SKYE’S LINKS 08/18/22
[Note by JW: Skye has jam-packed so much need-to-know cool info here, all the way to the end. Wow!]
A brief history of how we got to this political precipice by Pete Hoekstra:
Understanding woke social dynamics and the woke drive for ever-greater victimhood, a real must-read!:
THE TERRACE OF INFINITY
Over a thousand feet on a mountain ledge above Amalfi on the Mediterranean, you’ll find the Terrazzo dell'lnfinito, considered by poets for centuries the most beautiful view in the world. It is part of the magnificent gardens of the 11th century Villa Cimbrone, in the hilltop town of Ravello, built by the Romans in the 5th century.
The Sorrentine Peninsula is a finger of land south of Naples sticking out into the Med’s Tyrrhanean Sea, off the tip of which is the legendary island of Capri. The main town of Sorrento is on the north side facing Naples and Mount Vesuvius. But it is the steep southern shore of the Amalfi Coast that is our planet’s most spectacularly scenic drive with its ancient ports of Amalfi and Positano.
Exploring this magical part of the world is an ultimate “bucket list” experience. And to top it off, on the way down from Naples, you get to visit Pompeii, the excavated Roman city buried and preserved by the ash of Vesuvius in 79 AD. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #115 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE FORBIDDEN GODDESSES
In the 1st and 2nd Centuries AD, there arose in what is now northern Iraq an Arabian kingdom called Hatra, named after its capital city. Made wealthy with the caravan trade from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean, the Arab kings of Hatra built magnificent temples to their gods and goddesses.
The one you see above is known to archaeologists as The Lady of Hatra as what the Arab Hatrans called her is not known. Three others, however, are definitely known – for they are the Forbidden Goddesses, worshipped and adored by Arabs 2,000 years ago, hated and feared by over one billion people today.
Here they are – Al-Lat in the center, flanked by Manat, and Al-Uzza – the daughters of Allah. The Forbidden Goddesses that drove a Moslem fanatic to stab Salman Rushdie almost to death a few days ago.
THE CAMPUS LEFT, IRAN’S MULLAHS, AND ORWELLIAN “FREE SPEECH”
Oberlin University is under fire over its Professor of Religion and Islamic Studies who once served as the Iran’s ambassador at the United Nations. He’s Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, who supports the fatwa against Salman Rushdie.
His personal website further states his research is “focused on the ethics of peacemaking in Islam in the context of comparative religions.” Nothing says ethics and peace more than a lethal fatwa targeting dissenting authors. Right?
Few academics would support Iran’s blood-soaked interpretation of free speech. However, we need to address the creeping relativism that is sweeping across our campus. It’s as fully 1984 Orwellian as Mahallati.
RUNWAY ABLE
It is a profoundly somber experience to stand here on this abandoned weed-strewn airstrip. For this is Runway Able on Tinian Island in the Northern Marianas, where 76 years ago, on August 6, 1945, a B-29 nicknamed Enola Gay piloted by Capt. Paul Tibbets took off with Little Boy in its bomb bay bound for Hiroshima – and three days later on August 9, a B-29 nicknamed Bockscar piloted by Maj. Charles Sweeney flew off with Fat Boy in its bomb bay headed for Nagasaki.
As a consequence, on August 15, Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan to America. Here is where World War II was won, and the Nuclear Age begun.
This lost bit of tarmac is the most consequential airstrip on earth. Be prepared for a deep complex of swirling emotions if you ever stand here yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #14 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
WHAT’S IN STORE FOR RUSSIA
Back to the Principality of Muscovy?
[Note by JW: The author, Jacob Fraden, is a very interesting fellow. Born and raised in Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) in Russia’s western Siberia 77 years ago, he earned his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering at Ural Polytechnic there, and was able to escape the Soviet Union to America in the mid-70s. He has dozens of patents for medical inventions such as the Thermoscan Instant Thermometer, and has authored major textbooks plus autobiographies (one in Russian, the other in English). This is a brilliant Renaissance man, and I encourage you to regard what he writes very seriously.]
Russia's bloody and senseless war against Ukraine has been going on for almost six months. Instead of the original goal of quickly seizing Ukraine and turning it into a puppet state or a province (the name "Ukraine" is derived from the Russian word for “outskirts"), Russia has suddenly encountered an impenetrable wall of resistance.
Two questions logically arise: 1) why did Russia attack Ukraine? and 2) how and when will the war end?
THE TEMPLE OF ULU WATU
Built 1,000 years ago on the edge of a cliff hundreds of feet above the sea on the island of Bali, the sacred temple of Ulu Watu is one of the holiest places of worship for the Balinese people. They have retained their unique form of Balinese Hinduism for millennia that incorporates their original animism, ancestor worship, and reverence for Buddhist saints or Bodhisattva. This has resulted in a spiritual warmth and gentle friendliness matched by few other places on earth. It is little wonder so many who come here consider Bali to be a worldly paradise. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #108 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
KEEPING YOUR SANITY BY BEING A MORAL STEAM ENGINE IN YOUR OWN LIFE
Before we begin, I must express my deep appreciation to TTPer Joe Katzman for his unsolicited thoughtfulness in posting this on the TTP Forum. Thank you so much, Joe!
“We’re using Mastering Emotions, Moods and Reactions in our homeschool. At $189, it was an excellent investment that I would recommend to every parent and grandparent.
Joel goes to the underlying basis of our moods, and what they’re supposed to do for us. Our moods and emotions have jobs. That’s why it’s a bad idea to suppress them.
If you understand the jobs they’re supposed to be doing, you can recognize them and work with them. Joel gives concrete helpful tips for that.
At $99, it falls into the ‘if you have a teenager in the family, buy this and use it’ category.”
Now – here we go. There are times in a life, or in a world, where a single idea, conceived, committed to, and followed through, can bring about the most breathtaking change.
THE WALLS OF TROY
Yes, these are the actual legendary walls of Troy that Homer immortalized in the Iliad. Or what remains of them 3,200 years later. You see here the East Gate of Troy VIIa, the layer demolished in ashes archaeologists believe where the historical basis of the Trojan War occurred in 1180 BC.
This was Troia or Ilium for the ancient Greeks, after the city’s founder Tros and his son Ilus. They firmly believed what Homer described was real history, and the heroes portrayed – Achilles, Hector, Odysseus, Ajax, Patrocles, Paris and Priam – really lived. They knew just where it was – in the northwest corner of what is now Turkey they called the Troad where there were ruins with the tomb of Achilles.
Alexander the Great so firmly believed it was all true that when he crossed the Hellespont in 334 BC to destroy the Persian threat to Greece, he devoutly worshipped at Achilles’ tomb. 2,200 years later everyone thought Troy was a pure myth – all historians certainly did – except for a self-made German businessman named Heinrich Schliemann. He spent his fortune excavating a mound called Hissarlik in 1871 – and found Troy.
Today, you can explore these ruins of history yourself. Go there alone at night with a full moon above. Will the shade of Achilles come forth out of the moonlit shadows to greet you? (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #217 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SYMBOLIC OF THE WOKE’S STRUGGLE AGAINST REALITY
This Monty Python skit is over 40 years old – 40 years ahead of its time and funnier than ever today