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)
THE ANTI-DEMOCRATIC DEMOCRATIC LEFT
Joe Biden has claimed that his opponents are assaulting democracy on the basis of the January 6, 2021, buffoonish riot.
But sometimes storming the Capitol Rotunda is deemed permissible—as in the recent pro-Hamas takeover of it.
And sometimes disrupting a federal government proceeding is deemed exempt—as in the recent pro-Hamas throng that blocked the route of the presidential motorcade and thus delayed the State of the Union address to the nation by 26 minutes.
So who really is attacking democracy?
TIKTOK TIME BOMB MAY BLOW UP IN CHINA’S FACE
[Editor’s Note: We’ve merged two short articles by Ms. Griffin on the subject of TikTok – one sounds a warning, the second offers potential schadenfreude!]
TikTok has long been a threat to the American people and U.S. intelligence agencies.
The video sharing app is staffed by 300 former Chinese state media workers and has direct ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
It was such an obvious security risk that former President Donald Trump tried to ban it with an executive order, which was then overturned by President Joe Biden — who has known sympathies with China.
Recently, TikTok was up for discussion again in Congress, with leaders on both sides of the aisle trying to decide on the best course of action for a nascent bill they were crafting. They were set to vote on the bill last Thursday.
Ironically, TikTok overplayed its hand.
THE ITCHAN KALA OF KHIVA
The inner town (Itchan Kala) of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Khiva has been unchanged for centuries. Surrounded by 40ft-high snake walls that writhe around the city, its labyrinth of narrow lanes adorned with blue and aquamarine tile mosaics is a living museum for you to explore.
On the Oxus or Amu Darya River in deepest Central Asia, Khiva was ancient when Alexander the Great seized it in 329 BC. It survived the depredations of Arabs in the 7th century, Mongols in the 12th, Tamerlane in the 13th. The Khanate of Khiva continued to flourish on the Silk Road until conquered by the Russians in the 19th. Today in Uzbekistan, it remains as the best-preserved of the ancient oases of the Silk Road, yet unknown to the outside world. We look forward to visiting this ancient place once again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #118 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
MENTAL ILLNESS: WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
[TTP’s homegrown Law Enforcement specialist shares a career’s-worth of good advice.]
Anyone in law enforcement deals with mentally ill persons frequently, and a successful career requires an understanding of some practical truths about mental illness. Here are some realities that everyone needs to understand because…
– There are a lot of people with mental illness out there.
BIDEN ADMITS THE REAL GOAL BEHIND CEASEFIRE REQUEST
The most obvious thing to leap out of Joe Biden’s weekend interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capeheart was Biden’s abject apology for referring to the fact that Laken Riley’s confessed killer is an illegal alien.
However, what that interview also revealed is that Biden has a very specific reason for demanding that Israel call a ceasefire in its war against Hamas: Doing so will allow Hamas to “survive” and “rebuild.”
As Israel engages in an existential fight against the self-avowed genocidal forces arrayed against her, Biden is stabbing her in the back.
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. We’ll be here on a return exploration of Central Asia. We hope you can join us then. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #59 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE MOSLEM MYTH OF JERUSALEM
Mohammed’s “Night Journey”
[This Monday’s TTP Archives feature was originally published on December 3, 2003. "From the river to the sea," the Palestinian battle cry that woke Wikipedia describes as an Arabic "focus on freedom," is based on the lie that Jerusalem is one of the holy sites of Islam. While the libs weep over Israel's "aggression" against the Palestinians "who just want peace," let's take another look at the evidence for the Moslem claim]
It is a commonplace in a story or article about the Arab-Israeli conflict that mentions Jerusalem to repeat the Moslem mantra that “Jerusalem is the third holiest city in all Islam, next to Mecca and Medina.”
You’ve heard this innumerable times — but how come? Just why is Jerusalem so important to not just Jews and Christians but Moslems as well?
The reason is one single line in the Koran. If it can be shown by Islamic scholars that it has been misinterpreted, then Jerusalem ceases to be a holy city to Islam.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: A DAZZLE OF ZEBRAS
Groups of animals have collective nouns, like a pride of lions or a school of fish. A group of zebras is called a dazzle. The term is excellently appropriate. You may wonder why zebras have such clearly obvious stripes that any predator can see. The reason is that predators like lions or hyenas always target a specific individual in the group that’s weak, young or vulnerable. To be dazzled is to be confused or bewildered, and that’s just what zebra stripes do to attacking predators. As the zebras merge on the run, it’s far more difficult for the predator keep focused on the selected target – so the zebras escape unscathed far more often than not. Their stripes are a marvel of evolutionary survival. This photo was taken on the plains of the Serengeti. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #285, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE STATE OF THE UNION IS PATHETIC
