Dr. Jack Wheeler
THE COUNTRY THAT DOES EXIST
Berbera, Somaliland. I originally called this place the country that doesn't exist, because no other country in the world will diplomatically recognize it as a sovereign nation even though it's been so for 20 years. Nonetheless, this is a real country with a sovereign functioning government. This is no pariah-outlaw state. That's Somalia, the truly non-existent failed state that Somaliland seceded from. The story of Somaliland is a heroic saga, epically inspirational. Let me tell you the story.
THE BLACK NORKS OF ERITREA
Asmara, Eritrea. I came here to see if the rumor is true, that Eritrea is the North Korea of Africa. Strategically situated at the entrance to Red Sea, it's ruled by Isaias Afewerki (ah-for-key), ranked by international agencies as one of the world's worst dictators, in the same league as Robert Mugabe, Kim Jong-il, and the Castro brothers. The Heritage Foundation's Index of World Freedom ranks Eritrea #176 out of 179 countries. Transparency International's Index of Corruption ranks it as one of the world's most corrupt countries. Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index ranks it as having the least press freedom on earth along with North Korea. There are a number of exile opposition groups, in Europe, the US, and elsewhere in Africa that are clamoring and hoping for a Tunis or Cairo in Asmara - a popular revolution that will do to Afewerki what happened to Ben Ali and Mubarak. Possible but exceedingly improbable. And therein lies an important lesson for us as we try to recapture our freedom in America.
DYLAN IN YEMEN
They'll stone you when you're trying to be so good They'll stone you just like they said they would They'll stone you when you're trying to go home They'll stone you when you're there all alone But I would not feel so all alone Everybody must get stoned Bob Dylan wasn't thinking of Yemen when he wrote Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35 for his Blonde on Blonde album in 1966 - but might be now. "Everybody must get stoned" is the motto of the country. I'm in Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where all those anti-government demonstrations are taking place according to the media, where the next Arab Dictatorship is going to fall as the Great Arab Revolt sweeps ineluctably across the Middle East. Except there are no demonstrations here. No tension. No palpable anger. There is peace and calm instead. Everywhere I go, I'm asked where I'm from, and when I say "America," everyone smiles, nods, and says "Welcome." Yemen's culture is one of the world's oldest, going back 4,000 years. Yet it is tragically nearing extinction - because everybody must get stoned. Yemen is killing itself with addiction to a drug called qat.
CELEBRATING RONALD REAGAN
This Sunday, February 6, 2011, is the centennial of the birth of the Greatest American of the 20th Century, Ronald Reagan. Annually on this day, TTP runs our ode to him, The Great-Souled Man. For his 100th birthday, however, we thought that it's worth spending time watching him and listening to his words. Yes, it's Super Bowl weekend, but taking a break now and then to watch one of the following will give you such an appreciation for this extraordinary human being. It will commemorate him in your mind in a special way. We begin the celebration with his hilarious appearance on the What's My Line television show in 1953 - yes, 1953.
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/04/11
This has been a week both sobering and thrilling, depressing and hopeful, serendipitous and its antonym. (Serendipity is finding something where you least expect it. Strangely, there is no word expressing its opposite: not finding something where you most expect it.) In other words, it's a truly half-full week. Might as well look at why it's half-empty first. This is not going to be easy, because it involves conservatives who are friends and whom I admire - yet who have allowed their limbic brain to be paralyzed with fear and shut down their prefrontal cortex. I am ashamed of them. I hope they soon regain their capacity for rational and moral thought. I am referring to the host of conservative pundits in print, the Web, on talk radio and TV news - no names here, it's easy to figure out who they are - who are so freaking out in support of Mubarak they want to see Mubarak's thugs commit mass slaughter on the demonstrators in Cairo peacefully demanding freedom and democracy. They have gone so morally insane that they seem to actually want Tiananmen Square-style bloodshed in Tahrir Square. Why aren't conservative leaders proclaiming their support for freedom and democracy in Egypt, proclaiming their solidarity with the protestors, and are instead siding with Mubarak's thugs? This is beyond disgusting.
WHAT RUSSIA HAS LOST
Last week on January 24, a suicide bomber attack at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport killed 36 people. According to Russian intelligence, the terrorist act was perpetrated by someone from one of the predominantly Moslem areas of the North Caucasus region. It's been nearly 12 years since Putin began building his reputation as a tough, no- nonsense leader by promising rather crudely to pursue terrorists everywhere, catch them in airport toilets and "waste them in the outhouse." By picking Domodedovo Airport for the ninth serious terrorist attack in Moscow since then, the terrorists are telling the Russian people that Putin can talk all he wants but is incapable of protecting them. This latest tragedy highlights a number of conclusions about Putin's policies and the fate of Russia that were already discernable - for what's now crystal clear is that Russia under Putin has not only lost its war with terrorism, but more than that, it has lost its way as a civilized state and society and faces a very uncertain future.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF EGYPT
It's a sign of age when you see pictures of two million people massing in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and the very first question that occurs to you is: How do they all go to the bathroom? It's a puzzle. What isn't a puzzle is the next question: What do these masses of Egyptian demonstrators want? Let's start the answer by recognizing that it's very clear what they do not want, what they are not chanting and demonstrating for: Radical Islam and an Iranian-type Islamic theocracy. Sure they are 90% Moslems (about 10% of Egypt's 80 million are Coptic Christians), and when the muezzin calls out prayer time, the demonstrators kneel en masse to pray. Yet whenever someone starts shouting religious chants over a loudspeaker, the crowd shouts back for him to stop. Yes, this is all a moving target. Yes, thugs from Napoleon to Lenin to Mao to Khomeini succeeded by taking over, not starting, an already ongoing revolution. So yes, Egypt could go sideways and we could have a Islamic mega-disaster. But there's never opportunity without danger, for dangers are what make opportunities possible. Therefore - will all the doomsaying handwringing conservatives please stop their ceaseless worry-worting about the Iqwan - Iqwan Muslimi, the Moslem Brotherhood - and focus on how we can take advantage of the Arab Revolt instead? Focus first on three basic facts.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/28/11
Wasn't that just the greatest State of the Union speech ever? All that pent-up expectation that Zero was going to channel Bill Clinton as The Comeback Kid pivoting off the humiliation of facing a newly-elected Republican Majority to join them in declaring "The era of big government is over" - well, he certainly burst that balloon, didn't he? What a turkey of a talk - so bad it may be right up there with Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech. It's being ridiculed as his Sputnik Speech for his stupid "Sputnik moment" shtick, and his WTF Speech for his witless "Winning The Future" slogan that deserved the acronym everyone knows has another meaning. The HFR prefers to entitle Zero's 2011 SOTU - in honor of his paean to "solar shingles" as an example of "tomorrow's energy" as opposed to "yesterday's energy" of filthy hydrocarbons - as his Solar On A Shingle Speech. Even better, he phoned it in. It was a going-through-the-motions, desultory, listless performance with no fire. "I struggled to keep my eyes open, Jack," one Congressman told me. "He droned on and on, blathering about what he wants when he knows there's not the slightest chance we'll vote it. He even said he wants us to revive the dead DREAM Act! What a space cadet... we're all calling him President Sputnik now."
AMERICA CAN NO LONGER AFFORD BARACK OBAMA
Americans are growing impatient with a White House that still just doesn't get it. The President proves he doesn't understand that the biggest challenge facing our economy is today's runaway debt when he states we want to make sure "we don't get buried under a mountain a debt." That's the problem! We are buried under Mt. McKinley-sized debt. It's at the heart of what is crippling our economy and taking our jobs. This is the concern that should be on every leader's mind. Our country's future is at stake, and we're rapidly reaching a crisis point. Our government is spending too much, borrowing too much, and growing too much. Debt is stifling our private sector growth, and millions of Americans are desperately looking for work. So, what was the President's response? At a time when we need quick, decisive, and meaningful action to stop our looming debt crisis, President Obama gave us what politicians have for years: promises that more federal government "investment" (read: more government spending) is the solution. What he is really promising America is a bullet train to bankruptcy. Our country can simply no longer afford Barack Obama.
WHY THE LEFT BLOOD LIBELED SARAH PALIN
A primary goal of the American Left is to attach a sense of criminality and violence to the American Right in order to make it socially and otherwise unpalatable to support or otherwise identify with it. By calling the Left out for its behavior, Sarah Palin exposed its agenda. But the logic of the blood libel remained. Trusting the public's ignorance and the liberal Jewish community's solidarity, the leftist media in the U.S. immediately condemned Palin for daring to use the term, hinted she was an anti-Semite for doing so, and argued that by defending herself, she was again inciting violence. Many conservative thinkers and politicians have long viewed Palin as a liability. By remaining in the spotlight, they allege, Palin is helping the Left. They argue that the media have already destroyed her ability to communicate with non-conservatives. Since she is viewed as a conservative leader, by failing to shut up she is making it impossible for other potential leaders whom the media don't despise to connect with the swing voters they will need to unseat Obama in 2012. This position does more than harm Palin. It matter not whether these conservative thinkers support Palin. What matters is that by telling her not to defend herself from libelous attacks, they are accepting the Left's right to criminalize all conservatives.
GAY TYRANNY IN BRITAIN
If you live in Britain, here's a question shortly coming to an examination paper near you. What have mathematics, geography or science to do with homosexuality? Nothing at all, you say? Zero marks for you, then. For, mad as this may seem, British schoolchildren are to be bombarded with homosexual references in maths, geography and science lessons as part of a UK Government-backed drive to promote the gay agenda. In geography, for example, they will be told to consider why homosexuals move from the countryside to cities. In maths, they will be taught statistics through census findings about the number of homosexuals in the population. In science, they will be directed to animal species such as emperor penguins and sea horses, where the male takes a lead role in raising its young. Alas, this gay curriculum is no laughing matter. Absurd as it sounds, this is but the latest attempt to brainwash children with propaganda under the camouflage of education. It is an abuse of childhood.
HOW CONGRESS CAN QUICKLY OVERTURN ROE V. WADE
"I am committed to protecting this constitutional right," announced President Zero in his commemoration of the 38th anniversary of the most constitutionally ludicrous - and murderous - Supreme Court decision in US history, Roe v. Wade on Saturday (1/22). Thanks to the Revolution of Nov. 2nd, Roe is being targeted as never before, and exactly where it should be: in the states. 29 states now have pro-life governors, and in 15 of them, pro-life legislators control both legislative chambers. In dozens of states this year, pro-life laws are going to be passed, such as banning abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy and mandating ultrasound screenings. Meanwhile, back on Capitol Hill, the House is going to fully defund Planned Parenthood and any use of taxpayer dollars to fund abortions in any way. At last the pro-life forces are on the offense while pro-abortion forces are playing defense. However... the ACLU, NOW, and every other liberal legal outfit will try to stymie these efforts in court. They will find some pro-abortion federal judge somewhere to block them or tie them up for years on appeals. What if there were a way to short-circuit the whole appeal process? What if there were a Constitutional short-cut to overturning Roe v. Wade? There is.
HALF-FULL REPORT 01/21/11
We begin with an important announcement: The dates of the Vegas Rendezvous are Friday, May 6 to Sunday, May 8. Miko is nailing down the best hotel - although he says he'd like to know if you prefer one Downtown (less expensive) or on/near The Strip. Let him know at [email protected]. We'll have details soon. But we wanted you to know the dates so you could begin planning. See you in Vegas! * * * * * There's little doubt about who is the HFR Hero of the Week, right? Who else but Congressman Jim Jordan of Ohio, along with all 174 members of the Republican Study Committee, "the caucus of conservatives" in the House, proposing budget cuts of $2.5 trillion. They are going to teach Americans a civics lesson that will be the most memorable in modern history. This is the lesson of the great legislative asymmetricality enshrined in the Constitution only rarely taught. Finally, this supreme example of the genius of the Founders will be learned, to the enormous benefit of America and to the utter anguish of the Left.
THE COMING ASSASSINATION OF SARAH PALIN
This is what truly terrifies me. Every American should pray to God that it won't happen. Yet the fear of it keeps me up at nights. The death of Sarah Palin by an assassin's bullet could very well prove to be the death of America - and the Left wants both. The Left hates Sarah Palin for the same reasons it hates America - for Sarah Palin embodies the very best of America and its values, as she is the literal embodiment of the American Dream. The "climate of hate" the Left constantly accuses the Right of creating is a creation of theirs. The examples of vicious vitriol towards President Bush, including a film depicting his assassination (it won awards and praise from film critics), were so innumerable they gave rise to a distinct form of mental disorder: BDS, Bush Derangement Syndrome. PDS, Palin Derangement Syndrome, is BDS on steroids laced with LSD. It's a brain infection that's been on full display by the Enemedia and the Loughner Left since the Tucson Massacre. To their frustration, this latest attempt to destroy her has failed. After her address to the nation accusing them of blood libel, polls found that her popularity had increased rather than plummeted. Thus the Loughner Left is more enraged at her than ever. Which is why there are news reports of an "incredible" spike in death threats against her.
DEFUNDING OBAMACARE
Tomorrow (1/19), as one of the first acts of this 112th Congress, the House is due to pass language I introduced to repeal Obamacare: "as if such Act had not been enacted." America's voters sent Republicans a mandate for repeal in November, and I have long argued that we have an obligation to keep faith with them by taking swift action to fulfill our campaign promises. Holding a repeal vote at the outset of the new Congress eliminates doubts as to our commitment. It also reflects my frequently expressed belief that repealing Obamacare should be Congress's top priority. Now, I look forward to working with my colleagues on the next part of my Obamacare repeal strategy: attaching language to block funding for its implementation and enforcement onto every appropriations bill or continuing resolution from this point forward.
HALF-FULL REPORT 1/14/11
Whoa. Let's hope the rest of 2011's weeks aren't as intense as this one. Here's one key focus. Remember two weeks ago (12/31/10), the HFR predicted that 2011 would see Black Swans of the Right? That "black swan" game-changing events out of the blue precipitating a crisis, which the left specializes in using to expand government power, would now turn in our favor instead? That's what happened when the Loughner Left jumped the shark with the Arizona Massacre. The very term "Loughner Left" has gone viral on the Web. The label I gave the Enemedia on Tuesday (01/11) has stuck and quickly. What didn't stick is the Enemedia's grotesque attempt to blame the Arizona Massacre on Sarah Palin, the Tea Parties, and all conservatives in general. The great majority of Americans laughed at the accusation - and so did John Boehner and the Republicans in Congress. Thus Boehner & Cantor are proceeding with the straight up-and-down vote on HR 2, to take place next Tuesday (1/18). They even shrugged at the Dems' demand they change the bill's name due to it's "violent" rhetoric. It remains entitled: Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. Note the word: repealing. As we saw in Making Boehner's Bones, Boehner intends to repeal ObamaCare outright, not just defund it piecemeal.
THE ENDLESS LIBERAL RACIST MASSACRE
Since Saturday (1/08), our media have reveled in the aftermath of the avoidable slaughter in Tucson, where a young madman - ignored by "tolerant" social, educational and law-enforcement systems - gunned down, among others, a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, while gravely wounding a Congresswoman reaching out to her constituents. Caught out in his incompetence, Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Arizona's Pima County, railed against conservatives, whom the "lawman" blamed for the massacre on his turf. Other leftists rushed to blame the Tea Party (conveniently overlooking the murderer's internet claim that The Communist Manifesto was one of his favorite books-oops!). The fact is that the shooter wasn't a political creature, but a psychopath. And a hyper-liberal social climate allowed him to go unchecked, despite no end of warning signs and documented complaints from his fellow citizens. Meanwhile, another massacre occurred on the doorstep of our nation's capital, but the media and left-wing activists ignored it. That's because it was part of the Endless Liberal Racist Massacre.
MAKING BOEHNER’S BONES
As the Loughner Lefties at the New York Times realized they jumped the shark in blaming the Arizona Massacre on Sarah Palin and the Tea Party Right, they smoothly shifted their strategy yesterday (1/12). In a transparent ploy to monkey wrench the 112th Congress' program to dismantle ObamaCare and other Dem disasters, the NYT is now claiming that Boehner & Co must "play a less partisan role," and not "allow the House to slide back into confrontational politics." Translation: Republicans need to surrender to the Democrats. And Boehner's response? As Eliza Doolittle said to Professor Henry Higgins, "Not bloody likely!" Zero and the Dems (and the Enemedia) are going to get the shock of their lives when they learn what Boehner has planned for them. Get ready for this, folks, for it's going to knock the polka dots off your undies. This is going to make Boehner's bones.
WE WILL NOT BE STOPPED FROM CELEBRATING THE GREATNESS OF OUR COUNTRY
There is a bittersweet irony that the strength of the American spirit shines brightest in times of tragedy. We saw that in Arizona. We saw the tenacity of those clinging to life, the compassion of those who kept the victims alive, and the heroism of those who overpowered a deranged gunman. Like many, I've spent the past few days reflecting on what happened and praying for guidance. After this shocking tragedy, I listened at first puzzled, then with concern, and now with sadness, to the irresponsible statements from people attempting to apportion blame for this terrible event. President Reagan said, "We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions." Acts of monstrous criminality stand on their own. They begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state, not with those who listen to talk radio, not with maps of swing districts used by both sides of the aisle, not with law-abiding citizens who respectfully exercise their First Amendment rights at campaign rallies, not with those who proudly voted in the last election.
THE LOUGHNER LEFT
Do you know what the editors of the New York Times look like? Would you recognize them if you saw them? We all know what leftie talking heads on television look like, such as Chrissie Mathews, Keith Olberman, Katie Couric, et al. But how about Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos website, the bloggers of the Democratic Underground, or the writers of the New York Daily News? Now we know what they all look like. Even the talking heads, now we know what they really look like. From this moment on, this is the face they all have, the face that will appear in our mind's eye picture of them whenever we read what they write or hear what they say. This face:
HALF-FULL REPORT 1/07/11
Hasn't this been quite a first week of 2011? It started bizarrely for me with a flood of emails and calls Monday morning (1/03) asking if I was still alive or dead in a dumpster. The Drudge Report was carrying this headline in red letters: Reagan Aide Jack Wheeler Murdered, Body Found in Landfill I had to reassure everyone that:
It's not me. I'm not in a dumpster in a landfill -- I'm home in my easy chair writing this. John Wheeler was always getting confused with me in Washington as he liked to be called by his nickname Jack (like John/Jack Kennedy). I ran into him several times at different DC functions and found him to be a very nice fellow. But I'm no John, just Jack. This is a terrible tragedy and a mysterious one. But for all those who've emailed their concern, it's not me, I'm fine.* * * * * Tuesday morning (1/04) began with an all-together different phone call. My wife answered, and tears quickly began streaming down her face. They were tears of relief and joy - for our son was back home from war. Brandon's unit, 2/6 Marines, saw more combat than perhaps any other in Afghanistan during the last six months, for they were deep in Apache country: Helmand Province. 17 of his men are not coming back. He is so thankful for all the prayers TTPers sent his way that helped sustain him. His mother and I are so thankful for his service with honor, and his safe return. It is with so much pride that we salute our son, Capt. Brandon Wheeler, USMC, and all those who served with him. * * * * * Wednesday morning (1/05) America got to say goodbye to Speaker-no-more Pelosi. It was a sickeningly long goodbye. Electric day-glo blue suit, perfectly coiffed and streak-blonde dyed hair, perfectly frozen smile, perfect oleaginous delivery, Pelosi Galore thought the moment was all about her with her endless and endlessly obnoxious self-serving speech - 12 minutes! Would she ever shut up? - before finally turning the gavel and speakership over to John Boehner. Thank God she's gone. No one has to pay any attention to her ever again. She's history.
GERMANS MUST NOT BECOME STRANGERS IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY
Uncontrolled immigration may at any time threaten the state structures and undermine the stability of a society. The Chinese empire therefore had its Great Wall, the Romans had their Limes. At no time were the securing of the territory and the regulation of immigration something trivial. The complications arising from these issues threatened states and societies to their core and penetrated them deeply. And each time they were accompanied by orgies of bloodletting and violence. In the German media this is frequently concealed. Immigration issues are often treated with a raised admonitory finger, and an attitude that probably can be the best characterized with the slogan: "Peep, peep, peep! We all just love each other." This approach is as unhistorical as it is silly. The growing influx in many European countries are consequences of the predominantly unhistorical, naïve and opportunistic migration policy of European governments. In all countries concerned - whether Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark or Norway - one makes similar observations about the group of Moslem migrants, namely:
THE ANTIPODAL SUCCESS OF CLOWARD-PIVEN
If you Google "Cloward-Piven" plus "Obama" you'll get over 53,000 hits. The "Cloward-Piven Strategy" has been fingered by dozens of conservative academics and pundits as the roadmap Zero is using to drive America to ruin. In 1966, Richard Cloward and his wife Francis Fox Piven, as hard-core Marxist professors of sociology at Columbia, wrote an article in the premier journal of the left, The Nation, that launched their strategy: The Weight of the Poor. That strategy is defined as forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. Its goal is to precipitate the replacement of capitalism with Marxist socialism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse. Sure sounds like exactly what Zero is doing, right? And sure enough, as we enter 2011, we find the Cloward-Piven Strategy succeeding in spades - antipodally. Webster's defines "antipode" as 1) of or relating to diametrically opposite points on the earth's surface (e.g., the antipode of the North Pole is the South Pole), and 2) exactly or diametrically opposite. That is, Zero, Pelosi & Reid put C-P into effect masterfully, and the result is just what the theory predicted - collapse - except that the revolution this effected was a bourgeois middle-class taxpayer one that is replacing the Democrats' socialism with a renewal of economic liberty and capitalism. Cloward & Piven's impoverished masses - "the workers" - rising up to smash The System turned out to be patriotic God Bless America Tea Partyers! You just don't get irony better than this. Call it antipodal irony.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/31/10
Finally, finally, finally... 2010 is over. At last we can get on with 2011, the year America's Rescue begins. I can hardly wait. So can the TTP Forum's "Mae" - Lynda Mae Calhoun, who thanks in no small part to your prayers had a successful surgery and is well on the road to recovery. Congratulations, Mae! Paul Ryan can't wait for 2011 either. You learned about what he's up to in Barry’s Dream yesterday (12/30). Now there's an Update. House Dems got the vapors last night when they learned that Ryan, as Chairman of the Budget Committee, will have the power to set spending ceilings without a vote of the full House. This is a big deal. Any budget that comes out of Congress now cannot exceed Ryan's limits, which will force really serious spending cuts. Add this to Boehner's replacing the Dems' "pay-go" fraud (they exempted all their giant spending bills from it), with the Pubs' "cut-go" rule. This requires that any increase in one government program (including entitlements!!) mandates a concomitant decrease in another. Cut-go forbids any entitlement spending increase be made up with tax increases. All next year, it's going to be like witnesses to Dante's Inferno to sit in the House Gallery and gaze down upon Dems writhing in agony on the House Floor like it's the bottom rung of Hell. When they realize the torture is likely to be eternal - i.e., for the rest of their political lives - expect a lot of them to call it quits.
BARRY’S DREAM
Ah... you may think this is about Barry Soetoro's dream to ruin America. Nope, this is about another Barry, who once upon a time was also a US Senator who ran for president. His dream was to rescue America. Americans were disastrously bamboozled into electing one Barry and just as disastrously not the other. Fifty years ago, the other Barry wrote down his dream. Just think of how much greater, how much safer, how much richer, and how much freer we would all be today if Americans had the brains and courage back then to put him in the White House instead of his precise opposite. But what's happened happened, and we are where we are, not where we might have been. For where we are right now, poised to enter 2011, is possessing the best chance to make Barry's Dream come true than at any time in the ensuing half-century. It may be our last chance, but perhaps for that very reason it is our best chance.
COMMITTING TO VICTORY
Since Operation Cast Lead two years ago, Iran has helped Hamas massively increase its missile and other military capabilities. Today the terror group that rules Gaza has missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv. It has advanced antitank missiles. As Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida said Saturday (12/25), “We are now stronger than before and during the war, and our silence over the past two years was only for evaluating the situation.”
That evaluation has not tempered Hamas’s aim of annihilating the Jews of Israel. As Obeida’s colleague Ahmed Jaabari said Saturday, Israel’s Jews have two choices, “death or departing Palestinian lands.”
Last week the PA announced it will ask the UN Security Council to pass an anti-Semitic resolution defining Jewish building in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem as illegal. This move dovetails nicely with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’s statement over the weekend that “Palestine” will be Jew-free.
As Abbas put it, “If there is an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, we won’t agree to the presence of one Israeli in it. When a Palestinian state is established, it would have no Israeli presence.”
To date neither of these racist bids to deny Jews basic rights to their homes and land just because they are Jews has been opposed by any government or human rights group. This includes, of course, the Obama Administration.
There is only one way for Israel to counter the Palestinians’ war plans for 2011: commit to victory over them.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/24/10
Merry Christmas Eve! It's a good time to turn our eyes towards Heaven, for the Congress from Hell has finally ended. The Enemedia is celebrating the 111th Congress and its Lame Schmuck Session as "the most productive in history," modern or even ever. That's certainly true if you, as does the Enemedia, have a Hate-America agenda. For anyone Pro-America, the 111th has been the most destructive in US history, modern or even ever. So - the multi-trillion dollar, fate-of-America question is: will the 112th ride to America's rescue and undo the damage? The scientifically precise answer is... Maybe. The Zero Presidency and Reid-Pelosi Congress have made many folks aware of this terrifying truth: that Democrats are more dangerous to America than terrorists. The damage any conceivable attack on America perpetrated by Moslem crazies is miniscule compared to the damage Democrats have already wrought upon our country in the last two years - and they intend via their Man in the White House to perpetrate vastly more. This just-ended Lame Schmuck Congress adds an instructive codicil to this: that RINO Republicans are just as dangerous as America-destroying Democrats.
THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS
I want to wish you the Merriest of Christmases this Saturday, but according to the song, the First Day of Christmas is the day after Christmas, December 26. Ancient Christians celebrated "The Holidays," as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th with the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas. You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in a pear tree and eight maids a-milking have to do with the birth of the founder of Christianity. So I thought we might take a break from Serious Thoughts About World Events, and take a look at the song's origin, meaning, and current urban myth. For it turns out that all of the song's twelve gifts are Christian symbols.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/17/10
There comes a time upon reaching a certain age when the two most wonderful words you can hear are, "It's benign." That happened to me after a surgical procedure yesterday (I had a tumor wrapped round my vocal cord like a snake), and it prompts me to start this week's HFR with a request. The TTP Forum has long benefited from the wit and wisdom of "Mae" - Lynda Mae Calhoun. Like so many other TTPers, I always look forward to her Forum comments and insights on various articles. Mae lives in Vancouver, Washington (just across the Columbia River from Portland). Next week - just three days before Christmas on the 22nd at the Southwest Washington Medical Center - Mae faces major surgery the cause of which may be a malignancy. She's going to face this alone, save for a handful of nieces and nephews - and I'd like to ask you to let Mae know via the Forum that she is not alone, that her TTP Family is praying for her. Prayer is such a powerful healing force, especially at Christmas time. Let's be sure she knows: our prayers are with you, Mae! * * * * * The HFR was in no doubt about who should be dubbed the Hero of the Week - until last night, when another contender emerged.
PROOF THAT FEMINISM IS DEAD
Making the rounds on YouTube these days is a film of a group of manly looking women preparing for and conducting a "flash dance" in a Philadelphia food store. [Warning - the video is 5 minutes and 44 seconds of boring, obnoxious, and unattractive women - JW] The crew of ladies, dressed in tight black clothes and sequined accessories, arrives at The Fresh Grocer supermarket, breaks into a preplanned chant ordering shoppers not to buy Sabra and Tribe hummus, to oppose Israeli "apartheid" and support "Palestine." From their attire and attitude, it is fairly clear that the participants in the video would congratulate themselves on their commitment to the downtrodden, the wretched of the earth suffering under the jackboot of the powerful. They would likely all also describe themselves as feminists. But if being a human rights activist means attacking the only country in the Middle East that defends human rights, then that means that at the very basic level, the term "human rights activist" is at best an empty term. And if being a feminist means attacking the only country in the Middle East where women enjoy freedom and equal rights, then feminism too, has become at best, a meaningless term. Indeed, if these anti-Israel female protesters are feminists, then feminism is dead.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/10/10
Hard to believe Christmas Eve is two short weeks away. For those folks not yet checked off on your Christmas gift list, the HFR suggests a copy of The Jade Steps. Or a Gift Subscription to To The Point. You can gift a friend with a one-month, a three-month - or for a special friend an entire year - of the insights on the world that only TTP provides. The HFR can't think of better gifts than these, that will be more valued and appreciated by your friends. (I should add here that Dr. Joel Wade's Pocket Guide to Mastering Happiness makes a great low-cost stocking stuffer...) * * * * * Before we look at the dog's breakfast in Washington this week, let's have some fun at the Chicoms' expense. Ever heard of the Confucius Peace Prize? Neither did its recipient, who didn't bother to show up at the awards ceremony. The result was the Chicoms ended up this week being laughed at and compared to the Nazis at the same time. The world needs more of this.
THE CHINESE PIG
Bacon, ham, prosciutto, Cumberland sausage, baby back ribs, pork chops, suckling pig... it's amazing how many wonderful things to eat come from one animal. But we're not talking here about pigs that farmers raise and we love to consume. We could talk about another kind of pig - namely, the PIGS of Europe that are being devoured by their debt and profligacy: Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain. Or is it PIIGS now with Ireland? We could talk about the American Pig, even more bloated with public union moochers and subsidized corporate parasites than Europe, with state after state facing bankruptcy. Instead, though, we're going to talk about the Chinese Pig. Tout le monde seems fixated on the impending collapse of the Euro and the Dollar, but what about the impending collapse of the Yuan? Most fears are focused on Ireland or Spain or California going bankrupt. What if China goes belly up? The global impact would make Spain's seem penny-ante.
BAILOUTS AND PUBLIC PENSIONS
Do insolvent states actually believe other states should bail them out? I predicted they would back in June 2009. Sure enough, folks in Washington and in over-spending state capitols are now whispering the dreaded "b-word": bailouts - for individual states! American taxpayers should not be expected to bail out wasteful state governments. Fiscally liberal states spent years running away from the hard decisions that could have put their finances on a more solid footing. Now they expect taxpayers from other states to bail them out, which will allow them to postpone the tough decisions they should have made ages ago and continue spending like there's no tomorrow. Most Americans would say these states have made their bed and now they've got to lie in it. They accepted federal dollars and did not voice opposition to the unfunded federal mandates, and they even re-elected politicians who foisted debt-ridden programs on them that could never be sustained. Instead of coming to D.C. cap in hand asking for more "free" money, they should follow the example of their more prudent sister states and take the necessary steps to sort out their own finances. They must start by reforming their insolvent pension systems.
THE COUNTRY THAT DOESN’T EXIST
Want to come with me to the country that doesn't exist? Plan to pack your bags this coming February. Imagine a Moslem country that is a real democracy, pro-America, pro-free market, despises Islamist ideology and terrorism, and lies athwart one of the world's most critical chokepoints in global shipping and trade. The US State Department would leap at the chance to support such a country, right? You are probably cynically shaking your head no - but it's much worse than that. Our government refuses to recognize the country's existence. In fact, no government or international organization in the world does - yet is has been sovereign and independent since 1991. With no help or recognition from anyone, this country has managed to survive - and survive as a capitalist Moslem terrorist-free democracy - for nearly 20 years. This is a heroic achievement - and unknown to most everyone on the planet. We are talking about Somaliland - the Country That Doesn't Exist.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/03/10
We open this week's HFR with a Special News Bulletin from the Associated Press: In response to the "Cablegate" scandal - the release of a quarter-million classified State Department documents by WikiLeaks - the US Government announced today that henceforth all Top Secret government documents will be placed in an "ultimate" secure location. "This location is so secure that even people with the highest of clearances cannot gain access," said R.J. Finklestein, Director of the Federal Document Classification Agency (FDCA) in a press release today. All classified documents, Mr. Finklestein announced, will now be stored at the same location storing Barack Hussein Obama's Birth Certificate, College Transcripts, SSN applications, and off-shore campaign contributors list. "Using our Ultimate Secure Location, we are quite sure that WikiLeaks will never be able to access any more classified documents," noted the FDCA director, "nor will anyone else."
THANKS, JULIAN!
I can't believe how much fun this WikiLeaks hysteria is. All kinds of normally sane people absolutely going berserk-o, publicly demanding the perp involved, an Aussie named Julian Assange, be assassinated or tried for treason and executed. How to respond to such totally over the top lunacy except to say Whiskey Tango Foxtrotting Foxtrot? Maybe there will be items to emerge out of the quarter-million "secret" US diplomatic cables that will justify the anger - but so far, the stuff that's been released is great. We'll soon discuss why in detail, but first let's talk about the huge debt of gratitude Sarah Palin owes Julian Assange. All you Palinistas out there - and I'm one - should shout Hallelujah for the enormous act of public service Assange has performed. He has single-handedly obliterated - as in nuked - Hillary Clinton's chances for the White House. Everyone in Washington knows Zero is a one-termer. Sarah would clean his clock in 2012 - just as would any conservative GOP candidate. But the reality is that Sarah would lose to Hillary. HRC is a far more formidable Dem candidate than Zero. Should Zero pull a LBJ and not run, or should she challenge him in the primaries, she would win the nomination - and the presidency. Not any more, for that analysis is so yesterday. "The greatest foreign policy disaster in US history" has happened on Hillary's watch. Any chief executive would have to fire her, and Zero needs a scapegoat in any regard. Her political career is over - finita la musica, the Clinton's music is finished. Thanks, Julian.
HALF-FULL REPORT 11/26/10
I was hoping for a short and sweet HFR this week, as it's truncated by Thanksgiving. No such luck. We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started. To my mind, the only reason to talk about a problem is as a prelude to searching for a serious solution to it. That's why I'm so tired of terrified complaints over North Korea. Here's a suggestion of how to get rid of the Norks... ...That's acting seriously regarding North Korea - and we're capable of it if we look at what's happened to the Al Qaeda-Taliban-Karzai government-Pakistan ISI cash cow of the Afghan poppy crop. What's happened is indicated by this perversely hilarious headline in Sunday's (11/21) London Guardian, the bastion of British media Marxism: Heroin Shortage in UK is Putting Lives at Risk.... ...And you might surprised to learn that the HFR Hero of the Week is a 77 year-old rancher in Mexico.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL 57 STATES
My fellow Americans in all 57 states, the time has changed for come. With our country founded more than 20 centuries ago, we have much to celebrate - from the FBI's 100 days to the reforms that bring greater inefficiencies to our health care system. We know that countries like Europe are willing to stand with us in our fight to halt the rise of privacy, and Israel is a strong friend of Israel's. And let's face it, everybody knows that it makes no sense that you send a kid to the emergency room for a treatable illness like asthma and they end up taking up a hospital bed. It costs, when, if you, they just gave, you gave them treatment early, and they got some treatment, and ah, a breathalyzer, or an inhalator. I mean, not a breathalyzer, ah, I don't know what the term is in Austrian for that...
THANKSGIVING’S BLESSING OF CAPITALIST FREEDOM
On Thanksgiving Day, Americans gather with their family and friends to celebrate the blessings that Providence has bestowed on their beloved country. A deep appreciation of these blessings involves understanding that they were earned. It is to understand the awesome truth of how "God helps those who help themselves" applies to the Mayflower Pilgrims and their First Thanksgiving at America's birth. This is an appreciation and understanding of which those on the Left are incapable - for it would mean celebrating the capitalist freedom that made that original Thanksgiving possible. This no liberal, no Democrat, no leftie can do. Thus they must distort history instead. The distortion starts in Kindergarten, with the childish make-believe of your kid's school play portraying the noble Squanto teaching the helpless Pilgrims how to feed themselves. So let's drop the curtain on the distortion and watch the real thing. Here it is.
WHAT DO TSA GROPING AND DON’T-ASK-DON’T-TELL REPEAL HAVE IN COMMON?
It is a sad and potentially fatal fact that most Americans know virtually nothing about the U.S. military. That astounding reality is all the more incredible given that our survival ultimately depends on the men and women in uniform who defend this country. Such ignorance is, ironically, a testament to the success of what is known as the all-volunteer force. It is also a national defect, one that soon may be the undoing of a system based on the willingness of a few to protect the rest of us at great risk to themselves. President Obama is hoping to capitalize on our ignorance of these folks and the reality of their lives in uniform - notably, the phenomenon known as "forced intimacy" that is inherent in communal bunk rooms, showers, latrines, shipboard sleeping compartments and foxholes. It is this ignorance that allows him to insist that the U.S. Senate accede during the post-Thanksgiving lame-duck session to his demand for the repeal of a 1993 law - widely referred to as DADT or Don't Ask Don't Tell - prohibiting homosexuals from openly serving in the armed forces. Every American who finds himself or herself bridling at the invasion of privacy by TSA should think long and hard about forcing our all-too-often unsung and unrecognized heroes to submit to far worse.