THE QUAGMIRE OF CLIMATE CHANGE DIPLOMACY
An old gospel song attacks the hypocrisy of a certain Mr. Brown, who “prays for Prohibition, but votes for G-I-N.”
That’s not a bad description of the Biden administration’s climate policy. The president took office vowing to make Saudi Arabia a pariah nation and to reduce the world’s dependence on fossil fuels. After a brief fist-bumping détente last summer, he is back on the attack because the Saudis don’t want to produce as much oil as he wants.
Meanwhile, even as it prays for a global energy transition, the administration is scouring the world for new sources of carbon-spewing fossil fuels, relaxing sanctions enforcement against the murdering mullahs in Tehran and looking to steer new revenue into the coffers of the crime lords of Caracas.
Mr. Biden isn’t the only one sending mixed climate messages.
WHY IS THE DEMOCRAT PARTY AFFLICTED WITH COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT?
For much of the Trump presidency, leftist opponents sought to remove him by the 25th Amendment. A Yale psychiatrist diagnosed Trump in absentia and declared him deserving of a straitjacket forced intervention. Partisan charges grew so intense that Trump voluntarily took — and aced — the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.
Strangely, the same Left arm-chair psychiatrists offer no such worries about Biden’s clear mental decline. Needless to say, Biden refuses to take any cognitive assessment test.
One reason Biden enjoys immunity from removal is that his 57-year-old vice president, Kamala Harris, is seen to be even more incoherent and ill-informed. Then there’s Nancy Pelosi, 82. Here’s a scary thought. As House Speaker, she’s third in line for the presidency.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY MAKING GOOD ENOUGH CHOICES
Having choices is wonderful. Today we have more options in terms of goods and services to choose from than any time in the history of the human race, and the options for spending money are nearly endless. This is part of the Great Enrichment I’ve written about earlier, and when we manage it well, it can contribute to our quality of life.
When we don’t manage it well, it can ruin our quality of life – even in the midst of incredible abundance.
On one end of the spectrum, we can get into trouble with our money when we don’t think enough - we spend too much on things we don’t really like once we have them.
On the other end, we can devote too much time and emotional energy on making absolutely sure that we’ve bought the very best thing, at the very best price, with everything we buy.
THE SALVATION OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION ON OCTOBER 10, 732 AD
On this day, October 10th, 1,290 years ago in central France a few miles north of the town of Poitiers, two armies met with the fate of Western Civilization at stake.
On a forested hill stood 30,000 Christian knights led by their king Charles Martel awaiting the onslaught of an invading horde of 60,000 Islamic Jihadis determined to extinguish Christianity from all of Europe and replace it with their Religion of the Sword.
For the last hundred years, they had exploded out of the wasteland of Arabia to conquer the Christian Middle East, Zoroastrian Persia, and all of Christian North Africa from Egypt to Morocco. For the last twenty years after crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in 711, they had swept through the Iberian Peninsula of Spain and Portugal in Islamic conquest of the ruling Christian Visigothic Kingdom.
In just six years (711-717), Islamic armies had reached the Pyrenees, the mountainous border between Spain and France. Pouring through them, for the last 15 years they had been steadily seizing more and more of Christian France – old Roman Gaul. Now Gaul was ruled by the Franks, who had been fervent Christians ever since their Founder King, Clovis (466-511), was baptized in 496.
Thus it was that on this day almost 13 centuries ago, all that stood between the Islamic horde and conquering all of Europe was this infidel army half their size that didn’t even have any cavalry – most all of their soldiers fought on foot. Surely the infidels would be annihilated as all their enemies had from Persia to the Pyrenees.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – A GLACIER IN THE GOBI
June 2002, the Vulture’s Mouth Glacier. In the deepest heart of the Gobi Desert of Mongolia, south of the Flaming Cliffs where Roy Chapman Andrews discovered dinosaur eggs in the 1920s, there is a naked spine of mountains called the Gurvan Saihan. In the Gurvan Saihan there is a deep gorge called Yol Alyn, the Vulture’s Mouth. And in the Vulture’s Mouth, there is a glacier.
It is not a big glacier, the continual ice buildup of a stream that never melts even in the heat of the Gobi summer. Yet it is a glacier nonetheless, thick enough for my son Jackson and I to walk on for more than a mile. The Vulture’s Mouth Glacier is just one of a multitude of extraordinary experiences Mongolia has to offer the explorer. Are you up for exploring it with me this summer of 2023? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #90 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
MANIACS
HALF-FULL REPORT 10/07/22
I just returned back home, jet-lagged and wigged-out from three intense weeks exploring Central Asia with your fellow TTPers.
Frankly, after leading back-to-back explorations of Ireland, then to the Stans of West Turkestan, I’m not at all sure I can come close to Mike Ryan’s mind-blowing tour de force HFRs of 09/02, 09/09, 09/16, 09/23, and 09/30 for all last month. Mike – you raised the bar on me so high it’s out of sight!
So here goes. We’ll start with something that happened to me a few days ago at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Uzbekistan’s capital. Tashkent. I had come down to the lobby bar to get a bottle of mineral water and standing there was a young fellow I guessed to be in his 30s and looked Russian
I said hello to him with a smile, which he returned then held out his hand to shake which I did. He asked in English where I was from, and I replied, “America, I’m American,” then asked where he was from. He put his hand over his eyes and began to cry.
Wiping away the tears, he explained, “I am crying for my country, my Russia, and what is happening to it.” I rested my hand on his shoulder, looked into his eyes with heartfelt sympathy, and simply said, “I understand.” Instantly he embraced me with a bear hug.
Clearly it was something he needed. We nodded to each other in acknowledgement, and went our separate ways. The interaction lasted less than a minute but I’ll never forget it.
SKYE’S LINKS 10/06/22
Who Did It?
Nord Stream 1 and 2
A Tale of Two Pipelines
Was it Biden, Putin, or that Pesky Swedish kid? Somebody must be responsible, and threats of nuclear war are in the air. Let's have a look.
It's funny what can happen under tremendous pressure.
The economy can wreck, law enforcement can become detached from reality, politicians can invent new enemies as a distraction, and the physical chemistry of trapped natural gas under extreme pressure can lead to problems.
Elon Musk did it, he finally bought Twitter, and he plans to change the world. Those January 6 avengers and their henchmen have lost another round.
What if poor operating practices by the same gang that brought us Chernobyl wrecked the pipelines? How can anyone with military experience seriously think that the alleged special forces team decided to hang around for seventeen hours between pipe failures? C'mon, man.
And c'mon over to Skye's Links. You won't read this anywhere else…yet.
THE SNAKE WALLS OF KHIVA
The inner city of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Khiva has been unchanged for centuries. Surrounding 40ft-high snake walls that writhe around the city have protected it for centuries, enabling defenders to shoot, spear, and pour burning hot oil on attackers from three sides.
Khiva’s labyrinth of narrow lanes adorned with blue and aquamarine tile mosaics is a living museum for you to explore. On the Oxus or Amu Darya River in deepest Central Asia, Khiva was ancient when Alexander the Great seized it in 329 BC.
It survived the depredations of Arabs in the 8th century, Mongols in the 13th, Tamerlane in the 14th. The Khanate of Khiva continued to flourish on the Silk Road until conquered by the Russians in the 19th. Today in Uzbekistan, it remains as the best-preserved of the ancient oases of the Silk Road, yet unknown to the outside world.
It need not remain unknown to you, however. We were just here last week, and will be here again next May. Join us and make Khiva a part of your life.(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #226 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
BURMA’S SACRED GOLDEN ROCK
Some three hours’ drive east of Rangoon brings you to Mount Kyaiktiyo, at the top of which (3,600ft) is a gigantic granite boulder covered in gold leaf perched on the edge about to fall off. But it never does, held in place, legend says, by a strand of the Buddha’s hair put underneath it 2,500 years ago. Ever since, the Golden Rock has been a sacred pilgrimage site for the Burmese people and Buddhists around the world.
There are very few people here other than pilgrims, who devoutly pray, circumambulate the rock, and reverently place small strips of gold leaf upon it. It’s a marvelous experience to be among them. I plan to be here once again in an expedition soon – you might consider joining me. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #112 photo ©Jack Wheeler)