THE WORLD’S MOST UNUSUAL GRAVES
East of Borneo in Indonesia is a large starfish-shaped Island called Sulawesi, where in the south-central mountains the Toraja people have created one of the most exotic cultures on earth. They bury their dead in caves carved out of vertical cliffs, with balconies at the entrances lined with clothed wooden effigies called a Tau Tau as guardians for the departed.
The Toraja live in villages composed of family long houses with enormous peaked roofs of wood and thatch, decorated with exquisite painted art and scores of buffalo horns. While Indonesia is predominantly Moslem, the Toraja are a blend of Christian-animist. They are a gentle, peaceful people, marvelously welcoming and friendly. It is a priceless privilege to spend time with them, as I was able to during the summer of 2016. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #49 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
OCTOBER COMES EARLY – BIDEN SCREWED SIX DAYS BEFORE FIRST DEBATE
The headlines this morning (9/23) are huge:
Breitbart: Senate Report Says Joe Biden Allowed Family to Enrich Themselves Abroad While He Was VP
New York Post: Senate Republicans release explosive report on Hunter Biden, Burisma… Senate report links Hunter Biden to ‘prostitution or human trafficking ring’
And the headlines on CNN, WaPo, NY Times, or Fox? Zip, zero, nada – not a word, not a peep. ROTFLMAO City – let’s see how long they can keep this up.
Not for long, that’s for sure. The Title of the official Senate Report is above. Just look at the Table of Contents:
THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF PRESIDENT TRUMP
Mr. & Mrs. America
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” teamed up to get those out to kill them, but they can’t compare to Mr. & Mrs. America gunning for those out to kill our country and everything it stands for.
Because so many people asked for a document with all of this listed in one place, here it is. No links provided to remove bias as Google search is easy. Fact check it all you want. Print this out for family, friends, neighbors, etc. I encourage you to drop this list off to voters before November 3rd too!
Donaldus Magnus, supported by his closest confidant The First Lady, has been in office for 44 months and has accomplished almost infinitely more than Basement Joe has in 44 years (36 as US Senator, 8 as Vice-President).
Here you go. I ask for your patience – it’s a long list… really long.
THE POLYNESIA PARADISE YOU NEVER HEARD OF
Have you ever seen the ocean turn day-glo pink? It does here naturally during a sunset (this is not photoshopped). Between Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific is a raised coral atoll, 100 square miles of old limestone between 60 and 200 feet high: the island of Niue (new-way), and it’s is uniquely fabulous.
With no silty river runoff, the water is incredibly clear – visibility can reach over 200 feet. There are a multitude of chasms through which you clamber to these out-of-a-movie tidal pools perfect for snorkeling surrounded by colorful reef fish. The limestone cliffs encircling the coast are riddled with caves with multi-colored stalactites and stalagmites.
You can snorkel or dive with spinner dolphins and humpback whales. The big game fishing is world class – within a few hundred yards off shore. The Niueans are unfailingly friendly and welcoming, the beautiful Matavai Resort is the best bargain in the Pacific, the food and beer is inexpensive, the weather is balmy. It’s a Polynesian paradise you never heard of. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #48 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ACB – THE WORTHIEST REPLACEMENT FOR RBG
Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett, 7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Picture a female jurist who has consistently defied social expectations imposed on women and whose legal thinking is closely bound up with her faith.
No, I’m not talking about Amy Coney Barrett, affectionately known as “ACB,” and reported to top President Trump’s list of candidates to fill the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. I’m talking about RBG, Ginsburg herself.
Ginsburg believed fervently that conventional expectations shouldn’t hinder women as they seek their full, fair share of public life. Nor was she shy about how her Jewish faith shaped her judicial mind. In an essay for the American Jewish Committee published in 1993, she wrote:
“Laws as protectors of the oppressed, the poor, the loner, is evident in the work of my Jewish predecessors. . . . The biblical command ‘Justice, justice shalt thou pursue’ is a strand that ties them together.”
By those criteria, Barrett would make a most worthy successor to RBG.
WOKE JOE EMERGES FROM HIBERNATION – TO ANY AVAIL?
“You don’t have to do this, Joe.”
The Democrat presidential nominee had embraced one of the most bizarre but—until recently—effective strategies thus far in a presidential campaign.
Like some fictive vampire, Joe Biden has been ensconced in a basement tomb and, now pale, he is reemerging into the light and finding the glare all but lethal.
As his former boss, Barack Obama, reportedly warned Biden of the looming 2020 ordeal, “You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t.” That’s turning out to be sage advice. Here’s why.
DEAD VLEI, NAMIBIA
Many consider this the most surrealistic place on earth. The clarity of the air turns the sky deep cobalt blue, the dunes are so old they’ve rusted red, combining with the white clay floor to give the skeletal trees a scene out of a Dali painting or a science fiction movie. But it’s real.
A thousand years ago the river watering these trees dried up, leaving a white clay pan amidst red sand dunes almost as tall as the Empire State Building. It’s so dry here these acacia trees can’t decompose, their skeletons standing scorched in the sun for ten centuries.
Dead Vlei is in a region of enormous dunes called Sossusvlei. It’s a mind-boggling experience to float over Sossusvlei in a hot air balloon. Namibia, in fact, is full of such experiences – the largest fur seal colony anywhere at Cape Cross, the marvelous abundance of African wildlife at the Etosha Pan, the dramatic shipwrecks dotting the Skeleton Coast, traditional people living untouched by the modern world like the Himbas.
Plus it’s one of the safest and best-run countries in all Africa – certainly worth consideration for your bucket list. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #47 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
CLIMBING JACOB’S LADDER ON THE ISLAND OF SAINTS
Jamestown on Saint Helena in the South Atlantic is two blocks wide and a mile long in a narrow deep ravine. One of the world’s longest straight staircases, Jacob’s Ladder, was an original way to get out – 699 steps each 11 inches high – and it’s a workout.
People who live here call themselves “Saints” and pronounce their island “sent-uhl-LEEN-ah.” It’s famous of course for where the Brits exiled Napoleon after Waterloo. His residence and gardens on a high promontory, Longwood House, is preserved with original furnishings and his death bed. Dying in 1821, he was buried in a beautiful peaceful glen nearby (in 1840 he was reinterred at Les Invalides in Paris).
After climbing the Ladder and visiting Longwood, you’d want to refresh yourself at one of Jamestown’s pubs, where local Saints will be happy to hoist a pint with you. And don’t pass up a visit to the Saint Helena Distillery, the world’s remotest distillery, to learn how Head Distiller Paul Hickling makes his memorable Prickly Pear Whiskey, White Lion Spiced Rum, and Jamestown Gin – all in unique stepping stone bottles in honor of Jacob’s Ladder. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #46 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: The Religion of Envy
Kibo Summit Crater of Kilimanjaro, 1971, photo ©Jack Wheeler
East of the Serengeti, there is a town called Moshi. It lies at the southern base of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, the former German then British territory of Tanganyika. Some 50 miles away from Moshi is the town of Arusha, the traditional starting point for an East Africa safari (Swahili for journey) to such places as Manyara, Ngorongoro, and the Serengeti plain.
The way Africans get from Moshi to Arusha is by mini-bus or small van. The driver races madly round and round the town's central square beeping his horn and yelling, "Arusha! Arusha!" Only when it is physically impossible for there to be one more human body squeezed into his vehicle will he depart.
Such circumstances require you to establish a friendly relation with the person next to you, who is virtually sitting in your lap. On this particular occasion, I found myself next to a young fellow who spoke quite good English (Britain was mandated German East Africa by the League of Nations after World War I, and administered it until independence in 1962).
He was clearly intelligent and well-educated. Our conversation went like this (with his words in italics).
THE REAL VIRUS
