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Friday, February 13, 2026

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SELL THE LAND!

If you spent more each month than you made and got deeper and deeper into debt, but had an asset equal to your debts, like a big expensive boat you never used, what would you do? If you were rational, you would sell the boat.

The U.S. government has spent more than it receives in tax revenue for most of the last 75 years, and, as a result, the national debt and the associated interest payments have gotten bigger and bigger. But what is not well known is that the U.S. government also has many trillions of dollars of assets, which may exceed the value of the debt. I say "may" because, in fact, no one knows because the government has no accurate balance sheet of what it owns and what it owes.

For instance, the federal government owns somewhere between 600 and 700 million acres of land, or over 30 percent of all U.S. land.

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FAILING SCHOOLS ARE A SIGN OF FAILING NATIONAL CHARACTER


During a workout last weekend, I watched and listened as Secretary of Education Arne Duncan bemoaned our "crumbling schools." Sorry, but it's not our schools that are crumbling, Mr. Secretary: It's our values. 

But we can't even discuss the problem honestly and have to trim the conversation to keep it within politically correct patterns. Well, when yet another survey trumpets that the U.S. has fallen to sixth place in teaching math or science, or that we're fifteenth in education overall, my reaction is "Okay, break those scores out by specific school locations." 

Generally, our suburban and many small-town schools still deliver competitive (if less than optimal) educations. Our statistics skew sharply downward because of the appalling conditions in the inner-city and barrio holding pens and teacher's-union bunkers we pretend are real schools.

The left, for political advantage, has written off poor blacks and browns educationally-confining them in schools that are now about the unionized teachers, not the students.  And let's be honest: Conservatives have made no serious attempts to reform those schools, either.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 3/25/11


Week after week after week - when will this torrential deluge of news stop or at least slack off?  It hasn't let up for a couple of months now.  Well, let's jump in and go with the flow.

We'll start with a follow-up to Islam in Libya, since everyone's so focused on what Zero is doing there.  What's confusing us all is Zero's state of confusion regarding no clearly stated end-game.  As Sarah Palin told Greta Van Sustern on Fox Wednesday (3/23), "Be in it to win it, or if there's doubt we get out."

Palin sees the purpose of the mission in Libya is for Gaddafi "to end up dead," or the mission is a failure.  That would be the best outcome (see Roger Simon make the case), but there better be a Plan B.  Here it is.

From the history discussed in Islam in Libya, we saw that Libya has from its inception 2,600 years ago been divided in two:  Greek Cyrenaica and Punic Tripolitania.  The two were unified by King Idris only in 1951 - and even then there were two capitals:  the parliamentary one of Tripoli and the royal one of Benghazi.

This bifurcation has emerged once again today, with the Libyan Opposition controlling Eastern Libya or the old Cyrenaica, and Gaddafi controlling Western Libya or Tripolitania.  So obviously, Plan B is to split the country in two, with "reunification" a la East/West Germany a goal of the future.   Who gets the oil?  Here's the map:

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A CONGRESS OF CHILDREN

If Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and their fellow members of Congress were children, what might they have done?

Children like to spend other people's money on themselves and their friends without thinking about how it was earned and the hard work that went into earning it. A childlike mind might believe in the fantasy that you can take money from the pocket of someone who worked hard to earn it, give it to someone who didn't earn it and that, magically, everyone will be better off. A fully developed, mature brain would understand that voting to enact laws without having read or understood them was irresponsible and likely would lead to bad consequences

Free-market democracy cannot succeed if those who hold elective office act and vote like children. We can do better.

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THE SPICE ISLANDS


This is a story of hobbits and eggnog, of English heroes and Dutch murderers, of adventure and treachery and astonishing history, of genocidal slaughter and massive corruption, of Communist dictators and of Moslem butchers getting the justice they deserve, a saga that begins over a million years ago and ends with an inspiration - perhaps a quite profitable one.

It is the story of 17,000 islands stitched together in a country that nobody thought had a chance a few years ago and now is emerging as a land of the future.  This will take a while, so let's settle in with a tankard of ice cold Bir Bintang and a snack of babi kecap, pork in sweet soy sauce.  Shall we start with the hobbits?

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SADDAM POSSESSED WMD, HAD EXTENSIVE TERROR TIES

I don’t know which is more extraordinary, Scott Wheeler’s explosive story documenting Saddam Hussein’s possession of WMDs and extensive ties to Al Qaeda, or the Bush White House’s refusal to pay any attention to it. Here is the evidence Bush desperately needs to bolster his case for invading Iraq - and he is ignoring it! Scott Wheeler, in addition to being my nth cousin (we have the same 10th great-grandfather), is a world-class researcher on terrorism. He writes for CNS News. Scott’s articles devoted to exposing Saddam’s links to terrorist groups, can be found at CNSNews.com. -JW


Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com, show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders.

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NO MORE ON-THE-JOB NATIONAL SECURITY TRAINING FOR A PRESIDENT


Until recently, most politicians, pundits and others among the "smart people" insisted that Election 2012 was all about jobs, jobs, jobs. The more broad-minded contended that the related issues of the lousy economy and the imperatives of deficit reduction also might feature. But that was all that mattered, especially in the presidential contest.

Then, GOP candidate Herman Cain, a successful businessman who has risen in the polls in no small measure on the strength of his claim to have actually created jobs, gave an interview in which he seemed unaware that Communist China has the bomb.

Without skipping a beat, the intelligentsia denounced him as unfit to serve on the grounds that a man who was not proficient in national security and foreign policy matters could never become president. The jobs-jobs-jobs leitmotif gave way, at least for a time, to a new theme: The White House is no place for on-the-job-training about the nation's defense.

How quickly they forget. What Barack Hussein Obama knew about U.S. security policy before he became president amounted to little more than the anti-colonialist sentiments of his father and the virulently anti-American agitation of Palestine Liberation Organization flak Rashid Khalidi, terrorist William Ayers, revolutionary Saul Alinsky and radical pastor Jeremiah Wright.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/18/11


It's great to be back in the HFR saddle again - yet I'm so grateful to Jack Kelly for doing such a marvelous job in my absence.  Thanks, Jack!

And we have an additional reason for gratitude to Mr. Kelly this week - for he was able to prevail upon his friend, LtCol. Ralph Peters, to fly all the way from Washington to speak to us at the Vegas Rendezvous!

You all know what a fantastic, pull-no-punches LtCol. Peters is as a writer.  Wait ‘tll you hear him in person explain the jeopardy our national security is in.  It will be memorable.

Also memorable - particularly for your pocketbook - will be famed  wealth preservation expert Hank Brock.  Hank conducts seminars all over the world costing thousands of dollars per person on how survive the coming Financial Armageddon we're facing (see A Tsunami of Insanity this week). 

Rebel and I have gotten to know Hank as a friend, and are so appreciative of his graciousness in coming to speak to us.  There's no one better to learn from regarding how to come out of this mess financially alive than him.

You also really don't want to miss Dr. Dave Janda explain what happens to our healthcare system as ObamaCare is dismantled, Alex Alexiev brief us on how these Arab revolts are going to turn out - or TTP's resident genius Skye hold forth on any issue of science and technology in the world.

Yes, there'll be Jack Kelly, Joel Wade, yours truly, and a surprise or two - plus, best of all, your fellow TTPers!  So be sure and call or email Miko - 703-992-4529, miko@tothepointnews.com - to sign up right now for The Platinum Vegas Rendezvous May 6-8.

*  *  *  *  *  *
Is Hillary making her move, as the HFR has been predicting since December 2009?  Is it a coincidence that all of a sudden the pinkostream enemedia is chock full of stories targeting Zero's ineptness, just as HRC announces she won't serve in his putative second term? Her run for the White House roses may have begun, folks. 

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LESSONS FROM DOWN UNDER

Mankind seems to be programmed not to remember the reasons for economic success and failure - and these lessons seem to need to be relearned every few years. The normal course of events is for free and prosperous economies (particularly under democracies) to move toward less freedom - more government spending, taxation and regulation - until the burden of government brings growth to a halt or near-halt.

In 1900, Australians enjoyed the highest per-capita income in the world. But then they retreated behind high tariff walls in a misguided attempt to protect manufacturing industries, created a judicial-based wage-determination system as a way to redistribute income in the name of fairness and engaged in excessive economic regulation. All of those measures slowed economic growth and reduced Australia's global per-capita income standing from No. 1 to No. 14.

Will Australians regain their economic footing before they allow themselves to fully re-embrace statism and end up with the disastrous policies of the Obama administration? The jury is out. But, President Obama is perhaps useful to the extent that his policies serve as a bad example for the rest of the world.

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WHAT A RENDEZVOUS!


This was Rendezvous VI.  Starting in Vegas in early 2007, and after Sarasota, Colorado Springs, Boston, and Carefree, Arizona, many folks said while they were great, this one in Williamsburg was the best.

As one Rendezvous veteran, "Dr. Roseanne," posted on the TTP Forum:

"I can't even say enough good things about this Rendezvous. It was phenomenal. I actually wish it could have been longer as there was so much to learn.... The speakers are so available and approachable and knowledgeable!

[TTP-ers] are the most wonderful, rational, freedom-loving people... They are ‘the salt of the earth.' I am happily sleep-deprived from staying up and visiting with some of them.   I already miss my TTP friends! Can't wait for San Antonio! Hope you will all plan to be there!"
The good doctor put her finger on why these Rendezvous are such a memorably enjoyable experience - it's because of the TTPers themselves.  We all enjoy each other's company so much.  About half the attendees were first-timers, and they were overjoyed to be welcomed into a rational, freedom-loving, salt-of-the-earth community.

I, too, can hardly wait for San Antonio next January.  So - what went on last weekend?  Here are some highlights.

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FRONTPAGE MAGAZINE INTERVIEW OF JACK WHEELER

[Last week, Frontpage Magazine published an interview with Jack Wheeler, conducted by managing editor Dr. Jamie Glazov . Here is the entire interview.]

FP: Dr. Wheeler, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Wheeler: It is a pleasure to be with you, Jamie.

FP: We are in a war against Islamic Jihadism. Define your view of the enemy. Who are the Jihadists and what do they really want? Do you see Islamism as being a cousin of Fascism and Communism?

Wheeler: You just made the right start. We are not in a war on “terrorism” and the enemy is not “terrorists,” but as you say, Islamic Jihadism. We should call this The War on Jihadism. The crux understanding of Jihadism, or Moslem Terrorism, is that it is a form of envious rage.

All three of the great barbarisms of modern times have been pathologies of envy. Nazism, preaching race-envy toward “rich exploitative Jews”; Communism preaching class-envy toward “rich exploitative capitalists”; Jihadism preaching culture-envy toward “rich exploitative America/Israel/the West.”

A clear example is the Nazi-type hatred Arabs have for Israel. The root cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict is envy. The Jews created a civilization out of the wilderness and a garden out of the desert, while the Arabs - even with their centibillions of petrodollars -- continued to mire themselves in medieval tyranny and poverty.

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REPUBLICAN RECORDS BACKS SPENDING CUTS

Will the Republicans really reduce spending if they gain control of Congress? The Republicans have promised to cut spending rather than increase taxes. Their first test may come as early as Dec. 1, when the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (better known as President Obama's deficit-reduction commission) is due to report. The betting is that the commission will recommend a ratio of something close to $3 of spending reduction for each $1 of tax increase.

Republicans will be under great pressure from the media to sign on to the tax increases in exchange for the spending cuts. In the early 1980s, President Reagan became party to a similar deal — accepting a small tax increase for a large promised spending cut. The Democrats who controlled Congress at the time delivered the tax increase but not the spending cuts.

Knowing this history and to show that they are serious, the Republicans will need to stand up and say "no" to the commission's recommendations.

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DOES OBAMA WANT TO LOSE IN AFGHANISTAN?


On the eve of Islam's Day of Infamy, the September 11 Islamic Atrocity upon America, I found my mind drifting back to a day when I was in college.

It was May 11, 1965, and as I was walking across the UCLA campus from where I parked my car to my first class, everywhere I looked I saw students reading The Daily Bruin.  They were really immersed in some article - and I knew immediately what it was.

It was a huge double-spread article of mine emblazoned with the title Victory in Vietnam:  Go North.

The only way to win, I argued, was to stop playing defense in South Vietnam but go on the offensive against Hanoi - to shut down Hanoi's capacity to wage war upon the South, and as quickly as possible.  None of this was done, and as we all too bitterly know, North Vietnam did conquer South Vietnam.  We lost a war because we had no intention of winning it.

So - is America going to lose another war, this one in Afghanistan, because its government doesn't want to win it?  A war against an enemy that perpetrated or helped to perpetrate the September 11 Islamic Atrocity, and will again if they are not defeated?

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WINNERS WITHOUT A SPINE… Don’t Stay Winners For Long

The only thing harder to find in the U.S. Senate these days than a Democrat with a conscience is a Republican with a spine.

Democrats may have been waxed at the polls last November, but they're running rings around Republicans in the public relations battles so far this year. One example of many is the Bolton nomination.

President Bush, through the blunt-spoken Bolton, wants to give the United Nations a dose of tough love. Democrats want a U.N. ambassador who will suck up to Kofi and the French, which is not what a large majority of Americans would prefer. Yet Republicans have permitted the debate to focus on whether or not Bolton was mean to subordinates, charges which would be irrelevant if true, and which appear not to be true.

If Bolton is defeated, Bush will receive a black eye, and bureaucrats at the State Department and elsewhere will be encouraged to resist administration policy. This will be almost entirely a self-inflicted wound.

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DEATH WISH DEMOCRATS

Rarely do you see a political party in the process of what appears to be a deliberate attempt to commit suicide while shooting a hostage. In this case, the hostage is the U.S. economy, and the political party is the Democrats.

For the first time, Congress has not even passed a budget. The open question remains: Is the current Congress the worst in American history?

The Republicans have the facts on their side about which party taxes and spends less. The Democrats have successfully been blaming Mr. Bush for the big spending increases and deficits of the last two years of his administration while conveniently forgetting they were in charge of Congress - taxing, spending and deficits. The Republicans need to make people aware that the last budget they were responsible for (2007) had a deficit of just 1.2 percent of GDP. The supersized deficits of the past few years - approaching 10 percent of GDP - happened only after the Democrats took control of Congress. The Democrats have a death wish - the Republicans should help them along in their desire for defeat by making the American people aware of the real deficit facts.

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