February 18, 2026

NATIONAL SUICIDE FOR PUTIN’S EGO: Russia’s Middle-Aged Poor to the Grinder. “What the data we do have show is that Russia will fight Ukraine to its last poverty stricken middle-aged man before pushing the papered urbanites in Moscow and St. Petersburg—or the flinty TicTok warriors of Chechnya—into the trenches.”

Posted at 8:23 am by Glenn Reynolds

WE’RE LIVING IN A PARODY:

Posted at 8:20 am by Glenn Reynolds

THE WEST IS IN TROUBLE:

Posted at 8:16 am by Glenn Reynolds

CHANGE: Gen Z Men & Highly Educated Lead Return to Religion.

The decline of religion remains a fundamental reality in most Western countries, particularly in Europe, where over 50% of those under age 40 do not identify with any faith. Even in more religious America, some estimate that as many as 100,000 churches will close in the near future. Meanwhile, the ranks of “Nones,” those outside religious communities, have grown so large that their numbers rival those of Catholics and evangelical Protestants.

Yet, as we document in a new report for the Chapman Center for Demographics and Policy, there are signs that religion is enjoying more than a nascent revival. Data emerging from the 2020s suggest that we are witnessing a complex spiritual restructuring that intersects with economic mobility, demographic resilience, and a profound intellectual realignment.

For the first time in decades, Pew Research notes, in the U.S. at least, Christianity has stopped its nosedive as more people begin to see the efficacy, and the rewards, of religious faith and practice.

This fragile development is especially noteworthy as it exposes growing divides and fault lines in American politics and culture.

Read the whole thing.

Posted at 7:34 am by Stephen Green

21ST CENTURY BIGOTRY:

Posted at 7:20 am by Glenn Reynolds

THE DEMOCRATS’ INSANITY DEFENSE:

Flashback to late October of 2024: The Democrats’ Insanity Defense.

In the September debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Trump said something so ludicrous that many viewers must have dismissed it out of hand. “She did things that nobody would ever think of,” Trump said, while rattling off a list of some of the vice president’s most radical past positions. “Now she wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”

The idea that the vice president “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison” seemed so patently absurd that The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser cited it in a column posted the next morning as an example of Trump’s lunacy: “What the hell was he talking about?” Glasser wrote of the trans operation lines. “No one knows, which was, of course, exactly Harris’ point.”

That reaction was understandable—the idea of the operations was, as Trump himself said, a “thing nobody would ever think of.” The problem was that it is true.

* * * * * * * *

The same GOP staffer, who is currently working on a competitive congressional race, told me that one problem his campaign regularly faces is that aspects of Democratic governance are simply too insane for voters to find credible, even when they are documented as official U.S. government policy. “When you outline the Democratic agenda, you have to water it down, because in both polling and focus groups, people just don’t believe it,” he said. “They are critical of things like boys in girls’ sports, but they tune out stuff about schools not informing parents about transitioning their children. They just don’t believe it’s true. It can’t be.”

Another Republican operative made a related point on the failure of the party’s attempt to message on trans issues in 2022, which was that the reality of the procedures was so gruesome that voters simply preferred not to think about it. “Phrases like ‘genital mutilation’ are disgusting and viscerally off-putting, even to voters who may be sympathetic to the Republicans’ position but will just write you off as a freak for talking about it that way.”

A similar dynamic plays out in foreign policy. On the one hand the Democrats conjured out of thin air the claim that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election, which was, we now know, a conspiracy theory concocted by ex-spies and Clinton campaign operatives and seeded in the intelligence agencies and media by the outgoing Obama administration to cripple the new administration. That is to say that it is not a matter of partisan political opinion; it is simply false. Yet as of 2022, nearly half of U.S. voters, and a majority of Democrats, still believed that Trump was elected in 2016 due to Russian interference, and the hoax remains a mainstay of Democratic rhetoric. It even played a major role in the 2020 election, providing the predicate for the Biden campaign to collude with tech companies and retired spooks to censor reporting about Hunter Biden’s foreign influence-peddling schemes, which turned out to be entirely real.

Of course, plenty of insane stories ran in the paper that employs McAardle:

Not to be confused with other stories the Post simply invented out of whole cloth:

Posted at 7:14 am by Ed Driscoll

EDITED BY JAMIE IBSON, WITH STORIES FROM MICHAEL Z. WILLIAMSON, JODY LYNN NYE, KACEY EZELL AND OTHERS:  Plausibly Deniable.

Plausibly Deniable

“Occasionally a few simply honest men are found upon committees. These are useful as adjuncts to give a kind of high moral character to the cause; but the rest of the committee generally think them bores . . . When any peculiarly delicate question arises, it is sometimes important to eliminate one or more of them temporarily from the real committee of management . . . and also of enabling him at any future time to declare truly, if necessary, that he never was present at any meeting at which even a questionable course had been proposed.” —Charles Babbage, 1864

“Who? No idea, never heard of him.” —Spies, mercenaries, operatives, and criminals everywhere

In Plausibly Deniable, we get a peek behind the curtain. We get to see what shouldn’t be seen, to know what they don’t want you to know, and to find out the true story of whodunnit.

Edited by Jamie Ibson, a wide array of established authors and rising stars contribute to this undeniable original anthology, including: Jody Lynn Nye, Michael Z. Williamson & Jessica Schlenker, Craig Martelle, Jason Cordova & Melissa Olthoff, Jacob Holo & Edie Skye, Kacey Ezell and Nick Steverson, Marisa Wolf, Casey Moores, Jack Clemons, and introducing multiversal man of mystery, Buff Orpington.

They could tell you, but then they’d have to . . . well. You know.

 

Posted at 7:00 am by Sarah Hoyt

WHERE ARE AMERICA’S JEWISH LEADERS? That may seem like an odd question to ask in this country, which has for so long welcomed and been blessed by courageous, freedom-loving men and women of the Jewish faith who love America and sought to protect and build it.

But my friend and former newsroom co-conspirator Richard Pollock — who made the long journey from 60s Lefty buddy of the Chicago 7 to a hugely successful journalism career and ultimately commonsense conservatism — looks around today and here’s what he sees:

“Today’s vicious antisemites are constantly in the streets. Yes, they act fiercely and thrive on intimidation. They are loud, impertinent, pushy and in your face. Muslims and political progressives have joined in an alliance to denounce Jews and Israel.

“They own the streets. They act with impunity. They physically assault Jews. They hide their faces behind Palestinian Keffiyehs and masks. We see their hideous work as they paint their dirty, antisemitic slogans to deface Jewish homes, synagogues, college campuses and Jewish institutions.”

Where are today’s Jewish leaders fighting back against this swelling wave of anti-semitism, Pollock asks?

ONE ENCOURAGING SIGN on this issue is the forthcoming “Why Israel Matters to America” forums on Capitol Hill for congressional staff and others who may be interested. Details here on HillFaith.

 

Posted at 6:17 am by Mark Tapscott