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A NATION AT GREATER RISK

“If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war,” declared the President’s Commission on Excellence in Education in 1983.
In the three decades since publication of the “Nation at Risk” report, we’ve spent a great deal more on education, but students in public schools are now less likely to learn the things they need to know to compete in the global economy, and to fulfill their civic responsibilities.
After noting that in an earlier column, I said: “We face a national emergency so grave and so urgent only a Gordian Knot solution will do...If our children, and our country, are to have a future, the entire politicized system must go.  Now.”
Which prompted this response from a reader:  “No (stuff), Sherlock.  How?”

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/29/13

Congress wasn't in session this week, so news media attention focused mostly on oral arguments before the Supreme Court on lawsuits involving the federal Defense of Marriage Act, and California's Proposition 8.  Coverage by the MSM was even more shallow and biased than usual. Gay marriage has been supported in 7 of 8 opinion polls conducted this year, but by the relatively narrow margin of 51 percent to 43 percent. The "seismic" shift of public opinion has happened in large part because Jonathan Rauch and others "helped reposition the gay rights movement from libertine to conservative, from gays being a threat to our social order and institutions to wanting to be a respected part of them," said  Peter Wehner. * * * * There's been "evolution" on immigration reform, too. The "Gang of Eight" is putting the finishing touches on a comprehensive immigration reform bill. Immigration reform is a top priority for him, President Obama says.  But if that were true, he and labor unions wouldn't keep trying to insert "poison pill"  provisions. * * * * Liberals in the bigfoot media forced Dingy Harry Reid to schedule Sen. Dianne Feinstein's gun control bill for a vote after all.  President Obama wants to "shame" Congress into approving it. It hasn't worked with Sen. Marco Rubio, who will  join Sens. Mike Lee, R-UT, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz,R-Tex, in a filibuster. * * * * Rather than face the voters again, many Democrats in the Senate are retiring. * * * * The Shroud of Turin does in fact date from the time of Christ, according to tests performed at the University of Padua.  It's not a "medieval forgery."

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HIDDEN CHINA

Many travelers have been to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.  They've been to Shanghai, Guilin, and the Terracotta Statues at Xian.  Everyone knows about them.  This adventure is about going to truly extraordinary places in China that almost no one knows about outside of China, and very few Westerners have been to. The pictures you are about to see, you won't believe your eyes.  These places exist, and if you are ready to experience them, I am ready to take you there - to the China that is unbelievable and unknown, to what I call Hidden China.  Here we go.  We start with the Precipice Long Corridor.  It will take a couple of days to get there.

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HIDDEN ADVENTURES

It was ten years ago this week, in late March 2003, that I launched To The Point.  I was almost 60 then, and I am perilously close to 70 now.  I figure the only way to keep from slowing down is to speed up.  So I am launching a series of what I call Hidden Adventures. Adventures and expeditions to amazingly cool places in the world that few people know about, and far fewer have ever been to.  I start tomorrow with The Hidden Atlantic, which begins here in Ushuaia, where I and the people with me board an expedition vessel bound for Antarctica and South Georgia, home to fur seals and penguins numbering in the millions; the world's most isolated community at Tristan da Cunha; the island the Brits exiled Napoleon on, St. Helena; and secretive Ascension Island, with its joint US-Brit military base. I'll be at sea for a month, and most of the time be in touch with the world only with my satphone.  I have to admit, I am really looking forward to this, not having to pay attention to all the craziness in Washington and everywhere else in the slightest way. Of course, TTP will still be here! I'll be posting my articles whenever I can.  Jack Kelly will be manning the HFR ramparts, and Miko will make sure the TTP Weekly Report with a full complement of articles goes out every Friday. So -what Hidden Adventures are upcoming? (Hint: look in the TTP left side bar.)  And what's the Easter message in this?

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MAKE SURE IT MATTERS

I've written about how willpower takes energy, and when our reserves get depleted - through fatigue, hunger, or overuse - our willpower can weaken. But what if you have to take care of things anyway? What if you're tired, you're hungry, you've been overworking all day, and you still need to take care of something that's very important? I think we've all been in that situation, and we've all found that somehow we take care of things. How can this be? What makes the difference? It has to matter enough to us.  Here's how to tell the difference.

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WHAT IF SADDAM HUSSEIN WERE ALIVE AND RAN A NUCLEAR IRAQ?

The Iraq war began 10 years ago last Wednesday (3/20).  It cost 4,487 American lives, and about $1 trillion, and caused sharp divisions among Americans.  Was it worth it? "From today's vantage point, unfortunately, the answer looks increasingly to be ‘no,'" said Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was referring to the re-emergence of sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia since Barack Hussein Obama withdrew (essentially all) U.S. troops in 2011, and to Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's drift toward Iran since then. He is "unrepentant" about supporting the war, but wouldn't have if he knew then that Saddam Hussein's regime did not in fact possess weapons of mass destruction, Mr. Boot said. I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Boot about that.  But even if I'd known then Saddam was bluffing about WMD, I still would have supported going to war against him.  Here's why.

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JAPAN BREAKS CHINA’S STRANGLEHOLD ON RARE EARTH METALS

Japanese scientists have found vast reserves of rare earth metals on the Pacific seabed that can be mined cheaply, a discovery that may break the Chinese monopoly on a crucial raw material needed in hi-tech industries and advanced weapons systems. "We have found deposits that are just two to four metres from the seabed surface at higher concentrations than anybody ever thought existed, and it won't cost much at all to extract," said professor Yasuhiro Kato from Tokyo University, the leader of the team. While America, Australia, and other countries have begun to crank up production of the seventeen rare earth elements, they have yet to find viable amounts of the heavier metals such as dysprosium, terbium, europium, and ytterbium that are most important. China has a near total monopoly in the heavier end of the spectrum, as well as being the dominant supplier of the whole rare earth complex after driving rivals out of business in the 1990s.  That monopoly may soon be over.

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MOBY DICK AND THE DEMOCRATS

Captain Ahab's relentless, obsessive, reckless pursuit of the great white whale in Herman Melville's allegory-filled 1851 novel "Moby Dick" cost him his ship, his life, and the lives of his crew (save for Ishmael, who narrated the story). Their relentless, obsessive, reckless pursuit of a great white whale of their own could cost Democrats dear. When Adam Lanza, 20, killed 26 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut December 14, Democrats recalled Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's advice to never let "a serious crisis go to waste." No one acted faster than New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.  He invoked a provision of the state constitution to rush a sweeping gun control bill through the legislature Jan. 15.  Lawmakers had mere minutes to read it before the vote. The expression: "act in haste, repent at leisure" is thought to have originated with English playwright William Congreve (1670-1729).  Let's count the ways this applies to Gov. Cuomo.

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UNCLE SAM IS A THIEF

There has been global outrage about the proposal from the Cyprus government to have a significant one-time tax on those who have deposits in Cypriot banks. It has been correctly called a theft of private capital. What many fail to realize is that from the beginning, governments have been engaged in this type of theft, including the U.S. government. As the debt crisis deepens, governments are likely to increasingly engage in various forms of capital expropriation despite the fact that such activities are economically destructive and morally offensive. The U.S. government is now doing precisely what the Cypriot government is proposing, but only with a lighter and more subtle touch. There are a number of actions governments take to expropriate capital without explicitly saying so.  For example, if you have a savings account, a CD or money market fund, there is a good chance that you are receiving less than 1 percent interest on the money, thanks to the Federal Reserve, while government-caused inflation is running at roughly 2 percent. Thus, you are, in effect, suffering a 1 percent expropriation of your savings each year -- without Congress ever having voted for such expropriation. It gets worse.

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