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THE LAND OF ADVENTURE


Hobart, Tasmania.  Before we delve into Tassie, as Tasmaniacs affectionately call their island, I need to make an announcement.

With the Platinum Vegas Rendezvous a little more than two weeks away, I better explain why it may the Last Rendezvous.

As you may know, TTP is a labor of love for me, and not the way I make a living - I do that primarily by running expeditions. They often come together in that I prefer the company of TTPers on an expedition.  By contrast, I try never to take any liberals and lefties, as having to put up with one in a remote place in the world is a serious annoyance.

I've been running Jack Wheeler Expeditions for 37 years, starting with the first commercial expedition in history to the geographic North Pole, on the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean at 90 North. That was in April, 1978. I started To The Point 12 years ago, at the end of March, 2003. 

Over those last 12 years, many of you have had extraordinary adventures with me - safaris in the Serengeti and Namibia, Gorillas and Pygmies in Central Africa, Concordia by helicopter to K2 base camp in northern Pakistan, Iraqi Kurdistan, The Land of the Dragon Blood Tree in Socotra, North Korea, the North Pole, remote islands in French Polynesia, Hidden Burma, Hidden China, Hidden Persia... it's a long list.

Next September, some of you will be with me to The Lost Kingdom of LoI've been able to operate all of these and still keep TTP running without interruption - thanks in large part to Miko, and to Jack Kelly's superb HFR's when I'm gone.  A TTP Rendezvous, however, is different.  My travel schedule has been so intense recently that the Vegas Rendezvous is the first we've been able to schedule since 2012.

And now I have no idea when I'll be able to schedule another.  The reason is that I am passing my expedition baton to my son, Brandon.

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NO SURPRISE THAT OBAMA BELONGS TO THE MULTI-CULTI CULT


There was nothing particularly new about President Obama's remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast the other day.  Not that it's unimportant.  It's extremely important. 

But the unfortunate notion that all religions, and indeed all cultures, are morally equivalent has been with us a long time, and it's very fashionable. 

It's now the conventional liberal wisdom, as a matter of fact.  Even Pope Francis is a member of the liberals' Multi-Culti Cult.

I'm not going to dwell on the silly anachronisms and false parallels in the speech - Governor Jindal did it best, I think, when he told the president to relax about medieval Catholicism and focus his concerns on contemporary Islamism - but rather on what we're supposed to do when we encounter religious views that offend us, or seem threatening to us.  

Obama basically said we should just shut up. His remarks weren't made in a theoretical debate.  They come shortly after the Charlie Hebdo massacre in Paris, and other barbaric acts in the name of radical Islam.  They are part of the doctrine of multiculturalism or "multi-culti," which started as "culturalism," early in the last century.

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YOUR ADVENTUROUS YEAR


How about making 2015 be that for you?

The older you get, the more apparent it is that life - your life - is really short.  There is a scene in the movie On Golden Pond where the character played by Henry Fonda is celebrating his 80th birthday with his family.  His wife (Katherine Hepburn) asks him, "How does it feel to be 80?"  He answers, "Well, I'm surprised it got here so fast."

The only way I know of to not get to old age fast is to not slow down - to speed up instead.  My way is to fill my life with more adventure than ever.

As old age approaches, lots of people make a "bucket list," things they dream of doing before it's finita la musica.  Yet the sooner you start your own bucket list, no matter what age, the better - for the more time you'll have to live your dreams.  Don't be under the illusion, however, that you have plenty of time. 

The years pass ever more quickly.  This last one has come and gone - 2014 is over forever.  Don't let 2015 be the same before living one of  your dreams.  Carpe diem.  Here we go.  Ever see this?  It's one of the most iconic pictures of World War II - a section of the famed Burma Road called 24-Zig.

24_zig.png 
The Burma Road was built to carry US supplies from Burma to Chiang Kai Shek's capital of Chungking to fight the Japanese in China.  It turns out that the 24-Zig is not in Burma, it's in China.  It was lost for many years and has now been rediscovered.  How'd you like to go there with me?  Or here?...

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FORGIVE ME, ALLAH!


moslem_praying.png

O Allah, most merciful, most beneficent!  I have devoted my life to being a good Moslem.  I have committed much of the Holy Koran to memory.  I dutifully follow the Five Pillars of Islam: 

I profess the shahadah, that "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is His Messenger."

I adhere to salah, offering five daily prayers at dawn, noon, mid-afternoon, sunset and evening.

I give zakat, almsgiving to poor Moslems in the amount required, 2½% of my wealth.

I observe sawm, fasting during the month of Ramadan, during which I neither eat nor drink from dawn to sunset.

And I have participated in the Hajj, a pilgrimage to Holy Mecca, and am thus a haji.

All of this I happily do, for I know that Allah is most merciful, most beneficent.

But there is one thing that, as much as I try, I do not understand:

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CHOOSING EMPATHY


There are several important qualities that define our humanity. Today I want to talk about two of them: our capacity for conscious empathy, and our ability to consciously redirect our emotional impulses. We have a choice of whether and how we will use these; the benefits can change the course of our lives.

Empathy is the quality that allows us to relate to other people, to have feelings for them, to understand them in an experiential/emotional sense, and not just as an intellectual study. Without the capacity for empathy, we could not see one another as human, with common feelings, thoughts, and experiences.

The opposite of empathy is envy.  When we are envious, other people become simply, "the thing that possesses something we want."

But to override our impulse to see people as things requires us to stop and think, to reconsider our initial, more primitive impulses, and to make a different choice.

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REPLACING FILTHY MONEY


Paper currency is dirty and is a major transmitter of disease as it goes from unwashed hand to unwashed hand. It is easily lost and stolen, and can be easily destroyed by getting wet or burned.

It physically wears out in a short time and is costly and troublesome to replace. So why do we still use the filthy stuff in the electronic age?

When given a choice, people find credit cards, debit cards and bank account electronic payments more convenient than cash. In many parts of the world, payments can be made from cellphone to cellphone, with the phone companies serving many of the functions of traditional banks. Money can be stored and transmitted from and to almost any form of computer.

Some 15 years ago, I wrote a book forecasting the demise of paper currency. I expected paper currency to gradually disappear like paper checks have. However, I was wrong. Rather than disappearing, the demand for paper currency is rising faster than inflation or population, albeit not by much, but the total quantity of paper U.S. dollars in circulation is roughly double what it was a dozen years ago. The question is: Why?

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A REAGAN FOURTH OF JULY


Grosvenor Square, London.  2011 is the centennial year of Ronald Reagan's birth, which is why this Fourth of July brings tears to my eyes like never before. 

This morning at Grosvenor Square in front of the American Embassy in London, England, I was privileged to be at the unveiling ceremony of the bronze statue of President Ronald Reagan, and heard him praised as one of the most beloved men and finest presidents in US history.

Yet it was not simply the praise of past greatness that was so inspiring - it was the optimism for America's future.  Condoleezza Rice spoke so clearly of the moral certainty of Ronald Reagan in his goal of ridding the world of Soviet Communism - a goal in which he so triumphantly succeeded. 

We forget how dark those days were, she said, when at the onset of the Reagan presidency the Soviets were on the verge of victory over us and hope of our winning the Cold War seemed ridiculously Pollyannish. 

What we need right now, said Condi, is an infusion of Ronald Reagan's unquenchable optimism that America's best days are in her future, not her past, that a moral certainty in America's principles and values will triumph over darkness.

Condi is right.  This is exactly what we need.  We need a Reagan Fourth of July.  

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Chapter III: THE IDEOLOGY OF RADICAL ISLAM


The Main Enemy:  Islamism
Chapter III: The Ideology of Radical Islam

How did all the recent advances of Islamism, which we summarized in Chapter II, come to pass with little notice in the space of just a few decades?

It is, of course, true that dogmatic orthodoxy and extremism, including its most violent forms, is nothing new in Islam and that Moslem history is replete with movements and individuals who have tried to impose their version of Islamic orthodoxy on fellow Moslems.

Yet the actual practice of Islamic societies, as shall be shown in the next chapter, has been considerably different, in that sharia law, despite being paid lip service to on a regular basis, was seldom applied to governance except as family law.

Contemporary Radical Islam, on the other hand, though seeking religious legitimization in sharia and age-old Islamic dogma, is a modern phenomenon that has more in common with totalitarian revolutionary movements than with any kind of transitory "Islamic revival" as many have argued.

Understanding its Nazi/Communist totalitarian ideological nature and its modus operandi as a highly organized revolutionary movement is essential for comprehending the nature of the threat it poses and designing a strategy to defeat it.

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PEEKING BEHIND THE “HIRE ACT” CURTAIN

The HIRE ACT is a law passed by congress earlier this year to create jobs. The original idea on paper has been tweaked by labor unions and large construction companies to create revenue streams, using the newly created W-11 form from the IRS.

The specifics of the law can be found below, however sometimes reality is different than it seems. Here is how it is actually is being implemented, by some unions and construction companies.

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Chapter Thirty-Two: “WE HAVE KILLED MALINCHE!”


[After an absurdly long bout of inexcusable procrastination, Chapter Thirty-Two of The Jade Steps in finally here.  There are only two more chapters to go:  The Sowing of the Whirlwind, and La Malinche, followed by an Epilogue.  The end is in sight!]

The Jade Steps

Chapter Thirty Two:  "We Have Killed Malinche!"

Cortez lay awake in his bedchambers at his headquarters in Tepeaca.  He and his forces had returned from Huaquechula in time to celebrate All Saints Day and pray to those who had achieved the beatific vision in heaven that this "ultimate end of human existence" might possibly be granted to them when they die.

That was yesterday.  Today, they held the Feast of All Souls Day, to pray for those departed Christian souls being cleansed of their sins in purgatorium.  For some reason, he had felt an unusual uneasiness during the prayers at Mass, which he expressed to Doña Marina.  Now he was even more uneasy, for where was she?  Gone on one of her evening learning expeditions.  This one was taking too long.  He wished that she was next to him right now.

Suddenly she was.  She had burst wordlessly into the room, quickly removed her dress, and snuggled up to him in their bed.  A look into Cortez's eyes told her what he had been thinking.

And when he looked back into hers, he knew something was wrong.  He waited for her to tell him.

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YOUR PRAYERS MAY HAVE WORKED


I can't adequately express how appreciative I am for all the prayers by TTP members for me and my family in response to What's Dhimmitude in Russian? 

There were even a number of offers to bodyguard my family or provide us with safe houses!  It was so very touching I don't have the words.  A number of the messages brought tears to my eyes.  Thank you all so much.

I also must tell you how much your prayers for Paul Joyal have meant to his family.  Paul's wife Liz sends you her deepest thanks.

As of today (Thursday 3/15), Paul is still in intensive care.  He has begun to talk, but only physically, not lucidly - he can make sounds but not any sense.  To be in this state after two weeks shows how horrible the attack on him was by the Kremlin-hired gunmen.

And now, two weeks later, I know why the Bush White House has been quiet about it.

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CLEANING YOUR REGISTRY AND HARD DISK WISELY


I've discussed playing with the Windows Registry in the past.  Tweaking the registry is risky but necessary.  As a constant reader of what's new on the net, I found a new safe registry cleaner that's easy to use and is free.

For Windows users, there's usually nothing riskier than playing with the all-powerful and awe-inspiring Registry. One wrong move - one incorrect click of the mouse, one letter, number or hash mark out of place - and you can kiss productivity good-bye, as you will be stuck for hours, if not days, reinstalling, recovering and retreading your computer's operating system and hard drive, seeking what once was, but has been lost.

And yet, the Registry needs treatment, once in awhile. A gunked-up Registry can seriously slow down your computer, if not paralyze it altogether. Windows fix-it sites will all give you instructions on what to look for and how to clean things, but you have to be careful - one wrong move, and you know what happens. It takes guts, wisdom and expertise to work the Registry. It's no place to fool around if you don't know what you're doing.

That's why I was so happy to get my hands on a new, easy to use, very safe, very wise and very free Registry cleaner...

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SEND SWAYR TO THE WHITE HOUSE

I received this terrific idea from TTPer Chris Landrum from Kennewick, Washington. It was in response to the No Apology article last week, describing how a number of folks at State and the Pentagon are sick and tired of our kowtowing groveling constant apologies to Moslems. Inspired by John Wayne’s famous line as Captain Nathan Brittles in She Wore A Yellow Ribbon - “Never apologize, son, it’s a sign of weakness” - these folks even sent a DVD of SWAYR to the White House.

Chris Landrum’s idea is to have a SWAYR to the White House campaign - hundreds, hopefully thousands, of Americans ordering the movie at Amazon and having it sent to President Bush at the White House, together with a letter demanding No More Apologies to Moslems.

Want to participate? It’s easy:

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WHY IS BUSH ALL HAT AND NO CATTLE IN IRAN?

President Bush, along with Secretaries Rice and Rumsfeld, has not rallied to the side of the Iranian people, even though the Iranians have abundantly demonstrated their desire to be rid of the mullahs.

Two weeks ago there were massive demonstrations and work stoppages in the oil-rich regions, centering around the city of Ahwaz. The demonstrators called for an end to the regime, scores of people were killed, and hundreds were beaten and arrested. On May Day, workers again demonstrated against the regime, this time in all the major cities. In Tehran, strongman and likely president-in-waiting Hashemi Rafsanjani was hooted down by the crowd, and pictures of him and Supreme Leader Khamenei were torn down and trampled.

Yet no one in the American Government spoke a word of support for the demonstrators, and no one has yet endorsed the one thing that unites the overwhelming majority of Iranians, whatever their political proclivities: a national referendum on the legitimacy of the regime itself. If there were a national ballot on the single question — Do you want an Islamic republic? — the regime would pass into history overnight. But there is silence in official Washington.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 06/12/15


We'll start the week by going from the ridiculous to the sublimely ridiculous.

The first:  Malaysia has turned itself into a laughingstock joke of a country in front of the entire world.  All to placate "mountain spirits," in reality the god Malaysians really worship, the god of anti-white racist envy. 

For the sublimely ridiculous, we go to Sargodha, Pakistan - but be warned:  do not be eating or drinking anything when you read or watch this.

Question:  Can we do this with Somali ISIS wannabes in Detroit?  Headline, Monday (6/08):  In Terror Fight, Australia Debates Revoking Citizenship.

You may think we're losing the Culture War, but on two of its most important fronts there's very good news.  Also very good news in the Danger Is Opportunity Department.

And of course, the best news of the week: that early this afternoon (6/12), Obamatrade went down in flames in the House, 302-126.  This is a massive defeat for Zero, and for the entire Pub Rino Establishment.  The whole thing is a garbage bag of weirdness.

We'll close with a look at who's becoming the most intriguing prez candidate of all.

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