FLASHBACK FRIDAY: THE ONLY CAR I EVER LOVED
My 1952 K2 Allard
When you get to be as old as I am, you’ve had a number of cars. I’ve had many over the years – but only one I really loved was this 1952 K2 Allard.
Sydney Allard (1910-1966) was a famous English race car driver in 1930s, and founded the Allard Motor Car company in London in 1945. His most famous race car was the J2 which finished third in Le Mans in 1950. The K2 was the roadster version of the J2 with those amazing swooping fenders.
Allards were always powered by an American V-8 – mine had a big block Chevy. I had drag races in it right out of American Graffitti or the Beach Boys’ Shut Down, and once hit 160 on a long empty stretch of highway out in the California desert racing a supercharged Porsche.
I asked Rebel to marry me in my K2 driving along the Pacific Coast Highway – best decision I ever made. So many memories in this car. But that was long ago. A car like that won’t last in East Coast winters, so I sold it when we moved to Washington long ago. Have I ever thought of getting another K2? Sure – but I know at my age driving a car like that (and knowing how I’d drive it!) is not wise. Better stick with the memories. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #258 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
NOTORIOUS GROOMING GANG VOTES TO NOT INVESTIGATE ITSELF
LONDON — Public outrage over the scandal related to allegations of ongoing abuse of children intensified in the United Kingdom this week as a nationwide grooming gang voted not to investigate itself.
Despite widespread concern over the situation and nearly unanimous calls for a national inquiry into the accusations from a growing number of whistleblowers, the grooming gang held an official meeting and voted against doing so.
"We will not be looking into the allegations against us at this time," said one member of the grooming gang. "We have heard the disturbing reports from many people who claim to have been affected by our actions over the years, but we have decided it's just not worth investigating ourselves regarding any wrongdoing. Cheers."
Though the gang has come under increasing fire with more victims coming forward, its members remained firmly against investigating their criminal conduct. "I'm afraid we're still not convinced," said another grooming gang member. "If we were to look into these things we're accused of perpetrating, we may be forced to hold ourselves accountable, and that's not something we wish to do. While we do acknowledge the seriousness of the situation, we are not willing to subject ourselves to further scrutiny."
Victims and their advocates were reportedly preparing to take the scandal to the courts before learning that members of the same gang also occupied powerful positions on all levels of the justice system.
At publishing time, the grooming gang announced that it would be launching a full investigation into anyone who questioned their decision not to launch an investigation into themselves. Elon Musk is their #1 Suspect.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/10/25
I was startled to see photos of the world-famous Hollywood Sign perched on the Hollywood Hills burning in the apocalyptic LA fires. Then I quickly learned that they are AI-generated fakes – the sign remains, so far, untouched by any flames. Nonetheless, they have gone viral all over the Internet – in large part for what they symbolize instead of the faked reality.
(I was personally relieved as I grew up in Hollywood; my surfing buddy, Hollywood Professional School-mate Eric Toberman was the grandson of “Mr. Hollywood” C.E. Toberman, who built Hollywood’s iconic landmarks including the Sign in the 20s and 30s, so I got to know the Toberman family and the history of Hollywood quite well.)
So what does that AI image symbolize? That what has burned to ashes like all the thousands of LA homes and businesses is the Democrat Party in California, along with their DEI, Climate Lunacy, and Wokeness.
So let’s get started – I think you’ll really be stoked (California surfing term) with this HFR. We’re going to celebrate the bright light at the end of what is now a short tunnel: only 10 days to go before the Biden-Harris four year nightmare is over. Hallelujah!
AGIOS LAZAROS
We’re all familiar with the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead four days after his entombment in John 11:1-44. But what happened to Lazarus afterwards – what did he do with the rest of his (second) life?
He left Judea to live on the island of Cyprus. There he met Paul the Apostle and his evangelizing partner Barnabas who was a Cypriot. They appointed him the first Bishop of Kition (present day Lanarca), where he lived for another 30 years, then upon his second death was buried for the last time.
A church was built over his marble sarcophagus which has undergone many resurrections itself over the last two millennia. But here it stands today after all those ravages of time, Agios Lazaros, the Church of St. Lazarus, over his still-preserved sarcophagus. On every Lazarus Saturday (eight says before Easter), an icon of St. Lazarus is taken in procession through the streets of Lanarca. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #165 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TRUMP’S GREENLAND AND PANAMA SCHEME IS HIS MOST INGENIOUS REAL ESTATE DEAL YET
You know the old adage. There are three things to remember in the real estate business: location, location, location.
And who is a better student of the rough-and-tumble realty game than Donald Trump?
That's nearly all you need to know about the President-elect's recent vows to take Greenland and the Panama Canal, by (wink-wink) any means necessary.
In fact, Trump is sending a message to the world and America's enemies: We're serious about protecting the Western Hemisphere - again.
Statesmen since before Abraham Lincoln have looked both north and south to help safeguard our nation. Now it’s Trump’s turn. And he does know how to make a deal.
HOW PUTIN WENT FROM WEAKLING TO MONSTER AND STOLE $1 TRILLION FROM HIS OWN PEOPLE
Once, he was seen as our best hope for permanent peace between West and East. Today, he is the embodiment of evil, a monstrous dictator who threatens a nuclear holocaust that could obliterate Europe.
But when Vladimir Putin was named as successor to the drunken president Boris Yeltsin a quarter of a century ago, on New Year’s Eve in 1999, he was regarded both by the public and by the gangster oligarchs who controlled the economy as a political weakling.
A quarter of a century on, no one regards him as a weakling. Those who underestimated him have paid the price, often with their lives. So have untold millions of ordinary Russians. The toll of Russian dead and injured from the so-called ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine alone is approaching 800,000.
Putin has ruled his homeland for longer than any leader since Joseph Stalin, who was dictator for 30 years until his death in 1953. But Stalin held his country together through World War II. Putin has ripped it apart.
THE WORLD’S BEST MOONSHINE
Santo Antão island, Cape Verde. The world’s best moonshine, which the islanders call grogue, is made here. There are ten islands comprising the country of Cape Verde, some 400 miles off the West African coast of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean. For hundreds of years, Cape Verdeans have been making grogue but the folks like the fellow here on Santo Antão have perfected it.
You’ll find their stills out in the sugar cane fields, where they put the cane in to a press called a trapiche, then cook down the molasses in an old oil drum into a clear distilled rum that’s up to 140 proof or more. This fellow is pouring me a sample to taste in a coconut shell. You have to be really careful because it’s so smooth and silky it goes down like water – making it very easy to get quickly wasted.
If you like it – which of course you will – he’ll pour fresh grogue into an empty plastic liter water bottle and sell it to you for six bucks. People are always partying in Cape Verde, and why not with all this grogue. They don’t mix it with anything except some lime juice and an ice cube. Really fantastic. Come to Cape Verde and have great time yourself! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #171 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
ZUCKERBERG GOES FULL MUSK
Mark Zuckerberg, January 7, 2025
As you watched above, yesterday (1/07) Mark Zuckerberg announced massive new changes at Meta, admitting the company went too far with censoring Americans.Elon Musk is the reason for the change. He bought Twitter and turned it into the best news aggregator on Earth. It is the No. 1 news app in 140 countries.
He taught a lesson to Zuckerberg, who had fallen for the sirene of censorship. The real power is in restraining yourself, not your customers. Adapt or die. Zuckerberg chose to move to Texas.
After Trump’s second re-election, America is returning to normal. The very next day after Congress confirmed Trump’s Electoral Vote victory, Zuckerberg made his announcement. That is no accident, comrades.
JANUARY 6, 2025 – THE REAL INSURRECTION BEGINS
BREAKING: Kamala Harris becomes the 1st woman to certify her own election loss pic.twitter.com/NmMQFWtEo1
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 6, 2025
The moment represents one of many surreal moments on a date—January 6—that the Biden regime, news media, and Democrat voters consider one of the darkest times in American history.
Four years ago, the ruling class in Washington attempted to commit what all evidence now points to as the premeditated murder of the MAGA movement. Powerful political and government saboteurs aligned to stoke the events of January 6, a four-hour disturbance those same saboteurs immediately branded an “insurrection.”
They failed. And four years later, the Real Insurrection begins.
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)