POPULAR MECHANICS: The 5 Best New Lawnmowers.

FLASHBACK: Hillary Clinton defended husband Bill’s religious freedom law. “Hillary has been accused of being a hypocrite because of the law her husband signed, but last year, during an interview with Aspen Institute President Walter Isaacson at the Aspen Ideas Festival, the former secretary of state explained how Bill’s law was fine, but everyone else is discriminating.” Well, okay then.

LIFE IN THE ERA OF HOPE AND CHANGE: Crucifixion: It’s Not Ancient History Anymore.

“BAD LUCK:” Politico: Cloudy economy rains on Barack Obama’s parade. As the president touts improvement, jobs growth suddenly turns sluggish. “The disappointing March jobs report, which also showed the size of the labor force shrinking, suggests that Obama’s fears of a stalling economy may already be coming true. And that’s an issue not just for a lame duck incumbent looking to juice weak approval numbers. It could also seriously complicate matters for Obama’s would-be successor, Hillary Clinton, who could wind up squaring off against a GOP opponent promising — fairly or not —an end to the desultory growth rates of the Obama years.”

In truth, job growth has been lousy since he took office, and that’s been largely because of lousy policies. So it would hardly be “unfair” to promise change with different policies.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 694.

HE LOOKS AWFULLY GOOD: Louis Jordan, Sailor Missing for 66 Days, Recalls His Surreal Journey.

WELL, GOOD: Green Europe Moves Against “Green” Biofuels:

Brussels put another dagger in the heart of the “green” biofuel industry this week, coming to a preliminary agreement on limiting mandates for crop-based biofuels. . . .

Just a few short years ago breathless greens were touting the environmental merits of growing our gas, but the facts have quickly overtaken those claims—and the myriad government subsidy regimes they spawned.

The more you think about it, the less “green” crop-based biofuels appear: They’re often an inefficient and therefore costly way to produce transport fuel; their ability to reduce emissions is dubious at best (in some cases they’ve been shown to actually increase greenhouse gas emissions); they often lead to local environmental damage as farmers eager to take advantage of government support clear-cut their way to unsustainability; and they drive up global food prices, starving the world’s poor.

Nothing to be proud of, there.

CHANGE: Taking Obama’s signal, Democrats turn on Israel, now see Mexico as a better ally.

ROBBIE SOAVE: Was Memories Pizza a Victim of Irresponsible Journalism? Yes: Memories Pizza, while not as gay-affirming as many of us would like, didn’t announce pending discrimination.

The owners of Memories Pizza, the O’Connor family, did not willingly seek out controversy, deny service to a gay person or couple, or even go out on a limb to suggest that they would. No, they merely responded to a question from Alyssa Marino, a local reporter for ABC 57 News who had come to their shop in search of a story.

And they did give her a story—but not the one she reported. Her initial headline was “RFRA: First Michiana business to publicly deny same-sex service” (Michiana is the region in Indiana where Memories Pizza is located). That headline implies two things that are false. The O’Connors had no intention of becoming the first Michiana business to do anything discriminatory with respect to gay people; they had merely answered a hypothetical question about what would happen if a gay couple asked them to cater a wedding. And the O’Connors had every intention of providing regular service to gay people—just not their weddings. . . . As I said yesterday, I don’t agree with the policy the O’Connors articulated, though I would defend their right to practice it—in both theory and actuality. I would also defend the right of people to criticize it, though I would question the wisdom, necessity, and productivity of doing so in such a harsh and stridently condemning manner. The death threats are another matter; no one has the right to threaten violence against someone else.

The people who made those threats are at fault, but so are the journalists who erroneously reported on this story—who made a merely unfriendly policy seem like a declaration of pending discrimination against the next gay person to walk through the front door of Memories Pizza.

Alyssa Marino owes them an apology, and so do a lot of others.

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JOHN FUND: Liberals Adopt a New McCarthyism – And Are Proud Of It.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: This Taxpayer-Funded University Will Pay Matthew McConaughey $135,000 To Give A Commencement Speech.

ANOTHER CIVIL RIGHTS VICTORY: Brownback signs bill that allows permit-free concealed carry of guns in Kansas. “The new law, which kicks in July 1, makes Kansas the sixth state to allow ‘constitutional carry.’ It will allow Kansans 21 and older to carry concealed firearms regardless of whether they have obtained a permit. Training still will be required for anyone who wants to carry a concealed gun in the 36 states that accept Kansas permits.”

THE COUNTRY’S IN THE VERY BEST OF HANDS: Ex-IRS Ethics Office Lawyer Disbarred For … Ethics Violations. “The lawyer, Takisha Brown, reportedly had bragged that she would never be punished because her boss would protect her, but an IRS spokesman said Wednesday that she was no longer an employee at the agency.”

I wonder why she was so confident of that protection?

BYRON YORK: In emerging Dem race, O’Malley new target of Clinton machine.

Recently, a representative from the Hillary Clinton camp delivered a message to Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor preparing to challenge Clinton for the 2016 Democratic nomination.

I have some good news and some bad news, the messenger said.

What’s the good news? asked O’Malley.

The good news is we’re taking you seriously, the messenger answered. And the bad news is … we’re taking you seriously.

The undertone of threat was unmistakable, but anyone who takes on Clintonworld has to expect that. And indeed, pro-O’Malley Democrats — there are some — are not at all surprised by the tone. “They are the most petty, vengeful people out there,” says one Democrat of the Clinton organization. “They hold a grudge for decades. I don’t think he [O’Malley] expected them to welcome him with a fruit basket.”

And Clintonworld has reason to be concerned. Yes, Hillary’s lead is huge, and yes, she is at this point the presumptive Democratic nominee. But there are already emerging signs that the coronation might not go as planned.

It’s early yet, but O’Malley’s declaration last Sunday — “The presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families” — is probably the best line of the campaign so far. If you took a poll to gauge public opinion on that turn of phrase, approval would likely be very, very high.

Yeah, a lot of Republicans feel that way about Jeb, too.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE: Women’s Networking Groups Now Want Men. “So, since the fifties, these groups have been for women only. Now, after almost 60 years of reverse sexism, they aren’t getting anywhere with their exclusion of men and now want men to join? Seriously? Why would any men join up?”

Once again, life imitates The Onion.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Feds Place Ave Maria Law School on Financial Watch List.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Atlanta Teachers and Administrators Face Long Prison Terms for Widespread Cheating Scam.

THEN CHRIS CHRISTIE SHOULD APPOINT HIMSELF TO THE SEAT: New York Times urges Menendez to resign.

Related: Could Chris Christie Appoint Himself To The U.S. Senate? Yes, He Can.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: How Jerry Brown Engineered California’s Drought. “Brown and other Democratic leaders will never concede that their own opposition in the 1970s (when California had about half its present population) to the completion of state and federal water projects, along with their more recent allowance of massive water diversions for fish and river enhancement, left no margin for error in a state now home to 40 million people. Second, the mandated restrictions will bring home another truth as lawns die, pools empty, and boutique gardens shrivel in the coastal corridor from La Jolla to Berkeley: the very idea of a 20-million-person corridor along the narrow, scenic Pacific Ocean and adjoining foothills is just as unnatural as “big” agriculture’s Westside farming. The weather, climate, lifestyle, views, and culture of coastal living may all be spectacular, but the arid Los Angeles and San Francisco Bay-area megalopolises must rely on massive water transfers from the Sierra Nevada, Northern California, or out-of-state sources to support their unnatural ecosystems. . . . I have never met a Bay Area environmentalist or Silicon Valley grandee who didn’t drink or shower with water imported from a far distant water project. The Bay Area remains almost completely reliant on ancient Hetch Hetchy water supplies from the distant Sierra Nevada, given the inability of groundwater pumping to service the Bay Area’s huge industrial and consumer demand for water. But after four years of drought, even Hetch Hetchy’s huge Sierra supplies have only about a year left, at best. Again, the California paradox: those who did the most to cancel water projects and divert reservoir water to pursue their reactionary nineteenth-century dreams of a scenic, depopulated, and fish-friendly environment enjoy lifestyles predicated entirely on the fragile early twentieth-century water projects of the sort they now condemn.”

This is known as “bad luck.”

UPDATE: You know, it occurs to me that in many countries, farmers as hard-pressed as the ones in California would probably be revolting, and sabotaging aqueducts, etc. I don’t suppose that’s likely to happen here, as Americans are more law-abiding than most. Whether that is a bug or a feature I leave as an exercise to the reader.

A VERY INTERESTING PROFILE OF Eugene Volokh.

Once I got him guestblogging on InstaPundit in 2002, I knew I’d hooked him.

WELL, AT LEAST IT WASN’T SOMEONE WITH A HEART ATTACK: Baby born along I-65 during presidential visit gridlock.

A baby boy was born along Interstate 65 North during the closure for President Barack Obama’s visit Thursday.

According to MetroSafe, the call came in to dispatch at 5:13 p.m.

The mother was stuck in traffic on Interstate 65 North at Fern Valley Road.

Traffic in the area was at a standstill at the time to allow the president’s motorcade to travel from the airport to downtown Louisville.

A nurse who was also stuck in traffic helped the mother through the delivery with the assistance of dispatchers.

Everything came out all right.

SURVIVAL AT SEA: Sailor missing 66 days rescued by freighter off Cape Hatteras. “Surviving the Graveyard of the Atlantic on the hull of a capsized boat and a diet of raw fish and rainwater, a 37-year-old man missing since January has been rescued 200 miles east of Cape Hatteras.”

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Two New York City women accused of planning ‘terrorist attack.’

Two New York City women have been arrested and accused of planning to carry out a “terrorist attack” in the United States, according to a federal criminal complaint made public on Thursday.

Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, plotted to hit police, government or military targets based on their “violent jihadist beliefs,” according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.

It said Velentzas and Siddiqui were conspiring “to prepare an explosive device to be detonated in a terrorist attack in the United States.”

The complaint said Velentzas had praised al Qaeda’s Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and said she and Siddiqui were “citizens of the Islamic State.”

Glad they didn’t manage to do anything.