THAT’S OKAY, BECAUSE IT’S ALL ABOUT POSTURING ANYWAY: Banning the sale of menthol cigarettes may do more harm than good.

DEAR BABYLON BEE, STOP IT, YOU’RE PREDICTING THE FUTURE:  Moloch Warns Of Looming Child Sacrifice Supply Chain Issues.

THAT’S NO WAY TO WOO A LADY … OR A COUNTRY:  On this day in 1544, the English army, acting on orders of Henry VIII, ransacked and burned Edinburgh.  Scotland’s offense against England was that its parliament had rejected plans for Mary, Queen of Scots (then only a toddler), to marry Henry’s son, Edward (then six years old).  Henry had been trying to draw Scotland away from its “Auld Alliance” with France and hoped that one day his heir would occupy the thrones of both England and Scotland.

Henry’s brutal instructions to his army were as follows:  “Put all to fire and sword, burn Edinburgh, so razed and defaced when you have sacked and gotten what ye can of it, as there may remain forever a perpetual memory of the vengeance of God lightened upon [them] for their falsehood and disloyalty.”

The violent period in Scottish-English relations from late 1543 to early 1551 has come to be called “the Rough Wooing.”   The term is thought to have been derived from a comment by the Earl of Huntly:  “We liked not the manner of the wooing, and we could not stoop to be being bullied into love.”

Upon Henry’s death, his son became the English king.  But Edward died at age 15 and thus his planned marriage to Mary, Queen of Scots, would likely have never taken place anyway.  On the other hand, Henry’s dream of a single monarch on the thrones of both England and Scotland was eventually realized.  But not the way he envisioned it:  It was Mary’s son, James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England.  That ended the Tudor dynasty in England and began the reign of the Stuarts.  (As a group, they weren’t so great either.  Always heed the  Psalmist’s advice: “Put not thy trust in princes …”).

By the way, there are those who believe that Henry’s erratic mood swings may be attributable to one or more  head injuries suffered in jousting accidents.

CAN THEY GO TO A COUNTRY THAT FITS THEIR POLITICS?  Obama and Michelle Call to Arms Over Roe v. Wade.

Cuba, North Korea, Venezuela. They’re spoiled for choice.

NO, BUT THEY WILL TRY:  Could You BE Any More Totalitarian?

I SURE HOPE SO:  Is the climate scare train starting to derail?

BTW, this blog is having a: INSTAPUNDIT SPECIAL on their subscriptions.

WORTH READING:  Fox Paws.

ALSO ABOLISH UNIVERSITIES AND SALT THE EARTH:  The Student Debt Forgiveness Crusade Should Be Led By the GOP.

THE JUNTA PERFORMED A SOFT COUP:  Psaki’s Shameful Refusal To Condemn Protests At Justices Homes.

The question is more why would you expect any of them to be less than despicable?

YEAH, I’VE ALWAYS THOUGHT THE POLLS SMELLED:  We Love You Joe, But Please Go Away!

But I don’t think the ones lying are democrats. Just people who don’t trust a stranger on the phone. And honestly? It’s better they don’t know how many otes they need to create out of thin air.

BIDEN DOJ DELENDA EST:  Biden DOJ Announces New ‘Office of Environmental Justice’.

BEHOLD, MY SHOCKED FACE AGAIN:  New Study Shows Face Mask Usage Did Not Correlate With Better Outcomes.

BEHOLD! MY SHOCKED FACE:  New Press Secretary is Married to CNN Reporter, has Anti-Israel Past.

PROOF THE TIMES DOESN’T READ THE TIMES:  Elon, South Africa, and the New York Times.

Frankly, we don’t blame them. It’s full of bullsh*t.

AND THEN THEY WONDER WHY WE CALL THEM “THOSE WHO ARE NO LONGER OUR COUNTRYMEN”:  Today’s blacklisted Americans: Conservative Supreme Court justices doxed and threatened by pro-abortion protesters.

WELL, IT’S A STRATEGY:  Defense in Depth.

CLARENCE THOMAS WON’T, BUT JOHN ROBERTS WILL: Clarence Thomas says Supreme Court won’t be ‘bullied’ in wake of abortion opinion leak.

LOCK THEM UP: Federal Statute Bans Picketing Judges’ Residences “With The Intent of Influencing [the] Judge.”

If the feds won’t do anything, maybe there will be citizens’ arrests. I also got an email from GWU Law Professor John Banzhaf, who comments: “So activists who oppose Roe who might seek to make citizen’s arrests, and activists who are protesting and presumably would forcefully oppose any such arrests, could well clash violently, especially if duly authorized law enforcement officers do not make arrests or otherwise act to prevent violations of federal (and possibly state) laws by the ‘Ruth Sent Us’ groups. This could, of course, happen if the police are overwhelmed, or, as has sometimes happened, law enforcement fails to arrest protestors engaging in illegal actions even when fully legally warranted.”

Seems like law enforcement should take a hand here, in the interest of preventing violence.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY:

SHOT: Democrats to force vote on making Roe v. Wade federal law next week.

Schumer blasted the GOP on Thursday, saying Republicans have tried to “duck, dodge and dip from their responsibility for bringing Roe to the brink of total repeal.”

“Next week the American people will see crystal clear that when given the chance to right this wrong, the Republican Party will either side with the extremists who want to ban abortion without exceptions or side with women, with families and with the vast majority of Americans,” the majority leader said.

CHASER:

OPEN THREAD: Now ain’t the time for your tears.

EVERY NORM MUST BE OVERTURNED IN THE NAME OF POLITICIZED RAGE:

IT’S A BAD APPROACH IN GENERAL: Nelson criticizes “plague” of cost-plus NASA contracts. I’m pleasantly surprised to hear Nelson talking this way.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: Stock plunge could become dollar death spiral. “America’s soaring trade deficit, now running at a record $1.32 trillion annual rate, requires the US to sell paper to its foreign suppliers in return for goods. Most of the paper the US sold to foreigners during the past few years was equity in US corporations, rather than government or corporate bonds. Valuations in the US stock market soared as the Federal Reserve forced interest rates lower, by reducing its short-term lending rate to zero and by purchasing $6 trillion of Treasury securities. The result of this exercise is the worst inflation in forty years and a collapse of labor productivity that portends shrinking corporate profits. As the Fed raises interest rates (in the mistaken belief that higher rates will reduce inflation) and inflation eats into profits, the valuation of US stocks is falling. That raises the ugly prospect of a deficit death spiral. With a net foreign asset position of $18 trillion, the United States can’t go on selling its assets to foreigners indefinitely. At some point the orderly sale of US assets might turn into a fire sale.”

FECAL TRANSPLANT UPDATE: Effects of Aging Have Been Reversed by Putting Young Mouse Poop in Old Mice. “It sounds like something that might have come out of a sci-fi novel, but it’s based on cold, hard, printed research: transplanting fecal microbes from young mice into old mice seems to reverse key signs of aging in the guts, eyes, and brains of the older animals. Further experiments showed that it works the other way too – moving microbes from the poop of aged mice into younger mice caused the younger animals to then show signs of aging, including increased inflammation in the brain and a reduction in a key protein needed for normal vision.”