(1) VDH is recovering from his surgery and explains quite a bit here, including the fact that his lung cancer was of a rare type that’s difficult to diagnose and often mimics infection/inflammation on scans. That explains a lot.
The cancer doesn’t seem to have metastasized, which is excellent news.
(2) How Communists think, with director of Mamdani’s “Office to Protect Tenants” Cea Weaver as an example. The quotes are from 2021, when she was already a prominent tenants’ rights activist, and indicate very little understanding of the interface between renting and home-owning, as well as the distinction between home-owning and being a landlord owning multiple units. It’s slogans all the way down.
(3) It seems like it’s a good idea to know what a woman is, if you’re going to be a SCOTUS justice. Here’s why:
Oral argument took place on January 13, 2026, in two cases involving state law attempts to protect girls sports – in Idaho and West Virginia.
… Alito, who’s tied with Thomas for the best Justice on the court asked a question, and we don’t have video, but you know he had an ear-to-ear grin. He asked the attorney for the girls to give him the definition of what it means to be a girl or a boy. And she said, well, we don’t have that definition, which harkened back to Katanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation hearing, where she was asked, give me the definition of a woman. And she said, well, I can’t, ’cause I’m not a biologist. …
… Most of the argument today surrounded levels of review. A lot of words like heightened scrutiny and strict scrutiny. So a lot of it was kind of court sort of jargon as to what can we do to review this.
But when you get down to it, we are literally in the Supreme Court arguing whether a school district can protect girls’ sports or not.
Girls’ sports exist for a reason, and the reason is rooted in biology.
(4) Ann Althouse wonders what to call Reza Pahlavi:
I know he’s not the Shah. Not yet. Just testing the concept on you after Meade called him the Shah. I said he’s not the Shah, and Meade said it was like addressing a nun as “Sister” when you’re not Catholic. I said: “You mean like using someone’s preferred pronouns?” It doesn’t matter what you think the person really is, you’re showing respect.
Is it wrong to call Reza Pahlavi the “Shah”? Does it help him garner support or not? He’s not in power, not yet anyway, but is there good reason to refer to him as the Shah?
I suppose if I were to address him personally I might call him Shah. But I think I can safely say that it’s highly unlikely that I ever will be addressing him personally. In the meantime, there are lots of other perfectly good terms to use to refer to him: “heir apparent,” “would-be Shah,” or “Crown Prince.”
From his Wiki entry:
Born in Tehran, Iran, Reza Pahlavi was officially named crown prince of Iran at the time of his father’s coronation in 1967.
…… In 1980, following the death of his father in exile in Cairo, Egypt, Reza Pahlavi declared himself shah of Iran, styling himself “Reza Shah II”, and actively participated in political activities opposing the Islamic Republic from abroad.
So for approximately 45 years he’s been referring to himself as the Shah.
(5) DeSantis is not Walz:
Jennifer Cruz was arrested outside Mi Pueblo, a Mexican grocery store and meat market in Jacksonville, Tuesday morning after she allegedly jumped out of her car and punched a state trooper in the face while officers were working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents …
Another shocking video shared on X appeared to show Cruz kicking and screaming as officers struggled to get her into a squad car, laughing and taunting police and calling one officer a “weak-ass motherf–ker.”
Footage shows her lying in the back seat before suddenly popping up and kicking the officer who was trying to restrain her.
“Don’t you dare start kicking me!” one officer is heard warning her.
Cruz was then tased …
“This is not Minneapolis. This is not going to end well for you in Florida,” DeSantis vowed.
“You have a right to go out there and criticize government policy. You can go out there and protest within respected zones, but the idea that you’re going to assault one of our troopers is unacceptable, and you are going to face consequences as a result of that.”
One would think that would be very basic. These days, not so much.
