I'd like to give all TTPers - both those who will be attending the Vegas Rendezvous this weekend and those unable to do so - an intro to what I'll be talking about.

First, though, I need to get something off of my chest. I have become very, very tired of reading standard conservative media. Frankly, the gelded whining gets to me. Detailed arguments aplenty, explaining why the latest Leftist power-grab or exploitation is wrong. Or why their latest hate speech is unfair.

So. What.

Newsflash: the other side doesn't care. They've made it crystal clear that power is the only goal, that they enjoy using power to enrich themselves and hurt others, and that there are no limits of law or decency that restrain them. If you're looking to standard conservative media for hope or change, I recommend Prozac as a mandatory Plan B.  

Economics? Once, this was their spearhead. Now? They'd need a high-power telescope to see even Zero Hedge ahead of them; meanwhile, the global economic order makes ticking sounds.

Popular culture? Never a strength - and now it's the main front of the Left. External enemies? This, they still get. But not the internal ones, who are statistically much more likely to murder you (yes, Virginia, liberals are more lethal than terrorists).

Like so much of the conservative movement, they keep trying to approach the 21st century with the worldview and infrastructure of 1980. Not. Working. The cold hard truth is that liberty's future is arising without them - and may not need them.

What's needed are the bright spots of the new conservative counter-culture.  Here they are...

What do you think was the primary cause of the Great Recession -- too little government regulation ,or dictates by the government to banks and other mortgage lenders, requiring them to lend to the unqualified?

Peter J. Wallison, former general counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department and White House counsel to President Reagan, who was also a member of the congressionally authorized Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, has just published a book, "Hidden in Plain Sight," in which he clearly documents what caused the financial crisis and why it is likely to happen again.

For this act of detailed scholarship and truth-telling, he has come under fierce attack by many of those who were, in part, responsible for the crisis.  Mr. Wallison is a problem for the political class, much like the boy who said the emperor had no clothes. He cannot be dismissed as a know-nothing lightweight.

So his character must be impugned since the facts are on his side.  The Great Recession was a crime, and its perps do not like being exposed.

Is a happy marriage about compromise?

On the surface, I’d say yes, compromise is certainly part of two different people sharing a life together. You can’t do everything you want whenever you want it, etc.

But looking at this question a little more closely, I’d have to say an emphatic, “no.” Compromise is not really the key. Compromise is when one person wants a room painted yellow, the other wants it painted blue, and so you compromise and get green. Compromise is sometimes win/win, sometimes not. There are certainly times when you have to compromise, but that isn’t the driving force of a great relationship.

What is the driving force of a great relationship? A winning premise; a conception of what your relationship is all about that includes a shared vision of the two of you together.

A great relationship is founded on the premise that you and your mate are allies; that you are a team together.

That was the title of a very funny book P. J. O'Rourke wrote a few years ago about Saddam Hussein's Iraq.  And it's very apt advice right now for Colombia's Alvaro Uribe.

You knew that Venezuela's coke-head clown dictator was going to find a pretext for war with Colombia a month ago in Wars On The Way.  The Colombian Army's take-out of Chavez's FARC buddy Raul Reyes, a murderous Marxist midget (he was barely over five feet tall) last Saturday (3/01) provided it.

Now let's hope Uribe accepts Chavez's offer of war.  For if he does, it's bye-bye, Hugo.

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.

Which country has the biggest interest in stopping the expansion of the oil and gas industry in Europe and North America? Answer: the Russian Federation is highly dependent -- to the tune of several hundred billion dollars -- on the export of these commodities, particularly to Europe.

It is rational, then, for the Russians to spend upward of a few hundred million dollars to influence politicians to stop gas and oil projects in those countries, with the goal of limiting supply, and thus protecting the Russian revenue stream.

Researchers at the Environmental Policy Alliance, however, have just produced a very solid, well-documented report, which shows how tens of millions of dollars from Russian interests apparently flowed from a dark company in Bermuda through opaque environmental bundlers, such as the Sea Change Foundation, into major environmental lobbying organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the League of Conservation Voters.

There have been a number of press stories during the past week on Russian support of American environmental groups, including a very detailed description of the money flows, by Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon.  In truth, these reports just scratch the surface of the Kremlin bribery operation paying off not just enviro groups but White House people as well.