POWERLINE'S riot preseason edition of its famous Week in Pictures series has posted. There are many good ones (obviously) but I have three I want to highlight.

This first one is a zombie movie classic:

These next two are obviously related by a common thread:

And

And no, I don't think the curve is anywhere near flattening....

Now go see the rest.

FROM POWERLINE: Mayor Bower's odd decision.

PowerLine's Paul Mirengoff is at a loss to understand her decision. I suppose he's too young to remember The Outer Limits television series (1963-65):

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.

It's about control. With Democrats it's always about control.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: "A Democrat is a terrible waste of mind."

SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND COVID: Will truth prevail?

In the near term, who knows? In the long term, certainly -- Mother Nature doesn't suffer fools lightly.

THEY SHOULD DEMAND THE FIRING OF ALL THOSE WHO AGREE: Virginia county school advisory board demands the firing of teachers who disagree with critical race theory.

No surprise: it's the 'wokest' county in the whole state....

STEVEN HAYWARD has more campus crazy at PowerLine. My favorite part is Hayward's parting shot: "Maybe next time the conference should invite Al Sharpton to address them on tax avoidance strategies. That will suit their ideology better."

BAD GIRL. BAD, BAD GIRL: Professor of gender studies compares transgender people to QAnon conspiracy followers.

Fury erupts, naturally. The question I have is who was more offended -- the transgenders or the QAnon followers.

MEDIA STRANGELY SILENT: Atlanta man arrested with six (6!) guns on his person.

Why the silence?

Well, first, he was black. And second, Georgia is an open carry state.

ZERO FOR FIVE: Gavin Newsom taken (again) to the legal woodshed at the Supreme Court.

Now kick him out of office but keep him in California to enjoy the 'benefits' of his own restrictions.

A reminder for California taxpayers: You paid his legal bills. You're paying for the cost of kicking him out of office. Elections have consequences. Vote smarter.

IT'S COME TO THIS: Armed citizens protected their property in Minneapolis during second night of rioting.

If the police are barred from doing their jobs, eventually citizens will.

It will be ugly. Necessary, but ugly.

RANDOM THOUGHT: Progressives are liberals who've doubled down on stupid.

SPRINGTIME 2021, Week 6: I see I've been not blogging a lot this last week since there's been so few posts between my weekly updates. I'll try to correct that but there's been so much going on....

Here's the usual pond view taken from the deck. Not that much visible in the picture has changed over the week but Mother Nature is clearly gearing up for an opening celebration. The flowers are gone on the tulip magnolia and leaves are showing; the perennials are popping up; and all the trees except the larger deciduous trees have buds showing.

Here's an example taken from the stairs down to the pond. The weeds in the foreground are popping up everywhere -- and growing faster that I can keep up.

The pond, with its fountain, was spectacular today. While there's still no leaves to speak of, the pond view is always greener because of the number of pine trees along the commons/boat dock area. Even though our next-door neighbor has cleared most of the brush so he can see the pond, his house (top left) will be nearly invisible by summer.

The same is true of our house, seen here from the pond. Even with my brush-clearing last winter, it will be nearly invisible when the deciduous trees turn green.

And as a finale, the dogwoods (we have Florida dogwood trees -- not nearly enough) have finally begun to blossom. Hopefully they will be spectacular this year.

Until next week, then.

I DON'T THINK THE CONSTITUTION GIVES BIDEN A SAY: Biden to let Justice Breyer decide when to retire from the Supreme Court.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON:

Wokeness is not really about fairness for minorities, the oppressed and the poor, past or present. It is mostly a self-confessional cult of anointed bullies, and hypocrites of all races and genders, who seek to flex, and increase, their own privilege and power.

Period.

Read it all.

IT'S MORE IMPORTANT TO BE DRONES THAN TO BE ALIVE: Big Tech’s ‘trust’ problem will soon cost lives by scaring people away from life-saving technology.

But what good are dead drones?
[Answer: they don't vote against the drone maker.]

WOKENESS IS NOT ABOUT TAKING POWER FROM THE MAN. Wokeness is The Man’s way of securing his power over the rest of us.

Just say no. Say Hell, no!

SPRINGTIME 2021, Week 5: This week I revert back to my more-or-less standard practice of the pond view first.

Here it is, from my usual place on the carport deck. The brush and other ground cover I pretty well suppressed over the winter, so it still looks winter barren but the trees have actually started to bud out. Not visible in the picture yet, but certainly will be by next week's pictures.

Here's the fire pit/hopefully soon-to-be north lawn. Still pretty much barren, especially since so many trees were taken down to make room for the hopefully soon-to-come barn, but as above the trees are just now starting to blossom.

A view from the north, looking back at the barn pad. Easter has been a gorgeous day out.

Finally, a view I don't expect to see again until next winter - a 'skyline' of the next ridge to the south. If the trees blossom as I expect, by next week the ridge (and sky, mostly) will be obscured by the leaves from the trees downslope.

Until next week, then.

IS BOTH AN OPTION? Democrats: Stupid Or Liars?

WELCOME to Woke America.

WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? Study declares AOC one of the least effective members of Congress.