By Charles Kennedy of OilPrice.com,

Switzerland’s nuclear power plant operators plan to keep the facilities operational for longer than initially planned, spokespeople for the large Swiss utilities Axpo Holding and Alpiq Holding told Bloomberg on Tuesday.

Switzerland has four nuclear reactors, which generate up to 40% of its electricity, according to the World Nuclear Association.

The Swiss voted in a 2017 referendum to phase out nuclear power but Switzerland has not set a deadline for this and it’s up to operators to decide how long they could operate the plants safely.

Now the energy crisis and concerns about the reliability of electricity supply in the country has prompted utilities to look to extend the lives of the reactors as long as the extension of the operations is found to be safe.

Axpo Holding and Alpiq Holding have increased the planned lifespan for their nuclear power plants to 60 years from a previous target of 50 years, which means they could be in operation until around 2040, according to the spokespeople who spoke to Bloomberg.

Alpiq is also considering an extension to as many as 80 years and is studying the possible impacts of such an extension on safety, investments, and profitability, the Alpiq spokesperson told Bloomberg.

Several countries in Europe also plan to keep nuclear power use for longer, including France, a large nuclear power generating country.

But Germany, Europe’s largest economy, earlier this year ditched nuclear energy after taking its last three nuclear power plants offline in April, ending more than six decades of commercial nuclear energy use.

Switzerland, for its part, has been trying to cope with last year’s energy crisis.

The country has recently repealed an ordinance from 2022 allowing drawdowns from its strategic fuel stockpiles after supply of petroleum products has now normalized. Last year, Switzerland started to release oil from its emergency reserves as it lowered the obligatory levels of petroleum stocks by 6.5% due to low water levels on the Rhine River and chaos in railway transportation.  

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A new preprint study up for peer review finds billions of residual DNA fragments in the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine vials.

Via The Cradle,

Former Israeli prime minister and defense ministers leader Ehud Barak “fears Israel has only weeks left to eliminate Hamas,” as international criticism of Israel mounts over its horrific bombing campaign in Gaza, Politico reported Tuesday. 

Most importantly, support for Israel’s military campaign, which has killed over 10,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, in just one month, has soured in the US, Israel’s main backer. In an exclusive interview with Politico, Barak observed the “rhetoric of US officials had shifted in recent days with a mounting chorus of calls for a humanitarian pause in the fighting.”

It is widely acknowledged that Israel could not carry out its current war, launched in response to Hamas’ surprise attack on Israeli settlements surrounding Gaza on October 7th, without US help. Barak worries that the initial support for Israel generated in the wake of the Hamas attack is waning, as video of dead Palestinian women and children continues to be live streamed out of Gaza.

“You can see the window is closing. It’s clear we are heading towards friction with the Americans about the offensive. America cannot dictate to Israel what to do. But we cannot ignore them,” Barak said. “We will have to come to terms with the American demands within the next two or three weeks, probably less.”

Also this week the Washington Post noted that more and more observers around the world are beginning to view Israel’s bombing of Palestinian civilians as genocide.

“In protests around the world, in the corridors of the United Nations and in the angry chambers of social media, one word is getting louder and louder: genocide,” the paper wrote.

Israel’s efforts to restore its deterrence following the Hamas attack by bombing civilians in Gaza may therefore prove a test to Israel’s strong influence over US foreign policy, including through its influence in Congress.

The day before Barak’s interview, the Washington Post highlighted the role of the Israel lobby in Congress. 

“There is no issue on Capitol Hill that unites Republicans and Democrats quite like Israel does, members of both parties say. And the halls of the congressional office buildings — studded with ‘I stand with Israel’ signs and flags — are a testament to that unifying sentiment,” the Post reported.

This is part a “reflection of the decades-long influence of a powerful lobby, and an imbalance of exposure, as lawmakers.”

Stephen Walt, a professor of international affairs and foreign policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, told the paper, that while the Israel lobby has been active and influential for decades, there is “nothing comparable” on the Palestinian side. Pro-Israel lobbyist groups and individuals contributed nearly $31 million to American congressional candidates during last year’s election cycle.

IDF says thousands of Palestinians continue to evacuate northern Gaza via a humanitarian corridor on Salah a-Din road, which is open between 10:00 and 14:00. pic.twitter.com/7gjyhI9M0g

— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) November 8, 2023

The most prominent Israel lobby group, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) website says that 98 percent of candidates it backed won their elections, and that it “helped defeat” 13 candidates “who would have undermined the U.S.-Israel relationship.”

Israeli politicians and lobbyists themselves boast of their ability to control and manipulate the US government. In 2001, Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now serving his sixth term as Israeli prime minister, privately said, “I know what America is. America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction,” regarding his effort to sabotage the Oslo Accords.

In an Al-Jazeera documentary filmed in 2016, leaders of the pro-Israel lobby speak openly about how they use money to influence the political process, “in ways so blunt that if the comments were made by critics, they’d be charged with anti-Semitism,” The Intercept reported.

Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times,

Have you ever wondered if and when the woke industrial complex will rise out of its slumber and smell the coffee? There are plenty of common-sense folks who wonder about the same topic.

It appears that woke influencers in business, education, entertainment, government, and sports repeat the same mistakes over and over despite being called out by concerned citizens and consumers. Indeed, many businesses such as Budweiser, CNN, Disney, Target, and others continue to defy the will of the people even when public support diminishes.

In California, the woke industry has permeated every corner of society with its emphasis on identity politics and accompanying speech codes.

It all starts in public education where governing officials believe that your children belong to the state. If they belong to the state, the schools can teach whatever they want as they create a wedge between parents and students.

California has one of the highest per pupil spending rates in America (your tax dollars), yet the outcomes are dismal. Test proficiency scores have been near the bottom for several years with no end in sight despite instructional pendulum shifts every 10-12 years.

Rather than learning fundamental civics and patriotism, students are taught a balkanized ersatz history which generates further division according to color, ethnicity, gender, and race. Other core subjects are also dumbed down to reveal the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” Standards are diluted in order to accommodate the concept of social promotion.

By the time students enroll in college, large percentages of them require remediation, which puts them further behind those who studied. During my group mentoring of university juniors and seniors, I’ve observed that far too many students have the comprehension and writing skills of early high school students.

Critical thinking skills are replaced by a fixation on electronic devices.

How are students going to cope in the real world when they are “traumatized” by folks who question their entitlement mentality, or they discover that entry-level jobs don’t always start at $100,000 a year and they must work for a living?

Is it any wonder that large numbers of college students have a meltdown over every grievance or perceived microaggression? If they aren’t taught thorough reasoning and research, they will be tossed about by fleeting events and feelings. In the current hatefest on campuses across California and the country, students are ignorant regarding Middle East dynamics, the Holocaust, and the last century of events in and around Israel. They haven’t truly studied the history of Israel or the Jewish people.

We do know that the infamous George Soros, who has funded borderless border policies and lawless district attorneys, has also helped to finance pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses and in the streets, according to the New York Post. He has helped to finance the Tides Center, among other advocacy groups, that are busy attacking Israel with the support of a compliant legacy media and leftist members of Congress.

If several professors and students at both private and public universities around the state can’t differentiate between the stone age barbarism of Hamas and the ordered liberty of Israel, something is definitely Orwellian in higher education. Perhaps we ought to rename our vaunted postsecondary institutions as “indoctrination centers of shallow learning,” because there is an appalling lack of intellectual diversity on too many campuses.

When the woke government apparatus portrays nonviolent parents who are concerned about their children’s education as domestic extremists, yet views terrorist groups as legitimate, isn’t something terribly askew with their thought processes? Welcome to the brave new world of dystopian modern Marxism.

Many “inclusive” campus groups are calling for the elimination of Israel, so why aren’t they being arrested for inciting violence? How could such free speech insanity emanate from Stanford or the University of California system? Aren’t folks supposed to be intelligent to be accepted into our elite universities?

Moreover, plenty of woke individuals and governing bodies are calling for a ceasefire or truce in the current conflict. However, the cessation of hostilities is primarily aimed at Israel, not Hamas, which unleashed the unprovoked Oct. 7 slaughter upon Israel. Anyone with a head on their shoulders understands that if Israel stopped fighting, the carnage activated by Hamas would accelerate.

By contrast, if Hamas released the hostages and surrendered without conditions, the chance of peace in the region would vastly increase. Unfortunately, the anti-Israel protestors are oblivious to the track record of Iranian sponsored regional terror over many decades, and they are too lazy to investigate. Without a clear moral compass, they lash out at any convenient target and turn a blind eye to genuine terrorism.

Are there remedies to the woke apparatus? Yes, there is always hope when the silent majority begins to take a stand against the wrong side of history. We must defund organizations that are antisemitic and stop supporting media outlets that spew irrational hatred toward Israel and the Jewish people. We can also hold on to our wallets when woke businesses ignore their customers by catering to special interest groups.

It is also critical to encourage competition in education that would give parents options regarding the different types of schools for their children. Character, civics, critical thinking, and merit ought to be ingrained from a young age so youngsters can identify the difference between good and evil. More philosophy and religion courses could be offered even at the secondary school level.

Finally, it’s crucial to elect representatives that are straightforward and who cherish principles such as border sovereignty, free markets, limited government, responsible liberty, the rule of law, and a peace-through-strength national security infrastructure.

The family of a woman who died after a hospital refused to treat her with ivermectin for Covid-19 has filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

Scott Mantel, whose wife Deborah Bucko died at Mount Sinai Hospital on May 16, 2021 from complications related to Covid-19, filed the lawsuit in September. He contends that the hospital refused to administer ivermectin, which was prescribed by her doctor. Mantell claims that the refusal contributed to her death.

According to the lawsuit, Mantel “researched possible alternative treatments, and he read several news stories about patients with severe COVID-19 illness who had been treated successfully with ivermectin.”

Despite her condition initially improving after she received the drug under a court order, the hospital’s subsequent decision to stop the treatment led to a rapid decline in her health, according to the complaint.

“While she was being treated with the ivermectin and immediately afterwards, Ms. Bucko’s respiratory and cardiovascular functions showed significant improvement and she required significantly less oxygen, vasopressors, and ventilator support, which was clearly demonstrated in her medical records,” reads the suit. “As a result of the ivermectin, Ms. Bucko was on her way to recovery.“

Mantel’s lawsuit seeks not only compensation for himself and his two children but also punitive damages against the hospital. The claim is that Mount Sinai’s withholding of ivermectin after it had been prescribed constituted a breach of standard medical care, the Epoch Times reports.

Mantel’s lawyer, Steven Warshawsky, says that the hospital’s refusal to comply with the court-ordered treatment, particularly given the patient’s initial improvement, was against the patient’s best interests and the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship.

“Early on during the pandemic there were a lot of early legal actions seeking court orders requiring hospitals and doctors to treat patients with ivermectin, but here you have a situation where orders were issued and the hospital did not fully comply with them despite [the] patient showing progress of ivermectin,” he said.

The controversy around the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19 has been a contentious issue within the medical community. Despite this, a lawyer for the FDA confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in August 2023 that doctors are legally permitted to prescribe ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.

“FDA explicitly recognizes that doctors do have the authority to prescribe ivermectin to treat COVID,” said Ashley Cheung Honold, a Department of Justice lawyer representing the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), in a statement to the US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, who supports the use of ivermectin, has criticized pharmacists who refuse to fill such prescriptions, arguing that this oversteps their authority and impacts patient care.

“This needs to come to an end. In telling my patients what medicines they can and cannot have access to, we effectively have a large group of pharmacists practicing medicine without a license,” Bowden said on Friday. “They have no accountability for this yet they are allowed to dictate patient care.”

“I see it every single day. Enough is enough,” she continued.

The outcome of Mantel’s lawsuit could have implications for future cases where there is a conflict between hospital policies and the treatments doctors wish to prescribe. Warshawsky hopes that a favorable ruling will set a precedent affirming the right of physicians to administer treatments they deem necessary, without undue interference from hospital administration. The hospital is expected to respond to the motion later this month.

“I am hoping to not only get a good result for Deborah and her family but certainly to lay a precedent which is that physicians cannot withhold life-saving treatments from their patients, not only in the case of ivermectin, but also with other medications that might not be standard protocol for hospitals,” said Warshowsky.

Authored by Paul Sperry via RealClear Wire,

After Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women and children in Israel last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the terror group “and its allies” could inspire attacks on Americans “here on our own soil.” He also told the Senate that the FBI is conducting “multiple, ongoing investigations” into people affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

What Wray didn’t say is that the FBI has been investigating Hamas’ biggest ally in America for the past 30 years – without filing any charges. Launched in 1994 as a secret front organization to support Hamas, according to declassified FBI wiretap transcripts and FBI testimony, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has, in the decades since, become an accepted member of Washington’s lobbying community. The New York Times and other influential newspapers routinely describe CAIR as a “Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.”

On Saturday afternoon, CAIR helped rally more than 100,000 Muslims in D.C. to instead condemn Israel for supposedly carrying out “genocide” in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 attacks. Multiple speakers called for the destruction of Israel – and, by implication, the Jewish people there – by demanding Palestinians take all the lands “from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea.”

Also, Awad promised to provide legal support to Muslim Americans who protest in support of Palestine. “We are with you,” he said. “The people of Gaza rely on your voices and activism.”

Protesters later marched on the White House, where they defaced the white brick gate of the Executive Mansion with red paint symbolizing the blood of Gazans who have died from the Israeli army’s counterstrikes. Awad is on record declaring his support for Hamas. At Barry University in 1994, for example, he said: “I am in support of the Hamas movement.”

CAIR did not respond to requests for comment, but without addressing specifics, it has previously argued it “is not a ‘front group for Hamas.’” The FBI and White House declined to comment.

While CAIR is now a mainstay of American politics – headquartered just three blocks from the U.S. Capitol, with 35 offices across the country – its history reveals its close connections with terror groups such as Hamas, as detailed in the 2009 book this reporter co-authored with counterterrorism expert P. David Gaubatz, “Muslim Mafia: Inside the Secret Underworld that’s Conspiring to Islamize America.”

The story began in the Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan in the 1960s, where Awad and a co-founder of CAIR, Omar Ahmad, were born. Both men eventually came to the United States for university studies. By 1992, Awad was a key member of the so-called Palestine Committee in America, which helped finance Hamas. According to a 1992 letter from the Gaza Strip, Hamas asked the Committee for money to buy “weapons, weapons, our brothers.” The letter continued: “The meaning of killing a Jew for the liberation of Palestine cannot be compared to any jihad on earth.”

Around the same time, the FBI was eavesdropping on several Hamas leaders in connection with terrorist activities, which produced tapes documenting the incarnation of CAIR in 1993. At a secret meeting that October, Omar Ahmad called to order the Hamas summit in Philly at a Courtyard by Marriott hotel in Philadelphia to discuss the formation of a new front organization to support their “movement” in America. Awad also attended the meeting.

According to court testimony by FBI agent Lara Burns, who runs a major counterterrorism program for the bureau, Ahmad, Awad, and the other leaders who gathered there hatched a scheme to disguise overseas payments to Hamas terrorists and their families as charity. FBI wiretaps also recorded them stating the need to deceive Americans about the true aims of their planned American front group as Hamas launched a campaign of terror attacks on Israel known as the “Intifada.”

They compared the deception to the “head fake” in basketball, where a shooter tricks an opponent guarding him into moving in a different direction. The group, according to the wiretap transcripts, envisioned an “alternative” organization whose pro-Palestinian stripes were “not very conspicuous.” Burns testified CAIR was what they had in mind. During the talks, they tried to mislead any authorities who might be listening in by referring to Hamas as “Samah” – Hamas spelled backward.

“CAIR has been identified by the government as a participant in an ongoing and ultimately unlawful conspiracy to support a designated terrorist organization [Hamas] – a conspiracy from which CAIR never withdrew,” said former Assistant U.S. Attorney James Jacks, who was the lead prosecutor in the case.

“We said, ‘These are the bad guys, this is Hamas. What are you doing?’” former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo said, describing how he and other agents protested the special treatment afforded CAIR.

After CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF’s criminal scheme to funnel more than $12 million to Hamas terrorists, the FBI finally disengaged from the group. The agency stopped conducting formal outreach with CAIR’s national office until, it said, it could resolve issues with Awad and other worrisome leaders.

“Until we can resolve whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner,” then-Assistant FBI director Richard Powers said in a 2009 letter to the Senate.

Among other things, the book revealed that CAIR employed violent Islamic terrorists, and then supported the terrorists behind the scenes even after they were convicted. It also uncovered an influence operation against members of key homeland security committees in Congress that included planting CAIR operatives in congressional offices. Internal CAIR documents laid out a plan to elect dozens of pro-Hamas Muslims to Congress. CAIR even started holding Muslim prayer sessions each Friday in the basement of the Capitol.

“Muslim Mafia” also traced the deeper roots of Hamas back to the secretive Muslim Brotherhood, the pro-jihad group founded in Egypt that built a sophisticated network of Islamic nonprofits inside the U.S. several decades ago. The book documented how Muslim Brotherhood leaders wrote a secret blueprint for “destroying [America] from within … so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.” FBI investigators discovered the manifesto stashed in a sub-basement of a Brotherhood leader’s home in Annandale, Va., after raiding his residence as part of a terrorism probe.

Several alarmed Republican members of Congress held a press conference about the book’s findings, warning a Hamas terror front group was infiltrating Congress.

Besides exposing Hamas’ political arm in America, the book exposed the inner workings of the broader anti-Israel lobby, which includes several leftwing groups aligned with CAIR. This lobby is now revealing itself in the wake of Israel’s own 9/11.

“The seeds for 9/11 were planted in 1948,” according to a draft of a “Proposed Muslim Platform” found at CAIR’s headquarters. “A resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict needs to be based on recognizing and correcting the harm that was done to the Palestinians since 1948,” when the United Nations partitioned land for Israel.

Guandolo said Hamas proved just how dangerous it is on Oct. 7. He warned that the terrorist group has already penetrated American society, and CAIR is the tip of the spear.

“Currently, CAIR is directing efforts at the ground level across the United States with organizations known for violent extremism,” he added in a recent interview with RealClearInvestigations. “Again, the FBI is doing nothing to adhere to their oaths of office and protect the American people.”

Lawlessness continues spreading into America’s wealthy neighborhoods as criminals are emboldened by leftist rogue prosecutors, progressive bail reform laws, defunding the police policies, and other soft-on-crime policies in crime-ridden Democrat-run cities.

A recent incident in Chicago highlights the concerns why law-abiding taxpayers should reconsider their residence in collapsing progressive cities: Last week, a family in the Beverly neighborhood was held up at gunpoint in their own driveway. 

According to local media WGN-TV, the two robbers “took the victim’s belongings and fled the scene in the stolen car.”  

X account Awake Illinois posted a shocking video with comments from the family about the incident: 

“This could have easily been your wife/daughter/son/mother/you. I ask all of you men who are tasked with protecting your family, when is enough enough? Does the gun have to go off & kill us to wake up & do something about this senseless violence?” the father of the family who wished not to be named said. 

*Disturbing footage* We hear the Chicago family is shaken but ok.
Attack happened last night.

“This could have easily been your wife/daughter/son/mother/you. I ask all of you men who are tasked with protecting your family when is enough enough? Does the gun have to go off &… pic.twitter.com/NGl0GFYvxv

— Awake Illinois (@Awake_IL) November 8, 2023

“This family was unaware they were likely followed home by the attackers. Please be aware of your surroundings as these attacks are happening with increased frequency in the Chicago area. We support this family and hope the criminals are apprehended and brought to justice,” Awake Illinois said. 

This family was unaware they were likely followed home by the attackers. Please be aware of your surroundings as these attacks are happening with increased frequency in the Chicago area. We support this family and hope the criminals are apprehended and brought to justice.

— Awake Illinois (@Awake_IL) November 8, 2023

This reminds us of an incident in mid-September when two robbers stormed the garage of a Westport, Connecticut, home, assaulting a man and stealing his Aston Martin. 

Authored by Michael Wing via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Was it nuclear holocaust he was expecting? Who in their right mind would spend $20,000 excavating the side of a cliff in a steep valley for a few extra square feet of office space?

A naval intelligence commander, that’s who. And it was Bruce A. Black who first sketched out the plans for his cave on a bar napkin over a few beers with a pair of miners, the Zink brothers, in 1982.

That napkin plan became the basis for an abode nested in a geologic wonder in a cliff valley of a special type of sandstone—a formation known as Ojo Alamo—located in northwest New Mexico (did we mention Mr. Black was also a geologist?).

It’s also worth asking who planted such a crazy idea in his head. It might not be so crazy after all, for the native ancestral Puebloans of the 12^th century once lived here and built the impressive Cave Palace not two hours north.

Some theorize that those same Puebloans built their fortress halfway up a cliff, partially sheltered in a cave, to defend against tribal aggressors.

Whether Mr. Black wanted an out-of-the-way office space, a cave fortress, or a nuclear fallout shelter is neither here nor there; it became none of the above in the end. Rather, it became Kokopelli’s Cave—or Koko’s Cave. Although inspired by Puebloan architecture in some ways, it’s now furnished with most of the amenities you’d expect from a cozy bed and breakfast.

So, the Zink brothers used hydro-drilling and blasting to remove stone, carving a donut cavity in the living sandstone. Inside, a large central pillar was left to help hold up the solid rock roof. There was a main opening for a door and a secondary puncture for a balcony with a vista—it overlooks La Plata River valley with a 300-foot vertical drop to the valley floor.

At first, this raw, vacant cavity was unfinished, unfurnished, and unused for years. It turned into a hangout where youngsters partied. It became a blank canvas for vandals, and soon the cave’s interior was covered with graffiti and smoke from bonfires.

Eventually, Mr. Black became fed up and barred the entrance with ¼-inch-thick steel doors, and the place took on the urban legend of some crazy man’s pet project. That is, until 1993.

Time passed. Eventually, Mr. Black’s son returned from his first stint in the Air Force, and he would continue where his father left off. He would make the cave something other than a bunker, office, or cliff palace. It wouldn’t be a home either, but something else entirely.

“Dad decided the logistics of moving his office in were cumbersome, and he abandoned the office effort,” Mr. Black’s son told The Epoch Times. “As an experiment, we moved my fiancé and her dog in it for a year as I began my career as an FBI agent in Las Vegas.”

By 1994, he had the place finished and comfortable for living. After his son got married, Mr. Black made it a bed and breakfast, as it remains today.

It’s comfortable but also a geologist’s dream. The textures are wonderous, for the walls expose the sandstone strata deposited at Ojo Alamo right above the boundary of the last great extinction when the dinosaurs disappeared—in the early Cenozoic period, 65 million years ago.

Inspired by the circular stone hearths the Puebloans once gathered round, called kivas, Koko’s Cave features a mockup construct made of local sandstone with an orno fireplace. There are still many kivas nested throughout Cave Palace today.

Modern comforts were furnished thanks to electrical and other utilities run through a 100-foot shaft drilled to the clifftop above. The hole doubles as a powered venting shaft. Now they have running water for a jacuzzi with a waterfall that serves as a shower. Of course, like any bed and breakfast, there are a kitchenette and laundry facilities.

The floor plan is a free-flowing ring of about 1,700 square feet. The bathroom is the only room with an installed wall. Drainage pipes run inside excavated grooves under the floors, traveling to a septic system down in the valley.

“The cave was done on a shoestring,” Mr. Black’s son said. “Fortunately, Mom and my sister picked out excellent colors on the carpet and countertops.

“The cave, due to its natural stone walls, is full of texture, and we deliberately avoided trying to add to it.” They furnished the cave with aspen wood upholstery.

You can visit Koko’s Cave for a holiday, stay in its cozy cave rooms, and marvel on its magnificent view—perhaps as the Puebloans did in the 12^th century. The proprietors will meet you at a church parking lot in nearby Farmington. You’ll drive out to the valley and descend a stone path halfway down the cliff to a cozy alcove of an entrance (bring a backpack and avoid cumbersome luggage!).

Farmington is close, so you can run to the grocery store or dine out. You’ll have to leave your pets at home, as the proprietors want to encourage local cute critters—squirrels, chipmunks, ring-tailed cats, and hummingbirds—to come keep visitors company during their stay.

Now, it’s starting to seem much clearer why anyone, whether Mr. Black or the ancestral Puebloans, would want a cliff cave for a domicile. Wouldn’t you agree?