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L i k e U s ! ! !

A LIGHT AT THE END OF THE WORLD


Marco Polo (1254-1324) knew where the end of the world was.  He never went there but he heard about it.  It was a "great red island" in the vast unknown sea far to the south of India, and it had a strange name:  Madagascar.

Although near Africa, folks here - known as Malagasy - are not from Africa.  They came from Indonesia 2,000 years ago.  For a thousand years they lived in isolation from the world. Then strangers started appearing on their northern coast calling themselves "Moslems."

The Malagasy wanted no part of them or their strange and offensive religion.  Persians ("Shirazis" from Shiraz) and Arabs were sailing in their dhows down the east coast of Africa enslaving and Islamizing as they went.  But when they crossed the Mozambique Channel to Madagascar, they discovered people very different from Africans.

Arabs had found the islands of Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Borneo, etc.) easy Islamic pickings for converts.  Somehow, the converts' distant relatives weren't.  This is an important mystery.

Ever since they invented Islam, Arabs have forced their religion upon peoples throughout the world, most of the time with little or no resistance.  The exceptions are among people who have a competing religion like Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.  It's very hard to think of any place without a strong competing religion already in place that resisted Islam.

Madagascar is that place.  That's one reason it is a light at the end of the world.

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NO CHANCE WITH CLIMATE CHANGE


[This is the full text of the address given by US Senator James Inhofe, R-OK, delivered to the delegates attending the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen on Thursday, December 17.]

Copenhagen attendees, I want to turn back the clock to December 2003, when the United Nations convened the "9th Conference of the Parties" in Milan, Italy, to discuss implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.  At the time, I was leading the Senate delegation to Milan as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works [Mr. Inhofe is now Ranking Member of the committee]. 

Fast forward to December 2009: the UN is holding its 15th global warming conference-and the delegates are haggling over the same issues that were before them in 2003.   I know this because I was there.  Recently, with the Copenhagen talks underway, I reread the speech I delivered in Milan.  I found that the issues at stake in 2003 are nearly the same as those in 2009.  In short, nothing has changed and nothing has been done.

So the Copenhagen talks are stalemated.  It's clear to all that developing countries don't want burdensome regulations to stifle their economies.  I don't blame them.  Well, that's the way we feel right here in America.  That's why no global warming treaty that causes serious harm to the US economy, or that doesn't include equal commitments from the likes of China and India, will ever be ratified by the US Senate. Further, I want to be sure the 191 countries represented here understand this:  an economy-wide cap-and-trade bill stands no chance of passing.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 12/18/08


There hasn't been an HFR since November 4 since it's too depressing to raise a glass that's completely dry and empty.  Lately, however, so much fun stuff has been filling the HFR full liter stein that it's like the Munich Oktoberfest in December.

Let's start with the biggest silver lining of November 4:  we didn't end up with President Pain-in-the-ass McCain.  Once again, he reminded us this week of what an insufferable jerk he is.  The only reason he got the nomination is because the Stupid Party allows Democrats to vote in its primaries.  It's such a relief we never have to pay any attention to him ever again.  Jindal-Palin 2012!

Next we move to Blagogate, which is serving to bring into clear focus that corruption is the Democrat Party's middle name - and that for the next four years we'll have a Chicago White House, the operations of which will be run by Blago buddy Rahm Emmanuel...

... Now on to the substantial benefits of the US/global recession.

... We'll close this edition of the HFR by raising a glass of sacramental wine to a great American patriot and founder of the modern conservative political movement, Paul Weyrich.

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IS SPAIN BREAKING APART?


Madrid, Spain. Spain has been one of the great democratic and economic success stories of the last three decades. But there is now some reason to fear for its future.

The Spaniards have moved in two generations from conservative church-going Catholics to some of the most socially liberal people on the planet (the Californians of Europe). Recent surveys have shown the Spaniards to be among the happiest people on Earth.

In sum, Spain seems to have everything going for it.  There are problems, however, big problems in paradise.

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AFRICAN BLIZZARD


Maseru, Lesotho, Southern Africa
My son Jackson and I arrived here in a snow storm.  It soon became a raging blizzard.  Inches of snow, accidents all over the place, for most people here (they all belong to a tribe called Basotho) have never seen snow, much less know how to drive in it.

An African blizzard may seem a joke, but that southern Africa is suffering through one of its coldest winters isn't.  (Remember that it's winter now below the Equator.)

It's just another one of the blizzard of problems that a place like Lesotho (luh-soo-too) is enduring, none of which is a laughing matter. In fact, There's no way around it, for Lesotho's fate is baked in the demographic cake.  Lesotho is doomed.  The real African Blizzard is going to sweep it away.

What a tragedy - for it had such a heroic start in the 19th century...

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AN ERA OF NARCISSISM AND MADNESS


Perhaps when the history of our times is written, ours will be called The Era of Narcissistic Catechisms. To understand why this is the case it is enough to consider the fortunes of two green movements.

2,800 miles away from the one in Copenhagen, another green movement took to the streets this week. In Iran tens of thousands of anti-regime protesters from the green (the color for Islam) movement for democracy again risked their lives to demand freedom.

Unlike global warming, there is no doubt that the specter of a nuclear-armed Iran constitutes a grave threat to international peace and security. There is also no doubt that the most effective way to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons is to replace the current genocidal jihadist regime with a peaceful, liberal and democratic government.

As unlikely as it may seem, at the very moment that freedom in Iran has become most urgent requirement for the world as a whole, the Iranian people have taken to the streets to demand it and are willing to pay with their lives to achieve it.

In the face of this miraculous turn of events, the international community has nothing to say. Whereas the West's celebrity icons line up to get their pictures taken next to posters of polar bears, no one stands with the Iranian people.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 10/03/08


Sofia, Bulgaria. Dr. Joel Wade couldn't write his column yesterday (10/02) because he was so nervous waiting for the Palin-Biden debate.  He's feeling a lot better this morning.  So are we all.  You betcha.

So let's lift a pint of Kamenitza beer in honor of Sarah Palin and the hope she has reignited the McCain-Palin ticket... 

...Kamenitza is my selection out of a large number of excellent Bulgarian beers because of its advertising motto:  Success in your hands (there's a picture of a hand holding a bottle), followed by the ad copy:  Because you are successful, we present to you a Bulgarian beer with character.

You would never, ever see such an ad in any country in Western Europe.  In France or Germany, young people sneer at entrepreneurial capitalism as their purpose in life is to sponge off the state...

...Thus the garish irony of our election in November.

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SURPRISE! DEMOCRATS STRIVE TO MAKE SUBPRIME MESS WORSE


The global financial problem, stemming from the U.S. subprime mortgage mess, is a direct result of the irresponsibility and incompetence of the U.S. Congress

That Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been engaging in Ponzi scheme with taxpayer-subsidized money is obvious to anyone - even Congressmen - due to a series of major accounting and financial corruption scandals in recent years.

Politicians have used the board positions in these organizations to reward political cronies (e.g., the fired and indicted head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines, was Bill Clinton's Office of Management and Budget director). Both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have been very major contributors to congressional campaigns.

But rather than clean up the mess they created by getting back to market basics, Democrats in Congress decided last week to make the mess much worse.

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MOSQUES ON THE RHINE


You disappear into the African bush for over two weeks, only to emerge back into the world to discover everything's the same. 

Bush is still commiserating over the dead horse of the immigration, people with 2-digit IQs are still paying attention to Paris Hilton, Palestinians are still killing each other in Gaza, Moslems are rioting around the world over some perceived insult to their religion of intolerance (in this case, the knighting of Salmon Rushdie by Queen Elizabeth), and good news from Iraq is not being reported.

What really got my attention, though, was a news bulletin from Cologne, Germany.

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COMRADE LYSENKO IN COPENHAGEN


As the illustrious conclave of global warming true believers, led by President Barack Hussein Obama, gathers in Copenhagen for yet another exercise in environmental doom and gloom, observing the proceedings with the sly smirk of somebody who's "been there, done that" is likely to be the ghost of one Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (1898-1976).

No ordinary ghost that one either, for Comrade Lysenko was Stalin's favorite scientist for decades and the driving force behind the greatest scientific fraud in history prior to "anthropogenic global warming." Indeed, to fully understand the nature, magnitude and implications of the AGW scam, it's worthwhile to revisit Academician Lysenko's exploits, which just happen to bear an uncanny resemblance to the charlatanism currently on display in Climategate.

Anthropogenic global warming has become for its supporters what Lysenko's theory of heredity was for the Stalinists. For its small international cabal of top AGW functionaries, it was about more than money, power and prestige, though, with the connivance of sycophantic Western governments and U.N. bureaucrats, there was plenty of that too. It was about ideology.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 09/19/08


Maybe we should all be in Tibet this week.

That's where I was 21 years ago on Black Monday, October 19, 1987.  On that infamous day 21 years ago, the Dow dropped 22.6%:  from 2,247 to 1,739, or a loss of 508 points.  (An equivalent loss today would be a fall of 2,500 points, from 11,422 to 8,840.)

We were in one of the remotest spots on the planet - the Chang Thang plateau of northern Tibet - when we learned of the crash on our short wave radio tuned into the BBC.  We were so lucky to be there...

... let's focus now on more positive developments.  One would be that Charlie Rangel is finally getting what's coming to him.  Even liberal newspapers like the Miami Herald are calling for him to resign, either from his chairmanship of House Way & Means or from Congress altogether. 

Another is the release this week of John Fund's book Stealing Elections.  This is an incredibly important book.  John exposes the plans of the ultimate "community organizer" ACORN to commit massive voter fraud in cities throughout the country - and details how Obama is an ACORN operative...

...Then there is Boliva breaking apart and Pakistan about to.

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DO YOU CARE ABOUT THE DOLLAR?


Do you care about the fall of dollar against the euro? Here's why you should care and what might be done about it.

The exchange rate movement implies that the whole physical stock of Europe (land, buildings, machines, art, etc.) is suddenly worth 40 percent more in dollar terms than it was six years ago - and this of course is nonsense, given there has been no drastic difference in the performance of the relative economies in the last six years.

Many economic commentators argue that the dollar has fallen relative to the euro largely because of the U.S. trade deficit, and must fall further to rectify it, even though the United States has been running a trade deficit for years.

In fact, it has been the desire of foreign governments, companies and individuals to buy dollar assets, such as U.S. government bonds, which has caused the trade deficit. For them to obtain dollars to invest in the U.S., they must sell us goods and services.

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OUT OF AFRICA


Sleeping in a tent with a half million wildebeest nearby on the short grass plains of Africa's Serengeti is like sleeping next to an eight-lane freeway at rush hour - with all the cars honking their horns.

The incessant snorts and grunts of the vast herds vibrate the leaves off the trees which fall like rain on the tent.  They are punctuated by the whistling barks of thousands of zebras, and interrupted by the cackling cry of hyenas on a kill.  One hyena pack's cries are so close they must be less than 100 feet away.

In the short breaks of silence when the hyenas cease and the wildebeest resume, there are lions coughing in the distance.

With the coming of dawn, things quiet down.  The wildebeest and zebras emerge out of the relative safety of the trees where we are camped and onto the plains the Masai call endless - for that is what Serengeti means in their tribal language, "endless plains."

I have had no contact with the outside world now for going on two weeks.  Not a single phone call or email, not a newspaper or short-wave radio.  I'll be posting this once I reach the town of Arusha, which is the jumping-off spot for safaris to the Serengeti, but as of now I haven't the faintest idea of what's been happening in the world.

The world seems very far away from where I am writing this, on the veranda of my tent with a plain of endless grass spread before me, countless black dots of munching wildebeest covering the dark green all the way to the horizon.
 
It seems a perfect place to discuss just how we all got out of Africa and into that far away world so long ago - for it is an astounding and fascinating story.

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OBAMA ON AFGHANISTAN: NUTS, STUPID, AND IMMORAL


Just plain nuts: That's the only possible characterization for last night's (12/02) presidential declaration of surrender in advance of a renewed campaign in Afghanistan.

President Obama will send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan -- but he'll "begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011." Then why send them?

If you're going to tell the Taliban to be patient because we're leaving, what's the point in upping the blood ante? For what will come down to a single year by the time the troops hit the ground?

Our president is setting up our military to fail -- but he'll be able to claim that he gave the generals what they wanted. Failure will be their fault. He's covering his strong-on-security flank, even as he plays to our white-flag wavers. His cynicism's worthy of a Saddam.

This isn't just stupid: It's immoral. No American president has ever espoused such a worthless, self-absorbed non-strategy for his own political gratification.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 09/05/08


To call this a half-full report this week would be ridiculous.  Even an "overflowingly full report" wouldn't come close.  Think of that famous picture of the Spindletop oil gusher, only it's a gusher of good news.  That's more like it.

The gusher starts with the world's most famous woman.  Mark this week as when Omania fizzled out.  O stands for Over.  There's little to add about Sarah right now except to stand back in awe, and contemplate the blessings of Providence upon America.

That, and order a case of Alaska IPA, a great beer brewed in Juneau within sight of Governor Palin's office...

... Onto Russia.  While Euroweenia is proclaiming Czar Putin to be the world's most powerful man, smart folks here in DC are examining his many vulnerabilities.  Russia needs to be broken apart like the Soviet Union...

... For three years - since September 2005! - you've known why man-made global warming is a myth.  Solar Warming explained the mechanism of warming, of how the sun's magnetic activity (of which sun spots are a sign) effects cloud formation on earth.

The bottom line is:  no sun spots mean a cooler earth, lots of sun spots mean a warmer earth.

This week, astronomers announced that for the first time in 100 years, an entire month has passed without a single sunspot.  This is bad news for advocates of the glo-warming religion, and thus good news for advocates of freedom from fascist control over our lives.  But it's also bad news for our planet.

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