WHAT A REAL CANNIBAL LOOKS LIKE
On the remote north side of the island of Malekula in Vanuatu, there lives a cannibal tribe called the Big Nambas. The men wear a penis gourd wrapped in pandamus fibers, and eat “man long pig,” cooked human enemies. You have to trek over mountains of thick jungle to reach them. When I was able to years ago, there were a few men who continued the practice. This gentleman is one of them. I was in no danger as they were very kind and gracious to me.
That wasn’t the case a century ago when the first explorers, Martin & Osa Johnson, reached them. Their 1918 film, “Cannibals of the South Seas,” made the Johnsons famous, and you can see it on YouTube. Today they are far more benign. It is an extraordinary experience to meet a culture of fearsome reputation and realize they are people like you and me. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #103 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
GRATITUDE: THE ANTIDOTE TO THE HEDONIC TREADMILL
“Hedonic adaptation” is the term that researchers use to describe this capacity to adapt to different circumstances while staying within a range of overall happiness. This gift of adaptability is a wonderful advantage in a continually changing world, full of endless creativity, unanticipated events, and unpredictable possibilities, good or bad.
It also means that we adapt to good things relatively quickly, so the happiness we experience from them is often fleeting.
…then we need another good thing.
…and another.
And when we become used to the availability of good things, when we come to expect them as a regular experience of a good life, we enter what’s called the “Hedonic Treadmill.”
Needing more and more good things in order to feel what we’ve come to expect as a baseline of happiness can be exhausting. It can undermine the sense of happiness we enjoy with each positive experience.
And in that way we can undermine our sense of being happy about our life.
But there is an antidote; something we can deliberately practice and gets easier over time, and that can significantly affect our happiness:
TRUMP’S VIBRANT RETURN
In case you have not heard, according to every mainstream media outlet, Donald Trump did NOT give a State of the Union speech Tuesday evening. Once a year, some Leftmedia scribe does a Google search on "state of the union" and then copies and pastes Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 from our Constitution, which defines the information the president is to give Congress. Then, all the other outlets reprint that post.
But according to the American Presidency Project, the fact that it was technically not a State of the Union address makes little difference because the "impact of such a speech on public, media, and congressional perceptions of presidential leadership and power should be the same."
Gosh, I am so glad the MSM spent the 48 hours ahead of Trump's address clearing that up....
The last time Trump did deliver a State of the Union speech was February 4, 2020. It was a remarkable testament to his previous three years, despite being plagued with attacks by deep state conspirators endeavoring to undermine his administration in collaboration with impeachment charades.
Trump began that address by declaring, "I say to the people of our great country and to the members of Congress: The state of our Union is stronger than ever before."
That was all about to change — dramatically.
ELEPHANTS IN THE SAHARA
10,000 years ago, the Sahara was green, with lakes, rivers, and such an abundance of animals it was a hunting paradise for people who lived here. You’ll find their petroglyphs carved on to rock outcroppings like this that my son Jackson and I found on a Trans-Sahara Expedition in 2003.
The Milankovitch astronomical cycles that drive Earth’s climate produced a West African monsoon that greened the Sahara back then. When the cycles shifted ending the monsoon, the Sahara turned dry desert as it remains today. Political cycles that permitted a peaceful crossing of the world’s greatest desert have also shifted, making this too dangerous now.
A Trans-Sahara Expedition is one of the world’s great adventures. Hopefully, one will be possible again in the not-too-distant future. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #7 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
LOST IN TRANSLATION: “PEACE” IN ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN ARE NOT THE SAME
Lenin’s Tomb, Red Square, Moscow
President Trump has stated many times his intention for brokering an end to Russia’s war upon Ukraine is “peace.”
When these statements are translated into Russian by Russian media, our English word “peace” is translated into the Russian word “mir.” The two words do not mean the same thing. In fact, they are diametrically opposed.
It is the same – as President Reagan famously pointed out – with our word “freedom” and the Russian word mistakenly translated as freedom, “Svoboda.”
Svoboda means license, not freedom in our sense. There is an emotional aura around the word “freedom” that is positive for most any American. Say the word to yourself, and note your emotional reaction: feels good, doesn’t it?
But for the average Russian, the word “svoboda” has a negative aura around it: it feels frightening, threatening. It means the freedom, or license, to be socially irresponsible, to be selfish and egotistical, to be indifferent to hurting others for your own gain, to commit the unpardonable sin of seeing yourself as an individual instead of as a member of the kollektiv.
WHO REALLY POLITICIZED THE PENTAGON?
Is the era of rounding up government or academic “experts” to declare their support or opposition to ongoing controversies over? Public declarations by Anthony Fauci and his associates to follow their “expertise” or “science” did not work out well and persuaded few.
Recall the 1,200 partisan healthcare “professionals” of June 2020 who flipped to assure us that it was mysteriously now medically OK to break quarantines—but only if to publicly protest during the post-George Floyd unrest.
Most recently, five former Secretaries of Defense—William Perry, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, James Mattis, and Lloyd Austin—co-authored a public letter to Congress. They blasted the Trump administration’s dismissals from command of several generals—including the current chairman of the joint chiefs, General C. Q. Brown Jr.
This will not work out well.
THE TOMB OF TAMERLANE
This is the interior of “Gur Emir,” the tomb of Tamerlane (1336-1405) in Samarkand, the great Silk Road city now in Uzbekistan. Tamerlane was the last of the nomadic conquerors of Eurasia, a Turkic-Mongol whose conquests extended from New Delhi to eastern Turkey.
Gur Emir is only one of a multitude of extraordinary sights in legendary Samarkand that make being here a life-memorable experience. WWe’ll be here during our exploration of Central Asia soon again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #59 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: ARISTOTLE, EINSTEIN AND MUSSOLINI
[This is the eighth chapter of Part I: Envy of my forthcoming book NO FEAR OF THE EVIL EYE: Key to Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity. Previous sections and chapters can be accessed here. I will really appreciate any feedback you have.]
Ever play the Ultimate Dinner Party parlor game – where you get to imagine inviting people from history to converse over dinner and explain why them? At such a party, one conversation I’d most like to hear would be between Aristotle and Einstein. (And no, Mussolini would not be invited – we discuss him after dinnertime.)
Einstein would first have to bring Aristotle up to speed with what science had learned since the 4th century BC. But once he digested this and Einstein paused to take a breath, Aristotle would ask him – “So, all of us here at dinner are famous – what are you famous for?” When Einstein answered, “The Theory of Relativity,” Aristotle would respond: “What is it that’s relative?”
HORSESHOE BEND
Looking down 1,000 feet above world-famous Horseshoe Bend of the Colorado River at sunset is one of most iconic views our planet offers us. It is to be found near Page, Arizona near the border with Utah. Yet in truth, the number of different mind-blowing iconic views is uncountable in this part of the American West.
Close by are the Vermillion Cliffs, and the simply psychedelic Antelope Canyon. Just a bit further is the Grand Escalante Staircase, a little bit further Zion and Bryce Canyons and Monument Valley. And of course, right next door is something called The Grand Canyon.
There are people who have explored this region for years and will tell you there’s so much they’ve yet to see. You can explore the world over – what I’ve done my whole life – and yet there is so much of Creation to be soul-thrilled by just in this one region of northern Arizona and southern Utah – and I haven’t mentioned Moab which is a total mind-blow all by itself.
Take a break from all the worries of the world to come to here. Pick a place that will thrill your soul for a few days. That’s what’s needed now. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #134 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
LAID-OFF IRS AGENTS NOW FORCED TO GO DOOR TO DOOR ROBBING PEOPLE DIRECTLY
U.S. — The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the most recent government agency affected by the rule of DOGE, with layoff numbers reported in excess of 6,000 persons. Now, bands of former IRS agents are roaming the country, forced to go door to door to rob people directly.
"It's just so sad," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said. "Elon Musk is quashing the dreams of real people who devoted their lives to stealing for the federal government. But some heroes remain, choosing to spend their own private time going door to door to rob people without government compensation. And I applaud them for it."
Reports are coming in around the country that former IRS agents are wearing bandanas and going door to door to commit violent home invasion robberies on their own time.
"It's like the Wild West out there," warned New York Police Chief Lou Bilgins. "Do not open the door for any unsolicited visitors, or you could be killed during an attempted robbery or, worse, audited."
“After all, everyone knows the difference between a bank thief and an IRS Agent, right? That the bank thief doesn’t claim he has a moral right to steal your money.”
At publishing time, a gang of former IRS agents were seen looting the ruins of Manhattan’s SoHo art district..