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THE GODS AND HEROES TRIATHLON

As most of you know, I have an expedition company called Wheeler Expeditions. The expeditions I run myself are mostly for private clients. I am very proud to say that my son, Brandon, has joined me in the business - and he has conceived and organized an amazing adventure which he calls The Gods and Heroes Triathlon.Next June, Brandon will lead 16 young and young-at-heart adventurers to: Swim the Hellespont like legendary Leander in Greek mythology (the Hellespont, now in Turkey, is the straits separating Europe from Asia and is where the Trojan War was fought)…Climb Mount Olympus to the home of the Greek gods…Run the original Marathon of 490 BC in the footsteps of Pheidippides.You’ve got to admit that is seriously cool. Brandon has also included visits to Meteora, where Christian monks in the Middle Ages built monasteries atop giant rock spires, Delphi, the center of the Greek spiritual world, and of course Athens, to explore the Acropolis and party at the Plaka.Brandon wants this to be a Fun Triathlon - not a competitive one. The object is to have as much fun as possible experiencing and recreating the most legendary athletic achievements in history.Yes, you have to be in good shape. But this is a personal challenge, a personal adventure. The goal is to participate in history, not compete against it. It is not to compete against one’s fellow adventurers, but to share legendary experiences together that everyone will never forget for the rest of their lives.If you (or anyone you know) would like to make these epic feats and legends of history a part of your (or their) life, the full itinerary is on the Wheeler Expeditions website.

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SAVING THE HEATHEN

The deepest and darkest joke I’ve heard in a long time goes like this. Osama bin Laden prays to the spirit of Yasser Arafat who then appears before him. “Yasser, please help me understand something,” requests Osama. “We’re both fellow terrorists. You’ve even killed more infidels than I have. Yet you get the Nobel Peace Prize, your funeral is attended by heads of state from around the world, and European newspapers compare you to Moses - while I am the world’s most hunted and hated man, reduced to hiding in inaccessible mountain caves. How did you do it? What is your secret?” Yasser breaks into a ghostly smile. “That’s easy,” he explains. “I only killed Jews.” A deep joke always reveals a black truth. European hatred of Jews is an ancient hate, and periodically erupts from the darkness of men’s souls into the light of history. Today in Europe -- particularly France -- another eruption has begun. It will get worse unless it is fought and opposed. It is getting worse because Jews are the Europeans’ perennial scapegoat for cultural failure. Old Europe now faces demographic doom because its native inhabitants refuse to have children, and economic doom because they would rather go on vacation than work. You know how bad it is when Consumer Reports currently ranks Mercedes and BMW as the most poorly made of the world’s luxury cars. To rescue Old Europe economically and demographically, to exorcize its Jew-hatred, it needs to be rescued culturally. There is only one way to do that, and only one group of folks to do it: American Christians.

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AN EXODUS OF WEASELS

“The Sheriff,” as new CIA Director Porter Goss is becoming known, is getting rave reviews from the agency’s rank and file for serving notice to the Rogue Weasels that their left-wing views and attempts to sabotage the Bush Administration will receive zero tolerance. “Watch for a lot of road kill on 123 (Route 123, the highway in McLean, Virginia that goes past the CIA main entrance) as the weasels scurry away,” I’m told.Found lying on the roadside yesterday (11/11) was weasel leader Mike Scheuer, who wrote the Bush-trashing “Imperial Hubris” book under the pseudonym “Anonymous.” While a lot of what Scheuer wrote was right on the mark, namely his withering criticism of the FBI and of senior agency guys (like Tenet) doing the CYA dance over 9/11, he twisted it all into bashing Bush and making an argument for John Kerry-type terrorism-is-a-nuisance-and-law-enforcement problem. That the CIA Review Office allowed him to write this book is a scandal never to be repeated under Sheriff Goss’s watch.But even better news than the departure of the CIA weasels is the departure of their counterparts on the National Security Council of the White House. Bob Blackwill’s sudden resignation from the NSC, where he was Bush’s key advisor on Iraq and Iran, is a cause for real celebration.

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BROWSER HELP OBJECTS: The New Bad Guy on the Block

A BHO is an add-on program, usually very small, that is supposed to enhance your computing experience. Most of the legitimate helpers are designed to work with web browsers such as Internet Explorer. But there are some really vicious BHOs out there. These reach deep into your PC, so deep that their digital fingers reach your pockets. Recently, a BHO was uncovered that monitors when you surf to one of 50 or so major personal banking Web sites, in order to steal your private information.

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GOOD NEWS FROM NEW EUROPE

Back in 1984, if you had bet Bulgaria would in 2004 host a convention of European free market think tanks including many from what were then communist countries, you probably would have been given very good odds. Yet during the last days of October, a remarkable conference -- the First European Resource Bank -- was held in the pleasant ski resort of Borovets, Bulgaria. This "Resource Bank" essentially was a convention of European free market think tanks. Representatives from organizations in 20 countries came together for mutual support, communication and cooperation.

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THE MURDER AND SUICIDE OF OLD EUROPE

Mohammed B., the man accused of killing Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam last week, was born and bred in the Netherlands. Known as a “relaxed, friendly and intelligent young man," a good student, a volunteer social worker, and a serious student of information technology, he came from a close family, and the death of his mother three years ago hit him very hard. He began to devote more time to religious studies, and in the last year became increasingly fanatic. He abandoned his social work because he refused to serve alcohol, and because the foundation where he volunteered organized events where both sexes were present. He was on welfare when he killed van Gogh.The Dutch — like every other Old European society I know — were unwilling to recognize that they had potentially lethal enemies within, and that it was necessary to impose the rules of civil behavior on everyone within their domain. The rules of political correctness made it impossible even to criticize the jihadists, never mind compel them to observe the rules of civil society. Just look at what happened the next day: An artist in Rotterdam improvised a wall fresco that consisted of an angel and the words "Thou Shalt Not Kill." The local imam protested, and local authorities removed the fresco.That's what happens when a culture is relativized to the point of suicide.

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THE EVOLUTIONARY ARGUMENT AGAINST THE INCOME TAX

A number of people in Congress have suddenly become very interested in an obscure scholarly article in the October 1, 2004 issue of Science magazine, America’s premier scientific journal. Written by UCLA paleobiologist Blaire Van Valenburgh and her colleagues, it’s entitled “Cope’s Rule, Hypercarnivory, and Extinction in North American Canids.”The paper is being scrutinized on Capitol Hill because a pair of science advisors to several Congressmen, Durk Pearson and Sandy Shaw, pointed out implications the paper has for US tax policy.The evolutionary lesson for politicians is clear. Hypercarnivores become extinct because they are dependent on hunting very big animals of which there are not very many. Once environmental changes result in even less of them, a hypercarnivore can get wiped out.Just like Governor Grey Davis in California.

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THE PECULIAR MORALITY OF SECESSION

The deluge of teeth-gnashing, hair-pulling grief-tormented hysteria washing over every liberal media outlet in the Milky Way Galaxy has reached a high-water mark with space-patrol talk about secession - as in the Kerry-voting “Blue” states actually seceding from the United States. Here’s Geraldine Ferraro fomenting on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes November 6:

You know what? Just let me make one point. You were talking about the map before. If indeed all those blue states all got together and seceded from the union, think what would be left for those red states, nothing. There would be no educational system. You would have nothing. What would be left to you? I mean, where is all of this talent in this country? It's on both sides, the Northeast corridor.
We can shake our heads in laughable wonder at this, and gloat about BDD’s - Brain Dead Democrats. But their maniacally empty threat is a gift, as it creates a marvelous “teachable moment” whereby the LibDems can learn a lesson about their moral values.Recall that it was Democrats who seceded the last time from America, in 1861. They were in full righteous fury defending the morality of slavery. Throughout the Confederate States, slavery was known as “the peculiar institution,” with the moral right to own human beings as personal property unquestioned and believed in with fanatical zeal. Just like abortion in the Blue States today.

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CLOSURE

The United States of America needs you right now! The election is over, it was a dogfight, and my fangs were bared as much as any. If you were a Democrat, independent, a Kerry-supporting Republican, or a member of any other political group, and anything I said in any editorials hurt or offended you, I apologize. It is now time for us all to come together in unified resolve to support our commander-in-chief and our troops. Our fight is over, but the war is not. As a Vietnam veteran, I personally still have issues with John F. Kerry, which most-likely will never see resolution, but that right now is inconsequential. I respected and appreciated John Kerry's comments in his concession speech for an end to divisiveness. This election was a time for healing and great closure for most of us who walked those fields of fire in the steaming emerald-colored hell of Vietnam. After years of silent agony and an American public who hid us in the cellar as their bastard stepchildren, John Kerry, unwittingly or not, forced us to march upward into the sun-like-brightness of self-awareness, and ultimately, of our own self-worth.

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BUYING A LAPTOP

Most people buy laptops for their portability, not its speed or upgrade-ability. Laptops let you be productive almost anywhere, and having a ‘portable office’ is an advantage for many. But laptops are generally overrated. Only secretaries, salesmen and engineers make good use of their laptop. Many others play games, surf the internet, check their email, try to work and talk at the same time, or at caf�s work and watch the more attractive members of the opposite sex at the same time. Given the expense involved, laptops are for all intents and purposes un-upgradeable. You are married to whatever CPU, video card (built into the motherboard) , sound card (also built-in) and screen come with the laptop. Laptops are much slower than desktops that have similar CPUs. Slower CPUs, motherboards, hard drives and video systems all contribute to the speed loss. According to reviews I’ve read, the best laptop built-in video card would be lucky to be half as fast as the best desktop video card. Of course, there’s always a better component out there, but it’s going to cost you.

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