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OUR UNCONFIDENT CIVILIZATION

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 5, 2010

[Letter to the Wall Street Journal]

This is in response to "Our Incompetent Civilization" by Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens.

Mr. Stephens ascribes failures to profile Moslems at airport security, think rationally about climate change, or eliminate Somali pirates to "civilizational incompetence." Such failures are not due to a lack of ability but to a lack of will. It is not civilizational competence that we lack but civilizational confidence.

On the same day as Mr. Stephens' article (01/04/10), Der Spiegel ran an editorial bemoaning the lack of Western outrage at recent Moslem attacks on Danish cartoonists who caricatured Mohammed. It was entitled, "The West Is Choked by Fear." But fear of what?

Whatever that fear is of, it is the cause of our collapse of civilizational confidence. Please allow me to identify it. It is the fear of envy.

SOMALI AND IRANIAN HOSTAGE-TAKERS DESERVE THE SAME FATE

Michael Ledeen April 16, 2009

In American custody in Iraq are two Iranian terrorists, Ali Musa Daqduq and Qayis Khazali. Both were captured in Iraq in the spring of 2007, following the bloody attack in Karbala in which five American soldiers were murdered.

U.S. military forces in Iraq discovered that both of them were working for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force. The British want them released. They want them exchanged for Brits being held hostage in Iran. Those hostages are used to blackmail their country into doing things it might not otherwise do.

Knowing all this about the Brits, one has to wonder to what extent we, too, are being blackmailed by the mullahs. There are now four Americans held hostage now in Iran, the most well-known being Roxana Saberi, and two in North Korea.

TWITTER

Mark Gilligan June 5, 2008

Have you heard of the service on the web called Twitter? It's a service for you, your friends, and co-workers to stay connected by exchanging quick frequent answers to one simple question, such as WHAT are you doing?

It's marketed as social networking and "micro-blogging," but is also useful for other communications. It is usually limited to 140 characters per string of communication, which keeps it short and simple.

Let's say that you and group of colleagues are working on a project that has you scattered over the continent. With Twitter it's possible to update everyone or request a quick answer, pertinent to all with a "tweet." To find out more or actually use Twitter go here: Twitter

THE ILLEGAL ELEPHANT IN THE EMERGENCY ROOM

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 16, 2008

The Washington Post, flagship of the liberal elite in our nation's capital, ran the most marvelously revealing story this week (1/15). In typical heart-tugging WaPo style, Emergency Care Waits Found To Be On Rise described the growing nationwide "deadly" crisis of hyper-crowded hospital emergency rooms.

After providing examples and stats showing how much longer it takes to see a physician in an emergency room, the article listed the causes of this "frightening trend." Guess what they don't mention.

The idiom "elephant in the room" refers to ignoring something overwhelmingly obvious, pretending it doesn't exist. Liberals take this one step further - they really don't see the elephant, they willfully blind themselves to the elephant's existence, in this case taking up most of the space in the emergency room of most of the hospitals in the country.

Any of you who have been in an ER recently know exactly what I am talking about: they are overflowing with illegal aliens speaking a torrent of Spanish demanding free medical care.

It's another example of why the issue of illegal immigration is such an Achilles Heel for Democrats in November.

A QUICKIE FIX

Dennis Turner July 7, 2006

Folks, I'm sorry but this week has been taken up with legal matters over my late brother's estate. However, I found an easy solution to the auto restart problem we discussed last week. It eliminates not only the nagging but disables the automatic reboot altogether.

The solution involves adding a registration key to your windows registry. I know most of you don't dare play with your registry and I advise against it. However a knowledgeable programmer has written a problem that does it automatically. I tried it on all three of my computers. It worked without any problem.

Chapter Sixteen: XICOTENCATL – YOUNG AND OLD

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 1, 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.

HALF-FULL REPORT 01/30/15

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 30, 2015

Are you ready for Vegas? Yes - the TTP Vegas Rendezvous is official! It's at the Platinum Boutique Hotel & Spa, just off the Strip and its most famous intersection of Caesar's, Bellagio, Paris, and the Flamingo.

The dates are Friday April 24^th to Sunday April 26. We haven't been able to hold a Rendezvous since 2011 as I've been traveling so much. And with so many requests - "Come on, Jack, when's another Rendezvous??" - it was clear we better have one this spring.

So give Miko a call at 202-656-3008 or email him at miko@tothepointnews.com to sign up now. I'll see you in Vegas!...

Well, here's a first. Never before has the HFR found cause to praise Mrs. Zero, but we're happy to so this week....

Dissolve the intelligence agency that has all the dirt on you, in order to deflect attention away from you for the murder of the investigator exposing you? Good luck, murderess. Argentina's Curse of Cristina may with any luck soon be over...

Speaking of murderers. Yesterday (1/30), Texas proceeded with the execution of Robert Ladd after the Supreme Court rejected ACLU arguments that his IQ was too low at 67. Here's why IQ is irrelevant...

Our HFR Health & Fitness feature this week focuses on news stories like this on CBS on Tuesday (1/27): Common Allergy Meds May Increase Odds of Dementia. Here's how to avoid that and start thinking sharp and clear at any age...

PREDICTIONS ON WEALTH OR WEATHER ARE JUST A ROLL OF THE DICE

Richard Rahn December 30, 2014

How many hurricanes do you think will hit the East Coast of the United States in 2015? Will the Arctic ice sheet disappear next year? How fast will the U.S. economy grow? What will the level of the Dow Jones stock index be at the end of 2015? Which team will win the World Series?

Go back and look at past predictions made by the experts, and then look at what really happened.

Climate alarmists 15 or so years ago were forecasting catastrophic events by this time. Al Gore and his alarmist crowd told us that by now we would be having more and stronger tornadoes and hurricanes.

And indeed, many tornado and hurricane records have been broken -- not because there were more, but because there have been fewer. Florida has now gone a record nine straight seasons without a significant hurricane.

Government economists have no better track record at predicting what will happen to the US economy next year than climate alarmists. Maybe worse and here's why.

HOW BITCOIN TECHNOLOGY COULD CREATE A FAR FREER WORLD

Matt Ridley October 14, 2014

Amid the current maelstrom of war, disease and politics, you might have not been paying much attention to bitcoin, the electronic form of money favored by radical libertarians and drug dealers. Yet it is possible that when the history of these days comes to be written, bitcoin's story will loom large.

Unnoticed except by the tech-obsessed, the technology behind bitcoin may be slowly giving birth to a brave new world, with eventual implications well beyond money.

So argues Bitcoin: The Future of Money?, a new book by Dominic Frisby, a columnist for MoneyWeek magazine published in Britain.

Frisby makes the case that it is just possible that bitcoin and its rivals - known as altcoins - and the "blockchain" technology that lies behind them have the potential to spark a radical decentralization of society itself. They could change the way governments finance themselves, make banks redundant and transform the ways companies are run.

If he is right, then the founder of bitcoin will take his place alongside the great inventors. So who is he?

THE DOUBLE DEATH KNELL OF WARMISM AND DEMOCRAT FASCISM

Dr. Jack Wheeler September 25, 2014

The Left died last Sunday (9/21). It was a spectacular demise, with 400,000 weirdly costumed moonbats clogging up the streets of downtown Manhattan engaged in a "People's Climate March."

What we witnessed was the socio-political equivalent of what biologists call "death fluorescence." They've actually photographed a death wave of bright blue fluorescence propagating through an organism as it dies.

Reason TV essentially recorded the same phenomenon in New York on Sunday:

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You can just see the blue wave enveloping the bearded idiot at the end who says the solution to climate change is for everyone to just "turn off" every energy device they have. What's turned off is his brain - and that of his 400K fellow marchers.

Yet this event was far more than a mass collection of hippie losers and fruitcakes without a cause, or Climate Commies coming out to claim intellectual leadership for Warmism. What we're seeing is the last gasp of the Left.

So here's why the death knell of Warmism may be the death knell of Democrat Fascism itself.

THE FIRST DAY OF CHRISTMAS IS TOMORROW

Dr. Jack Wheeler December 25, 2013

I want to wish you the Merriest of Christmases today, Wednesday December 25, but according to the song, the First Day of Christmas is the day after Christmas, December 26.

Ancient Christians celebrated "The Holidays," as our militant secularists insist on referring to them now, starting with the day after the birth of Jesus and ending on January 6th with the visit of the Magi in Matthew 2:11 known as the Epiphany. Start with 12/26 and end with 1/6 and you get: the Twelve Days of Christmas.

You may be really tired of hearing Christmas songs by now, including this one, yet you may still be wondering what the heck partridges in a pear tree and eight maids a-milking have to do with the birth of the founder of Christianity.

So I thought we might take a break from Serious Thoughts About World Events, and take a look at the song's origin, meaning, and myth.

WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A TEAM

Dr. Joel Wade June 14, 2013

[Note from Jack Wheeler: TTP would like to congratulate Joel and his team, the Santa Barbara Masters (Joel's the goalie) for winning the Silver Medal in the National Water Polo Masters Championships (50 and over, Joel's an old guy) held in Riverside CA last Sunday, June 9!]

Brand New Mastering Happiness Audio Course! See below!

I've played water polo for most of my life, and still do. I've had the privilege of playing on some excellent teams, and I've also played on some, well... not so excellent teams.

I've also been involved with some psychology groups who thought they knew how to be part of a team, or to build teams. I was always surprised at the lack of understanding among them. Today I want to talk about some of the things I've found over the years that make for an excellent team - and a not so excellent team, whether it's for work, play, family or marriage.

This is by no means exhaustive. There is so much that goes into team building that it would be more than I could put into an article. But I want to focus mostly on doing away with one great big flawed cliché: "There is no I in team."

That's baloney.

DO YOU THINK YOUâ€™LL BE DIFFERENT IN TEN YEARS?

Dr. Joel Wade March 5, 2013

When you think of what you'll be like ten years from now, if you're like most people, you probably imagine that you'll be just like you are now. Yet when you look back ten years, aren't you different than you were then?

Of course you are different today than you were ten years ago - unless you've removed yourself from any experience of living. Life is a continual anti-entropy endeavor. If we don't expend energy to create order, the natural tendency of things to move toward disorder takes over.

If you don't mow the lawn, the lawn becomes a growth of weeds; if you don't use your body in some kind of physical activity, your body begins to break down; if you don't use your mind to learn and think about new things, your mind will become less active and effective.

You will be different than you are now in ten years. That's a fact of life. The question is, how will you be different; and will you be different mostly as a result of events, or through conscious choice?

THE TO THE POINT BUSINESS NETWORK

Dr. Jack Wheeler January 1, 2010

We are pleased to announce a new special feature of To The Point available to all TTP members: The To The Point Business Network.

There is already the TTP Social Network where TTPers can share their opinions and plan social activities with each other. But what about sharing business expertise and opportunities with each other?

There is so much business experience, knowledge, and creativity possessed by TTPers. So we have decided to synergize it. These are troubling economic times. But synergized TTPers can help each other overcome them - and even flourish during them.

Whatever your business talents and abilities are, whatever your economic situation, you'll find fellow TTPers willing to share their thoughts and ideas with you, willing to help - just as you can help them.

The link to the To The Point Business Network is in the left side bar of the TTP home page, just below the Main Menu categories.

So join and sign up now, and start making 2010 a business success story for you and your family. Many thanks to TTP general manager Miko, and Marco "The Wizard" Gilligan, for making this possible!

THE MIND OF JIHAD

Michael Ledeen December 10, 2008

Laurent Murawiec's The Mind of Jihad is, at last, a book on radical Islam that does it all.

Unlike many engaged in the heated debate over the nature of our enemies, Murawiec does not believe that ancient texts tell us all we need to know. He insists that all ideas change over time, even those believed to have been dictated by God's angel.

He has therefore immersed himself not only in the sacred texts of Islam but also in the richly variegated speeches, writings, and actions of its most extremist practitioners: the jihadis waging war against us.

He candidly admits that it was not easy, that many of his initial ideas turned out to be wrong, and that his current understanding of "the mind of jihad" surprises him. This understanding holds that the current doctrine is far more than the resuscitation of medieval commandments, and in fact has a lot to do with modern European and Soviet totalitarianism.

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