THE FOURTH OF JULY 2022
I took this photo of Mount Rushmore looking straight on from a helicopter – so it may be from an angle you have not seen before. This Fourth of July of 2022, it may be worthwhile to think of these four heroic Americans from a different perspective, to reflect on the almost unimaginable — for us today – challenges they faced and triumphed over to create and sustain our America.
Two years ago, the July Fourth of 2020, our Real POTUS gave a magnificent speech at Mount Rushmore, commemorating America’s founding and warning us of the grave dangers our nation faced from its enemies within its gates.
Frankly, the comparison with the elation we felt back then and what we are suffering now is painful. However, it is less painful today than it was a few days ago, i.e., before June 24. Since then, we’ve seen our nation’s highest court deliver a series of 6-3 decisions thrillingly pro-Constitution.
It’s the Left’s karma: “Live by the sword, die by the sword” is now for them, “Live by unconstitutional Court rulings, die by constitutional Court rulings.”
The July 4th of two years ago was one of elation. The July 4th of one year ago was one of heartbreak. The July 4th of today is one of justifiable hope.
KEEPING YOUR SANITY WITH CURIOSITY
An essential ingredient for success at anything – beyond the most mundane of rote tasks – is curiosity.
Curiosity is about exploration and discovery; it creates energy, possibilities, and movement. It also allows us to create relationships, and to grow more deeply and delightfully connected with one another. It allows us to play – and excellence in work can be like play for adults.
Let’s talk about how to expand and grow your curiosity – and how to be aware of the opposite of curiosity. What do you think that might be?
FLASHBACK FRIDAY — “THIS IS YOUR LIFE”
June 15, 1961. It was quite a shock to me when I was the surprise guest on Ralph Edwards’ famous television show. My “Life” at age 17? How could that be? The show’s producers were intrigued by a recent Life Magazine story of my swimming the Hellespont as did Leander in Greek mythology (December 12, 1960 issue) that also had photos of me on top of the Matterhorn and with a Jivaro headhunter.
Without my knowing, they flew my guide for the Hellespont swim, Huseyin Uluarslan, from Turkey to LA, the same for my guide on the Matterhorn, Alfons Franzen, from Switzerland, to be on the show. Most amazing of all, they got the Chief Prefect of Police for Ecuador, Jaime Duran, to pick up Tangamashi (the Jivaro who adopted me) and his brother Naita by helicopter from their Amazon encampment, then fly them from Quito to LA.
I was dumbfounded. So there we are in the photo, left to right: Ralph Edwards, Jaime Duran, Tangamashi, Naita, a very young yours truly, and Ralph Ferguson, son of medical researcher Dr. Wilburn Ferguson who translated for Tangamashi. Quite a moment for a 17 year-old boy – and no doubt for Tangamashi! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #10)
THE TREE OF LIBERTY
HALF-FULL REPORT 07/01/22
Government Power is Devolving!
This was an amazing week for the good guys. Roe vs. Wade is no more, gun rights are returning, school prayer is now a thing, and the entire global warming, carbon credit, power grab by the Federal Government is reversed.
Astounding.
But what does it mean?
The Fourth Turning, so often discussed, is turning out to be a return to federalism and away from centralized, authoritarian government. They went too far, too fast.
Come join the Independence Day HFR. Liberty is busting out all over.
THE NDIKI DRUM
Famboun, Cameroon. This is a Ndiki Drum. It is used by the Sultan of Bamoun to call his subjects to their end-of the-year Nguon festival over which he presides. It can be heard for miles.
The carved wooden forearms and hands propped up at the drum’s end are not the original drumsticks. They are symbolic for what the real drumsticks used to be. Until the British and French put an end to the custom in the 1920s, the Ndiki drumsticks were human arms, amputated at the elbow off captured slaves. Four drummers were needed to properly pound the drum, each requiring two drumsticks: eight amputated human arms in total.
The horror of slavery in Africa was ended by Western colonialists. In its place they introduced roads, railroads, electricity, an impartial rule of law instead of law favoring one tribe over another, and other benefits of civilization. They did a lot of stupid damage to African cultures, true.
But that is vastly outweighed by getting rid of slavery – exemplified by how this drum was pounded until less than 100 years ago. If you have a child or grandchild in school with woke teachers, you might have them bring this picture to class, and explain how the benefits of Western Civilization so greatly outweighs its liabilities. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #124 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 06/30/22
Because his mind is gone; Xiden is demented now, and it’s getting worse rapidly:
Joe Biden Instructive Note Card from Staff: YOU Enter the Room, 'YOU Take YOUR Seat'
Turley on overturning Roe and its wider consequences:
The Dobbs Decision Unleashes Rage And Revisionism
The Ukraine war has shown that America is no longer capable of supplying the ammunition needed for a long war - or even for a relatively short one. Russia is even less so:
THE ROTTEN SHAM THAT IS THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT
A festering rot of racial animosity exists in our society that we willfully ignore socially and politically. It is a rot that eats away at the flesh of our civil society and spoils the greatness of our multicultural nation.
Progressives continually tell us we have blinders on when it comes to racism in American society. They’ve shoved their ideological solution of anti-racism to force us to “deconstruct” what they believe is an inherently deep-seated racist nation.
I, as a black American, am supposed to rejoice in the presence of our self-appointed saviors, but I peeked behind the veil and saw who they really are.
RUSSIAS EXPERIMENT OF DE-MODERNIZATION HAS FAILED
Third World poverty on the increase in Russia
The post-Soviet transformation took Russia from a fledgling democracy to a corrupt autocracy.
But, since the start of the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has taken a new turn, which amounts to a resolute top-down effort at reversing what progress has been achieved in modernizing the state system, economy and society.
The paradox of resorting to the old Soviet way of war based on the massive application of force, while having neither the human resources nor the industrial base necessary to carry it out, undercuts whatever small gains Russian forces are able to make in Donbas (Svoboda.org, June 24).
With every delivery of Western weapon systems, the Armed Forces of Ukraine take a step forward in modernization, while the Russian military falls back to unsustainable World War II patterns (Republic.ru, June 24).
RUSSIA’S EXPERIMENT OF DE-MODERNIZATION HAS FAILED
Third World poverty on the increase in Russia
The post-Soviet transformation took Russia from a fledgling democracy to a corrupt autocracy.
But, since the start of the war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has taken a new turn, which amounts to a resolute top-down effort at reversing what progress has been achieved in modernizing the state system, economy and society.
The paradox of resorting to the old Soviet way of war based on the massive application of force, while having neither the human resources nor the industrial base necessary to carry it out, undercuts whatever small gains Russian forces are able to make in Donbas (Svoboda.org, June 24).
With every delivery of Western weapon systems, the Armed Forces of Ukraine take a step forward in modernization, while the Russian military falls back to unsustainable World War II patterns (Republic.ru, June 24).