Fall, winter, spring, we at To The Point endeavor to have the TTP Weekly Report issued like clockwork - every Friday by noon.  (So it's always pretty crazy Thursdays and Friday mornings!)  Summers are different, this summer especially.  By the time you get this, I'll be off to run a safari in the Serengeti, then to various remote islands in the Indian Ocean. The good news about this is that you'll learn all kinds of fascinating things about some of the world's weirder places.  The not-so-good news is that many of these places don't have an internet connection.  Which means there's no way to have a regular Weekly Report schedule. So here's what we'll do:  post articles and columns whenever and as soon as we can throughout each week.  I normally edit every single item posted on TTP - but in my absence, our back-up editors will step up to the plate. I'll also launch a new feature for To The Point called The Potpourri.

Everyone says they "support our troops" fighting in Iraq.  Liberals just pretend they do - while conservatives are sincere but may not know how to for real.  The first step in really supporting our soldiers is to understand they believe in what they are doing.  Hundreds of thousands of the finest young Americans our country possesses have served in Iraq or are there right now.  All but the tiniest fraction not only believe in the morality of this war but that it can be won. How can you directly support them?  Let me introduce you to Major Eric England, an Air Force intelligence officer who has been deployed in Saudi Arabia (where he was on 9/11), Bosnia, Colombia, Afghanistan, and in Iraq for eight months of combat duty. Maj. England is developing a very interesting way for regular folks to give soldiers in Iraq what they actually need.  He calls it Online Troop Sponsorship Registries.  Here's how it works.

Do you think the Republicans or the Democrats are winning the race to prove they are the dumbest and most incompetent political party? The Republicans were clearly winning the race until January 2007. They threw away their majorities in both houses of Congress, by not only failing to have a realistic postwar strategy in Iraq but by such things as greatly expanding government spending when they had promised the voters the opposite. The Democrats won the congressional elections by promising they would have a clear and coherent plan to end the stalemate in Iraq and to be "fiscally responsible" by holding down the growth in government spending and not increasing taxes. So, what have they done since they have been in power? Having fulfilled virtually none of their campaign pledges, the Democrats' obvious incompetence and incoherence have managed to give the Congress an approval rate of only 29 percent, even lower than the president's.  That's quite an achievement.

White House spokesman Tony Snow and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff both were at a meeting I attended this week, attempting to allay fear and anger over the immigration reform bill.  I have to tell you they were very persuasive.  I am convinced they are both honest, that they are genuinely trying to solve a seemingly intractable problem with good patriotic intentions, that they believe this bill is an unprecedented ("Underline that word three times," said Tony) commitment to secure our southern border, to effect employer enforcement, and replace chain migration with a merit system. Chertoff and Snow are two decent men arguing from principle and integrity.  Both are smart - Chertoff is very smart.  And both are, with innocent naiveté, being taken to the Destruction of America Cleaners by Teddy Kennedy. You can't make a deal with the devil.  You'll always get screwed, no matter how many amendments and marvelous provisions you stick into the deal. 

My friend and Marine ‘Nam vet Bill Gregory is just blown away by the User Forum comments regarding Thompson Bummer.  "What an intelligent, insightful group of people you have as subscribers!" he effuses, and I can only agree.  He was especially impressed with a new commentator with the wonderful forum name of "melliefluous," and those of such regulars as John Nehring (johnwss), Chris Baldi (cephran), Marco, "gary," and "prosenberg,"  among many others.   "Great thought-provoking exchanges," notes Bill. Our TTP Salon is turning out to be a terrific place to discuss the pros and cons of the 2008 presidential candidates (mostly the Republicans, for what, really, is there to say about the goofy folks the Dems are serving up?).  I have to say my disappointment with Fred Thompson at his speech last Saturday (5/12) was tempered a bit with his devastating quick put-down of Michael Moore on YouTube.  I would still love to see him declare and participate in the GOP candidate debates. The debate last Tuesday (5/15) in South Carolina (here is the transcript) was intensely revealing.  Folks saw that Duncan Hunter would be A President to Watch America's Six, and that Ron Paul, like all libertarians, is not. But what the debate most clearly exposed is John McCain as the Perfect Liberal.

Say goodnight, Fred.  Last night, Saturday (5/12), in a huge ballroom at a hotel in Washington I can't name at a meeting of a group I can't mention, Fred Thompson was the dinner speaker to 500 of conservatism's crème de la crème. The energy in the room was crackling.  Here's the guy, everyone was either thinking or hoping - the big man who could fill Reagan's shoes, a true conservative who could electrify Republicans and sweep them to victory in 2008. There were cheers and yells when he was introduced, as everyone stood in sustained applause, then sat down in quiet excited anticipation. I'm not at liberty to reveal what he said, as this was a closed meeting, a private off the record address.  But I can tell you my reaction and that of the several dozen folks I talked to afterwards. What a bummer.

Well, I asked for it.  I'm the guy who chided the Chinese last week for ignoring the proverb about being careful what you wish for - then promptly proceeded to ask what you wanted the next TTP Nutshell History to be. You folks gave me enough assignments to keep me busy until there's peace in the Middle East. It's exciting, frankly, for it shows just how interested in the world TTPers are.  Yet where do I begin?  Here's a compendium of your requests, in no particular order:

I am so appreciative of the warm response to Sarkozy and History.  These "nutshell histories," as TTPers have dubbed them, are such a hit that I have a request.  I'd really like to hear from you as to what country or period of history should be the next nutshell. TTPer "Leebailey," for example, in our User Forum recently made an astute observation on the consequences of the fall of the Ottoman Empire on the entire Middle East.  Given that the Ottoman remnant of Turkey is so prominent in the news right now - a predominantly Moslem country engaged in a huge tug-of-war between secularists and Islamists - wouldn't that be a good candidate? But the world is so large, so much of import is going on within it, and history so long, that there is a plethora of such good candidates.  So I'd like to know what you guys n' gals consider your favorites. There's a lot to choose from.  I am really intrigued by what your choices might be.  Let me know.  Thanks...

One of the basic contributions of France to civilization was the salon, where the most intelligent and literate of Parisian society would gather in elegant relaxation to courteously discuss any matter of interest. The founder of the French salon was Catherine de Vivonne (1588-1665), known as the Marquise (for she was married to a French noble or Marquis) de Rambouillet.  In 1618, she began receiving guests in her salon bleu of the family home, the Hôtel de Rambouillet on the Rue St. Thomas-du-Louvre in Paris. There were nobles like La Rochefoucauld, cardinals like Richelieu, generals, scholars, poets, artists, wits, and the most cultured ladies of French aristocracy.  There was good cheer, good manners, discussion flourished, and erudite conversation became an art. I am in no way going to compare myself to the Marquise (or TTPers to Richelieu!), yet we may be witnessing the emergence of a salon that she might appreciate on To The Point.  I am referring to the massive response - 70 posts - to Beatles in Baghdad in our User Forum.

Okay, it's time for a fun story.  It is, of course, not fun when someone passes, as Kitty Carlisle did last week (4/17) at age 96.  But it prompts me to reveal how I met her, as it was pretty hilarious. She was a Broadway and Hollywood actress, but she became a household name as a panelist on the TV show To Tell The Truth, which first aired in 1956.  It was three years later, at age 15, that I was a guest on the show. You know the setup.  Three contestants, each claiming to be the same person;  four panelists interrogating them and guessing who's real.  Each wrong guess was worth $250.  When I met my two impostors before the show, I asked them: "Isn't the object of this game to fool the panel, fool all the panelists so we can win the most money, which is $250 times four or $1000?" I asked.  "So what would be the best way to do this?  I think it would be by my pretending to be dumb.  I have to tell the truth, the rules are that I can't lie, but I can pretend to stumble and be unsure.  You guys act confidant. If all the panelists fall for it, we get all the dough." They both thought this was a great idea.

Everyone "knows" that DDT -  Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane - is a terrible poison.  It isn't, of course (see, for example, the Harvard Nurses Health Study).  Yet because everyone is so sure it is, some folks on the Republican National Committee figure it might as well be used to poison the Democrats. So don't be surprised if you hear the party of Lost Harry Reid and Pelosi Galore, of Shrillary and Barack Hussein being called The DDT Party - the party of Defeat, Death, and Taxes. Defeat - as in surrender, wanting America to lose, waving a white flag at America's enemies. Death - as in promoting a culture of death, of the murder of millions of unborn children, of hysterically opposing any attempt to prevent their murder. Taxes - as in always advocating more and higher taxes as the answer to any problem.

The news story headlined Canadian Military Reinforces Arctic Claim had a dramatic lede: "Battling high winds, 25-foot ice walls, mechanical breakdowns and whiteout conditions, a Canadian military team, including Eskimo reservists, last week completed a 17-day trek [across Ellesmere Island] designed to sustain Canada's claim to sovereignty over the high Arctic." Of course, the reporter then had to include a ridiculous global warming spin in a story on Canadian national security: "[Expedition leader Maj. Chris Bergeron] said old-timers among the Eskimos, who call themselves Inuit, told him they had never seen open water and bare rocks so close to the North Pole." Being quite familiar with Ellesmere, Canada's northernmost island, I can assure you the reporter, Barry Brown has never been there and is laughingly ignorant - like most glowarmers. Just as ignorant as the Eskimos - who live over 400 miles away from Ellesmere's northern shore on the Arctic Ocean (which is itself 550 miles "close" to the North Pole).  The only Inuit or Eskimo community on all of Ellesmere's 76,000 square miles is Grise Fiord on the far away south shore.  They have no knowledge at all of the Arctic Ocean. Which brings me to Mars... 

When I saw the news bulletin that Moslem terrorists had decapitated six hostages on the southern Philippine island of Jolo, I thought of the 1939 movie, The Real Glory, where Gary Cooper plays a US Army doctor trying to protect Christian villagers in the Philippines from a cholera epidemic and Moslem suicide killers - set in 1906!

The leader of the Moslem fanatics is named Alipang.  Cooper breaks Alipang's will by threatening to kill him and bury him wrapped in a bloody pigskin.  Afraid such defilement will result in his not going to heaven but Jahannam, Islamic Hell, Alipang commands his men to surrender.

I thought it ironic in the extreme that this news report about Jolo should appear three days after an obscure item in the business section of USA Today, Squeezing Diesel Out Of Animal Fat.

The story announced: "Oil company ConocoPhillips and meat producer Tyson Foods said Monday they're joining forces to produce diesel fuel for U.S. vehicles using beef, pork and poultry fat."

Biofuel from pig fat.  Does that ring a bell from say, a year ago (April 2006) when you read about Project Jahannam?

With the current spectacle of the corrupt World Bank trying to rid itself of its president who is trying to de-corrupt the place, based on politicized corruption charges against him, it is time to ask: Should the World Bank (WB), and indeed, its sister organization the International Monetary Fund (IMF), be abolished? Both organizations had their annual spring meetings in Washington this past weekend. It is obvious to everyone that both are in deep trouble. 

With evil day of April 15 nigh, it is time to demand of the various presidential candidates to show how they propose to lift the unconscionable burden of the IRS off our oppressed shoulders. As is well known, the current U.S. income tax system and the Internal Revenue Service are a huge and unnecessary drag on both the economy and individual liberty. The IRS code and regulations have become hopelessly complex and grown to about 7 million words. No one can possibly understand the present code, including even those at the IRS. Thus no matter how well-meaning, the taxpayer is always at risk for noncompliance -- such laws are characteristics of totalitarian, not free, societies. Such laws need to be abolished.  There are two serious proposals for doing so:  the "Flat Tax" and the national sales tax, better known as the "Fair Tax." (See Flat Tax Revolution by Steve Forbes, and  The Fair Tax Book by Neil Boortz and Congressman John Linder.)

I've never understood why people listen to smart-aleck jerks on trash radio like Don Imus and Howard Stern who get paid a lot of money to say nothing of substance but say it in a pseudo-clever, hyper-cynical, juvenilely outrageous way. But I sure am enjoying watching him squirm.  This is great karma.  His public persona, with the phony cowboy hat, the gravel voice, the wrinkled glower, was of a super tough guy, as tough as say, the British Royal Marines.  Turns out he's as much of a surrender pussy as they are. Imus should exchange his cowboy hat for a dhimmi head scarf like that worn by Pelosi Galore or Limey sailorwoman Faye Turney to best signify his submission to the gods of political correctness. Now, if that's all this teapot tempest is, yet another example of bottomless PC hypocrisy and Al Sharpton's unceasing effort to prey on white guilt, it'll soon be replaced by the next media frenzy.  The real question is whether the Imus scandal will wreck the presidential candidacy of Barack Hussein Obama, Jr.