Watercooler 4/20 Open Thread: Prayers, Plates, Polls and...

#NeverTrumpNeverKasichWelcome back to another installment of the Watercooler, RedState’s daily Open Thread! Today, we’ve got…

Prayer Request

Gentle Readers, I know not all of us are particularly big fans of longtime Editor Erick Erickson. However, this site as we know it today was mostly built of his blood, sweat and tears, so we owe him some recognition–and in this trying time hanging between life and death, I humbly ask you to join me in praying for him and his loved ones.

Plates – DC License Plates, That Is

Your tax dollars at work: After more than a decade and a half, Dizzy City is ending their current license-plate slogan activism campaign. Let me get this straight: a city who has re-elected a known cokehead mayor three times and generally demonstrated a singular inability to govern themselves thinks they’re fit to assume the responsibilities of statehood? YGBFSM!

What would you suggest they put on their new license plates?

Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2 Clears Senate

Score another one for the good guys: The Senate actually did something right for once, forcing flight-medical reform into a recalcitrant FAA’s reauthorization. It’s going to make a lot of aviators’ lives easier, in that now a Third Class Medical increases your limits to 6,000-lb. aircraft weight, five passengers, 18,000 feet altitude and 250 knots speed–and more importantly, not as much fighting with Oklahoma City to keep your Medical once you get it, because if you already have either a regular or Special Issue within the past ten years, instead of having to find an Aviation Medical Examiner regularly you now only need a checkup from your regular G. P. every four years and an online aeromedical class every two. The dream may still be expensive, but it’s still alive…

You Bred (More) Raptors?

In a move that has to cheese the One-Big-Arse-Mistake-America regime off to no end because of China and Russia focusing their new fighter developments on long-range, heavyweight stealth fighters like PAK-FA and J-20, a House Armed Services committee panel is recommending reopening the F-22 Raptor line for another 194 aircraft. By normal Air Force practices, two full fighter wings plus spares and replacements for those already lost; if memory serves fighter wings equipped with F-22s operate at reduced strength due to the limited number of aircraft available so they might get a third new operational wing out of that.

Newman, Newman, Newman… Kasich Getting Organized?

Let’s hope he’s as full of steer manure here as everywhere else, but everybody’s least favorite Disgruntled [son of a] Postal Worker claims to have beaten Chessmaster Ted at his own game in Indiana and get his own loyalists as a majority of their 57 delegates. Let’s hope that other insider sources are right and both he and Cruz continue to perform to their normal patterns…

Indiana, if you really wanted to be run by an Ohio Machine Thug, especially Newman from Seinfeld, wouldn’t you have just joined Ohio rather than forming your own state? Please, club this clown with the Clue-Bat yet again… the rest of your country is counting on you. #FlushTheJohn #JustSayNoToNewman

This Week In History

Sunday, Apr. 17: Virginia secedes, 1861; Daffy Duck debuts, 1937; Bay of Pigs, 1961; Jerrie Mock first woman to fly around the world solo, 1964; Apollo 13 lands safely, 1971
Monday, Apr. 18: Paul Revere’s Midnight Rise, 1775; Battle of Cerro Gordo opens Mexican invasion, 1847; San Francisco Quake, 1906; Doolittle Raid, 1942
Tuesday, Apr. 19: Battles of Lexington & Concord, 1775; first successful freefall jump with a modern parachute, 1919; Oklahoma City bombing, 1995
Wednesday, Apr. 20: Wisconsin Territory created, 1836; Lee resigns, 1861; Danica Patrick first woman to win an Indy Car race, 2008
Thursday, Apr. 21: Battle of San Jacinto, 1836; Roy Brown kills Red Baron, 1918; first Secretary’s Day, 1952; Tiananmen Square protest, 1989
Friday, Apr. 22: “In God We Trust” added to coinage, 1864; Oklahoma Land Rush, 1889; first helicopter combat use, 1944; F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters retired, 2008
Saturday, Apr. 23: Theodore Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” speech, 1910; Wrigley Field’s first ballgame, 1914; New Coke released, 1985; first YouTube upload, 2005

Today’s Birthdays: Father of amphibious warfare Holland M. Smith, 1882; comedian Harold Lloyd, 1893; submariner and author Edward L. Beach, 1918; GRU defector Viktor Suvorov, 1947

This Week In History is compiled with assistance from History.com and Wikipedia. Something interesting not listed here? Please share in the Comments section–this is an Audience Participation Encouraged featurette.

Quote of the Day

Inspired by a comment posted by RS’er “Duke” yesterday…

“…it doesn’t matter if you’re helping rebel forces fight off a dictator, or giving combat tips to a third-grader. There’s nothing like helping the little guy kick some bully’s ass.”

–Michael Westen (Jeffrey Donovan), closing monologue from Burn Notice, “Pilot”

As always, the Watercooler is an Open Thread. Something on your mind? Sound Off here!

One Last Thought For Today – A Time For Choosing, Watercooler Edition

I need you readers’ opinions on something for the Battle Colors and hashtag of the Conservative Insurgency. Should I stick with the Jolly Roger and #NoQuarter, or is the Gadsden Flag and #Don’tTreadOnMe better suited to us and our cause? Please vote by either tossing the appropriate hashtag, or flag name or picture (if you copy the specific Gadsden below make sure to copy the credit as well), into a reply–voting closes Monday night, April 25 at Midnight Eastern/9PM Pacific. The rules have been clearly stated, so there will be NO Stubfinger Last Minute Changes…

#NoQuarter