WILL FORMER FBI AGENT ACCEPT GRASSLEY CHALLENGE? Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) in a floor speech Wednesday challenged former FBI agent Timothy Thibault to come in for a recorded, on-the-record interview.

Grassley has a few questions for the recently retired Thibault regarding his role or non-role in the FBI’s investigation or coverup of the Hunter Biden laptop and related issues regarding the Biden family’s dealings with shadowy overseas business and government interests in Ukraine, China and elsewhere.

SORRY: C8 Corvette Z06 Ordering Book Closed Until 2023.

LIVE AT 4PM EASTERN: ‘Five O’Clock Somewhere’ with Kruiser, VodkaPundit, Special Guest Larry O’Connor.

SOMEONE had to do it.

KIRA DAVIS: CA Parents Sue School District After ‘Nonbinary’ Male Counselors Allegedly Slept in Girls’ Cabins at Science Camp.

Reminder: Kira is running for her Orange County school board to put a stop to this stuff.

JUST OUT: FIRE’S 2022-23 CAMPUS FREE SPEECH RANKINGS. With adminstrative behavior (such as disinvitation successes or professor punishments) now a part of the rankings, the University of Chicago retakes its place as #1, while Columbia University brings up the rear at an abysmal #203.

IT’S GOOD TO BE THE NOMENKLATURA: How a Hochul donor received $637M in state payments. “Digital Gadgets was paid an average of $12.25 per COVID-19 test. Other companies charged no more than $7.80, and some were paid $5.”

REMY: 1 BECOME 2 (Spice Girls Inflation Parody). New video from Reason TV:

21ST CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: A bisexual goose raising a family with two black swans isn’t as strange as it sounds. Hey, sex and species don’t matter. Love is love.

MATT MARGOLIS: Barack Obama’s Official White House Portrait Is the Perfect Metaphor for His Narcissism. “Pretty much the only thing this bland portrait accomplishes is that it makes the weird Smithsonian portrait look better by comparison.”

Well, I wouldn’t go that far.

Obama and Homer…#obamaportrait #BarackObama #HomerSimpson #TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/XIMbmzl7JP

— Joel Contreras (@Contreras68Joel) February 13, 2018

SURGERY IS ANCIENT: Surgeons performed a successful amputation 31,000 years ago in Borneo.

BIDEN DOESN’T CARE BECAUSE THIS JUST MEANS HER VOTE ISN’T UP FOR SALE: I went to community college. I shouldn’t be responsible for other students’ debt. “Because of the precautions I took, I will be graduating from my dream college in two years debt free. Though it took a lot of hard work and effort, I made it work because I knew it would be worth it.”

BREAKING: Queen Elizabeth II Has Passed Away.

Related (From Ed): “[P]lanning for Prince Charles’s coronation, nicknamed ‘Operation Golden Orb,’ will begin. The day will take place in Westminster Abbey in London, the traditional spot for coronations for the past 900 years. But it is likely that there will be a period of twelve months before he is officially sworn in. Why? Because that is seen as a suitable period for mourning, and because the ceremony is so extensive it takes about that time to plan.”

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Which is faster, a golfer, or a car? Richard Hammond races a pro golfer around an old F1 track (video):

EMBRACE THE MACHINE (OR NOT): Individuals show less trust in AI-suggested interventions, are more open to same suggestions from human health experts.

JACK DUNPHY: Do MAGA Republicans Cause Street Crime?

Such a curious speech it was, with the words inspired by Vladimir Lenin and the cinematography by Leni Riefenstahl. The president mentioned MAGA Republicans 13 times before he finished, with the references growing more and more ominous as he proceeded. “MAGA Republicans,” he darkly intoned, “look at America and see carnage and darkness and despair. They spread fear and lies – lies told for profit and power.”

And the viewer was left to think: “Sinister bunch, those MAGA people. I must secure the doors and windows and be on the lookout for them.”

But if you were to go out on the streets of America today in search of actual acts of violence committed by this group, which the president came just short of labeling as Enemies of the People, would you find any? And when you did encounter genuine carnage and despair, when you witnessed actual affronts to the rule of law, which in most cities wouldn’t take long at all, do you think you could attribute any of it to MAGA Republicans?

Of course not.

If your senses can bear it, take a few minutes to peruse the Twitter feed from Street People of Los Angeles, one of several feeds where you can find videos, photos, and news stories illustrating the lawless, dystopian depths to which large swaths of Southern California have descended. As you watch the videos, ask yourself how many of the people shown committing the various acts of depravity are MAGA Republicans, and how many would be more inclined to vote for Democrats?

Read the whole thing.

HE’S HIDING ABOUT $193,000,000 THINGS: Rand Paul Thinks Fauci Is Hiding Something.

SHOCKING NEWS FROM THE WORLD OF SCIENCE: Nearly two-thirds of women experience premenstrual mood swings, anxiety.

In the early days of feminism, even mentioning this got you pegged as an out-of-date sexist pushing antediluvian stereotypes. Nowadays, it’s a reason for “paid menstrual leave.”

MORE LIKE THIS, PLEASE: Media Giant Cumulus Drops Podcast Org For Begging Forgiveness Over Ben Shapiro’s ‘Presence’ at Conference: ‘Every Voice Matters.’

Broadcasting company Cumulus Media cut ties with Podcast Movement, a trade association that apologized last month for Daily Wire co-founder and podcaster Ben Shapiro making an appearance at a trade show.

Cumulus released a statement this week announcing they are “disassociating” from Podcast Movement as they are “dismayed and disappointed” by the treatment of Shapiro. Shapiro’s company was sponsoring a booth at the trade show, but Podcast Movement later apologized for the conservative pundit’s very presence.

“Hi folks, we owe you an apology before sessions kick off for the day,” Podcast Movement wrote in now deleted tweets last week about Shapiro. “Yesterday afternoon, Ben Shapiro briefly visited the PM22 expo area near The Daily Wire booth. Though he was not registered or expected, we take full responsibility for the harm done by his presence.”

There was no specification about the alleged “harm” Shapiro was causing with greeting fans at a booth representing a company he co-founded, but Cumulus made it clear in their statement that they are done with Podcast Movement over the statement lack of a followup explanation.

The crybullies only have as much power as others are willing to cede to them.

21st CENTURY RELATIONSHIPS: Blind bisexual goose named Thomas who spent six years in a love triangle with two swans and helped raise 68 babies dies at the ripe old age of 40.

(Found via Steve Hayward, who writes, “This headline may finally top the classic NY Post ‘Headless Body in Topless Bar’ headline.”)

QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED:

Shot: Does Your Name Determine Your Destiny?

—Live Science, March 30, 2011.

Chaser: Florida woman named Tupac Shakur charged with beating man with baseball bat.

—The New York Post, today.

DOBBS DIDN’T REPEAL ABORTION CULTURE: The Washington Stand’s Mary Szoch looks at women in sports and the reaction to the Dobbs decision. It’s clearly going to take much more than one Supreme Court decision to reverse 5o years of Roe damage.

COME SEE THE VIOLENCE INHERENT IN THE LEFTIST: Democrat Politician Allegedly Murders Journalist for Writing Negative Articles About Him. “German was fatally stabbed outside his home on Friday night. Local police obtained a search warrant for Telles’ home early Wednesday morning after police released a picture of a red SUV that they say was involved in the attack on German. Later, reporters from the Las Vegas Review-Journal said they saw Telles in his driveway with a car that matched the description.”

RIP: Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw dead at 82. “Shaw was CNN’s first chief anchor when it launched its 24-hour cable news network in June 1980. He retired from CNN in February 2001 after more than 20 years.”

To give but one example of how journalism has changed over the decades, it’s hard to imagine most legacy journalists today asking a question this hard-hitting to a Democrat during a presidential debate:

Massachusetts Governor Mike Dukakis didn’t exactly charm his way into voters’ hearts during the 1988 debates with his response about whether he would support the death penalty should his wife, Kitty, be raped and murdered. A longtime opponent of the death penalty, Dukakis responded to the startling question from CNN’s Bernard Shaw, “No, I don’t, Bernard, and I think you know that I’ve opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don’t see any evidence that it’s a deterrent and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime.” While some criticized the fairness of the question, to viewers the answer seemed both dispassionate and dismissive. Years later, Dukakis would recall his response, saying, “I have to tell you, and maybe I’m just still missing it … I didn’t think it was that bad.”

When Shaw left CNN in 2001, John McCain quipped, “I cannot tell you whether Bernie is a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian or vegetarian,” and while the same could be said of the nominally Republican McCain, 21^st century television journalists make it far more obvious where there allegiance lies.

JOANNE JACOBS: Rebuild trust or say ‘good-bye’ to students. “Social conservatives aren’t the only parents who suspect teachers and schools are ‘spending more time preaching than teaching.'”