JUST ASK SOMEONE TO FEDEX IT BACK TO YOU FROM ELON CITY IN A FEW YEARS: NASA Announces It Needs a New Plan For Retrieving Its Martian Rock Samples.

BLACKMAN AND TILLMAN GET RESULTS: Special Counsel Jack Smith Responds to Blackman-Tillman: No matter how you slice it, Smith cannot exercise the powers he purports to exercise.

LOL, DAVID FRUM. “We’re not supposed to read Biden’s refusal to debate to mean that he lacks the mental capacity to debate. Frum and others will instruct us, repeatedly, in articles repeating the talking point.”

But we all know that’s why, and that dishonest flacks are making excuses for the mental incapacity of the President they foisted on us last time around.

CHANGE: Evolution in Action? Nitrogen-Fixing Organelles May Be Nature’s Next Big Leap.

MARK JUDGE: Kathleen Parker Has Balls.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to Spot the Next Mania: Each new panic follows the same playbook. “Within the astonishingly short time frame of 10 years, I count four real-life collective crazes: transgenderism, #MeToo, Covid lockdowns (which spawned sub-crazes over masks and vaccines), and Black Lives Matter. I also worry we’re already in the grip of social mania number five.”

But I don’t believe that “both the priests and disciples of moral panics are driven by good intentions.” The useful idiots are, but not the promulgators. And even a lot of the useful idiots are drawn in by the opportunity to bully others and feel virtuous about it.

OZEMPIC, ETC. WILL MAKE THIS OBSOLETE. Why don’t rich people eat anymore? Extreme dieting is the latest way for the mega-rich to signal their wealth and status.

THE E.V. BUBBLE DEFLATES: 2025 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter First Drive: Run Silent, Run … Slow?

CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: The Battle For National Park Carry Isn’t Over.

WELL, GOOD: Researchers say common dementia medication doesn’t increase risk of death, life-threatening heart abnormalities.

“PEOPLE WITH BREAST CANCER.” SCIENCE! Many people with breast cancer ‘systematically left behind’ due to inaction on inequities and hidden suffering. Okay, men do occasionally get breast cancer. But the article speaks entirely about the woes of women. Only the headline bothers to be woke.

BUMMER: Pets pass antibiotic-resistant ‘superbugs’ to humans.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: U.S. pharmacy database shows record-high shortages of medical drugs.

LIMIT THE CASH-COW ENROLLMENT OF FOREIGN STUDENTS VIA LAW OR TAX REGULATION AND YOU’D SOLVE MUCH OF THE CAMPUS ANTI-SEMITISM PROBLEM: Gaza Grilling Felled Two Ivy Presidents. Columbia Hopes to Avoid the Same Fate.

Four months after a congressional hearing prompted the resignations of two Ivy League university presidents, the leader of Columbia University is set to face questions Wednesday from the same committee trying to determine how she has protected students as protesters rage against Israel and the war in Gaza.

Columbia President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik has the advantages of hindsight and months to prepare. . . .

“Some of the worst cases of antisemitic assaults, harassment, and vandalism on campus have occurred at Columbia University,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.) in a March statement. Foxx is the chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, which is holding the hearing.

Jewish students at Columbia have alleged incidents of assault, antisemitic graffiti like swastikas, calls for the destruction of Israel at rallies and speaking invitations from student groups to members of foreign terrorist groups.

Shafik, who became Columbia’s president on July 1, 2023, has defended the university’s actions following the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

The free speech argument would be more compelling if Columbia had a record of vigorously defending the free speech of students its leadership didn’t agree with. It doesn’t. And with the AAUP and university faculties suddenly interested in defending academic freedom — where have you been? It’s not like higher education hasn’t spent the past decade or two convincing the public it was a toxic industry.

Flashback: Welcome to the party, pal!

WELL, OKAY THEN. CDC report finds no link between COVID vaccine and sudden cardiac deaths in young adults.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTI-SEMITISM? Former Cornell student pleads guilty to threatening to shoot Jewish students.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: CUNY prof says O.J. Simpson was guilty, but his acquittal was ‘necessary’ in a ‘racist legal system.’

Lol, Marc Lamont Hill.

THREAD:

(Thread) In reaction to Florida’s DEI ban, FSU is renaming its DEI office the Office of Equal Opportunity Compliance and Engagement. That’s cute, but they gave me an idea. https://t.co/2mn4cDRYgR

— David Mastio (@DavidMastio) April 16, 2024

TYRANNY IN BELGIUM: Police Shut Down Nigel Farage Speech.

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Biden’s Middle East policy is beyond parody. “Is this ineptitude, or is it corruption? As the girl in the taco commercials says, ‘Why not both?'”

SALENA ZITO: The politics of steel are center stage in Pennsylvania.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Switzerland Signs Artemis Accords.

THE ENEMY WITHIN: Ex-TikTok Employee Says He Was Ordered To Send US Data to China.

THE MORE HE RECOVERS FROM HIS BRAIN DAMAGE, THE LESS HE SOUNDS LIKE A DEMOCRAT: Fetterman: Biden Panders to the Fringe As He Distances U.S. From Israel.

THINGS NOT HAPPENING IN FLORIDA: Road-blocking protests. “‘If you riot, if you loot, if you harm others, particularly if you harm a law enforcement officer during one of these violent assemblies, you’re going to jail.’ — Governor DeSantis.”