This and That

February’s calendar, Melania Trump’s and Scott Holleran’s new movies, Iran, Minneapolis and America’s 250th Birthday

Jan 30, 2026

At the end of this post, besides brief notes on news and movies, I’ve included a link to my first video interview about my fiction writing.

Otherwise, here are key or marginalized dates to observe and note for next month:

February 2: Ayn Rand was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, on this date in 1905. “Elegy for an Ice Breaker” by Scott Holleran debuted in Classic Chicago Magazine on this date last year.
February 3: Ayn Rand stayed overnight at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home in Wisconsin as Wright’s guest at Taliesin.
February 4: Rosa Parks was born on this date in 1913.
February 8: Industrialist Henry Oliver died on this date in 1904. Read a review of his biography and an article about the Pittsburgh skyscraper that bears his name.
February 10: Boom Supersonic’s test aircraft flew its final supersonic flight on this date last year.
February 11: Whitney Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills in 2012. The pop singer was 48 years old.
February 12: President Lincoln was born on this date in 1809. “Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing.” ―Abraham Lincoln
February 14: Valentine’s Day. On this date in 2024, “A Deal With God” debuted as an author audio podcast episode on Short Stories by Scott Holleran.
February 17: Ayn Rand delivered her first major campus lecture, “Faith and Force: Destroyers of the Modern World,” at Yale University in 1960. Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh died on this date in 2021.
February 19: Ayn Rand arrived in New York City 100 years ago today.
February 20: Sidney Poitier was born in Miami on this date in 1927.
February 24: Steve Jobs was born on this date in 1955 in San Francisco.
February 26: Remember Victor Hugo—born on this date in 1802—on his birthday.
February 27: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was born on this date in 1807. Longfellow wrote: “Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime, and departing, leave behind us footprints on the sands of time.”
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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Coming Attractions

Melania, a new movie profiling First Lady Melania Trump from Amazon MGM, debuts in theaters. An exclusive new review of Melania will be posted on Autonomia.

My short film, “Henry Dances,” marking my onscreen motion picture debut, screens next month in Burbank, California. I’m co-producer, choreographer, principal dancer and leading actor.

The seven-minute movie will play in a theater with cast and crew and reserved VIP seating and include a Q&A with myself and the film’s director—a former writing student—moderated by a Hollywood musical producer. The movie, inspired by “Strapped,” one of the short stories in my new book, represents the crystallization of my work as a teacher, dancer, choreographer and writer. “Henry Dances” screens on Saturday afternoon February 21, 2026.

Read and get details on attending the screening here. My story which inspired “Henry Dances,” “Strapped,” climaxes with a military strike on Iran as the center of the plot.

Imagining a Free Republic in Iran

Whether the people of Iran can, will or generally seek to overthrow the Islamic dictatorship, the president of the United States pledged that “help is on the way” to those seeking a revolution. Trump ought to keep his word and soon, in my judgment, because Iran attacks and seeks to destroy America, as I wrote (most recently) six years ago on Capitalism Magazine in this essay praising the first Trump administration for striking Iran (browse the backlog of my writings on Capitalism Magazine here).

Shortly after that Black Tuesday in 2001, I wrote an article in U.S. newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, arguing that Iran—named by the 9/11 Commission as a state sponsor of the September 11, 2001 act of war—is America’s foremost enemy. To my knowledge, I’m the first (perhaps only) journalist to make that case, then or since. To my surprise, Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah of Iran reached out to me after reading my essay in the Chronicle, and we corresponded in mutual support for a secular, free republic of Iran.

Reza Pahlavi continues to speak out about Iran’s future free from religionism.

Mayhem in Minneapolis

Regarding the controversial deaths, shootings and protests in Minnesota’s biggest city, which has become the flashpoint for anti-American protests and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, I’m still reading, learning, acquiring new knowledge and reviewing reports about various killings and incidents.

However, I absolutely agree with former San Diego prosecutor and author James Valliant in his commentary included on a recent podcast episode (watch the interview and commentary here). Valliant, who’s worked with and interviewed Leonard Peikoff, makes a legitimate, epistemological point about prejudice and jumping to conclusions. ICE is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security—an unnecessary and asinine cabinet department concocted under the second Bush presidency—which enforces immigration law and conducts investigations to protect national security and public safety.

ICE has been Constitutionally affirmed by the U.S. judiciary, as Valliant points out. Like Valliant, contrary to some at the Ayn Rand Institute, I’ll reserve judgment until I learn and know more about the facts and evidence.