[This Live Long & Prosper column is dedicated to TTP’s Skye – Durk Pearson.  I remember many a conversation with him on the epigenetic switches that turn  our DNA genes on and off---- JW]

We’ve been told that our genetic destiny is written in our DNA. However, research is gradually dismantling this fatalistic view.

Genetics may influence approximately 25 percent to 30 percent of how we age. The remaining portion is influenced by factors entirely within our control: what we eat, how we move, how we handle stress, others, and ourselves.

Dr. Lucia Aronica, who teaches epigenetics and nutrition at the Stanford University Medical School, embodies this balance of nature and nurture.

After 17 years of epigenetic research, she sat down for an interview with me, highlighting that: “You are not just a passive reader of your genetic code, but an active writer of your health story every day with every choice.”

 

Rewriting Your Software of Life

Aronica suggests that to understand epigenetics, we should view DNA as computer hardware—an unchangeable biological structure present in every cell—and epigenetics as the software that tells your cells which programs to run and when.

The prefix “epi” means “on top of,” referring to molecular switches that sit atop your genes, turning them on or off without altering the underlying code.

“Here’s the beautiful part: You can rewrite that software starting today,” Aronica said.

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The Iranian uprising is one of the three most moving expressions of human defiance so far this century. If the regime is toppled, it will constitute a fulcrum in the history of the world. Yet the hypocritical response from the liberal establishment has been as nauseating as it has been infuriating.

From Keir Starmer to Tucker Carlson,  a startling number of our loudest “human rights” voices seem to be taking the words of the Persian mystic Rumi – “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there” – rather too literally.

Surely, if there was ever a moment not to go beyond “ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing”, now would be the time. Yet, armies of Western notables are either downplaying or simply ignoring this dramatic struggle for freedom.

These are the people that are passionate when their activism harms the West, but whose voices seem to desert them when the tyrant wears a turban.

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It’s interesting that our liberal friends are all fainting this week because of the death of Renee Nicole Good on January 7 at the hands of an ICE agent during a “peaceful protest” where she was using her SUV to block ICE operations.

Almost exactly five years ago on January 6 our liberal friends had no problem with a Capitol police officer shooting Ashli Babbit as she climbed unarmed through a broken window into the Capitol in an “armed insurrection” against the United States government.

What is going on with our liberal friends training divorced mothers of three to engage in protest against ICE agents searching for illegal aliens as prescribed by law?

Let’s analyze the January 6 and January 7 narratives from the liberal point of view.

For our liberal friends the violent Capitol riots on January 6 were an existential threat to the System. OMG! What if the Senate had thrown out the official results of the 2020 election and considered alternate slates of Electors! It would have been the end of the world as we know it.

Er, no, dear liberal friends. But we might have got a look into the national problem of mail-in voting and ballot harvesting.

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In an age where complexity is often mistaken for sophistication, it is easy to forget a principle that has guided human understanding for thousands of years: truth is usually simple.

Thomas Sowell captured this perfectly when he observed that people who pride themselves on complexity often overlook the fact that reality itself is not complicated -- what becomes complicated is the debate about reality.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the current national conversation surrounding biological sex, gender identity, and the question before the Supreme Court this week regarding transgender participation in women’s sports.

As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments on whether states may restrict biological males who identify as female from competing in women’s sports, the issue has been wrapped in layers of ideology, emotion, and political rhetoric. But when we strip away the noise and return to first principles -- biology, history, law, and common sense -- the truth becomes remarkably clear.

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First Syria, then Iran, and now Venezuela. Slowly, but surely, Vladimir Putin’s hopes of creating an alternative network of alliances to challenge American hegemony is disintegrating.

For the past two decades, Putin has worked steadily to build Moscow’s military and trade ties with Caracas as part of a deliberate attempt to extend the Kremlin’s sphere of influence into America’s backyard. An added bonus of Putin’s long-standing support for Maduro was that it helped to sustain the anti-American regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua, with Caracas supplying them with everything they need, from oil to food.

China, a country Putin sees as a key partner in his burgeoning axis of autocratic powers, also enjoyed close ties with the Maduro regime. Now that the Chavist era in Venezuela has finally drawn to a close following US president Donald Trump’s dramatic military intervention at the weekend, Russia faces the very real prospect of witnessing the collapse of all three of their Latin American allies.

Viewed from this context, Trump’s decision to remove Maduro looks more like a geopolitical masterstroke than simply a brazen bid to seize control of Venezuela’s oil riches. With Maduro and his wife safely locked up in a Brooklyn jail, Caracas’s ability to function as an epicenter for anti-US activity for Russia and China has ended.

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Forget January 6. It turns out January 7 might go down as the date when insurrection really arrived in America — not from the MAGA right, but from the anti-Trump left.

In the aftermath of the fatal shooting Wednesday in Minneapolis of a woman who rammed an ICE agent with her vehicle, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced at a press conference that he had issued a warning order to prepare the Minnesota National Guard to mobilize to “protect Minnesotans” from “rogue ICE agents.”

It’s an almost unbelievable series of statements from a sitting governor. If taken at face value, it amounts to a threat to use the Minnesota National Guard for an anti-federal insurrection If Walz actually follows through with that threat, it will be an open act of sedition.

In that case, the moderate response would be to immediately arrest Walz, federalize the Minnesota National Guard, and declare martial law..

The lawlessness of the leftist mob is to be expected at this point. That’s not to say they shouldn’t all be rounded up and prosecuted at least as severely as the Biden administration prosecuted J6ers. But something must also be done about the Democrat politicians who are inciting violence and, in Walz’s case, flirting with insurrection.  They all need orange jumpsuits.

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President Trump’s push to take control of Venezuela and its oil resources under Operation Absolute Resolve is good news for the United States and Europe, and bad news for Cuba, Russia, China, and Iran: America is reclaiming strategic ground.

It matters because the world is entering an era of unprecedented energy demand driven by artificial intelligence, data centres, and digital infrastructure. Reliable, affordable energy is now a prerequisite for technological leadership. Nations that fail to secure supply will fall behind.

China currently receives the majority of Venezuela’s crude exports. US leverage over Venezuelan exports  disrupts China’s ability to secure discounted crude and reinforcing America’s position in global energy markets.

This shift also weakens China’s broader resource strategy in South America, where it is seeking critical minerals for electric vehicles and AI technologies.

But the ripple effects extend beyond China:

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