Naples, Florida.  I had to skedaddle back from the Persian Gulf to speak to a conservative organization meeting here today.  I'll be on the podium soon, so let's get started.

Richard Rahn this week discusses the economics of raising cigarette taxes in New York, and parenthetically mentions New York's "enormous cigarette smuggling problem."

One thing I learned while in the Middle East is that our military intel guys there believe that much of the cigarette smuggling operation on the US East Coast is run by Moslems working for Al Qaeda. 

Someone needs to tell New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg his cigarette taxes are resulting in scores of millions of dollars funding Al Qaeda terrorism.  Someone needs to tell the DHS lady, Janet Napolitano, to do something about this.  You wonder why nobody has. Or maybe they just don't care to listen.

If Congress, under a revised "cash for clunkers," suddenly required every car and truck in America (all 250 million of them) to be immediately destroyed and replaced with new cars and trucks that got better gas mileage, would the country be worse off or better off?

Congressional Fantasycrats would say "better!" - so let's apply their logic to housing.

Why not knock down all houses built in America before 2000 and replace them with new and more energy-efficient houses? Wait -- we already evidenced the results of that experiment -- it happened in New Orleans. Rather than the government directly knocking down the houses, Hurricane Katrina did it for us.

Many in Congress argue that the reason New Orleans is still a mess - after hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars - is because of federal, state and local government mismanagement and corruption. Yes, but now don't they want the government to run the health care system? And these folks are telling us that their new medical system will cover more people, will cost less, give us better care and not add to the budget deficit -- hmmm. Fantasyland!

South Africa is a country of paradoxes. On the one hand, it is exhilarating to see the blacks now in charge after their long struggle. On the other, the ruling African National Congress' record of governance is at best a mixed bag.

This has been a great year for South Africa. Throngs of tourists visited during the World Cup soccer championship, and the international press coverage was fantastic. Unfortunately, the relative safety enjoyed by World Cup tourists was a striking deviation from the norm. The ANC has failed to provide personal security for South Africans. According to the UN, South Africa has the second highest per capita murder rate in the world. South African sources place the annual murder rate at 23,000.

South Africa is the rape capital of the world. In a 1998-2000 UN survey, one in three women said they had been raped in the past year. One in four men admitted that he was a rapist. Nearly 20 percent of South Africans are infected with the HIV virus.

On top of this, the ANC regime is one of the most anti-Israel governments in the world today. Although the physical beauty of South Africa is arresting, and the material standard of living that South African Jews enjoy is impressive, it is clear that Jewish life in South Africa will only get worse.

I better be careful here, as there's so much to talk about this week the HFR could be the length of a small novel. 

Before we begin - an important announcement.  So many TTPers can't wait six months for another Rendezvous that we've decided to have an extra Spring Rendezvous in San Diego, California May 14-16.  Details next week, but mark your calendar now.

***
So - let's start with the HFR International Hero of the Week, Alvaro Uribe of Colombia.  Then I'll tell you a extradinary story about General Alexander Haig's heroism that no one has ever heard-- then why we should look upon Republicans in Congress as heroes.  And yes, that still includes Scott Brown.

After nine months of spending trillions of bailout dollars and failing to revive their economies, it has become clear that the political leadership in the world's major economic powers has been pursuing policies that can only result in failure.

Worse, the leaders of the US, Japan, UK and EU seem to have little idea of what to do next.   Thus a prominent international financial expert has dubbed these powers "zombie governments."

Yet the solutions to their problems are not rocket science and are well-known to thoughtful people:

Today, practically, the only individuals willing to speak honestly about who Islamic supremacists are and what they want are the Islamic supremacists themselves.

For instance, in an interview last week with Reuters, the Islamic supremacist Hamas movement's "foreign minister" Mahmoud al- Zahar told the Christian West, "You do not live like human beings. You do not [even] live like animals. You accept homosexuality. And now you criticize us?"

Al-Zahar also made the case for Islamic feminism. As he put it, "We are the ones who respect women and honor women ... not you. You use women as an animal. She has one husband and hundreds of thousands of boyfriends. You don't know who is the father of your sons, because of the way you respect women."

Washingtonosis (n): A disease most often found in people working within three miles of the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, although pockets also are found in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.

It tends to infect elected officials, government bureaucrats, those working in the media, "government relations specialists," association executives and even top corporate executives.

Symptoms include an overwhelming desire to associate and be seen with those in power or those perceived to have power and/or fame. Those infected tend to lose judgment, values, principles and sense of honesty as well as common sense.

Last week, officials of the American Medical Association (AMA) revealed that they had caught the disease. They endorsed the House version of the health care bill even though it would reduce the incomes of many of their members, restrict their freedom to practice medicine as they think best and limit choices for their patients.

Last year, in an attempt to block Obama's plan to nationalize healthcare, Massachusetts voters elected Republican Scott Brown to the Senate. Brown was elected because he pledged to block Obamacare in the US Senate.

Rather than heed the voters' message and abandon his plans, Obama abandoned the voters. Instead of accepting his defeat, Obama changed the rules of the game and bypassed the Senate.

So it is safe to assume that for the next two years, Obama will do everything he can to bypass the Congress and govern by executive orders and regulations. Although much can be done in this fashion, Congress's control of the purse strings will check his domestic agenda.

In matters of foreign policy however, Obama will be less burdened by - but not immune - to Congressional oversight. We can therefore expect him to devote far more energy to foreign affairs in the next two years than he devoted in the last two years.

This bodes ill for Israel.

Happy Valentine's Day!  I am far away from my Valentine of almost three decades, as this Sunday the 14^th I'll be in Bahrain, but we'll celebrate the love we've shared for all these years as soon as I get back home.

For those of you lucky to be home with a loved one, taking the time to celebrate that love is certainly worth devoting this coming Sunday to.  It's also worth devoting a bit of time today reflecting on a common love all us TTPers share - our love of our country, the United States of America.

Being outside the US always gives you a special appreciation of our country.  America has put itself through troubling and dangerous times recently, but I am becoming more confident by the day that these times are coming to an end...

Now for a personal note of appreciation to all of you who sent me condolences for the passing of my friend, Charlie Wilson.  As many of you know, Charlie was my best man at my wedding with Rebel, and we worked closely together on Reagan Doctrine strategies to terminate the existence of the Soviet Union.

For the story regarding this, see Charlie Wilson and Ronald Reagan's War from December 2007.  It will give you insights on what really happened - and what the book and movie Charley Wilson's War got right and what it got very wrong.  Plus there are some great pictures of Charlie.

Las Vegas, Nevada.  How old were you before you realized your actions could result in unintended consequences?

Men create democratic governments to protect life, liberty and property. Yet much of what modern government does daily has the largely unintended consequence of endangering and/or reducing all three.

Taxes reduce liberty and often erode the value of property. Most regulations reduce liberty and some erode property values and even endanger life. We now spend much of our lives trying to figure out how to reduce our tax burdens and to comply with never-ending government regulations and forms.

Most of those who enter government, either as elected politicians or bureaucrats, do not start out to deliberately erode basic freedoms and property rights, but all too many in the political class act like children -- irresponsibly and thoughtlessly.