WHAT CHINA’S WUHAN LAB AND LONG MARCH 5B ROCKET HAVE IN COMMON: “Negligent” and “irresponsible” come immediately to mind, according to National Review’s Jim Geraghty.

FACTS YOU LIKELY DON’T KNOW ABOUT JERUSALEM: It is holy to three faiths, but as Jeff Dunetz points out on The Lid, there is much more about the city that most people don’t know. For instance, Jerusalem has been conquered and reconquered but did you know this about one of those conquests?

“It is noteworthy that an earlier capture of Jerusalem by the Greek-Egyptian King Ptolemy, son of Lagus, provided an opportunity for the obscure Agatharchides of Cnidus (second century BCE) to remark about the fact that the people of Jerusalem, who inhabited the most strongly fortified of cities, lost their city because they would not defend it on the Sabbath,” Dunetz writes.

And why am I pointing this out? Because Sunday, May 9 is an important day in modern history:

“Sunday night, May 9th, 2021 begins the day-long Israeli holiday called Yom Yerushalayim, which celebrates the reunification of the holy city during the six-day war in 1967, It’s a day that should be celebrated by Muslims, Christians, and Jews as the city is holy to those faiths. And unlike before 1967, when the city was occupied by Jordan, under Israeli rule holy sites are open to all faiths.”

SUPERB COVID ORIGINS READING LIST: Compiled by U.S. Right to Know, this list of credible analyses, news reports  and studies on the origins of the Covid-19 virus is continually updated. The evidence is becoming undeniable that the open-air meat market near the Wuhan lab had little or nothing to do with the spread of the disease from China to the entire world.

WHO COULD HAVE IMAGINED THIS WOULD HAPPEN: Taliban attacks in Afghanistan are on the rise, Just the News’ Susan Katz Keating reports. Note her inclusion of the key difference between the withdrawal strategies of Trump and Biden. Susan and I worked together years ago at the Washington Times. Cloning her could save American journalism from its current death spiral into propaganda.

THREE REASONS TO THINK TWICE ON GENE-EDITING: Wouldn’t it be great if cancer could be eliminated forever with gene-editing? Yes, but there may be other much less pleasant results we haven’t conceived, argues the Colson Center’s Brook McIntire, who offers three reasons to slow down, take a deep breath and think about what we’re doing and where we could be heading with this promising new technology,

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN ANIFA/BLMERS CONFRONTED BY A PISTOL: Check out the video on Gateway Pundit on an incident in a Louisville  restaurant where protestors were aggressively disrupting the meal. One of the protestors is clearly armed with what looks like a Glock. Then one of the patrons pulls out his own firearm.

REMEMBER JOHN KASICH SPEAKING TO THE 2020 DNC: Issues & Insights says it’s time to compare what three prominent Never-Trumpers promised would be Joe Biden’s presidency with what it’s actually been in the first 100 days.

Let’s review: The former Ohio Republican governor told America how moderate and sensible Joe Biden would be as president. Former New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman assured America that Joe would work with everybody. And Jeff Flake, the former Arizona senator whose last name tells the story, well, he was enraptured with those “better angels” Joe would allegedly summon.

The I&I guys would like to know when we can expect apologies from these clowns. Don’t hold your breath, friends.

WILL YOU BET AGAINST PASCAL’S WAGER: Ok, this one on HillFaith today is especially for all you smart guys (and you know who you are!). Is Jesus Alive’s Erik Manning takes on Rationality Rules, Cosmic Skeptic and Genetically Modified Skeptic concerning the French mathematician’s famous wager.

And yes, it includes links to the three smart guys.

DO THESE DOTS CONNECT? Let’s see, Tristan Justice, writing for The Federalist, notes a recent Twitter piece on that Maricopa County (AZ) recount that plays into “the narrative that a thorough review of the results presents a dangerous threat to election integrity, and henceforth American democracy.”

Then, in another piece for The Federalist, we have Justice pointing out that Twitter stock fell abruptly late last week, a fact that absolutely delighted former President Donald Trump, who was banned from the social media outlet earlier this year in a blatant example of Big Tech’s censorial might.

All of which reminds me of a recent column of mine on PJ Media about the worst thing that could happen to Big Tech. Also reminds me of a certain phrase for which former First Lady Nancy Reagan became famous: “Just Say No.”

WHO DEFINES PATRIOTISM? Good question. Issues & Insights notes today that “George Washington warned us to ‘guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism,’ and Theodore Roosevelt said ‘patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official.’”

If you’re thinking somebody might want to explain that to Joe Biden — who just told Americans it’s our “patriotic duty” to wear masks outside, just point them to this I&I editorial for the facts.

MORE LAWYERS, JUST WHAT DOD NEEDS: Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Jed Babbin is puzzled by two supporters of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s (D-NY) bill that would remove the decision whether to prosecute military sexual assault and related cases from the authority of commanders.

The two Babbin zeroes in on in the Spectator are Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). If Gillibrand’s bill becomes law, it would be a giant step in furthering destroying the ability of the world’s most powerful military to do what it’s meant to do, win the victory against all foes.

FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY IS RACIST: That is according to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), member of The Squad and self-appointed arbiter of human relations everywhere, based on the mistaken arrest of a man due to a false facial recognition ID:

Facial recognition technology is racist. https://t.co/HbxrPdHE8J

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) May 3, 2021

14 OBAMA/BIDEN/KERRY LIES OF THE IRAN DEAL: Jeff Dunetz brings it all together on The Lid in a comprehensive analysis of the many ways revival of the deal former President Donald Trump cancelled represents and existential threat to the U.S., Israel and the Gulf States.

DISPATCHES FROM THE LUNATIC ASYLUM: This is America? HUD protecting perverts lurking in women’s shelters, boosting sex traffickers in Illinois, and teaching California students Azetc pagan worship, human sacrifice and cannibalism.

CAN ATHEISM AND FREE WILL CO-EXIST: Free will and individual responsibility are at the heart of freedom, but best-selling atheists like Sam Harris claim free will is an illusion. And Jerry Coyne argues that people are nothing more than “meat robots.” Kyle Butt argues that you choosing to read this post and watch the linked video demonstrates why Harris and Coyne are wrong.

WHY DOES BIDEN MASK AFTER BEING VACCINATED: Good question and one highlighted by the fact during last week’s climate summit, Joe Biden was the only world leader wearing a mask during the video session. Issues & Insights thinks this tells us something important about when Biden will declare victory against Covid.

ABOUT THAT ALABAMA AMAZON VOTE: And speaking of CRC, the mainstream media hasn’t given it much coverage, but the anti-unionization vote last week by workers at an Alabama Amazon facility is hugely important. This is especially so, according to CRC’s Michael Watson, given the Democrats’ PRO Act proposal now before the Senate.

WHO IS HANS WYSS? If the name doesn’t instantly ring a bell like that of George Soros, don’t feel bad because Hans Wyss, a Swiss billionaire with a checkered record of involvement in the medical research and liberal political donor fields, is not well-known. Thanks to Capital Research Center’s Hayden Ludwig, however, that should be about to change.

CHAUVIN ALTERNATE JUROR CONFIRMS MOB FEAR: If one of the panel feared the consequences of not delivering the verdict demanded by the BLM mob, odds are others had the same fears.

EPIC POETRY AT MEDIA MATTERS: J. Christian Adams utilizes the Lefty outfit to illustrate the yawning gulf between fable and fact. This one is brutal and deservedly so. And, since we’re on the subject of media criticism today, you should also check out my case over at PJ Media for why the Old Grey Lady owes America an apology.

TWO ‘MONSTROUS LIES’ FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES: Issues & Insights has some, uh, questions. The I&I gang also has a “PAC” of concerns about the political contributions of James and Kathryn Murdoch.

MANCHIN GOES WITH THE UNION BOSSES: Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), the sole remaining trace of what was once a strong pack of moderate Senate Democrats — think Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson of Washington — has mightily disappointed those who hoped he would buck the unions.

BIDEN INJECTING CRT INTO CIVICS CLASSES: Stanley Kurtz at National Review puts a new Biden administration proposed rule under the microscope and finds a new variant of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) cancer – public school civics classes.

The proposed Department of Education rule establishes grant criteria for new civics education programs that explicitly require the teaching of CRT tenets, beginning with the “systemic racism” pogrom against the American experience. And why not, since the Chief Executive himself repeats the lie on a regular basis.

And don’t miss Hans Bader’s detailed assessment on Liberty Unyielding of the devastating critiques of CRT that have appeared from historians across the ideological spectrum, including the Worldwide Socialist Web Site that described the 1619 Project as “a politically motivated falsification of history.”

JESUS AND WILLIAM WALLACE HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON: Well, both are known for their swords, though for radically different reasons. And there are legend issues regarding both.

HYPOCRISY, THY NAME IS LEGION: Hard on the heels of revelations one of the Black Lives Matter poo-bahs recently purchased a costly mansion in a posh nearly all-white California neighborhood comes Collin Anderson of the Washington Free Beacon with news about clean-shaven landlord Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA):

“The progressive congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (D., Mass.) has called rent cancellation legislation ‘literally a matter of life and death.’ At the same time, she has collected cash from her own rental properties.

“Pressley and her husband made as much as $15,000 in rental income in 2019 after purchasing a $658,000 Boston home, according to property records and financial disclosures reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon. The income appears to come over the course of four months—the unit was first listed for $2,500 a month in June 2019 and the posting was removed in August.”

Who knew Pressley and hubby would die without collecting that rent?