The Oasis for
Rational Conservatives

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Member Menu

The Amazon's Pantanal

Serengeti Birthing Safari

Wheeler Expeditions

Member Discussions

Article Archives

Archives

L i k e U s ! ! !

AMELIA VICTORIOUS – HOW TO LOSE THE CULTURE WAR WITH A VIDEO GAME

There’s something genuinely funny going on in the United Kingdom right now.

The British government’s Prevent office, housed under the Home Office (think Department of the Interior, but allergic to dissent), partnered with a media nonprofit called Shout Out UK (like a PBS focused on preventing "radicalism") to come up with a clever new way to re-educate British youth.

The concern, as always, was “radicalization.”

They thought the solution was inspired: a choice-based video game. Kids like games. Games involve decisions. Decisions shape values. What could possibly go wrong?

Thus Pathways was born, a government-funded interactive morality play designed to gently shepherd British children toward being properly antiracist, properly accepting, and properly enthusiastic about the ever-increasing number of migrants reshaping their country.

Civics class, but fun. And digital. And corrective.

As part of this effort, the designers introduced a character named Amelia, a cute, purple-haired, vaguely goth girl who carries a Union Jack and talks about Britain being for the British.

She was meant to function as a warning, a living illustration of how nationalism can look attractive, even charming, and yet be dangerous to the impressionable youths of Britain who may not have fully internalized the idea that Brexit is bad and they are to obey their elitist overlords.

What they did not anticipate was that the public would take one look at adorable, charming Amelia and decide she was the good guy.

Read more...

CHANNELING ALINSKY

saul-says-make-us-gr8agnOne thing that’s overlooked in Rules for Radicals – even by Alinsky himself – is the key role played by what I call “Alinsky Republicans” or “Alinsky conservatives.”

These are the people who, despite their professed opposition to everything Alinsky and his book were trying to achieve, act as the catalyst – the trigger or fuse – for the climactic events leading to victory for radical activists.

These are the defeatists, the doom trolls, who, after being frozen and personalized in good Alinskian fashion, simply give up, throw in the towel, and sell out the cause they supposedly represent.

They act as a kind of seed, in the same way that dust particles seed rainclouds, around which other weak sisters can congregate until enough come together to bring down the entire system and allow the barbarian hordes in.

They’re always around, waiting in the background.

They’re always active, always ready to surrender.

They’re active today.

Read more...

NYT WONDERS WHY AMERICANS ARE ‘TURNING AGAINST GAY PEOPLE’

This week, the New York Times published an article called "Americans Are Turning Against Gay People," and if you're wondering whether the paper has completely lost touch with reality, the answer is yes.

The piece opens with some gushing about a show I’ve never even heard of — and I suspect you haven’t, either — called Heated Rivalry, featuring gay hockey players, suggesting that its success proves "acceptance of queer love continues to grow."

The authors, Tessa Charlesworth and Eli Finkel, lament that this is not the case.

"We wish we could share that optimism," they write, before citing research showing that acceptance of gay people peaked around 2020 and has "sharply reversed" since then.

I’d be willing to bet that most people haven’t heard of Heated Rivalry, but even so, it’s irrelevant.

Gay characters have been on television and in movies for decades, often as leads.

These days, you’d have a tougher time finding a show or movie that doesn’t feature LGBTQ characters.

If you watch game shows, you’ve probably wondered if they have quotas for LGBTQ contestants, and if they’re required to boast about their sexual orientation.

Nevertheless, the article expresses shock that anti-gay bias reversed course after two decades.

Read more...

HUH – ‘ORGANIC’ COCKROACHES SCATTER WHEN THE SIGNAL LIGHT COMES ON

Now, to paraphrase another famous intuitive seat-of-their-pants fictional type, I am not a smart girl, but I know what a weird coincidence is.

If one really pays attention, I would have to say we have several all running in sequence in Minneapolis, which makes it an even bigger weird coincidence in itself.

Which I'd bet good money means that, from the beginning, none of this has been a coincidence at all.

You tell me.

The very first thing to take note of is how all these people appeared on Minnesota streets - specifically - with the same printed signs and shrieking the same anti-ICE, pro-illegal immigrant language.

It's awfully peculiar considering that illegal alien deportations had been humming along unabated and virtually unnoticed for years, right up to the point when there was a spike and a 180° reversal of tone and rhetoric.

Fortunately, there are people who chart these things, which helps pinpoint the exact moment the tenor shifts.

Read more...

CROSSING THE AMERICAN RUBICON

deuces-rubicon-crossingFirst of all, thank God that Donald J. Trump and enough Republicans won in 2024 to get in power and push through the reforms we are seeing now. It hasn’t been all we wanted yet, and there is room for improvement, but what has been made clear is that the United States is now at a Rubicon moment as a result. Fortunately for us, this moment has our side at the reins of power. It may not remain this way.

I have to remind everyone again, as I did right after the election, that if the popular vote had shifted even five percent, the land would have been delivered into the hands of the Giggling Mental Patient and her entourage in the Democratic Party instead of to DJT and the Republicans.

That is not a margin that should give anyone any comfort. I would like to say we have a mandate. I must point to the numbers, however, and say what we really have is a fighting chance by the grace of God.

Read more...

A RESILIENT LIFE

optimism-faithHappiness is hard work. It takes willpower and practice to develop habits that make a life work well; it takes conscientiousness to build flourishing relationships; it takes self-reflection to know what we value and, therefore, where to spend our precious time and energy.

So instead of wishing you a happy life, I’d like to show you how you can build yourself a strong, resilient life… The happiness is what you’ll earn from the doing.

There are three specific elements I’ll show you today.

 

Let’s start with Learned Optimism.

First let me define what I mean by optimism: It isn’t about ignoring harsh realities and pretending things are great, when they’re not. Optimism is a pro-active, problem solving approach to the obstacles and opportunities we’re faced with.

An optimist is more likely to find solutions, because they’re actively looking for them. A pessimist is more likely to feel helpless and overwhelmed, because they’re actively looking for reasons that any given solution won’t work.

Read more...

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: HAVING A GREAT TIME IN ALBANIA

albania-beer-jack

Rebel and I, along with our friends with us, always have a great time in Albania. Here’s a pic she took of me with a stein of delicious Birra Tirana lager. You’re sure to have so much fun yourself by joining us and your fellow TTPers on our Albania Wonderland experience this April. See you in Tirana. The beer’s on me! (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #284 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Read more...

THE RED-OCHERED WOMEN OF THE HIMBAS

himba-womanThe Himbas are a tribe of nomadic cattle herders in far northern Namibia. Himba women make a paste of butter fat and red ochre clay called “otjize,” to protect their skin from the burning African sun and braid their hair for beautification.

The Himbas’ exotic practices are not for tourists. This is the way they live as one of Africa’s most genuinely traditional peoples. Living on the move in remote roadless regions, it takes an effort to find them. But when you do, coming with an attitude of respect, you will be welcomed with smiles and hospitality in return. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #66 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Read more...

THE POLYNESIA PARADISE YOU NEVER HEARD OF

polynesia-paradiseHave you ever seen the ocean turn day-glo pink? It does here naturally during a sunset (this is not photoshopped). Between Samoa and Tonga in the South Pacific is a raised coral atoll, 100 square miles of old limestone between 60 and 200 feet high: the island of Niue (new-way), and it’s is uniquely fabulous.

With no silty river runoff, the water is incredibly clear – visibility can reach over 200 feet. There are a multitude of chasms through which you clamber to these out-of-a-movie tidal pools perfect for snorkeling surrounded by colorful reef fish. The limestone cliffs encircling the coast are riddled with caves with multi-colored stalactites and stalagmites.

You can snorkel or dive with spinner dolphins and humpback whales. The big game fishing is world class – within a few hundred yards off shore. The Niueans are unfailingly friendly and welcoming, the beautiful Matavai Resort is the best bargain in the Pacific, the food and beer is inexpensive, the weather is balmy. It’s a Polynesian paradise you never heard of. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #48 Photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Read more...

THE REAL ATLANTIS

atlantis-in-knossosHere we are at the real Atlantis in Knossos, Crete. More nonsense has been invented about Plato’s myth of Atlantis – mentioned briefly in his Timaeus and Critias and not by anyone else in antiquity – than any other legend you care to name.

Yet like many myths, it was constructed out of something that really existed. Atlantis is the Minoan Civilization of Crete, Europe’s oldest. By 2,000 BC, the Minoans had created the world’s first peaceful capitalist empire, based not on military might and conquest but on trade, with trade routes across the entire Mediterranean. They became immensely wealthy, building fabulous palaces and villas – but their cities were not fortified. Europe’s original civilization was the most peaceful in European history.

Around 1450 BC, the Minoan island of Santorini 60 miles north of Crete – known to the Greeks as Thera – suffered a colossal volcanic explosion with the resultant mega-tsunami wiping the Minoans out on Crete. It was “The wave that destroyed Atlantis.” Yet you can see for Atlantis for yourself, its excavated villas with fabulous preserved frescoes, and step back into a period of inspiring history. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #68 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Read more...

THE BEATLES IN CENTRAL ASIA

beatles-in-kazakhstan

Astana, Kazakhstan.  In a small park in the capital city of Kazakhstan, you find this tribute in bronze to The Beatles.  It turns out the Fab Four are immensely popular here in Central Asia.  Young and old, they sing and dance to Beatle music.  The Beatles may be ancient history for American kids, but Beatlemania is very much alive for Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek kids in what us for us a remote world.  (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #313 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

Read more...

HALF-FULL REPORT 01/23/26

You may not recognize who this is, nor his name Francois Marie Arouet, but you’ll certainly know his pen name – Voltaire (1694-1778). If he were alive today, he would instantly understand what the agenda of the Dems and the Woke Left is all about.

He explained it succinctly in the 11th Letter of his Lettres sur les Miracles (Letters on Miracles), written in 1765. Translated from the French, Voltaire observed:

“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities”

 

Think of what that explains right now…

OK, we’re off with another fantastic HFR.  Jump right on in!

Read more...

CLIMBING FUJIYAMA

[This Monday’s Archive was first in TTP on July 6, 2006.  I thought you’d enjoy a brief history of Japan, albeit written 20 years ago, when today it has a new Prime Minister, Sanae Takaichi, the first woman leader of Japan in its history, pro-America and pro-Trump (mutual admiration), pro-West (she and Italy’s Giorgia Meloni are best buds), pro-Taiwan (she pledges Japan’s military defense of Taiwan), and anti-Chicom China. Many TTPers know Japan – let us know what you think in Comments!]

 

TTP, July 6, 2006

It was an interesting way to spend the 4th of July.  And instructive.  I climbed Fujiyama – Fuji-san, as the Japanese reverently call it – once before when I was 17.  That was in 1961, and I still have the climbing stick I used with the year burned into the wood.

No problem when I was 17.  I guess 45 years does make a difference after all.Actually, the big difference is in coming back down.  The endless, endless steep pitch down, down, down, hour after hour made it achingly clear I don't have teen-age legs any more.

But my 14 year-old son Jackson does – and standing on top of Fuji with him made all the effort easily worthwhile.For the rest of his life, Jackson will remember the 4th of July in 2006.  Fujiyama, one of the world's most famous mountains, is now a part of his life.  Hopefully, it will inspire him to learn more about the country of which Fujiyama is the symbol:  Japan.

Because the lesson Japan can teach other cultures of how it emerged from medieval feudalism and fascist militarism to become a modern rich democracy – while still preserving its cultural traditions and identity – is of enormous importance.

 

Read more...

A BRITISH PATRIOT WARNS AMERICA

[Daniel Hannan, Baron Hannan of Kingsclere, is a friend of mine, member of the British House of Lords, and Britain’s smartest patriot.  He published this article in the Daily Telegraph today, entitled: Britain Is Heading For Utter Ruin, And Neither The Parties Nor The Voters Are Prepared To Stop It

It is a terrifying warning of what will happen to America if the Dems are allowed to rig the midterms little more than 9 months from now, because Sens Thune and Grassley are such pussies they won’t rescind the filibuster as Trump demands in order to pass the SAVE Act and other legislation requiring Paper Ballots, Citizenship ID, Same-Day Voting, and banning Mail-in Ballots.  Read what Daniel has to say about Britain now in the light of America’s future right around the corner.]

 

What a dreadful week. For the first time, I find myself wondering whether there will be anything left to salvage. I don’t mean Keir Starmer, whose approval ratings have already collapsed irremediably. No, I mean for Britain.

Everything that elevated us above the run of nations is being lost: our competitiveness, our sovereignty, our credit-worthiness, our prestige. We are diminished morally, financially and, after the Chagos surrender, physically.

Read more...