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L i k e U s ! ! !

WHEN THE CHILDREN ARE GONE

 

children-goneHow do we measure the success of a civilization?  Let us examine some metrics.

Technological Progress.  Depending upon whom you ask, this could mean the flourishing or the end of a civilization.

There is open speculation at this time by some that the ascendance of artificial intelligence (more…)

THE VIRTUE OF HAPPINESS

virtue-of-happinessHappiness is not a smiley face, and a happy life is not a perfect Facebook profile of blissful moments and beaming selfies building on a continual upward trajectory.

We are biological, not mechanical; our minds are not computers – though some functions of our brains are similar. Our lives are full of rhythms, cycles of expansion and contraction, ebb and flow.

Just as a tree will withdraw into itself beginning in the Fall and during the winter, dropping its leaves and growing its roots, then expands out with new buds, blossoms, and fruit in the Spring and summer, our bodies (more…)

THE EYELASH AT DAWN

the-eyelash_mijgonThe first of The Seven Pearls of Shing is called Mijnon or The Eyelash. It’s at 5,300 ft in the Fann Mountains of Western Tajikistan. At dawn, the air is still and crystal clear as is the water. The surface of the lake becomes a mesmerizing mirror with the early light reflecting the vertical cliffs above while penetrating to the translucent lake bed below. It is an epic example of the boundless beauty of our world.

Yet Tajikistan is only one of the “Stans” of Central Asia, an ultimate of the world’s mysterious, remote, and wondrous places. There are four (more…)

CANADA HAS JUST MADE A CATASTROPHIC MISTAKE

How foolish are Canadian voters? They have just kept a politically inexperienced prime minister and largely discredited Liberal minority government in power because of their frustration with a US president.

That, in a nutshell, is what happened in Monday’s election yesterday (4/28) in the Great White North.

Mark Carney, a former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England, entered the Liberal Party leadership race soon after Justin Trudeau announced his resignation in January. It seemed like a no-win situation. Trudeau had thoroughly destroyed his party and political brand with his mediocre, ineffective and delusional leadership.

His Liberal (more…)

77 MILLION AMERICANS VOTED FOR TRUMP — AFTER 100 DAYS ONLY 2% REGRET

I realize this may blow Democrats’ minds, but 100 days into President Donald Trump’s second term, almost all of the millions of Americans who cast their vote for him are still happy they did.

And Trump has not been twiddling his thumbs in these first months back in the Oval Office.

There’s plenty to like or dislike, from his large number of executive orders to his federal cost-cutting bonanza with Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

So, it’s telling that a recent poll shows the vast majority of Trump supporters would vote for him again now, if given the opportunity for a (more…)

THE MOSLEM MYTH OF JERUSALEM

mohammeds-night-journey
Mohammed’s “Night Journey”

[This Monday’s TTP Archives feature was originally published on December 3, 2003. “From the river to the sea,” the Palestinian battle cry that woke Wikipedia describes as an Arabic “focus on freedom,” is based on the lie that Jerusalem is one of the holy sites of Islam. While the libs weep over Israel’s “aggression” against the Palestinians “who just want peace,” let’s take another look at the evidence for the Moslem claim]

It is a commonplace in a story or article about the Arab-Israeli conflict that mentions Jerusalem to repeat the Moslem mantra that “Jerusalem is the third holiest city in all Islam, next to Mecca and Medina.”

You’ve heard this innumerable times — but how come? Just why is Jerusalem so important to not just Jews and Christians but Moslems as well?

The reason is one single line in the Koran.

Sura (Chapter) 17 of the Koran is called -al-Isra, the Night Journey, due to the first verse which reads:

“Praise be to him (Allah) who took (more…)

BALLOONS OVER BURMA

burma-balloonsFrom the 900s to the 1200s, the Pagan Empire built over 10,000 Buddhist temples. 2,200 remain on the plains of Pagan today, one of the world’s most wondrous sights – especially if you see them from above in a hot air balloon. It is truly astounding how much there is to explore and experience in Burma. Hopefully, we’ll be there once more for it all next February. I hope you will be one of your fellow TTPers to join us. (Glimpses of Our Breathtaking World #33 photo ©Jack Wheeler)

 

 

 

MS-13 ADDED TO LGBTQ ACRONYM

U.S. — In yet another step toward the advancement of protections for all people groups, activists announced today that MS-13 had officially been added to the LGBTQ+ acronym to ensure that the rights of violent foreign gang members were recognized.

Civil rights groups hailed the announcement as a significant step forward in the ongoing crusade to see MS-13 gang members be given their rightful place in society among other persecuted groups after decades of mistreatment and ostracism.

“MS-13 gang members are some of the most oppressed and vulnerable in our society,” said LGBTQMS-13 activist Cherise Hargrave. “For far too long, (more…)

FLASHBACK FRIDAY – WITH MBUTI PYGMIES IN THE CONGO

jw-pygmiesAugust, 1971. The gentle Mbuti people live in the Ituri rainforest, one of the world’s densest jungles, in northeastern DR Congo. They are among the most ancient of all human populations, with their ancestors having hunted in these forests for over 60,000 years. The tallest among them is under five feet.

It was on my first visit to Africa that I was able to spend time with them. They live in scattered bands of a few dozen each, always on the move in search of game, sleeping in small makeshift huts of branches and leaves, and far away from villages (more…)

HALF-FULL REPORT 04/25/25

Ouch.  The NY Post cover story this morning (4/25) has to bruise our POTUS whose ego is the size of Olympus Mons on Mars.

On Wednesday night (4/23)/early Thursday morning (4/24), in clear response to Trump’s “final peace proposal,” Russia launched a massive missile attack on civilian targets in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv: at least 70 missiles 11 of which were ballistic, and close to 150 kamikaze drones, blowing up a number of residential apartment complexes leaving many dead in the rubble and hundreds wounded (the photo in the NYP cover is one of them).

THE TIGERS OF SAMARKAND

tigers-of-samarkandThe magnificent Sher-Dor Madrassa, built in the early 1600s, is part of the Registan public square complex of the ancient Silk Road oasis of Samarkand. “Sher-Dor” means “Adorned with Tigers” in Persian – flaunting Islamic blasphemy of living beings in art. Here is the mosaic depiction of a tiger chasing a deer and on its back a rising sun deity with a human face. This is honoring the pre-Islamic history of Samarkand that goes back almost 3,000 years.

It was centuries old when Alexander conquered it in 329 BC. For a thousand years as Central Asia’s great entrepot on the (more…)

POTUS OUTFOXES PRO-ILLEGAL ALIEN FEDERAL JUDGE

How cool is this?

POTUS and Team Trump have pulled off an incredibly creative move to humiliate an activist judge trying to stop them from deporting dangerous illegal aliens.

As Axios reported, Team Trump revealed yesterday (4/23) how they managed to avoid violating a federal judge’s restraining order barring them from deporting certain illegals.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Brian E. Murphy, a Biden appointee, ordered the Trump administration to ensure that people with final removal orders have a chance to argue that deportation to a country other than their own could jeopardize their safety.

The Trump White House, (more…)

TRUMP’S DEAL WOULD PLUNGE THE WORLD INTO WAR

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.” –Volodymyr Zelensky in response to Trump’s plan, Kyiv, April 22.

US president Donald Trump’s seven-point proposal for ending the Ukraine conflict may be many things, but it most certainly is not a peace plan. It is a blueprint for more war.

Surrender, capitulation, betrayal, appeasement, abandonment. These are the words that better describe the egregious apology of a peace deal that the Trump administration is currently hawking around Europe.

For, rather than attempting to address the fundamental causes (more…)

THE FAIRY TALE CASTLE OF SEGOVIA

segovia-castleThis is Spain’s most famous and beloved castle, high on a rocky promontory above the city of Segovia some 60 miles northwest of Madrid. The site of a Celtic settlement, Roman trading post, and Arab wooden fort, when the Reconquista of the Christian knights removed the Islamic invaders from their land in the early 1200s, the building of the idyllic fairy tale castle you see began.

For centuries it was the palace residence of the Kings and Queens of Castille. It was here, on December 13, 1474, that Isabella, daughter of King John II, was enthroned as the Queen of (more…)

PREPARING FOR CHINA’S NEW PERIOD OF THE WARRING STATES

“The empire, long divided, must unite; long united, must divide. Thus has it ever been.” — The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, circa 1400, attributed to Luo Guanzhong.

At some point, Xi’s Chinese Communist Party will either 1) productively address America’s trade grievances, 2) start military action that risks global thermonuclear war, or 3) itself collapse and throw China into chaos.

The first two possibilities have been discussed broadly elsewhere, but let’s think through scenario three because it seems this is Trump’s goal.

 

The history of China is of repeated swings between a consolidated central government and regional warring (more…)