To travel, especially internationally, in the time of covid takes dedication and patience. Each country you visit is ruled by politicians who, even if we are generous of them, are simply overwhelmed by the covid, their lack of options, previous failed policies, and the fear that their actions have created in their own public. But life and travel must go on.

The first hurdle one must face is the ever-changing restrictions and rules regarding covid that can change literally day by day. Watching the news in the U.K. and speaking with locals, there seems to be a consensus that the pols and medical “experts” don’t really know what to do. At least in the U.K., the pols “urge” citizens to isolate as much as possible as any mandate would be deadly (remember, their pols live in a parliamentary system which can react much more quickly than ours). Yes, wear face masks (even as they admit they are not much use), but just act like adults and get your shots. As an example:

 To get on our flight to London, we needed to complete a “Passenger Locator Form” for the U.K. government. This form included the information on a covid test that we had to take during the first two days upon landing which included information on a test which we had to purchase online. The result could take up to two days for completion and one is expected to self-isolate in the interim. As we were only going to be in London for three days, that was a poor option, so we paid extra for a test with results in a few hours. All the lab had to do was to deliver the test to us when we landed, which of course, they failed to do. Now you might ask, why take a test after one lands as if you are covid-positive, the potential damage is greater, but then you don’t understand the bureaucratic mind. So, we paid about $200 for the fast test which of course, was not waiting for us. As the test was not waiting for us upon arrival, we decided to visit a local pharmacy and pay $250 each for a fast test (so much for the National Health Service and free medical coverage). Yes, the original ordered test did arrive near the end of day two would have given us results after we left. Ver helpful. We did return the late test package and are getting a refund. To add insult to injury, the crack customs people did not ask to see our proof of the ordered test but quickly welcomed us in the country.

Recently, the Vice President of the U.S. said that if the voting rights bill stalled in Congress does not pass, the U.S. will be “off the map as a role model” for elections; it is too bad she is so uneducated regarding who is setting the map for more secure and accurate elections. The bill as written, may very well be un-Constitutional as it seems to circumvent Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution. The idea that the U.S. is a role model for elections is open to debate however, as the link to the article by John R. Lott, Jr. points out.

Of forty-seven countries in Europe, forty-six of them require a government issued ID to vote. During the last major election in India, over six hundred million Indian citizens voted, each with a government issued ID, while Mexico has not only a government issued ID but also biometrics for elections (with the result that more people are voting due to greater confidence in election honesty). Yet somehow, one party in the U.S. opposes a government issued ID as it will place too much of a burden on some individuals; perhaps that party is correct, there is systemic racism in the U.S., but it is practiced by the party which claims to be in the forefront of stopping it.

The need for election reform goes beyond voter ID however, for the European models also have procedures designed to ensure the integrity of elections. The fact that most Federal and many state elections since 2000 have been challenged (mostly by the party which opposes voter ID), should indicate that reforms are needed, but reforms which are designed to provide greater confidence in the electoral process.

How is it that the nation which held the line and won the Cold War just thirty-two years ago, stands challenged by China, Russia, and Tehran? How did we go from being what some called, a hyper-power to a power that left Afghanistan in a humiliating manner? How is it that our allies have fallen from our side and have sold their collective security for a supply of heating fuel after realizing that the great Green Dream is nothing more than a mirage?

While we debate CRT and look the other way at broken educational and judicial systems in our largest cities, our foes surge ahead, planning new geographical conquests and our economic demise. Our political leaderships response to international threats are proposals for more domestic debt aimed not at our revitalization, but at previously unknown definitions of infrastructure.  At the same time, our military spending is increased at about twenty percent of actual inflation. Linked to a new definition of “its free,” we seem to have lost our ability to deal with the real world and act in an adult manner regarding our finances.

The linked article by noted British author and historian, Andrew Roberts ends by asking if we as a nation can regain our moral health, marital vigor and turn aside from the acceptance of eclipse. I fear that with our current national leadership, the answer is not what we would wish.

https://quillette.com/2021/12/04/the-decline-of-american-empire-a-kubler-ross-cycle-analysis/

It is no secret that good business practices are not exactly the strong point of government; what is a rounding error to the government, due to their handling trillions of dollars every year, is a staggering amount to the average person on the street.

A professor of criminal justice, Kim Rich, at Los Angeles Pierce College in Woodland Hills was tasked with training faculty during the covid transition to online classes. According to Rich, many colleges use a software called Canvas to run their programs. The students sign in and need to perform certain tasks to received credit for the courses. So far, so good.

As she proceeded, Rich came to realize that one individual was doing the class work of four students. The real students simple sign up for the courses, get financial aid and then pay another individual, not necessarily a student, to complete the class assignments. In one course, eleven of her suspected students were all anthropology majors (that is called beating the odds).

The article linked below tell the whole story of widespread fraud in the student aid system. Fake students can apply for and received financial aid from numerous sources (Federal, State, private, etc.) and seem to operate with immunity. Meanwhile, legitimate students and their parents go into debt that they may never be able to repay.

Does anyone think that these felons will ever be brought to justice?

In the mid-seventeenth century in the Polish Commonwealth (at that time the largest nation in Europe), a terrible war broke out between the Cossacks let by Bohdan Chmielnicki (a national hero of the Ukraine) and the Poles. The Cossacks, long time allies of the Poles in battles against the forces of Islam had become alienated from the Poles due in part to the actions of the great Polish magnates, the differences in religion (Catholics vs. Orthodox), the Cossacks and Ukrainian view of being exploited by the Jews brought in by the magnates and a lack of opportunity for plunder by the peace between the Commonwealth and Islam.

The ensuing war lasted about nine years during which much of the Ukraine, parts of Poland and Lithuania were laid to waste as hundreds of thousands were killed in battles, sieges, and local slaughter. Invited into the Ukraine by the Cossacks, both Tartars and Turks rampaged across the land and took so many prisoners that the slave prices in the Crimea and Constantinople were drastically lowered.

Some simple questions:

1. How is it possible that after a hundred years of free public education forty-three million adults are illiterate?
2. The Los Angeles Unified School District managed to graduate 78.1% of its students in 2019 despite:
   1. Only 32% of fourth graders could read to their grade level
   1. Only 10% of blacks and 19% of Hispanics in eighth grade could read at their level
3. What are taxpayers getting when they spend $20,000/student (California) and over $25,000/student (New York).

Remember, we are talking about human lives; those children who graduate and who are not able to adequately read, write, or do math are going to lead disappointing and bleak lives. They are condemned to a life that is more difficult and less rewarding, a life with fewer options and opportunities.

Victor David Hanson has published an excellent review of Robert E. Lee: A Life by Allen C. Guelzo. After the destruction of so many statues by the Woke Left, this seems to be a balanced scholarly examination of Lee who was considered as an icon for many in the South, the military and Civil War Historians.

I have always been skeptical of the leadership of Lee, as he was slow to learn the destructive fire power of state-of-the-art military hardware. General Longstreet understood the brutality of the weapons of the time before Lee as was proven by his reluctance to commit General Pickett to the suicidal charge at Gettysburg. Somehow, Lee failed to understand that the war had turned into a war of men against machines and that the South was doomed if Lee practiced a type of warfare that belonged to the previous century (this mistake would be repeated fifty years later by both the French and Germans during the opening phases of World War I). Amazingly enough, he failed to realize that even if the charge were successful, he had no reserves to consolidate any gains while his opponent who outnumbered him, could quickly move in reinforcements to swamp the tattered remains of his divisions.

There are three groups of people. There are the rich who are never satisfied because their wealth is never enough for them-these citizens are totally useless for the city. Then there are the poor who, because their daily bread is never enough, are dangerous because they are deceived by the tongues of crooked politicians and by their own envy and so they aim the arrows of their hatred towards the rich. And the, between these two, there is a third. This one is between them. It’s there to keep the order, it’s there to keep the city safe.”-Euripides in Suppliants

Fortunately for the world, the United States has a First Amendment, which guarantees in part, the freedom of speech. This radical concept is coming under fire in an area which depends on the free flow of ideas and concepts; that of science.

In the article linked below, we find a short, concise discussion on those in our society who seem to have or wish to set themselves up as arbitrators of what is permitted and what is forbidden in discussions of science. These arbitrators include social media, the press and even many leaders in the scientific community. If these individuals and groups can “control what science says, they can control what is considered true.”, then we face the decline of science with all that it implies.  We have seen that before, in Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and today in various authoritarian nations around the globe. When we have a lifelong bureaucrat state that “If you discredit me, you discredit science” we face a serious threat to true science and the benefits that can flow from it.

https://www.city-journal.org/in-defense-of-misinformation-restrictions-of-scientific-free-speech

I was recently invited to participate in a whiskey tasting/seminar, and being of strong intellectual curiosity, I was persuaded to attended (someone must do it!). It turned out to be quite interesting and cleared up some questions I have had for years. So, let’s see what we found out!

The tasting was of three quite different whiskeys:

• From Japan, Kikori, a rice whiskey
• From the U.S., from the Hirsch distillery, The Horizon, a straight bourbon whiskey
• From Scotland, Old Pulteney, a single malt scotch whiskey

Firstly, there are a few simple things to know regarding some terms in the whiskey world. For example, a single malt is simply a malt whiskey from a single distillery, while a blended is a blend from two different distilleries. One might believe that a single malt might be “purer” in the sense of having a consistent taste, but the taste can vary based on a number of factors, such as the outside temperature. A hot or cold year impacts how the wood of the barrel expands or contracts which affects the taste.