ADMIRAL CUOMO PREPARES FOR WAR:  The duly-elected governor of the Empire State has lost his ever-lovin’ mind.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, 1983, THE SO-CALLED HITLER DIARIES–A SUDDEN GLOBAL SENSATION–WERE EXPOSED AS A FORGERY:  In my family, credit goes to my ex-husband, who said to us at the time: “They ought to test the ink, not the paper. Any idiot can find old paper to write on.”  Right again, Mr. Brock.  It was indeed the ink that proved the diaries were fake.

HEROIC SEATTLE POLICE OFFICER FACES DISCIPLINE:  Should the officer have waited for the lunatic with an ice ax stolen from the REI to kill somebody before putting him in a bear hug?  Somebody at the Seattle police department must think so.  It’s amazing anybody is willing to be a police officer these days.

TODAY IN HISTORY: Today in 1787, James Madison arrived in Philadelphia, nine days before the Constitutional Convention’s scheduled start (and twenty days before its actual start). He stayed at Mary House’s boarding house at Fifth & Market Streets and dined at the Indian Queen Tavern (also owned by Mrs. House) nearby. And why shouldn’t he get there early? The guy was born for this job.

His fellow delegate William Pierce described him this way: “Mr. Madison is a character who has long been in public life; and what is very remarkable every Person seems to acknowledge his greatness. He blends together the profound politician, with the Scholar. … The affairs of the United States, he perhaps, has the most correct knowledge of, of any Man in the Union.”

DON’T MESS WITH BEARS:  Really.  No selfies with bears.  That’s a rule to live by.

I TOOK A LOOK AT THE TEXT OF THE LOGAN ACT:  I’m not sure it’s the most carefully considered legislation Congress ever produced, but I didn’t see anything about its applying only to Republicans.

HYPOCRISY ALERT: A new study finds that the more one believes in global warming, the less one is likely to engage in eco-friendly individual behaviors. It’s funny how that works.

KANYE IMAGINE THAT?: If you didn’t watch the Bill Whittle video posted by Stephen Green this morning, here’s the part you shouldn’t miss: Kanye West isn’t just a guy who has a few nice things to say about Donald Trump. He listens to Jordan Peterson AND HE QUOTES THE GREAT THOMAS SOWELL.

I tend to be pretty skeptical of celebrity endorsements in politics. And to be honest, I remain skeptical of this one. But I have to admit, learning that Kanye West quotes Thomas Sowell made me smile. Maybe there’s hope for the world after all.

THE LITTLE VARMINTS ARE AFTER GEORGE WASHINGTON NOW: Students at GWU don’t like the university’s “Colonial” mascot, which has honored the school’s namesake, George Washington, since 1926.

THE EEOC SUES ALBERTSONS GROCERY CHAIN FOR REQUIRING ITS BILINGUAL EMPLOYEES TO SPEAK ENGLISH WHEN AROUND ENGLISH-SPEAKING CUSTOMERS: Seems like  an extreme interpretation of liability under Title VII to me (and indeed several federal courts have agreed).

A few years ago, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights asked employers why they chose to require their bilingual employees to speak English while at work, and their responses seemed sensible: First, it’s human nature that when some people hear others speaking a language that they don’t understand, they worry whether the others are talking about them. So it’s rude speak in a language that others don’t understand. When customers (or even fellow employees) are the one’s who feel uncomfortable, it’s bad for business. Second, sexual harassment law makes an employer liable for “hostile environment.” But if the employer or the employer’s managers speak only English, it is much more difficult to supervise and to ensure employees are not being abusive to each other. And there were other reasons. I wrote about the topic in my Commissioner Statement in the Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on English-Only Policies in the Workplace.

I can’t help but wonder if Americans would have a more favorable attitude toward immigration if the federal government hadn’t been zealously pursuing anti-assimilationist policies for so many decades. Attempts to impose bilingual education and affirmative action are two of the biggest ones. (Why identify with the majority if your one of your grandparents will get you diversity points?) But in a small way these “Speak English, please” rules are another example. (By the way, the EEOC seems to be going out of its way to “interpret” the Albertsons rule to be more demanding than it really is. It is not the intent of the rule to prevent Spanish-speaking employees from assisting Spanish-speaking customers in Spanish if they happen to be within earshot of an English-speaking customer.)

While all this is happening, Trump’s appointees to the EEOC are still awaiting Senate confirmation. And it’s 2018. Tick, tick, tick.

THOUGH SHE BE BUT LITTLE, SHE IS FIERCE: On this day in 1776, Rhode Island (officially the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations) renounced its allegiance to George III—a full two months before the Continental Congress approved the Declaration of Independence. For such a little squirt, Rhode Island was fiercely independent. It refused to send a delegation to the Constitutional Convention in 1787, and for a long time refused to ratify the Constitution the Convention produced. Finally, after the Constitution was up and running, President Washington was inaugurated, and the 1^st Congress was assembled, Rhode Island was reminded that if it isn’t part of the United States and America, then it’s a foreign country. If it’s a foreign country, then tariffs can (and likely will) be imposed. Meanwhile, Congress passed the Bill of Rights, which reduced some of the concerns of Rhode Island citizens. Rhode Island decided to be “in.”

MAKE NO LITTLE PLANS:  On May 3, 1973, this day in history, Chicago’s Sears Tower was “topped off.”  It remained the tallest building in the world for 23 years.

As a good Chicagoan, I cannot bring myself to call it the Willis Tower.

THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM WARS CONTINUE IN STATE COURT:  Now that the Trump Administration has withdrawn the “Dear Colleague Letter,” the argument that Title IX covers this has dried up.

CAN I KISS YOU? NO, NEVER MIND. I’D BETTER NOT. I COULD WIND UP IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE: Stephen Green pointed out yesterday that the Pentagon has spent $697,627 on “Can I Kiss You” training. I strongly suspect that is just a small sliver of what the Pentagon spends on the prevention of what it calls “unwanted sexual contact.”

In 2013, the military released the results of its 2012 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey of Active Duty Members, which purported to show a large uptick in “unwanted sexual contact.” Those results, however, were utterly unscientific and almost certainly wrong (as I described at length in my individual Commissioner Statement in the Commission on Civil Rights’ Report on Sexual Assault in the Military).

Nevertheless, on June 4^, 2013, in a regrettable spectacle, the Senate Armed Services Committee conducted a hearing at which some of the military’s highest-ranking officers were berated about the survey results. It was not the first such hearing. Congress has held at least 10 such hearings over the years. At the June 4, 2013 hearing, a supplicating Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond T. Odierno attempted to reassure the panel by testifying, “Two weeks ago, I told my commanders that combating sexual assault and sexual harassment within the ranks is our No. 1 priority.”

No doubt preventing sexual misconduct is important. Still, I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t make me feel safe and warm to think the military’s top priority is the prevention of sexual misconduct. How about a little perspective?

FALKLANDS IRREDENTISM?: Today is the 36^th anniversary of the sinking of Argentina’s General Belgrano (originally the U.S.S. Phoenix, a Brooklyn-class light cruiser) by the H.M.S. Conqueror, a British nuclear submarine. It was the deadliest day of the Falklands War. I visited Buenos Aires last year and found more references to the war than I expected. There is an impressive map of Las Islas Malvinas (the Falkland Islands) on the wall at the Casa Rosada. Argentinians haven’t forgotten.

EXPLETIVE DELETED:  Here’s what bothers me about the media coverage of the “prom dress” fiasco.  When quoting the utterly idiotic tweet by Jeremy Lam, the Washington Post and other MSM outlets leave out the curse word.  WaPo writes:  “‘My culture is NOT your …. prom dress.'”  That, of course, is not what he wrote.  What he wrote was a lot nastier.

Where a newspaper reporter uses an ellipsis in a quotation, the reporter is telling readers that they should trust him or her that the deleted material was not significant.  But, in this case, I think it was.  By deleting the curse, WaPo made the whole thing seem more like a “debate” (which is how the headline characterized it) and less like a hotheaded rant by a pathetic fool (which is what it was).  I can understand not wanting to print curses in a family newspaper.  If so, they could have rendered it as “My culture is NOT your [expletive deleted] prom dress.”

The real story is how so many people could “heart” such an incoherent sentiment.

CELEBRATE: It’s International Workers’ Day, also know as May Day. Celebrate by buying The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. If you’ve got friends or relatives who are still starry-eyed about Marxism’s ability to bring about a workers’ paradise, whack ‘em over the head with it. It’s sure to cure them.

HERE’S AN INTERESTING LITTLE VIOLATION OF TITLE II OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964:

Back in March, Tunde Wey made headlines for his New Orleans pop-up, Saartj, where white customers were asked to pay two and a half times more than people of color for the same meal. And now, the activist chef is introducing his idea of “discomfort food” to Detroit, when he’s taking over Bank Suey community center in Hamtramck this week.

It’s not guaranteed diners will be served items like plantains stuffed with goat, confit fowl with African honey beans or the coconut flakes that have been soaked in brandy. Instead, guests who visit the pop-up will fill out a form that asks questions about their race, gender, education and income—their answers will then be used to tailor their menus.

“We want to present to you, in essence, what your privilege represents,” Wey tells the Detroit Free Press. “If you go to a restaurant right now—any nice, high-end restaurant—as much as possible folks try to tailor the experience to you. . . . I want to tailor the experience to them [guests] and I want to predicate that experience on their privilege.”

From tasting table.com.

THE LAST THING LEFT-LEANING FEMINISTS SHOULD WANT:  A Constitutional Amendment that would jeopardize preferential treatment for woman-owned businesses in public contracting.

IF POLITICS IS COMPLICATED IN MINNESOTA:  It’s probably complicated everywhere else too.

LOUISIANA PURCHASE: On this day in 1803, American Minister to France Robert Livingston, James Monroe and Barbé Marbois signed the Treaty for the Louisiana Purchase in Paris. The Americans had been authorized by President Jefferson to offer up to $10 million for New Orleans and its environs and were shocked to be offered the whole enchilada for only $15 million (cheap!). Certain that the United States would approve, Livingston took the deal. Back then, owing to the difficulty of communications, diplomats had to have more discretion that they do now.  That was also true for a whole lot of other people separated by distance from their “superiors.”

MESSAGE TO THE MAINE LEGISLATURE:   Charles Napier, a 19^th century official of the British Empire in India, well understood the limits of cross-cultural tolerance. When told by Hindu leaders that it would be inappropriate for him to interfere with the “national custom” of burning widows alive on their husband’s funeral pyre, he responded:

Be it so. This burning of widows is your custom; prepare the funeral pile. But my nation has also a custom. When men burn women alive we hang them, and confiscate all their property. My carpenters shall therefore erect gibbets on which to hang all concerned when the widow is consumed. Let us all act according to national customs.

Read more about Napier and Female Genital Mutilation in Maine at Burning Widows and Other Things that Even “Multicultural” Americans Shouldn’t Tolerate.

THE FALL OF SAIGON WAS 43 YEARS AGO TODAY:  Wikipedia has an entry for the re-education camps established by the communist government after the fall.  Official and unofficial estimates of the number of individuals sent to be “re-educated” at one of those camps tend to run between 200,000 to 300,000.  If you weren’t one of them, count your blessings.

STEVE HAYWARD MISSES POPE BENEDICT:  #MeToo

NEWS I HOPE YOU NEVER HAVE TO USE: Today is the 73^rd anniversary of the liberation of Dachau. In honor of that here’s a counterintuitive fact: Never give a starving person a lot* to eat. If you thought that was a myth, you should know that it’s not. It’s called re-feeding syndrome, and it can be fatal.

*No, I have no idea how much is too much, except that it’s not very much.   I’m just a law professor. You would be wise to re-check anything I say about dealing with the physical world.