MARK JUDGE: “We have a title, cover concept and several chapters in the pipeline and even interest in Hollywood. God bless everyone and keep spreading the word!”

OPEN THREAD: Disport yourselves in the comments.

SPACE: Meet VSS Imagine: Virgin Galactic unveils its first SpaceShip III spacecraft. It’s pretty.

MOST OF THEM WERE JUST PEOPLE IN THE PEOPLE’S HOUSE. Most Capitol protesters won’t be jailed. Media angry. “34 years ago the Supreme Court ruled that burning the flag is not a crime. The people who defended that decision now contend that waving a flag is. . . . The problem is there was no insurrection. Yes, 5 people died. 4 were protesters, including an unarmed Ashli Babbitt whom a Capitol Police officer shot and killed. The officer was never publicly named.”

Imagine if Derek Chauvin’s name had been kept secret for months.

Plus: “While violent assaults in the Capitol are rare, protests and acts of civil disobedience — such as disrupting congressional hearings or even House and Senate floor sessions, are more common. That means prosecutors and judges will have to weigh how much more punishment a Trump supporter who invaded the Capitol during the Electoral College count deserves than, say, an anti-war protester chanting at a CIA confirmation hearing or a gun-control advocate shouting in the middle of the State of the Union address.”

Well, obviously more, because Trump supporter.

FREEDOM! Legislators Override Kentucky Governor’s Veto of School Choice Bill. “The new law, originally House Bill 563, allows students in Kentucky public schools to switch school districts, and it creates a new tax-advantaged education savings program for families to use for private school tuition, to pay for tutoring, or to cover other educational expenses. . . . In vetoing the bill last week, Beshear, a Democrat, repeated tired arguments from teachers unions and public school superintendents who fear the erosion of their monopoly control over the state’s education spending.”

Plus: “Beshear’s veto demonstrated how the public school establishment continues to exert political pressure on states that try to give families more educational options. But the Kentucky legislature’s swift reversal suggests that the tide is turning.”

Teachers and public education in general have looked just terrible in the pandemic. It’s important to take advantage of the opportunities that presents.

ROGER KIMBALL: Justice for Derek Chauvin.

First, the video clip that horrified the world was heavily edited. We see Floyd, pinned to the ground by Chauvin, piteously crying ‘I can’t breathe.’ Conclusion? That he can’t breathe because Chauvin is pressing on his windpipe. But a look at the police bodycam footage shows that Floyd was complaining that he couldn’t breathe before he was restrained by the police. Why? Because, as the FBI’s interview with the local medical examiner on July 8, 2020 revealed, Floyd was suffering from pulmonary edema, i.e., his lungs were full of fluid. And why was that? Partly because of an underlying heart condition, partly because Floyd was full to the gills with fentanyl, a drug known to affect respiration and cause pulmonary edema.

By the way, I say that FBI report ‘revealed’ this extenuating evidence, but it was evidence that the prosecution withheld from public scrutiny until the end of October 2020, by which time Minneapolis and many other cities across the country had been torched by Black Lives Matter rioters demanding ‘justice’ for George Floyd.

Here’s something else. Although Chauvin’s restraint looks brutal, it was actually part of the standard Minneapolis police protocol for dealing with persons exhibiting ‘excited delirium,’ a dangerous, often fatal, condition brought about by too much fentanyl with one’s afternoon tea. According to the medical examiner, Chauvin did not appear to have obstructed Floyd’s airway — Floyd would not have been able to speak if he had — and Floyd did not die from strangulation. Bottom line, George Floyd died from the effects of a self-administered drug overdose, effects that might have been exacerbated by his interactions with the police, i.e., his exertions in resisting arrest. For their part, the police were trying to help Floyd. It was they who called the ambulance because they recognized that Floyd was in extremis.

That’s not what we have been told, is it? The defense has received permission to air the trial publicly. Presumably, all this evidence will be presented. How would you like to be a juror at that trial? How easy will it be to find impartial jurors in Minneapolis, where the city council, in the wake of Floyd’s death, actually voted to abolish its police department? If you were a juror, would you dare to return a ‘not guilty’ verdict?

Of course, some of our more enlightened “progressive” betters want to skip the trial all together:

FASTER, PLEASE: Editing the Epigenome for Better Health and a Pathway to Antiaging.

I SPOKE TOO SOON THIS MORNING: SpaceX Starship rocket explodes again after test flight. I think Elon should paint Marvin Martian on the side of the next one.

THE LATEST STRATEGYTALK PODCAST: Jim Dunnigan and Al Nofi discuss Freedom of Navigation Operations (FONOPs) in the South China Sea. Of course the U.S. Navy is the central subject. On a regular basis Navy destroyers sail past China’s “militarized sea features” (Pentagonese for China’s fake islands). But glory be. Uncle Sam isn’t alone. Several countries exercise freedom of navigation rights. For the record, Dr. Nofi is one of America’s top naval historians. He brings a special expertise to this subject. He worked for the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) for several years. StrategyPage’s editors are all historians. So, dig on some explanatory background. From 2016 a definition of FONOP. From July 2020, a look back at communist China’s slow invasion of the South China Sea. If you like the podcast, please subscribe.

AS I PREDICTED MANY YEARS AGO, these wearable medical devices are revolutionizing medicine: Apple Watch able to monitor frailty in cardiovascular disease patients.

As I wrote in 2005: “Since these devices are based on two things — electronics and biological knowledge — that are improving by leaps and bounds, we’re likely to see a lot more of them, and we’re likely to see them become cheap enough, and capable enough, and reliable enough that they’ll attain widespread use.” Well, here we are. The “body computer” is close to reality.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. The WHO Covid Report Is Fatally Flawed, And A Real Investigation Has Yet To Take Place.

Honestly, China’s multiyear effort to suborn the W.H.O. in advance is at least potentially suggestive of a deliberative release.

PINING FOR THE FJORDS: Mummified parrots suggest ancient trade routes crossed South American desert.

BREAKING: Pastor Sues Pelosi, Kamala Harris for Right to Pray at the Capitol on Good Friday

WHY DID THE VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION STAND BY WHILE THIS ABUSE HAPPENED? When the Social Justice Mob Came for Me. His crime: Being white, Jewish, and a fraternity member.

Because most of my service during COVID-19 was virtual, few students at Vandy knew anything about me. They knew I was a junior and of my work for financial inclusivity, but they had no reason to know I was white, Jewish, and in a fraternity.

Suddenly I started to get tweets and group messages where people told me to go to hell, that I was a white supremacist and a racist confederate. My senior advisor, a woman of color, was asked why she supported a Colonizer.
The other candidates’ supporters tore down our posters and ripped my head off the pictures, a sinister warning of what was to come. My campaign was called the white supremacist campaign. False social media posts circulated that my fraternity had parties with confederate flags and chanted that the south would rise again. One message said, “White men are the absolute worst!” Soon after, the posts got even more terrifying — “Hitler got something right!” and “he should get dragged for it!” I began to fear for my safety. Why was this happening?

I felt hopeless. It was a level of fear I couldn’t even process. Everything I had worked for was destroyed, and so was my reputation. I felt like I could never come back from this.

In the real world of politics, when one side uses strong speech, the other side follows it up with more speech. But this isn’t real-world politics. This is student service, governed by clear rules developed by my university. It is well-known that twenty-year-old college students are not fully-formed adults, and thus, my institution set protective rules for us. These rules are also there to cultivate a safe space so students can model collegiality and civility. Vandy’s campaign rules prohibit negative campaigning and ban any remark or attack about a candidate’s personal character. Candidates are held responsible for the actions of their supporters and, when there is a violation, the rules require a formal apology.

Despite these clear rules meant to engender civic discourse, the university did nothing. . . . Even the student deputy election commissioner, who was supposed to be impartial and enforce the rules, joined the opposition and participated in the vitriolic shaming and blaming. She violated the very rules she was supposed to enforce.

Rules only apply to some students.

ANOTHER REASON TO OPEN SCHOOLS: Study: Children show strongest immune response to COVID-19.

GOOD TO KNOW:  Apparently, having more women and “people of color” as traffic engineers is the No. 1 way to prevent pedestrian traffic fatalities.  In Bloomberg today, a UConn law professor argues:  “First, we need to diversify the people who codify road design.  [The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials], the code councils and the federal agency writing the [Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices] are dominated by white, male engineers who are trained to prioritize driver speed.  We need women, people of color, transit users and bike-pedestrian advocates to bring new perspectives and cultural competencies into the conversation.”

CRISIS BY DESIGN: Arizona Sheriff 60 Miles From Border Sees Spike in Arrests of Illegal Immigrants.

I HAD BEEN ASSURED THERE WAS NO CRISIS: Arizona Sheriff Says Illegal Border Crossings May Be Underreported by 300%.

HISTORY: The Beginnings of Marine Corps Marksmanship. “During the American Civil War, the first Marine to be awarded the Medal of Honor was Cpl. John Mackie for his exploits during the battle of Drewry’s Bluff. He blazed away at Confederate Marines on shore with his Springfield musket while on an ironclad ship which was running the gauntlet of the forts around Richmond, Va. However, few other instances can be found where Marine Corps marksmanship with shoulder arms was at all noteworthy. Indeed, when Marines fired a volley at a mob of insurrectionists in Washington, D.C., during the election day riots of 1857, they killed several bystanders, but few of the rioters at whom they were shooting. In 1899, the Commandant of the Marine Corps, Major General Charles Heywood, was dismayed to find that out of a full strength of about 6,000 men, only 89 officers and enlisted men qualified as marksmen or sharpshooters.”

JOY PULLMANN: An FBI So Corrupt It Lets Mass Shooters Rampage Needs To Go. “While the FBI has been failing to stop terrorist attacks by known threats, it has conducted numerous political operations on behalf of Democrats. It’s time to clean house.”

Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

40 YEARS AGO TODAY: Ronald Reagan was shot outside a Washington hotel. The president survived the assassination attempt after being shot in the lung.

VICTORIA TAFT: Biden’s ‘Screw America’ Terrible Trifecta of Tyranny Begins With ‘Vaccine Passports’ and a Side of Open Borders. “The vaccine passport is tantamount to America’s first social credit scorekeeping system and the mainstream media haven’t noticed or don’t care to notice.”

They’ve noticed. They just haven’t settled on exactly how to cheerlead for it.

CANCEL CULTURE IS ALL IN YOUR MIND: GoFundMe Yanks Page Run by Virginia Parents Fighting Woke Curriculum.