Emily Ratajkowski in Clear Rain Jacket

At Taxi Driver, "Emily Ratajkowski Topless in Clear Rain Jacket."

And at Harpers, "Emily Ratajkowski Just Wore Nothing but a See-Through Trench Coat and We Are Shook."

Lara Stone Luigi and Iango

At Snadgy, "Lara Stone Nude by Luigi and Iango."

And at Oh My Celeb, "Lara Stone – Red Sox magazine calendar 2018 by Luigi and Iango."

Sebastian Gorka: President Trump is Not an Interventionist (VIDEO)

I, for one, am happy we're bombing in Syria. It reverses the previous administration's red line and puts Russian and Iran on notice.

I like Sebastian Gorka, in any case. He's a good guy and well spoken.

At Fox & Friends:

U.S. Launches Military Strike on Syria

The leftist hypocrisy on Syria is mind-boggling.

#Trump says U.S. is striking #Syria over its use of chemical weapons https://t.co/jIt6Zz378q

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) April 14, 2018

Congressional Democrats blasted President Trump for circumventing Congress in authorizing U.S. strikes against Syria, calling it "unconstitutional" and questioning the strategy. https://t.co/1rJ1hBJx2S

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 14, 2018

It's as if 2009-2017 never happened. https://t.co/o5emKk1ly8

— Instapundit.com (@instapundit) April 14, 2018

Far-left conspiracy theorist Rachel Maddow suggests President Donald Trump launched the strike against Syria to divert attention away from a "catastrophic domestic scandal."pic.twitter.com/sr81UnpryL

— Ryan Saavedra 🇺🇸 (@RealSaavedra) April 14, 2018

Ana Navarro Accuses Trump Of Striking Syria To Distract From Comey And Cohen News https://t.co/1lnUfGdLEr pic.twitter.com/mUixObJck2

— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) April 14, 2018

Jonah Goldberg, Suicide of the West

*BUMPED.*

Hmm, I see a lot of really good non-fiction books coming out, which is going to delay my progress on my fiction book list, which is gargantuan.

At Amazon, Jonah Goldberg, Suicide of the West: How the Rebirth of Tribalism, Populism, Nationalism, and Identity Politics is Destroying American Democracy.

Bipartisan Senate Bill to Protect Robert Mueller (VIDEO)

Mueller's investigation is out of control, and the Senate's advancing legislation to save his ass? That's messed up.

At Politico, via Memeorandum, "Bipartisan Senate bill to protect Mueller set to advance."

And the new video out today from Republicans for the Rule of Law, a.k.a., "Never Trumpers":

Frustrated Teacher Implores Parents to Stop 'Coddling and Enabling Their Children' (VIDEO)

At London's Daily Mail, "Texas teacher reveals how 'rude parents, disruptive children and poor pay' have forced her to quit her job in viral post - as she shares photos of classroom items 'destroyed' by her students."

And at the Other McCain, "K-12 Implosion Update."

Also at ABC News:

“Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse.”

Frustrated teacher urges parents to stop 'coddling and enabling their children' in viral Facebook post. https://t.co/fKxnxc6N1i pic.twitter.com/y0S2y4hDdD

— ABC News (@ABC) April 11, 2018

The Curse of Cultural Marxism

A new video from Pat Condell:

Heidi Klum on Vacation

At Taxi Driver, "Heidi Klum Topless and Wet on Vacation."

Have 1 in 5 College Women Been Raped?

No, "it isn't true."

Mark Zuckerberg Testifies on Capital Hill (VIDEO)

At LAT, "Mark Zuckerberg struggles to put his best Facebook forward during a day in the hot seat."

Sean Hannity Ends Feud with Jimmy Kimmel (VIDEO)

From Monday's night's show:

Laura Ingraham Blasts 'Stalinist' Leftists in Return to Fox News (VIDEO)

A phenomenal "The Angle" segment, from Monday's show:

Among the Abortion Extremists

I don't know if Ross Douthat is the very best newspaper columnist out there. He seems like a quirky weird kind of guy, actually. But this is very good.

At NYT:

Ross is the best columnist working at a major daily and I don’t think the second-best is particularly close. https://t.co/OHYQhpTqED

— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) April 8, 2018

A few weeks ago, The Washington Post’s deputy editorial page editor, Ruth Marcus, wrote two columns explaining why, had either of her children been diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero, she would have accepted the “ghastly” nature of a second-trimester abortion and terminated the pregnancy. She conceded that people with Down syndrome can be happy and fulfilled, that both they and their parents might be understandably disturbed by the way abortion can effectively cull them from the world. But she concluded with self-acknowledged bluntness: “That was not the child I wanted.”

I know Marcus a little, having chatted with her amiably a few times many years ago. She seemed like a lovely person, like so many of my pro-choice friends; indeed, people who believe firmly in an absolute or near-absolute right to an abortion are effectively my people in a certain tribal way, given that I’m a Connecticut Yankee raised by Bill Clinton-voting boomers and educated in the modern meritocracy. I like these folks; I think they mean well; I try to listen to their arguments with the respect that the sincere and intelligent deserve.

But I also think that they are deceived by a cruel ideology that has licensed the killing of millions of innocents for almost 50 years. In the language that the respectable use to banish views without rebuttal, I regard them — friends and colleagues and faithful readers — as essentially extremists, for whom the distinctive and sometimes awful burdens that pregnancy imposes on women have become an excuse to build a grotesque legal regime in which the most vulnerable human beings can be vacuumed out or dismembered, killed for reasons of eugenics or convenience or any reason at all.

I am sharing these reflections in the context of the latest media war over whether a particular conservative columnist should be hired by a particular establishment publication — in this case Kevin Williamson, a National Review scribe with a brilliant pen and a long paper trail of insults and wild opinions, who was boldly hired by The Atlantic and then quickly jettisoned, after it came to light that he had not only suggested hanging as a penalty for abortion in a since-deleted tweet but also more carefully defended the idea of someday prosecuting women who obtain abortions the way we prosecute other forms of homicide...

Keep reading.

How to Level the College Playing Field

This is interesting, especially for me, a community college political science professor, struggling with low student academic achievement.

See, Harold O. Levy with Peg Tyre, at NYT:

Campuses that are overwhelmingly populated by wealthy students amplify the voices that jeer at our higher education system and energize those who seek to destroy it. It would be a tragedy if they succeeded. https://t.co/SamBMZE8ZC

— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) April 9, 2018

The wealthy spend tens of thousands each year on private school tuition or property taxes to ensure that their children attend schools that provide a rich, deep college preparatory curriculum. On top of that, many of them spend thousands more on application coaches, test-prep tutors and essay editors. They take their children on elaborate college tours so that their children can “find the right fit” at schools with good names and high graduation rates. Enrollment strategists at these same schools seek applicants from areas where the data they buy confirms that income levels and homeownership are high.

The colleges make efforts to open up access to low-income students while at the same time culling applications in ways that give an advantage to the very wealthy — from the persistence of legacy admissions to the back door reserved for young athletes who excel in sports that flourish in rarefied communities like lacrosse, squash, rowing and fencing. Admissions officers don’t talk much about “development” admissions, students whose applications are favored in hopes their parents will eventually endow a new stadium or dorm. Increasing numbers of prospective freshmen apply for early decision, which can give the applicant a stronger chance of getting in but closes doors for middle-income students, who often need to make their college choice by comparing financial aid packages. No wonder, then, that in a group of 38 selective colleges, including five in the Ivy League, more students came from families in the top 1 percent of the income scale than from the entire bottom 60 percent.

Creating a true meritocracy in higher education would require serious, politically daring changes to our housing policies and the tax code, neither of which seems likely in the current climate. Yet people of means (and I include myself here) are complicit in a system that seems unable to stop itself from extending privileges to the privileged. If your late-model car boasts the sticker of a prestigious college in the back window, you are participating in a system that may be good for your child but bad for our country...

RTWT.

Annalisa Blaha

At Drunken Stepfather, "ANNALISA BLAHA TOPLESS SHOOT OF THE DAY."

Gold Box Deals

At Amazon, Today's Deals. New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

And see, especially, Torq TORQX Random Orbital Polisher Kit (9 Items).

Also, TAC FORCE Spring Assisted Opening BLACK Tactical Rescue Folding Pocket Knife NEW.

And, LG 55UJ6300 55-inch 4K Ultra HD Smart LED TV (2017 Model) + HDMI 1080p High Definition DVD Player + Solo X3 Bluetooth Home Theater Sound Bar + 2x HDMI Cable + LED TV Screen Cleaner.

BONUS: Tommy Robinson, Enemy of the State.

Huntington Beach Voting to Sue California Over its Sanctuary City Laws

Here's Amanda Head, for Rebel Media:



And at Fox News, via Memeorandum, "Has the California backlash against liberal craziness finally begun?"

Elizabeth R. Varon, Appomattox

At Amazon, Elizabeth R. Varon, Appomattox: Victory, Defeat, and Freedom at the End of the Civil War.

Divided Americans Can Unite

Well, it ain't gonna be easy.

But see Salena Zito, at the New York Post, "History Proves America Can Unite Even When Torn in Two":

How the Civil War ended tells us a lot about who we were. https://t.co/o5EfzCfwDN

— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) April 9, 2018

APPOMATTOX, VA. — On April 9, 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee strode onto the porch of a two-story brick home and stared out at a lawn filled with Union soldiers, his Confederate staff of two, and his horse Traveler.

Still wearing full military dress, Lee raised his gloved hands and punched his left fist into his right palm. The sound of leather meeting leather echoed in the unsteady silence.

Then, as Lee mounted Traveler, Major Gen. Ulysses S. Grant emerged from the house onto the porch.

Now facing each other, Grant raised his hat, as did Lee. It wasn’t a salute, but clearly an acknowledgment of the moment.

As Lee turned towards the dirt road and headed east towards his troops, the 198th Pennsylvania Infantry played “Auld Lang Syne.”

The Civil War was over.

“As the sun rose that morning neither man would know by mid-afternoon the war, for all intents and purposes, would end that day,” explained Ernie Price, a park ranger and director of education at Appomattox National Park.

But by mid-morning, Lee knew the Confederate cause was finished. He sent a message to Grant to meet for the purpose of surrender, and the Appomattox home of grocer Wilmer McLean was chosen for the moment.

When they met, Grant was poorly dressed, his uniform rumpled and covered in mud from the ride the night before. Years later in his memoirs, he admitted that he had no idea what he was going to ask from Lee in the surrender.

Yet, once he sat down at a small spindle desk in McLean’s front parlor, words of reconciliation poured out.

“Grant knew that the Confederate soldiers from that moment on were going to be US citizens again,” said Price. “Instead of placing them in prisons in the North he sends them home. His reasoning is: The sooner the South’s economy rebounds, the sooner the country can reconcile, so he paroles them.”

Grant also allowed Lee’s men to keep their personal sidearms and animals, knowing they would desperately need rations to survive.

This week marks the 153rd anniversary of Appomattox, and tourists from around the world still come to the McLean home to remember this singular moment, which kept our nation whole after a bloody, brutal war. When I visited last month, parents, students and children listened to different park rangers tell the story of the two generals, and were surprised by the emotion they felt.

“I wish more people young and old would understand the gravity of this moment and apply that kind of grace in their daily lives,” said 13-year-old Mathilde Colas, with remarkable clarity, as she visited with her family. “It is certainly easier to bring people together if you are generous with your words and actions. That is what I learned most from our visit today.”

The best and the worst of our country’s past sometimes happens side by side. The journey to understand who we once were isn’t always a road to perdition. Sometimes it’s a path toward inspiration...

More.