[Richard Rahn send us this from Mongolia, about which I wrote when I was there five years ago (August 2002) in Glaciers in the Gobi.  Yes, there really is a glacier in the Gobi Desert. -JW]

Ulan Bator, Mongolia. This, one of Asia's poorest countries, has been an economic laggard relative to most of its Asian competitors. But now the economy has begun to grow rapidly. The question is, can this growth be sustained and perhaps even speeded up?

Mongolia is landlocked in the center of Asia between two powerful neighbors, China and Russia. Though twice the size of France, it has less than three million people. Traditionally, the Mongols have been nomadic, tending their animal herds along the thousands of miles of Central Asian grasslands.

Despite its handicaps, Mongolia has a few things going for it.  Consider:  by 2010, it is expected that 60 percent of Mongolians will have access to high-speed Internet.  Compare that to Russia, where little more than 1% do.

Recent months have seen a number of unexpected and extremely encouraging statements coming out of the Moslem world.  Respected, mainstream Moslem leaders in a variety of countries have voiced opinions which are at odds with traditional, conservative Islam.

They have challenged aspects of shari‘a and are calling for a liberal, modernist, enlightened Islam compatible with Western norms.  Perhaps the most significant of all is a report by a group of British Moslems calling for an end to the apostasy law and for full freedom in all religious matters.

Significant cracks seem to be forming within the mainstream Islam. Important mainstream leaders are coming out against long-held key traditional views and Wahhabi-Salafi doctrines and practices, openly supporting ideas compatible with modernity.

Here are some examples.

Yes, it's the Breck Boy, making headlines in Tuesday's (7/22) National Enquirer:  Sen John Edwards Caught with Mistress and Love Child.  And get a load of the mistress' picture.  Isn't she a looker?  Can you imagine waking up next to that?

Last October, the Enquirer ran a story about Edwards cheating on his wife, whose cancer he was milking for the sympathy vote during his presidential campaign.  But the Enquirer never revealed her name, so her identity came as a big surprise to the public when it was revealed now.

A surprise to the public - but not to you.  For the day after that first NE story, on October 11, 2007 you learned her identity in The Breck Boy Is Cleared From The Presidential Field.   She's a New Age Bimbo named Lisa Druck, who now goes by the name of Rielle Hunter.  But as a TTP'er, you already knew that - a long time ago.

The HFR  raises its goblet of glee that the Breck Boy has been cleared from the vice-presidential field. 

***

Now let's have a beer on the beach - Huntington Beach in Orange County, California, where the Republican Party will triumph or die in November.

Do you fear the Internal Revenue Service, even though you have done nothing wrong?  Most Americans do, and for good reason.

For decades, the courts, congressional hearings and the press have documented a steady stream of abuses by IRS personnel and federal prosecutors dealing with tax cases.

Last week, a federal judge dismissed charges against 13 former employees of the accounting firm KPMG because the government had violated their rights, in what had been billed by the government as its biggest-ever tax shelter case.

Despite overwhelming evidence of disgraceful and illegal government behavior (in the private sector it would be called extortion), the government has decided to appeal the case. Have they no shame?

Of, course, that's a rhetorical question.  Who needs shame when you have guns and power instead?

There's a legend that says Nero played the lyre (the fiddle wouldn't be invented for another thousand years) while Rome burned in 64 AD.  What instrument does Obama play, as he cavorts indecisively about the world stage?

On three fronts - South Korean trade, Ukrainian/Russian diplomacy and Afghan war fighting - the Obama administration is being increasingly pressured by unfolding events to shed ideology and rationalizations and come quickly to a realistic analysis of world events and their consequences.

In each of these cases, in the absence of very prompt United States policy decisions and actions, we shall incur long-term irreversible economic, geopolitical or national security harm. Let's discuss the first two here, and hold the third for a future discussion by itself.

Do you think the world is getting better or worse? Despite the endless doom and gloom dished out by many in the media and political class, the objective evidence is that by almost any measure the world this past year was a better place for most of its habitants.

Yes, the rich are getting richer, but the poor are also getting a lot richer, so much so that there are fewer poor each year. And more people live in free countries than ever.

It is good to remind ourselves, as unhappy as we may be with our political leaders, that things are really getting better.   So despite the media hype and the blogs, the safer bet is things will get better for you and your family rather than worse.

However, there are three real risks to most people's future well-being: Islamic fundamentalism, irrational global environmentalism, and the U.S. Congress.

Once the apotheosis of a pro-Western, dependable Moslem democracy, last week Turkey officially left the Western alliance and became a full member of the Iranian axis.

It isn't that Ankara's behavior changed fundamentally in recent days. There is nothing new in its massive hostility toward Israel and its effusive solicitousness toward the likes of Syria and Hamas.

Since the Islamist "Justice & Development" AKP party first won control over the Turkish government in the 2002 elections, led by AKP chairman Recip Tayyip Erdogan [pronounced air-doh-wan], the Turks have incrementally and inexorably moved the formerly pro-Western Moslem democracy into the radical Islamist camp populated by the likes of Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, al-Qaida and Hamas.

What made Turkey's behavior this week different from its behavior in recent months and years is that its attacks were concentrated, unequivocal and undeniable for everyone outside of Israel's scandalously imbecilic and flagellant media.

The Chicoms' prospects for their Genocide Olympics keep rolling downhill.  The latest headline indicator:  Will The Olympics Not Be Televised? 

Incredibly, the Chicoms are putting so many restrictions hampering television coverage that IOC officials fear the Beijing Games may not be broadcast to the world at all.  The whole thing is increasingly likely to be one giant MCF - Mongolian Cluster Foul-up...

...An even bigger MCF may have caused China's Sichuan earthquake last month.  It's become known that the earthquake zone was where China had its secret nuclear weapons research facilities.

What's much less well-known is that a nuclear explosion occurred at one of these secret underground facilities, either triggering or triggered by the earthquake...

... The HFR now raises its glass of rice wine to toast cumbay! to all those poor demented souls in Seoul suffering from Mad Korean Disease... Yet Mad Obambi Disease is far more dangerous to America than fear of mad cows is to Korea.  To see just how dangerous it would be to our national security, watch this 52-second anti-military rant Obambi goes on...

... Which is why the HFR hoists a mug of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer to Tony Rezko in hopes he lives a long life - or at least long enough for him to turn state's evidence and rat on Obambi.

If you were a member of the U.S. Congress and you wanted to hand a victory to Fidel Castro, his buddy Hugo Chavez, and the international drug gangs, you could do so by voting to reject the U.S.-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

And that is precisely what the Democrat leaders of Congress threaten to do.

After the truly heroic achievements of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in weakening drug lords and corrupt officials, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and some of her colleagues were downright rude to him during his trip to Washington last month, with their demands for more. Yet Mr. Uribe and his colleagues are under constant death threats for their efforts (Mr. Uribe's own father was assassinated by the left-wing terrorists).

How many of Mrs. Pelosi's tribe do you think would have taken the physical risks and have been as effective as Mr. Uribe? Regarding corruption in Mr. Uribe's own ranks, as far as I know, no Colombian member of parliament has been caught with $90,000 of someone else's money in his freezer.

The current disagreement between our intelligence agencies and those of our allies regarding Iran's nuclear program reveals the debased state of the US $75-billion- a-year intel system.

The Germans, French, Israelis and now the Brits agree that Iran has an active nuclear-weapons program, differing only as to how swiftly Tehran can field warheads.

The US intel community's holding out. It's worried about political risks. A reassessment's supposedly under way, but we're clinging to our comforting conclusion that Iran gave up on designing nuclear weapons in 2003.

Mounting evidence to the contrary hasn't made a dent. Not only is the intel community fearful of another Iraq-style weapons-of-mass-destruction mess, but the White House has made it clear that it doesn't want more bad news.  Our intel agencies have been Obama-ized.