MICROBIOME NEWS: Mouse study shows gut biome plays a role in social anxiety disorder.

JIM TREACHER: Stealing Is Wrong (Sometimes): It literally depends on skin color, you racists.

They accused her of plagiarism! They actually claimed a Black woman rose to a position of power by stealing the work of her peers. They had the gall to allege that she did so for decades.

Now, admittedly, this is absolutely correct. She did steal other people’s work. A lot. Like, a lot a lot. The accusation is 100% true.

Which raises the obvious question:

So what?

She’s not only Black, but a woman. Those immutable physical characteristics are more important than anything she may or may not have done, even if, as in this case, she totally did it.

That is the essence of her defense.

Related: The Real Harvard Scandal:

The true scandal of the Claudine Gay affair is not a Harvard president and her plagiarism. The true scandal is that so many journalists and academics were willing, are still willing, to redefine plagiarism to suit their politics. Gay’s boosters have consistently resorted to Orwellian doublespeak—“duplicative language” and academic “sloppiness” and “technical attribution issues”—in a desperate effort to insist that lifting entire paragraphs of another scholar’s work, nearly word for word, without quotation or citation, isn’t plagiarism. Or that if it is plagiarism, it’s merely a technicality. Or that we all do it. (Soon after Rufo and Brunet made their initial accusations last month, Gay issued a statement saying, “I stand by the integrity of my scholarship.” She did not address those or subsequent plagiarism allegations in her resignation letter.)

Every institution has been corrupted. And even dictionaries are willing to change their definitions to fit the political needs of the moment.

21^st CENTURY HEADLINES: Elvis Presley Concert To Debut In London Using AI Technology.

Fans can pay to see an Elvis Presley concert thanks to the growing popularity of AI technology in the concert sphere.

The new show, “Elvis Evolution,” will debut in London in November before premiering in Las Vegas, Berlin, and Tokyo, according to a BBC report. The British immersive specialist company Layered Reality, which has produced previous AI-generated shows including “The Gunpowder Plot” and “The War of the Worlds,” has secured the global rights for the show.

Company reps describe it as a “jaw-dropping concert experience” where a life-sized digital Elvis “will perform iconic moments in musical history on a UK stage for the first time.”

The show will combine multiple technical elements, including AI, holographic projections, augmented reality, and live theater to make it look like Elvis is performing live on stage.

No word yet if The Coat will serve as Virtual Elvis’ opening act.

WELL, GOOD: Heart medications may ease symptoms of muscular dystrophy.

NEW FAILURE THEATER DOUBLE FEATURE! We May Have Two Impeachments This Year. “While Republicans appear more ready now to impeach Mayorkas, it will be difficult. Republicans will only have a two-vote majority thanks to the recent expulsion of Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) and the forthcoming retirement of Rep. Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) in a few weeks. Assuming all Democrats will oppose impeachment, the entire GOP caucus will have to be unified against Mayorkas. Perhaps the best thing Republicans have going for them is that the border crisis has turned the immigration issue, once a Democratic advantage, in favor of Republicans.”

WHILE YOU WERE MEASURING LIQUIDS AND PUTTING THEM INTO BAGGIES, OTHERS WERE FLYING UNDER MORE RELAXED RULES RECENTLY:

Videos of illegal migrants taking commercial flights and being ushered through special TSA screening areas have surfaced in the last few weeks.
SCOOP:
At least one of those flights came into Charlotte, NC.#ncpol https://t.co/717KKuFLzQ

— A.P. Dillon (@APDillon_) January 4, 2024

DON’T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU IN THE BUTT ON THE WAY OUT! JustTheNews is reporting that:

“I cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives, in what leading human rights experts have called a genocidal campaign by the Israeli government,” Tariq Habash, a Palestinian American who served as a special assistant for nearly three years, said in his resignation letter Wednesday to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.”

Just the tip on the iceberg, to boot:

“Also on Wednesday, 17 anonymous Biden re-election campaign staffers wrote a letter published on The Medium calling on the president to demand and work toward an “immediate, permanent ceasefire,” advocate for the release of Hamas hostages and more than 2,000 arrested Palestinians, among other things.”

Anonymous…how brave.
Goodbye to bad rubbish.

I’VE GOT A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: Disney Can’t Stop Poking the Corpse* of Star Wars: 

My wife and I took our grandson to see “The Last Jedi.” I was not impressed, and neither was he. The story dragged, was poorly crafted, and hastily slapped together. The characters were wooden and undeveloped. I wasn’t interested in any of them, including Luke Skywalker, for crying out loud. Rose and Finn had some promise, but it was clear they had been added so Disney could say, “Look! We have a black man and an Asian woman! Yay, us!”  It was an insult to the characters and the actors.

Another Star Wars film is apparently in the offing. And, as with the last series, it would appear that the PC pigeons are flapping their indignant wings and gearing up to let loose another salvo of green and white deposits on the entertainment windshield.

Disney hands over the $67 billion Star Wars franchise to a Pakistani feminist activist

Obaid-Chinoy on the new film she will be directing for the franchise:

"We're in 2024. It's about time we have a woman shape a story in a galaxy far, far away." pic.twitter.com/inhZHZrpHV

— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 3, 2024

So, what is important here is the director is a woman of color. That’s what matters. Not the storytelling, not the mythos, not the plot. Just that we have a woman in the director’s chair. Am I being overly sensitive? Not the Bee quotes Obaid-Chinoy as saying, “I enjoy making men uncomfortable.” Well, geld my Bantha. Who could have seen that one coming? She’s a woman**. Fine. She’s Pakistani. Who cares? She doesn’t like men. I don’t think I’ll take my grandson to that film either.

Lucas has said that buried deep within the subtext of the original Star Wars was a parable about the Vietnam War, with Palpatine as Nixon and eventually, the Ewoks as the Vietcong. (No, really.) And yet, he was so comfortable with non-leftists who didn’t agree with his views on the Vietcong and Nixon seeing his movies, that the original trilogy grossed (in today’s dollars) over seven billion dollars. That would seem like a powerful incentive not to alienate half your potential audience.

But clearly, Kathleen Kennedy knows what’s she’s doing with the franchise:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfHylCEoidg

* In the immortal words of Iowahawk:

** Finally. No women before Obaid-Chinoy have made significant contributions to the Star Wars franchise. It’s good to see Disney correcting nearly a half century of mistakes by their predecessors.

IN THE MAIL: The 1896 Prophecies: 10 Predictions of America’s Last Days. #CommissionEarned

A PROFESSOR GAVE A WOKE COURSE AND NOBODY CAME: Bucknell’s English department appears to be having trouble filling such classes as “Latinx Theater,” “Sex, Sexuality, and Rape Culture in the 18th Century,” and “Affrilachia: Regional Literature, Race, and Power.” But they sound so fun!

THE GRAUNIAD, STILL PARTYING LIKE IT’S 2019: Breeze Around The Knees.

In politically-charged fashion news:

I’m surprised how many men say they’d never even consider wearing a skirt.

Why yes, since you ask, I am reading the Guardian. Specifically, a piece by Mr Phineas Harper:

While a few celebrities, such as Brad Pitt and LA Lakers basketball player Russell Westbrook, have worn skirts to red carpet events, it’s still vanishingly rare to see normal men wear normal skirts day to day.

As Glenn has noted: Bourgeois is the new transgressive.

LOL: Black leftist scholars blame Harvard president’s resignation on racism.

WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION SUCH A CESSPIT OF ANTI-SEMITIC HATE? Coordinated social media campaign attempts to smear Gay’s Jewish replacement as agent of ‘Zionist control.’

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: Biden to Celebrate Dem J6 High Holy Day With White Supremacy Fairy Tale.

PROF. JACOBSON: Claudine Gay “was the DEI president and that is the deeper problem that I don’t think” Harvard is “ready yet to confront.” “She was a symptom of a deeper problem at Harvard and many other elite schools…, which is that they have embraced a racialization of education under the name of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It is poisonous throughout the system. It takes away from merit, it takes away from advancement of all people equally without regard to race. And she was a big advocate of that.”

PURR:  Power Line is helping me.

TYRANNY AT WORK: ‘She’s dead, she’s dead’: Jan. 6 video has new angle on Ashli Babbitt shooting.

Related:

FBI To Host Annual Jan 6 Reunion https://t.co/1cwkn53OmZ pic.twitter.com/tyB0AFgqnU

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 3, 2024

LOL: Joy Reid: Claudine Gay Was Ousted So White Dudes Can Run Harvard Again.

Related:

Liberals Warn Harvard President Ouster Could Lead To Terrifying World Where People Are Held Responsible For Their Own Actions https://t.co/z17LJ6Szut pic.twitter.com/ROptqLxZtd

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) January 3, 2024

LIGHTNING DEAL: ihuan Winter Gloves for Men Women. #CommissionEarned

WITH THIS ADMINISTRATION IT’S USUALLY SHORTCUTS AND BRIBERY: No Shortcuts On Nuclear Deterrence. “The most dangerous global security development at the dawn of 2024 is China’s and Russia’s reliance on nuclear weapons to break the U.S.-led order. Russia is concluding a nuclear recapitalization effort and uses nuclear threats against Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. China is expanding its nuclear forces and engaging in dangerous military behavior in international waters to threaten Taiwan. Moscow may be helping Beijing expand its warhead production capacity through Russia’s state-owned Rosatom, which has provided enriched uranium for China’s fast-breeder reactor. The U.S. plan begun in 2009 to update the nation’s nuclear deterrent can’t deter China and Russia simultaneously over the next decade. This was a conclusion of the recent report from the nonpartisan U.S. Strategic Posture Commission, on which I served as a commissioner.”

THERE’S NO IQ TEST TO BE A WAPO REPORTER: Ramaswamy Destroys WaPo Reporter Over Dumb Gotcha Question About ‘White Supremacy.’

PARTS ARE PARTS: CDR Salamander: F-35 & the Gods of the Copybook Headings.. “The biggest risk is that F-35 units have little in terms of spare parts on the shelf to keep their aircraft flying for any sustained amount of time.”

FROM CELIA HAYES:  The Quivera Trail.

#COMMISSIONEARNED

The Quivera Trail is intended as a sequel to the Adelsverein Trilogy,
following the second generation and Dolph Becker courting and marrying Isobel Lindsay-Groves. Desperate to marry, Isobel and her personal maid, Jane Goodacre embark at Southampton for a new life in a new land — a place entirely alien, when compared to the gentle hills and established estates of England. Slowly but surely, the two women begin exploring their new country … and what they themselves are capable of achieving.

Dolph Becker’s uncle Hansi Richter, the ‘cattle baron’ as he is now called, has plans for Dolph and Isobel to establish a new ranch near the Palo Duro, in the
Panhandle region. Once the winter refuge of the Comanche, the Palo Duro
is now open to ranchers and settlers like their neighbor, Charles Goodnight. Dolph and Hansi Richter have an English investor for this new  property – but after a long-trail drive to get there and the labor of establishing it from the ground , they discover that not all dangers of the frontier are banished. The Becker and Richter families are soon embroiled in a vendetta with a vicious rustler gang.

Jane, meanwhile, finds a new outlet in teaching school – and a romantic attraction to Dolph Becker’s artist brother, Sam. She makes friends with Lizzie Johnson, school-teacher and cattle baroness in her own right, and with the formidable matriarch of the family, Magda Vogel Becker. Can  the friendship between Isobel and Jane remain unbroken in the face of these new possibilities?

THE TRUTH IS WE DON’T HAVE THE SLIGHTEST IDEA:  Sunspot update: Are we now in the next solar maximum?

AS THE THUNDER RUMBLES EVER LOUDER:  Distant Storm.