REMEMBER WHEN THE WASHINGTON POST WAS A REAL NEWSPAPER? Elizabeth Harrington’s analysis in the Washington Free Beacon dissects how the present-day Post created a Trump violation of the law out of a suit filed against his predecessor.

IF ONE BAR BRAWL A WEEK IS GOOD, WOULDN’T TWO BE EVEN BETTER? My link here yesterday to HillFaith’s video of Oxford mathematician John Lennox prompted a delightful comment from reader DUCKOFD3ATH about such posts invariably prompting “bar brawls” over “intellectually challenging” materials.

Well, Lennox is back this morning and addressing that perennial question of “who created God” by way of answering Richard Dawkins. The way I figure it, one bar brawl a week about God is fine but an occasional second one could double our fun. Just watch out for those mean left jabs!

HERE’S GRAPHIC PROOF OF MSM ANTI-TRUMP BIAS: This is a great example of how smart, honest journalists can use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) not only as a resource for holding government accountable but also each other.

The Washington Free Beacon’s Brent Scher used the government’s online FOIA database to count FOIA requests submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by the New York Times, Washington Post, ABC, CNN, The Hill and Politico during President Barack Obama’s second term in the Oval Office and through Trump’s tenure there.

What Scher found is stark: “Reporters at the Washington Post sent just a single FOIA request to the EPA during Obama’s entire second term, and have sent 43 FOIA requests to the agency since Trump took office.”

The New York Times? Reporters there “have made 100 FOIA requests since Trump took office just over two years ago, a 669 percent increase of the number of FOIA requests it made during the four years of Obama’s second term.”

Similar trends were seen at the other four outlets Scher checked. That thump you just heard was the sound of the mike I just dropped. If I had a mike, that is.

WHAT’S AN OXFORD MATHEMATICIAN GOT TO SAY ABOUT FAITH? To meet John Lennox on the street would be a pleasant enough experience, as he is a down-to-earth Irishman with an easy laugh and a gentle manner. He’s the proverbial guy you’d love to have as a neighbor.

He’s also a professor of mathematics at Oxford, an admirer of the great physicist Stephen Hawking, whom he critiqued in an important book, a regular debate opponent of another famous Oxford don, Richard Dawkins, and an articulate apologist for intelligent design and evangelical Christianity.

So why does he claim science and faith are complementary at a time when the former claims to have done away with the latter? He explains it all here on HillFaith in an excerpt from a recent interview on British radio.

UPDATE: Every editor needs an editor and I am no exception. Thanks to all for pointing out my complementary/complimentary stumble.

PELOSI’S HOUSE TO MODERNIZE BUT FORGET MORE TRANSPARENCY: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said voters in November 2018 demanded a Congress that is more “ethical, transparent, unifying, and responsive.” So she created the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress.

The committee heard from 30 witnesses — all members of Congress — at its recent first hearing but hardly anybody said anything about making the legislative branch more transparent. I know, you aren’t surprised, either, but you won’t believe some of the stuff these guys did suggest.

DOES BETO NOT KNOW HE’S BLEEDING? Remember some weeks back when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s daughter said mom cuts off your head without you even knowing you’re bleeding.

The Daily Caller’s Kerry Picket — who is easily one of the best reporters covering Congress, by the way —reminds us of a 2016 incident that may explain why Pelosi can’t remember anything O’Rourke accomplished in Congress.

NO, PELOSI’S IMPEACHMENT REMARK DOESN’T TAKE THE ISSUE OFF THE TABLE: Much of the reporting and commentary on the Speaker of the House’s comment to the Washington Post that she opposes impeachment of President Donald Trump seems to assume that Nancy Pelosi is trying to protect her Democrats from themselves.

But veteran political strategists from both the Democratic and Republican sides are cautioning that the Chief Executive would be well-advised not to fire all those lawyers he’s got defending him just yet because Pelosi’s statement is subject to multiple levels of meaning.

EVERY DIME ONLINE. IN REAL TIME: That’s the motto of OpenTheBooks.com, the amazing web site that is putting trillions of dollars of spending at all levels of government online and accessible to everybody.

Adam Andrezejewski is the founder and top poo-bah there and he’s the subject today of The Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders” series of video interviews.

I’ve known Adam for more than a decade and as a journalist have turned to him countless times for data that made big stories on waste, fraud and abuse in government. The guy deserves a medal and I hope somebody in the Trump White House is listening.

OK, THERE THEY GO AGAIN! FACEBOOK BANS ZERO HEDGE: Tyler Durden lays it out. Who’s next? Town Hall? Powerline? Hot Air?  The Last Refuge? Or, God forbid, Instapundit? They better keep their petty tyrant hands off HillFaith, too!

HOUSE AG CHIEF KILLS TRUMP ORDER ENDING WORK EXEMPTION FOR ABLE-BODIED FOOD STAMP RECIPIENTS: “I’ll guarantee you it’s not going to happen,” U.S. Rep Collin Peterson said, according to watchdog.org’s Bethany Blankley, writing in the Washington Free Beacon this morning.

Trump had proposed to end a long-standing Department of Agriculture regulation that allowed states to exempt able-bodied Food Stamp recipients from work requirements for government assistance.

The observation from Peterson, who is among the few remaining House Democrats with some semblance of bipartisanship in his record, means the Trump initiative will go nowhere until after the 2020 elections, assuming the House changes hands again. Blankley has much more here.

HOUSE FREEDOM CAUCUS LAUNCHES PODCAST: Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), a former Talk Radio host and pastor of a Southern Baptist church, is the host and the first guest is HFC Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC). Will be interesting to watch this podcast as it grows, as part of the mostly unremarked resurgence of this form of digital programming.

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING, I’M BACK MONDAY: One second, I’m shoveling snow on the driveway, the next I’m laying flat on my face and stomach, praying “Oh, Lord, please don’t let that knee be broken.” It was and now I’m in recovery mode.

DIPLOMACY IS NOT ‘DUCK DYNASTY’ STAR PHIL ROBERTSON’S STRONG SUIT: The A&E reality series maybe isn’t as popular as it once was, but that isn’t stopping patriarch Robertson from offering his blunt analysis of America’s direction.

“We see carnage in the nation’s rehab centers. We see murders. We see people shooting other people at schools and concerts and other places. We need to take a step back and really realize that we must help our country get back on the right track,” Robertson tells LifeZette’s Maureen Mackey in a Sunday interview about his new book, “The Theft of America’s Soul.”

“We need the Scriptures. We must go back to the Bible. We have to love our neighbors and forgive each other. We need patience, kindness, goodness. And we must instill this in our children so that they can instill it in their children,” Robertson said.

One need not be a Dynasty fan or regular church attender to agree that more patience, kindness, goodness, forgiveness and love among us would be a good thing. The trick is how to get us there and Robertson holds nothing back on that score, either. Read the whole thing.

POT OF GOLD AWAITS MUELLER AFTER RUSSIA COLLUSION PROBE: How much will the nation’s top law firms pay Robert Mueller if he opts to return to private law practice after completing his special counsel duties? Washingtontonian’s Marisha Kashino has some possibly eye-popping figures.

IT TOOK FIVE YEARS BUT WYOMING’S STATE CHECKBOOK IS NOW PUBLIC: OpenTheBooks.com now has the state government of Wyoming’s checkbook available to the public. It’s the latest victory in the non-profit transparency watchdog’s continuing battle to make “every dime, online, in real time” for every level of government.

JUST WHEN BOOMERS THINK MILLENNIALS ARE HOPELESS: Along comes somebody like Emily Kennedy, a remarkable young woman who with her business partner started a Pittsburgh-based firm that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to help law enforcement fight human trafficking.

Yes, there are legitimate and growing worries about misapplications of AI, robotics and the Deep State, but this is one example of how digital technology can contribute in a mighty way to getting rid of an evil that is found all over the world.

DOES NORTH KOREA HAVE NUKES IN SATELLITES ABOVE THE US? The answer to that question appears to be the North Koreans may indeed have at least one in a low orbit that would make it ideal for wreaking irrevocable havoc on this country via an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) detonation, according to Daniel Ashman of The Epoch Times.

“Another unusual feature of the North Korean satellites is that they orbit from south to north,” Ashman reports. “Normally, weather satellites go from north to south to help obtain a sun-synchronous orbit—to observe conditions on earth under regular sun conditions—which can be desirable for earth observation satellites. The south-to-north trajectory has military applications though, as it evades America’s early warning radars and national missile defenses.”

Let that last sentence sink in.

BIPARTISAN HOUSE GROUP SEEKS TO ‘CLAW BACK’ NATIONAL EMERGENCY POWERS: Believing as I do that the Founders made the legislative branch the first article in the Constitution for many sound reasons, this bipartisan proposal seems a good move at first glance. But if it is, it probably has little chance of going anywhere in the Pelosi House.

DOS AND DON’TS FOR CPAC: Dustin Siggins surveyed a bunch of folks who have attended more CPACs than they can remember and came away with 13 tips for getting the most out of America’s biggest, oldest and most influential annual political conference.

WHAT AOC, LBJ SHARE WARNS CPAC NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE HER: Yes, she often talks like a lefty loon and maybe she is, but she shares something with the young LBJ that should give the Right pause. UPDATE: And Jameson Campaigne explains why AOC should give the Left pause.

SO, YOU THINK JESUS SURVIVED THE CROSS AND DIED IN INDIA? There’s even a shrine in Kashmir where Jesus allegedly was buried decades after the crucifixion. But cold-case expert detective J. Warner Wallace and Dr. Sean McDowell explain on HillFaith why the water nobody understood for centuries means Jesus really did die on the cross.

MEET THE TESTOSTERONE-FUELED HE-MEN OF WOMEN’S SPORTS: You’ve heard of Maine “where the men are men and the women are, too.” Now, courtesy of The American Spectator’s Melissa McKenzie, meet the new giants of Connecticut’s indoor women’s track and field championship. Then ask yourself, how did America get to this?

SENATE BLUE SLIPS MAY BE NEXT CASUALTY OF DEMS’ RELIGION TESTS: When Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) reversed her prior support last year for a Trump nominee when his strongly traditional Catholic beliefs on marriage were publicized, she may have set in motion a series of events that culminate in the loss of another venerable Senate tradition.

It may not sound like a significant issue but it is, if you care about Article VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution. And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham almost certainly recognizes the importance of it for his political standing, especially among a fair number of conservatives who in the months since Sen. John McCain’s passing have found a lot to like about him.

FACT FILES ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST GILLIBRAND: It’s received virtually no coverage in the Mainstream Media, but the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT) has filed a complaint with the Senate Select Committee on Ethics against Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY).

“On February 5th, 2019, Senator Gillibrand posted a political fundraising tweet requesting readers ‘chip in $5 so we can put an end to this’ using a video of her on the House floor during the State of the Union address,” FACT told the committee in a letter earlier this month.

“Presumably Senator Gillibrand is aware of her ethics violation because she later removed the tweet after raising funds in violation of ethics rules, all of which should be returned,” FACT continued.

I have no doubt that, since this matter has now been brought to their attention, The New York Times, Washington Post, et. al. will even today remedy this serious oversight in their 2020 Democratic presidential nomination campaign coverage. Oh, and I will surely see a couple of pigs flying over my backyard tomorrow, too!

GOP STRATEGISTS JUMP ON SANDERS’ MEDIA FIRM WITH LINKS TO SAUDIS: The Vermont socialist regularly blasts the Saudi regime. But his 2016 campaign paid $80 million to a media firm whose principals also do business with a foreign agent with links to the regime. Republican comments are predictable. The absence of Democratic comments as well?