CHRIS RUFO ON DESANTIS’S INITIATIVE IN FLORIDA: Recapturing Higher Education: On the plan to transform New College of Florida into a classical liberal arts institution.

REST IN PEACE, MR. JOHNSON:  Now and then, an author comes along who really changes your life.  Paul Johnson was one of those for me.  I carried around Modern Times, A History of the Jews, and A History of Christianity with me in the 1980s.  Johnson could be both the erudite historian and the combative polemicist.  He was never boring.

The revised version of Johnson’s A History of the American People contains a paragraph on California’s Proposition 209.  You wouldn’t believe how thrilled I was when I saw it.  (Look, Ma!  I made the history book!  No, not by name, but by the name of my project ….)

THIS DOES NOT SURPRISE ME: Six minutes of high-intensity exercise vital for brain health, study says.

THEY’VE REINVENTED THE SELF-WINDING WATCH: Health tracker uses body’s energy to never run out of battery.

TITLE IX ABUSE IS BACK ON THE MENU, BOYS! And I do mean boys. And men. Also it never really stopped, but the Trump/DeVos regs did slow it down.

UM: Eat My Rubber! Goodyear’s Sustainable Tire Is Made with Rice, Soy, and Pine.

STAY WARM: Dickies Men’s Dri-tech Moisture Control Crew Socks Multipack. #CommissionEarned

BE PREPARED: LifeStraw Personal Water Filter for Hiking, Camping, Travel, and Emergency Preparedness. #CommissionEarned

GOODER AND HARDER, COLORADO: Colorado Democrats aim to ban entire class of semi-automatic weapons.

In one of their first moves of the 2023 legislative session, majority Democrats — who control nearly two-thirds of both chambers — are gearing up to enact a ban on what appears to be the entire class of semi-automatic weapons.

In fact, it may be easier to know what guns would still be legal in Colorado by simply reading one paragraph of the 16-page draft bill, which says a so-called “assault weapon” does not include any firearm that “has been made permanently inoperable; an antique firearm manufactured before 1899; a replica of an antique firearm; a firearm that is manually operated by bolt; pump; lever; slide action, unless the firearm is a shotgun with a revolving cylinder; or a firearm that can only fire rimfire ammunition.”

The bill, embedded at the end of this article, will prohibit anyone in Colorado from “possessing, manufacturing, importing, purchasing, selling, offering to sell, or transferring ownership of” a so-called assault weapon. A violation of the new law would be considered a class 2 misdemeanor, but if that weapon is then used in the commission of a felony or a crime of violence the seller could then be charged with a class 6 felony.

David Kopel, an adjunct professor of advanced constitutional law at Denver University’s Sturm College of Law as well as research director of the Independence Institute*, said he doesn’t believe this bill will stand up in court as written.

Hopefully not, but it’s better to not elect Democrats than it is to rely on the courts.

HERE’S HOW THE FAA’S FAILURE DELAYED THOUSANDS OF FLIGHTS.

NOT-SO-SHOCKING NEWS: Not Just Waistlines: Exercise Can Change the Very Molecules in the Human Body That Influence How Genes Behave.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Beware Hollywood A-listers bearing NDAs.

DEMOCRATS DON’T SEEM TO GET TOO WORKED UP WHEN THEIR CONSTITUENTS SHOOT EACH OTHER: Why Haven’t These 22 Mass Shootings in 2023 Made the News?

MY FIRST THOUGHT WAS DAMN, CITY OF BOULDER COULDA JUST BOOTED THE CAR, OR SOMETHING: Boulder crushes California man’s car moments after he got out.

GARLAND APPOINTS SPECIAL COUNSEL TO INVESTIGATE BIDEN CLASSIFIED DOCS. Welp, that’s what happens when you showboat to get bad orange man.

With both Biden and Trump, this almost certainly has way more to do with the government being addicted to secrecy and classifying everything in sight than it does with “muh nuclear codes!!”

WHEW! Joe Biden Defends Storing Documents in Garage: It’s ‘Locked.’

THAT TIME IN 1968 WHEN JIMMY PAGE AND THE YARDBIRDS PLAYED AT A CINCINNATI HIGH SCHOOL PROM: “Some say the plan was hatched by a fearless junior named Rip Pelley, with an almost inexplicable connection to music industry insiders. Some say the rock band idea was a proverbial olive branch offered by Father Smith, who’d requested the combination prom in an effort to save money, or because he’d done it that way at his previous school. Either way, what came next is the stuff of legend: The Yardbirds ended up playing the 1968 St. Xavier High School Junior-Senior prom. Lead guitarist? Rolling Stone magazine’s third-greatest guitarist of all time, Jimmy Page.”

DOG WARNS PREGNANT WOMAN OF PREGNANCY PROBLEMS. “After sniffing intently at Brittany’s belly, Charlie paws at her foot and calf until finally nudging his way under her leg, elevating it. When Brittany puts her foot back flat on the floor, the pup repeats the motion, wedging himself under her leg to prop it back up again. Spurred by Charlie’s unusual behavior, Brittany made an urgent doctor’s appointment — where it was discovered that her dog’s medical instincts were right on the money.”

PAKISTANI MOVIE STAR COMPLAINS: HOLLYWOOD ONLY WANTS WHITE VILLAINS.

In a recent interview with Esquire UK, Pakistani-American actor Kumail Ali Nanjiani explains Tinseltown’s racial politics.

You may know Kumail from his work on Silicon Valley, The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, or Marvel’s Eternals. In 2017, he received a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination for romantic comedy hit The Big Sick.

* * * * * * * *

“I think that Hollywood now — even though they’re trying to be more diverse — is still weird,” the actor says. The problem, [Kumail] wagers, is that good intentions can sometimes lead to misguided solutions: If the bad guy is a brown guy, what message is that sending? “And that’s just as limiting as anything else.”

He calls to a Marvel colleague: Pale pretender Sebastian Stan (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) can play a superhero, then turn around and be a cannibal in horror flick Fresh.

For Kumail, it’s not the same:

“I was told that’s going to be hard because people don’t want to cast nonwhite people as bad guys.”

And that’s a shame:

“I want to play more bad guys.”

Given Hollywood’s propensity for social messaging, it’s not difficult to believe Kumail is right.

No it isn’t. As The Free Press recently noted in article headlined: Hollywood’s New Rules.

Movies and shows that were once widely acclaimed but are now verboten, writers and directors said, included “Blazing Saddles,” even though it was co-written by Richard Pryor; “The Bad News Bears,” even though it featured a multiracial cast; “Tootsie,” because transgender activists; and “Rocky” (“bad guy CANNOT be black,” a director explained in an email).

Fortunately, James Earl Jones is safe as Darth Vader: The destruction of Alderaan was completely justified.

REPORT: Charges Against Hunter Biden Could Be Imminent.

SCIENCE, UNSETTLED: Study suggests smallpox originated 2,000 years earlier than thought.

‘GET OUT OF CITIES’: I left the sirens of New York City for the church bells of rural America.

IT’S ALMOST LIKE DEMOCRATS LIKE CRIME: Murder conviction rate falls to 57% in Gwinnett as DA says she’s ‘bringing justice and equity.’

BEER — IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Instagram star blames large breasts on father’s beer.

HOLIDAY DEAL: Silonn Countertop Ice Maker. #CommissionEarned