FINALLY: "Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats." That time has come.

Linked from this Instapundit post. Now go pull some hair....

SECRETARY OF STATE REX TILLERSON rides with Rolling Thunder 2017. There are multiple linked photos and videos at the website.

A FINAL SALUTE:

The full story, with additional photos, is here.

Linked from this Instapundit post.

WTOP NEWS: Rolling Thunder 2017 photos. The eighth slide is particularly compelling.

IN OBSERVANCE OF MEMORIAL DAY: America's Honor.

A MEMORIAL DAY REMINDER: Freedom is not free.

IT'S TIME for fewer tears, fewer lies, and more righteous anger.

THEY'RE POWER MAD - AND CRAZY: There's something fundamentally wrong with Liberals.

MICHAEL RAMIREZ: drawing a new 'red line'.

AMMO GRRRLL: Use extreme caution.

WOULD HE CHANGE HIS MIND if we promised not to come to his aid? Tenured professor resigns over campus carry law.

"THE UNITED NATIONS is a slush fund for politicians and bureaucrats too untalented or unliked to hold office in their own countries."

To overuse an Instapundit favorite - 'Analysis: true.'

I'D VOTE FOR LIBERTY if it's first move would be to outlaw Starbucks and their terrible, burnt tasting coffee.

AWW: Sen. Al Franken [D-MN] rules out 2020 challenge to Trump.

"THERE IS A WORD that describes people who politicize everything, 24/7. Crazy."

Batshit crazy.

THIS TIME THEY CAME FOR THE CHILDREN: Another 'known wolf' attack.

DONALD TRUMP has done an amazing job at his most important job: "There can be no serious debate. Donald Trump has done a truly outstanding job of not being Hillary Clinton."

And that's good enough for me.

TWEET OF THE DAY:

Linked from PowerLine.

THANK YOU, you 'effing stupid Government safety nannies. This is what happens when you use one of those supersafe non-spill gas cans (that's gasoline on the floor, by they way - the second spill).

I finally had to transfer the gasoline from the 'spill-proof' container to an old non-spill-proof container to finish filling my UTV. Didn't spill a drop from the old container.

BECAUSE (WEALTHY) DEMOCRATS DON'T PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE: Tough times in Connecticut.

Have feet? Vote.

ANN COULTER: Every time I try to be mad at Trump the media pull me back.

OTHER THAN BEING ILL-EDUCATED, LOUD-MOUTHED BOORISH THUGS: The five biggest things liberals get wrong about themselves.

ANOTHER PROGRESSIVE discovers that swords are double-edged weapons.

AMMO GRRRLL: Go on over to the Dark Side; there are no consequences:

If you’re a Democrat, you get to riot in a mask, burn down buildings, make fake rape charges, make fake hate crime charges, admit to child molestation in your own book, use many branches of the Federal Government to unlawfully harass and intimidate conservatives, advocate cop killing, shout down speakers, call for the murder of the President, and clap like a spastic seal at late-night comics making obscene jokes about the President of the United States. Jokes that would absolutely be deemed “homophobic” from any conservative.

Consequences are for Life’s Deplorable little losers.

HEH:

And they never shut up....

TARGET PRACTICE! If drones are not aircraft, then the FAA rules about not shooting them down do not apply.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:

Almost every time I turn on the news....

LEAF WATCH 2017: It's official ; Spring is here. Here's the final photo of this Spring series.

This picture was actually taken on Saturday last; the foliage is in full bloom, with the exception of the very tops of some of the pines which haven't quite achieved full green. The pond has disappeared from sight, and the fish (I suppose) are happy as there's plenty of shade to enjoy -- and insects to eat.

PUNCHING BACK: Pro-life Fresno students sue professor over literal erasure of free speech.

BERNIE SANDERS stumbles upon inconvenient landmine left behind by Harry Reid.

A sword cuts both ways, Bernie. You Democrats/Socialists might want to remember that in the future.

THE VENEZUELA DIET:



Linked from PowerLine.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Guns are a lot like parachutes. If you need one and don't have one, you'll probably never need one again.

A REMINDER THAT THE REAL MINIMUM WAGE IS ZERO: New York city minimum wage law is forcing higher prices and restautant closures.

TRUMP FIRES COMEY. Hillary responds:

Linked from PowerLine's mid-week in Comey cartoons.

MURPHY STRIKES AGAIN: I've experienced every one of these at one point or another.

After your hands become coated with grease, your nose will begin to itch, and you'll have to pee.

Any tool, nut, bolt, screw, when dropped, will roll to the least accessible place in the universe.

The probability of being watched is directly proportional to the stupidity of your act.

If you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal; someone always answers.

If you change lines (or traffic lanes), the one you were in will always move faster than the one you are in now.

When the body is fully immersed in water, the telephone will ring.

The probability of meeting someone you know increases when you are with someone you don't want to be seen with.

When you try to prove to someone that a machine won't work, it will.

The severity of the itch is inversely proportional to the reach.

At any event, the people whose seats are farthest from the aisle, always arrive last. They are the ones who will leave their seats several times to go for food, beer, or the toilet, and who leave early before the end of the performance or the game is over. The folks in the aisle seats come early, never move once, have long gangly legs or big bellies, and stay to the bitter end of the performance. The aisle people, also, are very surly folk.

As soon as you sit down to a cup of hot coffee, your boss will ask you to do something which will last until the coffee is cold.

If there are only two people in a locker room, they will have adjacent lockers.

The chances of an open-faced jelly sandwich landing face down on a floor are directly correlated to the newness and cost of the carpet or rug.

Anything is possible IF you don't know what you are talking about.

If the clothes fit, they're ugly.

As soon as you find a product that you really like, they will stop making it or the store will stop selling it.

If you don't feel well, make an appointment to go to the doctor; by the time you get there, you'll feel better. But don't make an appointment, and you'll stay sick.

The most recent this afternoon.

SENATE DEMS: Appoint a special prosecutor or we’ll hold our breath until we turn blue.

Please do. I enjoy watching Democrats have tantrums....

THE BIG LESSON OF THE TRUMP PRESIDENCY so far is that our entire ruling class is narcissistic, undisciplined, and partisan.

STEALING FROM THE POOR: It's what Democrats do. She just got caught.

OBAMACARE REPEAL will help Republicans politically.

My inclination is to agree.

LIKE FREE SPEECH, compassion should be limited to liberals.

HILLARY’S ELECTION LOSS EXCUSE means one thing — She’s running in 2020.

The destruction of the modern Democrat party is nearly complete....

AS I HAVE WRITTEN BEFORE, Democrats legislate by emotion and anecdote. Here's a much more rational view to counter the emotion.

LEAF WATCH 2017: Spring is now springin' at full throttle. The trees are almost fully leafed out; our pond -- and the neighbors' houses on all sides -- are nearly invisible. By next week, it'll be official: Spring has arrived.

Here's last week's photo for comparison.

A BRIDGE TOO FAR: Repealing ObamaCare is unconstitutional.

Unless, of course, you're a Democrat, for which the Constitution means whatever you wish it to mean.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH SCIENCE, even in therapy.

It is wise to remember that before Galileo, the Earth was scientifically accepted as the center of the universe.

DIANNE FEINSTEIN struggling to read through 'complicated' healthcare bill. This whole mess might have been avoided if she had bothered to read the original ObamaCare bill. But no, she's a Democrat, and Democrats already know everything....

PROGRESSIVES ARE GOING 'NUCKING FUTS': Seattle Mayor adds diet drinks to his soda tax ‘to tackle white privilege’.

THEY CAN'T STOP LYING: Jonathan Gruber (remember him?) claims ObamaCare's problems are Trump's fault.

INTERSECTIONALITY: where competing liberal/progressive narratives collide.

FAKE LAW: How Trump-hatred warps the judiciary.

OBAMACARE V. TRUMPCARE: Liberals like to govern by emotion and anecdote; here's a logic and fact rebuttal.

DISTRACTED DRIVING FIX: a Faraday cage in your car. The only problem is the obvious one -- those most likely to use it are the ones least likely to need it. Now if the car won't start until all emitting devices (i.e., cell phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) are closed within it ....

SORRY, TECHNOCRATS AND POPULISTS NANNY-STATERS — "Bob still controls his own life more than you do. Pretending he doesn’t helps you far more than it helps him."

The Nanny State isn't about help; it's about control.

WHY WORK? As if free food, candy, snacks, and soda pop from food stamps; public housing; and help with utilities, and even reduced cable TV fees were not enough, the city of Sacramento is giving people another reason not to work. Free cars!

SINCE GOODWILL WON'T TAKE THEM, I'll sell them to Nieman Marcus. And I'll easily make enough to fund my retirement.

Linked from Instapundit.

PRESIDENT TRUMP'S ANTIQUITIES ACT EXECUTIVE ORDER is an opportunity to end a monumental abuse of government power.

WHY I AVOID DEMOCRAT BASTIONS: You don't have to live in a cesspool to know what's in it.

WHY PROGRESSIVES CAN'T WON'T DO MATH: What you need to know about pre-existing conditions.

WHY OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES are hotbeds of stupidity: "The faculty least qualified to have an opinion on politics are the ones with the loudest opinions."

OBAMA AND COMPANY openly spied on thousands of American citizens as Obama abused national security concerns to spy on political opponents.

I am willing to bet that all this information and more is in the computers of the DNC and Obama's OFA organization. Part of ObamaCare's damage is it put everyone's medical information on computers -- which Democrats are ace at hacking.

That's a bet I wouldn't take....

PROGRESSIVE 'SCIENCE': engaged in neither the pursuit of Fact nor the pursuit of Truth — only the pursuit of Power.

ONE CHART: all you need to know about 'climate change'.

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE'S process for dealing with student rioters.

What a waste of pixels. A proper process is this: if identified on videotape or by other means, those student rioters should be immediately expelled with no chance of ever being readmitted, and no transfer of any academic credit to any other institution permitted. Period.

DOUBLING DOWN ON STUPID: Liberals furious that Ivanka is a real mother.

Question: would they be this upset if it were Ivanka's nanny dancing with her children?

CALIFORNIA proposes to tax space travel.

California just might want to reconsider. The only reason to launch from the west coast is to avoid overflying South America when launching satellites into polar orbit, and launch vehicles are now sophisticated enough to 'jog around' Brazil when launching from the east coast.

Vandenberg AFB will remain for military spacecraft, but commercial launches can - and will - migrate back to the east coast.

IF THERE ARE NO LAWS, THERE'S NO CRIME, RIGHT? Los Angeles Times op-ed claims sanctuary cities 'keep crime down'.

RIGHT NOW, it's good enough for me.

THERE ARE A LOT OF PIXELS spent on people helped by ObamaCare, but very few spent on those hurt. Here's one.

SOCIALISM, the 21st century diet plan.

In plain English, starvation. Venezuelans are starving.

GEORGIA 16: When Democrats can't win an election legitimately, they cheat.

TOP DEMOCRATS say Americans will 'die' from ObamaCare overhaul.

Like veterans have under President Obama's Veterans Administration?

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: A Modest Proposal. No pizza for you unless you can prove your Italian heritage. And no Tex-Mex unless you're a native Texican.

SEGREGATION IS BAD and it's back.

There's a difference between segregation and self-segregation. If progressives want to wall themselves off from civil society, I'm fine with that.

NO SURPRISE: Most federal employees disapprove of Trump. Their jobs (such as they are) are at stake.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO [D(UMB)-AZ]: GOP health care bill ‘going to kill people,’ so Democrats shouldn’t be civil to Republicans.

Let's get real. Gallego's claim that the GOP health care bill is 'going to kill people' is an assertion - a belief, not a fact. Whether there's a rational basis for that belief is irrelevant; it's still an assertion.

Now Gallego's 7th Congressional district includes Phoenix, where government-sponsored single-payer health care has already killed hundreds during the preceeding Democrat administration - and that's a fact.

So, Ruben, should we Republicans 'be civil to Democrats'?

WELL, PROGRESSIVES, you're getting what you demanded.

Hope you enjoy it....

TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER: LAPD still hasn't learned its lesson.

Liberals are condemned to repeat history....

BECAUSE THUGGERY: The NFL needs Colin Kaepernick a victim.

THEY ARE too cheap to pay their own medical bills. So they demand you pay them.

PALE RIDER, Part Deaux.

NRA MEMBERS not up to the task of repelling tyrants. Tyrants, maybe not alone (but I wouldn't bet against); tyrant wannabees (like the progressive Left), easily.

THE NEVER-ENDING ELECTION:

None of us, no voter or official or institution, has yet to fully assimilate the fact that Donald Trump is president, that this unpopular and unpredictable man holds what has become the primary office of our constitutional system. He certainly doesn't make our jobs any easier: It is hard to read or watch his recent interviews without holding one's head in one's hands. And yet there he is. His daily presence is an accusation, a rebuke, an admonishment, a reminder that the country we thought we lived in might not have actually existed. The shocks of deindustrialization and the financial crisis, of unchecked immigration, multiculturalism, and the transgender revolution, of digital and social media, of inconclusive decades-long wars, of rampant heroin addiction seem to have made large parts of the country unrecognizable to those of us living in coastal cities and their affluent suburbs. Is our country really this divided, our politics this polarized, and our culture this degraded? Was 2016 not a fluke but a warning? What of?

"[A] reminder that the country we thought we lived in might not have actually existed." Is the liberal bubble beginning to burst?

Umm, probably not.

DEMOCRAT RUNNING FOR CONGRESS says climate skeptics should commit suicide. Presumably before voting....

BLACK COLUMNIST suspended from major paper for denying NRA is like ISIS.

I'D RATHER NOT KNOW WHERE. Porn star bitten by shark during underwater shoot.

'ROBUST' MEANS 'ONE': McAuliffe touts Virginia’s ‘robust health care system’.

IN MEETING WITH IVANKA TRUMP, [Planned Parenthood's] Cecile Richards shows her hand on abortion.

HILLARY CLINTON to launch 'resistance' PAC. "[I]t’ll be interesting to see what kind of donations the PAC gets with its founders fresh out of influence to peddle."

NEW FRONTIER IN “RESISTANCE”: Mailing your ashes to Congress after the GOP health-care law kills you.

I suppose that if you're in a Democrat stronghold, you can always vote absentee....

MEDIA BIAS WRIT LARGE: Trump threatens press freedom.

Ridiculous. And stupid.

HUH? Scientists ‘more confident than ever’ in global warming after studying the lack of it for 15 years. The article itself makes as much sense as the lede.

HEH: Wall Street bribes to Democratic women are 43% smaller than to Democratic men.

'Equality' is a sexist bitch....

ENVIRONMENTAL HYPOCRITES: Few things pollute the earth more than when leftists gather to protest.

I've been there - and seen how prodigiously they produce pollution for others to clean up.

SOLAR ENERGY PRODUCES JOBS -- but not much else.

POWERLINE'S Week in Pictures. My favorite is on the latest in environmental technology:

Now go see the rest (but be prepared for nightmares).

CALIFORNIA IS A MODEL — of exactly what not to do if a state wants to keep its young.

BUT THREATENING HERETICS ISN'T TERRORISM: Eco-terrorism in Alabama?

WHAT FANS of The Handmaid’s Tale prefer to ignore.

I don't think it's a 'prefer to ignore' matter. Rather, it's that progressives cannot comprehend that the comparison to Islamic culture is even relevant.

BREAKING NON-NEWS: Another post-election hate crime turns out to be fake.

ONE HUNDRED DAYS of #TheResistance’s humiliating failure.

WELL, HE DID ONE THING RIGHT: Montana Democrat rejects DNC help and embraces Bernie Sanders.

Too bad he didn't go for two....

NANCY PELOSI: Letting people keep money they earn is stealing.

Stay with me on this one Nancy: ObamaCare raised taxes and caused most working people to spend more money on shittier coverage. Repealing this ridiculous law means that working people will be able to keep more of their money. Also, offering a tax break means that working people will be able to keep even more of that money that they earn.

Poor people are not entitled to the fruits of other people’s labor. Letting people keep more of the money they earn is not stealing from poor people because that money was never theirs in the first place. See how that works?

Stealing and redistribution of wealth would be if the government passed a law that forced people to by a product from a private company at inflated prices so that same product could then be given for free to lazy people who have made shitty life choices. You know, kind of like ObamaCare.

I guess it's not stealing if, as the Democrats seem to believe, it's their money in the first place and your 'earnings' are just their generosity in not taking it all.

TRUMP TO BALTIMORE: You're on your own.

Let's hope the Trump administration sticks to its guns....

THE ARROGANCE OF BLUE AMERICA: Progressives cannot recognize that most Americans do not want to live the blue bourgeoisie’s preferred lifestyle.

And they don't recognize that they cannot live their own preferred lifestyle without Red America's economic enterprise.

MY REALITY IS THE ONLY REALITY: Berkeley student worries campus minorities would be traumatized by police.

Competing realities need not apply at Berkeley.

A THOUGHT FOR PROGRESSIVES:

Making life difficult one day at a time.

CAN CALIFORNIA prove - or disprove - the existence of mass voter fraud?

YALE GRADUATE STUDENTS go on 'symbolic' hunger strike where they're allowed to eat.

It must be tough, no snacking between meals....

Increasing the anguish: Yale's College Republicans hold BBQ at protest site.

THE OBAMACARE REPEAL BILL coherently explained.

AMMO GRRRLL has a whole line of awesome products for poseurs or ironic hipsters.

Still cheap at twice the price.

JACK DUNPHY: Los Angeles Police Commission makes violent protests like UC-Berkeley more likely.

DON SURBER: Kicking Washington D.C. out of our school lunchrooms:

Under Barack Obama, Democrats took over school cafeterias. The Great and Power Ozzys in Emerald City would write the school lunch menus across the land -- ending childhood obesity, and creating a new generation of super Americans.

We wound up with the best-fed landfills in the world as many schoolchildren refused to eat their spinach.

Another Obama triumph Trumped.

AUDIT: University of California president hid $175 million. According to President Janet Napolitano, it was

“a prudent and reasonable amount for unexpected expenses such as cybersecurity threat response and emerging issues like increased support for undocumented students and efforts to prevent sexual violence and sexual harassment.”

More likely it was a slush fund to augment her and her minions already exhorbitant salaries.

ABOUT TIME: George Soros battles $10B lawsuit, familiar charges of wielding political influence.

Let it be only the first of many....

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THESE SNOWFLAKES? Library fines too stressful for Harvard students.

These twits should never have been allowed to graduate from kindergarten. And the Harvard 'administrators' should be fired.

"PEOPLE WHO TALK ABOUT CULTURAL APPROPRIATION un-ironically are self-identifying as idiots. They should be mocked and ridiculed mercilessly."

PLEASE.JUST.GO.AWAY: Clinton, Obama return to public eye with new ventures.

TEXAS PREPARES to begin locking up leaders in sanctuary cities. I think a minimum 90-day jail sentence for any elected or appointed official supporting sanctuary cities would be appropriate.

UNITED NATIONS: Repealing ObamaCare could violate international law.

"Sod off!" has a nice ring to it, but my personal favorite is still "You mistake me for someone who gives a shit."

THE LEFT'S MEDIA INSTITUTIONS are racist.

VEGANS: scientific illiterates.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE: Study finds Democrats least tolerant of opposing views. They know they're right (and have participation trophies to prove it), so why should they tolerate other views?

LEAF WATCH 2017: That semi- magical 'poof day' when all the trees suddenly decide to show their new leaves occurred mid-week. Here's today's photo:

The pond is still there, but it's rapidly disappearing behind the new foliage. Here's last weeks photo for comparison, and you can scroll back in time from there.

I suspect that by next week the pond will have almost completely disappeared from view from our terrace.