ICELAND’S LESSON
I spent part of last week in Iceland, the antithesis of Greece – and Puerto Rico, now in a death spiral.
It’s been a hard winter and a cold spring up there, but despite the stiff northerly breeze off the Arctic ocean, economically speaking Iceland is basking in real warmth, while their antitheses shiver in financial winter.
Iceland teaches a very acute lesson not only for them but for America, Europe and the world: independence works.
Iceland had a terrible crash equal to Greece’s seven years ago and Puerto Rico’s this week, yet Iceland is now growing rapidly, running trade and budget surpluses, with minimal unemployment and strong pension funds. A settlement with the creditors of its three failed banks is imminent, and exchange controls will soon be lifted.
Here’s how they did it. Will the politicos in Athens and San Juan pay attention?
Join the forum discussion on this postCECIL WAS A KILLER
“American, single-handedly, saves 600 African antelopes and 12 baby elephants — by killing a lion.”
As you read the first part of the previous sentence, you most likely are thinking “this is a good guy.” But when you read the last part of the sentence — particularly if you are a cat lover — you may be thinking “this is a bad guy.”
Adult lions on average eat about 15 pounds of meat a day. In the wild, they feed primarily on medium-size animals, such as antelopes and occasional baby elephants.
The late Cecil the lion, killed by the American dentist, was reported to be about 13 years old. Cecil probably consumed roughly 70,000 pounds of meat during his life, which likely included many hundreds of antelopes and baby elephants.
When you see a wildlife movie where a lion is chasing an antelope, do you root for the lion or the antelope? Even if you are a cat lover, how many antelopes do you think should die to feed one lion?
THE MOSLEM FASHION SHOW
Bill Maher hosts the Annual Fall Fundamentalist Fashion Show. Warning! Do not be drinking coffee as you watch this. This is comedy as it should be.
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/31/15
Imagine the hysteria if I had shot this man-eating tiger today instead of 54 years ago.
In TTP yesterday (7/30), Ben Shapiro skewered the pathology of those who hate hunters more than monsters like the dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, responsible for the deaths of countless human beings in his country, or the proto-hominids of Planned Parenthood.
Also yesterday, the Center for Medical Progress released its latest video. The Daily Caller has a description of it that could make you throw up.
It is more than ironic that the lion whose death has caused paroxysms of outrage was named Cecil, while the president of Planned Parenthood is named Cecile. Cecil vs. Cecile…
Last Saturday (7/25), something very appropriate happened to Zero. The president of another country told him to get lost to his face in front of the entire world…
There are at least three candidates for HFR Hero of the Week…
We’ll close with a dyad of good news.
WHAT I WILL DO AS COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
[This is the full text of Carly Fiorina’s speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on Tuesday, July 27. The video of her speech is below.]
I have always believed the role of a leader is to see the truth, speak the truth and act on the truth. I am here tonight to speak about what I see and to describe how I am prepared to act. I see a world in dire need of American leadership. I see President Obama and Secretary Clinton always speaking in terms of ambivalence and shades of gray, offering false choices and raising the shadow of doubt about our will to lead.
The next President of the United States must reestablish our leadership—she must speak with clarity, accept that some things are black and white and act with courage. She must be prepared to challenge the status quo and change the way things are –whether in Washington or around the world.
President Obama has richly rewarded the bad behavior of Cuba, Russia, Syria, Iran and China—and Mrs. Clinton has signaled her approval. It is really quite simple. When you reward bad behavior, you get more of it.
The American people deserve an honest leader. Who will own up to the difficulties of the job in front of her—and who has a track record of leadership, accomplishment, and challenging the status quo. Here is what I will do as Commander-in-Chief.
WORLD EXPLODES OVER DEAD LION, NOT OVER SELLING DEAD BABY BODY PARTS
On Tuesday (7/28), the world lost its collective mind – whatever is left of it, anyway – when media discovered the identity of the killer of a Zimbabwean named Cecil.
Cecil is a lion. Cecil, a lion, was by most accounts “one of Africa’s most famous lions.” Cecil, incredibly, was famous for being a lion, not for curing cancer, although you wouldn’t know that by the media coverage.
The man who shot Cecil, a lion, to death is Dr. Walter Palmer, a dentist in Minnesota who paid $55,000 for a big game permit. Celebrities promptly grabbed their pitchforks for the now-biweekly sport of “let’s find a jackass doing something nasty somewhere on earth and ruin his life to make ourselves feel moral.”
The American media have spilled copious amounts of ink and spent enormous amounts of bandwidth ginning up the mob over the death of Cecil, a lion. Meanwhile, the major media rush to ignore the fact that Democrats now force American taxpayers to foot the bill for hundreds of thousands of murders of babies by organizations including Planned Parenthood.
DEMOCRATS ARE PROVING JUST HOW EVIL THEY ARE
I thought the liberal giants of my youth were usually mistaken, but I never doubted their intelligence, their good intentions, or their patriotism.
Those of us who are or were in Army Special Forces will always be grateful to Jack Kennedy for giving us the Green Beret. No politician has been a more effective defender of America’s national security than Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson, D-Wash.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-NY, the premier sociologist of his time, was a “social scientist” who was really a scientist. What a concept! Sen. Hubert Humphrey, D-Minn, was a passionate advocate of equal rights at a time when the only other politicians who were, were Republicans.
Not a single Democrat in high public office today resembles Jack Kennedy, Scoop Jackson, Pat Moynihan or Hubert Humphrey. “Liberal” is an appellation derived from the word “liberty.” Most Democrats today aren’t liberals. They’re fascists.
Little illustrates this more clearly than their reaction to the shocking videos of Planned Parenthood’s ghoulish trade in the body parts of aborted fetuses.
HOW TO DEFEAT THE DEAL WITH IRAN
I think most of those trying to stop the approval of the Iran Deal are going about it wrong.
I don’t believe you can stop this thing by going through the text and pointing out its myriad flaws, nor do I think it’s good enough to expose the many lies Obama, Kerry, Rhodes et. al. told us along the way, nor even to uncover secret deals.
Kerry and Zarif spent 27 hours alone during the negotiations, and we’re not going to get a transcript of those conversations, nor will either of them tell us what they may have agreed. And even if they did, I don’t think it would produce enough public political rage to stiffen the wobbly spines of our elected leaders.
The critics are quite right for the most part: it’s an awful agreement, the administration has behaved abominably, and the deal should be rejected. I’m just talking about the best way to do it, the best tactics to use.
Obama understands how to do it. We should do the same.
WE SHOULD WORRY ABOUT GLOBAL FREEZING, NOT GLOBAL WARMING
A study by the Royal Astronomical Society, published in Science Daily on July 9, concludes that solar activity will be exceptionally diminished in the decade of 2030-40 as it was during the Maunder minimum of 1645-1715, a period of sharply lower temperatures known as the "Little Ice Age."
Lower temperatures would be far more damaging than moderate global warming, because agricultural production could be greatly reduced. Note: there are many scientists who think changes in solar output, and/or changes in cloud cover can easily swamp changes in CO2 levels in affecting the earth's temperature.
New satellite data, reported in Nature Geoscience on July 20, shows that Arctic Sea ice has now bounced back to levels last seen in the 1980s when modern measurements began. At the same time, southern sea ice around the Antarctic has grown to a thirty-year high from when it first began to be measured. Climate scientists admit that their models cannot account for the rise in sea ice.
By the way, did not Al Gore tell us the Arctic Ocean would be free of sea ice by the summer of 2007?
ARE YOU TRULY HAPPY?
Depending on when in history the question above is asked, it would mean something very different.
Today, we live in a time where our overall health, opportunities, and options would be considered nothing less than miraculous to our ancestors. Practical knowledge of how our choices, thoughts, and habits affect our own experience allows us to be active participants in our own happiness in ways that would have likely mystified most people through history.
The Ancient Greeks would say that we, as a culture, are incalculably lucky or blessed. I think most of us would acknowledge that, but we would also think that the creative acts of relatively free, conscious people had something to do with our blessings as well. In a way that the Ancients could not fathom, we have today the potential to more actively pursue the virtues that bring greater happiness.
I’ve spent decades – my entire adult life, in fact – studying, writing, lecturing, and counseling clients about mastering their potential for genuine happiness. I’d like to share what I’ve learned with you.