FLASHBACK FRIDAY – RETRACING HANNIBAL OVER THE ALPS WITH ELEPHANTS
September 1979 – my Hannibal Expedition took two elephants over the same pass Hannibal used in 218 BC across the Alps to attack Rome. There is only one pass that fits the contemporary descriptions of both Greek historian Polybius and Roman historian Livy: The Col du Clapier on what is now the French-Italian border.
Unrecognized as Hannibal’s Pass in 1979, it is still a roadless trail today crossed only on foot or mountain bike. But since our expedition, there are now signs proclaiming it La Route d’Hannibal, and even a life-size statue of an elephant at the French village of Bramans where the track over the pass begins.
The photo you see is us climbing high above Bramans (I’m the one in front with the red backpack). It took us five days to carefully guide our elephants (from an Italian circus) over Clapier and down to the Italian village of Susa. First time in 2,197 years and never repeated 41 years since.
Hannibal’s crossing the Alps with elephants is one of the most epic events of world history. To retrace it yourself with elephants is to make that famous history a part of your life in the most uniquely powerful way. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #15 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/08/22
Little Greta, the Left’s posterchild for greenie woketardism, is in a state of apoplectic fury this week. The cause is something to celebrate – yet it is but one of a host of signs that not only have we reached Peak Leftie Insanity that has engulfed us and so much of the world, but that we’re rapidly moving beyond it.
So sit back, get comfy and relax with a libation that best suits you. This will be a good time HFR.
As we get started, let me first thank Mike Ryan for his superb HFR last week. Mike is so bright, knowledgeable, and skilled on so many levels, while living a life of American moral virtue, that his insights are of unique value to TTP.
You may recall he began by hailing, “What a week – government power is devolving!” We have a lot more of that this week. A lot more. Get ready to feel good.
ANOTHER WORLD OF AWE
Reading Joel’s beautiful Keeping Your Sanity with a Sense of Awe posted on October 4th 2021, with its mention of the sun reflecting off the kelp beds of Monterey Bay, I couldn’t help thinking of a similar experience I had.
I learned how to scuba dive off the California coast, particularly in the waters off Catalina Island. Kelp plants grow to spread their leaves on the ocean surface, but it’s underwater you experience their true beauty. They rise from the bottom rocks of the shallow ocean floor near the coast as a forest, and when the sun’s rays shine through them, it is a magical sight to see them turn the color of gold.
The first time I saw this on a dive off Catalina I was transfixed in a true moment of absolute awe, in a transport of appreciation of the Creation in which we are privileged to exist.
The photo you see is not mine as I did not have an underwater camera, I could only take a picture with my mind’s eye which I have never forgotten. So the photo is an approximation of what I saw, yet it brings back that memorable moment of awe I had almost sixty years ago. Thanks, Joel. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #162)
SKYE’S LINKS 07/07/22
I think that West Virginia v EPA is the most consequential SCOTUS decision in the past century. No exaggeration! This 6-3 decision doesn't just affect coal burning power plants - it will eventually affect auto mileage mandates and a vast array of appliance, furnace, hot water heater, and so many more administrative state mandates. Breitbart has no conception of what this means in the long run:
https://www.breitbart.com/news/us-supreme-court-limits-government-powers-to-curb-greenhouse-gases/
While here is the full text of WV v EPA, the Gorsuch concurrence is simply superb.
Justice Gorsuch Concurrence to SCOTUS West Virginia v EPA Majority Decision
Supreme Court Follows Concealed Carry Decision With Pro-2A Rulings In 4 States
GETTING PUTIN THE CHICAGO WAY
Or, to put it in the simpler words of Jim Malone, Eliot Ness’s counselor in The Untouchables, “You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That’s the Chicago way!”
Al Capone is an apt analogy for what the West confronts in Vladimir Putin: a particularly noxious mix of Mafia mentality, hypernationalist ideology, and totalitarian technique. Elegance is not the Putin/Russian way, and it cannot be our way.
This is the light in which one should measure the accomplishments of NATO’s Madrid Summit last week (6/28-30).
SEEKING TO CRACK WESTERN UNITY, PUTIN SUCCEEDS IN SINKING THE RUSSIAN ECONOMY
On the Donbas battlefields, Russian troops still strive to advance, but in the global arena of confrontation with the collective West, Russia keeps losing ground.
A sequence of heavy blows breached Russian defensive geopolitical positions last week, and Moscow’s attempts at counterstrikes only aggravated the sustained damage.
All attempts of Putin to exacerbate the economic difficulties that are supposed to erode Western unity are now inevitably backfiring for Russia, cutting down its petro-revenues and further squeezing crucially needed imports.
TEENAGERS OF BUKHARA
Bukhara is the oldest city on the fabled Silk Road. You’ve seen Glimpses of The Well of Job, where legend says Job of the Old Testament struck the ground with his staff, creating a well bubbling with fresh pure water that still flows today.
And of The Ark of Bukhara, the palace-fortress of Bukhara rulers since 500 BC. The ancient Silk Road oasis has a history of 5,000 years. I was first here in 1963, a 19 year-old teenager with a summer job of filming fabulously exotic places in Central Asia unknown to the West for a Hollywood stock film company.
I was not much older than these teenage ladies back then. I took this picture of them when I was last in Bukhara in 2019. It was so extraordinarily lucky of me to experience such magical places as Bukhara when young. It’s enabled me to stay young at heart so many decades later.
If you remain young at heart, please consider joining me on my next exploration of Central Asia this September. And perhaps you have a teenage child or grandchild with whom you could experience its wonders together. It will be a life-long treasured memory for you both. Carpe diem: The Heart of Central Asia – Sept 18-Oct 4, 2022. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #214 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FINALLY! A WHINY WOKE EMPLOYEE GOT FIRED FOR WHINY WOKENESS
Michael Lopez worked for a huge subdivision of an even bigger multinational entertainment corporation, the place that most of us imagine as a hotbed of woke virtue-signaling. Certainly, Lopez thought he was taking a snowflake's stand about the Dobbs decision, only to find his employer slapping him down like a mosquito on the wall.
It's just one person, but it's another small sign that the corporate world's love affair with its bullying woke employees is finally ending.
For when his exquisite woke sensitivities made it impossible for him to work after the Dobbs decision, his employer was not at all sympathetic but, instead, fired him. How glorious.
SCOTUS TARGETS THE REAL ENEMY
Justice Gorsuch
The flurry of rulings from the Supreme Court has everyone’s head spinning. The most significant among them, even if it doesn’t capture all the headlines, is West Virginia v EPA. The majority opinion is impressive, but the part I found truly wonderful is the concurring opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
This is where we see things headed, toward a major and much-welcome curbing of the power of the administrative state.
Just to review what this thing is, it’s an unelected bureaucracy that rules the country without oversight from voters or legislatures. It writes its own laws, polices its own laws, and has its own courts to punish you if you disobey its own laws. Gorsuch thinks the whole thing is unconstitutional and he’s right.
THE WORLD’S MOST UNUSUAL VINEYARD
The grape vines of Pico Island, one of nine islands of the Azores in the Atlantic, are enclosed within walls of black basalt rocks called currais (corrals). For over 500 years, the Portuguese villagers have been constructing thousands of miles of these currais wall enclosures to protect the vines from wind and sea spray.
The vineyards of Pico are so extraordinary that they are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. And the wine is uniquely good! You can order a bottle here. Best, though, is to experience Pico and its viticulture yourself. That’s what we did last week on our Atlantic Paradises adventure with your fellow TTPers. We had a wonderful time – and you will too.
(Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #213 photo ©Jack Wheeler)