Cabeza Revisited and Updated 4
Cabeza Revisited and Updated 4
Chapter 31, AND IN THE END
Page 364. “Time just disappears from the… equation.” — Albert Einstein: “I came to see that time itself was suspect.” Physicist John Archibald Wheeler: “Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.” Zen Master Huang Po: “Beginningless time and the present moment are the same.”
“Van Gogh… before he pulled the trigger.” — Again, see the previous references to van Gogh on the notes to pages 27, 152, and 182.
“John Charles Fremont.” Another story (partially adapted from what I wrote about Fremont in the sources):
Christmas 2021
The mountain on the right is called Fremont Peak, named after the explorer — nicknamed The Pathfinder — John C Frémont who climbed it, the literal high point of his expedition, in 1842. That was hardly its purpose, though. Rather he and his men were to chart the route that eventually became known as the Oregon Trail to encourage settlement of the West; the book he and his wife Jesse wrote —Report of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains — did indeed inspire countless thousands. It has been written that “It was both a keenly observed description of a Western journey by a trained scientist and a dramatic adventure story buffed to a high literarily polish.” The ultimate wilderness book, when all the West was wild.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone could be more attuned to the wonders of Nature than Frémont. His son Frank wrote many years later, “Out-of-doors was life to him. . . . Stormy weather appealed to him as well as fair. Trees were to him sacred . . . flowers especially appealed to him . . . he would guide his horse so as to avoid crushing a flower or anthill; all life had a significance for him. Once we were climbing in the mountains . . . and I came across a snake. Boylike, I started to kill it, but he would not permit it. ‘No, let it go! It has not harmed you and probably enjoys life,’ he said.” But Frémont, most assuredly an adventurer in its finest sense, was not content just to chart the route — just for “fun” they had to go off trail and climb the peak. But then they had to return to civilization… since they were out of coffee.
Frémont later became senator from the new state of California and then first Republican candidate for president in 1856, running under the slogan: “Free Soil, Free Men, Fremont.” Though he lost, his run paved the way for Abraham Lincoln’s victory four years later which led to the secession of southern states and the Civil War. This led Lincoln to appoint Frémont Commander of the Department of the West, where his enduring legacy was to recognize the battlefield genius of Ulysses S Grant, raising him to a command position, from which Grant (a distant relative, in the sense all of us life forms are related) turned the tide of the Civil War.
From the Frémonts’ book, describing the summit of Fremont Peak: “Here, on the summit, where the stillness was absolute, unbroken by any sound, and solitude complete, we thought ourselves beyond the region of animated life; but while we were sitting on the rock, a solitary bee came winging his flight from the eastern valley, and lit on the knee of one of the men. “It was a strange place, the icy rock and the highest peak [so he thought] of the Rocky Mountains, for a lover of warm sunshine and flowers; and we pleased ourselves with the idea that he was the first of his species to cross the mountain barrier—a solitary pioneer to foretell the advance of civilization.
I believe that a moment’s thought would have made us let him continue his way unharmed; but we carried out the law of this country, where all animated nature seems at war; and, seizing him immediately, put him in at least a fit place—in the leaves of a large book, among the flowers we had collected on our way. The barometer stood at 18.293, the attached thermometer at 44°; giving for the elevation of the summit 13,570 feet above the Gulf of Mexico, which may be called the highest flight of the bee. It is certainly the highest known flight of that insect.”
[I suggest Frémont would have been content to marvel at the bee, then let it continue on its journey but that one of the men, without “a moment’s thought,” swatted it. Upon his return Frémont presented his wife Jessie with the flowers and the bee. She kept them until her death.]
Anne and I have climbed several of the neighboring mountains. Perhaps we’ll do Fremont sometime. Today Fremont’s name happens to dot the landscape of America—and most fittingly our current vehicle was manufactured in Fremont, California. It’s 17 years old but this means we will have to keep it … until our deaths… (Photo, Phil Grant: “Before the Storm.” More photos of Fremont Peak and the Wind Rivers can be found in my videos on YouTube, especially The Art of the Fugue 1-7, Contrapunctus 2.)
Page 365. “Pace of Climate Change Exceeds Estimates.” — Well, maybe not. I just read that the Earth’s temperature has not increased over the last eight years. Please read everything I have previously written in these notes regarding this starting with those to page 248.
“So many of our attempts to avoid suffering.” — The most extreme example is all the Covid lockdowns, vaccine and mask mandates. People won’t exercise, they won’t eat foods that provide immunity such as mushrooms or a plant-based diet. An extremely high proportion of those who died from the virus either had do not resuscitate orders, would’ve died within the next year or two anyway, or just hadn’t been taking care of themselves the way we do. So because of them everyone is forced to follow a dangerous protocol to protect them. Which doesn’t even work. Children suffer from missed schooling. People don’t get cancer screenings. Drug overdoses and suicides jump. What I found most disgusting was all the playgrounds wrapped with orange tape to prevent their usage. Sheer idiocy. Below are just a tiny few of the articles describing the Covid insanity.:
https://www.city-journal.org/article/the-harm-caused-by-masks
https://nypost.com/2023/04/14/the-corrupted-science-behind-bidens-covid-vax-mandates/
https://nypost.com/2023/02/27/10-myths-told-by-covid-experts-now-debunked/
https://nypost.com/2023/02/27/natural-immunity-as-effective-as-covid-vaccine-years-after-mandates/
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/dont-recommend-fda-infinity-vaccine-booster-strategy
Cardiologists Come to the Same Conclusion Regarding COVID Jab Side Effects
“The Covid mRNA vaccine has likely played a significant role or been a primary cause of unexpected cardiac arrests, heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrhythmias, and heart failure since 2021…”
Until the British cardiologist, Dr. Aseem Malhotra, expressed grave concern about the safety of Covid mRNA vaccines, he was one of the most celebrated doctors in Britain. In 2016 he was named in the Sunday Times Debrett’s list as one of the most influential people in science and medicine in the UK in a list that included Professor Stephen Hawking. His total Altmetric score (measure of impact and reach) of his medical journal publications since 2013 is over 10,000 making it one of the highest in the World for a clinical doctor during this period.
In the early days of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in Britain, he advocated the injections for the general public. However, in July of 2021, he experienced a terrible personal loss that caused him to reevaluate the shots—namely, the sudden and unexpected death of his 73-year-old father. His father’s death made no sense to him because he knew from his own examination that his father’s general and cardiac health were excellent.
As he put it in a recent interview:
His postmortem findings really shocked me. There were two severe blockages in his coronary arteries, which didn’t really make any sense with everything I know, both as a cardiologist—someone who has expertise in this particular area—but also intimately knowing my dad’s lifestyle and his health. Not long after that, data started to emerge that suggested a possible link between the mRNA vaccine and increased risk of heart attacks from a mechanism of increasing inflammation around the coronary arteries.
But on top of that, I was contacted by a whistleblower at a very prestigious university in the UK, a cardiologist himself, who explained to me that there was a similar research finding in his department, and that those researchers had decided to essentially cover that up because they were worried about losing funding from the pharmaceutical industry. But it doesn’t stop there. I then started looking at data in the UK to see if there had been any increase in cardiac arrest. My dad suffered a cardiac arrest and sudden cardiac death at home. Had there been any change in the UK since the vaccine rollout? And again those findings were very clear. There’s been an extra 14,000 out of hospital cardiac arrests in 2021 vs 2020.
The more Dr. Malhotra looked into it, the more he felt the same concern about the safety of the mRNA vaccines that Dr. Peter McCullough had felt since the spring of 2021. The alarming incidence of sudden, unexpected deaths during the latter half of 2021 and the first eight months of 2022—especially among the young and fit—strengthened his grave concern and suspicion.
In September of 2022,—after a thorough investigation of the growing volume of data—he came to his conclusion:
The Covid mRNA vaccine has likely played a significant role or been a primary cause of unexpected cardiac arrests, heart attacks, strokes, cardiac arrhythmias, and heart failure since 2021 until proven otherwise.
His conclusion, including his precise verbal formulation of it, was identical to the conclusion drawn by Dr. Peter McCullough. Though the two doctors ultimately established contact to compare notes, they reached their conclusions based on their own, independent inquiries, before they spoke with each other.
Recently the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation produced Until Proven Otherwise— a short video documentary about the corroborating findings of these two leading cardiologists. I believe it is no exaggeration to say that the gripping, four-minute video is a MUST SEE for everyone. Please share it with your family and friends.
Reposted from the author’s Substack
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.
John Leake John Leake studied history and philosophy with Roger Scruton at Boston University. He then went to Vienna, Austria on a graduate school scholarship and ended up living in the city for over a decade, working as a freelance writer and translator. He is a true crime writer with a lifelong interest in medical history and forensic medicine.
Dr. Peter A. McCullough MD Dr. McCullough is a practicing internist, cardiologist, epidemiologist managing the cardiovascular complications of both the viral infection and the injuries developing after the COVID-19 vaccine in Dallas TX, USA. He has dozens of peer-reviewed publications on the infection, multiple US and State Senate testimonies, and has commented extensively on the medical response to the COVID-19 crisis in TheHill, America Out Loud, NewsMax, and on FOX NEWS Channel.
https://rumble.com/v1rl1kk-until-proven-otherwise-featuring-cardiologists-dr.-peter-mccullough-dr.-ase.html
Page 368. “With August allies staunch as these… who’d dare suggest our mission fail?” See Walk in My Combat Boots, by James Patterson and Matt Evers men first Sgt., US Army (retired). Vignettes of about 10 pages each of the experiences of various service members collated by the authors.
Miguel Ferrer, page 112: “I’m 22 years old and a medical Corpsman for a 20-man advisor team when I arrive in Afghanistan in 2012 as senior medical expert, my job is to teach an African lieutenant commander, Farjaad, who was also a doctor, and his men how to treat casualties.
I come in to the job with the mindset that we’re partners. We’ll share medical information and techniques. I’ll help them learn their craft, and they’ll help me learn mine. My pre-deployment training stressed the importance of having this attitude.
Farjaad, I soon discover, smokes opium all day long, every day. Sometimes he shows up to my classes, some days he doesn’t. He’s completely incapable of dealing with any negative feedback, no matter how I deliver it.
His men are the exact same way. Your attitude is, everybody is talented, and everyone’s level of talent is on par. These Afghans don’t want to learn. They don’t want to improve. I try every which way I can to communicate information. They want no part of it.
Page 115: Afghans seem to get hurt on a daily basis. They suffer mass casualties every single week, for months.
When I lose someone, it tears me up. Here I am pouring my blood, sweat, and tears into treating and saving guys who are wounded and dying, and these Afghanis are acting like they don’t care about their own.
Page 118: When my deployment ends in August, I returned to the US with mixed feelings.
I feel on top of the world, like a conquering hero returning home. I went to Afghanistan, did my job, survived, and came back. I’m confident in my abilities as a Corpsman.
My experience with the Afghanistan Army and the Afghanistanis: I wasted seven months of my life trying to train those guys in combat medicine. I poured my heart and soul into it, and then I ended up doing their freaking jobs for them. They screwed up at the most basic levels, and they didn’t give a shit. They didn’t give a shit about anything.
I keep asking myself if there was something I could’ve done better — should have done better. I keep wondering if I considered every possible option.
Page 173: Jason Burke, regarding the “infamous woman who wanted to kill me.”… But the most unbelievable part, what I keep coming back to over and over again, is her connection to the United States. She left Pakistan and went to Texas on a student visa and attended the University of Houston. Massachusetts Institute of Technology took notice of her and offered her a full scholarship. After she graduated from MIT, she went to Brandeis University and earned a PhD in cognitive neuroscience.
While our countries educated her, she studied ways to destroy America. While she lived in our country, she went to work for Al Qaeda, first helping operatives renew US travel papers and open post office boxes; graduating to laundering money; and then, following the terrorist attacks we would later call 911, engaged in assault with firearms on US officers. [In Afghanistan]
Page 205: Jeddah Deloria “Women do all the work while the men sit with each other and smoke what I’m pretty sure is opium.… The men are in charge and they don’t want equal rights because they don’t want to ruin the lives they already have. It’s our job to persuade everyone we encounter, using our interpreters, to not support the Taliban and to help us. We promise to give them safety. The question to us is always the same: Are you guys going to be here for the long haul? This is Afghanistan. War is constant, and people are constantly at war.…
Page 306: Patrick Kern: “All these Iraqi tribes are basically interconnected. They’re all brothers; sister; third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh cousins — and yet they have hated each other for centuries. They’re all at each other’s throats, fighting for power.
Their culture values death. They have no problem killing 300 people with one car bomb — men, women, and children. Someone there had to explain to me that when an old man dies in the Arab culture, it’s a tragedy because an old man is full of irreplaceable wisdom, knowledge, and experience. But if a child dies, their attitude is, “we’ll make more.”
Every day while I was over there, we would ask ourselves the same question: how do we deal with this situation?
To this day, I still don’t have an answer.”
The Pianist from Syria; a Memoir, by Aeham Ahmad (who supports Palestinian nationalism), as told to Sandra Hetzel and Ariel Hofmeier, translated by Emanuel Bergmann.
For some reason all his encounters Europeans were positive and all those with Syrians, including his brother, and Palestinians were negative. I guess he must be racist,too.
Page 38: After six grade, I went to middle school. The principal was a terrible man, quick-tempered and always eager to yell at people. The teachers were afraid of his explosive rage, and the students were terrified of his punishments . . . he was Palestinian, but he was so eager to assimilate that he even joined the Baath party.
Page 53: Sometimes it took us half an hour to reach the source of the traffic jam — the accident. Usually we saw dented cars, bystanders, and two men screaming at each other. The traffic police always took the side of the man paying the highest bribe.
Page 54: My new piano teacher . . . her name was an Irina and was also from Russia. . . I liked her . . . she was very friendly. Her Arabic was terrible but she smiled at me.
Page 56: During the last year of school, a teacher . . . and Orthodox Christian . . . asked me if I want to be a student. . . . I liked him. He was an excellent pianist and was very direct, pouring his heart on his sleeve. He wasn’t as two-faced as many of my countrymen. In Syria people will smile at you and stab you in the back.
Page 64: Four a year and a half, [my father and I] worked [in the music store] each weekend. My brother hardly did anything. Sometimes he tagged along and reluctantly helped a little for about an hour, then he would get into an argument with my parents and leave. One time, when friends of mine that came along to help and my brother sat around playing games on his cell phone, I confronted him. He angrily got up and shoved me to the ground.
Page 70: In my despair, I immediately confessed [to the principal for skipping school]. I told him that I’d been hiding in our store. “You have no idea what it’s like here. I can’t take it anymore. People pick fights all the time, everyone’s smokes hash. . . .”
Page 184: After only two months [his singing group, with piano, disbanded]. It began with petty jealousies . . . so they quit the group. Didn’t take long for the next few men to complain,
Page 266: Herbert [a rockstar] came over to me and said, “a . . . that was quite a performance! . . . I’ll send you an electric piano.” . . . . . . Why would a famous man want to give me an expensive gift? Back in Syria, musicians weren’t like that. The more successful you were, the more arrogant you became. I couldn’t believe how different it was here [in Germany], and thanked him effusively.
Page 266: It was amazing how helpful the Germans were. In Syria, when people help you, they usually expect something in return. [Earlier he had noted that monetary gifts for him and his wife at their wedding were carefully recorded so that when the gift giver married they could give the same amount back]
I’ve just finished On Saudi Arabia: It’s People, past, Religion, Fault Lines — and Future, by Karen Elliott House (who lived in Saudi Arabia in Muslim homes; she first served as a correspondent for The Wall Street Journal mainly focusing on issues that affected American security). I’ve made dozens of notes regarding this book, but they all show how fundamentally different these people are from us.
From the preface: “Over the decades, as I encountered more ordinary Saudis, I became fascinated by their passivity, their unquestioning acceptance of rules laid down by elders, teachers, religious scholars and their Saudi rulers… How, I kept asking myself could people be so docile, so unquestioningly obedient?”
Page 5. “Saudis, undereducated and often indolent, sit idly by rather than work for what they regard as slave wages doing menial jobs.” [Imported foreign workers represent 90% of all employees in the private sector.]
Page 9. “For all their frustrations, most Saudis do not crave democracy. To conservative Saudis, especially the many devoutly religious, the idea of men making laws rather than following those laid down by Allah in the Koran is antithetical and unthinkable.”
Page 28. “Within 50 years of the Prophets death, Muslims murdered a succession of leaders; shot, trampled, and beheaded the Prophet’s grandson; and sacked the holy cities of Medina and Mecca…” and more. They even followed the Yanomamo dinner protocol: “The conquerors invited the surviving [Muslim] rulers to dinner, and after pleasantries, by prearrangement, the waiters locked the doors and clubbed to death their ruler’s guests.… Not surprisingly this depressing history has bred a political fatalism down through the centuries… This resignation to living under corrupt temporal leaders and focusing not on improving life on earth but rather securing a better life in the hereafter helps explain why oppressive and greedy rulers reign for so long in so many Arab countries.” [I’ve come to believe it’s much more than that.]
Page 29, 31. “Beyond subjugating women, young Saudis were pressured to attend afterschool training in religious fundamentalism… Saudis overwhelming desire to conform, to pass unnoticed among the rest of society, is surely a boon to Al Saud control. If Westerners love individualism, most Saudis are literally frightened at the mere thought of being different.” If one reflects on Nicholas Wade’s A Troublesome Inheritance, well, I hope the reader will do so.…
Page 34. The author lives with a Muslim woman named Lulu. “She has no interest in the world outside her home, where her focus is on serving her husband and ensuring that her children follow a strictly religious path. As the days go by, it becomes clear Lulu not only accepts but welcomes the confines of her life.…”
Page 37. “Lulu’s husband, the sole driver of the family’s SUV, drops the children at a special school that focuses on teaching students to memorize the entire Koran by the ninth grade, along with study of more conventional subjects.” Lulu by the way voluntarily chose to be her husband’s second wife. The first wife lives downstairs. And whenever the husband visits Lulu the author must hide in her bedroom.
Page 111. One of three young men tells the author, “my main concern was to obey my parents. There was no discussion. You just obey.” For that reason, says another, despite his deep interest in science and his desire to study it… His parents directed him towards religious studies.… This parental push leads nearly two thirds of university graduates to earn degrees in Islamic subjects that fail to equip them for work in the private sector.…
Page 140. “To this day, the concept of educational inquiry is barely nascent in Saudi Arabia. Students from kindergarten through University for the most part sit in front of teachers whose lectures they repeat back to them like echoes. Small wonder, then, that schools are just one more tool for constricting and controlling the minds and lives of Saudis.”
Page 143. “The fact is that all too many Saudi students emerge from school knowing little more than the Koran and believing not only in the tenets of their own religion but also that most of the rest of the world is populated by heretics and infidels who must be shunned, converted, or combated.
“In Saudi Arabia, the religious establishment does not merely exert a powerful influence on education; education is its wholly-owned subsidiary.”
Page 150. “There is no critical thinking even in university,” says one political science professor at King Saud University and re-add. “Students just memorize and repeat. All they want is a diploma and a job in government. They don’t care about their country or about the Arabs or about freedom.” A Sociology professor at the same university similarly laments the lack of curiosity among students.
[Recall Toby Huff’s Intellectual Curiosity and the Scientific Revolution .…] Many books are banned, libraries often are locked, and at any rate volumes are not permitted to be taken home for most of them.
Page 156. Stephane Lacroix, a Saudi expert at The Institute of Political Studies in Paris, sums up the battle over education Saudi Arabia: “The educational system is so controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood, it will take 20 years to change — if at all. Islamists see education as their base so they won’t compromise on this.”
Page 157. “Visit any middle-class Saudi home, and you’re likely to see one or more young men of the family, some educated and some not, hanging around, with little prospect and often little interest in finding a job. Second, you are even more likely to see a number of young women of the family, almost surely better educated and more ambitious, who are unable to enter a workforce that offers them precious few opportunities.
Page 168. “This corrupting and corrosive influence on the economy has done nothing to increase Saudi employment.… A Saudi prince insists that ‘80% of the corruption is simply because the government doesn’t work, so people pay bribes to get services.
Page 170. “… Most of the young Saudis [at a Center that trains auto mechanics… and electricians] appear too sullen and lethargic to want to learn. Many of the trainees appear to be interested only in the government stipend they receive for showing up.”
Page 203. “The idea of individual expression — through art or anything else — is truly foreign to Saudis.” [Who often then choose terrorism.]
Page 206. “The Saudi regime walks a fine line between discouraging extremism — to assuage its American protectors and to protect itself. One sheik quoted by the Saudi press agency: “[terrorism] attacks security, spreads terror among people and creates problems for society.” He went on, however, to deplore its damage not so much to the victims of terrorism as to Islam’s reputation…”
Page 221. “The royal family is absolutely convinced of the indispensability of its absolute rule. To a man, the scores of princes I’ve met over many years — even those who criticize the government and advocate change — invariably conclude by saying, ‘We are the glue that holds the kingdom together. Without us there is chaos.’”
Page 234. “The late King Fahd shoveled money into spreading the radical Wahhabi Islam around the world and granted religious leaders at home wide sway over virtually every aspect of Saudi life. A former Treasury Department official is quoted by the Washington Post reporter David Ottaway in a 2004 article estimating that the late King spent ‘north of 75 billion’ in his efforts to spread Wahhabi Islam. According to Ottaway, the king boasted on his personal website that he established 200 Islamic colleges, 210 Islamic centers, 1500 mosques, and 2000 schools for Muslim children in non-Islamic nations. He also launched a publishing center in Medina that by 2000 had distributed 138 million copies of the Koran worldwide. Indeed, a meeting with almost any Saudi royal concludes with the gift of a copy of the Koran…………”
Philip Carl Salzman — another racist (he’s actually called such online) — author of Culture and Conflict: In the Middle East, a professor of anthropology at McGill University, and the founding chair of the Commission on Nomadic Peoples of the International Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences, as well as being the founding editor of the commission’s published journal, Nomadic Peoples and author of numerous other books and papers. In addition to living with the nomadic Arabs of Baluchistan, he cites numerous references, interestingly including my anthropologist cousin Lois Grant Beck, who lived with the Qashqa’i tribe in Iran. She’s probably another racist, but I haven’t seen her since 1955, so I can’t say for sure.
Culture and Conflict is summarized on the back cover: “Why is the Middle East so troubled? What are the reasons for its relentless conflicts?… Drawing on his own research among nomadic tribes and on the work of other anthropologists who have lived with the Bedouin, Salzman describes the structures and dynamics of the tribal life in which the Islamic Arab Empire and the modern Middle East were built. Most basic is the opposition between kin groups and tribal groups, and the obligation always to support the closer relations against the more distant. Islam itself reflects the contentious fragmentation of tribal life in pitting believers against infidel non-Muslims. Thus we discover that, in Middle Eastern culture, group loyalty is all, and precludes both a broad and inclusive civility and the rule of law.
“Wide ranging while grounded in observable evidence, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East is an original analysis and an illuminating overview. Sympathetic to middle Easterners, it identifies the basis of their troubles and our troubles with them. This is an indispensable volume for anyone wishing to understand the contemporary Middle East.”
As the saying in Arab countries goes, “Me against my brother. Me and my brother against my cousin. Me and my brother and my cousin against… And so on.”
Time for another racist, economic historian Gregory Clark (originally from Britain but now chair of the economics department at the University of California, Davis) and his book, A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World, winner of the 2008 gold medal in finance/investment/economics.
From the back cover: “Why are some parts of the world so rich and others so poor? Why did the Industrial Revolution — and the unprecedented economic growth that came with it — occur in 18th century England and not some other time, or some other place? Why didn’t industrialization make the whole world rich — and why did it make large parts of the world even poorer.”
Clive Cook at the Financial Times writes: “Any book that is as bold, as fascinating, and is conscientiously argued and as politically incorrect as this one demands to be read.” And A. N. Wilson at the Daily Telegraph writes: “One of the most fascinating, and the most disturbing, historical works I have read… This is economic history as you have never read it before.”
I will attempt to summarize Clark’s precisely detailed explanation — with numerous charts and graphs — of why the Industrial Revolution did occur where and when it did over a period of many hundreds of years as English society evolved.
Page 184. “The wealthiest testators [who left wills], who are almost all literate, left twice as many children as the poorest… Generation by generation the sons of the literate were relatively more numerous than the sons of the illiterate.” I.e., higher IQ had a significant reproductive advantage, as opposed to nowadays.
Page 171-172. Clark discusses “time preference” which “is simply the idea that, everything else being equal people prefer to consume now rather than later. The time preference rate measures the strength of this preference.… Children with high time preference rates in preschool in California did less well academically later and had lower SAT scores.” And on later pages he shows how low time preference rates led to the accumulation of wealth.
Page 204. “Innovation explains all modern growth.” And it was these children of the wealthiest (and who would have in today’s world have the highest SAT scores) who provided that innovation. Which sparked the Industrial Revolution.
Pages 352-370, Chapter 17, “Why Isn’t the Whole World Developed?” “Because of the extreme inefficiency of Asiatic labor… ‘India is obliged to engage three persons in place of one employed in the Lancashire Mills.’ In 1930 Arno Pearse, the international textile expert, offered the opinion that ‘Labor in India is undoubtedly on a very low power, probably it comes next to Chinese labor in inefficiency, wastefulness and lack of discipline.’”
I will leave it at that. Read the whole book. There will probably never be another like it since it’s too politically incorrect.
But Clark attempted to atone for his sins in his next book, The Son Also Rises: Surnames in the History of Social Mobility. Ian Morris, the author of Why the West Rules — for Now, writes on the back cover that it “is a remarkable challenge to conventional wisdom about social mobility. Using highly original methods and ranging widely across world history, Clark argues that the activities of governments impact mobility much less than most of us think — and that the only sure path to success is to be born to the right parents. Everyone interested in public policy should read this book.”
But they won’t. The bottom line is it’s almost all in the genes. Just as Steven D. Levitt showed in Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything.
But the “upside” according to Clark is that due to intermarriage everything will even out in the long run, thus the title. I can’t say I think he’s necessarily right about this. Perhaps the reverse will occur.
One interesting fact, though, is that Coptic Christians who have emigrated to the United States top the list of what Clark calls “social competence” — which he determines in this case by the relative representation among physicians. This is because of the Muslim conquests that forced the Copts to either convert, suffer death, or pay a tax. Only the most “socially competent” could pay the tax every year over the last 14 centuries. Black Africans (as opposed to the descendants of slaves), who benefited from “U. S. Immigration policy, which for countries far from the United States is biased strongly in favor of skilled immigrants,” are also high on the list.
Page 368. “We did not see our bunting.” — I don’t think we’ve seen our indigo bunting in more than a decade now.
Page 371. “Greenland is melting.” — See everything I’ve written about the global warming alarmists starting with notes to page 248.
Page 372. “The Clean Energy Myth.” The latest myth is that, as has been discussed previously in these notes, is that wind and solar are clean. They really just shift the burden to other parts of the world.
Page 374. “It is if the eternal harmony were conversing within itself.” — Although I mentioned this earlier I should have repeated that these were the words of Johan Wolfgang von Goethe upon listening to Bach.
“It is a transfigured world.” — Likewise that this was from J. W. N. Sullivan’s Beethoven: His Spiritual Development.
Page 375. “Who could not even spell cat.” —
Across the country standards are being lowered just to raise the graduation rate. SAT tests are no longer required for many or most colleges just so they have a good excuse not to let in the top-performing Asians.
Page 376. “LASIK surgery.” — If you are contemplating this, don’t. Nothing wrong with glasses. They protect your eyes. A female weather presenter in the Detroit area was blinded by the procedure. She committed suicide.
“A perfect storm of crises.” — Perhaps the worst might be EMP: an electromagnetic pulse either from a solar flare or a nuclear weapon detonated at the proper altitude. This would shut down electrical transformers for at least one year (there are no ready replacements) and it is estimated that 90% of the population would die since food could no longer be delivered (electric pumps fill up our gas tanks). Maybe we’ll have a nuclear war with Russia or China over the Ukraine or Taiwan respectively.
“Changing the Constitution so he can be president for life.” — Maybe I should have said she… Hope not, either way.
Page 378. “Backpack in Utah’s Maze.” — Anne and I have made a total of five trips here (and one around the White Rim of the Island in the Sky District of Canyonlands National Park), at least three since “finishing” Cabeza. We both consider it and Cabeza the two most beautiful places we’ve ever seen. See my video of Bach’s Musical Offering which has photos of both.
Page 396. "Don't eat meat." — See:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/friday-favorites-dairy-and-cancer/
https://nutritionfacts.org/audio/wary-of-dairy/
Finally, the appearance of the Grim Reaper at the coronation of King Charles may portend the fate of our species:
A few more Christmas stories:
It started to snow. Hard. Not as in hard, heavily. Rather, hard, horizontally.
“Maybe we should set up the tent,” Anne said.
But I wanted to see the stars, and there were sure to be plenty of them here, in late September, ensconced in our sleeping bags by the shores of half-frozen Knoll Lake, above 12,000 feet in Wyoming’s Wind River Mountains. But other than three or four glimpsed for an instant or two between the scudding clouds . . . there were . . . no stars.
“My face is cold,” Anne said. She can’t sleep when there’s wind on her face. I set up the tent.
Next morning . . . same thing. The plan had been . . . to camp on the top of 13,468’ Mount Febbas last night — for a great view and photos of a glorious sunrise. But we’d been slow and the forecast we’d gotten five days previously, before we’d started in the valley, hadn’t been that bad: 20% chance of showers. But now, after four days backpacking that 20% chance of rain showers had morphed into 100% chance of blizzard. Mountain weather.
After two hours of sitting, tea, and breakfast, however — hope! You could almost tell there might be a sun up there, somewhere, someplace, somehow — behind the rushing clouds, that is. Time to go! We packed everything up including the tent (a good half hour’s work) and began our . . . summit assault!
But . . . it got darker . . . and darker . . . and darker . . . and then . . . a flash! BOOM! Not that brilliant, to be totally exposed at 13,000 feet . . . in a thunderstorm. Down we went. Set up the tent. Had more tea. Did more sitting. Listened to the tent flapping. Exciting day.
Next morning . . . same thing. With food running low, nothing to do but head back . . . except . . . the way we’d come had been over large steep boulders that were now . . . encrusted with ice and snow. Not exactly our, pardon the expression, cup of tea. I checked the map and it seemed we could make it down off-trail, following gently sloping Horse Ridge — so named since the first exploratory party in 1833 had ridden up on, you guessed it, horses (The Adventures of Captain Bonneville [who led the expedition, and continued from there to climb the true highest peak in the Wind Rivers, Gannett Peak] can be found online). Then, with a bit of route finding we could loop back to the main trail.
Our one bit of good fortune was that the 60 mile-per-hour streaming snow and searing wind would be at our backs, assisting and — most markedly — inspiring our progress. We snatched a quick — very quick — glance at the highest peak of the range, Gannett, then headed off. Three or four hours later — sunshine! Calm, relatively speaking that is, winds! Warmth! We settled down in real grass — not rocks, as before — snacked and relaxed. And took the picture here of the main range shrouded in stormy snow squalls.
Then down to the trail, eventually making camp. The sky was clear so I almost didn’t set up the tent . . . which would have been less than brilliant since in the morning it was sagging under 4 inches of snow. Or more. Out we trudged, through snow and ice, three more days, to the truck. Past small flock of miniature ducks diving and splashing around in the icy glacial runoff, having a heckuva time—unlike a pair of half-frozen not-so-hardened hikers who had had enough.
We returned a year later, hiking the route in reverse. Except for a large plume from a forest fire to the North blowing away from us there was nary a cloud in the sky. But the timing wasn’t right for camping on the top, and it turned out my favorite picture was on the way up, just a bit down from the grassy spot where the first had been taken, showing Gannett, all its glaciers, and it’s perfect glacially carved valley . . . in all their splendor. Nice place, the Wind Rivers. If you don’t mind the weather, that is. And bring lots of tea. Best for the coming year,
Christmas 20xx?
After six days of backpacking at higher elevations, carrying all our water (good exercise and builds moral fiber, too!) we were now goofing off, relatively speaking, on the seemingly flat — but rocky roller coaster when driving! — White Rim sandstone formation in the Maze district of Canyonlands National Park.
Directly across the Green River was the more widely known, not to mention widely traveled, White Rim Jeep Trail. Here there was nobody. Which was why we were here. Not there. The truck was parked at the edge of a sharp drop-off, and very sharply undercut — the harder sandstone providing a cap over the underlying softer shales — so a hundred feet down . . . there was naught but air. The numerous white slabs 500 feet below us made us hope the forces of molecular attraction would keep doing their job, preventing the slab—and us!— from falling into the abyss, at least for the next day or so.
Actually, here the white was getting tinged with a gorgeous gold —see
www.meaningofwilderness.com/maze-musical-offering for photos — enhancing its allure, and inspiring us for the upcoming modest hike, mostly following its rim. When we’d checked in, a Ranger had admonished us, when hiking off trail, to stay either on slick rock or in washes so as not to leave a permanent imprint of our sojourn. Following the rim this was no problem but returning I’d planned a shortcut over a spur of Ekker Butte. And sure enough, there was a cute little wash leading right up. And there, in the wash itself, was, despite there having been only a couple inches rain this year, a copious quantity of cute miniature wildflowers to delight our eyes. But before that, following the sandstone rim, there hadn’t been much. Until . . .
A huge pothole, 10-15 feet across, adopted by . . . a huge claret cup cactus. With a huge display of flowers . . . all in bloom.
Photo time. But. There’s always a but.
Our mini-weather radio had advised us to prepare for a big storm the following day. No concern for now, but its precursors of wondrous cirrus and cumulus clouds were beginning to fly across the sky and sun to the South. A most delightful backdrop for the cactus. But. Here comes the but: all the glorious blooms of the cactus were — most logically — facing the sun. While it was easy enough to capture them on film, the sky behind was a bland and boring blue. And the northern side with the spectacular sky behind was, you got it, also boring! No blooms at all.
What to do? Simple. Cheat. Which photographers have been doing, by any and all means possible, since the inception of their art. It’s just that with Photoshop it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame. I still shoot film, using the top-of-the-line Nikon circa 1972 passed down from my father, scanning the slides into my computer with a top-notch Nikon scanner— giving them the resolution of a 24 megapixel digital camera. I.e., not bad at all. I took six or eight exposures, crawling close on my belly for three or four of the cactus and then turning the other way, taking another three or four of the sky. My version of Photoshop allows one to select any part of the image in various ways, so . . . once home, after selecting the best exposures of each and making adjustments, I selected the boring sky, clicked delete, then the exciting one, clicked copy, then paste, did a little more fiddling (actually a lot more fiddling) and . . . voilà! One of my favorite photos.
“But that’s not the way it really was,” you say? Well, when we get home and I look at the photos in the computer I always tell Anne how bad they all are. Because they don’t seem nearly as nice as the way it really was. Theoretical physicist Brian Greene writes in The Fabric of the Cosmos, “The reality we experience is but a glimmer of the reality that is.” So maybe Photoshop helps make these pictures . . . a glimmer plus.
I should also note that I used my extreme wide angle lens in this photo, which even in vertical shots takes in much more sky than human vision is capable of. So you get the Big picture. Maybe a glimmer squared. But still just a glimmer.
Below is a selection of links reinforcing much of what is written in Cabeza Revisited.
And if you wonder why you don't see this news in the mainstream media, the following link and numerous others I have posted explain that it's because our tech and governmental overlords who know what's best (at least for them):
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/athena-thorne/2023/09/12/danger-conservative-media-is-starting-to-self-censor-n1726218
https://pjmedia.com/columns/paula-bolyard/2023/08/30/the-covid-19-alarmists-want-you-ignorant-and-obedient-how-will-you-respond-n1722957
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/08/29/youtube-demonetizes-montage-of-democrats-denying-elections-calls-it-dangerous-and-harmful-n1723012
https://pjmedia.com/columns/stephen-kruiser/2023/08/30/the-morning-briefing-however-bad-you-think-the-border-mess-is-its-worse-n1723058
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/08/29/theres-a-new-study-on-n95-masks-you-really-should-see-n1722909
https://townhall.com/columnists/rainerzitelmann/2023/08/29/capitalism-made-the-netherlands-successful-and-yet-the-dutch-cant-stand-it-n2627633
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/08/28/technocrats-now-openly-brag-about-using-emotional-manipulation-to-promote-climate-hysteria-n1722714
https://nypost.com/2023/08/27/stop-frankenstein-doctors-from-doing-barbaric-non-binary-surgeries/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-climate-change-blame-game-hawaii-fire-confronted-reality-maui-identifies-cause
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/08/26/79-arsonists-arrested-amid-deadly-greek-wildfires-n1722308
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/madelineleesman/2023/08/26/wisconsin-jails-trans-inmates-n2627491
https://townhall.com/columnists/rainerzitelmann/2023/08/27/sweden-has-a-long-history-as-a-pioneer-of-capitalism-n2627485
https://townhall.com/columnists/dugganflanakin/2023/08/25/column-n2627525
https://nypost.com/2023/08/26/new-documentary-proves-that-offshore-windfarms-kill-whales/
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/08/23/fema-officials-enjoy-luxury-hotels-as-displaced-maui-residents-need-aid-n1721414
https://nypost.com/2023/08/21/green-activists-have-hurt-the-environment-by-letting-hawaii-and-california-burn/
https://pjmedia.com/columns/paula-bolyard/2023/08/21/the-top-3-censored-topics-in-america-in-2023-n1720856
https://pjmedia.com/columns/dennis-prager/2023/08/22/in-california-this-weekend-we-saw-again-how-easy-it-is-to-panic-americans-n1720983
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/08/20/lets-revisit-the-corporate-state-medias-lies-about-covid-vaccine-shedding-n1720719
https://nypost.com/2023/08/18/the-maui-wildfires-are-proof-that-carbon-zealotry-can-kill/
https://nypost.com/2023/08/18/er-doctors-face-surge-of-kids-with-post-covid-depression-suicidal-thoughts/
https://townhall.com/columnists/stephenmoore/2023/08/15/is-it-time-to-ban-electric-vehicles-n2627008
https://townhall.com/columnists/hsterlingburnett/2023/08/15/sorry-mainstream-media-climate-change-has-not-caused-2023s-heatwaves-n2626888
https://pjmedia.com/columns/raymond-ibrahim/2023/08/14/white-people-were-the-only-slavers-of-history-black-professor-claims-n1719143
https://nypost.com/2023/08/14/with-record-suicides-america-is-killing-its-own/
https://nypost.com/2023/08/13/biden-censors-battered-expect-an-epic-supreme-court-showdown/
https://nypost.com/2023/08/13/peer-reviews-simply-a-sham-reversing-the-economic-backslide-and-other-commentary/
https://nypost.com/2023/08/13/dont-expect-the-greens-1600-mistake-on-ocean-plastic-to-get-them-to-change-course/
https://www.foxnews.com/media/can-magic-mushrooms-bring-you-closer-god-pastor-dave-hodges-explains-spirituality-shrooms
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/green-energys-cost-californias-wildlife-species-pay-the-price-5458439
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6333125058112
This was an article that they changed to a video. He had to drive from Canada to Chicago but abandoned the truck because he couldn't get it charged.
When it did charge it took two hours. Man who bought new electric truck calls EVs the ‘biggest scam of modern times’‘Fox & Friends’ co-hosts discuss major issues with owning and maintaining
electric vehicles after a Canadian man sounds off on problems with his new electric truck.
https://nypost.com/2023/08/10/glenn-kessler-embarrasses-himself-and-the-washington-post-with-joe-biden-stenography-again/
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/paula-bolyard/2023/08/09/this-is-getting-so-ridiculous-check-out-what-the-big-tech-goons-are-up-to-now-n1717652
https://townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2023/08/09/how-to-be-a-new-york-times-reporter-n2626819
https://pjmedia.com/columns/tom-harris/2023/08/05/canceling-skeptical-scientists-is-the-real-climate-crisis-n1716434
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/08/01/border-expert-illegals-committed-430k-criminal-offenses-in-texas-since-2011-n1715293
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/exclusive-we-are-totally-awash-in-pseudoscience-nobel-prize-winning-physicist-on-climate-agenda-5430650
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/rick-moran/2023/07/29/study-removing-carbon-from-the-atmosphere-wont-fix-climate-change-n1714543
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/07/29/the-globe-is-cooling-not-boiling-why-is-media-still-predicting-eco-apocalypse-n1714556
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/07/25/can-we-talk-about-blood-clots-cardiac-arrest-and-why-so-many-are-getting-them-n1713522
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/juliorosas/2023/07/23/dont-expect-the-media-to-cover-the-gunman-who-ambushed-fargo-police-n2626050
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/new-york-times-great-cover-up-gray-lady-gets-away-ignoring-joe-biden-corruption
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/07/24/watch-the-video-that-made-democrats-storm-out-of-a-hearing-on-gender-reassignment-surgery-n1713119
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/kevindowneyjr/2023/07/22/military-notes-a-spike-in-myocarditis-cases-wonder-why-n1712879
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/catherinesalgado/2023/07/23/advocacy-group-moderna-docs-cast-serious-doubt-on-vaccines-safety-n1712848
https://brownstone.org/articles/the-dirty-secret-about-how-masks-really-work/
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/whistleblower-alleges-cia-offered-officials-significant-monetary-incentive-to-change-view-of-covid-origins
https://www.foxnews.com/media/fear-open-debate-covid-vaccines-likely-public-hesitancy-cdc-director
https://nypost.com/2023/09/05/as-a-scientist-im-not-allowed-to-tell-the-full-truth-about-climate-change/
https://nypost.com/2023/09/06/masks-dont-work-against-covid-19-and-dr-fauci-should-stop-talking/
https://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2023/09/07/the-stories-big-tech-targeted-as-dangerous-derogatory-or-unreliableharmful-in-august-n2628121
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/09/05/germany-migrants-skirt-local-polygamy-laws-import-second-wives-n1724663
https://www.foxnews.com/media/horrified-hospital-employee-leaks-dei-training-promoting-3-year-olds-identifying-as-trans
https://nypost.com/2023/09/02/fauci-admits-lack-of-covid-mask-evidence-but-still-wants-us-to-wear-them/
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/michaelcantrell/2023/09/04/cnn-host-stuns-viewers-by-doing-his-job-and-confronting-fauci-on-mask-efficacy-n1724395
https://nypost.com/2023/09/03/nonstop-media-bias-from-russiagate-to-the-biden-crime-family-coverup/
https://townhall.com/columnists/katiepavlich/2023/09/01/like-communism-the-climate-change-agenda-will-kill-millions-n2627869
https://nypost.com/2023/09/04/contractors-up-the-price-by-54-for-offshore-wind-farms/
https://pjmedia.com/columns/paula-bolyard/2023/08/30/the-covid-19-alarmists-want-you-ignorant-and-obedient-how-will-you-respond-n1722957
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