Winfred Blevins, Give Your Heart to the Hawks

This book's great! I picked up a copy.

Available at Amazon, Winfred Blevins, Give Your Heart to the Hawks: A Tribute to the Mountain Men.

North Korea Parades New Long-Range 'Frankenmissile' (VIDEO)

I've gotta say, those NoKo military parades are pretty impressive.

I know. I know. NoKo's actually a weak country, and frankly not an existential threat to the U.S. That said, you don't have too many militant ideological Cold War throwbacks around these days, so the gamesmanship is something to behold. Plus, it's Trump in office, and he means business when he says NoKo nukes ain't gonna happen.

At WSJ, via Memeorandum, "Pyongyang displays military hardware, including apparently new intercontinental ballistic missile":

North Korea showed off what appeared to be at least one new long-range missile at a military parade Saturday, as tensions simmer over the possibility of a military confrontation between the U.S. and North Korea.

The weaponry on show, which appeared to include a newly-modified intercontinental ballistic missile and two types of large launchers with never-before-seen missile canisters, is likely to trigger fresh concerns about the speed with which Pyongyang’s missile program has advanced in recent years.

A spokesman for South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense declined to comment on the possible new military hardware, saying more time was needed to analyze the missiles.

But an expert on North Korean weapons said the new hardware appeared to be far more advanced than expected.

“We’re totally floored right now,” said Dave Schmerler, a research associate at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif. “I was not expecting to see this many new missile designs.”

Mr. Schmerler called the new ICBM, which appeared to have elements of two other ICBMS, the KN-08 and KN-14 missiles, a “frankenmissile.”

Missile experts said the new capabilities, if confirmed, may increase Pyongyang’s options as it seeks to test-launch a ICBM able to deliver a nuclear warhead to the continental U.S., as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un indicated in a speech in January. U.S. President Donald Trump responded after that new-year speech, posting on Twitter: “It won’t happen!”

More.

Also, at the Diplomat, "North Korea's 2017 Military Parade Was a Big Deal. Here Are the Major Takeaways."

Guess Launches New Swimwear Collection with A Bikini A Day

Hey, Devin Brugman and Natasha Oakley continue to enjoy success.

Coming May 2017 ❤️ @ABikiniADay x #GUESSswim designed by @Tashoakley and @devinbrugman https://t.co/lgWkX8yU4E pic.twitter.com/0odPj523vi

— GUESS (@GUESS) April 6, 2017

BONUS: At London's Daily Mail, "Curves ahead! Devin Brugman and Natasha Oakley flaunt ample cleavage and taut torsos in skimpy swimwear."

Lars Maischak's Only a Symptom of a Larger Disease

Following-up from yesterday, "Wow! Federal Investigation of Fresno State History Professor Lars Maischak."

From Bruce Thornton, who's a Professor of Classics and Humanities at Fresno State University, at FrontPage Magazine, "Drain the Higher Ed. Swamp That Produced the 'Hang Trump' Prof.":

ALERT: @SecretService @FBI Please check out @LarsMaischak twitter feed filled with HATE-MONGERING towards President @realDonaldTrump & #GOP pic.twitter.com/Rv8uF0zUPJ

— slone (@slone) April 11, 2017

The uproar over a Fresno State history lecturer’s tweets about assassinating President Trump is understandable, but in the end the outrage is pointless. It’s doubtful the feds will charge the fellow, given how outlandish and obviously hyperbolic the tweets are. Nor is he likely to be fired. All the commotion has accomplished is to turn a nobody into a left-wing martyr persecuted for “speaking truth to power.”

The fact is, there is nothing this guy said that wouldn’t be applauded by most faculty in the social sciences and humanities, even if they don’t have his gumption to say so out loud. The politicized university is entering its fifth decade, and was already a done deal when Alan Bloom publicized it in his surprising 1987 bestseller The Closing of the American Mind. Thirty years later, focusing on the stupid statements of individual professors, or in this case lecturers, does nothing to get at the root of the problem. They are symptoms of deeper structural changes in the administrative apparatus of most colleges, and these changes in part have been responses to federal laws, particularly affirmative action, sexual harassment law, and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. With federal agency thugs backing campus leftists by threatening administrators with investigation or the reduction of federal funds, it has been easy to transform the university from a space for developing critical thinking and intellectual diversity, into a progressive propaganda organ and reeducation camp.

The most important of these government-backed instruments is “diversity.” This vacuous concept was created ex nihilo by Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell in the 1979 Bakke vs. University of California decision as a way to protect admissions “set asides” for minorities without falling afoul of the law’s prohibition of quotas. Since only a “compelling state interest” could justify exceptions to Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s ban on discrimination by race, which naked quotas obviously did, “diversity,” along with all its alleged social and educational boons, was by judicial fiat deemed a “state interest.” In 2003, Grutter vs. Bollinger, and again in the two Fisher vs. University of Texas cases (2013, 2016), the Supreme Court confirmed Powell’s legerdemain in order “to further a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body,” as Republican-appointed Justice Sandra Day O’Conner said in the first Fisher case.

Of course, there exists no coherent definition of “diversity,” and no empirical evidence demonstrating its power to improve educational outcomes or create “educational benefits.” If there were such pedagogical benefits from diversity, we would have long ago dismantled the 107 historically black colleges and universities. On the contrary, there is much evidence that mismatching applicants to universities damages minority students and segregates campuses into identity-politics enclaves.

But using race to privilege some applicants over others wasn’t just about admitting students. The campus infrastructure had to change, which meant the expansion of politicized identity-politics programs, departments, general education courses, and student-support administrative offices and services. As a result, the cultural Marxism ideology that created identity politics in the first place now permeates the university far beyond the classroom, and enables an intolerance for competing ideas, not to mention shutting down the “free play of the mind on all subjects” that Matthew Arnold identified as the core mission of liberal education. And this corruption is encouraged by federal law and its leverage of federal money that flows into higher education.

So the issue isn’t a two-bit adjunct and his juvenile tweets. All the rancorous attention being given to him may make some conservatives feel better, but it will do nothing other than turn a nobody into a somebody. This bad habit is indulged by conservative outlets like Fox News: to entertain their viewers, they dig up some second-rate professor or blogger, and bring him on a show to be slapped around by the host. But in that person’s world, he is now a star, with credibility and a megaphone he would have paid Fox to give him. Getting angry at such a person is like blaming a dog for the stinking mess it left on your lawn. Of course it stinks, that’s its nature. The real culprit is the neighbor too lazy or inconsiderate to walk his dog and clean up after it...

Actually, I love watching second-rate leftist professors getting beat up on Fox News, lol.

But he's got a point. And it's not just the neighbor who's too lazy to clean up the cultural Marxist crap. It's all the fence-sitting professors, some sympathetic to the left and some not, who stand by, refusing to put real liberal principles of free speech (and intellectual exchange) before rank leftist bullying. I know first-hand the costs of doing so. (I've been investigated and persecuted on my campus after standing up for conservative values, and shutting down idiot leftists.) But it must be done.

In any case, keep reading.

Easter and Passover: Both Holidays Are About the Dead Rising to New Life

A lovely essay for Easter weekend, which (this year) is also the end of Passover week.

From R.R. Reno, at WSJ, "The Profound Connection Between Easter and Passover."

Easter and Passover share a profound connection: They both are about the dead rising to new life https://t.co/Q65bymKEzt

— Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) April 14, 2017

Hat Tip: Dr. Carol Swain.

Journalist Goes Undercover in North Korea (PHOTOS)

At London's Daily Mail.

No photos of concentration camps (complaints about this on Twitter). But still, it's an amazing, excellent photo-essay:

Journalist goes undercover to capture a side of North Korea we rarely get to see https://t.co/YBDCKGakf1

— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) April 14, 2017

Trump Plumps His 2020 Campaign War Chest

Trump's a man of massive ego, so being reelected in 2020 should be the ultimate goal. The ultimate validation.

And remember, if Roger Simon's right, it's going to be a cakewalk, heh.

At WaPo, via Memeorandum, "Trump's reelection stockpile grows as small donors keep giving."

Thanks to slew of fundraising emails, Trump/RNC raised $42.6 mil in Q1, more than 2x Obama/DNC eight years ago https://t.co/bGKCKXmNPY

— Matea Gold (@mateagold) April 14, 2017

Nationwide Protests Over Donald Trump's Tax Returns?

Well, ahem, the times they are a changin'.

Seems like there's a lot more pressing problems than worrying about the president's tax returns. And besides, it's not like he's not paying his fair share. Just ask the idiot Rachel Maddow about that.

Either way, see Instapundit, "THE TEA PARTIERS PROTESTED THEIR OWN TAXES. NOW LEFTIES ARE PROTESTING OVER SOMEONE ELSE’S: Nationwide marches set to protest Trump tax returns."

Tomi Lahren's the Biggest Whiny Baby (VIDEO)

She's been having a hard time of it since the fallout last month. See, "Tomi Lahren's Pro-Choice?"

She's whiny, and actually stupid, if she thought Glenn Beck was going to cut her loose without a battle.

At the Dallas Morning News, "'I will not lay down and play dead — ever,' Tomi Lahren tells 'Nightline'":

Tomi Lahren, the conservative commentator known for her incendiary quick takes, said Wednesday on Nightline that she's disappointed and hurt by her employer's actions since she voiced her "pro-choice" stance last month.

In an interview on The View, Lahren said she "can't sit here and be a hypocrite and say I'm for limited government but I think that the government should decide what women do with their bodies."

Days after she made the statement, her show on the The Blaze was put on hold. On Friday, Lahren filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against her former boss, Glenn Beck, and his right-wing media firm.

The Blaze said last week that Lahren has not been terminated.

In a prepared statement, a Blaze spokesman said, "It is puzzling that an employee who remains under contract  (and is still being paid) has sued us for being fired, especially when we continue to comply fully with the terms of our agreement with her."
The spokesman said also Beck would not comment directly on the suit.

Lahren is being paid through September when her contract is up, but told Nightline host Byron Pitts that she was blindsided and feels lost without her job.

"The way I look at things I’m not doing what I was contracted to do — produce a television show, political talk show — I no longer get to do that," she said. The suit also alleges that The Blaze won't allow Lahren to access her Facebook page, where she has 4.2 million followers. She has not posted on the page since March 19, two days after The View episode aired.

The 24-year-old told Nightline that she has been silenced and that her ability to communicate with her followers has been wrongfully taken away...

Shoot, she's getting paid. And she's got until September. Hey, maybe write a book while you're chillin'? Work on your tan or something?

Keep reading.

Jennifer Delacruz's Sunny and Warm Forecast

Ms. Jennifer's a hottie!

From last night, at ABC News 10 San Diego.

It's going to be lovely weather this weekend:

Trump Will Win Bigly in 2020

From Roger Simon, at Pajamas:

I have bad news for the mainstream media and the Democrats.  Time to stock up on absinthe or hightail it down to the medical marijuana store -- Donald Trump is going to be president for eight years.  Not only that, he will win reelection much more comfortably, easily winning the popular vote as well as the electoral college.

I'm not saying this because I am in the slightest bit psychic. I always lose in Vegas -- and don't even ask about the track. I'm also not saying it because Trump just had a good week, getting his Supreme Court pick through and taking it to Assad and ISIS, earning him a slight bump in the polls. (They don't mean anything now anyway.)

 I am saying it for same reason I predicted Trump would win his first term back in August 2015 -- simple observation of the scene. I should add observation from afar because I have the advantage of watching from Los Angeles. The view is too distorted in the nation's capital where, at least it seems from here, no one can stand each other. (That's okay. People in Hollywood are exactly the same.)

Yes, you can say I'm being stupid and rash to make such an early prediction, but that's just what I was accused of in 2015.  So go ahead and call me anything you want.  Make my day -- November 3, 2020.

Okay, but why?

To begin with, the media (his main opposition party) has completely blown it in less than the allotted one hundred days. By attacking Trump every which way at once, calling him a racist, sexist, homophobe, Islamophobe, isolationist and warmonger -- yes, the last two are completely contradictory, but that doesn't stop the geniuses in our Fourth Estate -- they have literally turned into the journalistic version of the boy who cried wolf.  No one believes them anymore, assuming they ever did in the first place.

And it's only going to get worse because the Trump-Russia scandal is an obvious dud while the Obama-Trump surveillance contretemps could have legs, as we say hereabouts.

The situation is even more dire for the Democratic Party itself...

I'm a little skeptical that Trump can survive the gauntlet Democrat-Media Complex a second time (his win last November still seems miraculous somehow), but I admire Roger's pluck.

In any case, still more.

Wow! Federal Investigation of Fresno State History Professor Lars Maischak

I attended Fresno State, but I'd never heard of this guy before. He posted some nasty tweets, and the blowback's been harsh.

At the Fresno Bee, "Fresno State says FBI, Secret Service probing professor’s tweets about President Trump." (Also at Twitchy, "Fresno State cooperating with feds in probe of lecturer who tweeted that ‘Trump must hang’.")

The idiot's taken his page down and apologized.

At Blazing Cat Fur, "'To save American democracy, Trump must hang': California professor apologizes for anti-Trump tweet."

Jennifer Griffin Reports on Afghanistan MOAB Attack (VIDEO)

Following-up, "MOAB."

Watch, at Fox News, "MOAB used for the first time in combat."

MOAB

It's the "massive ordnance air blast," a.k.a, the "mother of all bombs," which is actually pretty hilarious.

At CNN, via Memeorandum, "36 ISIS fighters killed by US ‘mother of all bombs’: Afghan official."

Leftists were horrified that the U.S. actually kills people over there, bad people, of course (a distinction lost on radical progs).

ISIS deserved it. Time to pay for their crimes.#MOAB
"Afghanistan" pic.twitter.com/tM1AE5DSum

— America First! (@America_1st_) April 13, 2017

Professor Eugene Volokh Discusses Freedon Speech on Campus (VIDEO)

Following-up from yesterday, "Eugene Volokh on the Individual Right to Bear Arms (VIDEO)."

He's an interesting guy.

Here's the video of his recent talk at the Reason Weekend, the annual shindig sponsored by the Reason Foundation:

Jeffrey Ostler, The Lakotas and the Black Hills

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Jeffrey Ostler, The Lakotas and the Black Hills: The Struggle for Sacred Ground.

Jackie Johnson's Chance of Showers Forecast

Hey, it was perfectly pleasant weather today. We've got a chance of showers tomorrow, with some clearing heading into the weekend.

Here's the lovely Ms. Jackie in a beautiful white dress, for CBS News 2 Los Angeles:

Bret Stephens Quits WSJ for NYT

Stephens has been a rather vile "Never Trumper" this last year or two, so it's pretty natural for him to join up at the Old Gray Hag.

At Politico:

Bret Stephens leaves Wall Street Journal for New York Times https://t.co/G8j7Mu7O7M via @Hadas_Gold pic.twitter.com/x03JB2gtez

— POLITICO (@politico) April 12, 2017

Ongoing Promotions in Lawn and Garden

At Amazon, Lawn & Garden - Ongoing Promotions.

More, GreenWorks 25022 12 Amp Corded 20-Inch Lawn Mower.

Also, New Arrivals in Sports Apparel and Swimwear.

And, Mountain House Just In Case...Classic Assortment Bucket.

BONUS: Wallace Stegner, Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West.

ICYMI: Susan Sleeper-Smith, et al., Why You Can't Teach United States History without American Indians

At Amazon, Susan Sleeper-Smith, et al., Why You Can't Teach United States History without American Indians.