I TALK ABOUT EXERCISE AND POLITICS WITH MARK RIPPETOE on the Starting Strength podcast.

JOHN LUCAS: Whither General Milley? A prescription for accountability from General Milley.

UPDATE: I originally linked to an earlier version of this piece. The link above now goes to a revised version.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Sanctioned Penn Professor Amy Wax Says ‘Possibility’ Trump Will Join Her Fight Against University That Punished Her for ‘Offensive’ Speech.

Professor Amy Wax, in an interview with the Sun, discloses that “the possibility has been brought up” that the Trump administration could join her federal civil lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania for violating “core principles of the First Amendment” and enforcing policies that are “racially discriminatory.”

Penn, as it’s called, has been trying to fire Dr. Wax, a tenured legal scholar who has argued cases before the Supreme Court and also happens to be a physician, for years due to statements she’s made — most controversially about the performance of her Black students — that have roiled the campus and made her persona non grata among the overwhelmingly liberal faculty.

Dr. Wax is now suing Penn after it punished her, including reducing her compensation, with what her complaint calls “academic discipline in the form of major sanctions.” The suit, in which the law professor uses a legal theory whose shape emerged in the wake of the attacks of October 7, 2023, to take on her hostile employer, could gain momentum from Washington’s help. The Trump administration could see in the polarizing professor an ally in its push to change the culture on America’s campuses.

Penn accuses Dr. Wax of committing a “major infraction” for “making intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic statements and actions that inflict harm.”

Penn’s faculty appears to have been especially incensed at Dr. Wax’s claims that “non-Western groups” are resentful toward “Western people” and that in her experience, Black students had rarely graduated at the top of their law school classes. She told the Sun in 2023 that she rejects the “premise that all groups are equal in their skills, ability, preferences, and talents,” but has always maintained that she has never discriminated against any student.

Penn and its lawyers ruminated on how to punish Dr. Wax in spite of her tenure. The university settled on a punishment that included a one-year suspension at half pay, the loss of a named chair and summer pay, a public reprimand, and a requirement that she note in the course of every public appearance that she does not speak for Penn. She calls the process that led to her sanctions “abnormal.”

Penn called her comments all sorts of things, except false.

YEP: Roger Kimball: Trump 2.0: A Shockwave of Change in Just Six Days.

GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS: Was Pete Hegseth’s Accuser Offered A Quid Pro Quo For Her Bogus Affidavit?

THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE: In California and Michigan, a Surprising Force Drives Anti-Israel Campus Activism: Labor Unions: ‘You basically have auto workers across the nation subsidizing these trust fund graduate students.’

#JOURNALISM: NYT: It Is Just a Clump of Cells if They’re American; It Is a Child If the Mother Is ‘Undocumented.’

EXPLAINING LIFE TO IDIOTS:

The French have not been in Haiti in over 200 years.

In the past two centuries, Haitians have not managed to do anything except cause nearly animal to go extinct and to deforest 99% of the vegetation on their side of Hispaniola. https://t.co/lP9X1Kss9x

— Rich 🐺 (@heywildrich) January 25, 2025

OPEN THREAD: Party like it’s Saturday night.

FASTER, PLEASE: Beam me to the stars: Scientists propose wild new interstellar travel tech.

BRAWNDO HAS WHAT PLANTS CRAVE: Electrolyte Drinks Can Make Things Worse When You’re Sick. Here’s Why.

FASTER, PLEASE: Scientists Discover Promising Molecule That Restores Cognitive Function in Early Alzheimer’s.

21ST CENTURY PARENTING: Octomom Nadya Suleman’s kids speak out for the first time: ‘She had to sacrifice so much.’

LONG-TERM TEST: Our Long-Term Toyota Grand Highlander Dons Its Snowshoes.

CHANGE: Six New Shotguns for 2025.

IT’S NOT EASY TO BE A MAN: Alpha male baboons’ obsession with females stresses them out.

FASTER, PLEASE: Peptide-coated nanoparticles achieve 98% drug loading, improving cancer treatment.

DO NOT TRUST THE “INTERNET OF THINGS.” Millions of Subarus could be remotely unlocked, tracked due to security flaws.

ALL THE BEST PEOPLE ASSURED ME THAT MEDICAL MARIJUANA WAS ENTIRELY BENIGN, AND THAT MARIJUANA ISN’T ADDICTIVE: Medical marijuana users can become addicted to pot, study says.

IT’S WHATEVER THE NARRATIVE DEMANDS AT THE MOMENT! DUH.

I was reliably informed Haiti was a paradise on Earth: https://t.co/Q0UZMPq7Qf pic.twitter.com/S00Pg2NT2b

— RIP (@Marshal_Dov) January 24, 2025

KRISTI NOEM CONFIRMED as Homeland Security Secretary.

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER: Albion grant to recruit black students in robotics raises questions about discrimination.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: K-12 education is mediocre because teaching colleges set mediocre standards. And hire mediocre faculty (at best) to teach mediocre (at best) students.

CHANGE: Promise Kept: How Trump’s Border Orders Are Reversing the Migrant Crisis.

IT’S ALL THEY KNOW: Liberal Media Scream: CBS sucks up to Biden to the end: ‘Did deliver.’ He delivered for the Chinese and the Iranians, certainly.