Here’s a question:  Is rewarding efficiency is more effective than punishing inefficiency?

Kinder and gentler governments use market-based price incentives and less coercion. Yet all too many government officials forget about the superiority of the price system, and resort to the threat of or actual violence to get the people to do what they want.

Business people use the price system to attract customers with lower prices and good employees by offering higher wages (the price of work) rather than coercion.

Then you have the occasional business (United Airlines, for example) that forgets that prices tend to work better than violence, and acts like coercive government. Just think of the amount of money and grief United would have saved itself by offering a price sufficiently high to get one passenger to give up his or her seat rather than dragging a random customer out of his seat.

Prices allocate scarce resources and motivate future production. It is a basic concept that seems to elude many who think like socialists.

One of the major reasons the Soviet Union collapsed was the massive misallocation of resources because of a nonfunctional price system. A major reason Obamacare is collapsing is because it relies too much on coercion and bureaucrat pricing (as contrasted with market pricing).

What you’re looking at would cause any world-class mountaineer’s jaw to drop.  In the center is Kanchenjunga, the 3rd highest mountain on earth at 8,586 meters/28,169 feet.  But it’s much more than that.

The mountaineering ultimate is to climb an achttausender – a mountain over 8,000 meters high (26,247’).  There are 14 of them, all in the Himalayas and Karakorums of Nepal, Tibet, and Pakistan.  But what you are seeing is unique – for the entire ridge line of the Kanchenjunga Massif is over 27,000 feet, with four 8,000-meter summits in a row.

From right to left:  Kanchenjunga South, 8476/27,808; Kanchenjunga Central, 8482/27,828; Kanchenjunga Main; and Yalung Kang, 8505/27,903. 

What’s even more astounding is that no one has seen what you’re seeing before from this perspective – from a helicopter 23,000 feet high. 

Helicopters don’t fly remotely close to that height – except that our new specialized high-altitude Eurocopters can.  I took this picture last week on our third Himalaya Helicopter Expedition – and I’d like to dedicate it to Jack Kelly, who enabled me to take it by writing the HFR in my absence….

So – welcome to the Good Friday HFR! 

In that context, it’s only appropriate to begin with an observation of Jack Kelly’s in his HFR 03/31/17 that’s so classic it belongs in a future edition of Bartlett’s Quotations:

“CNN commentator Angela Rye compared Obama to Jesus. We could find out if we crucify Zero, wait three days, see what happens.”

FYI – Jack Kelly will be manning the HFR helm while I’m in Hidden Ireland in early June.  If you’ve always wanted to experience the Emerald Isle in a truly magical way, now’s your chance.  Hope you’ll join us…

                The Rock of Cashel – County Tipperary

The St. Patrick’s Day HFR (3/17/17) asked if TTPers would be interested in an exploration of the coolest places in Ireland this summer.  The response was an overwhelming Yes!  So here we go.

The best time is early June when the weather is beautiful and before the tourist summer flood.  So our dates are Monday June 5 to Wednesday June 14.  That’s from arrival to/departure from Dublin.

You won’t believe how much – and what – we’ll see and experience in those 10 days.  I can only take 10 of you – actually just five couples – so if you want to be among them, email me at [email protected] right now.

I’ll send you the full daily itinerary with a lot of pictures – trust me, it will blow you away.  If you’ve ever dreamed of experiencing the magic, the history, the beauty of Ireland, and getting to know the wonderful Irish people from all walks of life, now’s your opportunity.

To whet your appetite – yes, we go to the most famous pubs in Dublin, to Newgrange, the Cliffs of Moher, the Ring of Kerry, and Blarney Castle – but how about taking a small boat to the hideout of Luke Skywalker?

For he, as the latest “Star Wars” movie reveals, resides on the extraordinary island of Skellig Michael off the west coast.  It is a World Heritage Site as a nature sanctuary and as the earliest monastic complex of the first Irish Christians in the 600s.

There’s so much more.  To find out, again email me at [email protected].  Carpe diem.  See you in Dublin.

Ingrid Bergman in Gaslight 1944

Abroad, Abu Ivanka al Amriki is loved by America’s friends, feared by our enemies.

But at home, Donald Trump is the Rodney Dangerfield of presidents. He “don’t get no respect” from critics Left and Right, or from many who claim to be his strongest supporters.

Critics on the left and right assume they’re smart, Mr. Trump isn’t. They should rethink that.

So as a carrier task force steams toward North Korea, Topic A in the “mainstream” and conservative media is whether Steve Bannon is on his way out in favor of Jared Kushner.

Thus I wonder if the Bannon/Kushner feud might be a ruse to gaslight the Lying Swine. While they’re running down rabbit holes, the president quietly is doing important things.

(Note:  “Gaslighting” is manipulating people’s sense of reality to their detriment.  It comes from the 1944 film Gaslight starring Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer.)

Arabs and Israelis Agree

Across the Arab world, reports the London Telegraph, people have found a new hero.  They call him Abu Ivanka Al-Amriki. 

Israelis too are hailing him as their new hero.  They call him President Donald Trump.  Abu Ivanka Al-Amriki, you see, is Arabic for “The Father of Ivanka The American.”

"Maybe you in the West hate Trump, but he has already done far more for us than Obama," said Najim Hassan, who lives in the Syrian city of Idlib that Assad nerve-gassed, to a Telegraph reporter. "We love him because he does more than he says, he's a man of action and at least he gives us something to hope for."

Which brings us to this question:

Ever hear of the Islamic Military Alliance Against Terror?  IMAAT was formed in December 2015, the brainchild of Saudi Arabia’s Defense Minister, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with 34 Moslem countries joining. 

Last December in response to Trump’s election, Oman – a holdout due to IMAAT targeting the terrorist mullahs of Iran with which it has good relations – joined.

You may not have heard of that either, since all of this is being ignored by the American news media.  That’s their mistake. Before I explain why, ponder these facts:

The administrative state began in earnest 134 years ago with the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1883, which was a major power giveaway by Congress to an independent agency.

From that time, Congress has continued to delegate law and rulemaking to executive agencies, such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency, and to so-called independent agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and the International Trade Commission.

Despite increasingly delegating and shirking its constitutional responsibilities, Congress has become more and more dysfunctional in recent decades.

Over the last few weeks, many members of Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have demonstrated that they do not understand their jobs or don’t care.

The solution is to force them to their job – to legislate – by taking away the power to legislate from unelected bureaucrats of administrative agencies.