[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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While woke squishes in America doubt whether America was ever great, there are clear signs of America’s greatness throughout Europe. There are several entire countries and many small towns still show gratitude to the Americans for liberating them during World War II to this day.

I had the privilege of meeting one of those liberators. Richard Brookins played Santa Claus for the citizens of the town of Wiltz, Luxembourg, after the U.S. Army’s 28th Division liberated the town from Nazi Germany’s occupation in 1944. Before the Nazis captured Wiltz, the residents always celebrated Saint Nicholas Day on December 6th. The Nazis, however, banned the celebration.

However, on December 6, 1944, the 28th Division, which was passing through, stopped the war for one day. That day, the troops celebrated by entertaining the people of Wiltz with their own Saint Nicholas Day.  Brookins was recruited to play St. Nick, complete with his Bishop’s mitre and staff. Although the whole affair lasted only a couple of hours, it left a lasting impression.

The people of Wiltz continue to celebrate American Saint Nick Day and have placed a statue of Brookins dressed as Saint Nicolas in the center of town. Brookins, of course, isn’t the only one who is remembered with such love and respect. Many towns in Europe still honor and are grateful for the sacrifice and empathy that the United States demonstrated to them during World War II.

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November 11th, a single square on the calendar, carries three names and three lessons for the modern West.

Veterans Day, honoring those who fought for our Republic.

Armistice Day, marking the end of the First World War, so cataclysmic its survivors called it simply The Great War.

And St. Martin’s Day (or Martinmas), an ancient Christian feast commemorating Martin of Tours — the Roman soldier who laid down his sword for Christ and spent the rest of his life fighting a greater battle for souls.

Three observances. One date. One truth: civilization survives because virtuous men step forward to bear its burdens.

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One of President Trump's achievements is his reshaping of the manner in which politics is conducted in D.C.

Once upon a time, shady deals were struck behind closed doors, but the communication was carefully curated. Irrespective of the nefarious intents and the catastrophic consequences, the sentences were beautifully constructed while the countenances appeared grave.

The Iraq War and ObamaCare were advocated by different parties, but the deceitful manner in which they were 'sold' was identical.

Politics was usually dreary, leading people to avoid the news. The powers in D.C. knew that if the presentation is dull, focusing on their nefarious actions is difficult, and this enables them to do as they please, without consequences.

Memoirs of leaders published decades after quitting politics reveal the meetings behind closed doors were frequently unruly and profane, and driven by petulance and pettiness.

However, they feigned 'normality' before the cameras. These acting abilities led to the quote that “politics is showbiz for ugly people.”

President Trump struck all that down with a sledgehammer.

One of the reasons for Trump's success in business is his skill as a negotiator and a strategic thinker.

So the focus of this piece is on the manner in which he effortlessly outmaneuvers his opponents, setting traps whose impact they comprehend only when they have stepped into them.

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New Yorkers have handed America’s biggest and most famous city- the financial capital of the world- to a radical Muslim communist, who pals around with Jihadi terrorists, supports “global intifada,” wants to tax whites higher than minorities, and has never held a real job in his life.

New York City is now officially “Kabul on the Hudson.”

Or

“North Korea meets Sharia.”

Aren’t New Yorkers proud? What an achievement. All because the city that used to be known as “the greatest city on the planet” is now filled with a poisonous mixture of young jobless communists angry at living in their parents’ basement, and foreigners who hate the country they invaded, and want to turn us into the failed third world s***tholes they just escaped from.

So, I have an idea. “If you can’t beat them, give ‘em what they want.”

Here is how President Trump can win this battle for the soul of America. Stop fighting the communists and Muslim terrorist appeasers. Give them what they want….

President Trump should declare New York City is now a “ILLEGAL ALIEN FREE ZONE.”

Now many of you are probably thinking I’m planning a trap. Once gathered there, we can send ICE in and arrest them all. After they’ve all gathered in one place, it would be like rounding up and deporting fish in a barrel.

But no, that’s not my plan. Because…

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Jews celebrating Hanukkah were just slaughtered by Muslim gunmen on an Australian beach, in an imitation of the October 7 massacres.

An inert Europe is canceling Christmas celebrations out of fear of threats of violence from Muslim minorities.

Most polls show that 60 percent of Democrats favor the Palestinians over the Israelis. Translated, that means they prefer a terrorist autocracy over a Western liberal constitutional government.

The right used to be a unified corrective to left-wing anti-Semitism. It still polls nearly 70 percent in favor of Israel. For a while longer, it is far more likely to condemn anti-Semitic violence than the left.

But recently, its own base, in varying degrees, has come full circle and joined the left in its distaste for Israel and Jews in general.

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The current economic indicators, at least those attributable to the 10-month Trump administration, are strong.

Fourth-quarter GDP is estimated to grow between 2.7 and 4 percent, the robust latter figure according to the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank.

Inflation from June to August ranged from 2.7 to 2.9 percent, significantly lower than the 5 percent annual average during Biden’s 2021-2025 term.

Gas prices now average $2.98 per gallon, compared to $3.46, the average cost during Biden’s four years.

In less than a year, Trump has increased oil production by one million barrels per day.

Unemployment in the second quarter of 2025 stayed steady at 4.2 percent, roughly the same as the 4.1 percent during the final month of Biden’s tenure.

The stock market has reached an all-time high. Foreign investment is pegged at record levels. Tariff revenue could reach $400 billion by the end of the year—vastly outpacing the $77 billion in all of last year, 2024.

In other words, the economy is rolling along.

To the extent the Trump administration has a problem with the economy, however, it is threefold.

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Why are late night show hosts like Kimmel, Fallon, and Colbert so bad? Even saying that they are not funny understates the magnitude of the problem. It has gotten to the point that what they do in front of an audience every night can’t even be defined as humor. It’s something else.

It’s a chimera of sorts, a mirror image of what humor is in the real world but lacking in essence. It’s as if an alien from outer space put on a human disguise and then tried to mimic humor without the ability to feel human emotion.

I am not talking about robotic delivery. I am talking about a show host force-feeding his audience a diet of what they expect to hear and an audience that feels obliged to go along with the gag — kabuki theater of sorts, done for show, not substance.

It all feels staged. A comedian must catch the audience off guard and as such cannot deliver jokes passed through the HR department for approval.  What’s going on?  Whatever it is, it’s why Greg Gutfeld in eating their late-night lunch.

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You'd think Democrats, like terrorists, would up their game once revelations of their tactics became widely known.

But apparently they haven't -- the same old fraud reports are showing up again, in scattered reports from the wake of this week's elections in California, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania:

BREAKING - Conservatives are now pointing to inconsistencies in the New Jersey gubernatorial race after nearly 500,000 new voters appeared from 2021 to 2025, more than double the state’s population growth over four years, with almost all of them going to Democrats. pic.twitter.com/TR9qxRePv0

— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) November 6, 2025

This report, in Pennsylvania:

When it comes to blue-state voting foulups, never attribute to stupidity what can be explained by malice. https://t.co/i4igaeGZ7A

— @instapundit (@instapundit) November 4, 2025

Here's another report from both of them:

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