HALF-FULL REPORT 04/25/08
We open the HFR this week by asking: Dare we hope for Hillary? It's a fun debate over who would be easier for McCain to beat, Obambi or the PIAPS, almost as much fun as watching them rip each other's political guts out. McCain could score a Reagnesque electoral victory over either of these two losers, but I want him to go up against Her Shrillness. There's suddenly real hope that he will... ... Which brings us to the delightful subject of the North Carolina GOP Anti-Obama ad. It is fabulous -- And it is really funny to see how many smart conservatives - even Rush Limbaugh who's normally really smart - have been suckered by John McCain's denouncing it... ... Let's raise a more than half-full glass of congratulations to the brave leaders of the North Carolina Republican Party. We need more Republicans with their courage. What we need fewer of is the editorial writers of the New York Times, whose op-eds provide the propaganda marching orders for the entire liberal media. Looks like we get our wish... ... We close the HFR this week with absolutely the most thrilling and uplifting headline of recent times: Food Crisis Starts Eclipsing Climate Change Worries How great is that? Nothing like a little mass world-wide starvation to make people doubt in the religious dogma of warm-mongering. Finally - finally - it just may be that people aren't willing to go back to the Stone Age in order to placate Algore.
JOHN NEHRING 1942-2008
One of the most beloved members of our To The Point family has passed on. Anyone who knew him could assure you that you'll never meet a kinder, more decent man than John Nehring. There was a sweetness, a gentleness to him, combined with a profound love of liberty and a core of pro-American steel. An Eagle Scout and National Merit Scholar from Columbus, Ohio, John graduated near the top of his class at the Air Force Academy. He was an F-4 Phantom fighter pilot in Vietnam, got a Masters degree in economics at Georgetown, taught business & economics at the Air Force Academy, served in the Air Force for 30 years and retired as a full bird colonel. For the past several years, John taught economics at Embry-Riddle University in Colorado Springs, opening his students' eyes to the great advocates of economic freedom, such as Ludwig von Mises, Frederic Bastiat, and Milton Friedman.
THE CHINA INTERNET FREEDOM PROJECT
While Beijing was sending in troops to crack down on protesters in Tibet, they also made sure to boot out the foreign journalists, jam the short wave radios, and lock down the Internet. So, how did the Tibetans get the news out? By using DynaWeb and UltraReach - tiny software tools that seek out cracks in the Chinese Great Firewall and connect users' computers to the biggest anti-censorship network in the world. These tools scramble the users' communications and shuttle the data back and forth along an underground cyber network in a way that cannot be detected by high-tech monitoring and jamming equipment. At this point, the censors' firewalls virtually disappear to the users. They can now access blocked websites and also freely communicate with the rest of the world. The group that built this special network and tools like DynaWeb and UltraReach and recent additions, GPass and FirePhoenix, is the Global Internet Freedom Consortium or GIF. You may have never heard of GIF, but it is easily the largest and most mature anti-censorship operation in the world -- loved by users, loathed and attacked by censors.
OBAMA THE FASCIST SAVIOR
Speaking last February of the man she knows better than anyone else, Michelle Obama said that her husband, Illinois Senator and Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., is the only candidate for president who understands that before America can solve its problems, Americans have to fix their "broken souls." She also said that her husband's unique understanding of the state of souls of the American people makes him uniquely qualified to be President. But then, saving souls is hard work, and Mrs. Obama won't place the whole burden on her husband. He'll make the Americans work for him. As she put it, "Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zone. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed." At base, Mrs. Obama's statement is nothing less than a renunciation of democracy and an embrace of fascism. The basic idea of liberty is that people have a natural right to live their lives as usual and to be uninvolved and uninformed. And they certainly have a right to expect that their government will butt out of their souls.
THE OBAMAMAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Sen. Barack Hussein Obama is hiding from a girl. That's the Clinton spin on his decision to back out of a debate before the primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. As a matter of political tactics, his decision is sound. Sen. Obama is the front runner. He's got nothing to gain from another debate. And potentially much to lose -- though it's unlikely he'll ever again be as awful as he was in Philadelphia April 16. He doesn't want to answer any more questions about his relationship with his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, or with former Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayres (and most in journalism don't want to ask them). But his refusal to debate supports Sen. Clinton's insinuation he doesn't have what it takes to be president. It's something his hagiographers in the liberal media refuse to see. Like the Wizard of Oz, they don't want you to peer behind the curtain, lest you be unimpressed by what you see. The longer the contest goes on, the higher the curtain is raised.
ENDING CHINA’S THREAT TO TAIWAN
The single greatest threat to peace in the world, the one with the most potential to escalate into all-out and even nuclear war between China and the United States, lies in the Formosa Straits, the 100 miles of ocean separating mainland China and the island of Taiwan. At this moment, the Communist Chinese have 1,400 CSS-6 and CSS-7 short-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan. The handful of Tien Kung-3 (Sky-Bow-3) air defense missile batteries (based on our Patriot II system) the Taiwanese have is wholly inadequate against this massive threat. What Taiwan needs is a missile defense system that can blanket its west coast facing the mainland as well as its cities, that is cheap to build, quick to build, easy to operate, and very effective. A system that would allow few if any Chinese missiles to get through, that would blow any Chinese attacking warplanes out of Taiwan's skies, and against which any Chinese landing craft in an amphibious invasion would be dead ducks. This system could be put in place within 24 months. Once it is, China's threat to Taiwan is essentially gone. Here's how Taiwan can do it.
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/18/08
The HFR can stand only so much good news. How can it report on things half-full when the glass is overflowing? So this week we'll have to use one of those huge beer steins from which Bavarians imbibe at the Munich Hofbraühaus: 
We begin, of course with Obama The Infantilizomaniac. 
ENDING INFLATION IN THREE WORDS
There is no more horrific tax than inflation. It can wipe out a lifetime of savings with ease. It's also the easiest way for politicians to escape fiscal jams of their creation. Medicare, for example, goes cash-negative within 24 months from now. Its cost to taxpayers will mount almost exponentially in the years to come. There are only three ways to deal with the cost: raise taxes monumentally, cut benefits drastically, or inflate the value of the dollar to cover the ballooning cost. Which one do you think Congress will choose? There is a three-word solution to this, and TTP's favorite Paulista, economics professor John Nehring, had better be prepared or else his head will explode with excitement. The three words are:
DOES CONGRESSMAN WAXMAN WANT TO DESTROY THE US ECONOMY?
What would you think if members of Congress voted to require the U.S. military to forgo purchases of most of Canada's oil and thus be forced to increase their dependency on Saudi Arabian produced oil? As bizarre as it may seem, this is not a hypothetical question. It is precisely what Congress did in passing the falsely named Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Chairman Henry Waxman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee wrote a letter to Chairman Jeff Bingaman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on March 17 of this year, detailing the "proper interpretation" of the Act. Mr. Waxman's interpretation makes one wonder if his purpose is to cause as much damage to the US economy as possible.
RESEARCH NOTES
This week we shall explore some of the research that is being undertaken for a variety of maladies. Also research that includes further understanding of the human genome and physiology generally. First is the new research of malaria taking place. With the help of x-ray microscopy at Berkeley's Advanced Light Source lab, one of the world's oldest diseases has a map of how the plasmodium parasite infects the body. The brilliant detective work being done by these researchers is so remarkable it may finally "tame the ancient beast" of malaria that still kills millions of people every year. Then there's my friend who works at Broad Institute in Cambridge, MA. Some of the current research taking place here is taking a deeper look at diabetes. Broad's scientists have discovered the genes linked to height. And, in a step towards personalized prevention, Broad has a panel of genetic variants found to predict both cholesterol and heart disease risk.