal instead of perform."
THE DEMS’ ACHILLES HEEL?
One trillion dollars in stacked $100 dollar bills
A specter is haunting the Democrat Party — the specter of inflation.
Inflation is an insidious tax that robs the poor and the middle class. It favors the U.S. government, the world’s biggest debtor, because the government expects to pay back its creditors in Monopoly money. It crushes the real earnings of the vast majority of American households and destroys their savings.
That’s what the Democrats are up to. And that’s what might bring them down–just as 12% inflation brought down Jimmy Carter in 1980.
WHERE THE SOVIET UNION STILL EXISTS
Welcome to Transnistria, where Lenin still lives. The strangest country in Europe is a narrow sliver of landlocked land along the east side of the Dnieper River sandwiched between Moldova and Ukraine. When both declared independence as the Soviet Union broke apart in 1991, the people here decided they were still part of the USSR even though it had ceased to exist.
The half-million Transnistrians are still pretending their country is a Soviet Socialist Republic. Lenin statues abound, the hammer & sickle is on their flag, the state media broadcasts stories about “glorious Soviet history.” Meanwhile, Transnistria’s economy is doing well thanks to bountiful Kremlin subsidies and as a haven for the Russian mob. In the capital of Tiraspol I saw Beemers, Bentleys, and even a Corvette Sting Ray cruising the streets. Restaurants and bars are packed. Kids are well-dressed. That’s a gaggle of them you see above happily playing on a Russian tank in a park.
Maybe it’s all kind of a funny game to everyone here. As an American I was welcomed with smiles. You will be too if you visit – it’s a truly unique experience! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #69 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE MYSTERY OF THE REEF OF HEAVEN
In a remote corner of the Pacific Ocean, off the island of Pohnpei in Micronesia lies one of the world’s great archaeological mysteries: the only ancient stone city built on a coral reef. No one knows who built it or how.
Micronesians say their ancestors called it Soun Nan-leng, The Reef of Heaven. Their name for it today is Nan Madol, the City of Ghosts.
On artificial islets connected by a series of canals are massive walls up to 25 feet high enclosing temples, tombs, ritual centers, and platforms for thatch homes – all made of giant columnar basalt stone. Eons ago, lava flows on Pohnpei cooled into vertical pillars. Over a thousand years ago, ancient Micronesians began hauling these basalt logs miles away to build this stone city. With an average weight of 5 tons, 10,000 pounds – and some up to 25 tons, 50,000 pounds each – how they did this remains unexplained. It lies deserted today, abandoned and lost for centuries.
Paddling a kayak through the canal maze of Nan Madol to clamber over these monumental stone complexes in solitary silence – for visitors are rarely here – leaves you in a state of unforgettable awe. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #6 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY XV
Could green tea be a major way to keep your sanity, and restore all of America’s?
As you can see in the chart above, you really want be “met/met,” as opposed to “val/met,” or worse “val/val.” Problem is, which one you are is genetic – you have a particular gene that is one of these three.
Ah, but it turns out that an ingredient in green tea could fix the problem. How is a fascinating story – and it began in Trinidad many years ago.