THE IDEAL ESCAPE HATCH
What would be an ideal place to escape from all the lunacy washing over our country – for a few days to a second home?
Let’s see… it would have to be a First World country with all the civilized amenities of modern life, and a cultured, educated, and welcoming people many, many of whom speak English.
A First World country that brushes aside all Woke nuttiness engulfing the US as silly rubbish to be ignored, and traditional Christian family values revered instead. That is not much farther away than a US cross-country flight. That has Goldilocks weather, not too hot, not too cold. That has sunsets in the ocean, fabulous food and wine, incredible castles in the sky, history that’s thousands of years old yet so hip and current it’s the cultural capital of its continent.
We’ve had Glimpses of this place before: The Europe That’s Still There, and The Portuguese Riviera. Yes, the Ideal Escape Hatch for us is Portugal – a quick overnight flight getting there, a morning flight return.
For 10 days in October of 2022, Rebel and I conducted a Portugal Exploration for TTPers. Rebel and I and your fellow TTPers will be doing it again in a few days from now. Just click on Portugal Exploration – May 3 -12, 2024 -- you owe it to yourself to be entranced by the photos, for a glimpse of this ideal place. (Glimpses of our Breathtaking World #157 ©photo Jack Wheeler)
CHINA’S MILITARY DEVELOPING SPACE ASSETS AT “BREATHTAKING SPEED”
Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command, recently warned about China’s “breathtakingly fast” development of space military capabilities following his trips to South Korea and Japan.
“We are seriously focused at U.S. Space Command on our pacing challenge, which is the People’s Republic of China,” Gen. Whiting told reporters during a call from Japan on April 24.
“The People’s Republic of China is moving at breathtaking speed in space, and they are rapidly developing a range of counter-space weapons to hold at risk our space capabilities.
They’re also using space to make their terrestrial forces—their army, their navy, their marine corps, their air force—more precise, more lethal, and more far-ranging.”
WHERE DID ALL THE STOCKS GO?
The number of public companies has fallen fast.
Since the late 1990s, the number of US publicly traded companies has plunged from about 8K in 1996 to about 4.6K in 2022. (It’s bounced back a bit more recently.)
How come?
There’s no shortage of theories about why this has occurred.
A favorite, among American executives, is that new regulations that followed fraud and accounting scandals of the early 2000s (best embodied by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002) simply made going public too costly, especially for smaller companies.
The self-serving conclusion that such inconveniences ought to be done away with is heavily implied.
This doesn’t make much sense, as the number of public companies had been tumbling for years before those new rules came into existence, much less went into force.
ALBANIA’S BLUE EYE
This is not a Monet painting. It is a real photograph looking straight down upon the swirling clear blue water of the Syri i Kaltër – Blue Eye – Spring burbling up from a deep karst hole of the Bistricë River in the mountains of southern Albania.
The water surges up with such force that scuba divers trying to determine the spring’s depth could only get down to 50 meters (164ft) and no more, thus the depth of the underwater source is unknown. The water is cristal clear, drinkably pure, and very cold. Found between the World Heritage mountain town of Gjirokaster and the Adriatic beach resort town of Saranda, it’s a hypnotic, mesmerizing experience. The Blue Eye is the beauty of nature at its most entrancing. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #293, photo ©Jack Wheeler)
FIXING THE BLUE STATES
[This Monday’s Archive was written on November 24, 2004, reflecting thinking of conservative think-tanks of how to expand the red-blue state divide in the former’s favor. Now, 20 years later, this coming November will likely increase the divide, perhaps even substantially, so their plan to fix blue state Dems may well be made real by a Trump White House. Read on to learn how hilarious is what they mean by “fix.” It’s a great plan!]
TTP, November 24, 2004
We’ve all had a good laugh at the moonbat barking of Blue State Liberals about seceding from Red State America. To keep the fun going, let’s flip the secession meme around and talk about red counties seceding from the blue states in which they are politically imprisoned.
An inspection of the map above shows that Blue States like California, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan are mostly colored red – that is, a substantial majority of the counties in those states voted for Bush. How could they secede to join a red state?
Red counties in blue states could tell their neighbor blue counties they don’t have to put up with bible-thumping racist redneck homophobe ignoramuses too dense not to understand that liberals are a superior form of human evolution with the moral authority to demand blind obedience.
FLASHBACK FRIDAY: THE HOLE OF SORROWS
Let’s flashback 2.2 million Fridays to 4,000 BC, six thousand years ago, when the original inhabitants of post-Ice Age Ireland erected this megalithic “dolmen” or portal tomb. It consists of three standing portal stones suspending a massive horizontal capstone, the limestone entrance to a tomb originally covered with an earthen mound.
Eventually the mound weathered away revealing the stone “skeleton” which was a sacred shrine for the Megalithic Irish all the way to the medieval Celts even though in a remote barren rocky region of far western Ireland found now in County Clare.
When it was finally excavated in 1986, the remains of 33 humans were found in the burial chamber below who lived between 3,800 and 3,200 BC. Thus it became known as “The Hole of Sorrows.”
When you come to gaze upon The Hole of Sorrows, you realize that this massive stone structure, one thousand four hundred years older than Egypt’s Great Pyramid, has stood here for all of recorded human history and beyond. All the kings and empires of all history have come and gone, while it still stands. It’s megalithic creators of millennia ago would be proud. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #219 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
TAKEN 2024
HALF-FULL REPORT 04/26/24
Losing Control
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In the heart of a democratic society, the power of knowledge and information must be firmly in the hands of the people. By having the freedom to access accurate and diverse information, individuals can make informed decisions that shape their lives and hold their elected officials accountable. This fosters a deep connection between the people and their government, ensuring that the needs and desires of the citizens are heard and addressed. Moreover, the free flow of information nurtures transparency and openness, vital elements that uphold the foundation of our democratic societies. When information is controlled by governments or other powerful entities, it can be manipulated to sway public opinion, silence dissenting voices, and maintain a stranglehold on power. This dark path can lead to corruption, abuse of power, and countless other negative consequences. Therefore, it is absolutely essential for free men to seize control of their own information, guarding the health and well-being of our democracy.
Come on over to the HFR, a new age is dawning, and the old ways just cant seem to cope.
THE SULTAN ASTRONOMER
You’re looking at something historically and scientifically astonishing. It is what remains of an astronomical observatory built 600 years ago – in 1420 – by a Sultan in Central Asia who loved science and mathematics more than war and conquest.
It was in Samarkand, the most fabled oasis of the Silk Road, that Sultan Ulugh Beg built his circular observatory, three stories high of white marble. All that’s left today is part of the underground sextant that you see in the photo.
For the full story of what he achieved, with many more photos, click on The Sultan Astronomer in TTP I wrote in 2020.
This Glimpse is to whet your appetite to learn about this amazing Sultan and his scientific achievements.
It’s also to whet your appetite for joining your fellow TTPers on our Heart of Central Asia expedition this September. The story of The Sultan Astronomer is but one example of what awaits you in exploring Central Asia, an enrichment of your life beyond description. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #212 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 04/25/24
I hope you’ve taken your heart medicine because the RNC seems to be doing something useful at last – complete shocker. Truth is being spoken more often and louder by conservatives, SCOTUS has handed down another rational decision, and the ‘Crats are beginning to experience some good pushback. Anti-semite lefties are already planning social rioting after the election (though that’s nothing new), and calls for information are getting louder and more demanding of information from Fauci and the NIH.
Set some time aside to read what The Mises Institute has provided: First, a nice summary of Mises’ Six Lessons on Economic Policy, and then a free pdf of his whole book. This will come in handy because we’re facing a worsening economy, but you’ll forget that when you read Biden’s claim that his Uncle Bosie, in spite of what the military records say,
was a man of good taste. Dive in!
Finally, it looks as if the RNC is doing something useful:
Trump Campaign and RNC Reveal Massive Election Integrity Program