THE WORLD’S MOST INTERESTING ISLAND
People from Europe have been living here for 8,000 years. They taught themselves how to build the world’s oldest free-standing structures, carving out gigantic stone blocks with antler horn 1,000 years before Egyptians built the pyramids.
The ancient Greeks thought the island so enchanting that Homer’s Odyssey sang of Odysseus (Ulysses) being under the spell of the nymph Calypso here for 7 years.
Medieval fortresses and walled cities, spectacular baroque architecture, stunning scenery with hidden sea coves in crystal clear cobalt blue water, and of course, the gigantic megalithic temples built so many thousands of years ago – for here is where Western Civilization began. And here, a few centuries ago, is where Western Civilization was saved from extinction.
Come here and you’ll be enchanted too.
PUTIN’S SHAKESPEAREAN DEMONS
Geopolitics will take you only so far in explaining foreign affairs. The more important element is Shakespearean. Ukraine is a perfect example.
Ukraine is engulfed by Russia on the north and east, its history and language entwined with its neighbor’s. But the greater part of the story concerns the personality of Vladimir Putin. The geopolitical argument that Mr. Putin invaded Ukraine because the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was expanding completely disregards the Russian leader’s Shakespearean demons.
Mr. Putin’s decision to invade represented not the collective thinking of the Russian elite but his own thoughts. Given Mr. Putin’s paranoia, isolation and delusions of grandeur, the question arises: Would Europe today be at peace with Mr. Putin’s Russia had NATO not expanded east after the Cold War and had there been a Western guarantee of recognizing Russian interests in Ukraine? Certainly not.
BEST OF THE FORUM
Last Monday (3/27), Joel Wade wrote his temporarily last Keeping Your Sanity column for us, as he focuses on completing his next book, Mastering The Emotional Side of Money. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Joel for his words of wisdom for the recent years now, as coping with them has not been easy and he has helping so many of us do so.
Thanks so much, Joel! And keep us posted on your book’s progress – hopefully you can post excerpts on TTP?
Meanwhile, to take Joel’s place, I thought what could be better than to share what your fellow TTPers are giving us on the Forum? You know I’ve always thought the Forum was one of the most valuable parts of TTP given TTPers’ extraordinary knowledge and insight.
So here are two examples of the Best of the Forum – not the best to imply others are less so, but certainly examples of what your fellow TTPers can contribute to the TTP membership. Here are Mark Deuce and Mellie responding on the HFR 03/24/23 Forum. Thanks to you both! Blue skies… Jack
THE EYELASH AT DAWN
The first of The Seven Pearls of Shing is called Mijnon or The Eyelash. It’s at 5,300 ft in the Fann Mountains of Western Tajikistan. At dawn, the air is still and crystal clear as is the water. The surface of the lake becomes a mesmerizing mirror with the early light reflecting the vertical cliffs above while penetrating to the translucent lake bed below. It is an epic example of the boundless beauty of our world.
Yet Tajikistan is only one of the “Stans” of Central Asia, an ultimate of the world’s mysterious, remote, and wondrous places. There are four others: Kazakhstan, Kyrghistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan. A number of your fellow TTPers have been there with me and can tell you what a fabulously life-memorable adventure it is to explore all five.
We’ll be there again this September: The Heart of Central Asia: September 2-21, 2023. Be with us with your loved one, your children, or grandchildren and you’ll all have an experience to treasure for all of your lives. Click on the link to see for yourself. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #263 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
HALF-FULL REPORT 03/31/23
It is All Fake, and Gay
Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day.
Globalists showed signs of panic this week as they rushed to regain narrative control. Another absolute scumbag shot up yet another school, this time in Nashville. The garbage, whose name should be erased from history, left an anti-Christian manifesto. As globalists insist, transitioning is not the path to joy. Instead, it is the path to rage and profound misery for everyone involved.
Who might have predicted that pumping hormones into the mentally ill and then cramming propaganda into their skulls might lead to problems?
Well, problems there are, and they will be with us for decades as it is the policy of the United States to promote homosexuality and transgenderism as a substitute for free trade. It is not working, will never work, and cannot be made to work. Just as LBJ’s policies remain a millstone around America’s neck, so will Obama’s policy of promoting an intersectional coalition of minority groups rotating about a gay pride axis e with us for decades.
Sure, we are experiencing misdirections. The Trump indictment is an attempt to salvage the transexual cultural meme. The banking crisis is growing as the Fed appears to abandon the dollar to inflation to save Biden in 2024.
But these are chump changes for the actual cover-up. Let’s see what those behind the curtain are desperate to hide from the masses.
Bolsonaro returned to Brazil, which reminds the world that the thread weaves through Brasilia as the second republic after the United States to fall to election fraud this decade. In Brazil, however, the world has learned the identity of the Pale Horse—the bringer of death to constitutional governments of free men.
THE PROBLEM
FLASHBACK FRIDAY – WITH MBUTI PYGMIES IN THE CONGO
August, 1971. The gentle Mbuti people live in the Ituri rainforest, one of the world’s densest jungles, in northeastern DR Congo. They are among the most ancient of all human populations, with their ancestors having hunted in these forests for over 60,000 years. The tallest among them is under five feet.
It was on my first visit to Africa that I was able to spend time with them. They live in scattered bands of a few dozen each, always on the move in search of game, sleeping in small makeshift huts of branches and leaves, and far away from villages of Bantus who always try to enslave them.
Their music is hypnotic. To the beat of drums of hollowed-out logs, they sing with a polyphonic complexity that is extraordinary. I’ll never forget the performance they gave for me. Alas, no tape recorder – much less videocam back then! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #65 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
THE HYPOGEUM OF MALTA
The extraordinary rock-cut necropolis known as the Hypogeum (hi-po-gee-um) is the only prehistoric underground temple in the world. For over a thousand years (3500-2500 BC), the temple and burial complex (eventually housing 7,000 skeletons) was carved out and down – dozens of chambers, with rock-cut replicas of above-ground temples including simulated corbelled roofs. (A corbelled roof uses stone slabs that progressively overlap each other until the room is roofed over.)
The Megalthic Maltese learned to cut from the limestone bedrock with tools of stone and antler horn for they had no metal. These folks figured out all by themselves how to build extraordinary temples to their gods and goddesses close to six thousand years ago. Nobody taught them. They were the first. Only one reason Malta is one of our planet’s most fascinating places. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #109 photo ©Jack Wheeler)
SKYE’S LINKS 03/30/23
Death Threat, White Powder Mailed to Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg's Office.
Late today (3/30), Alvin conned the grand jury into perpetuating the maskirovka farce, which will be eventually laughed out of court, and explode Trump’s ratings in the polls to Jupiter. The headlines of the moment are huge, but actually, this is hilarious.
Trump Indicted After Manhattan DA Probe For Hush Money Payments
What did the ‘Crats and the MSM want to distract you from noticing? How about…
This is such a terrific Skye’s Links – all the way to the voice of optimism must-read at the end. Welcome and enjoy!
IT WILL NEVER BE ENOUGH FOR THE TRANSVESTITE CROWD
[Note: edited to make it clear that “trans” actually means “transvestite”]
I try to bring humor to everything. I’m a comedian. Comics try to find humor in the worst of conditions. Yet not only can I not see the “funny” in the Nashville shooting, I don’t want to seek it.
The “trans” [more accurately the transvestite] movement asked for tolerance, then acceptance. Then they just wanted to use the restroom of their preference for their safety, despite a lack of violence against trans people and a bushel full of trans attacks on kids. We allowed it. We should regret it. A lot.
People have lost their jobs for refusing to play make-believe with the small portion of the country plagued by a mental malady called “gender dysphoria.”
Despite all the ass-kissing the trans [transvestite] crowd has enjoyed, they feel they are being “genocided” out of existence. So much so that they are planning a “day of trans vengeance.” This just days after one of them slaughtered little children in cold blood in Nashville.