On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on cases that could determine whether states have the authority to preserve women’s sports for biological females.

The cases, from Idaho and West Virginia, challenge laws that restrict girls’ and women’s athletic teams to participants of the same biological sex. Transgender students argue these laws violate Title IX and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

But beneath the legal claims lies a more fundamental question: who gets to define what it means to be a woman under the law?

The Court must decide whether government is required to treat self-declared gender identity as determinative—or whether it can rely on the objective reality of biological sex.

Upholding these laws protects fairness and safety in women’s sports. More importantly, it prevents sex (and womanhood itself!) from becoming an arbitrary legal construct.

That matters.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The difference between the illusion of power and its reality is the difference between the Ayatollah Khamenei and President Donald Trump. Trump is on the cusp of joining the very small number of American presidents who reorder the world. Khamenei is on the cusp of history’s abyss reserved for murderous fanatics.

The belief in the unlimited power of a totalitarian government to maintain itself and protect its rulers is a dangerous conceit, as Syria’s Bashar al-Assad and Venezuela’s Nicholas Maduro have both discovered.

It may be that Ayatollah Khamenei is in the process of discovering the same hard reality: No government, no matter how ruthless, can endure for centuries or even decades in the face of a resentful population.

Not even the rulers of Rome at the height of the Caesars were guaranteed an endless run of power.

If either the U.S. or the Israeli’s provide the final push, the great people of Persia will re-emerge and regain their place among the great civilizations on the planet.

We wish them well.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On paper, the regime in Iran should represent everything that Western progressives reject. Women experience brutal oppression and are treated like chattel belonging to male family members. The economy centers on the nation's military-industrial complex, with the IRGC controlling 40% or more of the nation's economic output.

Don’t forget how the mullahs treat the LGBTQ community, religious minorities, indigenous peoples, and so on.

And yet, the mainstream media waited nearly two weeks to report on the uprising in Iran. Progressive publications like The Nation, the New Republic, and Slate never mentioned it. The Golden Globes vented about Trump and ICE—but remained silent on Iran.

Why the silence? As Yascha Mounk wrote on Monday, the Left’s hatred of the Western democracy makes Iran’s theocratic tyrants their natural allies. Their silence is their expression of grief that true liberty may prevail in Tehran and vindicate Western values.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On paper, the regime in Iran should represent everything that Western progressives reject. Women experience brutal oppression and are treated like chattel belonging to male family members. The economy centers on the nation's military-industrial complex, with the IRGC controlling 40% or more of the nation's economic output.

Don’t forget how the mullahs treat the LGBTQ community, religious minorities, indigenous peoples, and so on.

And yet, the mainstream media waited nearly two weeks to report on the uprising in Iran. Progressive publications like The Nation, the New Republic, and Slate never mentioned it. The Golden Globes vented about Trump and ICE—but remained silent on Iran.

Why the silence? As Yascha Mounk wrote on Monday, the Left’s hatred of the Western democracy makes Iran’s theocratic tyrants their natural allies. Their silence is their expression of grief that true liberty may prevail in Tehran and vindicate Western values.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Zohran Mamdani became mayor of New York City, he took his oath on the Koran, rather than a Bible.

In America, free exercise of religion is a constitutional right. Mamdani was absolutely entitled to swear his oath on his faith’s sacred text.

But texts matter, and so do the principles they enshrine.

In the Bible, political authority is limited and not divine. Church and state distinct, and individual conscience is separate from government power.

Under the Quran, religious and political authority are one and the same, and the state is understood to be an instrument for enforcing divine law.

Judeo-Christian thought made limited government possible by insisting that the state isn’t sacred. Under Islam, conscience is subordinate to religious authority.

That distinction matters.

Americans should be paying attention.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Three things were said in the aftermath of the remarkable “Operation Absolute Resolve,” in Venezuela that sum up well what some have called the “Donroe Doctrine.”

During the press conference that followed the impressive military action, Secretary of State Rubio said: “President Trump doesn’t play games.” This president must be taken seriously. And Rubio’s absolutely right, he doesn’t.

Just a bit after Rubio is done, President Trump declared simply but directly: “Life is a deal.” The president doesn’t ask for unreasonable things—and our enemies and adversaries do well to deal with him.

And then, on Air Force One on Sunday, a reporter asked the president what would happen next in Venezuela? President Trump replied: “It depends.”

The administration is watching closing how—in this case—Venezuela responds.

There in those three short statements is, in a nutshell, what we have tagged the “Donroe Doctrine.”

It seems pretty simple to me.

The U.S. is no longer playing games.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nearly six years ago, Minneapolis burned for days after the death of George Floyd. That riot, fueled by rage-filled rhetoric, touched off riots in other American cities. Lives were lost, businesses destroyed and Minneapolis has never really recovered.

Did anyone learn a lesson about leadership and measured responses? Not in Minneapolis.

Mayor Jacob Frey watched his city burn that summer. And this week: After an immigration officer shot and killed a driver that attempted to run him down, Frey had an opportunity to call for calm and ask Minnesotans to wait for a proper investigation.

Instead, he screamed expletives into a microphone, claimed ICE is “killing people,” and that they should “get the [blank] out of Minneapolis.”

Embattled Governor Tim Walz was little better than Frey this week, calling DHS a “propaganda machine.”

They learned nothing from 2020. Frey and Walz want to pander to outrage rather than govern rationally.

This is not leadership.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Donald Trump has driven Democrats into madness … again.

In a stunning and bold move, Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, who had kept his grip on power after losing an election in 2024. Maduro had indictments for drug trafficking, as well as connections to Hezbollah. His removal makes the United States safer, and makes tyrants in Iran, Russia, and China weaker.

In response, Democrats have rushed to defend Maduro and cast Trump as the villain. Democrats have attempted this every time Trump has succeeded in improving American security, most notably in closing the southern border and enforcing immigration law.

This time, however, Axios reports that even some Democrats in Congress are pushing back on Trump derangement. Recalling that Democrats have spent years condemning Maduro and the stolen election, one observed: “I think it looks weak. If you don’t acknowledge when there is a win for our country, then you lose all credibility.”

Donald Trump keeps racking up the wins. And Democrats keep doubling down on derangement.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.