February 21, 2026

February 20, 2026

OPEN THREAD: Because I love you and I want you to be happy.

Posted at 9:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

CLOSE CALLS: ‘We almost did have a really terrible day.’ NASA now says Boeing’s 1st Starliner astronaut flight was a ‘Type A mishap.’

But worse than the technical problems were the management problems:

The dividing lines between them are clearly defined. For example, any incident that causes at least $2 million of damages or other unplanned mission costs, or involves unexpected “departure from controlled flight,” is a Type A mishap.

CFT clearly met those criteria, Isaacman said today. But NASA did not classify the mission as a Type A mishap during and shortly after CFT, apparently because agency officials were too focused on getting Starliner certified to fly operational astronaut missions to the ISS.

“Concern for the Starliner program’s reputation influenced that decision,” Isaacman said today. “Programmatic advocacy exceeded reasonable balance and placed the mission, the crew and America’s space program at risk in ways that were not fully understood at the time decisions were being contemplated. This created a culture of mistrust that can never happen again, and there will be leadership accountability.”

With CFT officially being designated a Type A mishap, he added, “the record is now being corrected.”

People need to be canned, with serious prejudice, for that.

Posted at 9:00 pm by Glenn Reynolds

DISPATCHES FROM TRUDEAUPIA: Out of nowhere, Canada became poorer than Alabama. How is that possible?

Don’t sweat it, Canadians. The UK is poorer than Mississippi: The Mississippi Question is real, spectacular — and the UK is losing. “It was nine years ago when Fraser Nelson, the editor of The Spectator, first suggested that the U.K. was poorer than any U.S. state but Mississippi. This came as an uncomfortable shock for many in Britain for whom Mississippi, as a byword for backwardness, conjures up clichés about the Deep South. Every time anyone has made the comparison since, there has been an indignant outburst from Britons keen to denounce the data…Last year, by my math, the U.K.’s output per person was the equivalent of $45,485; Mississippi’s was higher, at $47,190. If Britain were invited to join the U.S. as the 51st state, its citizens would be at the bottom of the table for per capita GDP. Some might say that, for Mississippi, that is still disconcertingly close.”

Posted at 6:42 pm by Ed Driscoll

I NEVER HONESTLY CARED, BUT GOOD TO KNOW! Think chicken is healthier than beef? New study says not so fast.

Red meat has long been blamed for raising blood sugar and diabetes risk, while chicken is widely seen as the healthier option — but a new study challenges that age-old advice.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Public Health–Bloomington and the Illinois Institute of Technology put a common dietary recommendation for people with prediabetes to the test.

They found that blood sugar levels, insulin sensitivity, cholesterol and inflammation markers did not change in any meaningful way when participants ate lean beef versus chicken, according to the research, which was published in Current Developments in Nutrition in December.

Light the charcoal — it’s flank steak again tonight.

Posted at 4:54 pm by Stephen Green

IT’S PARENTAL MALPRACTICE TO SEND YOUR KIDS TO PUBLIC SCHOOL THESE DAYS:

Posted at 4:52 pm by Glenn Reynolds

GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY: How Canada became poorer than Alabama.

For eons, Canadians have viewed Alabama as a small state that, save for a few pockets, is dirt poor. All anybody seems to know about Alabama is that Montgomery and Birmingham were the centre of the civil rights movement. In 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” he called Birmingham “probably the most thoroughly segregated city in the United States.”

So, it was a shock when Canadian economist Trevor Tombe and the International Monetary Fund ran the numbers in 2023 and 2024 and concluded that Canada had, in fact, become poorer than Alabama.

To measure this, they calculated gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. In simple terms, it’s the size of the Canadian economy in a given year divided by the population. The same was done for Alabama. After adjusting for foreign exchange and some cost differences in both countries, the average for Canada’s 10 provinces was estimated at at US$55,000 in 2022, the same as Alabama. Shortly after, the IMF found Canada had actually fallen behind the southern state. (Canada has since edged ever-so-slightly higher than Alabama; the numbers are volatile from year to year.)

The timing was terrible for the Canadian psyche.

I don’t think Alabama made Canadians vote Liberal again and again — the damaged psyche is all on themselves.

Also, I doubt the Globe and Mail meant to do this, but this report makes Canadians seen awfully bigoted and ignorant. I think the paper was just trying to play to its Canadian audience.

Posted at 3:52 pm by Stephen Green

IT’S TIME FOR VICTORIA TAFT’S West Coast, Messed Coast™ — Pot Tax Was Supposed to Help Kids, but Look Where It’s Going Instead “Welcome to your weekly West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, covering the tidbits, outrages, and whoppers of Washington, Oregon, and California. And hoo boy, have we got some specimens for you this week. It’s a jump ball, however. Shall we lead with the pot tax to help 🎶 The Children 🎶 or do we begin with duplicitous Democrats who swore they’d never raise taxes? “

Posted at 3:21 pm by Stephen Green