FLASHBACK FRIDAY – THE MAN-EATER OF DALAT
Dalat, South Viet Nam, 1961. I was 17 years old. A friend of my father’s, Herb Klein, came by our house. He was a prominent businessman whose passion was big-game hunting. He had just returned from the mountain jungle highlands of South Viet Nam and regaled us with stories of the Montagnard tribespeople who were plagued by tigers with a taste for human flesh. He told me that after climbing the Matterhorn, living with Amazon headhunters, and swimming the Hellespont, hunting a man-eating tiger should be my next adventure.
“You’d be saving so many lives, Jack,” he told me. “There’s one I heard about from the Co Ho Montagnards that’s killed and eaten almost 20 of them in the forests outside the town of Dalat. I know who can guide you, he was mine, his name is Ngo Van Chi.”
Somehow, I talked my parents into letting me do this. I had saved up the money from giving tennis and judo lessons. So there I was, in pitch dark in a “mirador” of branches and leaves, holding a .300 Weatherby with a flashlight wired to the barrel, waiting for this man-eating tiger to come for the rotting water buffalo we set out as bait. Chi and I heard the tiger, I put the rifle barrel out, Chi clicked on the flashlight, I saw these two enormous red eyes, and fired.
And there he is, the Man-Eater of Dalat, who would never kill another human being ever again. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #175 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 06/17/22
Will Mike Ramirez’s prayer – the prayer of everyone pro-life – be answered at 10AM DC time this Monday June 20? The Chief Justice may hold out one more week – the 27th being the latest delay possible – but odds are rapidly increasing the 20th will be D-Day, with D for Dobbs.
Per the May 2 leak of the draft decision, should the Court as expected repeal Roe by deciding there is no constitutional right to abortion, a dangerously large number of Lefties are going to violently lose their minds. That’s why it’s imperative for pro-lifers to make plans now for physically going to their nearest Catholic church or pro-life pregnancy center immediately upon the decision’s announcement to prevent attacks upon it.
Bring mace, bear or pepper spray, be armed if you’re in a can-carry state or district, and be prepared to use whatever you have in defense. Adequate self-defense is the only proper response to the initiation of violence.
As you know, such attacks on pro-life centers and churches have been occurring all over the country since May 2 and are going to explode if Dobbs repeals Roe. This violent madness of crowds must be stopped by whatever defensive force is necessary.
THE SUBORDINATE CITIZEN
I recently led a group of about 100 citizens on a tour of Israel for nearly two weeks. Before returning to the United States, all participants had to indicate their vaccination status and take a COVID-19 test for reentry.
Contrast this to the tens of thousands of foreign nationals now mustering to cross illegally into the United States this summer, as exampled in the video above. They follow the already 2 million who’ve entered the country unlawfully since Joe Biden became president.
Does any foreign national worry about being tested for COVID-19, much less fear being turned away if he tests positive or lacks proof of vaccination?
Or do we scrutinize far more carefully U.S. citizens entering their own country legally than we do noncitizens crossing our borders unlawfully?
THE PILLARS OF HERCULES
On either side of the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar there are two small mountains known since great antiquity as the Pillars of Hercules. The pillar on the northern, European side is the famous Rock of Gibraltar. That on the southern, African side is Mount Abyla, Phoenician for “lofty mountain.”
The legend for the Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans was that Hercules pushed the two pillars apart to join the Mediterranean with the Atlantic. We think today of Hercules as a comic-book bodybuilder, while the truth is opposite. The entire ancient Mediterranean world very seriously worshipped him. For the Phoenicians, he was Melqart, King of the Earth. For the Greeks, he was Heracles, Divine Protector of Mankind. He was the same for the Romans, who pronounced his name as Hercules.
The Phoenician trading port of Abyla has a history of 3,000 years, from Phoenician to Carthaginian to Roman to Byzantine to Christian Visigoths to Islamic Berbers to Portuguese – and since 1668 to Spain, which continues to govern it today as the Spanish Autonomous City of Ceuta on the Mediterranean coast of Morocco.
Ceuta is a charming European city with beautiful beaches, open air cafés with great sangria, very relaxed and pleasant. It is here you find the statue of Hercules separating his Pillars commemorating the legend pictured above. Easy to get to with high-speed ferries from Algeciras near Gibraltar, Ceuta is definitely worth your while to experience. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #137 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 06/16/22
Uvalde and beyond. That figure is $433 more than March. Want to bet it will be over $6,000 by end of summer?
Inflation to Cost Families an Extra $5,520 Per Year, Up from Last Projection
Perhaps this has something to do with why mass shootings are increasing; 35% to 40% of under 50 years old US poll respondents support assassination of politicians that they consider dangerous; what could possibly go wrong?
Enjoy watching the video of Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) take Xiden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to the woodshed. This is such bad news for 'Crats; most Americans know that the Xiden administration has abetted fuel price increases to crush fossil fuels.
Poll: Most Believe Biden Admin Allowing Gas Prices to Rise to Get Americans off Fossil Fuels
WHO’S GUILTY OF INCITING INSURRECTION?
Has it not occurred to them – especially when faced with the loss of the House & Senate in a few months -- that the Democrat Senate Majority Leader can be seen as guilty of inciting insurrection that includes assassination attempts of a Supreme Court Justice?
WE MUST GIVE UKRAINE THE TIME TO WIN
“Putin comparing himself to Peter the Great (6/10): ‘During the war with Sweden, Peter the Great didn't conquer anything, he took back what had always belonged to us, even though all of Europe recognized it as Sweden's. It seems now it's our turn to get our lands back.’ Beware when small men acquire great power and grand dreams. Putin is a thug, a petty thief and chekist who believes he is a mighty emperor. End his imperial fantasy now because his ambitions begin in Ukraine, they won't end there.” –Garry Kasparov, World Chess Champion
We must have the patience to support the Ukrainians. A strategically bankrupt, selfish and impatient French approach will only encourage future aggression.
The Ukrainians have fought for the right to determine how this war ends. We must give them time to retake all their territory and inflict a military defeat on Russia. If that also humiliates Russia, that is the price they must pay for their brutality, destruction and unwarranted aggression.
We must prove that the democracies of the world have the resilience, unity and perseverance to resist the coercion and aggression of all of this era’s techno-authoritarian regimes.
BADAB-E-SURT
The “Springs of Intensity” in Persian are a series travertine terraces in remote northern Iran of such impressionist beauty they look like a masterpiece of Claude Monet. For thousands of years, water flowing down a mountainside from two hot mineral springs depositing carbonates have built these natural multi-colored staircases.
Iran is an enormous country – almost the size of Alaska, four times the size of California – filled with wonders, natural and cultural. We were welcomed in every part of the country in our exploration of it in 2014. While the current political climate does not allow that today, the day will come before long when we will return. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #130 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MR PRESIDENT!
Today, June 14, 2022, we celebrate the 76th birthday of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. In our hearts, he is our President to this day. Thank you for your love of America, Mr. President, and all that you have done for our country. Happy Birthday!
FLAG DAY SKYDIVE
What better Glimpse could I post than this on Flag Day, June 14. I’m on the right, my skydiving buddy Chris Wentzel is on the left. The jump was performed at the Skydive Perris drop zone in Perris, California. The photo was taken by famed skydiver cameraman Norman Kent. Long may Old Glory wave over the country we love and cherish. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #211 photo ©Jack Wheeler)