To The Point Newsletter

To The Point Article Alert - August 11th 2010

2010-08-11T07:58:39Z

We are notifying you when new articles are now up on the To The Point home page. They are:

OUR KRYTOCRATIC GOVERNMENT, by Jack Kelly

AN INCONVENIENT ECONOMIC TRUTH, by Richard Rahn

CZAR VLAD IS GETTING SCORCHED, by Ralph Peters

Log on to To The Point at www.tothepointnews.com to read them.

Subscribe to To The Point Newsletter via email by entering your email address below:

Good News from Bulgaria Full Itinerary - RESEND

2008-08-19T16:19:54Z

Dear TTP'er,

Last month in To The Point I talked about the Good News From Bulgaria. The bottom line was:

There are more opportunities to make a lot of money in Bulgaria than almost anywhere else in the world.

Bulgaria became a full member of the EU in January 2007, qualifying for enormous amounts of EU subsidies to bring its government services and economy up to EU standards. A good portion of the $10 billion in EU aid Bulgaria will be receiving over the next five years will be to provide a 50% subsidy for private foreign investment in the Bulgarian economy.

That economy is growing exponentially because Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev is determined to maximize the attractiveness of his country to international investors. Thanks to him, Bulgaria now has a 10% flat tax on income, 0% (yes, zero) capital gains tax, 100% foreign ownership of land and businesses, and no limits on repatriation of profits.

Investment in agricultural land, if one knows how to properly consolidate it, will be worth five times more in three to five years – which is doubled to ten times due to the 50% EU subsidy of the investment.

There are many other examples: food production, canning factories, cheese and meat processing, real estate development. There is enormous potential for "medical tourism" - international certified state-of-the-art medical facilities for cosmetic surgery, sports medicine, laparoscopic surgery, for which there is an average two-year wait in Western Europe. All of these investments can qualify for a 50% EU subsidy.

So - want to come to Bulgaria with me and learn about it all?

I'll be taking a small group of 8-10 qualified folks to Bulgaria at the end of September. In one week - leave home Friday September 26, back home Sunday October 5 - we'll meet Prime Minister Stanishev and his key officials, plus the country's top businessmen. We'll tour the country to see the best ag-land, plus tourist wonders like the magic medieval capital of Veliko Turnovo, the 3,000 year-old Black Sea now-luxury resort of Nesebar, the monasteries of Troyan and Rila.

We'll also consume copious amounts of Bulgarian wine. Who says you can't make a lot of money and have a lot of fun at the same time?

It'll cost $7750. You get to Sofia, Bulgaria's capital on 9/26 and I'll take care of everything else. If you want to come, don't waste any time letting me know: drjack@tothepointnews.com.

I hope I’ll be seeing you in Sofia.

Jack Wheeler

BULGARIA INVESTMENT EXPEDITION ITINERARY: September 26-October 5, 2008

Led by Dr. Jack Wheeler and Alex Alexiev, senior advisor to former president of Bulgaria Philip Dimitrov

Friday, Sept. 26: Depart US on overnight flight for Europe connecting city (e.g., London, Paris, Rome or Frankfurt)

Saturday, Sept. 27: Arrive Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, mid-afternoon via connecting city. Transfer to Raddison Grand Hotel. 7pm reception and dinner. Guest speaker, Ilian Vassilev, president, Deloitte Touche Bulgaria.

Sunday, Sept. 28: 10am departure via luxury coach for Sevlievo, a small town (30,000) in northcentral Bulgaria that has become prosperous due to foreign investment in local industry led by American Standard. Enroute we have lunch in Troyan and visit the World Heritage site of the Troyan Monastery.

After checking in to the Sevlievo Plaza Hotel, we visit a state-of-the-art private hospital to discuss opportunities for medical tourism. We then visit a hunting lodge favored by European big game trophy hunters, and the studio of world famous Bulgarian artist Nikolay Panayotov.

Reception and dinner with the Mayor of Sevlievo Yordan Stoikov and local businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Monday, Sept. 29: 10am meeting with American Standard executives to discuss their experience in Bulgaria. After lunch, depart for Veliko Tarnovo, capital of medieval Bulgaria. 2pm meeting with Mayor of Tarnovo Ruven Rashev, and the Mayor of the nearby town Gabrovo, Bogomil Belchev. 3 pm meeting with local businessmen (tourism, agriculture, high-tech). 4pm visit to medieval Tsarevets Fortress. 7pm, reception and dinner with Mayor Rashev and local dignitaries.

After dinner, return to Sevlievo Plaza Hotel (30 min. drive).

Tuesday, Sept. 30: 9am depart for Dobrich, center of Dobrudja, the most fertile grain producing region in Bulgaria. 11am-1pm working lunch with Professor Dimitri Manov and agro-business executives from the region. Dr. Manov is the country’s top wheat scientist. Discussion of opportunities in purchasing/consolidating ag- land, grain, meat and dairy production

1pm meeting with Dimitar Manov, owner and CEO of Cibola Inc. a Sofia-based consulting company specializing in agro business and especially utilizing EU subsidy funds for it.

2:30pm depart for Varna on the Black Sea. Check in Grand Hotel Varna. Varna, Bulgaria’s largest port, an international beach resort and the country’s third largest city, was known in antiquity as Odessos. It was founded by Miletians in 570 BC and is one of the oldest cities in Europe.

5-6 pm tour of Varna. 6-7:30pm cocktails with members of American-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce. Briefing on business opportunities in Varna (tourism, food-processing, transportation, communications etc). 7 pm dinner with Mayor of Varna Kiril Yordanov and city foreign investment officials.

Wednesday, Oct. 1: 8-9 am breakfast meeting with local entrepreneurs. 9-11am tour of beach resort complexes near Varna (Golden Sands, Evsinograd). 11am drive to Nesebar, an ancient Black Sea town and a World Heritage Site located on a small peninsula and the site of numerous historical monuments and churches dating back to pre-Hellenistic civilizations. 12pm lunch, followed by walking tour of Nesebar.

2:30pm depart for Plovdiv. Enroute visit to state of the art dairy farm in Stara Zagora.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city, is one of Europe’s oldest cities, a contemporary of Troy (1500 BC) and much older than Rome. Captured by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC and renamed Philippopolis, it was a prosperous Roman center known as Trimontium.

6pm. – Check in Trimontium Princess Hotel. 6:30 dinner with Mayor of Plovdiv Slavcho Atanasov and city businessmen, followed by a walk around Old Town Plovdiv.

Thursday, Oct. 2: 9am business tour of Plovdiv. 10:30 depart for Koprivshtitsa and the Valley of the Roses. Koprivshtitsa is a town-museum with the best preserved examples of Bulgarian Revival Era architecture in the country. 11:30am, walking tour of Koprivshtitsa and lunch. 2pm, coach tour through world famous Valley of the Roses where much of the world’s rose oil for perfumes is produced, including visits to the valley’s top wineries.

5pm depart for Sofia, 6pm check in Raddison Grand Hotel. 7pm dinner with mayor of Sofia.

Friday, Oct. 3: 8-9: 30am, hotel breakfast meeting with Sofia businessmen, and Bulgarian Minister of Transportation on investment opportunities in transportation sector. 10am-12n, meeting with Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, followed by meeting with Cabinet Ministers. 12:30, working lunch with Peter Bozhkov, a lawyer specializing in ag-land purchase and consolidation, and Kamen Kolchev, chairman of ELANA Agricultural Land Fund listed on the Sofia Stock Exchange. Briefing on current opportunities in agro business.

2pm, interviews with press, news agencies for those interested.

4-6 pm, walking tour of downtown Sofia, including Alexander Nevski Cathedral, site of largest exhibition of orthodox icons.

7pm, dinner with Prime Minister Stanishev and government and business leaders.

Saturday, Oct. 4: 9am depart for day trip to the World Heritage Site of Rila Monastery and the international ski resort of Borovets (real estate, sports medicine opportunities), both in the mountains south of Sofia. Return late afternoon. 7pm Farewell Dinner.

Sunday, Oct. 5: Depart from Sofia for flight back to U.S. [A mid-morning departure to a variety of European connecting cities will enable a same-day late afternoon/early evening arrival in U.S. home city.]

Cost:
$7750 per person, single occupancy unless double occupancy requested. Includes all transfers, accommodations, meals with group, ground transportation, all activities and meetings as outlined in itinerary.

Important note: Meetings with any specific government official cannot be guaranteed.

Cost does not include international air travel to and from Sofia, alcoholic beverages, personal expenses such as laundry and phone, passport expenses, trip cancellation and medical insurance.

Payments

Deposit of $1000 upon booking. $500 non-refundable. Balance due by September 1st, 2008. Refund in full (less $500) if cancellation in writing before September 1st. Refund after September 1st only if acceptable replacement found. Trip Cancellation Insurance highly recommended.

Requirements

Normal good health, normal capacity for walking. US passport valid until at least January 5, 2009. No visa required for US citizens. No vaccinations required. Positive cheerful attitude. No whining and incessant complaining will be tolerated. Travel often necessitates unexpected difficulties and schedule alterations. Participants are expected to accept such necessities should they arise with helpful understanding.

Contact

Deposits and payments sent to: Wheeler Expeditions, 611 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Suite 429, Washington DC 20003. Phone 703-992-4529. Email: drjack@tothepointnews.com for bank wiring instructions or any questions.

For travel to Bulgaria, travel medical insurance, and trip cancellation insurance, we recommend Cristina Gifuni at McCabe World Travel in McLean VA, 703-762-5050, cristina@mccabeworld.com.

Subscribe to To The Point Newsletter via email by entering your email address below:

Good News from Bulgaria Full Itinerary

2008-08-19T11:14:56Z

Dear TTP'er,

Last month in To The Point I talked about the Good News From Bulgaria. The bottom line was:

There are more opportunities to make a lot of money in Bulgaria than almost anywhere else in the world.

Bulgaria became a full member of the EU in January 2007, qualifying for enormous amounts of EU subsidies to bring its government services and economy up to EU standards. A good portion of the $10 billion in EU aid Bulgaria will be receiving over the next five years will be to provide a 50% subsidy for private foreign investment in the Bulgarian economy.

That economy is growing exponentially because Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev is determined to maximize the attractiveness of his country to international investors. Thanks to him, Bulgaria now has a 10% flat tax on income, 0% (yes, zero) capital gains tax, 100% foreign ownership of land and businesses, and no limits on repatriation of profits.

Investment in agricultural land, if one knows how to properly consolidate it, will be worth five times more in three to five years – which is doubled to ten times due to the 50% EU subsidy of the investment.

There are many other examples: food production, canning factories, cheese and meat processing, real estate development. There is enormous potential for "medical tourism" - international certified state-of-the-art medical facilities for cosmetic surgery, sports medicine, laparoscopic surgery, for which there is an average two-year wait in Western Europe. All of these investments can qualify for a 50% EU subsidy.

So - want to come to Bulgaria with me and learn about it all?

I'll be taking a small group of 8-10 qualified folks to Bulgaria at the end of September. In one week - leave home Friday September 26, back home Sunday October 5 - we'll meet Prime Minister Stanishev and his key officials, plus the country's top businessmen. We'll tour the country to see the best ag-land, plus tourist wonders like the magic medieval capital of Veliko Turnovo, the 3,000 year-old Black Sea now-luxury resort of Nesebar, the monasteries of Troyan and Rila.

We'll also consume copious amounts of Bulgarian wine. Who says you can't make a lot of money and have a lot of fun at the same time?

It'll cost $7750. You get to Sofia, Bulgaria's capital on 9/26 and I'll take care of everything else. If you want to come, don't waste any time letting me know: drjack@tothepointnews.com.

I hope I’ll be seeing you in Sofia.

Jack Wheeler

BULGARIA INVESTMENT EXPEDITION ITINERARY: September 26-October 5, 2008

Led by Dr. Jack Wheeler and Alex Alexiev, senior advisor to former president of Bulgaria Philip Dimitrov

Friday, Sept. 26: Depart US on overnight flight for Europe connecting city (e.g., London, Paris, Rome or Frankfurt)

Saturday, Sept. 27: Arrive Sofia, capital of Bulgaria, mid-afternoon via connecting city. Transfer to Raddison Grand Hotel. 7pm reception and dinner. Guest speaker, Ilian Vassilev, president, Deloitte Touche Bulgaria.

Sunday, Sept. 28: 10am departure via luxury coach for Sevlievo, a small town (30,000) in northcentral Bulgaria that has become prosperous due to foreign investment in local industry led by American Standard. Enroute we have lunch in Troyan and visit the World Heritage site of the Troyan Monastery.

After checking in to the Sevlievo Plaza Hotel, we visit a state-of-the-art private hospital to discuss opportunities for medical tourism. We then visit a hunting lodge favored by European big game trophy hunters, and the studio of world famous Bulgarian artist Nikolay Panayotov.

Reception and dinner with the Mayor of Sevlievo Yordan Stoikov and local businessmen and entrepreneurs.

Monday, Sept. 29: 10am meeting with American Standard executives to discuss their experience in Bulgaria. After lunch, depart for Veliko Tarnovo, capital of medieval Bulgaria. 2pm meeting with Mayor of Tarnovo Ruven Rashev, and the Mayor of the nearby town Gabrovo, Bogomil Belchev. 3 pm meeting with local businessmen (tourism, agriculture, high-tech). 4pm visit to medieval Tsarevets Fortress. 7pm, reception and dinner with Mayor Rashev and local dignitaries.

After dinner, return to Sevlievo Plaza Hotel (30 min. drive).

Tuesday, Sept. 30: 9am depart for Dobrich, center of Dobrudja, the most fertile grain producing region in Bulgaria. 11am-1pm working lunch with Professor Dimitri Manov and agro-business executives from the region. Dr. Manov is the country’s top wheat scientist. Discussion of opportunities in purchasing/consolidating ag- land, grain, meat and dairy production

1pm meeting with Dimitar Manov, owner and CEO of Cibola Inc. a Sofia-based consulting company specializing in agro business and especially utilizing EU subsidy funds for it.

2:30pm depart for Varna on the Black Sea. Check in Grand Hotel Varna. Varna, Bulgaria’s largest port, an international beach resort and the country’s third largest city, was known in antiquity as Odessos. It was founded by Miletians in 570 BC and is one of the oldest cities in Europe.

5-6 pm tour of Varna. 6-7:30pm cocktails with members of American-Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce. Briefing on business opportunities in Varna (tourism, food-processing, transportation, communications etc). 7 pm dinner with Mayor of Varna Kiril Yordanov and city foreign investment officials.

Wednesday, Oct. 1: 8-9 am breakfast meeting with local entrepreneurs. 9-11am tour of beach resort complexes near Varna (Golden Sands, Evsinograd). 11am drive to Nesebar, an ancient Black Sea town and a World Heritage Site located on a small peninsula and the site of numerous historical monuments and churches dating back to pre-Hellenistic civilizations. 12pm lunch, followed by walking tour of Nesebar.

2:30pm depart for Plovdiv. Enroute visit to state of the art dairy farm in Stara Zagora.

Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city, is one of Europe’s oldest cities, a contemporary of Troy (1500 BC) and much older than Rome. Captured by Philip II of Macedon in 342 BC and renamed Philippopolis, it was a prosperous Roman center known as Trimontium.

6pm. – Check in Trimontium Princess Hotel. 6:30 dinner with Mayor of Plovdiv Slavcho Atanasov and city businessmen, followed by a walk around Old Town Plovdiv.

Thursday, Oct. 2: 9am business tour of Plovdiv. 10:30 depart for Koprivshtitsa and the Valley of the Roses. Koprivshtitsa is a town-museum with the best preserved examples of Bulgarian Revival Era architecture in the country. 11:30am, walking tour of Koprivshtitsa and lunch. 2pm, coach tour through world famous Valley of the Roses where much of the world’s rose oil for perfumes is produced, including visits to the valley’s top wineries.

5pm depart for Sofia, 6pm check in Raddison Grand Hotel. 7pm dinner with mayor of Sofia.

Friday, Oct. 3: 8-9: 30am, hotel breakfast meeting with Sofia businessmen, and Bulgarian Minister of Transportation on investment opportunities in transportation sector. 10am-12n, meeting with Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, followed by meeting with Cabinet Ministers. 12:30, working lunch with Peter Bozhkov, a lawyer specializing in ag-land purchase and consolidation, and Kamen Kolchev, chairman of ELANA Agricultural Land Fund listed on the Sofia Stock Exchange. Briefing on current opportunities in agro business.

2pm, interviews with press, news agencies for those interested.

4-6 pm, walking tour of downtown Sofia, including Alexander Nevski Cathedral, site of largest exhibition of orthodox icons.

7pm, dinner with Prime Minister Stanishev and government and business leaders.

Saturday, Oct. 4: 9am depart for day trip to the World Heritage Site of Rila Monastery and the international ski resort of Borovets (real estate, sports medicine opportunities), both in the mountains south of Sofia. Return late afternoon. 7pm Farewell Dinner.

Sunday, Oct. 5: Depart from Sofia for flight back to U.S. [A mid-morning departure to a variety of European connecting cities will enable a same-day late afternoon/early evening arrival in U.S. home city.]

Cost:

$7750 per person, single occupancy unless double occupancy requested. Includes all transfers, accommodations, meals with group, ground transportation, all activities and meetings as outlined in itinerary.

Important note: Meetings with any specific government official can not be guaranteed.

Cost does not include international air travel to and from Sofia, alcoholic beverages, personal expenses such as laundry and phone, passport expenses, trip cancellation and medical insurance.

Payments

Deposit of $1000 upon booking. $500 non-refundable. Balance due by September 1^st, 2008. Refund in full (less $500) if cancellation in writing before September 1^st. Refund after September 1^st only if acceptable replacement found. Trip Cancellation Insurance highly recommended.

Requirements

Normal good health, normal capacity for walking. US passport valid until at least January 5, 2009. No visa required for US citizens. No vaccinations required. Positive cheerful attitude. No whining and incessant complaining will be tolerated. Travel often necessitates unexpected difficulties and schedule alterations. Participants are expected to accept such necessities should they arise with helpful understanding.

Contact

Deposits and payments sent to: Wheeler Expeditions, 611 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Suite 429, Washington DC 20003. Phone 703-992-4239. Email: drjack@tothepointnews.com for bank wiring instructions or any questions.

For travel to Bulgaria, travel medical insurance, and trip cancellation insurance, we recommend Cristina Gifuni at McCabe World Travel in McLean VA, 703-762-5050, cristina@mccabeworld.com

Subscribe to To The Point Newsletter via email by entering your email address below:

How The Clintons Will Destroy John McCain

2008-02-03T07:24:56Z

Dear Friend of To The Point,

This past Friday, we published an explosive article on John McCain. In response to many members’ requests, How The Clintons Will Destroy John McCain is now a free public access article.

I greatly appreciate TTP members’ willingness to share this article with the public at large after paying for it themselves. TTP is membership site, paid for by member subscriptions. There is no advertising. Information in TTP is exclusive to members.

Yet members felt the issue of John McCain is of such critical danger to our country that they have insisted it be made public.

You now have full access to How The Clintons Will Destroy John McCain, and are free to forward or post it wherever you feel it would be useful.

In addition, I am now granting free public access to an article written over two years ago in November 2005, which revealed that many Republican staffers on Capitol Hill thought that John McCain leaked classified information to the Washington Post about secret CIA prisons for terrorists – a treasonous act.

That article, from November 2005, is: To The Big House Instead of the White House? You may post this wherever you like.

Let's all do our share in helping to prevent the disaster of a McCain nomination. And I hope you will consider joining our TTP family and become a TTP member yourself.

Jack Wheeler

Subscribe to To The Point Newsletter via email by entering your email address below:

To The Point Weekly Report for February 17th 2006

2006-02-17T11:14:02Z

To The Point Weekly Report for February 17th 2006

YOGI IN IRAN

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 17 February 2006
It's beginning to sink in to a lot of folks - from the State Department to the French Foreign Ministry to Egyptian intelligence - that Iran's Ahmadinejad is far more dangerous and wacko than the Ayatollah Khomeini. Perhaps most interesting is that France is bellying up to the anti-Iran bar. There has been a major fallout, for example, between France and Hezbollah, the Iran-sponsored terrorist outfit. Chirac is so worried now about a major Hezbollah terrorist attack in Paris that he threatened Iran he would retaliate with nuclear missiles. Finally we have arrived at Yogi Berra's fork in the road. Yogi advised that, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." When both France and the US agree that the Ahmadinejad regime in Tehran has to be removed, you know we've arrived.

Read more...

THE PILLAR GANG

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 17 February 2006
Today's (2/17) Wall Street Journal has an op-ed by a CIA intelligence officer, Guillermo Christensen, entitled Un-Intelligence. The article exposes the self-serving attack on President Bush and the War in Iraq by a fellow CIA officer named Paul Pillar in the current issue of Foreign Affairs. Pillar is now being lionized by the left for his anti-Bush screed - but you first learned about him here at To The Point in October 2004. Porter At The Pass revealed that Paul Pillar and his left wing cabal at the CIA, which I named The Pillar Gang, was conducting a covert campaign of leaks and disclosures to damage George Bush's chances of re-election and help John Kerry's. As explained in "Porter At The Pass":

Read more...

Chapter Twenty One: THE TRAP OF CHOLULA

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 17 February 2006
The Jade Steps Chapter Twenty One: The Trap of Cholula They spent most of the siesta, the Spaniards' period of rest after the mid-day meal, having fun turning Spanish words into Nahuatl. Malinali was having so much fun it made her forgetful. She shook her head. "I must leave," she told them. "Our Mesheeka guests have come for their daily ceremony of complaining to Captain Cortez, and I must be there, for it is through me that they address their complaints." "Have fun," Aguilar joked. Malinali sighed. "Our talking - that was fun. But ‘fun' and ‘Mesheeka' are two words that don't go together - in Spanish or Nahuatl." Today is the nineteenth day here in Tlaxcala, she thought as she walked to Cortez's quarters, and for every one of those days, the Mesheeka emissaries who had accompanied them from Xocotlan had come to complain to Cortez about what terrible people the Tlaxcalans were, how they were all traitors and thieves and poor and wicked and not fit even to be slaves. It was so tiresome to hear and translate, and how Cortez could pretend to always be courteous and polite, or even stay awake, during the daily moaning, she didn't know. When she saw the crowd of soldiers in front of Cortez's quarters, she realized something was different.

Read more...

THE FAIRY TALE OF ONE BILLION CUSTOMERS

Neal Asbury
Friday, 17 February 2006
We are persistently being reminded by our multinationals of the 1.3 billion customers of China who are eagerly waiting to hand over their hard earned cash for our products and services. They have used this as justification to invest incredible amounts of American shareholder equity to construct so much China-based manufacturing capacity it will make your head spin. In all this excitement and jubilation of incalculable profit making opportunity, it sure would be nice to know: who is going to pay for all this stuff? Millions of American shareholders have been led to invest in capital-intensive, technology-stripping joint ventures to produce vast quantities of just about everything for people who do not have the money to pay for it. These joint ventures are some of the most lopsided that have ever been conceived. This brings new meaning to Lenin's famous remark that in pursuit of short term profits, "Capitalists will sell the rope which the communists will use to hang them". The China Dream has forever been a fairy tale with countless western industrialists being seduced into betting the ranch on a mythical market that will never exist.
Read more...

AL GORE: CRAZY, STUPID, TREASONOUS, OR ALL THREE?

Jack Kelly
Friday, 17 February 2006
Former Vice President Al Gore is bitterly disappointed he was not elected president. Periodically, he expresses his disappointment in ways that gives us reason to be thankful he wasn't. The most recent was last weekend, when he traveled to Saudi Arabia to make a speech denouncing the United States. The occasion was the annual Jeddah economic forum, which is sponsored in part by the family of Osama bin Laden (which claims to have distanced itself from the family black sheep). Mr. Gore has not disclosed how much he was paid for his words of wisdom. It probably is less than the $267,000 former president Bill Clinton was paid for speaking to the group in 2002, but odds are his fee was in six figures. Whatever Mr. Gore's speaking fee was, his hosts likely thought it a bargain, considering what the former vice president had to say.

Read more...

MOHAMMED MUST NOT BE THE PROPHET OF TERRORISTS

Tashbih Sayyed
Friday, 17 February 2006
As a Moslem, I've followed with great agony and embarrassment the buildup of religious frenzy across the Moslem world in response to the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. On the one side the show of force by Islamists underlined the extent to which Islam has been hijacked by radicals and on the other side it emphasized the vulnerability of open societies to the growing influence of militant Islam. The demonstration of violence by the Islamists forced the democratic societies to face up to the reality that Moslems who do not reject some of the basic precepts of political Islam can never integrate in a secular society. They will always remain a hurdle in the development of a pluralist setup and intellectual progress. The dance of insanity performed on the streets in the name of Prophet Mohammed's love and honor has also forced many Moslems to come out of their slumber and ponder as to why their faith and their prophet have suddenly become a subject of criticism and ridicule by non Moslems.

Read more...

CONFUSING IDEAS WITH REALITY

Dr. Joel Wade
Friday, 17 February 2006
Objective reality exists. Determining what it is can be tricky, particularly when we mix feelings, beliefs, assumptions, and past experiences. In other words, separating out what is objective reality from our internal subjective experience is not an automatic process. It takes practice, it takes conscious investigation, and it takes a willingness to question our pre-conceived assumptions, beliefs, and expectations. For example, when I concentrate, I contract the muscles on my forehead between my eyes (the procerus muscles, to be exact). When my wife sees me contract those muscles, her immediate assumption is that I am angry. But I am not angry, I am just concentrating. So a good skill to learn and practice is to distinguish the meaning you make of things internally from the actual objective events in the world. Here is a simple exercise that will help you learn how to do this:

Read more...

POLITICAL NASDAQ: February 10-16, 2006

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 17 February 2006
The liberals have been trying to find a “smoking gun” to get rid of “evil” Dick Cheney for a long time. This week they were delighted when a real smoking gun was found instead of just a figurative one. Not surprisingly, they became hysterical and obsessed with Dick Cheney’s hunting accident. After all, these are the same people who break out in a sweat if there’s a gun in the room. Furthermore, this verified their preconceived notion that the Administration is made up of out-of-control macho Texans who can’t be trusted with deadly force. The accident was living bleeding proof that the Administration will shoot innocent civilians based on faulty intel. Even though in reality it had no bearing on Iraq policies, in their minds the story line is the same. That is why they took a common hunting mishap and turned the news into the all hysteria all the time network. The DDI remained down even with the Cheney events. The long term prospects of the left are still bleak:

Read more...

COMING TO YOUR CAR SOON: 3-D NAVIGATION

Dennis Turner
Tuesday, 14 February 2006
Do drivers want to see a photorealistic image of the road ahead on their navigation displays? Google, Volkswagen, and nVidia think so, and they're working on a mapping and navigation system that could present Google Earth satellite images of highways and buildings. Since 2005, Volkswagen of America's Electronic Research Lab in Palo Alto, California, has been developing prototype vehicles with the system. While there’s no projected date for the concept to become reality in production vehicles, it’s not far off.
Read more...

BUMPER STICKER OF THE YEAR

Humor File
Thursday, 16 February 2006


Read more...

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To The Point Weekly Report for January 27th 2006

2006-01-27T10:01:52Z

To The Point Weekly Report for January 27th 2006

CELEBRATING HAMAS

Published
Public
Friday, 20 January 2006
Dr. Jack Wheeler

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Dennis “The Wizard” Turner only sleeps on the Jewish Sabbath. Every other day and night he spends at the Aroma Café in Jerusalem with his laptop, sending me a never-ending stream of emails telling me how wrong I am about things. About twenty-seven times a day, I get an emailed article from him with a note, “Jack, you are so wrong about Sharon… Jack, you are so wrong about Gaza… Jack, you are so wrong about Olmert and Kadima…” So I can just imagine how totally wrong Dennis will say I am about Hamas winning the Palestinian elections. For I don’t think it’s a disaster at all. I think it’s an opportunity. I’m happy Hamas won. (Dennis has now collapsed into a twitching heap on the café floor. I hope he didn’t let his laptop crash on the floor as well.) It’s time to celebrate the end of moral goo, the end of pretending Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority were “people we could work with,” the end of all the evasion and desperate avoidance of reality. At last, it’s the End of Pretend.

Read more...

GOOGLE AND THE CIA

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Human Rights, is so mad at Google for capitulating to the Chicoms he is going to hold hearings next month on the operating procedures of US Internet companies in China. He can expect to be getting a call from CIA Director Porter Goss politely requesting that he shut up. He’ll tell Smith he can vent for a little while longer, enough to make Google execs sweat and be receptive to the call they’ll be getting from Langley. But as soon as the Google boys turn cooperative, Smith had better turn quiet. Google’s Chicom Collaboration presents a marvelous intelligence opportunity.
Read more...

OBL: STILL DEAD

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Tuesday, 24 January 2006
We’ve gotten a number of queries regarding the corporeal status of Osama Bin Laden, given that Michael Ledeen, in Who’s An Iraqi? , reported that OBL croaked in December, yet he came out with an audiotape in January. Here’s the deal.

Read more...

THE ABRAMOFF MYSTERY

Dagny D'Anconia
Thursday, 26 January 2006
In this journalistic tour de force, Dagny d’Anconia reveals the astounding truth behind the Jack Abramoff scandal – and why Abramoff’s life may now be in danger. ---JW Jack Abramoff was a Republican lobbyist. In fact, he has become the media’s archetype for an evil, greedy, Republican super-lobbyist. So I ask you this: In this politically charged environment, and caught in a scandal, who would you get for a lawyer if you were Jack Abramoff? The answer of who he got will shock you: Jack Abramoff’s lawyer is one of the most powerful and trusted Democrat lawyers in the country. He is not just any lawyer. He is the lawyer that argued against Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the Senate. He has represented numerous infamous Democrats over the years. He is the ultimate Democrat insider for the Clintons. Common sense tells us Jack Abramoff never would have chosen that lawyer if he were free to choose. My conclusion is that the New York Clintons and/or Democrats made a deal with the New York Mafia to deliver the Abramoff scandal and thus the 2006/2008 elections. If this is true, then Jack Abramoff may soon have outlived his usefulness. He can no longer do lobbying. He will soon have done all the damage he could do to the Republicans. If the bad guys get a notion that he could come forward and tell the whole story, then they might do something to prevent it. They would try to make it either look like a suicide, or like a right-wing guy did it to punish him for his damage to the Republicans. Either story would be entirely plausible to the press, and yet another way to damage the Republicans. Thus he may soon become more useful dead than alive to them. Bringing out this story now, first, is my way to help prevent that from happening.
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BLACK DEMOCRAT POTS

Jack Kelly
Thursday, 26 January 2006
It was no way to treat a lady. Washington Post ombudswoman Deborah Howell wrote a column praising her paper for exposing lobbyist Jack Abramoff. She was deluged with so much obscene email from outraged liberals the Post had to shut down one of its Web sites. Mr. Abramoff pled guilty earlier this month to defrauding his clients (Indian tribes who owned casinos) and the Internal Revenue Service. Ms. Howell's critics were in high dudgeon over a distinction without a difference. In the 7th paragraph of her story lauding reporter Susan Schmidt, she wrote: "And (Abramoff) had made substantial contributions to both major parties." "I heard that I was lying, that Democrats never got a penny of Abramoff-tainted money, that I was trying to say it was a bipartisan scandal," a stunned Ms. Howell wrote in her column last Sunday. All of Mr. Abramoff's personal contributions went to Republicans. But the big money was what Mr. Abramoff directed his clients to contribute.
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THE WORLD IS TILTED

Neal Asbury
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Below is a speech I recently gave to the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce in association with the U.S. Southern Command, Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miam, Florida International University, and Miami Free Zone at their “Americas Intelligence Briefing Series” on China’s Role in the Americas. Thomas Friedman of the New York Times asserts in his best selling book on globalization, The World is Flat, that the world has become smaller and “flatter” due to the rapid advancement of Information Technology. If something can be digitized, says Friedman, it can be zipped around the world in nanoseconds allowing workers from low cost countries such as China and India to replace workers from industrialized countries at a fraction of the expense. Friedman stresses this “flattening” has resulted in a more “level” playing field. In fact the cover of his book has a picture of earth taken from space superimposed on the face of a quarter symbolizing how small, flat and level it has become. The concept of a flat world today is as wrong metaphorically as it was when Copernicus proved it to be literally wrong. Mr. Friedman has obviously never sold and exported anything in his life.
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WHAT THE ARAB WORLD THINKS OF TORTURE

Brigitte Gabriel
Thursday, 26 January 2006
Torture is accepted and even expected in the Arab world. Might makes right. Arab men – not those nice Arab men you may know who have immigrated to America, but Arab men living in the Arab world – prove their manhood by the way they treat their enemy. After all, it's what Mohammed did to the nonbelievers - Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians in the Koran - the 'holy book' allegedly mishandled in Guantanamo prison. Arab Moslem men gain honor by shaming, belittling, abusing and torturing their enemy in the most horrific ways. As someone who came from the Arab world and knows how they think, it frustrates me to see self-appointed self-righteous politicians and media pundits, oblivious to Arabic culture and thinking, criticizing America's actions at Guantanamo. Actually Gitmo is a joke as far as the Arabs are concerned. Prison? You call that a prison? You know what prisoners call Guantanamo among themselves? Al muntazah al-dini lilmujaheden al Moslemin , The Religious Resort for Islamic Militants.
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BYE BYE BASHAR

Michael Ledeen
Thursday, 26 January 2006
The Syrian-Iranian terror alliance goes back a quarter-century, when Hezbollah was created to wage terror war against American and French forces in Lebanon. There was a neat division of labor: Syria controlled the territory, and Iran ran the organization. Hezbollah's murderous successes are legendary, from the suicide bombings against the French and American Marine barracks to a similar operation against the American embassy, all in Beirut in 1983, to massive bombings of Jewish targets in Argentina in 1992. That alliance remains intact, and provides the base of the terror war in Iraq today. Now the Iranians are concerned at signs of cracks in the edifice of the Assad regime. The Assad family's grip on Syria is weakening, and this is welcome news indeed, both for the long-suffering Syrian people and for us. The Iranians are desperate to keep Assad in power, and Hezbollah armed to the teeth. Should things go the other way, Iran would lose its principal ally in the war against us in Iraq.
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WHAT’S HANGING IN YOUR GALLERY?

Dr. Joel Wade
Friday, 27 January 2006
On the walls in our home we are putting up a bunch of pictures. We have pictures of our family, of trips we have been on together, parents, aunts, uncles, friends. My wife and I have spent some degree of time and energy selecting these pictures from literally boxes and boxes of pictures. We select those pictures that we enjoy looking at, that remind us of important experiences, good times, and people whom we love at their best. In this way we honor those in our lives who matter to us, and we direct our focus upon people, things, and experiences that we would like to be reminded of often. We don’t have pictures up of people who have been bad to us or hurt us in some way. I want you to think for a moment of your own memory; the scenes that you see in your mind’s eye that remind you of your past experiences. Your memory is very much like your own personal, internal picture gallery.
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POLITICAL NASDAQ - - January 20-26, 2006

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 27 January 2006
On Friday (Jan. 20), Iran announced it would move its funds out of European banks, and commenced doing so. Back during the Iranian hostage crisis America froze Iranian assets and they were taking no chances of the Europeans repeating this. This was also an attempt for Iran to flex its financial muscle, and show how weak the Western financial markets were. The net result was an economic assault on the West's stock markets.
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DVD MATH

Dennis Turner
Friday, 27 January 2006
You know what they say about computers - the minute the newest models come off the assembly line they're already obsolete, because back in the lab they've already developed a prototype two generations ahead of the most advanced commercially available systems. As the old saying goes, "If cars had progressed as fast as computers, we would be driving at 500 MPH in a $25 car that gets 2 million miles per gallon and seats the population of China." This is relevant to many of us who are interested in burning DVDs ...
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NOW DENNIS TURNER SAYS JACK WHEELER IS WRONG ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING

Humor File
Friday, 27 January 2006
Jack Wheeler has just received this latest email from Dennis “The Wizard” Turner: Dear Jack, In addition to being wrong about Sharon, Gaza, and Hamas, you’re also wrong about your disbelief in global warming. You know that in the past, I have been just as skeptical as you, but unlike you, I can be persuaded by compelling and countervailing evidence. This Associated Press news story is as compelling as evidence can be that global warming is real:
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TTP Weekly Report - December 16th 2005

2005-12-16T11:43:03Z

To The Point Weekly Report for December 16th 2005

WASHINGTON ON THE DNEIPER

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 16 December 2005
Here I am in Kiev, Ukraine � but in some striking ways it seems I never left Washington. The parallels go way beyond the geography, as both capital cities are on the banks of a large river, the Dneiper (nyay-purr) in the case of Kiev. In both, the political scum dominate public opinion. Ukraine is the largest country in Europe (entirely in Europe � most of Russia is in Asia). It had suffered as a colony of Russia�s since the 17^th century, and underwent a holocaust perpetrated by Stalin in the 1930s that killed twice as many Ukrainians (well over 12 million) as Hitler killed Jews. When Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 with the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Soviet apparatchiks (bureaucrats) and nomenklatura (ruling elite) still clung to power. The now �ex-� Communists quickly gained control of the Ukrainian Parliament called the Rada. Socialism, corruption, and selling state assets for a song to apparatchiks and gangsters posing as �biznessmen,� flourished. The smartest and most charismatic of these �biznessmen� wasn�t a man at all but a good-looking blonde named Yulia Timoshenko.

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THE ROGUE WEASELS CLUB

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 16 December 2005
How upset are you over the CIA �secret prison scandal�? Maybe you said, �What scandal?�, or maybe you�ve glanced at stories about it carried in the back pages of your newspaper. Here in Europe, it�s the giant screaming front page headline story on every paper you pick up from England to Germany. The Europeans are in a state of high emotional froth over CIA �renditions� of Moslem terrorists seized in one of their countries and taken to a �secret prison� in Poland or elsewhere. The Euroweenies are far more concerned with the �human rights� of the terrorists than they are about the threat of terrorists to kill them. If you think all of this is just an excuse to bash the CIA and indulge in anti-Americanism, you�re right � just as planned by the weasels. Everyone on the right, it seems nowadays, from the editorials in the Wall Street Journal to conservative columnists like Mona Charen and bloggers like John Hinderacker, are issuing calls to �Investigate the CIA!� They have been suckered by the left. They should instead be demanding, �Investigate the weasels, not the agency!�
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Chapter Seventeen: FORTES FORTUNA ADIUVAT

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Tuesday, 13 December 2005
The Jade Steps: Chapter Seventeen: Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat When they arrived at the city of Tlaxcala[1], there was an enormous welcoming party to greet the Spaniards. Different clans of Tlaxcalans dressed in differing colors, their maguey or henniquen cloaks all painted and embroidered. A contingent of priests with their burning copal performed fumigations, wearing long white hooded robes, their hair long and blood-encrusted, blood oozing from their ears, and with fingernails several inches long. The streets and rooftops were thronging with smiling Indians who showered the Spaniards with roses of varying hues. When they reached the central plaza, King Xicotencatl took Cortez by the hand and led him to a palace, explaining, �This shall be your home in Tlaxcala for as long as you wish.� He assured Cortez that all his men, all the Totonacs and Xocotlans, and even the Mesheeka nobles, would be well housed. Upon his signal, hundreds of servants began streaming into the plaza bearing cooked turkeys, maize cakes, fruits and vegetables for all. The soldiers all agreed it was the best they had eaten since leaving Cuba. With everyone so joyously happy, Cortez and Malinali retired to their quarters. They had not had any time together since Zautla � so they did not waste any time now, making love fiercely and quickly. Afterwards, noticing Malinali was staring into space, Cortez asked her what she was thinking about. [1] September 18, 1519.

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A SUCKER�S GAME

Michael Ledeen
Friday, 16 December 2005
The French just arrested 20 people, apparently pretty close to doing some mean terrorist thing. In late September, nine people were arrested in Paris in "what officials said was a crackdown on suspected Islamic terrorist activities." It was later reported that the DST (internal-security service) had learned that members of this group had been trained in Lebanon, and possessed an exotic poison: seeds of the "nigelle" plant, said to be highly lethal. At the end of October, the London Telegraph reported that French authorities had discovered that "an Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports..." For extras, the terror group, part of the Zarqawi network, had chemical and biological agents including ricin, cyanide, and botulin.
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APEC FACE AND FRAUD

Neal Asbury
Monday, 12 December 2005
It is fascinating to observe the stark difference between Latin America and Asia regarding the great issues and diplomacy impacting the World War of Trade. The Summit of the Americas (see The Myths of FTAA) held November 6^th at Mar del Plata, Argentina attended by the 34 democracies of the Western Hemisphere, will be remembered for the warped bravado of a few left-wing-populist leaders from Argentina, Brazil and Venezuela spewing out their venom in staged events. They have no solutions and continue to deliver their people deeper into darkness and despair while corruption in their ranks runs wild. Contrast this with the recent APEC Summit (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) attended by President Bush held November 18^th and 19th, in Busan, South Korea. The APEC meeting was cold and calculated with every move carefully choreographed. It was attended by Asia�s economic powerhouses very confident of themselves each promoting and defining globalization and free trade in their own image. It was all about face and politeness but resolute in avoiding any real dialogue in rebalancing the American trade deficit.
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THE WAR OF THE WEASELS

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 16 December 2005
Last week Dr. Rice said "This is essentially a war in which intelligence is absolutely key to success. If you are going to uncover plots, if you are going to get to people before they commit their crimes, that is largely an intelligence function." (See Rice) In this information age, warfare has more and more to do with intelligence and less to do with brute force. The battlefield we fight on is often the world of intelligence, and the crucial battles that are fought can occur silently, and unseen. So it is with a battle ongoing in the shadow lands where politics and intelligence overlap. The extraordinary confession of Randy Cunningham offers a glimpse...

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WHAT WILL YOU DECIDE?

Dr. Joel Wade
Friday, 16 December 2005
There is a line in the movie, �Apollo 13�, where Jim Lovell (played by Tom Hanks) is talking with his wife about the moon landing of Apollo 11. He says something to the effect of, �It�s not a miracle that we did it, you know. We just decided to go.� The fulcrum that moved such powerful forces toward such a magnificent achievement was first and foremost simply the decision to go. The critical element of positive change in your life, upon which all of the other elements rest, is the decision to do it.

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POLITICAL NASDAQ - - December 9-15, 2005

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 16 December 2005
This was a historic week with the elections in Iraq. President Bush gave speeches led up to the event, and each time he did, the market went down. In fact it is precisely orchestrated. Bush speaks, the market drops. Murtha gives the response for the Democrats and it starts back up again. Next time President Bush gives a speech that the Lefties don�t want to hear, watch the Nasdaq and you will see what I mean. It is an amusing thing to watch. However pained they were, the DDI nevertheless remained up. This is presumely due to the fact that..

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SAYYING NO TO NOTEBOOK THIEVES

Dennis Turner
Tuesday, 13 December 2005
If you travel with your notebook, you�re always worried about thieves. Here�s how to stop computer kleptos with this bag of hardware and software tricks. You may have all the data security tools you need � firewall, antivirus program, and antispyware protection. But what if a thief slips into your office or hotel room or breaks into the trunk of your car � and tries to walk away with your trusty computer?
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THE LATEST WASHINGTON SCANDAL

Humor File
Friday, 16 December 2005
The latest hot rumor that has all of official Washington agog is that Senator Edward Kennedy attempted to sexually harass Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The only solid grounds for the rumor is this photograph � which seems to provide convincing evidence:

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TTP Weekly Report - December 9th 2005

2005-12-09T09:29:00Z

To The Point Weekly Report for December 9th 2005

SHOULDN�T THE PALESTINIANS BE TERRIFIED OF IRAN?

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 09 December 2005
Israeli military intelligence now states that Iran may have the capacity to build a nuclear bomb by March, 2006. That�s less than four months away. Thus the pressure for Israel to mount an attack on Iranian facilities is getting intense. Yet they are dispersed and dug in deep fortified subterranean tunnels. Sabotage, rather than a missile attack, seems the only option � but the frightening reality is that Mossad, the Israeli CIA, can�t pull it off. Some sort of military assault, covert or overt, may be attempted anyway, but let�s also watch out for Sharon to deal a card from the bottom of the deck as well. This sure is a good time he thinks, for some Psy-Ops � directed at the Palestinians, and all Sunni Moslems worldwide. It is a very good time to point out to them that there is no way to make a nuclear bomb that just kills Jews. There is no way to �wipe Israel off the map� in a Nuclear Armageddon without wiping out the Palestinians as well.
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THE PARANOIA ANTIDOTE

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 09 December 2005
Given all the frantic efforts by so much of the media, and by so many folks with agendas, to freak you out with fear, I think you should look upon To The Point as The Paranoia Antidote. In addition to this week�s article on how Iran�s nuclear threat may be of benefit to Israel (Shouldn�t the Palestinians Be Terrified of Iran?), let�s take three examples. The first concerns the liberal paranoia of global warming, or more precisely man-made global warming, as in, it�s all our fault. It�s hilarious, of course, that COP-11, the assemblage of eco-goofballs attending the UN conference on �climate change� are freezing their tushes in Montreal this week in record cold while whining about the earth burning up. They would be enlightened by reading Solar Warming in To The Point in September. Our second example concerns conservative paranoia over the phony terrorist threat of �EMP.� The �threat� is a cry of nuclear wolf, as originally discussed in The EMP Annoyance last June. Our third example is the current paranoia over torture � specifically the torture of terrorists to extract information from them regarding planned terrorist acts. All of this can be avoided � all brutalizing torture can be avoided � with the techniques described in three To The Point articles: D3 Terrorists (July 2005). How To Get A Terrorist To Sing Like A Canary Without Torture (January 2005). Interrogating Osama (October 2001).

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THE CIA IN DEEP CRISIS

Jack Kelly
Friday, 09 December 2005
On August 2nd, Dafna Linzer of the Washington Post reported that: "A major U.S. intelligence review has projected that Iran is about a decade away from manufacturing the key ingredient for a nuclear weapon, roughly doubling the previous estimate of five years." On December 5th, the Jerusalem Post reported that Mohammed el Baradei, chairman of the International Atomic Energy Agency, "confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb. "My, how time flies. It hasn't seemed as if ten years have elapsed since last summer. The CIA could be right, and Mossad and the IAEA could be wrong. But given the CIA's forecasting record -- it missed the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Islamic revolution in Iran, the warning signs of 9/11, and Saddam's WMD -- that's not the way to bet. Intelligence analysis isn't the only thing the CIA does sloppily.

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THE KAZAKH TIGER IN CENTRAL ASIA

Dr. Ariel Cohen
Friday, 09 December 2005
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of Kazakhstan since 1989, won the country's Dec. 4 presidential election hands down. The Central Election Commission reported he got 91 percent of the votes. Gallup and International Republican Institute exit polling says he got only 83.2 percent. Either way, no Orange Revolution there. To put the Kazakh elections in perspective, it is important to note there were no democratic procedures there during the Russian czarist or the Soviet times. Seen in this light, the Kazakh elections were among most open in Central Asia. What makes Kazakhstan unique are its real economic achievements, fueled by high oil prices. Kazakhstan today is as one of the more positive available examples of post-Soviet market development, including Western access to oil and gas resources, which Russia increasingly rejects.
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THE CHINA TRADE SOLUTION

Neal Asbury
Tuesday, 06 December 2005
President Bush�s visit to Beijing on November 20^th was a tremendous disappointment in achieving any tangible progress on easing our trade crisis. Our stratospheric trade deficit is clearly one of the gravest national security threats we face � and no one in Washington seems to have a clue on how to deal with it. Our overall trade deficit in 2005 is tracking to exceed $700 billion up from $612 billion in 2004. Our trade deficit with China will exceed $200 billion up from $162 billion in 2004 and $124 billion in 2003. It may surprise many (including President Bush!), but there are a number of actions that can immediately be taken that in the short term will have a dramatic impact to turn around our trade crisis with China.
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VIRTUE AND HAPPINESS ARE SYNONYMS

Dr. Joel Wade
Friday, 09 December 2005
If there is one bold, clear, central point that I hope you come away with from reading these columns, it is that *virtue and living well are congruent aims. To live a virtuous life is to live well.* Many of the qualities that have traditionally been considered virtues hold benefits to others, to society, to posterity, but they also speak deeply to one�s own self-interest. This is part of the beauty of a life well lived. Of course, it is in one�s self interest to earn a good reputation and to foster goodwill in your relationships, but there can arise conflicts between self and others and an understanding of virtue can be very helpful in sorting these out. Let�s take a look at some of the virtues, and see where your self-interest lies:

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POLITICAL NASDAQ - - December 2-8, 2005

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 09 December 2005
This week was loaded with news, most of which was bad news for the Leftist market movers. As a result, the market went down a little in spite of the DDI remaining up all week. The avalanche of news made for a volatile Nasdaq this week. Friday (Dec. 2) was mixed: In economic news , Greenspan warned of deficits and there was a jump upward in new jobs numbers. 10 Marines were killed by a bomb in Iraq. The market went mostly sideways. On Monday morning (Dec. 5), Saddam�s trial was in turmoil, but nevertheless proceeded. We have seen before that the market movers are surprisingly sensitive to events surrounding Saddam. It has appeared that they did not like to see him captured, or on trial. While the trial was in session today, the Nasdaq dropped about 1%, then promptly leveled out after the trial was adjourned for the day.
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WIRELESS PIRATES

Dennis Turner
Friday, 09 December 2005
While setting up a wireless network is easier today than ever, it�s not the type of thing a computer novice is likely to try on his or her own as it requires at least some degree of technical awareness. One could assume that people who have set up their own wireless networks would be among the users of anti-virus and other security programs. They are almost certainly among those who avoid opening e-mail attachments, who check downloads for viruses, and set up firewalls to keep out unwanted intruders. But most people�s concerns over security stops at the entrance to their hard drive, it seems.
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AN ATHEIST IN THE WOODS

To The Point, Inc.
Friday, 09 December 2005
An atheist was walking through the woods. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charging towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder and saw that the bear was closing up on him. He looked over his shoulder again and saw that the bear was even closer.

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TTP Weekly Report - December 2nd 2005

2005-12-02T10:54:53Z

To The Point Weekly Report for December 2nd 2005

CROOKS IN CONGRESS AND CIA ROGUE WEASELS

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 02 December 2005
One liberating silver lining to Republican Congressman Randy �Duke� Cunningham�s pleading guilty to bribery charges is that being a Vietnam war hero is no longer a lifetime exemption from moral criticism. When Jean Schmidt (R-OH) last Friday (Nov. 25) denounced John Murtha�s (D-PA) call for retreat from Iraq on the floor of Congress by reading a letter from a Marine asking her to � �send Congressman Murtha a message: That cowards cut and run, Marines never do�,� she caused a riot that came close to being a fistfight between elephant and jackass Congresscritters. Murtha, you see, is somehow invulnerable to criticism because he served 37 years in the Marines and won a number of medals in Vietnam. Howard Dean wasted no time in announcing that a billboard would be erected by Democrats in Portsmouth, Ohio (her disctrict headquarters), declaring: �Shame on You, Jean Schmidt: Stop Attacking Veterans.� John Murtha is a legitimate war hero � unlike John Kerry. He won two real Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in combat in Vietnam. He deserves our admiration and respect for his military service. Yet his being a war hero did not prevent him from becoming a moral coward � and a crook in Congress.

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CASABLANCA ON THE POTOMAC

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 02 December 2005
Here�s a difficult question: Would you spend $80 to make $1000? OK � would you spend $80 million to make $1 billion? If you did so, would you then claim you were ripped off? You would if you were Jack Abramoff�s Indian tribe clients. Everyone in America has now heard of the �infamous super-lobbyist� Jack Abramoff. You�ve heard all about him, but let me assure you that you know very, very little about him � because the Democrat media wants it that way. So let me tell you an illustrative story about him.
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BENEDICT TO THE RESCUE

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 02 December 2005
In a week where California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a hyper-leftwing pro-abortion lesbian �married� to her �partner� as his chief of staff, and South Africa�s Constitutional Court ordered Parliament to legalize homosexual �marriage,� the moral sanity exhibited by the Catholic Church was a welcome relief. On Wednesday, November 29, the Vatican issued an Instruction entitled, Concerning the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to Seminaries and Holy Orders, which now has the authority of canon law. Pope Benedict is taking a moral stand, standing firmly against the shrieking gales of limp-wristed liberalism. He is determined not only to rid his church of pederastic perverts, but is determined that his church is the moral rock of St. Peter that it is supposed to be.
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Chapter Sixteen: XICOTENCATL � YOUNG AND OLD

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 02 December 2005
Chapter Sixteen: Xicotencatl � Young and Old Malinali was stunned that Cortez was speaking this way to the Tlaxcalan elders. She knew how close the Spaniards were to giving up, how they feared another attack. But� but� the Tlaxcalans did not know this. They must have believed what she told the prisoners she had set free! Yet how did Cortez learn of this? She had not told him what she had done. It must be that Cortez was a genio with people as Bernal said. For Cortez�s words had the desired effect on the Tlaxcalan chiefs. They bowed deeply, swore that Young Xicotencatl would come, said that all Tlaxcala will rejoice when the Malinche and his men will be at their capital, and left looking relieved and satisfied. Even more relieved and satisfied were the Spaniards. With turkeys, maize cakes, cherries and other food in abundance, plus the promise of no more attacks, the camp was full of laughter � and no grumbling, not even from de Grado. Cortez was pleased, and made sure everyone saw he was � but he also made sure the patrols and scouts continued, day and night, to search for danger. He had no trust in this Young Xicotencatl.
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FIFTH COLUMN DISTORTION

Jack Kelly
Friday, 02 December 2005
In his speech at the Naval Academy Wednesday outlining U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush paid tribute to Marine Corporal Jeffrey Starr, killed in a fire fight in Ar Ramadi April 30th. He was 22, on his third tour in Iraq. A letter to his girlfriend was found on Starr's laptop computer: "If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq," Cpl. Starr wrote. "I don't regret going. Everybody dies but a few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we're in Iraq; it's not to me. I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live, not to have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark." In a mammoth article in October taking note of the 2,000th U.S. death in Iraq, the New York Times mentioned Cpl. Starr and his letter, but didn't quote the passages above. All the Times quoted from his letter was: "'I kind of predicted this,' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. 'A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.'" The Times' omissions and distortions -- which are more the rule than the exception in news coverage of Iraq -- explain why so many Americans think we're losing a war we're plainly winning.

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SELF-REGULATION

Dr. Joel Wade
Friday, 02 December 2005
A reader of this column was kind enough to ask about �the art of self-control,� the problem of: �I know what to do, but I don�t make myself do it.� This is a problem that perplexed the greatest thinker in history, Aristotle. Aristotle had a word for those who know good from bad behavior, but who can get swept up toward the bad behavior in the passion of desire and emotion. Repenting afterwards, such a person has hope of changing his or her behavior in the future. The word he used was akrasia, �incontinent,� or �weakness of will.� Those who do not repent their wrong acts, who engage in them by choice he called �self-indulgent�. In contrast, the person who is able to direct his actions toward the good even in the face of passion he calls �continent�, while the person who engages in right acts by choice he calls �temperate� or virtuous. These are all expressions of the failure or the triumph of self-regulation.
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POLITICAL NASDAQ -- November 25-December 1, 2005

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 02 December 2005
The DDI remained up through the week. By the end of the week, after a long run of bad days for the leftist market movers, the market finally resolved upward. They knew it had to go up, but they had so many bad days that it was delayed over and over. When they finally had a day without anything bad happening to the Lefties, the pent up energy made the market roar upward. On Monday, Randy �Duke� Cunningham pleaded guilty to bribery etc., and made a tearful confession. He then quit his position in the House of Representatives. His crying on camera was all over the evening news. The image of the �culture of corruption� was reinforced once again. This was a great thing for the Lefties, and so the market popped up overnight. The up lasted only for the night as President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld made their opinions heard on Iraq Tuesday. Furthermore there was very good economic news: Home sales were up, durable goods orders were up, and consumer confidence had its biggest rise since 2003. Good news for the economy is bad news for the Leftist market movers and the market dropped sharply.
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THE SAGE

Dennis Turner
Friday, 02 December 2005
The Sage is a comprehensive dictionary/encyclopedia with a completely integrated dictionary and thesaurus that defines words, terms, concepts, historical events and even has an anagram decrypter - with nearly everything cross-referenced, allowing you to jump from word to concept with just one click. What's in a word? Well, according to The Sage, a word is far more than the definition listed in the dictionary; it's a lemma, which means that it really is a "topic" or a chapter heading; for example, a word can be defined as a part of speech (noun, verb), a hypernym (part of a larger category), synonym, holonym, antonym (look them up), or other type. Israel, for example, is a country (hypernym), a part of the Middle East (holonym), the home of Israelis (meronym) and it can be defined in dozens of other ways.
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THE POLITICAL BARBERSHOP

Humor File
Friday, 02 December 2005
One day a florist goes to a barber for a haircut. After the cut he asked about his bill and the barber replies: "I'm sorry, I cannot accept money from you; I'm doing community service this week." The florist is pleased and leaves the shop. Next morning when the barber goes to open there is a thank you card and a dozen roses waiting for him at his door.

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TTP Weekly Report - November 25th 2005

2005-11-25T12:31:01Z

To The Point Weekly Report for November 25th 2005

CAN DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING?

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 24 November 2005
The short answer is: No, they can�t � not this year. They can�t emotionally afford it. BDS � Bush Derangement Syndrome � requires them to overcook their turkey, serve it with sugarless cranberries to match their bitterness, and wash it down not with a good chardonnay but with bile. Their propaganda machine known collectively as the MSM � mainstream media � should be re-nicknamed the BNM: the Bad News Media. The Democrats must refuse to acknowledge and the BNM must refuse to report anything good about America whatsoever. Failure on their part to do so might cause dangerously blasphemous thoughts to occur to the American public, like we are not losing the War on Moslem Terrorism, we are not losing the War in Iraq, President Bush is an honest and decent man whose moral character infinitely exceeds theirs ( and most especially his Democrat predecessor and opponents in 2000 and 2004), the American economy is doing spectacularly well, the sky is not falling nor the oceans rising due to global warming, that America has so much to celebrate on this Thanksgiving Day. The Dems and Libs will on this day mouth pious platitudes about our �blessings,� making sure to riddle them with let�s-not-forget buts: �Thank you, O (substitute whatever they put in place of God) for America�s blessings but let�s not forget the victims of Katrina and the homeless and the starving Banglesdeshis and every ailment on the planet because they are all America�s and George Bush�s fault.� Democrats cannot truly celebrate Thanksgiving because they no longer have the capacity to celebrate being American. This is not hyperbolic. It is a tragic truth.
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COOLING ON CONDI

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 25 November 2005
For some time now, I�ve been telling you that Condi Rice may replace Dick Cheney (who would step down for �health reasons�) as Bush�s Vice-President, putting her in the catbird seat for the GOP presidential nomination in �08. I expect this to take place by summer 2006. As I discussed last month in 44, her candidacy would be do more damage to the Democrat Party than Katrina did to the Gulf Coast. She is the only candidate the GOP can put up who could defeat Hillary. (Try this on as a barf alert: John McCain as Hillary�s running mate. Denied the GOP nomination, he�ll bolt his party and team with Hil who�s got the Dem nomination sewed up. Yep, that�s the latest hot DC buzz.) Now it�s time for the other shoe to drop.
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TARGETING TEHRAN AND DAMASCUS

Michael Ledeen
Friday, 25 November 2005
More than three years ago, prior to the liberation of Iraq, I lamented that our great national debate on the war against terrorism was the wrong debate, because it was: �About using our irresistible military might against a single country in order to bring down its leader, when we should be talking about using all our political, moral, and military genius to support a vast democratic revolution to liberate the peoples of the Middle East from their tyrannical rulers. That is our real mission, the essence of the war in which we are engaged, and the proper subject of our national debate.� The proper debate has still not been engaged, and the Bush Administration�s failure to lead it bespeaks a grave failure of strategic vision. The war was narrowly aimed against the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein.
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MOONBAT COWARDS

Jack Kelly
Thursday, 24 November 2005
Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda chieftain in Iraq, has had a bad week. If it turns out Zarqawi was among seven al Qaeda leaders killed in Mosul Saturday, it'll have been a really bad week. But even if Zarqawi got away again, it's been a rotten week for him. It's also been a bad week for antiwar Democrats, who had their bluff called in the House of Representatives.

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THE DEMISE OF FRANCE

Alex Alexiev
Thursday, 24 November 2005
After two weeks of unrestrained violence across the country, France imposed curfews and a state-of-emergency rule on 24 of its provinces. The government certainly hopes that this wartime measure will quickly scale down the riots and it may well do that. Yet history is more likely to look back on this not as the end of an irrational burst of urban violence, but as the first act in a protracted time of troubles for France and Europe that could ultimately lead to the demise of European civilization as we know it. None of this is even remotely discernible in French political rhetoric or media coverage surrounding the violent events in the Moslem ghettoes. Yet, shying away from reality by France's ruling class does not change reality � and that stark reality is one of a civilized European nation sliding into barbarism.
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THE MYTHS OF FTAA

Neal Asbury
Friday, 25 November 2005
The recently completed fourth Summit of the Americas held November 6^th at Mar del Plata, Argentina was over the top surreal even by the bizarre standards of past meetings of the 34 democratic countries of the Western Hemisphere. At the heart of all the hullabaloo and political annihilation lies the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas), which has become the lightening rod of South American leftwing-populist governments making a stand against the omnipresent bogeyman of American Imperialism. FTAA would create a free trade zone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego and encompass all the countries of the Western Hemisphere with the exception of Cuba. It would result in a $13 trillion market of 830 million people. It is a comprehensive trade agreement covering merchandise and services while setting standards for environmental protection, labor rights and due process. Essentially it would extend NAFTA throughout the hemisphere and be a boom for businesses everywhere. Despite the ranting of nutcase Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, who claimed he came to Mar del Plata �with a shovel to bury FTAA�, 29 of the 34 countries in attendance pledged to turn the Western Hemisphere into the world�s largest free trade zone. Only five countries, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela opposed the agreement. Though there were numerous anti-US and anti-Bush demonstrations throughout the region from Argentina to Panama, the concept of an economically integrated region won hands down.
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COSMIC GRATITUDE

Dr. Joel Wade
Thursday, 24 November 2005
I talk a lot about gratitude in these columns, because being actively grateful for what you have in life � whatever your circumstances � is one of the most important things you can do for your own sense of happiness and well being. Today I want to address one of the barriers toward feeling grateful in life, and offer a perspective that I hope will allow you to remove this barrier. Every so often I hear a comment that goes something like this: �The world is such a crazy place�, or �Life is overrated�, or �Mankind is so terrible.� Each time I wonder to myself - or say out loud if it�s appropriate � �To what else, exactly, are you comparing �the world�, or �life�, or �mankind�?�
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POLITICAL NASDAQ -- November 18-23, 2005

Dagny D'Anconia
Thursday, 24 November 2005
The DDI remained up all week and the Nasdaq gained about 3% from this time last week. The volume was light, in advance of the Thanksgiving break. There was a slight drop as traders closed out some positions near the end of the day Wednesday in advance of the holiday. Markets will be closed until Monday. The DDI remains up. The guessing game for Woodward�s source continued like a game of Clue: Was it Secretary Rice? No. Was it Vice-President Cheney? No... As some of the more desirable targets were eliminated, the market went sideways on Monday. The Leftist media (or BNM � Bad News Media � as Jack puts it) is still shaking their Christmas present, trying to guess what they will get. The new Woodward testimony has allowed the media to extend their coverage of the leak scandal for yet another week of Administration bashing and intrigue.
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LITTLE KNOWN WEB DELIGHTS

Dennis Turner
Friday, 25 November 2005
The Internet is like what the North Pole and the Moon used to be � a great, unexplored terrain with all sorts of life-changing phenomena, just waiting be discovered, and used for your betterment. Of course, it depends on how you define �betterment.� For many people that means having the computer spit out a can of Coke because they�re too lazy to get up and fetch one from the fridge themselves. If you�re in the neighborhood of MIT, you can use your computer to conjure one up. However, if you want your kids to get fresh air, you might consider the Internet to be the second most useless invention in human history, a close runner up to the TV. But forget TV: the miracle of the Web is that there are sites that are not only fun, but amazingly useful, too.
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PRESIDENT BUSH MAY SEND THE MARINES TO RESCUE FRANCE

Humor File
Friday, 25 November 2005
News Bulletin from Bravo Sierra News Service Washington, November 25, 2005. President Bush today authorized the Joint Chiefs to begin drawing up a battle plan to pull France�s derri�re out of the fire again. With France facing an apparent overwhelming invasion force of thousands of teenaged vandals, Mr. Bush doubts France�s ability to hold them off. �If the last two World Wars are any indication,� Mr. Bush commented at the Pentagon meeting, �I would expect France to surrender any day now.�

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TTP Weekly Report - November 18th 2005

2005-11-18T10:42:24Z

To The Point Weekly Report for November 18th 2005

THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL IS CHINESE

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 18 November 2005
The famous story in Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament tells of a banquet held by the King of Babylon, Belshazzar, during which a magical finger writes mysterious words on the wall: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Today, the handwriting on our wall is in Chinese. And just like back in 559 BC, there is a huge debate over the correct translation � this time between two factions on the President�s National Security Council. But where is Daniel? His voice is only a whisper, but if you stand in the halls of the OEOB � the fabulously ornate Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House � you can hear it emanating from a handful of National Security Council offices. Let�s listen carefully, for these whispers are reaching the ears of the President, who is intrigued by the suggestion of a third alternative to the business squishes and the cold warriors regarding the conundrum of China. That alternative is Christianity.

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ALLAH�S WAITING ROOM

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 17 November 2005
In the Military Alphabet, AWR is Alpha Whiskey Romeo. In Iraq today, it�s a code term of American soldiers. Whenever they use �AWR� or �Alpha Whiskey Romeo� in their communications, everyone knows what it really stands for: Allah�s Waiting Room. That�s what our soldiers have turned Iraq into for the terrorists, and that�s why our soldiers know they are winning this war. That�s also why our soldiers have more contempt for MSM journalists and Democrat politicians than the Jihadi terrorists � for at least the terrorists are honest about being an enemy, instead of pretending they�re on your side while stabbing you in the back. As the evidence mounts that the Jihadis are losing in Iraq, the more desperate the Democrats� and the media�s attempts to suppress and deny the evidence. So I thought I would provide you with some direct evidence of how things are really going in Mesopotamia. This is an unvarnished, personal SitRep � situation report � from a Marine who just spent seven months at �Camp Blue Diamond� near Ramadi, Iraq, deep in Apache country.

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Chapter Fifteen: THE HILL OF TZOMPACHTEPETL

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, 17 November 2005
Chapter Fifteen: The Hill of Tzompachtepetl Accompanied by twenty Xocotlan sub-chiefs sent by King Olintecle, the expedition made its way down the Apulco river valley to a town where Olintecle told them they could wait for the messengers� return. The King had advised Cortez against going to Tlaxcala. �They are bad people,� he said, �traitors against the Great Montezuma. A more treacherous people you will never find.� But Cortez insisted, trusting the advice of Mamexi and the Totonacs. The town was called Izta Quimaxtitlan (itch�-ta qwee-mox-teet�-lan), and when they arrived, all of the elders and nobles had assembled to greet them, proclaiming they had received word from Tenochtitlan that the Great Montezuma commanded the Spaniards be welcomed in every way the town was able. As the expedition rested and ate, a group of town elders approached Cortez. �They wish to warn you against the people of Tlaxcala,� Malinali explained. �They say these people are very treacherous and cannot be trusted, that the Tlaxcalans know of you and do not care if you are allies of the Totonacs. The Tlaxcalans say many times have armies come to their country pretending to be friends and once inside, tried to destroy them. The Tlaxcalans do not believe the stories of the Totonacs not paying taxes to Montezuma because of you. The Tlaxcalans say this is not possible, that this is another trick, that their whole country is ready to fight you, to kill you and eat your flesh cooked with chilies.�

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FISH-EYED SACKS OF LOATHSOME BILE

Tony Blankley
Friday, 18 November 2005
Little good comes when Congress grabs control of American foreign policy and war-fighting strategies from the hands of a scandal-weakened White House. Of course, it is always possible that there are 51 forward-leaning, shrewd, patriotic, non-partisan senators assembled to make the tough, unpopular call to push on for victory, no matter how hard and long the struggle � LOL. But it is vastly more likely that ignoble instincts beat in the breasts of the several senators assembled. Monday, for the first time, the foul odor of the Vietnam War denouement wafted through the Senate chamber during the debate on Iraq. The Democrats called for �estimated dates for the phased redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq.� Phased redeployment was the maneuver the French executed in June 1940 in the days preceding the German occupation of Paris. Phased redeployment is what the Vietnamese boat people did as they swam for their lives away from their homeland.
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WILL IRAN BREAK APART?

Michael Rubin
Thursday, 17 November 2005
While Persian (Farsi) is the official language, half of all Iranians speak a different language at home.¹ The languages and dialects spoken along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea continue to engross linguists and anthropologists. The minority population is huge. More Azeris live in Iran, for example, than in independent Azerbaijan.² Both Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan have a history of separatism, the latter sparked not only by ethnic discrimination, but also by anti-Sunni religious oppression. Azeris and Kurds are not alone in exerting regional identities and, on occasion, pursuing separatism. Separatist violence is exploding among Khuzistan Arabs. Violence and lawlessness in Baluchistan is increasingly uncontrollable. Local disdain for Tehran is consistent with the historic pattern in which the periphery slowly spins away from central government control during periods of weakness.

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TEACHERS AND COACHES

Jason Edwards
Thursday, 17 November 2005
The difference of commitment to sports versus academics by students and parents is striking, but don't believe for a minute that the same bias is not institutional as well. I have taught now at every level of American academia and I have yet to give a test or assign a project that was so important that it caused a game to be canceled or missed. However, from elementary school to college, I regularly have had class time canceled, projects excused and test times altered to cater to athletics. In fact, it seems any academic activity humbly bows before the holy incantation, �Uh, I'm going to be gone; we've got a game that day.� This explanation is not the bitter ranting of an egghead who was always picked last in gym class. Rather, I'm a former collegiate athlete and high school coach who is intrigued by what could be accomplished if we would bring our athletic commitment into the classroom. And, because attitude is not enough, we should also contrast coaching to teaching, so that we might re-learn some valuable lessons about instructional methods. To this end, I see three prime areas for consideration.

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MAKING YOUR OWN LUCK

Dr. Joel Wade
Friday, 18 November 2005
We are creatures of habit. We tend to adapt and become accustomed and habituated to our circumstances, our skills, and our ways of thinking. This is in some ways a very useful thing. It enables us to deal with changing circumstances, or with circumstances that will not change. It makes it possible for us to be content within a wide variety of situations. If we are blessed with a natural temperament and disposition toward thinking optimistically and focusing on the positive, this can also be a very good thing. But this is a matter of luck, which by definition is inaccessible to our volition. I am interested in how a person can use their volition to direct their lives positively, and, in a sense, to make their own luck.

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POLITICAL NASDAQ - - November 11-17, 2005

Dagny D'Anconia
Friday, 18 November 2005
The DDI remained up all week. The trip upward was delayed by several events that put a damper on the Leftist market movers� enthusiasm. However, by the end of the week they were back on track upward. Friday was Veterans� Day, which is not a favorite for the military loathing Democrats. Furthermore it was an opportunity for President Bush to make a speech criticizing the Democrats for being two-faced about the Iraq war. When the speech started at noon, the market took a predictable dip. The market had been going up until then, but after the speech it continued down. On Monday it was revealed that Supreme Court nominee Alito had writings which showed him to be antiabortion. Once again the market went down. On Tuesday in the early morning, it was revealed that Condi Rice had brokered an new peace agreement for commerce transport between Gaza and Israel. The market opened and headed sharply down.
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CATCHING THIEVES RED-HANDED

Dennis Turner
Friday, 18 November 2005
Most of us hate to think about it, but crime is a fact of everyday life. When you grew up, did you live in a neighborhood where you didn't have to lock the door? Seems like a long time ago in a galaxy far away. These days, we all seek ways to protect our homes and families. Some people - in fact, a lot of people - go for �burglar bars.� In Israel, we call them soragim. But bars ruin your view and are far from burglarproof. The alternative, of course, is a burger alarm. But both alarms and bars can be very expensive. Hence this column. You can set up a comprehensive security system throughout your house for very little money with the help of your PC and one or more Web cams.

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THE NEW MATH

To The Point, Inc.
Friday, 18 November 2005
A learning experience related to us by a TTP friend: Last week I purchased a burger at Burger King for $1.58. The counter girl took my $2 and I was digging for my change when I pulled 8 cents from my pocket and gave it to her. She stood there, holding the nickel and 3 pennies, while looking at the screen on her register. I sensed her discomfort and tried to tell her to just give me two quarters, but she hailed the manager for help. While he tried to explain the transaction to her, she stood there and cried. Why do I tell you this? Because of the evolution in teaching math since the 1950s:
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How The Clintons Will Destroy John McCain

To The Point Weekly Report for February 17th 2006

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TTP Weekly Report - December 16th 2005

TTP Weekly Report - December 9th 2005

TTP Weekly Report - December 2nd 2005

Chapter Sixteen: Xicotencatl � Young and Old

TTP Weekly Report - November 25th 2005

News Bulletin from Bravo Sierra News Service

TTP Weekly Report - November 18th 2005

Chapter Fifteen: The Hill of Tzompachtepetl

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