THE PORTUGUESE RIVIERA
A cliff-top fishing village on the Italian Riviera? Nope, Azenhas do Mar – Watermills of the Sea – is on the Portuguese Riviera. This is a magic place of fairy tale castles, thousand year-old fortresses, luxury boutique hotels, fabulous food, great wine, gorgeous beaches, and postcard-perfect scenery everywhere.
The Portuguese people are among the kindest in Europe, while Portugal is one of the safest countries in the world. Of all the planet’s First World countries, it’s hard to find one more friendly, calm, and welcoming than here.
Who’s the pretty girl? Lucky me – she’s my wife Rebel, mother of our two grown sons, my business partner, and my best friend. We’ve had a home here for many years. Rebel loves Portugal so much she taught herself to be fluent in Portuguese.
If you’d like a personal experience of the best of Portugal, Wheeler Expeditions can arrange it for you this coming June. Let me know if you’d like to have too much fun here with your fellow TTPers: [email protected]. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #123 Photo ©Jack Wheeler
THE TRUMP SOLUTION
The Wall Street Journal on Friday (4/09) published an editorial headlined “The GOP’s Trump Problem.” It gets things terribly wrong. The GOP is Trump’s party and it is the Wall Street Journal that has the Trump problem.
Having been commendably supportive of the former president through most of his term, the Journal joined in the general embarkation of NeverTrumpers over the ostensible election results. The Journal should be ashamed of itself.
The fact that the former Republican establishment fell in with the Democrat narrative and refused to accept the possibility of this, in the most tainted election in American history (except perhaps 1876), is a disgrace and a dishonor to them.
K-12 TEACHERS PROGRAMMED TO BE MERCHANTS OF ANTI-WHITE HATE
Last month on March 18, the California Department of Education approved its Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum, and individual school districts have begun to implement programs that advocate “decolonizing” the United States and “liberating” students from capitalism, patriarchy, and settler colonialism.
The ethnic studies curriculum is based on the work of Brazilian Marxist Paulo Freire, who invented the concept of the “pedagogy of the oppressed,” which holds that students must be educated to understand their oppression and develop the practical skills, or “praxis,” to challenge and eventually overthrow their oppressors.
The goal is that schools should start transforming children into “activist intellectuals,” beginning in first grade. “[It’s] never too young,” say the Curriculum’s authors.
TUCKER AT HIS BEST
Intro by JW: This the full video followed by the full transcript of Tucker’s monologue last night (4/12). It’s already being hailed as “the most important 20 minutes you’ll ever see on television.” Please consider watching it entire, then absorbing the transcript. Here’s a sample:
“California has a higher poverty rate than Mississippi, indeed the highest in the nation.
How did this happen? In a healthy country, one that prized honesty and free inquiry and legitimate social science, we wouldn't be asking that question urgently. How did a place as idyllic as California become so miserable that huge numbers of people who were born there decided to abandon their homes and flee?
If you cared about the United States, you would want to know the answer and you'd want to make absolutely certain it didn't happen anywhere else. Yet the Democrat Party is working to make certain it happens everywhere else.”
THROWING SAND IN JOEBAMAS GEARS
A new conservative opposition research group is using unorthodox, and controversial, tactics to throw what it describes as "a big handful of sand" in the gears of the Biden administration — tactics it claims have been used effectively by the left for years.
In an interview with Tom Jones, founder of the American Accountability Foundation (AAF), he explained:
"I see our group right now as getting up every morning and with the goal of making it as difficult as possible for the Biden administration and their allies on the Hill to implement their agenda. Our goal is to take a big handful of sand and throw it in the gears of the Biden administration, and that’s what we’re going to do every day."
THE REGISTAN OF SAMARKAND
The magnificent Sher-Dor Madrassa, built in the early 1600s, is part of the Registan public square complex of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Samarkand. What’s fascinating is the mosaic depiction of living beings on either side of the arch – a tiger and on its back a rising sun deity with a human face. This is honoring the pre-Islamic history of Samarkand that goes back almost 3,000 years.
It was centuries old when Alexander conquered it in 329 BC. For a thousand years as Central Asia’s great entrepot on the Silk Road between China and the Mediterranean, it was a cosmopolitan center for Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and Nestorian Christianity. Incorporated into the Islamic world in the 700s, sacked by Genghiz Khan in 1220, rebuilt by the time Marco Polo in 1272 described it as “a large and splendid city,” Tamerlane made it his capital in 1370.
Colonized by Czar Alexander II in the 1860s within the Russian Imperial Empire, and by the Soviets in the 1920s within the Uzbek SSR, Samarkand is flourishing today in independent Uzbekistan. There is so much to learn and contemplate upon when you are here. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #67 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY XIII
Week before last in Keeping Your Sanity XI (3/29), we talked about water. This week, we’re going to talk about… mouthwash!
And for the same reason – to prevent what you see in the photo above: orange blobs of amyloid plaques in the brain that cause Alzheimer’s.
As we learned in Sanity XI – “one of the most common causes of senile dementia and Alzheimer’s is chronic dehydration” – it turns out that another common cause of AD is gingivitis.
According to research conducted by University of California Psychiatry Professor Stephen Dominy -- Porphyromonas gingivalis in Alzheimer’s disease brains – it works like this.
THE RED-OCHERED WOMEN OF THE HIMBAS
The Himbas are a tribe of nomadic cattle herders in far northern Namibia. Himba women make a paste of butter fat and red ochre clay called “otjize,” to protect their skin from the burning African sun and braid their hair for beautification.
The Himbas’ exotic practices are not for tourists. This is the way they live as one of Africa’s most genuinely traditional peoples. Living on the move in remote roadless regions, it takes an effort to find them. But when you do, coming with an attitude of respect, you will be welcomed with smiles and hospitality in return. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #66 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE WAY TO TREAT THE WOKE
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/09/21
AND OF JOE BIDEN’S AMERICA
But not of our history.
You saw the front page story yesterday (4/08): America’s Dictator Announces Six Gun Control Executive Actions – And It’s Just The Beginning.
I hope it didn’t make you mad – as it made me jump for joy. Yes!! I exclaimed – for you know what happens when you try to boil a frog and you turn the heat up too fast.
In all seriousness, this is the catalyst – the trigger (pun intended) – for what we need most, a Tenth Amendment Revolution.
This is a great HFR!!