THE DOOMED RETURN OF MASK MANDATES:

Polling routinely indicates that the unvaccinated are far less concerned about the prospect of COVID infection than the fully immunized, which makes sense given the lack of risk-aversion inherent in refusing immunization. And reimposing mask mandates only confirms the wisdom of their decision to abstain from vaccination. For them, there are few incentives to get vaccinated beyond their own health and the wellbeing of their family and neighbors—inducements that haven’t proven compelling enough to force them to abandon their skepticism yet. Indeed, the only logic that justifies the reimposition of mask mandates seems to be the psychological comfort it affords the already vaccinated.

Speaking of the madness of mask mandates: AAP Says Kids Ages 2 And Up Need To Wear Masks In Schools.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: China launches secretive suborbital vehicle for reusable space transportation system.

ANDY MCCARTHY ON THE CAPITOL RIOT: Insurrectionist Terrorist (or Is It Terrorist Insurrectionist?) Gets, Yes, an Eight-Month Sentence.

Related: 9/11 victims’ families outraged over media claims Capitol riot was worse ‘to score points politically.’

(Updated and bumped.)

HE DOESN’T LOOK LIKE A WHITE SUPREMACIST TO ME: Proud Boys leader pleads guilty to burning Black Lives Matter banner.

I’LL TAKE BREAKING NEWS FROM 1964, ALEX. Admitting It: CBS Cheers 1619 Project, Touts Idea That Journalism Should Be Activism.

To be fair, this is the network that brought you Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Katie Couric, and Scott Pelley.

Related: Megyn Kelly Roasts Nikole Hannah-Jones for ‘1619 Project’ Lies.

A SITE THAT’S WORTH YOUR TIME IF YOU LIKE GOOD WRITING: Sean of the South. His descriptions remind me a bit of John D. MacDonald.

THIS IS UNSURPRISING: COVID-19 antibodies persist at least nine months after infection. “Testing of an entire Italian town shows antibody levels remain high nine months after SARS-CoV-2 infection, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic. . . . The team found that 98.8 percent of people infected in February/March showed detectable levels of antibodies in November, and there was no difference between people who had suffered symptoms of COVID-19 and those that had been symptom-free. The results are published today in Nature Communications.”

Coronavirus immunity is generally long-lasting. People who got SARS remain immune almost two decades later.

AD ASTRA PER ASPERA: Jeff Bezos wants flight to expand ‘new frontiers’ in space.

JOB SECURITY FOR ME: 98% Of The Way Through The Fall 2021 Law School Admissions Cycle: Applicants Are Up 14%, With Biggest Increase (66%) Among The 170+ LSAT Band.

I’M SO OLD I REMEMBER WHEN CAMP WAS FUN: Minnesota Summer Camp Replaces American Flag With BLM Flag.

ANALYSIS: TRUE.

French did good work pre-Trump. Since, not so much.

MAYBE WE SHOULD EXEMPT MEN FOR A FEW DECADES, JUST TO MAKE UP FOR YEARS OF SYSTEMIC FEMALE PRIVILEGE: Senate Democrats propose requiring women to register for military draft.

OLD AND BUSTED: The Politics of Dancing.

The New Hotness? The Politics of Ice Cream: Ben & Jerry’s stops selling ice cream in West Bank amid protests.

Which really means that their parent company, Unilever, has succumbed to pressure from the far left BDS movement. I wonder if the page on Israel’s Ministry of Economy and Industry page spotlighting Unilever’s operations in Israel will be updated to reflect the conglomerate’s newfound wokeness.

Of course, it’s quite situational: “A reminder that Ben & Jerry’s still sells ice cream in China and hasn’t said anything about Hong Kong or the Uyghurs.”

THIS IS CNN? Just How Desperate Is CNN? It’s Not Pretty…

GREAT MOMENTS IN LEFTIST TOLERANCE FOR INTELLECTUAL DIVERSITY: NPR Accuses Daily Wire Of Tricking Readers Because We’re Conservative. That’s A Lie. But NPR Is Lying To Its Own Readers. “In a hit-piece published Monday, publicly-funded NPR accused The Daily Wire of tricking Americans who engage with our news stories, asserting that readers or those who engage with our content might not know we’re conservative, even though, as NPR admits in the piece, Daily Wire openly discloses bias on its ‘About’ page. The claim by NPR is, of course, intentionally misleading, not to mention glaringly ironic.”

YEAH, DEAL WITH IT, BIGOTS: Learning to Deal With the Fact That Almost Half the Country Will Soon Have Constitutional Carry.

CRIME OF THE CENTURY: Suspect Taunts Cops By Asking About Reward For Her Arrest, Gets Caught.

VITAMIN D UPDATE: About 40% of Americans don’t get enough vitamin D – here’s how to tell if you’re deficient and how to treat it.

Related: Vitamin D significantly reduces Covid mortality: PGIMER study.

WELL, DEMOCRATS: Texas House Democrats Are Costing Taxpayers Big Time.

CHRISTIAN TOTO: ‘Boys in Red Hats’ at War with Reality, Itself. “The film’s marketing arm teased it would anger folks on both sides. They did so by pretending the story actually has two credible sides.”

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: A guide to conservative commentators. Which one are you?

WELL, THAT WOULD BE GOOD: The Battery Revolution Is Just Getting Started.

JIM TREACHER: Antifa (Which Is Just Plain Fa) Literally Fights Against Women’s Rights. “[T]he mental gymnastics are amazing: Men are evil, unless they identify as women, in which case their rights supersede those of genetic females, who are bigots for wanting to go to the spa without seeing naked men, who are evil, unless they identify as women, in which case…These are not good people. These are not sane people. You don’t have to do what they demand, no matter how loudly they scream at you.”

THAT’S GONNA LEAVE A MARK: Megyn Kelly ROASTS Nikole Hannah-Jones for ‘1619 Project’ Lies.

ALIENS: The Curiosity Rover May Have Discovered What Wiped Away Ancient Signs of Life on Mars.