Reagan didn’t put the Soviet Union on the ash heap of history by launching wars of aggression or by mimicking Soviet central planning. He did it by helping America get back to being what it was always meant to be: prosperous, powerful, peaceful.

I watched Reagan help turn this country around. I delighted watching him do it with that good humor and sunny disposition that drove the Left nuts. I still do.

Long story short — too late, right? — Reagan fought communism with capitalism.

So of course, it worked.

Communism can only win by default when its victims are too brutalized or too uncaring or sometimes just too ignorant to resist. //

Our country over the last two decades or so has taken a dark turn into what we might call “soft Communism.”

No walls, no barbed wire, no minefields keeping us locked in, but something even more insidious.

Wokeness, cancel culture, domestic spying, and social-credit-type controls from Big Tech and even the banking system …

… these things are the communism of my adulthood, just like the military might and propaganda efforts of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact were the communism of my formative years. //

But you can’t fight communism, whatever form it takes, with nothing but good wishes and some personal perseverance. You’ve got to fight communism with capitalism, just like Reagan taught me all those years ago — and that means first and foremost having a sustainable business model.

Generally speaking, uncooked bacon should not sit out for more than two hours at room temperature. The reason is that bacteria such as Staphylococcus and Salmonella can multiply rapidly at room temperature and cause severe foodborne illness when consumed. So if your raw bacon has been sitting out longer than two hours, as painful as it may be, it’s best to toss it in the trash.

Unfortunately, this is also true for raw turkey bacon and frozen raw bacon that has been sitting out as well.

Sir Ernest Shackleton led famed expedition that became timeless story of human survival.

In 1915, intrepid British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew were stranded for months on the Antarctic ice after their ship, Endurance, was crushed by pack ice and sank into the freezing depths of the Weddell Sea. Today, the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust and National Geographic announced the discovery of this famous shipwreck, nearly 107 years later, 3,008 meters down, roughly four miles (6.4 km) south of the ship's last recorded position.

The shipwreck is in pristine condition partly because of the lack of wood-eating microbes in those waters. In fact, the Endurance22 expedition's exploration director, Mensun Bound, told The New York Times that the shipwreck is the finest example he's ever seen; Endurance is "in a brilliant state of preservation." The expedition has released the first images of the wreck—the first time anyone has laid eyes on Endurance since its sinking a century ago. Bound et al. included shots of the stern (with "ENDURANCE" clearly visible), the rear deck and ship's wheel, and parts of the deck and hull. //

Shackleton's brilliant navigator, Frank Worsley, painstakingly calculated the coordinates for the position where Endurance sank using a sextant and chronometer. He recorded that position in his log book: 68°39'30" south; 52°26'30" west. But there was some question as to the accuracy of the marine chronometers he used to fix longitude, which would have affected the final coordinates. //

The wreck of the Endurance is a historical monument, marked for preservation under the terms of the Antarctic Treaty, so nothing was touched and no artifacts were removed. The images and scans that are still being collected will be used in a planned NatGeo documentary (to air this fall), as well as for educational materials and museum exhibits. You can check out NatGeo's short TikTok video announcing the discovery below.

Israeli health officials recently reported the country’s first case of polio in over 30 years.

An unvaccinated child, 4, from Jerusalem, contracted the highly transmissible virus, making it the first polio case in Israel since 1988, the Israeli Health Ministry said Sunday. //

Most people infected with poliovirus (about 72 out of 100) are asymptomatic. Approximately 1 out of 4 people with poliovirus infection will develop flu-like symptoms, and about 1 out of 500 infected will develop more serious health effects.

Sewage testing in Jerusalem indicates a potential for many asymptomatic cases. A new vaccine campaign is being implemented. //

The recently reported case was identified in a child who was 3 years and 9 months old and showed symptoms of paralysis, said Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the WHO.

He said this was an isolated case of a vaccine-derived poliovirus, a mutated form of the virus that can be fostered by the oral vaccine used in many countries and can cause paralysis when spread over a period of time between unvaccinated children.

“It is definitely not a wild poliovirus, imported from Pakistan or Afghanistan,” Mr. Rosenbauer said in an email, referring to the main and most dangerous form of the virus. “That we know for certain. But more needs to be found out, in terms of where or how this strain emerged, and whether it is circulating.” //

simpsonson | March 9, 2022 at 8:13 pm
Is it possible that this case (and others potentially) is a result of terrorist biowarfare as payback for Israel making Jerusalem its capital?

Milhouse in reply to bart simpsonson. | March 9, 2022 at 10:33 pm
Very very unlikely. This particular case is a weird variant that seems to have mutated from the oral vaccine. This cannot happen to the injected vaccine, which is why in most first-world countries that is now used instead of the oral one; but in Israel, because of its proximity to areas where polio still exists, both varieties are used — the shot in infancy, and then the oral as a booster in mid-childhood.

Veteran polar explorer Tim Jarvis is on a mission to discover exactly what happened on the most famous survival story in expedition history — Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 800-mile boat journey across the Southern Ocean and deadly mountain crossing of South Georgia.

Aired: 01/08/14

Expires: 09/23/23

Rating: TV-PG

Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine has faltered so far thanks to military, supply and tactical blunders – but the Russians are still capable of crushing their defiant opponents.

“Just because you have a lease doesn’t mean there’s actually oil and gas in that lease…” //

There are 9,000 federal drilling permits companies can use to bolster oil production!

Biden repeated this line in his speech about banning Russian energy sources, including oil. We’ve seen gas prices go up before Russia invaded Ukraine, but it’s only going to get worse. //

Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, confirmed the industry continues to use “a higher percentage of federal onshore and offshore leases than at any time in the past, and it’s continuing to increase production to meet surging demand.”

But Biden leaves out necessary information because it voids his argument:

“There’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the administration as to how the process actually works,” Sommers said in an interview on the sidelines of the conference.

“Just because you have a lease doesn’t mean there’s actually oil and gas in that lease, and there has to be a lot of development that occurs between the leasing and then ultimately permitting for that acreage to be productive,” he said. “I think that they’re purposefully misusing the facts here to advantage their position.”

The majority of our foreign oil comes from Canada. It’d be more if Biden opens the Keystone XL pipeline. Mexico and Saudia Arabia come next. Russia makes up about 8% of what we got last year:

South! tells one of the most thrilling tales of exploration and survival against the odds which has ever been written. It details the experiences of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition which set off in 1914 to make an attempt to cross the Antarctic continent.

Under the direction of Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition comprised two components: one party sailing on the Endurance into the Weddell Sea, which was to attempt the actual crossing; and another party on board the Aurora, under the direction of Aeneas Mackintosh, sailing into the Ross Sea on the other side of the continent and tasked with establishing depots of stores as far south as possible for the use of the party attempting the crossing.