PUNCHING BACK TWICE AS HARD: Used properly, lawfare is a good thing.

IF YOU LIKE AIRCRAFT VIDEOS, you'll love this: F-35 operational test trials.

The comments, maybe not so much. The one that particularly sticks in my craw is the '14-year-long development' comment. The YF-22 (F-22 precursor) rolled out on 27 August 1990 (I was there); the F-22 achieved IOC (initial operational capability) 15 years, 3 months, and 16 days later, on 15 December 2005. Yes, development cycles are excruciatingly long - and getting longer - but that's a result of bureaucracy, not technology.

AMMO GRRRLL: Safe Spaces for Psychotic Ninnies, circa 1975. Ammo Grrrll punches back, not twice as hard, but thrice as hard. Or maybe 'fource' as hard, if that's a word.

NEVER. NEXT QUESTION? When will climate scientists say they were wrong?

IF HILLARY BECOMES PRESIDENT, who will make her obey the law?

Ultimately, the Presidential Records Act depends on the honesty of the president. That's not Clinton's strong suit. Recent polls have shown substantial numbers of Americans do not believe she is honest and trustworthy. After the State Department experience, they would have good reason to be suspicious of her in the White House.

Indeed we do. Democrats are foolish for not having a Plan B.

UH-OH: When someone buys vanilla ice cream, he's basically right there with John Wilkes Booth, helping him steady his aim at Abraham Lincoln's head.

I switched to Vanilla Caramel Fudge -- is that good enough?

MEGYN KELLY takes down Rand Paul on the Patriot Act.

Bravo, Megyn.

IMPRIMIS: Frank Capra on "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God".

GREAT NEWS: that puddle in your front yard is a federally protected waterway. I was considering reinstalling the rain gutters on my house ... now I'll have to think again lest they become a 'federally protected waterway'. And I suppose if I had to remove the protective berm in my back yard, my basement would become a (protected) seasonal wetland....

ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS: another ObamaCare failure.

Let’s force doctors to spend a lot of money to become technology dependent and adopt electronic health records when the old way of doing things was working just fine. And hey – as a bonus, our health information is now more vulnerable to hacking and we can lose some privacy along the way! Electronic health records haven’t saved a single life or a single dollar, but they have created a lot of expense, confusion, and tremendous demoralization for our health care providers. It wasn’t broken, and it shouldn’t have been “fixed.” If the Republican Congress was smart, it would repeal this onerous, useless provision of Obamacare.

Let's help -- call your Congresscritter today.

I COULD BE paying my student loans until I'm 77. Yes, and you could have not taken the loans in the first place. Sorry, but my sympathy meter is not impressed.

SOME THOUGHTS on the unintended consequences of intended consequences. Less regulation is always better regulation.

I remember (unsuccessfully) pointing that out back in the late 70s when seat belt laws started to become de rigueur. Yes, deaths decreased (slightly), but the number of accidents increased dramatically as drivers, assuming they were better protected, took more driving risks.

INSURERS OUTRAGED over new measure to cap Medicaid costs. Progressivism at its finest: we provide the mandates; you provide the money.

A NEW BUMPER STICKER from the Ted Cruz campaign: "Friends don't let friends turn Left".

Heh.

DARWIN AWARD DEMONSTRATION: What not to do with self-driving cars. Luckily (for them, not the gene pool) they failed.

EPIC MOCK-ALANCHE: labor unions who pushed for $15 minimum wage in Los Angeles now want an exemption.

What a choice! A union job at less-than-minimum-wage, or no job at minimum wage. Scroll down to the comments -- and bring your popcorn.

A FLIGHT over the Great Barrier Reef. The pictures are spectacular, but what I liked most was this comment:

The landing was pretty much terrifying; all I saw the pilot doing was spinning some wheel next to his seat which doesn't seem legit, but we made it!

The pilot landed using only the rudder pedals and the trim wheel, which is the mark of an excellent - and experienced - pilot. My instructor tried to teach me how to do it, but I was never able to make it all the way to the ground using trim-and-rudder alone.

Linked from Instapundit.

MUSLIM PREACHER: masturbation will make your hand pregnant. I suppose he should know....

THOMAS SOWELL: How to open the mind of a college graduate. The recommended books are excellent; the problem is that being a college graduate does not necessarily imply the ability to read.

WHY AREN'T people moving to America's 'best' cities?

Could it possibly be because Americans want to move where it's best for them, not where the government thinks knows it's best for them....

CLOSING RAPIDLY: New Horizons spacecraft returns most detailed pictures of Pluto ever seen.

FORMER DIRECTOR ON IRAQ: We 'underestimated how deep the hole' we dug. That's not true; we completely misunderstood the depth to which tribalism is central to the cultures of the entire mid-east.

Here's a thought: the reason the Iraqi army is 'cutting and running' isn't due to a lack of training or equipment; it's a result of the fact that the individual soldiers aren't loyal to the state; they're loyal to their respective tribes within that state. The same is true in Afghanistan.

That was true when I first went to Iraq in 2006; it's still true today. And it will remain true (and the chaos will continue) until the Obama administration or whatever one succeeds it grasps that simple fact.

Joe Biden almost got it when he wanted to partition Iraq way back when.

AN INTERESTING DETAIL: Bill Clinton formed his shell company two days after Hillary was picked as top diplomat.

#MANSPLAINING: Not a day goes by without a really, really stupid feminist being outraged by something.

HILLARY'S CAMPAIGN-FINANCE REFORM advocacy isn't hypocrisy, it's self protection.

I think it's fair to say that whatever the Clintons say or do, it isn't to our benefit....

MEET ZOOX, the robo-taxi start-up.

Is it coming? Or going? Or both?

TESLA'S ROBOCAR TO DRIVER: Accept the liability (but not the control).

Methinks there are some very interesting lawsuits on the horizon....

POLITICAL SCIENCE: If the data doesn't agree with your hypothesis, make it up.

ANOTHER MISSED MEMORIAL DAY COLUMN:

Our current leaders are manifestly unworthy of those they lead. So this Memorial Day, let’s ignore the opportunists and frauds who seek to clothe themselves in the glory of better men and women. Instead, let’s remember the men and women who died for this country and its Constitution. And let’s remember what it was like to have a real president.

Harsh, but absolutely, utterly true.

PEGGY NOONAN: The Trigger-Happy Generation. Trigger warning happy. We can be grateful (? -ed.) that global warming isn't happening, 'cuz these precious little snowflakes wouldn't survive. Assuming they should....

[Just in case] If this is still behind the WSJ paywall, you can still access it by going to Google, putting the exact title above in the search box, and clicking search.

VIDEO: Carly Fiorina on how she would fight ISIS.

I concur with Jazz Shaw: "I do like the cut of her jib."

I MISSED THIS ONE ON MEMORIAL DAY: Never forget the price of freedom. My sense is that the little boy is (or should be) Obama.

BECAUSE #OPPORTUNITY: "Even the Democratic base doesn’t want to live in deep blue territory, since progressive policies lead to higher costs, higher crime and reduced economic opportunity."

WITH DEMOCRATS IN CHARGE? Why do you ask? Can Baltimore survive its epidemic of murder?

OH, THE IRONY: Obama is nostalgic for “white” Israel.

JEFF JACOBY: Yes, let's ask some more historical (hysterical?) history gotcha questions.

THE SCOREKEEPER: 'Baltimorons' embrace chaos. And PowerLine identifies the leading 'Baltimoron'. Well, in addition to its mayor.

When Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby announced the charges against the six police officers, I remember thinking that she was throwing everything against the wall hoping that at least something would stick. It looks like I was right ... and at least 9 more Baltimore residents are dead.

HOW REPUBLICANS can capture the millennial vote: Don’t alter the message — change the package.

While I don't agree with all the details, I think the prescription is basically right. In my mind Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal are the most successful practicioners. They're the ones I'll be keeping my eye on....

'RENEWABLE' MINIGRIDS should be the end goal for rural poor. Yes, we certainly wouldn't want them to, you know, industrialize, would we?

X-37B SPACEPLANE’S orbit discovered, but the real action's in the comments.

MARCO RUBIO: impressive on foreign policy. I like Rubio; he's an impressive candidate, and has a much-more-than-voting-present resume ... but he's still a first-term Senator.

SLINGSHOT:

We saw several of these during the Rolling Thunder parade last Sunday. It would be one hell of a golf cart, if only I played golf.

IMMIGRATION REFORM, Obama-style. The courts don't approve....

REPUBLICANS ARE PRO-CHOICE; Democrats ... not so much.

IMPRIMIS: What’s next for religious liberty in America?

Consider the following:

Cultural conservatives answered the Left’s attempted Chick-fil-A boycott with a “buycott” that swamped stores nationwide, even causing some to run out of food for customers eager to show their support for a beloved restaurant, owned by people who share their moral principles.

Leftist pressure against Hobby Lobby failed. Customers were either supportive of the owners or indifferent to politics, and boycotts had no effect on Hobby Lobby’s bottom line or its willingness to fight. Not only did Hobby Lobby win its Supreme Court case, its owners are set to open a massive new Museum of the Bible near the National Mall.

Efforts to drive Phil Robertson—of Duck Dynasty fame—off the air after controversial comments on sexual morality failed, giving cultural conservatives a victory in a medium (cable television) seen as almost uniformly hostile to orthodox Christianity. While Robertson has remained a polarizing figure (and often says things that make many of his supporters uncomfortable), there has been no serious repeat effort to remove him from the air.

In Houston, leftist government officials were forced to backtrack within days after issuing subpoenas requiring area pastors to turn over the contents of their sermons and other communications. The public outcry was so swift and so great that the city capitulated even before a judge could rule on motions to quash.

Even in Indiana, as Republican politicians quickly caved to corporate and media pressure, the grassroots response in support of Memories Pizza soon swamped the Left. A GoFundMe account set up to support the owners raised more than $800,000 in small donations in a matter of days (including over $200,000 in one day), putting the pizza restaurant in a far superior financial position than it had enjoyed before the controversy. The message was clear: Cultural conservatives are not, in fact, culturally isolated but rather have the support of millions of Americans who oppose leftist bullying.

While the Left has proven adept at using social media, so have cultural conservatives. And now when the Left overreaches, attempting to drive Christians out of work, there is often an opposite (and greater) reaction.

Punching back works.

A (VERY) BIG BANG: What would it take to send people to Pluto?

UNEXPECTEDLY, OF COURSE: Do you want fries with that?

Customers at the new San Francisco McDonald's on Sutter Street are greeted not with a friendly smile but with the impersonal glare of two human-sized electronic tablets ready to take their order. Not coincidentally, San Francisco’s minimum wage increased to $12.25 an hour earlier this month. The city has long had one of the highest wage floors in the country.

These automated ordering systems are a stark reminder that employers can automate jobs when the cost of entry-level service employees becomes higher than what consumers are willing to pay for that service. Employers don’t do this because they’re unkind; business is a Darwinian struggle where only those who can control costs to maintain their often razor-thin profit margins can survive.

The reduced job opportunities that come as a result of these cost-cutting measures disproportionately impact society’s most vulnerable. The academic evidence clearly shows minimum wage hikes price some of these less-skilled employees out of the job market entirely.

There's always soma.

'FRUSTRATING' CAMPAIGN: U.S. pilots claim their hands are tied in ISIS fight.

You know there is something badly wrong above the level of the Joint Chiefs when stuff like this hits the mainstream news....

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: Clinton Foundation hit with racketeering lawsuit.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: We're all at the mercy of feds' incompetence. That's what happens when Americans vote to be governed by an 'idiocracy'.

IRS COMMISSIONER JOHN KOSKINEN: Organized criminals hack organized crime syndicate. If it weren't for the fact that it may have been my information that was stolen, this would be a "Heh!" moment.

THE FALL OF RAMADI: no big deal.

CARLY FIORINA answers five questions.

BOBBY JINDAL answers the same five.

HEH: “The irony is that Dems are looking for a white knight to rescue them *from* the damsel in distress.”

TED CRUZ: Global warmists are the new Flat Earthers.

HOW DID policy-change-by-lawsuit become so popular? The question is not "How?" but "Why?" and the answer is because it worked.

The answer to the implied question "When will it become less popular?" is when the Left discovers (soon, I hope) that lawfare is a double-edged weapon that can cut from the Right as easily as from the Left.

MILITARY WEAPONRY: CICADAs, LOCUSTs and the new innovation of military infestations.

The Islamic State (i.e., ISIS) is a perfect testbed for swarm attacks by these critters, with one simple instruction: if it holds a weapon, kill it.

THOMAS SOWELL: President Barack Obama gives another demonstration of his mastery of rhetoric — and disregard of reality. I don't think it's so much a 'disregard of reality' as it is that Barack Obama is an alien creature not of this reality....

HEH: Hillary's America is a Banana Republic without the bananas.

IS HYDROPOWER making a return? It should. But the environmentalists will have a snit.

THE TROUBLE WITH THE BUBBLE -- it's all those pesky questions.

IF IT'S NOT FAWNING, it must be biased.

MEDICARE PART D saves money and lives. And remember, Part D is the only (remaining) part of Medicare that is at least partly privatized and market-oriented.

SPACE: Ride along on SpaceX’s emergency pad abort test [video].

Talk about 'jackrabbit' starts....

TOUGH TULIPS, MR. PRESIDENT: Appeals court refuses to lift hold on Obama immigration action.

Will he ever learn? (That's a rhetorical question, by the way.)

AVIATION WEEK: Sikorsky conducts the first flight of its S-97 coaxial rotor helicopter.

WHY YOU should vote for Carly Fiorina. Or Ben Carson.

BECAUSE THEY willfully choose to live in another reality: Why do Obama and Kerry keep trusting Russia on Syria?

JEFF JACOBY: Millionaire ex-presidents can pay their own way.

Here's a thought: provide them with a generous pension, office expenses, and security provided they agree to sit back, shut up, and accept no outside income. Otherwise, they're on their own.

THE SLOW DEATH OF FREE SPEECH: How the illiberal left silences those who won’t go along to get along.

OBAMACARE ADVOCATES seek to fix a problem they made worse. Their solution? Throw more of your money that you could have spent on your healthcare on ObamaCare that may, but probably won't, help someone else.

WHERE almost no gravity is a big help.

NEW WIKI documents the history of engineering. The Engineering and Technology History website is full of biographies (but not mine), historical facts, and interviews from seven engineering societies.

It's a work in progress, so there are significant gaps, especially in recent (post-1990) history, but the timeline is the place to start.

THE EAGLE HAS LANDED:

Courtesy of PowerLine.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS.

Twitchy respondents, thankfully, are not impressed. And neither is Instapundit, who points out a real class act reminding us of the meaning of Memorial Day.

My thoughts: I know there will be a lot of 'thoughtless' and 'bad optics' comments from the Obama commentariat, but I believe they're wrong. This was a well thought-out, carefully choreographed message to his base, for whom Memorial Day is nothing more than a three-day holiday celebrating the beginning of summer.

Wastrels.

A FINAL MEMORIAL DAY SPEECH BY RONALD REAGAN:



Published on May 25, 2014: "Regardless politically...this speech touches my soul. Proud to be American!"

Yes.

FROM ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY:

A reminder of the cost of citizenship this Memorial Day.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers.

ROLLING THUNDER, 2015: Here are some photos we took of the Rolling Thunder motorcycle parade on Sunday. These pictures were taken shortly after it began at 1 p.m.

Rolling Thunder begins. Staging all the motorcycles begins at 7 a.m. at the Pentagon parking lot.

The cyclists are turning onto the Memorial Bridge leading from Arlington National Cemetery into Washington D.C.

Here's a closeup of the cycles entering the turn. The yellow one in the lead looks like a small car, but it's essentially a motorcycle with a sidecar. We saw several of these.

People were lined up 2-3 deep all the way across the bridge.

Here they come. You can see yellow cycle from above in the background.

A final view taken from the Memorial Bridge itself.

The Potomac River from the Memorial Bridge. There were a number of boats on the water watching as the motorcycles crossed above them. I wish now that I had walked further onto the bridge to get a photo.

Motorcycles were still crossing the Memorial Bridge when we finally left about 4:30 p.m. After all the bad political (read that as Obama administration) news we've been bombarded with over the last several weeks, my faith in American exceptionalism has been somewhat restored. While we were standing there, a motorcycle with one (and usually two) riders passed in front of us about once a second. In 3-1/2 hours, that amounts to about 20,000 cyclists and an equal or greater number of people who came to participate.

Good news.

HOMETOWN BATTLEFIELD:



From my email, with thanks.

HECKLER'S VETO: Federal court rules pro-life views are ‘patently offensive’.

Under the 'punch back twice as hard' lawfare philosophy, the Children First Foundation should sue the state of New York for issuing the following 'patently offensive' personalized license plates:

NYS Association for Reduction, Reuse & Recycling - offensive to anyone who isn't at least a closet nanny-stater.

BMW and Porsche car club - elitist; offensive to those who can't afford fancy cars.

Union Yes (3 plates) - offensive to the vast majority of nonunion workers.

All police and firefighter (15 plates) - offensive to criminals, thugs, and liberal protestors.

Colleges (22 plates) - elitist; offensive to non-college graduates.

All fraternities and sororities (8 plates) - mattress girl. Need I say more?

Conserve habitat - offensive to everyone who isn't an environmental Luddite.

NY Press - obvious.

Professional Engineer - a pet peeve ever since I earned my engineering doctorate. 'Registration' and 'professional' are not synonyms. You don't have to be an arrogant ass to be a PE, but experience has taught me that that's the way to bet.

Ready to punch back? Go for it.

DISARM THE PC POLICE: Issue a pre-emptive apology.

Here's mine: "You must have me confused with someone who gives a sh*t."

WHY WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT? How to make a cheeseburger that tastes like a restaurant's.

IT'S NOT QUITE in bumper-sticker format, but this cartoon is the most nearly perfect description of Democrat philosophy that I've ever seen.

MEMORIAL DAY wishful thinking. Be sure to read the comments.

IT'S CALLED CABLE TV.

"THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY is shutting down a research program that offered classified data to scientists to examine the link between climate change and global security threats."

Here's a suggestion: How about examining the links between actual global security threats and global security?

MEA CULPA, MEA CULPA: A flagrant reader ‘fesses up.

How dare she 'disadvantage' her peers by reading to her children!

PUNCHING BACK: Some questions for Democrat candidates.

JACK & JILL updated.

BUYING A NEW CAR? You might as well lease since you only think you will own it.

PUBLIC BOARDING SCHOOLS: A wrong way to fix failing schools.

But, but, but ... we can't indoctrinate your kids if you parents keep interfering....

THE SCOREKEEPER: Liberal whine of the day.

Liberal finally discovers the meaning of insurance only to find that ObamaCare destroyed it.

THE SEXISM that propels Carly Fiorina’s candidacy. Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus writes:

I would love to see a female president, of either party, and I expect I will — if not in 2016, then in an election to come. But the female president I would love to see is one who is fully qualified to be president — qualified by dint of experience, not of chromosomes. Carly Fiorina is not that woman.

As opposed to Hillary Clinton's many and varied (non)accomplishments? Please explain to me how a woman who rose from a secretary in a small law office to CEO of a major technology company is less accomplished than Hillary Clinton.

I would have serious qualms about any candidate who seeks the presidency without government experience, no matter how much value he or she produced for shareholders. Business demands different skills than politics....

And your proof is ... where?

[T]he presidency isn’t the place for on-the-job training.

Marcus is at least right on this point; and I offer Barack Obama as proof. And Obama had government experience....

I quit subscribing to the Washington Post a year or so ago because, well, Ruth Marcus' columns (among others) offend me.

[ADDED] NOEMIE EMERY RESPONDS: Hillary's crisis of competence.

LET THE PROTESTS BEGIN: not even 24 hours has passed.

If I were in charge of the police department, I'd simply back off and let the protestors foul their own nest. If you're not welcome, why go?

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures (Tactical Edition) is up. My favorite:

But 'Plan B' is pretty good as well....

CLEVELAND POLICE OFFICER found not guilty in deadly 2012 shooting; Department of 'Justice' to review. The verdict was correct, just not politically correct.

DOES OBAMACARE make insurance cost too much? No. Liberals do. By larding it with unnecessary, unneeded, and unwanted regulation.

ObamaCare has been so fattened with progressive lard that the poor 'insured' is payig so much for insurance that there's no money left for care.

ANOTHER PROMISE BROKEN: Emergency room visits up under Obamacare.

Unexpectedly (as predicted).

IT'S ABOUT CONTROL: With Obama, it's always about control.

President Obama, when pressed this week, revealed his view of civil society and the state. It could be summarized thus: Government brings us together and free association tears us apart.

Read it all, then ask yourself "Why do Obama's children attend Sidwell Friends school?"

HEH:

Driving us crazy....

MARCO RUBIO, the older Republican's favorite younger Republican. Not necessarily -- my favorite Republican isn't (yet) in the poll.

LIBERALS WORRIED that the GOP is chipping away at scientific research. No, they're worried - and rightly so - that the GOP is chipping away at their 'political' scientific research.

IS HILLARY CLINTON hedging her bets? Or just planning to buy the U.S. after she loses the election?

NASA PLUTO PROBE may carry crowdsourced message to aliens. More like a crowdsourced definition of the word 'hubris'.

DRAW MOHAMMAD. Via the Scorekeeper.

A DAD’S LIFE: On fatherhood, manliness, and failure.

There's nothing better.

A SECOND AMENDMENT WIN: Court strikes down 'good reason' limitation on Washington D.C.'s concealed carry law. Liberals dismayed to find lawfare is a two-edged weapon.

Keep punching back.

HE'S A DEMOCRAT: How can so much stupidity be packed in one man?

OBAMACARE: another year of health 'care'.

ORGANIC ELECTRONICS deliver painkilling medicine directly to the targeted site.

OBAMA FAVORABLE RATING UP, best since September 2013.

Oh?

THE DEMOCRATS logical next step: outreach for the illegal immigrant vote.

ANOTHER ENERGY UNICORN: what happens when you can't do the math....

THE LOGICAL OUTCOME of progressivism.

JEALOUS? Of Elizabeth Warren? Well, yes, if you're the small-minded, arrogant narcissist that Obama is.

NO. NEXT QUESTION: Are there any smaller minds in America at present than those that see everything in black and white?

MORNING EXAMINER: Senate bill to roll back EPA rules draws fire (from environmentalists).

A Senate bill introduced this week to roll back Obama administration power plant rules to save the coal industry and protect electric reliability faces growing opposition from environmentalists who say the low cost of natural gas, not regulations, is forcing coal plants to retire.

So -- if environmentalists are convinced that 'market forces' will close coal-fired power plants, why are they objecting so strenuously to rolling back the EPA rules?

Methinks their hypocrisy is showing....

HEH: Greenpeace banned from flying drones near arctic oil rigs.

Lawfare works both ways....

AFTER READING THIS, not watching television makes more sense than ever.

GIVE IT UP, REPUBLICANS; your base is dying off. Umm, maybe, but the Democrats' base is already dead.

“IT WOULD BE NICE if the Left would stop falsifying history.” To which Instapundit responds, "Yeah, and it would be nice if they would all grow some common sense, a backbone, and some appreciation for the Constitution, but that won’t happen, either."

IEEE SPECTRUM: Light reveals the spin of electrons. An interesting article nonetheless, but I originally read the hed as "Light reveals the spin of elections", which is still true....

MALLARD FILLMORE, telling it like it is. If only our Presidential candidates had the courage to do the same....

REMEMBER: "[W]hen leftists say they want a 'conversation about race', they mean—you shut up and confess your white guilt. Oh, and raise taxes."

THE LEFT, THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT, AND THE POOR: "[I]t seems pretty fair to me to suggest that [liberals] should put their money where their mouth is, instead of demonstrating their 'compassion' largely through a willingness to redistribute other people’s money." Skim through the comments as well; Instapundit readers are enthusiastically 'punching back twice as hard'.

And finally, click through to Megan McArdle's complete post.

OBAMA INSULTS CHRISTIANS, apparently out of ignorance. Not ignorance, arrogance. He knows nothing, but he knows it with certainty.

NEXT STEP: Print the whole aircraft.

HEH: "I'm uppity in the morning."

APPARENTLY Ceres needs a garage door repair mechanic....

DIOGENES had no luck either.

THE IRS: An agency riddled with tax cheats.

File under "rules are for little people, not us". And vote accordingly.

BYRON YORK: Jeb Bush's disastrous defense of the Iraq War.

Forget Jeb Bush. And forget this nauseatingly obvious hypothetical 'gotcha' question. The correct answer, which I wish someone with big brass balls ovaries on the Republican team would smash back to the questioner is this: "It's a stupid hypothetical, since if we had known then what we know today -- that Iraq had no significant arsenal of WMD -- the question of invasion or no would never have occurred."

N0T IF MY VOTE MEANS ANYTHING: Virginia may join a multi-state cap-and-trade program in order to comply with EPA emission rules.

JEFF JACOBY: When U.S. troops leave too soon.

History is lost on liberals.

A GOVERNMENT that robs Peter to pay Paul can count on the support of Paul. But that support from Paul is no good if Peter is allowed to vote on the robbery.

HEH: Hawaii's $205-million Obamacare exchange will shut down. Along with Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Maryand, Vermont, Minnesota, and (coming soon) California. Only seventeen states (plus DC) opted to develop their own ObamaCare exchanges; so only 10 are left and two of them (Washington and Rhode Island) are struggling.

Hopefully King v. Burwell will put ObamaCare out of its our misery.

WASHINGTON RESEARCHERS make jet fuel compound from fungus found in rotting fruit and leaves. My back yard is available for a pilot refinery....

DID THEY EVER HEAR OF STOCKPILING? If they can't have your guns, they'll go for your ammunition.

I'VE JUST REACHED my alloted three score and ten; now I'm left to wonder if my parents bought the extended warranty....

STARSHIP TROOPERS: the new art of war.

I've written about Robert Heinlein on Shadow's World a number of times, most recently regarding his novel Starship Troopers here and here. This distillation of Heinlein's views on war is the best I've ever seen, short of reading the book. (And I recommend reading the book.)

SEN. MIKE LEE'S IDEA FACTORY: quietly fomenting a conservative policy revolution.

AL SHARPTON’S DAUGHTER reportedly sues NYC for $5M after spraining her ankle. If this was a just world, her lawsuit would be tossed out with prejudice and she and her 'lawyer' ordered to pay all court costs.

'SADLY TYPICAL': Critics prove liberal author's point by ignoring her argument, accusing her of bigotry.

They can't read, and can't think; is there anything liberals can do? Beside emote?

A HELPFUL HINT FOR REPUBLICANS: social media doesn't need to be used to be useful.

MILDRED DRESSELHAUS: The Queen of Carbon.

Take that, Al Gore. This is what real royalty looks like....

MAKES SENSE TO ME.

ISIS RELEASES 'KILL LIST' of U.S. targets. Many of them make some sort of perverted sense, but ... Farmington, NM?

YOU COULD'VE FOOLED ME: 'race & gender algebra' isn't real.

Yet....

HERE'S ONE SMART GRADUATE....

HMM: Maybe I don't want one after all: Flying car inventor survives test flight crash.

POWERLINE'S WEEK IN PICTURES, StepAllOverUs Edition, is up. Two favorites this week:

And a near-perfect description of liberals - and progressives in particular:

THEY'LL CAVE if you punch back hard enough. Old Glory to keep on trucking after school reverses ban.

Sometimes, though, it takes a 2x4 upside the brain bucket....

DEFINITION of the low information voter....

EVEN MORE MOORE'S LAW: its murky origins.

YOU DIDN'T EARN THAT: Obama calls successful Americans society's lottery winners.

Yeah, that'll win the hearts and minds of those of us who have worked 50-60 hours a week for 40+ years to achieve our successes.

There’s a lot more [progressive] code language in the [video] clip from the Georgetown “poverty summit”.... Obama lamented successful Americans “divesting” from “the commons” by sending their children to private school or working out in private clubs. He claims these acts of free association and pursuit of happiness foster an “an anti-government ideology” which endangers “those things which draw us together.”

Like nanny-statism and government control.

YOU NEEDN'T WORRY about self-driving cars -- they've only had 11 accidents in 6 years.

Umm, I've only had three bumper-tappers in 54 years of driving.

CARLY FIORINA on her presidential campaign:



It's long, almost an hour, but well worth the time spent.

As I've said before, it you really, really, really want a woman President, Carly Fiorina is that woman.

SHARING IS NOT PERMITTED? Storage shed built at no cost to the school district torn down. Because Title IX.

[O]fficials with the Clark County School District showed up at the school and demanded that the storage shed be torn down. They said it violated Title IX.

Title IX states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”

In other words, for every boy sport there must be a girls alternative.

And in the case of Arbor View High School – if the boys have a storage shed – the girls must have a storage shed.

“It requires that we have equal facilities for boys programs and girls programs,” [according to] district spokesman Joe Murphy.

It doesn’t seem to matter one iota that the girls softball team never asked for a storage shed.

“The girls aren’t complaining.... It’s totally coming from the school district.”

You’ve probably turned to your significant other and wondered aloud, “Those administrators are morons. There’s no reasonable way a storage shed could violate Title IX.”

But we’re not dealing with reasonable people here, folks. We’re dealing with public school administrators.

The moron quotient is strong in this district.

EVEN THE DUMBEST DEMOCRAT EVENTUALLY GETS THE MESSAGE: New Jersey finally throws in the towel on its 'smart gun' law.

It only took 13 (yes, 13) years.

A DRUGGED ELECTORATE IS A DOCILE ELECTORATE: ObamaCare linked to opiod prescriptions.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

IS THAT ALL? NASA funds electricity-harvesting robotic space eel with explosive jet thrusters and electroluminescent skin.

IT'S THE ONLY THING for which he's even marginally competent: Obama back in fundraising mode (and Democrats expect him to stay there).

"As Michelle [Obama] helpfully reminds me, I don't have another race to run," Obama said at one of his fundraisers this week. "This is not a project that stops after a certain term in office, and it's not a project that stops after an election. This is something that we have to sustain over the long term."

He's not going away. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

SPACE-X CAPSULE soars in first test of crew escape system. Time magazine has the video (annoying commercial alert).

THE FORGOTTEN HISTORY of small nuclear reactors. Economics killed small nuclear power plants in the past — and probably will keep doing so.

I'm surprised, somewhat dismayed, and a little bit skeptical. It's obvious that there are economies of scale in terms of large anything, but there are also other factors that can obviate that economy of scale. For example (in this case): a network of mini-reactors within the confines of a large city minimizes the need for large, transcontinental high-tension power lines.

(Sarcasm alert for those who need one.) And as an added bonus, a nuclear meltdown will primarily affect nanny-state politicians and their enablers.

WHO SAID the Clintons aren't green? Oh, that green....

DEMOCRATS GET a taste of Obama’s arrogance:

With the sand running out on the Obama presidency, it’s finally dawning on the president’s friends and fans that he can be a real jerk.

Can be? The proper verb is 'is'.

DEMOCRATS: the first panel is what they are; the remaing panels, what they want of us.

THE THREE STAGES OF CAT ADOPTION:

Stage 1: Wife says, "Oh, no, Midnight showed up for dinner again."

Stage 2: Wife says, "Oh, no, Midnight hasn't shown up for dinner."

Stage 3: Wife says, "Midnight, meet Dr. Morrow, your new veterinarian."

We're still at Stage 2, but I anticipate Stage 3 won't be long.

OBAMA SHOULD BE REGRETTING THIS DECISION:

Gen. James Mattis, known to his troops as “Mad Dog Mattis,” [retired in 2013] after 41 years of military service.

The Marine Corps Times is calling Mattis the “most revered Marine in a generation.”
Mattis has been commander of the United States Central Command since 2010 and led the 1st Marine Division into Iraq in 2003.

According to reports, President Barack Obama decided to force the Marine Corps legend out early because he rubbed civilian officials the wrong way, and forced them to answer tough questions regarding Iran.

Mattis was an inspirational leader of men and his powerful words will go down in history. Here are (very few) of the best he has had to offer:

Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.

Starting in 2016.

Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.

I can't tell you how many times I heard this particular admonition during my two tours of Iraq. I am utterly convinced that there are many soldiers alive today because they heeded that admonition.

The most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.

On the political battlefield too. Republicans take heed.

No war is over until the enemy says it’s over. We may think it over, we may declare it over, but in fact, the enemy gets a vote.

Except in the Land of Unicorns & Rainbows, where there are no enemies, just 'misguided friends'.

You cannot allow any of your people to avoid the brutal facts. If they start living in a dream world, it’s going to be bad.

As we have seen in the Land of Unicorns & Rainbows....

... do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.

Advice for the rest of the world, effective January 21, 2017.

Anybody surprised Obama forced this guy to retire early?

Original post by the Washington Free Beacon on March 18, 2013 (no link).

HEH: a warm welcome for Hillary in Los Angeles....

ASSAULTING FREE SPEECH -- but only from the Left.

[W]hat about all of those lectures from the times of "Piss Christ?" Do those no longer apply now, when free speech offends a group less distasteful to the cultural elite? Are offenses against Christian sensibilities the only ones permitted by the First Amendment?

Bumper sticker summary: "Free speech for us; hate speech for you."

GOODBYE, MERRY CHRISTMAS: Consumer Product 'Safety' Commission to regulate Christmas lights. Is there anything the drones of the Nanny State are willing to leave alone?

SCRATCH A PROGRESSIVE....

JEFF JACOBY: Thuggish censors in the marketplace of ideas.

[T]his is what the marketplace of ideas is turning into. The ruthless determination not just to silence opposing points of view, but to humiliate and crush even allies willing to hear an opposing point of view, violates every liberal principle of tolerance, reason, and dialogue in the public sphere.

My take: the progressives are scared, very scared, that they're going to lose and lose big in the very near future. First they were ignored; now ther're being laughed at; and soon there will be anger.

Progressives don't do very well when anger is directed at them.

BARACK OBAMA: pathetic at three levels. The intellectual depth of the Obama administration reminds me of this line from Deteriorata: a walk through the ocean of Obama's intellect would scarcely get one's feet wet (paraphrased, of course).

AN IRS TALE:

A father and son are in a restaurant, and he gives the young boy 3 pennies to play with to keep him occupied. Suddenly, the boy starts choking, going blue in the face.

The father realizes the boy has swallowed the pennies and starts slapping him on the back. The boy coughs up 2 of the pennies, but keeps choking, the father is panicking, shouting for help.

A well dressed, attractive, serious looking woman, is sitting nearby reading a newspaper and sipping her coffee. At the sound of the commotion, she looks up, puts her coffee cup down, neatly folds the newspaper and places it on the table, gets up from her seat and makes her way, unhurried, across the restaurant. Reaching the boy, the woman carefully drops his pants; takes hold of his testicles and starts to squeeze and twist, gently at first then gradually more firmly. After a few seconds the boy convulses violently and coughs up the last penny, which the woman deftly catches in her free hand.

Releasing the boy's testicles, the woman hands the penny to the father and walks back to her seat without saying a word.

As soon as he is sure that his son has suffered no ill effects, the father rushes over to the woman and starts thanking her saying, he had never seen anything like that before, it was fantastic. "Are you a doctor?"

"No," the woman replied. "I'm with the IRS."

All good jokes require some level of plausibility; this one certainly qualifies....

IT'S NOT OBVIOUS? Does Obama want better reporting, or just more favorable coverage?

What he wants is the media to be his personal propaganda arm, and with few exceptions, he's already got what he wants.

HOW LIBERALS have ruined college.

Kirsten Powers, like Juan Williams, is one of Fox New Channel's moderate liberal talking heads. Over the last year, I've noticed that both have become increasingly critical of their 'progressive' colleagues. And less inclined to carry their water.

THE TRUTH HURTS, especially if you're one of the precious progressive snowflakes: "Leftism generally is about hatred, and envy, masquerading as compassion."

HERE'S ANOTHER EXAMPLE of liberals punishing the innocent for the sins of the guilty: Ban private schools in the name of the collective good.

Liberalism (progressivism) can be completely described in one bumper sticker phrase: "Equality in Poverty".

MORE PROOF (if any is needed) that global warming causes climate change causes global cooling: Antarctica has so much sea ice scientists have trouble getting there.

EVERY TIME you think they can't possibly get any more stupid, Austin (TX) liberals prove you wrong.

A FEW WEEKS AGO, I posted a short video of SpaceX's second attempt to land the Falcon first stage on a barge in the Atlantic. Now there is a second video taken from the landing barge itself. Watch at the very top and you can see the thrusters vainly trying to right the rocket as it finally topples.

I DIDN'T KNOW THAT: Dilbert is a Democrat.

I WANT ONE: a plane that folds into a car.

I could possibly even be convinced to vote Democrat if the candidates promised to put one in my garage....

YA THINK? ObamaCare exchanges are not cheap to build or run.

Government is the most efficient way to waste money ever known to mankind.

DON'T READ TO YOUR CHILDREN; it only increases inequality.

This is something I've noticed - and written about - for over 40 years: liberal policies are always directed toward punishing the innocent for the sins of the guilty.

FAT-FREE DIETS DON'T WORK; neither does fact-free journalism. I'm only beginning to read Schweizer's book Clinton Cash, but so far I've seen nothing inconsistent with this Federalist report.

ON POVERTY, Obama is hypocritical and clueless. Skip the 'on poverty' phrase and the statement would still be accurate.

THIS IS WHY we want to keep the A-10 Thunderbolt II for as long as the Islamic State exists.

PRESIDENT OBAMA on the resdistribution of ... of ... of ... blame. He's very good at it.

IT APPEARS that blithering idiocy is a requirement for faculty in '(fill in the blank) Studies' departments of 'elite' universities. This woman is exceedingly well qualified.

CHER’D SACRIFICE: They don’t call ’em ‘green’ Hollywood liberals for nothing.

Sacrifice is for little people. (So is income inequality....)

RANDOM THOUGHT: Is paying federal taxes the equivalent of contributing to the delinquency of a minor?

A SHORT RESUMÉ COMPARISON:

Princeton graduate, Harvard Law, solicitor general of Texas. Top speaker award at both the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship, primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics, law clerk to J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 1995 and William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States in 1996, an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department and the director of policy planning at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Bachelor of Arts in 1988 and a Master of Arts with certificate in political campaigning in 1990, both in Political Science, from the University of Florida in Gainesville. Active in student government, serving as President of the Student Senate and the founder and president of the Rawlings Area Council Government, a member of the Omicron Delta Kappa honor society, the James C. Grimm chapter of the National Residence Hall Honorary, and the union Graduate Assistants United, served as President of the Graduate Student Council and Vice President of the UF College Democrats. Served in the Florida State House of Representatives for eight years, leaving office due to state term limits. Adjunct instructor of political science at Broward Community College, as well as a public policy curriculum specialist at Nova Southeastern University.

If you can't already guess, go here to see who's who.

BARACK OBAMA: If the media stopped reporting on poverty, poverty wouldn’t exist.

With Obama, it's Fox News. It's always Fox News.

INSTAPUNDIT speaks truth to power: "[T]oo much kale is bad for your spine."

CARLY FIORINA makes the right enemies. She should be the next (and first woman) President.

More on Carly.

RAMIREZ:

Need more be said?

TO TAKE 'SELFIES'? Make your smart phone into a drone.

CLINTON CASH is out, and the polls show it. I bought a copy yesterday. Haven't read it yet, but I doubt reading it will lower my opinion of Hillary (that would require blasting).

HMMM: Americans oppose economic redistribution despite income inequality. Americans are smarter than Democrats.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

INSTAPUNDIT: "Where pens and swords are concerned, my philosophy is that you should own plenty of both, and be able to use whichever one seems best suited to the circumstances." Today's environment, I think, calls for a few less pens and a few more (conservative) swords.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER: Admiral (Ret) James Lyons on Islam as a threat doctrine.



The world today is the result of America's failure to use its power wisely and properly over a period of 40 years and both Democrat and Republican administrations.

SOME THOUGHTS on the proper use of gun control.

IN TROUBLE AGAIN: George Zimmerman hit by gunfire while driving. That's the Fox News hed/subhed.

Now consider this: Zimmerman was the one shot at, and yet he's the one in trouble? Of course. He's a white Hispanic.

COLLEGE ENCOURAGES LIVELY EXCHANGE OF IDEA: Students, faculty invited to freely express single viewpoint.

It's from The Onion. I just wish it were obviously satire.

IT'S THOSE EVIL REPUBLICANS AGAIN: Lead poisoning is killing inner-city Baltimore. True enough, but the lead in question isn't from paint.

WHO’DA THUNK IT? ‘Diverse’ cities are the most segregated.

JUST NOT part of the progressive/liberal news narrative.

COLBERT I. KING: What really ails our cities. King, along with Charles Krauthammer, is one of the few rational editorial voices left at the Washington Post. But I don't miss him enough to resubscribe.

PAMELA GELLER’S abuse of free speech. I prefer to think of it as two down, more to come.

BEING A PURITAN PROGRESSIVE means never having to say you're happy.

Linked from Instapundit.

KIDS SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS: Liberals should be treated like children - seen but not heard.

-- Art Linkletter.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO MINORITIES: Your identity belongs to us.

Fausta's response (in Lateeena): "Bésame el culo."

UNLESS YOU'RE A PROGRESSIVE: Gender is no credential for the White House.

Then it's the only credential.

ONE REASON not to elect a woman President: too many shoes.

BREAKING NEWS: Global warming now causes global cooling.

If you waste enough time listening to the environauts you'll find that everything bad is caused by global warming climate change climate disruption. Including, probably, Islamic terrorism.

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS:

The rest of PowerLine's Week in Pictures is here.

WHY I'M ADDING SAY UNCLE TO MY BLOGROLL: "We say more dumb shit before noon than most people say all day."

THE WEEK President Obama was first inaugurated, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) closed at 8,078; NASDAQ closed at 1,477. Yesterday, the DJIA closed at 18,197; the NASDAQ at 5004. Those were increases of 125% and 239% respectively. During that same period of time, my personal wealth has grown by 152%.

And I thought Republicans were the party that looked out for the Wall Street wealthy....

RAMIREZ ON THE ECONOMY: it grew!

WHAT A SURPRISE: Progressives are racist (too?). I've been wondering, for years now, when members of the 'victim party' would be recognized as the racist bigots they are ... it looks like it's beginning to happen.

SALLY KOHN: A victim of her(?) privilege. She(?) forgot the hashtag #lesbianprivilege.

Here's a question I've always wanted to ask: can a lesbian be a feminist? Or does one have to be gay?

More at Twitchy.

CARLY FIORINA, Clinton slayer? Not a question; a fact. I've been watching Fiorina over several interviews now, and damn, ... she's good. Very, very good.

If there's to be a first woman President, Carly Fiorina should be that woman.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ): it’s “not right” that someone must work 50 hours per week to escape poverty. Instead they should be born rich (like he was) and escape poverty that way.

Looking back over my working life, I'd guess that I averaged something north of 50 hours/week for 45 years. And I did manage to escape poverty....

Bonehead.

I KNEW IT: Liberalism is incompatible with common sense.

LIGHTS OUT? New York City reportedly under federal pressure to take down Times Square billboards.

The federal government is too damn big, too damn intrusive, and too damn stupid.

WHY 'SELFIE STICKS' were invented.

BERNIE SANDERS' CAMPAIGN SLOGAN: "A horseless carriage in every garage." With emphasis on 'horseless' -- just the carriage.

WHY I NEVER LIKED CROSSWIND LANDINGS:



You fly straight down the runway with the aircraft nose cocked into the wind; then just as you flare for landing, you straighten the nose, drop the upwind wing, use plenty of opposite rudder and 'skid' the aircraft into the ground. Then you level the wings and allow the nose to come down. It takes lots of practice, as the video makes clear.

SHE MADE BE EXPENSIVE, but she's easily bought.

WHAT'S A 'GROUSER'? I don't know either, but the Curiosity Rover has a Martian rock stuck in one.

DOOM & GLOOM IN THE LAND OF UNICORNS: ObamaCare emergency room visits up.

Three in four emergency room doctors said patient visits have increased since the Affordable Care Act's requirement to have health insurance went into effect....

That's not the news some healthcare advocates had hoped for. The thought was that by expanding health coverage to more people, they would get their ailments treated earlier by primary care doctors and could avoid visiting emergency rooms....

But instead of pulling back on emergency room care, the newly [ObamaCare] insured now have a plan to pay for those visits so they're not responsible for the entire bill. And that seems to be driving the change in patient load....

It was obvious at the outset, but thinking is not a strong suit for progressives.

AFTER YOU, KOFI: Eat more bugs, stop global warming. "A maggot for you, a maggot for me you, a maggot for you, ...." [Apologies to Abbott and Costello]

CEILING FANS? CEILING FANS!? After attacking light bulbs and wood stoves, the Obama administration is trying to regulate our ceiling fans.

What? Do I have to install a thermostat to turn off my ceiling fans when the temperature is within a DOE-approved range?

SURPRISE: higher wages don't grow on trees.

ANOTHER REASON why you should never, ever pay attention to unsolicited 'health' tips. Aside from the fact that they're always wrong, they're incredibly stupid.

HEROISM is the last 50 yards.

THE FORCE IS STRONG IN THAT ONE: Attempts to strike down Prof. Mike Adams have only made him more powerful.

WESLEY PRUDEN: An ususual field crowds the Republican pool:

There’s two Cuban-Americans who speak fluent Spanish, a Baptist preacher who speaks fluent old-time values, a black man and a white woman, and “a big mule” from the Republican establishment with more than his big toe in the water. There’s more to come, including an Indian-American governor. They all appear to be comfortable in their “gender,” and if Bruce Jenner, a newly discovered transgender conservative, Republican and Christian can be persuaded to run the party would have left no stone unturned.

Contrast that with the "dead white old folks home" contenders on the Left.

Added: Well, the Left does have a potential "Native American" backstage....

THE MORAL CODE of the progressive milieu: It has to be legal because I want it to be.

THE DIFFERENCE between bullying and free speech: if a conservative does it, it's bullying; if a progressive does the same, it's free speech.

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS: Two heavily armed jihadis were dispatched by one Texas cop with a pistol.

Reading this, I was reminded of this very old Texas Ranger (the state law enforcement agency; not the baseball team) joke:

After several days of rioting in a small town in west Texas, the Mayor telegraphed the Governor asking that a company of Texas Rangers be sent to quell the riot. The next morning a single Ranger stepped off the daily train. Upset, the Mayor demanded to know where the rest of the company of Rangers were. To which the Ranger replied, "Well, you told us there was only one riot."

One riot, one Ranger. The finest of Texas tradition.

OOPS! Well, so much for all that global warming hysteria.

A LESSON about government oversight -- and government overseers.

OH. MY. GOD. A reminder of what we have to look forward to....

PROGRESSIVES' POLICING:



Call 911 after you've identified the bodies.

A BIT LATE (or is it early?), but the Mother's Day edition of PowerLine's Week in Pictures is up. As usual, my favorite:

Obama's support for Hillary was a close second, though.

IT'S NOT MY SOUL THAT NEEDS SEARCHING: Obama once again urges Americans to search their souls and commit to helping impoverished black communities.

If he - and progressives generally - want to see the face of racism, look in a mirror.

NOTE TO JIHADISTS: In America, we shoot back. And we don't miss.

YOUR GUIDE to the 2016 presidential candidates. It's a comprehensive list of all possible candidates from both parties, but still, I wouldn't be surprised if the next President is not on either list.

AMAZON wants to deliver packages to the trunk of your car. Perhaps they should rethink that given this comment: "Try that in Texas. For 8 months out of the year the only thing that would fare well in the trunk of your car would be a ready made meal that you want cooked."

SCOUNDREL is a feature, not a bug: Democrats will put up with a scoundrel, but not a loser.