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Thursday, February 12, 2026

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WANT TO REALLY SUPPORT OUR TROOPS IN IRAQ?


Everyone says they "support our troops" fighting in Iraq.  Liberals just pretend they do - while conservatives are sincere but may not know how to for real. 

The first step in really supporting our soldiers is to understand they believe in what they are doing.  Hundreds of thousands of the finest young Americans our country possesses have served in Iraq or are there right now.  All but the tiniest fraction not only believe in the morality of this war but that it can be won.

How can you directly support them?  Let me introduce you to Major Eric England, an Air Force intelligence officer who has been deployed in Saudi Arabia (where he was on 9/11), Bosnia, Colombia, Afghanistan, and in Iraq for eight months of combat duty.

Maj. England is developing a very interesting way for regular folks to give soldiers in Iraq what they actually need.  He calls it Online Troop Sponsorship Registries.  Here's how it works.

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THE COLORADO CANARY


The meta-story regarding the mid-term elections is how the Democrats can't wait to get to the voting booth to inflict electoral doom upon their enemies, while Republicans are so depressed they will either stay home or have to be dragged to the polls.


Maybe, but there's this Colorado canary in the Democrat coal mine that's warbling a contrarian song.

In Colorado you can vote up to 30 days ahead of election day by absentee ballot.  To do so you must of course request a ballot.  The absentee ballots won't be counted until November 7th, but what is known is the number of requests for them.

It turns out that the number of requests by registered Republicans is way up from past years while those from registered Democrats is way down.

Here's more of the buzz heard in the halls of the Capitol Building three weeks out:

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WHY SHOULD ANYONE BELIEVE ANYTHING THE CIA HAS TO SAY ABOUT IRAN?


Like everyone else in Washington, I’ve been reading excerpts from James Risen’s new book, the one that "exposes" the "crimes" of the Bush administration with regard to the war on terrorism.

The most recent excerpt deals with the CIA’s activities vis-à-vis Iran, and Risen says some very shocking things, things which a serious city would find far more troublesome than the legalities about NSA’s intercepts of conversations involving terrorists.

Most shocking of all is that Risen doesn’t even notice the truly horrible aspects of his own story. He doesn’t have the wit or the energy to think half a step beyond the tale he’s been told.

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LAPTOPS, CONTINUED

The main reason I’m researching laptops right now may seem trivial. My favorite caf� in Jerusalem, Aroma, now has WiFi.

One important issue is what to do if your system develops a problem. On a desktop, if your system fails, you would likely just reformat your hard drive and reinstall Windows, after making sure you had taken all the precautions I explained in previous columns. It can be a lot more difficult for a laptop.

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THE EPIC FAIL OF RENEWABLE ENERGY


America's Mr. Obama insists that various forms of "renewable" energy are the wave of the future and worth spending countless billions of taxpayer dollars to subsidize.  He is precisely wrong.  An example emerged on my side of the Pond here in Britain the other day. 

My train was diverted by engineering works near Doncaster. We trundled past some shiny new freight wagons decorated with a slogan: "Drax - powering tomorrow: carrying sustainable biomass for cost-effective renewable power." Serendipitously, I was at that moment reading a report by Dr. David McKay, chief scientist at the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change on the burning of wood in Yorkshire power stations such as Drax. And I was feeling vindicated.

Believe it or not, Drax imports a million kilotons of wood from Canada and the US a year to burn in its power station in place of coal, producing twice-as-expensive electricity requiring government subsidies.  And it plans to increase its imported subsidized wood to seven million kilotons a year by 2016.

When I wrote how ludicrous this is in the London Times,  there was a howl of protest on the letters page from Drax's chief executive.  Now, Dr. MacKay's report vindicates me.  The entire rationale for burning wood rather than coal is that it allegedly produces fewer CO2 emissions.  Yet the report shows that, if the wood comes from whole trees, as much of it does, the result is an increase in emissions compared with coal. And that's allowing for the regrowth of forests.

Nonetheless, the renewable-energy bandwagon careens onward, costing ever more money and doing real environmental harm, while producing trivial quantities of energy and risking blackouts next winter.  This applies to every form of renewable energy.  Here's the scorecard in Britain.

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HALF-FULL REPORT 03/07/14


It is always an intensely interesting and educational experience on any visit to China.  Now that I'm out, I can talk about it, as everything you do online is monitored - just like in the US (except that you can use an anonymizer like Cryptohippie which is blocked in China).

On Saturday, March 01, there was an astonishing terrorist attack at the railway station of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province.  Six men and two women, wearing masks and all black uniforms of some kind, bearing long knives - no other weapons, just knives - stabbed 29 people to death and wounded well over one hundred.

I was not far away at the time, and flew through the Kunming airport the next day.
***

What's so totally ridiculous about this two-bit KGB thug Putin seizing Crimea and playing the Russian bear is how our very own President Pussy hasn't the cojones to kick him in his vulnerabilities.
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My friend John Bolton nailed it yesterday (3/06) in his speech at CPAC:  "Our biggest national security crisis is Barack Obama."

John could not possibly be more spot on.  Yet Zero is not only the Number One threat to America's national security.  He is the Number One threat to America's economy, to America's freedom, to America's culture, and to America's future.

So let's see where Zero and his DemFascist minions may have screwed up this week.

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IT’S NOT POLITICIANS WHO DENY REALITY, IT’S VOTERS


"Only 12 percent of likely U.S. voters favor a federal budget that increases government spending, but that's just what the bipartisan budget deal passed by the House last week does. It restores billions cut by the sequester on March 30 and puts off potential savings for several years."

This quotation does not come from some conservative blogger, but from the respected polling company, Rasmussen, in its report of Dec. 14.

Why do the stated preferences of the voters so differ from the actions of their elected representatives in Congress and the White House?  The simple answer is:

Most people understand that the endless growth in federal spending is going to lead to disaster, but each voter likes the specific spending programs that benefit him and thinks that spending cuts ought to be made elsewhere.

So, the reality is this:

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THE SAUDIS TRY TO BRIBE AND THREATEN PUTIN OVER SYRIA


Saudi Arabia has secretly offered Russia a sweeping deal to control the global oil market and safeguard Russia's gas contracts, if the Kremlin backs away from the Assad regime in Syria.

The revelations come amid high tension in the Middle East, with US, British, and French warship poised for missile strikes in Syria. Iran has threatened to retaliate.

The strategic jitters pushed Brent crude prices to a five-month high of $112 a barrel. "We are only one incident away from a serious oil spike. The market is a lot tighter than people think," said Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review.

Leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan shed an extraordinary light on the hard-nosed Realpolitik of the two sides.  Prince Bandar, head of Saudi intelligence, allegedly confronted the Kremlin with a mix of inducements and threats in a bid to break the deadlock over Syria.   Here they are.

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THE WORLD’S MOST FREEDOM-LOVING PEOPLE


Hargeisa, Somaliland. Who are the most freedom-loving people in the world?  Certainly not Americans. 

We gave that up when a majority of us elected Zero in 2008, and reaffirmed our abandonment of freedom by reelecting him (or allowing him to steal it) last November.  Today, Americans are racing away from freedom and into The Traitor in the White House's Fascist Police State as fast as they can.

Someday, Americans may find the courage to no longer sell their birthright of freedom for a mess of government entitlement pottage, as Esau sold his birthright to Jacob (Genesis 25:29-34).  That's someday, it sure isn't now.  Right now, the people who love freedom more than any other are a group of Moslems in the Horn of Africa. 

They are the people of Somaliland, who would rather be impoverished and free than sell their freedom for pottage.  Their story is a heroic saga, epically inspirational.  Let me tell it to you.

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COMMENCEMENT 2008


[This commencement address was originally published three years ago. We  rerun it annually at college graduation time. Feel quite free to send this to any recent college graduate you may know.]

Mr. Chancellor, Members of the Board of Regents, Members of the Faculty, Honored Graduates, Families and Friends:

It's funny that they call this ceremony a Commencement, for you've all reached the finish line:  college, goodbye, we're outta here.  Yet of course, "commencement" means a beginning, not an end.

But one is supposed to at least start - commence - a talk such as this by saying funny things.  So I'll start by talking about Clark Gable movies.  If you've heard of Clark Gable at all, you know he was the biggest movie star in Hollywood a long time ago.  His most famous movie was of course Gone With The Wind.

He made a movie in 1955 called The Tall Men with Jane Russell as his girlfriend and Robert Ryan as the heavy.  It's a pretty ordinary Western flick with outlaws and cowboys and Indians - and at the end, Ryan, the bad guy, and his henchmen get the drop on Gable, the good guy, and all seems lost.  Suddenly, surprise, Gable outfoxes Ryan and triumphs.  Gable makes his exit, and after he does, Ryan delivers a line that I want you to never forget.

Serendipity is funny, a very funny thing, finding something where you least expect it.  Out of the blue, out of a movie awash with pedestrian dialogue, comes a line so profound it detonates inside your brain. Ryan turns to his men and says:

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CONCORDIA 2007


Are you ready for the greatest one week adventure in the world?

So here it is:  a Helicopter Expedition to the base of K2, the second highest mountain in the world, in an inaccessible (except by high-altitude helicopter!) region where Pakistan, China, and India come together.

At the base of K2, there is a confluence of gigantic glaciers known to mountaineers as Concordia.  It is considered to be the single spot of the most magnificent scenery on earth.  You are surrounded by dozens of peaks over 22,000 feet, five over 26,000, one (K2) over 28,000.  Our planet doesn't get more spectacular than this.

Last summer, as you may recall, I led the first ever helicopter expedition to Concordia. 

This September I can take you. 

All the details are at http://wheelerexpeditions.com/concordia/.

Please let me know if you'd like to stand at Concordia with me.  Here's what that (and K2) looks like:

k2-jw

I hope you can join me.  And remember, only Conservatives are allowed on a Wheeler Expedition!

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NORTH KOREA’S NUKE TEST FLOP


[Note:  Written the day after North Korea exploded its "device," an Update with new information is now appended at the end.]

The public face of Bush Administration officials regarding North Korea's nuclear test is a mask of utter seriousness, or "grave concern."  Behind the mask, folks are laughing their heads off.  Meanwhile, the world's dumbest nuclear scientists - namely, those in North Korea - are terrified of what Baby Kim will do to them when he finds out the truth.

Essentially, we have a replay of the total fiasco of Baby Kim's headline-garnering missile test launch last July.

North Korea's claim to have successfully conducted a test explosion of a nuclear bomb on Monday (October 8) has resulted in even more public hysteria that its missile tests, and even more private laughter.  The test shows the entire plutonium stockpile of North Korea is worthless:  It's not "weapons grade" so bombs cannot be made ot it.  Here's why.

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A SUCKER’S GAME


The French just arrested 20 people, apparently pretty close to doing some mean terrorist thing. In late September, nine people were arrested in Paris in "what officials said was a crackdown on suspected Islamic terrorist activities." It was later reported that the DST (internal-security service) had learned that members of this group had been trained in Lebanon, and possessed an exotic poison: seeds of the "nigelle" plant, said to be highly lethal.

At the end of October, the London Telegraph reported that French authorities had discovered that "an Islamic terror cell has smuggled two surface-to-air missiles into Europe in a plot to shoot down planes at one of France's main airports..." For extras, the terror group, part of the Zarqawi network, had chemical and biological agents including ricin, cyanide, and botulin.


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BROWSER HELPER OBJECTS: Conclusion

The recommended tool for preventing BHOs from infecting your computer is WinPatrol. It (and its advocates) purports to make sure that no BHO gets installed on your system without you knowing it. It also protects against spyware and viruses.

“Oh, no!, some of you are mumbling, not another $20. Don’t I have enough protection against all these intruders, especially if I’m running Windows XP and have installed Service Pack 2?” Let’s see - maybe you do.

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WHY PUTIN WILL GET AWAY WITH MURDER


It is certain that a Russian made anti-aircraft missile fired by Russian armed, trained, and commanded Ukrainian "separatists" shot down Malaysia Air flight MH-17 last week killing all 298 passengers and crew aboard.

Yet even if this was a conscious act perpetrated by the Russian government under the leadership of Vladimir Putin, we already know what is going to happen to Putin in particular and Russia in general. Nothing.

Despite widespread disgust at Russia's involvement in this act of terrorism the odds are that Putin simply toughs it out and moves on. 

The Kremlin's standard strategy will work once again:  1) obfuscate and confuse the truth by spreading several made-up disinformation stories; 2) delay or block any attempt to find out what happened; 3) depend on European (and now American) cowardice in confronting the Kremlin; 4) double down in the face of criticism.

Putin realized from the earliest moments that his thugs in eastern Ukraine, if not his army, were behind this operation. The last wreckage from MH-17 had hardly stopped bouncing when Russian media was reporting two different stories. These were for the consumption of its domestic audience and of subscribers to Ron Paul's newsletters.

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