Overnight News: Little-boy toys mediate powerlessness. Canceling them is how you get more powerless men.

At the Arrowhead Towne Centre Mall, where Loco Willie drives the choo-choo train, the Lego store is right next door to the Build-a-Bear store – this so parents can have both their arms torn off at the same time. Whatever gender-confusion might be found among the tweens and all those evertweens, the lines are bright and the lanes are clear for three- and four-year-olds: Girls like girly stuff and boys like warriors and weapons and every manner of manly jobs.

There is a middle ground: Mega and Duplo blocks are all about blocks – and dexterity – not grown-up identities. But Lego blocks are about ships and battles and airports and architecture.

Little boys play with simulations of manly efficacy because they are powerless and they know it. Their games are all about achieving results that are, so far, entirely beyond them.

Divorce is the best way to rob boys of a masculine role model, but stripping masculinity from everything boys touch won’t make anything better – it will just make our conquest by manlier men that much easier.

In other news:

FloridaRealtor.org: HUD Says It Will Make Climate Change a Housing Priority: HUD says it will consider climate risk when underwriting loans (VA, Agriculture, etc.), promoting new energy-efficient housing and updating guidelines for grants. From Brian Brady: “FHA and VA loans are about to become more expensive in Florida – maybe California, but definitely in the Southeastern states. Forget that insurance prices the risk mitigation for extreme weather, this will be an added cost, priced into the loans.”

Michael Walsh: Vaccine Mandates Awaken Calls for Freedom.

The Federalist: The 2020 Election Wasn’t Stolen, It Was Bought By Mark Zuckerberg: The true story of how Mark Zuckerberg privatized the government’s voter registration and vote counting for Democrats in 2020.

John Daniel Davidson: The Purpose Of The Jan. 6 Select Committee Is To Suppress Free Speech.