HMM: Change of heart? It may affect thinking and memory skills in middle age.

Subtle changes in the structure and the diastolic function of a person’s heart between early adulthood and middle age may be associated with a decline in thinking and memory skills. The research is published in the January 26, 2022, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The diastolic function of the heart is when it rests between beats and the chambers fill with blood. . . .

After adjusting for factors like age, sex and education, researchers found that a greater than average increase from early to middle adulthood in the weight of a person’s left ventricle was associated with lower midlife cognition on most tests.

This study doesn’t overwhelm me, but I hope they’ll look further.

SNITCHES GET RICHES: How an Anonymous Reporting System Made Yale a COVID ‘Surveillance State.’

COLOR ME UNSURPRISED: Marijuana impairs driving more, and for longer, than users think, study finds.

ROGER SIMON: Hell, No, We Shouldn’t Go—to the Olympics.

Evidently, Team USA has been advised to leave their cellphones at home when they travel to China for the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing next month.

In an email from his CAVPAC political action committee, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo writes:

“That Team USA is telling our athletes to use burner phones and to avoid surveillance by the CCP is no surprise to me. That’s exactly what my team and I did when we traveled to China to protect America’s interests. But you have to ask: if our athletes have to use burner phones when visiting a country, then why on earth are we sending them to that country in the first place?”

Good question.

And while we’re at it, why is NBC (and its owner Comcast) broadcasting an event that is, in essence, a propaganda exercise for a country practicing various degrees of genocide against Uyghur Muslims, Falun Gong practitioners, Christians, and other religious minorities, not to mention oppressing almost anyone who questions their totalitarian regime?

Related: ‘Never Again’ Means Standing Up for China’s Uyghur Minority.

KEVIN DOWNEY JR: Sacre Bleu! The Commie Battle For Canada Has Begun. “The hope is making shopping more difficult will push more holdouts to get the jab.”

For the Left, it always comes down to the thrill of deciding who gets what.

WELL, THIS IS THE 21ST CENTURY, YOU KNOW: New tech spurs spaceplane vision: halfway around world in 40 minutes.

NEWS I HOPE YOU CAN’T USE: Some Beta Blockers Tied to Lower Recurrence Risk After Prostatectomy. “Use of nonselective beta-blockers (nsBBs) at the time of radical prostatectomy may reduce the risk of prostate cancer recurrence, according to a Norwegian cohort study. Investigators found that use of nsBBs at the time of prostate cancer surgery was significantly associated with a 36% lower risk of receiving treatment for cancer recurrence, reported Shivanthe Sivanesan, MD, of Oslo University Hospital, and colleagues. They found no such association, however, with the use of selective beta-blockers (sBBs).”

Nonselective beta blockers include propranolol, nadolol, pindolol. Selective beta blockers include Toprol, nebivolol, metoprolol.

EXCLUSIVE: DHS Secretary Had a Disastrous Meeting with Border Patrol Agents. “An agent pressed Mayorkas on how DHS can reconcile saying border security is the main mission for Border Patrol, yet agents are unable to patrol the border due to the policies the Biden administration has in place. Border Patrol agents are being utilized to process the thousands of illegal immigrants.”

IT’S TURTLES IDENTITY POLITICS ALL THE WAY DOWN: As Supreme Court Hears Challenge Against Race-Based College Admissions, Joe Biden Wants Race-Based Supreme Court Nominee.

With one possible exception: ‘Kamala for SCOTUS’ is a distraction Biden wants. Better that than suffer another terrible news cycle.

Nothing like a little Obama-style stray voltage from time to time.

NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Ex-Obama aide unleashes R-rated rant against Kyrsten Sinema for breaking ranks on filibuster.

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona is no stranger to taking flak from fellow Democrats for bucking the party line — but a former high-level aide to President Barack Obama may have crossed another line.

“I think she’s a c—,” Alyssa Mastromonaco told the “Pod Save America” podcast earlier this month, after Sinema refused to side with other Democrats regarding the filibuster. “That’s what I have to say.”

Mastromonaco chose a fairly large platform for her profanity-laced remarks: According to Chartable, the podcast has enormous reach, and is the seventh-highest news program on Apple Podcasts.

* * * * * * * *

“She talks about the ‘disease of division,’” Mastromonaco said about the senator. “She gave the speech as Joe Biden was on [his] way up to the Hill. So anyway, it’s the s—tiest, grossest, most disrespectful thing she could’ve done. I think she’s a c—. That’s what I have to say.”

The hosts, also ex-Obama staffers, laughed in response, before one asked, “Do we have to beep that?”

“No, because I’m a woman,” Mastromonaco replied. “I’m a woman, OK?”

Then she continued, “It was so many layers of a—holeness, like you know that she played a combative video game before she went down to the Senate floor, and was like, ‘You are a maverick. You are a maverick!’ And b—-, you’re not a maverick. OK? No. You’re trash.”

The conversation then moved to the late Sen. John McCain, also of Arizona, who pundits often referred to as a maverick in the Senate.

“The best part about this take is that there’s no one out there making the case for bipartisanship,” added co-host Daniel Pfeiffer, responding to the original Washington Post piece.

Thus, the perfect definition of bipartisanship: It’s brilliant and thoughtful when a nominally Republican senator forces leftist policies on America; it’s a sign that Washington has failed when a nominal Democrat attempts to keep the left from going over a cliff.

SADLY TRUE: The Left’s support for civil liberties has always been contingent on its own relative strength or weakness.

STACEY LENNOX: About Those Free COVID-19 Tests Joe Biden Sent You… “The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent citizens from Wuhan all over the world early in the pandemic while restricting their travel within China. Now, two years later, Chinese companies are profiting from the fallout.”

GET IN SHAPE: The Barbell Prescription: Strength Training for Life After 40. #CommissionEarned

RUST NEVER SPOTIFYS: Neil Young Demands Spotify Remove His Music Over ‘False Information About Vaccines.’Neil Young Demands Spotify Remove His Music Over ‘False Information About Vaccines.’

Spotify’s response? Thank you; your terms are acceptable: Spotify Takes Down Neil Young’s Music After His Joe Rogan Ultimatum.

Mr. Young’s record label, Warner Music Group Corp.’s Warner Records, formally requested Spotify remove the music Wednesday.

“We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators,” a Spotify spokesman said Wednesday. The company has detailed content policies in place and has removed over 20,000 Covid-19-related podcast episodes since the start of the pandemic, he added.

“We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon,” he said.

For Spotify, the controversy is a significant test of its big bet on Mr. Rogan, one of podcasting’s most popular and polarizing voices. Spotify struck a deal with Mr. Rogan in 2020 worth more than $100 million, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing his loyal followers and lucrative show exclusively to its service. Mr. Rogan is central to Spotify’s podcast strategy in attracting listeners and ad dollars to its platform and shows.

While the letter has since been removed from Mr. Young’s website, he has been in discussions with his label and Spotify since then, and continued to hold his ground, according to people familiar with the matter.

As I said yesterday, given Young’s negative statements about pretty much all music formats post-LP records, Spotify’s management really seem to be going out of their way to save Young’s superfans from their worst 21st century tendencies.

Young’s picking a fight with Spotify over Joe Rogan seems much more like to get an extra 15 minutes of relevancy rather than a principled stance by the former member of Buffalo Springfield: “The way to deter ultimatums like that is to punish the first person who issues one by locking him out. So that’s what Spotify did, even though Young is right that Rogan is obnoxious for giving anti-vaxxers a platform. Which is ironic, because he’s been no hero about standing up for good science in the past. This is a guy who cut an entire album a few years ago devoted to spooking people about genetically modified foods. Actual title: ‘The Monsanto Years.’”

JOE BIDEN’S RETURN TO DECENCY: Eff-ing Right: How S— Talk Can Save Biden’s Presidency. “The whole encounter — including Doocy’s genial refusal to get all huffy about Biden’s flash of huffiness — was in its own way quite winning. It was also a reminder of how many memorable Biden moments feature casual profanity or bursts of authentic emotion amid the pervasive phoniness of contemporary politics.”

Well, that’s one way to spin it.

Another is: Biden has always been a nasty piece of work who enjoys punching down.

STANDING IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR: Harvard President Defiant in Admissions Fight.

Students for Fair Admissions, the group mounting the legal challenges, points to Harvard admissions practices that penalized Asian-American students by giving them low marks on such metrics as “likability,” “courage,” and “self-confidence.”

The reason why the Ivy League is so upset with Amy Wax’s “too many Asians” remark isn’t because they disagree with her. It’s because they don’t want people to notice that they agree, and regularly act upon that sentiment.

#RESIST: Woman Sneaks Ivermectin Into Hospital, Saves Husband’s Life.

HAVE YOU SEEN THE SHOULDERS ON THAT GUY? Lia Thomas’ teammates realizing ‘they will never, ever be able to beat this person,’ Penn swimmer’s dad says.

THE DEMAND FOR RACIAL HATE ON CAMPUS FAR EXCEEDS THE SUPPLY, DRAWING IN INFERIOR IMITATIONS: Hate crime hoaxes: Students alleged KKK recruited on campus, vandalized black girl’s door.

OF COURSE THEY DO: Ministry of Truth: China literally changed the ending of Fight Club so the authorities win. “The new Chinese version of Fight Club puts power back into the hands of the police and implies an ideal closure in line with the Chinese state discourse in which the symbiotic relationship between the police and the state is a given.”

This doesn’t bespeak security.

SCENES FROM AN ACTUAL INSURRECTION: CHAZ’s Rapping BLM Warlord Has a New Side Hustle – Fighting Sexual Assault Lawsuits in Seattle.

SEND YOUR KIDS TO COLLEGE, THEY’LL ENJOY SOLITARY CONFINEMENT: ‘He is hungry, isolated, cold’: Parent of Ohio U student sounds alarm on quarantine dorm experience.

SO MUCH FOR THE BLACK FEMALE JUDGE THING: Biden Opposed and Filibustered Janice Rogers Brown’s Nomination, Race and Gender ‘Only Count’ if You Have Left-Wing Beliefs.

BEN SHAPIRO: COVID-19’s Impact of Expressive Individualism. “There will be no normalization for those who have made pandemic paranoia a feature of their identity. That’s because the public health establishment has now successfully cultivated a large group of people who measure their moral value by just how compliant and panicked they remain over COVID-19.”

Read the whole thing.

PJ MEDIA VIP ROUNDUP: Don’t forget that VODKAPUNDIT promo code if you’ve been thinking of joining us.

Victoria Taft: Why Did Joe Biden Build His Hollywood Oval Office Set? An Answer Emerges. “After allowing fake fact-checkers to lie on their behalf about the Potemkin Office, which is as real as Joe’s veneers, photos of the Hollywood set are proliferating on the White House Flickr account.”

Cameron Arcand: These 4 Red States Recovered All the Jobs They Lost During the Pandemic. “Even CNN Business admitted that California and New York had some of the worst recovery numbers in the ratings, with a measly 60% and 70% of jobs recovered.”

Yours Truly: Ranking the Bond Movies Part 004 (Popcorn Thrills). “They keep you entertained for a couple of hours, but the popcorn calories don’t stick. Still, who doesn’t love a perfectly adequate Bond flick?”