For some set of reasons I don’t really fathom, my becoming an Eagle Scout at 12 years old disturbs certain people. Out of all the stuff in my bio, this is the thing these folks call into question. Not only do I get emails on it, but there are even debates about it on a number of internet web sites and chat rooms. So to settle this, here’s my chronology of how I made Eagle.
History is full of instances where a rising power, aggrieved and dissatisfied, acts aggressively to obtain new borders or other international concessions. In Russia today we see a much more unusual case: This increasingly menacing and ambitious geopolitical actor is a state in decline.
Notwithstanding Russia's nuclear arsenal and its vast territories, the distinguishing feature of the country today is its striking economic underdevelopment and weakness.
For all Russia's oil and gas, the country's international sales of goods and services last year only barely edged out Belgium's - and were positively dwarfed by the Netherlands'.
While Russia's childbearing patterns today look entirely European, its mortality patterns look Third World - and in some ways worse. According to estimates by the World Health Organization, a 15-year-old youth has worse survival chances today in Russia than in 33 of the 48 places the United Nations designates as "least developed countries," including such impoverished locales as Mali, Yemen and even Afghanistan.
Russia's "high education, low human capital" paradox also shows up in Russia's extreme "knowledge production" deficit. Long-term economic progress depends on improving productivity through new knowledge - but this is something Russia appears mysteriously unable to do.
In the modern era, the ultimate source of national wealth and power is not natural resources: It is human resources. And unfortunately for Russia, its human-resource situation is almost unrelievedly dismal - with worse likely in the years to come.
As Zero sunk further into demented estrangement from reality this week - e.g., claiming that man-made climate change caused draught in Nigeria which caused Boko Haram, when Nigeria has been unusually wet for the last ten years - maybe someone needs to tell him a joke he should listen to:...
Last Sunday (5/17), the capital of Iraq's key Anbar province, Ramadi, fell to ISIS - a city that scores of Marines died to liberate in 2006. In response, President Putz rallies our troops by giving a speech at the Coast Guard Academy (5/20) about the national threat of global warming.
The next day (yesterday 5/21), ISIS took the historic city of Palmyra and now controls 50% of Syria - and at that very time yesterday, Zero gives an interview declaring, "I don't think we're losing to ISIS."
If Zero were telling the truth in that interview, what he would have admitted is:...
Have you noticed that all the Dems have now are has-beens? Speaking of has-beens, the PIAPS had a wonderfully bad week. She's not inevitable, you know. I'll tell you who I'm all in for, he's my guy...
Here's a great good-news story from Monday (5/18) written by an idiot AP reporter...
Then there's a small miracle that occurred in Congress, a delightful story for the ladies, and an anonymous artist as the Hero of the Week.
Geneva, Switzerland. What is the happiest place? Last week (4/23) in its annual World Happiness Report, the United Nations reported that Switzerland was No. 1. The United States ranked No. 15, and the African country of Togo came in last, at number 158. (Scroll down to Figure 2.2 for the ranked list.)
Switzerland is arguably the world's most successful country -- and most improbably so. It is landlocked and without much in the way of natural resources. It has four official languages, many different religious groups, and is surrounded by warring neighbors. Yet, it has remained an island of peace and prosperity.
The modern Swiss federal state goes back to 1848, when a federal constitution was adopted, giving the central government responsibility for defense, trade and legal matters. All other government matters were left to the cantons and the communes (i.e., cities and towns).
The U.S. Constitution, which is more than a half-century older than the Swiss, also greatly limited the powers of the central government -- but unlike the Swiss, there has been a centralization of power in the capital at the expense of the states and local governments.
How did the Swiss do it?
The Democrat Party has been waging war against Blacks since the election of the first Democrat President in 1828, Andrew Jackson. Democrats were the party of slavery whose voters included the cotton farmers.
In their party platforms from 1840 to 1860, the Democrats supported slavery. After Lincoln's election, Democrats sparked the Civil War. After the war was over and slaves were emancipated, the Democrats became the party of Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
Renowned historian Eric Foner wrote, "In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democrat Party, the planter class and all those who desired the restoration of white supremacy."
The last Democrat linked to the KKK was Senator Robert Byrd, who died as recently as 2010 while still in office. Like many Democrats, he voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Yes, it's true that Democrat President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) signed the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964. But there is more to the story. Let me tell it to you.
Sanya, Hainan Island, South China Sea. This is China's Florida, where Chinese Snowbirds escape from freezing their tuches off suffering Beijing's winter. I am at Howard Johnson's Sanya Resort eating a cheeseburger and listening to a local rock band playing Roy Orbison's Pretty Woman, singing the lyrics in English.
The place is gigantic with 1,000 rooms, and packed with Chinese - I am the only Westerner here. The band now launches into an enthusiastic Beatles' Obla-dee-obla-dah, which brings back a flood of memories when I first heard it, dancing with my Hawaiian girlfriend Vonnie at a Honolulu night club in 1969.
The Red Guards were rampaging through China back then, egged on by Mao, while millions of Chinese were starving to death. The scene before me now would have been considered a madman's hallucination in 1969.
Then Mao finally died in 1976, and his successor, Deng Xiao Ping created a "birdcage economy" as the way for China to grow into an economic superpower yet retain a Communist Party monopoly of power.
The Chinese people were allowed to be songbang, unleashed and free to fly around in the cage to make money - but never allowed to escape from the Party's cage itself. They accepted the bargain offered them - prosperity in exchange for loyalty - and the result was the most massive increase in national wealth in the shortest time in human history.
Today, the bargain between the Chicoms and the Chinese people - greater economic freedom for little or no political freedom - is breaking down. The Party needs a new rationale for its monopoly of political power - and has found it in that most lethal of tyrant excuses, jingoistic nationalism and demonization of a foreign devil.
Guess who that is.
Happy New Year's Eve! And welcome to the third annual TTP What to Read list. We initiated this tradition with a list of the books I read and recommended in 2012, the first What to Read. That was followed a year later with What to Read 2013.
So here we go with what I've read and suggest for your consideration in 2014. I'm sure that on New Year's Eve, you're planning to spend the evening curled up with a good book, right? You better not be...
Tomorrow and beyond is another story. A good book can help clear your brain from the night before - in addition to a lot of the amino cysteine to detox your system (best sources: Durk & Sandy's Party Pills, N-Acetyl-Cysteine at your local GNC, or a multi-egg omelette with plenty of garlic, onions, and ricotta cheese).
All of the books below you can get on Kindle/iPad (instantly and much cheaper). Let's start with the political and geopolitical, then move into science and history...
I've lost a mentor and a dear friend; Nathaniel Branden passed away on Wednesday, Dec. 3rd. Playful, brilliant, mischievous, incisive, inspiring... He was the best ally a young soul striving for strength and self-possession could have.
When someone we care about passes, we long for stories that remind us of them; stories that help us feel like we can still know them better, as though they're somehow still here, and we can continue to feel closer to them, if only for a little while longer; while we get used to the jarring truth that they're gone.
There are stories that are public knowledge - and they are big stories. Nathaniel was instrumental in creating a systematic philosophy and organized school of thought from the novels and thought of Ayn Rand.
I'd like to give a brief introduction to the man for those who may not know him or his work. Then what I have to say is more personal.
The New York Times headline yesterday (11/24): A Nuclear Deal for US and Iran Slips Away Again.
He did it again, as we should have expected. Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei walked us right up to the finish line, spat on Obama, and walked away. Months and months of secret and public talks, letters, back channels, and gestures produced nothing of the sort the president, assorted foreign ministers, pundits, and politicians had been predicting.
Instead we are to keep talking, and keep paying the Islamic Republic for the pleasure and privilege.
It's not Barack Obama's unique failure; the same thing happened to Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Both of them came to believe they had a deal with Khamenei, and both of them were rudely disabused of their error when the Iranians walked away.
No sensible person doubts Obama's willingness to be generous to the Iranians. Any lingering skepticism should be definitively eliminated by the latest "extension," which reportedly bestows $700 million on Khamenei every month for continuing to talk.
You read that right: British Foreign Secretary Phillip Hammond announced that "Iran will receive about $700 million per month in frozen assets." Iranian Assets Unfrozen ran the headline.
Khamenei could certainly have had a very good deal if he wanted it. If he didn't take one, it's because he doesn't want it. Why?
I've written often about Thomas Paine (1736-1809), one of my favorite historical figures. I thought this week as a counterpoint I'd write about one of my least favorite figures... his 18th century contemporary, Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
Being against reason, science, civilization, individual liberty, and self-discipline, Rousseau's thinking has been at the root of much of the psychological, political, and cultural trouble of our time. It has specifically popularized a philosophy of emotions that has done and continues to do great harm.
While ideals of individual liberty, natural rights, representative democracy, and private property were growing in influence throughout the west, Rousseau argued against them.
When Rousseau sent his friend Voltaire a copy of his second Discourse, Voltaire began his brilliant reply, "I have received, Monsieur, your new book against the human race." Which is why one clear path to wisdom is to ignore his baneful influence completely.
In a number of cases, officials of the Obama administration appear to have given unlawful orders during the shutdown, such as to put up barricades to prevent people from going to nonfederal attractions such as Mount Vernon, and keeping open nonessential activities like federally owned golf courses that serve the "well-connected."
The Uniform Code of Military Justice Section 892, Article 92 makes it clear that military personnel have an obligation and a duty to obey only lawful orders and, indeed, have an obligation to disobey unlawful orders, including orders by the president that do not comply with the code.
The moral and legal obligation of the military is to the U.S. Constitution and not to those who would issue unlawful orders, especially if those orders are in direct violation of the Constitution and the code. Civilian employees also have an equal obligation to disobey unlawful orders.
The illegitimate orders that government workers followed during the shutdown might seem like minor infractions, but those who committed them should think about where they would draw the line.
There is a new kid in town and his name is "Chrome OS" as for Google Chrome. It's the new operating system to be interactive with Google Cloud.
Google is out to change the world more than they already have, and having applications stored on the Internet in a specified zone, known as a "cloud", is the new way to store information.
I have written about the "Cloud" in earlier articles and there is a huge push for this new avenue of computing. If you have all your information stored in the
nebulous cloud on the Internet, your going to need a vehicle to connect with it.
That vehicle, friends is Chrome, Google's new browser that will do just that. Just what will Chrome do for Google's cloud users? So how is this different from the way we currently compute? A lot.
Version 7 of Microsoft's dominant Web browser packs in interface changes, many new features, and plenty of under-the-hood updates. It's available now from here.
Soon it will be automatically installed with a windows update. It also arrived just days before version 2 of the up-and-coming Mozilla browser, Firefox. Firefox 2 (which you download for free from this link) automatically updates your Firefox 1.51.
So which new browser is your best bet? I'll try here to give a comprehensive comparison. Like Fox News, I'll report - then you decide.
The Jade Steps
Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Fate of Montezuma
Cortez moved swiftly to commandeer the ships and supplies of Narvaez's fleet. Under the command of Francisco de Lugo, the ships were brought to Villa Rica, everything of use brought ashore, and the great quantities of wine, bacon, flour, cassava bread and other perishables carefully stored.
He also moved quickly to merge the men and commands of Narvaez's men with his own. He detached Juan Velasquez de Leon and 120 men, 100 of whom were Narvaez men, to explore the coast to the north of Villa Rica and establish a colony near the river Panuco. He directed Diego de Ordaz to lead the same sort of contingent south for a colony near the river Coatzacoalco.
He placed Rodrigo Rangel in charge of Villa Rica, made sure Narvaez and Salvatierra were securely imprisoned there, and ordered Gonzalo de Sandoval to make all preparations for the remainder of the command to return to Tenochtitlan.
Then everything changed when Malinali brought one of Narvaez's officers, Botello Puerto de Plata, to Cortez. "Señor de Plata has disturbing news, my Captain," she told him. Cortez had been hearing about him. A hidalgo from Santander on the north coast of Castille, he had become a Latin scholar while studying in Rome, and had a reputation for being a prestidigitador, a magician who could predict the future.
"Señor Cortez, I must warn you to leave here immediately," de Plata announced. "The officer you left in command at Tenochtitlan, Pedro de Alvarado, and all your men there are in grave danger. The Aztecs are making war upon them, they are attempting to climb into their quarters with ladders, and wish to kill them all. You must return there quickly."
