February 18, 2026

LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY:

Flashback: Backyard Filmmakers Are Hollywood’s Greatest Fear.

Backyards now optional. (I thought I’d posted this yesterday, but I was wrong.)

Posted at 6:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

GREAT MOMENTS IN PRIORITIES:

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

AYFKM? Palestinian activist accused of expressing desire to ‘kill Jews’ wins deportation case.

Judge Nina Froes determined on Feb. 13 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not provide sufficient admissible evidence to establish that Mohsen Mahdawi was removable, Reuters reported.

Froes said DHS relied in part on a memorandum purportedly signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio but failed to authenticate the document.

As a result, the government was unable to “meet its burden of proving removability,” according to Reuters.

Froes was appointed during the final year of the Biden cabal.

Posted at 3:50 pm by Stephen Green

COWARDS: Gutfeld Defends ‘Silence of the Lambs’ While Actors Stay Silent.

Earlier this month, actor Ted Levine apologized for playing serial killer Buffalo Bill in the film.

Levine argued the role was insensitively portrayed, suggesting it caricatured the trans movement. Never mind that the character wasn’t trans, or that the actor took more than 30 years to utter his apology.

He wasn’t alone.

“Lambs” producer Edward Saxon also apologized for Buffalo Bill, the film’s human skin-wearing ghoul.

“From my point of view, we weren’t sensitive enough to the legacy of a lot of stereotypes and their ability to harm.”

Naturally, late-night comedians didn’t defend the film classic. They were too busy pushing Democratic party talking points and misleading viewers about candidate interviews.

Not Greg Gutfeld.

Much more at the link.

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green

FROM BAUHAUS TO TOM’S HOUSE: James Lileks on architect Louis Kahn.

While browsing through an Architectural Record from 1977, there was a gushing review of the incredibly brilliant Yale Center for British Art by the incredibly brilliant Louis Kahn.

* * * * * * * * *

The British Center’s special site and function surely had something to do with these surprising developments. Directly across the street from it stands the earliest of Kahn’s mature buildings: the first in his great sequence of inventive designs. It is Yale’s Art Gallery of 1953.

 

Ah yes. That one. The building that gave us one of the best examples of life before and after the Second World War.

Hint: Kahn’s building is on the left.

You know how many years separate those two structures?

Nineteen.

The building on the right was completed in 1928. The building on the left was begun in 1947.

In From Bauhaus To Our House, Yale man Tom Wolfe wrote:

Yale’s administrators were shocked. Kahn had been an architect for twenty years but had done little more than work as assistant architect, under Howe, among others, on some housing projects. He was not much to look at, either. He was short. He had wispy reddish-white hair that stuck out this way and that. His face was badly scarred as the result of a childhood accident. He wore wrinkled shirts and black suits. The backs of his sleeves were shiny. He always had a little cigar of unfortunate hue in his mouth. His tie was always loose. He was nearsighted, and in the classrooms where he served as visiting critic, you would see Kahn holding some student’s yard-long blueprint three inches from his face and moving his head over it like a scanner.

But that was merely the exterior. Somewhere deep within this shambles there seemed to be a molten core of confidence … and architectural destiny … Kahn would walk into a classroom, stare blearily at the students, open his mouth … and from the depths would come a remarkable voice:

“Every building must have … its own soul.”

One day he walked into a classroom and began a lecture with the words: “Light … is.” There followed a pause that seemed seven days long, just long enough to re-create the world.

His unlikely physical appearance only made these moments more striking. The visionary passion of the man was irresistible. Everybody was wiped out.

Kahn stared at the administrators in the same fashion, and the voice said: What do you mean, “It has nothing to do with the existing building”? You don’t understand? You don’t see it? You don’t see the string courses? They express the floor lines of the existing building. They reveal the structure. For a quarter of a century, those floors have been hidden behind masonry, completely concealed. Now they will be unconcealed. Now the entire structure will be unconcealed. Honest form—beauty, as you choose to call it—can only result from unconcealed structure!

Unconcealed structure? Did he say unconcealed structure? Baffled but somehow intimidated, as if by Cagliostro or a Jacmel hoongan, the Yale administration yielded to the destiny of architecture and took it like a man.

As Wolfe concluded his chapter, “Administrators, directors, boards of trustees, municipal committees, and executive officers have been taking it like men ever since.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

SAY ANYTHING THING:

She’s always been nasty and bitter, and has only gotten more so with age.

Posted at 2:32 pm by Stephen Green

JIM GERAGHTY: Stephen Colbert and James Talarico Are Lying to You.

The equal-time rule was part of the Communications Act of 1934. It states, “If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station, he shall afford equal opportunities to all other such candidates for that office in the use of such broadcasting station.”

Note that this applies to broadcast television stations include NBC, CBS, and ABC. The FCC’s equal time rule does not apply to cable channels like Fox News Channel, CNN, or MSNOW, because they don’t go out over public airwaves. (There are professional political pundits out there who don’t know or understand that distinction.)

* * * * * * * *

You can decide that the equal-time rule is stupid, but no broadcast television network is allowed to cite a “well, that’s stupid” provision when appealing a fine or punishment from the commission.

Texas holds its primaries on March 3, less than two weeks away. State Representative James Talarico and Representative Jasmine Crockett are the two best-known Senate candidates on the Democratic side, and different polls will give you different results on which one is ahead. A little-known third candidate, Ahmad Hassan, is also running for the Democratic nomination.

Stephen Colbert, the soon-to-be canceled $20 million per year host of The Late Show on CBS, wanted to have Talarico on his program Monday night.

But Colbert did not air his interview. Viewers watching at home saw Colbert at his desk, delivering a monologue:

[Talarico] was supposed to be here, but we were told in no uncertain terms by our network’s lawyers, who called us directly, that we could not have him on the broadcast. Then I was told in some uncertain terms that not only could I not have him on, I could not mention me not having him on. And because my network clearly doesn’t want us to talk about this, let’s talk about this.

Colbert continued:

But on January 21st of this year, a letter was released by FCC chairman and smug bowling pin Brendan Carr. In this letter, Carr said he was thinking about dropping the exception for talk shows because he said some of them were motivated by partisan purposes. Well, sir, you’re chairman of the FCC. So, FCC-U.

I think you are motivated by partisan purposes yourself, sir. Hey, you smelt it, because you dealt it. You are Dutch oven-ing America’s airwaves.

Ah, what wit! Can you believe CBS is losing $40 million per year on that show, and isn’t keeping that guy and his program around longer?

“Let’s just call this what it is. Donald Trump’s administration wants to silence anyone who says anything bad about Trump on TV because all Trump does is watch TV,” Colbert said.

Except Trump and his administration hadn’t “silenced” anyone. Nor, apparently, had Colbert’s bosses. A statement from CBS issued Tuesdaypointed out that the network hadn’t told Colbert that he couldn’t air the interview with Talarico, as the host had claimed to his audience. They had simply reminded Colbert of the equal-time rule:

“THE LATE SHOW was not prohibited by CBS from broadcasting the interview with Rep. James Talarico. The show was provided legal guidance that the broadcast could trigger the FCC equal-time rule for two other candidates, including Rep. Jasmine Crockett, and presented options for how the equal time for other candidates could be fulfilled. THE LATE SHOW decided to present the interview through its YouTube channel with on-air promotion on the broadcast rather than potentially providing the equal-time options.”

It gets worse; Talarico has been on a tirade on X since Monday, arguing that President Trump has tried to “silence” him, “censor” him, “block” the airing of the interview, and that he is a victim of “cancel culture.”

“His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert,” Talarico claimed, apparently oblivious to the fact that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is a government agency and not a broadcasting station and thus doesn’t “air” anything.

Time travel — it’s not just for Joy Reid anymore:

Exit question:

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

TO BE FAIR, NEITHER OF THESE MEN IS PARTICULARLY BRIGHT NOR HONEST:

Posted at 1:58 pm by Stephen Green

DON’T GET COCKY: Democrats, You May Already Have Lost the 2028 Election.

It’s early, and the contest will attract upstarts, insurgents and opportunists. Such outsiders have seized the moment in the past—sometimes successfully (Barack Obama in 2008; Donald Trump in 2016), sometimes not (Howard Dean in 2004; Bernie Sanders in 2016 and 2020). No one knows who they will be.

But they won’t be conservative Democrats. There are hardly any left. Only 8% of Democrats call themselves conservative, according to Gallup. Fifty-nine percent consider themselves liberal or very liberal. A CNN poll last summer found that one-third of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents think of themselves as democratic socialists like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. That share is 42% among those under 35.

Socialism’s rise raises troubling questions about the party’s future. The shift has electoral consequences. A radicalized base, animated by anti-Trump resistance, may be an asset in special and midterm elections. But open borders, social disorder and transgender ideology have hurt Democrats in presidential years. They will do so again if unchecked.

Success in 2028 thus depends on finding an appealing candidate who embodies change not only from Mr. Trump, but also from the Democrats’ reputation. That requires exactly the sort of self-examination Democrats are determined to avoid.

Bill Clinton emerged as the outsider, DLC-centrist in 1992, but only because the big names sat that one out, assuming George H.W. Bush was unbeatable following the 1991 Gulf War.

None of the big names — such as they are — seem likely to sit out 2028.

And none of those is anything like a DLC-style centrist.

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Erection pills may have major benefits — for more than just sex: ‘Too many men are missing out’.

Viagra and other common erectile dysfunction medications are known as PDE5 inhibitors, meaning they block an enzyme that restricts blood flow by tightening muscles and narrowing blood vessels.

These medications relax the blood vessels, which increases blood flow throughout the body, including to the penis.

Researchers saw a link between medication use and better heart health, noting that the blood flow and relaxed muscles could play a role in cardiovascular benefits. The improved circulation and vascular function could also reduce the risk of strokes. . . .

Previous research has also found that taking erectile dysfunction medications could reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

Well, there you are.

Posted at 1:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CHARLIE DON’T SURF! How Robert Duvall, the Vietnam War, and a Yater Spoon Changed Surfing.

Oh, Colonel Kilgore, off you go without your Renny Yater Spoon. Your magical, trusty, beloved steed of a “very good board,” as you so plainly put it. And to have it pilfered by none other than a brother in fiberglass, foam, and fins? A professional, no less? What a crying shame. Yes, sir, we all know how hard it is to find a board you like, don’t we?

Here’s to Lieutenant Colonel William “Bill” Kilgore, United States Army Air Cavalry commander and bona fide surf nut. A wave seeker so devout and itinerant that he’d go to the ends of the earth—and his humanity—to land a helicopter, engage in heated combat, and ultimately napalm a village in order (at least in part) to sample its surf. Politics aside, how can you not admire that kind of conviction in a fellow surfer? And still with six hours of incoming tide to kill, at that. A true surfer wastes no time with getting priorities in line, and that you were, LTC.

From that very first exchange with professional noserider extraordinaire and (drafted) Gunner’s Mate 3rd Class Lance Johnson, we knew, instinctually, that not only were you one of ours, but you had soul.

You had the kind of intrepid spirit that deems no peak too hairy for a little waterborne R&R.

Apocalypse Now screenwriter John Milius, an avid surfboarder in his younger days, wrote Duvall’s incredible dialogue. He told Surfer magazine in 2010, that in his mind, “the Vietnam War was a California war. It was a clash of cultures between the United States and this far off Asian land. But even more than that it was a clash between California culture and Asian culture. There was California music, and Hells Angels flames on Huey gunships. It was a California war. I guess the surfer is a cliche for the Vietnam War in the same way that the kid from Brooklyn stuck in the B-29 tail-gunner position was the World War II cliche.”

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll