Alex Alexiev
COMRADE LYSENKO IN COPENHAGEN
As the illustrious conclave of global warming true believers, led by President Barack Hussein Obama, gathers in Copenhagen for yet another exercise in environmental doom and gloom, observing the proceedings with the sly smirk of somebody who's "been there, done that" is likely to be the ghost of one Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (1898-1976). No ordinary ghost that one either, for Comrade Lysenko was Stalin's favorite scientist for decades and the driving force behind the greatest scientific fraud in history prior to "anthropogenic global warming." Indeed, to fully understand the nature, magnitude and implications of the AGW scam, it's worthwhile to revisit Academician Lysenko's exploits, which just happen to bear an uncanny resemblance to the charlatanism currently on display in Climategate. Anthropogenic global warming has become for its supporters what Lysenko's theory of heredity was for the Stalinists. For its small international cabal of top AGW functionaries, it was about more than money, power and prestige, though, with the connivance of sycophantic Western governments and U.N. bureaucrats, there was plenty of that too. It was about ideology.
SARAH AT THE GRIDIRON
[The Gridiron Club, founded in 1865, is the oldest and most prestigious journalist organization in Washington DC. The annual Gridiron Dinner is attended by the media elite, at which the president is traditionally the speaker. This year, President Zero was the first president to refuse to address The Gridiron Dinner since Grover Cleveland. [Last night, Saturday December 5th, the black tie dinner at the ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel had double the attendance of recent years - for instead of Zero, the speaker was Sarah Palin. The tradition of the dinner is that the speaker pokes fun at himself and the attendees. Sarah was such a hit there were dozens of the most liberal elite journalists in America laughing their heads off, many wiping tears of laughter from their eyes. Here's her speech. It is as clever as it is funny.] Good evening. It's great to be in Washington. I am loving the weather [it was snowing]. I braved the elements and went out for a jog! Or, as Newsweek calls it, a cover-shoot. I feel so at home here in DC. I can see the Russian Embassy from my hotel room! It's a privilege to be here tonight at the Washington DC Barnes & Noble. Tonight, I'll be reading excerpts from my new book. Perhaps you've heard of it? "Going Rogue." Yukon wasn't sure if I'd go with that title and somebody suggested I follow the East Coast self-help trend and go with, "How To Look Like A Million Bucks...For Only 150 Grand." Todd liked, "The Audacity of North Slope." [She nods to him as he's at the head table] Hey, I considered not having a title at all. I've said it before, but you Beltway types just don't seem to get it. You don't need a title to make an impact. But anyway, let's get started.
HALF-FULL REPORT 12/04/09
Here's the question of the week: What if King Canute had been a liberal? You know the ancient tale. Canute (985-1035), son of Sven Forkbeard, Viking ruler of both Scandinavia and England, tired of the endless flattery of courtiers trying to curry his favor, ordered his throne brought to the seashore at Bosham in West Sussex on England's southern coast. Ensconced on his throne wearing his royal robes and commanding his courtiers to stand around him, he delivered a Royal Order to the sea to stop the incoming tide so that his royal feet should not get wet. The sea did not obey, the tide washed over his feet, whereupon he railed at his flatterers: "Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." But what if Canute had been a liberal? What if he really believed he could command the tide - and continued to believe it as the tide washed over him and threatened to sweep him out to sea? Wouldn't that remind you of Democrats facing the tide of 2010? Of glowarmers commanding the tide of truth to stop? Of the OPM (Obama Propaganda Media) denying the very existence of tides?
THE SIEGE OF MALTA
Valletta, Malta. This small European island country in the Mediterranean south of Sicily and close to the north coast of Africa is where civilization emerged from the Stone Age. It is where Western Civilization was saved from being conquered by Islam. Today, Malta is under siege again, from another horde of Moslem invaders. This time, there are no Knights of Malta to protect the Maltese - almost 100% of whom are Christian Europeans - and the barbarian aliens invading their nation are aided by barbarian liberals within Europe. The story is both ancient and is at the vanguard of the future. Europe's future, America's future, and the future of Christianity vs. Islam.
OBAMA ON AFGHANISTAN: NUTS, STUPID, AND IMMORAL
Just plain nuts: That's the only possible characterization for last night's (12/02) presidential declaration of surrender in advance of a renewed campaign in Afghanistan. President Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan -- but he'll "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011." Then why send them? If you're going to tell the Taliban to be patient because we're leaving, what's the point in upping the blood ante? For what will come down to a single year by the time the troops hit the ground? Our president is setting up our military to fail -- but he'll be able to claim that he gave the generals what they wanted. Failure will be their fault. He's covering his strong-on-security flank, even as he plays to our white-flag wavers. His cynicism's worthy of a Saddam. This isn't just stupid: It's immoral. No American president has ever espoused such a worthless, self-absorbed non-strategy for his own political gratification.
HALF-FULL REPORT 11/27/09
A prefatory note before we begin this Thanksgiving Edition of the HFR: I am celebrating in particular the at-long-last completion of The Jade Steps. The final chapter, the Epilogue, was finished this week. Once the final edit is done, it will be available as an E-Book, and then in a print edition. It is one of history's most epic sagas of heroic love and liberation - and one of the most unknown, misunderstood, and distorted. As I have said, The Jade Steps is a true story. Every principal event described actually happened, every named person really lived and had that name. It all happened almost 500 years ago, but it still remains the cause of the civil war within Mexico's soul. Mexico will never rise out of the Third World and overcome its inferiority complex towards America until this spiritual wound is healed. That is the purpose of this book -- and hopefully, the movie. *** Hear that sound - the wails of fury, the gnashing of teeth of the world's Fascist Left over its defeat by tiny little Honduras?
WHY LIBERALS CAN’T CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING
The reason is history. Not the childish make-believe of your kid's grammar school play of how the noble Squanto taught the helpless Mayflower Pilgrims how to feed themselves. No, the real thing. Here it is. The real history of the Mayflower Pilgrims was recounted by their leader, William Bradford (1590-1657) in his book Of Plymouth Plantation, completed in 1647. It is from Bradford that we learn of Squanto, who did indeed show the Pilgrims how to "set" or plant corn (a new unfamiliar crop for them). Then we learn that the Pilgrims taught the Indians how to grow more corn than they ever had before: "The Indeans used to have nothing so much corne as they have since the English have stored them with their hoes, and seene their industrie in breaking up new grounds therwith." Reading the real history of the Pilgrims is so revelatory that I want you to see it at length. The Pilgrims landed in December 1620, suffered a horrible winter, figured out how to fish and hunt that spring and summer so that there may have been some sort of feast with friendly Indians in the fall of 1621 - although Bradford doesn't recount the incident. But by 1622 they were starving. There was no "Thanksgiving" that year. There was the next - for 1623 saw the Pilgrims in well-fed abundance, and thus was the year of the real First Thanksgiving. What made the difference? Here are Bradford's own words describing Anno Dom.1623:
EPILOGUE
The Jade Steps: Epilogue It was nighttime. Streetlamps spread a mist of light into the Jardin de la Conchita, where Tim and Cindy Jorgensen had been listening for hours to Maria Consuelo tell her story. Now she was finished, and Tim and Cindy were speechless. They sat in stunned silence, until Cindy finally stammered, "That... that is the most extraordinary story I have ever heard - and it is true, it's real history, it all really happened?" Maria smiled gently. "Yes, it's all true. There are witnesses who wrote it down, like Bernal. It is one of the greatest stories of heroism in the history of mankind - and it is the tragedy of Mexicans that they have spit on it." "But how is that possible?" Tim protested. "Why isn't La Malinche worshipped as the great heroine of Mexico?" "She is to us, the mestizos who are her descendants - but not to the criollos, and they have always controlled Mexico."
THE CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY OF GLOBAL WARMING
This is what they did - these climate "scientists" on whose unsupported word the world's classe politique proposes to set up an unelected global government this December in Copenhagen. An unelected global government with vast and unprecedented powers to control all formerly free markets, to tax wealthy nations and all of their financial transactions, to regulate the economic and environmental affairs of all nations, and to confiscate and extinguish all patent and intellectual property rights. The tiny, close-knit clique of climate scientists who invented and now drive the "global warming" fraud - for fraud is what we now know it to be - tampered with temperature data so assiduously that, on the recent admission of one of them, land temperatures since 1980 have risen twice as fast as ocean temperatures. Now we know why: As a revealing 15,000-line document from the computer division at the Climate Research Unit shows, the programs and data are a hopeless, tangled mess. In effect, the global temperature trends have simply been made up.
HALF-FULL REPORT 11/20/09
Perhaps you've enjoyed reading about how Israel has "brushed off" Zero's demands for no more Jews in Jerusalem. Zero has now stamped his foot and claimed it was "dangerous" for Israel to ignore him and build more homes for its citizens. Israel shrugs. It is becoming blindingly obvious that Zero's antipathy to Israel is due to his being a Third World America/Israel-hating Moslem at heart. There couldn't be clearer evidence for this than his appointing radical Moslems to key positions in the Department of Homeland Security. We should not be surprised that someone who bows to the King of Saudi Arabia would do this. What did America expect by electing someone with three Moslem names and attends a church that prays for God to damn America? Zero's election is an ultimate object lesson regarding the masochism of the fear of envy.
THE DOMINO OF HONDURAS
Tegucigalpa, Honduras. It is an overwhelming, inspiring experience to be here. There are no people in the world more worthy of our admiration and respect right now than Hondurans. For the initial background on the situation here, see The Bravest Country In The World from last July. This is what's happening now. First, the description of Honduras in the State Department Travel Warning is a lie. The US ambassador, Hugo Llorens, is the most despised man in Honduras for his bootlicking of Mel Zelaya, and insists on warning Americans not to come here. This country is at peace. There are no roadblocks, no problems of any kind that I saw. Everything is normal. There are no demonstrations. I went to all four entrances to the Brazilian embassy where Zelaya is holed up. They were blocked by concrete barriers and armed police guards - who couldn't be more bored for there was absolutely nobody, not one single lone demonstrator for Zelaya to be seen. From taxi drivers to businessmen to shoppers in the malls to folks on the street, Hondurans are extremely proud of how their country stood up to the bullying of the world. "We are the little country that could," is an expression you hear often.
IS THERE ANOTHER GOVERNOR LIKE SARAH PALIN?
The last 45 of my 66 years I've spent in a commercial fishing town in Alaska. I understand Alaska politics but never understood national politics well until this last year. Here's the breaking point: Neither side of the Palin controversy gets it. It's not about persona, style, rhetoric, it's about doing things. Even Palin supporters never mention the things that I'm about to mention here. 1- Democrats forget when Palin was the Darling of the Democrats, because as soon as Palin took the Governor's office away from a fellow Republican and tough SOB, Frank Murkowski, she tore into the Republican's "Corrupt Bastards Club" (CBC) and sent them packing. Many of them are now residing in State housing and wearing orange jump suits. The Democrats reacted by skipping around the yard, throwing confetti and singing "la la la la" (well, you know how they are). Name another governor in this country that has ever done anything similar. But while you're thinking, I'll continue.
FORT HOOD AND THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN TERRORIST
Much has been written already about what happened at Fort Hood last week but precious little as to why it happened. To understand why it happened it may be useful to start by reminding ourselves again that the mass murder at Fort Hood was the first act of suicide terrorism on American soil by a homegrown Islamic extremist. To come to this conclusion we do not need to know what motivated Major Malik Nidal Hasan, but only that he was a Moslem and that he was on a suicide mission. There is no doubt about the former and little doubt that somebody embarked on mass murder in a military base had much hope of coming out alive. The real question then, is not what made Major Hasan commit mass murder, but how he became a terrorist. It is a question of seminal relevance given the strong probability that homegrown terrorism might well be a greater threat to homeland security in the future than foreign jihadists. To understand the nature of the problem a quick look at the origins and evolution of Islamic extremism in America and its sponsors is essential.
HALF-FULL REPORT 11/13/09
Roatan, Honduras. It's far easier to get from the US to here than from Tikal, Guatemala. It took me an entire day. You can fly from Houston (Continental) or Atlanta (Delta) nonstop in less than three hours. Roatan is the largest of the Bay Islands off the Honduran Caribbean coast, 37 miles long and five miles at its widest, home to 30,000, some 3,000 of whom are expats from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Increasing numbers of Americans are figuring out that this is the tropical paradise they've been looking for as a safety escape while Hurricane Obama passes by. I'll have lots more to say about it in my report on Honduras next week. *** I just learned from TTPer Paul Rosenberg, developer of Cryptohippie, that I am a character in a libertarian video game called 2011: Obama's Coup Fails. It posits that after the Dems suffer devastating losses in the 2010 elections, Zero suspends Congress and rules by executive decree. An armed rebellion breaks out. The player (you) joins the leaders of the rebellion, known as The Founders, in combat against the crumbling Marxist forces of Obama's loyalist Black Tigers, the Islamic fundamentalist Nation of Malsi, and The Cong - a group of de-elected Democrats. Evidently, I am one of The Founders. In the Breaking News section of the game, a news bulletin entitled "Hillary Clinton Finally Captured," dated March 15, 2011, begins: "Upon receiving an anonymous tip, the forces of Jack Wheeler, Ollie North, and the CIA were able to track down and capture former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton." I don't know the game designers, and just found out about this from Paul. But it's cool, don't you think? That's the fun news. Now for the ominous news.
THE APOCALYPSE OF 2012
Tikal Mayan Ruins, Guatemala. I just got a wonderful birthday present from my wonderful wife. Knowing that scuba-diving is my favorite outdoor activity, and that I've dreamed of diving the famous Blue Hole in Belize - that's what I got for my birthday. It was incredible. Just across the border in northern Guatemala are the gigantic Mayan ruins of Tikal, so I caught a bush plane over to here, and after exploring the ruins am now ensconced in a lodge where I have an internet connection so I can write this - while being serenaded by roars of howler monkeys and barks of toucans in the surrounding jungle. The Tikal temple complex was built by an impressive and successful culture that flourished from 400 to 900 AD. Then it died. It wasn't conquered. It just collapsed, died, and vanished from history, leaving behind only the extraordinary ruins overgrown with jungle, and the Mayan people mired in subsistence poverty, totally ignorant of the great achievements of their ancestors. Sure sounds like a possible future for America, the future the current White House occupant seems determined to have for us.
HEAR, SEE, SPEAK NO MOSLEM TERRORISM
As President Obama belatedly appeared at Fort Hood today (11/10), he did not dare to speak the word "terror." He did not use the word "Islamist." He did not even mention Islam at all. We've already learned that Islamist terrorist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan attended the Northern Virginia mosque of Imam Anwar al-Aulaqi, a fiery al Qaeda supporter who later fled the United States. We know that Hasan's peers, subordinates and patients repeatedly raised red flags that his superiors suppressed. We know he was a player on Islamist-extremist Web sites. The FBI's uncovering one extremist link after another. But to call this an act of terrorism, the White House would need an autographed photo of Osama bin Laden helping Hasan buy weapons in downtown Killeen, Texas. Even that might not suffice.
OUR GOVERNMENT WOULD RATHER ALIENATE AMERICANS THAN ISLAMISTS
Poll after poll indicates that official Washington is held in very low regard by the American people. One reason is that our leaders are seen as out of touch with the realities confronting ordinary folks - and with what those folks' common sense suggests are appropriate responses to such realities. There could scarcely be a more graphic example of that disconnect - and its ominous implications - than the contortions the U.S. government is now going through in the wake of the murder of 13 people and the wounding of dozens more at Fort Hood last week. For example, the FBI declared immediately after the attack that it was not an act of terrorism. Other officials are promoting the idea that it is simply a case of an individual afflicted by post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or deranged by the prospect of an upcoming deployment to a war zone. Mr. Obama insists that we should reserve judgment, evidently because the facts are open to varying interpretations. Such statements are an affront to most Americans' intelligence which commonsensically applies a prosaic form of the scientific method: They look for the explanation that best fits the facts.
AS THE WORLD BURNS
As USS New York, forged with steel from the Twin Towers, prepares to join the fleet, she will enter a world of crises. As we obsess over worthless Afghan real estate, truly vital problems loom abroad. Violent challenges to our security and strategic position are slighted or ignored, while a combination of politics, pride and inertia bind us to a distant land of marginal relevance. The crises highlighted below are not in order of priority. Any of them could take a painful bite out of Washington's complacency:
HALF-FULL REPORT 11/06/09
Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey never put on a circus better than the one being played for your entertainment right now, today (11/06), on Capitol Hill. Pelosi Galore is in a state of screaming rage and panicked desperation, making every bribe and threat she can to get the votes for PelosiCare to pass tomorrow, Saturday. She knows that if Members can go home for the weekend and get a load of their constituents' volcanic anger before the vote, her bill is toast. So hundreds of Members are having the Congressional Travel Office hold two flight reservations for them, one for this evening, another for tomorrow night. They are waiting for Steny Hoyer (Pelosi's Segundo) to complete his count. Then, if he announces late this afternoon there will be a vote tomorrow, it means he thinks he has enough. If he announces a postponement, it means he doesn't. As Jack Kelly says, bullying from a position of weakness isn't very smart. Trying to threaten people into committing suicide may work for Moslem crazies, but rarely for politicians, even Democrats. It is going to be so much fun watching this slow-motion train wreck.
BAJA DEMOCRATS
Cabo San Lucas, Baja California. The balcony view from a suite at the Marquis Los Cabos overlooking the Sea of Cortez is breathtaking. My wife Rebel and I are here attending a business conference - but at the moment, we are enjoying a margarita and a spectacular sunset in the ocean. Ever-observant, Rebel notices that my eyes have become unfocused, and asks what I'm thinking about. "Nicholas Trist," I answer. "Who's he?" she asks. "One of the great jerks of American history," I respond. She takes a sip of her margarita, gazes out upon the shimmering sheet of sunlit blue in front of us, and waits for the rest of the story. So here it is. Starting almost 500 years ago, it's ultimately about the negative value of Baja Democrats.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/30/09
Have you heard the latest joke in Stockholm? The Swedes love to poke fun at Norwegians whom they consider their Scandinavian country bumpkin cousins (like Canadians tell "Newfie" jokes about folks from Newfoundland). The Swedish Nobel Committee awards all the real prizes, while the one in Norway gets to award the Peace prize as a consolation. So the Swedes couldn't resist ridiculing the Norwegian committee's latest lunacy. "Heard the news?" they're asking. "Obama just won the Nobel Fis Prize." "Fis" is pronounced as rhyming with "peace." It means "fart" in Swedish - a particularly long and odiferous one. The Swedes find it doubly funny because "fis" has the same meaning in Norwegian. *** Speaking of jokes reminds me of Newt Gingrich...
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE SOUL OF ISLAM
Recent months have seen a number of unexpected and extremely encouraging statements coming out of the Moslem world. Respected, mainstream Moslem leaders in a variety of countries have voiced opinions which are at odds with traditional, conservative Islam. They have challenged aspects of shari‘a and are calling for a liberal, modernist, enlightened Islam compatible with Western norms. Perhaps the most significant of all is a report by a group of British Moslems calling for an end to the apostasy law and for full freedom in all religious matters. Significant cracks seem to be forming within the mainstream Islam. Important mainstream leaders are coming out against long-held key traditional views and Wahhabi-Salafi doctrines and practices, openly supporting ideas compatible with modernity. Here are some examples.
THE CHOICES & POWER PLAN B WORKSHOP
You're well aware of the "Remember The Alamo" Rendezvous VII in San Antonio January 29-31. It's where TTPers gather together as a family for a weekend of learning, conviviality, and the joyous fun of being with fellow pro-Americans. My brilliant bride, Rebel, who authors TTP's Plan B column, can hardly wait for San Antonio, like me. And now she has come up with a brilliant idea to hold a special one-day Plan B Workshop devoted to enabling you to preserve and protect your financial security. The Choices & Power Financial Plan B Workshop will be held on December 9th in St. Louis. Rebel asked me to be there and speak, and I enthusiastically agreed. She's lined up star speakers like Chuck Butler, publisher of The Daily Pfennig; Frank Trotter, founding partner of Everbank; and Erika Nolan, executive director of The Sovereign Society. Rebel has fire in her eyes when she talks about this. She's seriously determined to help TTPers get out of harm's way in 2010. How serious? She explained to me:
THE DEMOCRATS’ DARK DEPRESSION SECRET
What do you think of when you hear or see a reference to The Great Depression of the 1930s? What emotions come up for you? For you and other normal Americans, words like "catastrophe" and "nightmare" come to mind, along with images of unemployment lines blocks long, soup kitchens, and heartbreaking poverty. All the emotions associated with it are negative. America would have been incredibly better off if The Great Depression had never happened, right? You may think and feel that way, but Democrats - the folks who run the Democrat Party - don't. You may consider The Great Depression to be the worst thing that ever happened to America, next to the Civil War. But for the Democrats, it was the best. After all, the Democrats built their political power on The Great Depression and are very thankful for it. Further, it's their template. If The Great Depression was their path to power before, then replicating it today is seen as the way to maintain their power into the future. This is the Democrats' Dark Depression Secret. Explains a lot, doesn't it?
AMERICAS FUTURE AND THE EAST COAST
Wasilla, Alaska. As I stand here in a high school gymnasium watching freshmen girls' basketball games, I'm struck by the sight of America's future right in front of me - these tenacious young women full of energy and intensity. I want them to realize every opportunity this great, free nation can provide. There are big political races on the East Coast that are coming down to the wire - the results of which will impact policies and political actions that touch all of us in every state. Like other independent Americans, I don't always see eye-to-eye with Republican political committees, so when I tell you that the Republican Governors Association has my complete support and confidence in its campaign efforts back East, know that I really mean it. The RGA is helping lead the conservative comeback beginning this year, and its involvement in the East Coast races is significant. Let's consider the governor's race in New Jersey.
A FIGHT FOR AMERICA
The reason I'm running for office in New York's 23rd Congressional District is because the American Dream is quickly becoming a nightmare. Unemployment grows, our economy is in crisis, and our elected officials seem out of touch with reality. They are addicted to spending. When they run low on funds they simply create a new tax or raise an old one. Taxes, the deficit, red tape and regulation are breaking the back of the nation, mortgaging the future of our children and grandchildren. Americans have had enough and are vocalizing their anger in town hall meetings and on the streets of Washington. They are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore! That's why I am running. I am one of them! Freedom is what Americans want. Economic freedom to reap the rewards of the free enterprise system, personal freedom from the intrusion of big government in our lives, freedom from the nanny state that is being forced upon us.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/23/09
It was a scary conversation. I was talking to the chief of staff of a solid conservative Republican senator. I think the world of him as a close friend, he's a true good-guy pro-American - but he's so wrapped up in the day-to-day process of the Senate that it can startle him when he's asked to glimpse the reality of beyond the Beltway. We were talking about the fate of ObamaCare, and he had his black hat on telling me how the Dems will ram it through. "If that happens," I said, "out could come the guns." All he could manage in response was a garbled "Huh?" "You and your boss need to grab people where you work by the lapels. They have no real grasp of the depth of anger among their constituents. Those constituents own hundreds of millions of guns. There will be violence, buddy, if this thing passes, politicians gunned down in the streets." To say he was gobsmacked is a gross understatement. I went on to assure him how disastrous I thought the consequences would be - not just for the recipients of the violence but for its perpetrators: "Violence is extremely traumatizing for those who participate in it. The one Eastern European country that overthrew Communism violently - Romania - still hasn't recovered from it." Further, I went on, "violence may be just what Zero wants, as an excuse to steal people's guns and impose martial law. The last thing we want is violence, it's only a truly last resort, which is why you and the good guys on the Hill need to do whatever it takes to stop ObamaCare in its tracks."
A DITHERING DEMAGOGUING WHITE HOUSE THAT IS A DANGER TO AMERICA
[This is the full text of former Vice-President Dick Cheney's speech at the Center for Security Policy award dinner in Washington on October 21, 2009. To The Point salutes Dick Cheney for his courage, honesty, and great contributions to America who should today be in the White House in place of the anti-American impostor currently occupying it.] Thank you all very much. Its a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends...And I thank you for the great energy and high intelligence you bring to as vital a cause as there is -- the advance of freedom and the uncompromising defense of the United States. Most anyone who is given responsibility in matters of national security quickly comes to appreciate the commitments and structures put in place by others who came before. You deploy a military force that was planned and funded by your predecessors. You inherit relationships with partners and obligations to allies that were first undertaken years and even generations earlier. With the authority you hold for a little while, you have great freedom of action. And whatever course you follow, the essential thing is always to keep commitments, and to leave no doubts about the credibility of your country's word. So among my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration...
THE SCAM OF CHINA
The headline on Bloomberg today (10/22) is dramatic: China's Economy Grows 8.9%. So the Scam of China continues, one the greatest feats of cook-the-books fraudulent accounting in history, but at least it's a teachable moment in Chinese - and Communist - metaphysics. First, the scam. How is it possible for China's explosive economic growth to be based on gargantuan exports of manufactured goods, for the sale of those exports to fall off a cliff (down over 20% this year), then continue to grow just as explosively without massive exports? The answer is a) you can believe it because you are Alice in Wonderland's Red Queen who could believe "as many as six impossible things before breakfast," or b) the Chicoms are lying. Which do you choose? They are lying because, for Chinese, and for Marxist Communists, there is no difference between make-believe and reality. There is no such thing as reality. There is only what people believe. If people believe something is true, it is. If they don't, it isn't, it doesn't exist. This is best exemplified by the Chinese concept of "face" or lien.
WHAT INSTRUMENT DOES EMPEROR OBAMA PLAY?
There's a legend that says Nero played the lyre (the fiddle wouldn't be invented for another thousand years) while Rome burned in 64 AD. What instrument does Obama play, as he cavorts indecisively about the world stage? On three fronts - South Korean trade, Ukrainian/Russian diplomacy and Afghan war fighting - the Obama administration is being increasingly pressured by unfolding events to shed ideology and rationalizations and come quickly to a realistic analysis of world events and their consequences. In each of these cases, in the absence of very prompt United States policy decisions and actions, we shall incur long-term irreversible economic, geopolitical or national security harm. Let's discuss the first two here, and hold the third for a future discussion by itself.
THE LOSS OF TURKEY
Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Moslem democracy, last week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis. It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas. Since the Islamist "Justice & Development" AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan [pronounced air-doh-wan], the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Moslem democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the likes of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, al-Qaida and Hamas. What made Turkey's behavior this week different from its behavior in recent months and years is that its attacks were concentrated, unequivocal and undeniable for everyone outside of Israel's scandalously imbecilic and flagellant media.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/16/09
Right about now with some fresh liberal lunacy inflicted upon our country every day by a president and party that hates it, you may be pulling your hair out by its roots or holding tight onto your head to keep it from exploding. You know you can't hold out until the 2010 elections a year from now. But how about for 18 more days? You can make it that long, can't you? As of today (10/16), November 3rd is 18 days away, and it may be a Day of Doom for Zero, the Pelosicrats, and even for RINOs. With few exceptions (like Tom Coburn or Jim DeMint), politicians care more about getting reelected than any principles or integrity they happen to have. Thus the tea leaves of November 3rd may tell dozens of Dems who barely won in 2008 to start running for the exits.
THE REMEMBER THE ALAMO RENDEZVOUS
Are you ready for a Texas-size To The Point Rendezvous? The dates are final: Friday, January 29 to Sunday, January 31. (Note the dates - chosen specifically to lie on the bye weekend between the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl.) The location is fabulous: The Hilton Palacio Del Rio right on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. We'll be just two blocks from The Alamo itself - which we'll of course visit as we rededicate ourselves to remembering the Alamo and recapturing America from the horde of anti-American moonbats who have temporarily seized control of it.
A TIME FOR CELEBRATING WESTERN CIVILIZATION
The second week of October offers a triad of heroic anniversaries worth celebrating by any admirer of Western Civilization. Yesterday, October 11, was time to celebrate the 1,277th anniversary of the Battle of Tours in 732 AD, when Charles Martel (686-741), forever known as The Hammer, and his 30,000 Christian soldiers crushed an invading horde of 200,000 Moslem Jihadis in what is now central France. Tomorrow, October 13, is for celebrating the 84th birthday of the great Lady Champion of Liberty, the most heroic woman of the 20th century, Margaret Thatcher. The story of how she, with Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II, saved Western Civilization from Soviet Communism is told in Now There Is One (April 2005). Today, October 12, is for celebrating the 517th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. We commemorate this as a true discovery in contrast to all the claims of Vikings, Chinese, Irish, and others who supposedly came earlier - for once and only after Columbus discovered America, it stayed discovered. Unfortunately, Columbus Day is for most Americans just an excuse for a three-day weekend. What it should be is a commemoration and celebration of Western Civilization - which is why the Left hates Columbus and his holiday.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/09/09
The conversations at the Cosmos Club this week were very subdued. As it has been for generations, this is where the true power elite of Washington gathers. Whether it was in the East Garden Bar, the Old Club Room, or the Members Dining Room, the savviest veterans of Capitol Hill and K Street - Democrat and Republican - had a tone of fear and seriousness you didn't hear the week before. Something had scared them. Scared them like an earthquake had fractured their political foundations. The one whispered word you could overhear more than any other was "Copenhagen." For them, President and Mrs. Zero flying off to Copenhagen to beg the International Olympics Committee for Chicago and being rejected was not a matter of humiliation. It was scales falling off their eyes, and in an eye-blink realizing the enormity of the mistake America made last November. And at breakfast in the Garden Dining Room this morning (10/09), there were hardly conversations at all, just shocked silence. The consequences of giving a president afflicted with pathological egomania combined with pathological amateurishness the Nobel Peace Prize were so grave they were speechless.
A MAGICAL REFUGE
There is a magical island where everything grows - forests of fir, cedar, and sycamore trees along with forests of giant tropical tree ferns, fields of corn and fields of taro (the starchy staple of Polynesia - Hawaiian poi is made from taro), and every kind of flower in riotous abundance. Orchards produce every kind of fruit from tropical to citrus. Herds of cows produce every dairy product including fabulous cheeses - and great steaks. Due to its unique ocean location, the sea swarms with fish and seafood. It's on a main migration route for sperm whales and a dozen types of dolphins. The sport fishing, such as for blue marlin, is fantastic. So is the trout fishing in the mountain streams. So is the golf, the sailing, the scuba-diving, the surfing, the hiking on mountain trails to hidden waterfalls and hot springs. The coastline is dotted with beaches, picturesque fishing villages, and tiny coves with natural rock swimming pools. The interior is dotted with crater lakes, among which is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Temperatures are in the mid-60s in the winter and mid-70s in the summer, the sun shines most every day, when it rains it usually pours for 15 minutes then out comes the sun again. There are neither snakes nor mosquitoes. Nor is there any pollution - the air is sparkling clear, the land preserved spotlessly clean by the islanders. The place is so peaceful it's virtually crime-free. The beer the islanders make is good, the wine even better. The islanders are friendly, hospitable, devoutly Christian, and proud members of Western Civilization. A great many speak English, but there are not a great many of them. They number 150,000 spread out over 300 spectacularly scenic square miles. They love liberty so much they've had this motto emblazoned on their coat of arms for centuries: Rather die free than live in peaceful subjugation. You can fly here from the US East Coast in four hours for 300 bucks. If you're looking for a Plan B refuge - or just a momentary escape - from ObamaLand, this magical place could be it.
OUR OBAMA-IZED INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES
The current disagreement between our intelligence agencies and those of our allies regarding Iran's nuclear program reveals the debased state of the US $75-billion- a-year intel system. The Germans, French, Israelis and now the Brits agree that Iran has an active nuclear-weapons program, differing only as to how swiftly Tehran can field warheads. The US intel community's holding out. It's worried about political risks. A reassessment's supposedly under way, but we're clinging to our comforting conclusion that Iran gave up on designing nuclear weapons in 2003. Mounting evidence to the contrary hasn't made a dent. Not only is the intel community fearful of another Iraq-style weapons-of-mass-destruction mess, but the White House has made it clear that it doesn't want more bad news. Our intel agencies have been Obama-ized.
WHY I DREW THE MOHAMMED TURBAN-BOMB CARTOON
[As President Zero was being humiliated in Denmark, a courageous cartoonist from Denmark spoke at Princeton University. This is the text of his speech.] On Sept. 30, 2005, the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten published 12 cartoons, including my own depicting the prophet with a bomb in his turban, that took Islam and Mohammed as their subject. The Danish cartoon affair which ensued turned out to be perhaps the most important free speech case of our time. In the months after the cartoons' publication, protests against them morphed from peaceful objections to irrational violence which included serious threats on my life. The cartoons have become a watershed test for the ability of the press to comment and criticize all religions without fear of violent reprisal. All of us, and not least the students and faculty at an institution such as Princeton, will be on the center front of this debate for years to come. It is important, therefore, that we all understand what is at stake. It is for this reason that I speak to you. I would also hope to explain to you why I acted as I did, and especially why I have refused to apologize for my cartoon despite strong pressure that I do so.
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/02/09
It's pretty obvious that the HFR Hero of the Week is the author of Going Rogue. With her book going to #1 on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble within hours of the mere announcement it would go on sale in seven weeks (11/17), it's also obvious by now that Sarah Palin has become a conservative phenomenon the only comparison to whom is Ronald Reagan. That's not the Olympian icon Reagan has become for his presidential accomplishments - but the former governor and presidential candidate who ended up obliterating an incumbent president 489 to 49 in electoral votes in 1980. Palin is now acknowledged to be "the hottest brand name in politics." She is the comet flashing across the sky, while Zero is a shooting star flaming out while plunging to earth. She is everything he is not, which can be summed up in two words: for real. She's as genuine as he is phony, as honest as he is deceitful, as pro-freedom as he is pro-fascist, as experienced in the real world as he is ignorant, as American as he is un-. The left is in a hysteria of hate towards her because she is their greatest threat. While most of the left can only indulge in childish schoolyard insults, the savviest among liberals - like Willie Brown, who ran the California legislature and city of San Francisco as his private fiefdoms - now realize that Palin is a "political genius."
REPEAL 1913
One of the more fascinating features of To The Point is the Users Forum, where TTPers share their insights and expertise. An excellent example is the recent (9/26) thread initiated by "Spartan" - Van Kottis - in commemoration of his 1,000th (!) TTP post. He asks for suggestions on what TTP can do to help the TeaParty movement focus its opposition to Zeroism. I have two. The first is to offer specific language that explicitly defines what conservatives are for (not simply against) government-wise. I.e., we stand for not simply "limited government" but constitutionally limited government. This means we want to restore constitutional limitations on central government. It means to go on the constitutional offensive against laws Congress has no authority to pass and regulations the federal bureaucracy has no authority to enforce. The second is to form a movement to repeal 1913. Just between you and me (can you keep a secret?), it's actually a movement to repeal progressivism, repeal the entire liberal-left agenda, but we need a specific target to focus upon.