SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

WELL, IT'S CREATIVE – FROM FOX:    Multiple rural Illinois counties have passed resolutions establishing a so-called “sanctuary” for gun owners in a bid to thwart the state legislature’s efforts to enact stricter gun control.  At least five counties declared themselves sanctuary counties for gun rights, co-opting a word that most conservatives associate with the liberal policy of ignoring federal immigration laws.  The resolutions aim to send a message to the Democratic-controlled Legislature in the state that if it passes the proposed gun bills, such as increasing the minimum age for owning a gun or a bump stock ban, the counties will instruct their employees to ignore the new laws.  “It’s a buzzword, a word that really gets attention. With all these sanctuary cities, we just decided to turn it around to protect our Second Amendment rights,” said David Campbell, vice chairman of the Effingham County Board.  No matter how you feel about this, and I'm opposed to illegal sanctuaries, at least these people are showing life and action – not just accepting things in silence, the way conservatives too often do. 

GOOD MOVE – FROM THE HILL:   An anti-Semitic Republican Senate candidate in California was booted from the state's GOP convention Saturday while reportedly dragging and kicking an Israeli flag, according to the Los Angeles Times.  KTLA 5 reports that Patrick Little was seen being escorted out of the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina after he tried to register as a VIP at the convention. Republican officials reportedly recognized Little's name and alerted security to his presence.  Cynthia Bryant, the executive director of the California Republican Party, told KTLA that Little was not welcome at the annual convention.  “There’s no room for that kind of hate speech that that man uses," Bryant said.  It seems to me that, when confronted with real hatred, the Republican Party does a far better job of rejecting it than do the Democrats.  The Democrats just nominated for Congress, from the Charlottesville, Virginia, area no less, someone with a history of anti-Semitic writings.  A backlash is already building, but let's see if the Dems do anything about it.  They usually don't.  Republicans actually provided the votes to pass the Voting Rights Act in the early 1960s, but were never given any credit for it by the fashionable commentators and "historians."

HUGE CRISIS IN EDUCATION – FROM COLLEGE FIX:  The 92-year-old George Washington University mascot known as the “Colonial” should be removed, a student petition says, because it is “offensive.”  The signatories want the Colonial replaced with … a hippo.  “The use of ‘Colonials,’ no matter how innocent the intention, is received as extremely offensive by not only students of the University, but the nation and world at large,” the petition reads. “The historically, negatively-charged figure of Colonials has too deep a connection to colonization and glorifies the act of systemic oppression.”  Other suggested replacements for the Colonial are the “Riverhorses” and the “Revolutionaries.”  If the petition gets 500 signatures, the Student Association will have to respond, according to The Hatchet. It currently is just two signatures shy of that figure.  Former Hatchet reporter Andrew Hesbacher, along with Rachel Yakobashvili and Emma Krasnopoler started the campaign after being warned at a study abroad orientation not to wear anything with “Colonial” on it outside of Europe.  “Citizens of those countries would be offended by the history of the word,” they were told.  And now we find out that another group of students is starting a campaign to change the name of the university itself.  Out with George Washington.  How about Maxine Waters University?  Has a ring.

May 6, 2018