SKYE’S LINKS 01/05/23
The Search for Integrity
Over the past decade or two, the government became the home to an ancient evil; Neo-Platonism or Post Modernism is the belief that a cadre of elites should lead the great unwashed. Their tool is the Noble Lie, the grand narrative meant to grab people by their emotions and compel them to do the elite’s bidding.
Well, on today’s links, we find the Nobel Lie unfolding in all directions. From the fight to find an honest Speaker of the House to the manipulation during Covid, the ESG agenda, and the great migration of Americans in the era of Woke, the truth is coming out.
The economics are ugly as continued inflation appears baked in the cake.
Everywhere, people are waking up to the stone-cold reality that our government manipulated the truth about nearly everything, and they did it in the financial interest of our elites.
Revolutions have occurred over less, and the free fall of trust in government is accelerating.
What institutions are left to trust? Not schools, not churches, not even the Post Office. We can’t even trust that a woman is not a man in drag.
The question is this: Are we nearing the bottom? Is it time to rebuild integrity, and can it even be done?
Please join us at Skye’s Links, and let’s discuss it.
HEAVEN IN THE CARIBBEAN
Quick – name the only country in the world named after a woman. It’s the island nation in the Caribbean of St. Lucia, named after the patron saint of virgins, 4th century Saint Lucia.
The charm, beauty, and serenity of St. Lucia are unequaled in the Caribbean. Here you can have your own private retreat overlooking the twin peaks of The Pitons. The St. Lucian people take great pride in the immaculate spotlessness of their island and in their matchless reputation for personal warmth and hospitality.
While an English-speaking country and member of the British Commonwealth, there is a French tradition here as well, reflected in the fine cuisine and wines in restaurants. Yet I became fond of the local Piton beer as well. St. Lucia is the easiest island in the Caribbean to fall in love with – so it is no wonder that couples come from all over the world to get married or honeymoon here.
If you want to spend a few days of bliss away from all the cares of the world, you can’t do better than this place of heaven in the Caribbean. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #190 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FLOWER HIGHWAYS, FLOWER TRAILS
For miles and miles, the roads in the Azores Islands are lined with flowers on both sides. Even the foot paths and trails are strewn with flowers.
As you know, I’ve been to every country in the world. I know of no place on earth more beautiful, more flower strewn, more peaceful, serene, and safe than Portugal’s island paradises of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic.
So plan on joining me, Rebel, and your fellow TTPers on our exploration of Atlantic Paradises, June 17 to 25. Make this beauty and serenity a part of your life. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #196 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
DAMAR HAMLIN’S “HEART ATTACK”
What everybody who was watching the game witnessed on Monday (1/02) was Mr. Hamlin taking what looked like an ordinary hit to the chest. He and the other player both hit the ground, they both stood up, and then Hamlin collapsed in an instant.
He received at least nine minutes of CPR on the field before an ambulance arrived to take him to the hospital, where he is still in critical condition.
Mr. Hamlin’s collapse was not caused by what most people think of as a “heart attack” – it was something else.
ONCE AGAIN!! CHINA’S COVID LIES COULD PROVE DEADLY FOR AMERICA
The only thing not going viral in China is the truth. Chinese officials are spewing lies to cover up the massive COVID carnage there.
Worse, US public-health officials dawdled for a week, allowing air travelers from China in without testing, while other countries immediately blocked infected travelers from entering.
Aerial photos and videos from China show body bags stacked outside hospitals and crematoria, funeral-home parking lots full and hospitals overwhelmed with COVID patients jammed into hallways. In Beijing and Sichuan, more than 50% of the population is infected, according to internal government documents.
More dangerous, China is also withholding laboratory evidence about what strains are sickening its population. Why do that unless they want to infect the world once more?
DESANTIS GOES TO WAR ON WOKEISM
On election night, I was half-watching Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s victory remarks when something quite extraordinary and encouraging caught my attention.
DeSantis evoked Churchill’s “fighting on the beaches” speech, in which Churchill stirred the resolve and patriotism of the British people in anticipation of the invasion of their homeland by the Nazis. DeSantis, of course, was not warning against Nazism: he was warning against wokeism, which he was implicitly equating with Nazism.
I had never heard a national political figure treat wokeism with such (deserved) gravity. Here’s what he needs to do to help America get rid of it.
THE EUROPE THATS STILL THERE
It’s found here – the fishing port of the ancient village of Sesimbra in Portugal. 3,000 years ago it was called Sempsibriga – high place or briga of the Sempsi Celts. So much of Europe is gone now, steamrollered by modernity. Not here, where Portuguese fishermen sail out in their tiny boats for their daily catch as they have for countless generations. The best fish you’ve ever had is in Sesimbra’s local restaurants – wow, is the swordfish good.
While Portugal is a First World country with all the modernity you could ask for, it is unique not only for the charm of its history, preservation of its culture, and post-card picturesqueness, but the sweetness of its people. They are simply nice in a way that’s so captivating. Their traditional family values are part of their nature. The country resonates with peacefulness, an at ease serenity. It’s the Europe that’s still there.
You can be captivated yourself by joining our WX Exploration of Portugal next month, June 17-26. (Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
Jack Wheeler is Escape Artist’s World Exploration Expert. He is the founder of Wheeler Expeditions at WheelerExpeditions.com.
TURNING 80
Jack and Rebel, New Year’s Day, 2023
I turn 80 years old this year of 2023. It’s a sobering milestone.
I have almost infinitely more to be grateful for than not. I have had an incredible life, lucky beyond belief. I have the two most wonderful sons a father could ask for. As Rebel and I are in our fourth decade of marriage, we love each other more than ever.
And I am in superb health – albeit with that infamous qualifier, “for my age.” I work out several days a week so hard and extensively that a friend recently told me he’s seen fit 40 year-olds in the gym that couldn’t keep up with me. I don’t have an ache or pain in my body.
However… as 80 looms before me, I realize I can’t keep this up. At some point, I’m going to have to call it a day. So I’ve decided that I’m going to give it my all for another year – that year being this one, 2023.
I’m always saying, Carpe Diem – the Time for a Great Adventure Is Now. Well, that time has come. If you’ve always wanted to have a great adventure with me in some awesomely cool place in the world – or have another! – carpe diem, seize the day.
To entice you, I’ve made another decision: to make you a deal I hope you can’t resist.
RESOLUTIONS 2023
Rebel and I received the best Christmas present we could ask for. Jackson and his wife Raya came to spend Christmas-New Year’s with us, and to deliver the news: Rebel and I are going to be grandparents! At last!
The picture you see is Rebel, Jackson, and me standing in front of our Christmas tree, with Rebel holding a 1992 photo of Jackson being held by us on his first Christmas at six months old. He’s now 30, six-foot-two, and soon to be a father himself.
The years pass by so quickly. You look back on them and they seem to have gone by at light speed. That’s why I always advise parents of young children to treasure every day with them – for the day will come so fast when they will be grown and gone.
That’s why each one of us no matter how old should treasure every day we are still alive on this Earth – for the day will come when we will be gone, and that day can come at any moment.
That’s why every January 1st, I renew my two most fundamental Resolutions for the coming year. Here they are – and I’d like to suggest they be yours too.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY USING HOPE EFFECTIVELY
Hope lies at the heart of our aspirations and ambitions; our dreams and wishes. It fuels us to strive for goals and achievements.
It can also lead us to wish for things we cannot have, aspire to achievements we cannot reach, and fantasize dreams that we cannot fulfill.
To the degree that hope is integrated with reality, it can serve our greatest potential. To the degree that it is disconnected from reality, it can undermine that potential; keeping us floating helplessly in fantasy, unable to find traction and gain fulfillment in our lives.
Let’s talk about how we get to the first and avoid the second…