A LETTER FROM A YOUNG ADVENTURER
Dear Dr. Wheeler,I am a 16 year old Boy Scout from Kansas and I recently read your book "The Adventurers Guide". I wholeheartedly agree with your opinion about adventure, but the only roadblock that seems to get in my way is lack of money. I would appreciate it a lot if you could give me some insight on how you dealt with this problem, and how I might overcome it. Also, I have read on various web sites that you still lead 2-3 expeditions per year, and I was wondering where they would be to and the age limit, cost, and other requirements.Sincerely, Nathan MontgomeryDear Nathan -- It means a lot to me that you were able to gain some value out of a book I wrote so many years ago. And all during those years I have been trying to figure out the answer to your question. Basically it is a choice: discover some way to make money doing adventurous things, or have a business that makes enough money that you can do adventurous things in your spare time. Both are not easy.
AN EPITOME OF EVIL
It was 30 years ago, during a conversation at his brownstone in Brooklyn, that Dennis “The Wizard” Turner concisely explained to me what he thought of liberals. “I honestly think,” he said, “that Liberals are more disgusting than Communists.” Dennis’s observation was brought to mind when I read a message from Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition . Lou was telling me about acts of depravity so unimaginable that I thought not even liberals were capable of them. I was wrong.
IDENTITY THEFT: “PHISHING” FOR VICTIMS
Identity theft is prevalent in the news now. The thieves use Spyware: worms to monitor keystrokes and steal passwords. They’ve advanced way beyond the old fashioned ways, like searching your dumpster looking for discarded receipts. Now they’ve become more brazen than ever, using “phishing,” or emails pretending to come from a known and trusted source. Some of their messages are so silly, that victims who fall for them can only be called willing, given all the publicity about security and identity theft that wafts through the airwaves daily.
WHAT OTHER CONCLUSION WOULD YOU COME TO?
I have known Senator John McCain for 33 years. I have known Senator John Kerry for the same length of time. Sen. McCain I met in person, in a prisoner of war camp. In the Spring of 1971, Senator McCain and I were in a camp the Communists told us was a punishment camp in which we had been placed because we were "reactionaries" with "bad attitudes." In the same camp, I came to know about Senator Kerry, but only by reputation. In the 2000 presidential election I supported John McCain because, from my personal knowledge of him gained in that camp, I knew that he was fit to serve as President. In the 2004 presidential election, again based upon my knowledge gained in that camp, I oppose the election of John Kerry because I believe that he is unfit to serve as President.
WIN THE WAR, NOT THE “WAR OF IDEAS”
The debate on "how to win the war of ideas" regarding terrorism is a trap, because it diverts our attention and our energies from the main thing, which is winning the war on terrorism. It's an intellectual amusement, and it gets in our way. As that great Machiavellian Vince Lombardi reminds us, winning is the only thing.That's why the public figure who has best understood the nature of the war, and has best defined our enemy, is George W. Bush. Of all people! He had it right from the start: We have been attacked by many terrorist groups and many countries that support the terrorists. It makes no sense to distinguish between them, and so we will not. We're going after them all.Yes, I know he seems to lose his bearings from time to time, especially when the deep thinkers and the sheikhs and the Europeans and Kofi Annan and John Paul II insist we can't win the hearts and minds of the Middle East unless we first solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. But he has repeatedly pulled himself out of that trap very nicely, and he invariably does so in terms that show he has a uniquely deep understanding of our enemies.George Bush says the way to win the war is to liberate the Middle East from the tyrants who now govern it and sponsor terrorism. And that's exactly right.
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF JOHN KERRY
Here's a confession that my long-time readers will find as no surprise: the possibility that John Kerry will defeat George Bush in November has never seriously occurred to me.The Bush Campaign should of course act otherwise, act as if the race will be frighteningly close and fight tenaciously for every electoral vote. Yet I remain convinced today during the Boston Yawn-Fest as I have always been that the election will be a Bush Blow-Out. Kerry will be lucky to carry Massachusetts (remember, the most popular politician in the Bay State now is conservative Republican Governor Mitt Romney) and perhaps a few others - that’s it.Every day now another political negative is piled on to the Everest of Negatives Kerry must and cannot scale. He reminds me of the mathematician’s joke about the guy who was so negative that whenever he walked into a room people would ask, “Who left?”Kerry has so much going against him you don’t where to start. Let’s begin with the Democrats’ total lack of enthusiasm for him. They are energized only by what they are against: Dubya. This a re-run of 1996 Dole-Clinton in obverse. Loathing Bill Clinton was not enough. Not an emotional ounce of that loathing could be alchemized into passion for Bob Dole. So the pathological hatred the MichaelMoorecrats have for George Bush doesn’t count at the ballot box. They really should have held the Dem Convention in Hollywood because all that’s on display is Potemkin Passion: hoopla and cheers as phony as a Hollywood set façade.
SECRET SERVICE INSIGHTS
What follows is an unedited interview with a recently retired member of the Secret Service who was assigned to guard the lives of several US Presidents and their families, regarding how he and his colleagues were and are being treated by Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Laura Bush, and President Bush ---JW
FASCIST OBESITY
Let’s hope Medicare slipped in its ruling on July 15 that obesity will now be looked upon as a government-recognized illness while George Bush’s attention was distracted elsewhere (like dealing with the latest Al Qaeda threats) - so that GW will squash it before it goes into effect. Such a ruling is true fascism at work.Such rulings would be expected under a Kerry-Edwards Trial Lawyer Presidency, giving trial lawyers carte blanche to sue any number of food providers. But it’s fascism in any presidency. Fascism is characterized not by government ownership of industries (that’s socialism), but stifling over-regulation of industries - and with the collusion of the regulated industries for the purpose of throttling competition from upstarts.The perfect case of such fascist collusion is between the FDA and the big pharmaceutical companies. The FDA conducts an unending war upon dietary supplements because they are so much cheaper than pharmaceutical alternatives. Here’s an example.
ROPE AND CEMENT
On July 26, The London Telegraph ran the absolutely positively most delicious story I have seen in many an al-ilah (the moon, worshipped by pre-Islamic Arabs, and contracted into allah by Mohammed).You know that famous quote of Lenin’s epitomizing his contempt for capitalism? “When it comes time to hang the capitalists, they will fight among themselves to sell us the rope.” You wonder what Lenin would say to fellow Marxist Yasser Arafat.It turns out that Palestinian businessmen with connections to Arafat and other officials in the “Palestinian Authority” are making millions of dollars selling cement to the Israeli Government to build the Security Wall. Is this too beautiful or what?
THE FALLUJAH FLY-TRAP
What the liberal press won’t tell you is the astoundingly good news coming out of Iraq now. An example is a series of raids by the Iraqi police in Baghdad last week that netted at least 525 criminals. Since Saddam Hussein emptied his jails of some 70,000 hard-core criminals on the eve of the war, the Iraqi police have a long way to go to restore law and order. But the skill with which the raids were pulled off, and the courage displayed by the cops indicate they are off to a very good start. But best of all is that foreign jihadi terrorists who have come to Iraq in response to al Qaeda's call are giving up and going home.