January 29, 2026

I’M SO OLD, I CAN REMEMBER WHEN BATMAN ACTUALLY FOUGHT CRIME:

 

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

TRAVEL: ‘A betrayal’: Southwest’s new plus size policy leaves some passengers unable to fly.

A new Southwest Airlines policy that requires plus-sized passengers to buy an extra seat if they “encroach” onto the seat next to theirs is sparking disappointment, anguish and frustration among leagues of larger bodied people across the U.S. who long relied on the airline as their carrier of choice.

Southwest’s new “customer of size” policy, which takes effect Tuesday, requires plus-sized passengers who cannot fit entirely within one seat to purchase a second one. That’s regardless of whether the seat next to them is empty.

Somebody might end up buying a ticket for that seat.

Posted at 12:45 pm by Stephen Green

ANTI-ICERS ARE NEW ‘MASSIVE RESISTANCE’ REBELS: Those anti-ICE protestors in Minneapolis are interposing themselves between federal immigration law enforcement and state/local authorities, much as did the Southern Massive Resistance did against federal civil rights enforcement.

Somewhere Harry Byrd Sr. Orval Faubus and George Wallace wonder why the media that today hails the Anti-ICErs as heroes condemned the Southerners as bigots. One wonders, too, what John C. Calhoun, the South Carolina senator best known for his views on interposition and nullification, would think were he among us today.

Posted at 12:34 pm by Mark Tapscott

AMELIA: the purple-haired goth girl who became a nationalist icon.

Does it mean anything important, or is it all just amusing internet froth? I believe it does have significance, even if Amelia disappears tomorrow. Amelia is final proof, in the age of the viral AI meme, that the government no longer has any chance of controlling the narrative, let alone establishing one in the first place.

This goes against every instinct and reflex of the British Establishment. Because, if the Establishment exists to do anything, it is to control us. This is why Starmer is so desperate to ban X for putting fake bikinis on women, while taking a year to announce a possible inquiry into nationwide grooming gangs.

Happily, this is one battle the Establishment simply cannot win. It has been said that the internet is the subconscious of humanity. And, as Freud observed, in the end the subconscious will always decide what we do. Dreams denote desires, and desires determine reality. In other words: go, Amelia.

As Glenn has written, “I’m so old, I remember when ‘culture jamming’ was a leftist thing,” and Amelia is engaging in multiple levels of it. Leftist American graphic designer Shepard Fairey, who created the iconic Obama “Hope” poster in 2007 can’t be happy about this:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

PLANNING:

Posted at 12:12 pm by Glenn Reynolds

YES. NEXT QUESTION? Did Stephen Colbert Really Just Downplay the Holocaust to Attack ICE?

The world observed International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, marking the day the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated and honoring the six million Jews and others who were killed at the hands of the Nazi regime. It appears late-night host Stephen Colbert missed that solemn occasion, and instead chose to use his monologue to make light of the Holocaust.

Such a comparison is not only meant to fan the flames of unrest and to encourage attacks against ICE and Border Patrol agents, but it’s also an insult to every person, Jewish and otherwise, who died at places like Auschwitz-Birkenau. Those were innocent men, women, and children targeted because of their religion. They broke no laws and were systematically murdered by the Third Reich.

Meanwhile, as Idiocracy becomes the law of the land, while Colbert is toying with Holocaust denial, Tim Walz forgets who was who in the Civil War. Or as VDH asks: Slouching Towards Fort Sumter?

For now, Walz, Frey, and Ellison are upping the rhetoric, fanning the violence, and talking openly about how best to nullify federal law and impede federal enforcement. They are convinced that they have galvanized national opposition to the hated Trump, smothered the Somali fraud scandal, and stopped ICE deportations of their constituents.

In all of those assumptions, they have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter. And like their spiritual forefathers of 1861, they grow ever more cocky, boastful, and defiant as they create martyrs, spread narratives of victimhood, and daily slouch toward another Fort Sumter.

“They have little idea they are following the Confederate script to the letter.” They really don’t:

UPDATE: Jim Treacher squares the circle:

Posted at 12:00 pm by Ed Driscoll

THE BASICS MATTER: Where in the world is … Greenland? Gaza? Ukraine? Iran?

American students should learn geography, writes Rick Hess. Where’s Greenland? Why would anyone want to control it? “It’s impossible to talk sensibly about immigration, border enforcement, foreign policy, or tariffs absent a clear sense of physical geography.” Furthermore, “a failure to teach bedrock knowledge leaves students adrift in a world of deepfakes and misinformation.”

When he taught a world geography class, his students started class by drilling on capitals, states, nations, continents, oceans and so on as a confidence-building warm-up before discussions, debates and projects. “We’d explore how the Rio Grande, English Channel, oil deposits, or access to fresh water helped to shape history and culture,” he writes. “But this learning rested on a foundation of geographic mastery — of knowing where the Rio Grande or English Channel was and why that mattered.”

The belief that “knowing stuff just isn’t that important” has gotten worse in recent years, says Hess. Some think knowledge prevents “critical thinking.”

Good Lord.

Posted at 11:43 am by Stephen Green

BLUE STATE BLUES: Stalled population growth a sign of Colorado in decline.

Something strange is happening in Colorado — strange enough that the political class should notice.

People are leaving Colorado.

After years of being one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, net in-migration has stopped and may be reversing.

According to Federal Reserve Bank data, the last time Colorado’s population took a dip was 1945. Congrats to our policy makers, who finally achieved something historic no one asked for. The Broncos haven’t won a championship in a decade, but what you’re achieving hasn’t happened in 80 years.

For the first time in 16 years, rents in metro Denver are actually going down. Not “slowing their increase.” Not “rising less quickly.” Going down.

Metro-wide rents are down nearly 5% over the last year. This should set off alarm bells under the Gold Dome. But it won’t.

Before the Democrats took complete control, Colorado was almost always in the top ten states for in-migration. Now it’s in the bottom ten.

Posted at 10:41 am by Stephen Green

YES:

Posted at 10:25 am by Stephen Green

OH: Chicago schools refuse to hire Christian college student teachers despite lawsuit.

A Christian college, The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, continues to be excluded from the Chicago Public Schools student teacher program after suing for religious discrimination, the college’s lawyer told The College Fix.

In an exclusive interview, senior counsel on the case Jeremiah Galus said that as of Jan. 7, Chicago Public Schools still wasn’t allowing Moody’s student teachers to work in its schools.

“Excluding Moody from a public student-teaching program solely because of its religious beliefs violates the First Amendment and serves no one — especially students and families who need more well-prepared teachers,” Galus, an attorney with Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Fix recently.

However, he also said that Moody’s elementary education program, which is at the center of the lawsuit, is still active.

Chicago Public Schools’ Office of Communications refuses to comment.

Posted at 9:39 am by Stephen Green

YES, IT’S HARD TO STRIKE SUCCESSFULLY WHEN YOU PRODUCE NOTHING OF VALUE:

Posted at 9:26 am by Glenn Reynolds

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: OH NO! Dem Slacker Mobs Schedule Another Day of Protest Cosplay. “When you see the way the protest mobs are behaving right now — or anytime, really — it’s difficult to believe that any of them have ever held a grown-up job or functioned in polite society. As I wrote in yesterday’s Briefing, they’re ‘feral, reactive beasts’ now. Again, there are worse things I could say there.”

Posted at 9:08 am by Stephen Green