MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Not so toxic: Masculinity’s comeback makes America thrive.

ANSWERING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: Why do falls rise with age? Study points to cerebellar neuron firing.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: The most famous local sandwich from every state.

TRENDS: Birth doses of hepatitis B vaccine on decline in US before CDC scrapped recommendation.

BAD FINANCIAL NEWS FOR UNIVERSITIES: Supreme Court petitioned to decide if chilling faculty speech violates First Amendment. “University of Texas officials threatened Professor Richard Lowery with reduced pay, loss of a research post, and other consequences, if he did not stop publicly criticizing the UT administration. Wishing to avoid those outcomes, Lowery self-censored.”

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: UMich dean received $2M from Eli Lilly while backing abortion access.

IT’S AS IF BRITISH ELITES ARE AT WAR WITH THEIR OWN PEOPLE: The Rape Gang Crisis: Modern-Day Slavery on British Soil. Why Did British Elites Tolerate the Social Death of Women They Were Obligated to Protect?

PUERTO VALLARTA; Cartel Kingpin Taken Out — Now Americans Are Caught In The Middle.

WARM UP THE GUILLOTINES: Anti-Regime Protests Reignite in Iran as Trump Prepares Strike Options Targeting Islamic Republic Officials.

HAHA: White House Taunts Justin Trudeau After U.S. Hockey Bests Canada In Olympic Gold-Medal Match.

OUR HATEFUL MEDIA:

This is a classic example of assassination prep, the purpose of which is to implicitly encourage and justify terroristic violence against half the country. https://t.co/XlR0YaxaAh

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 23, 2026

MY NEW YORK POST COLUMN: Not so toxic: Masculinity’s comeback makes America thrive.

OPEN THREAD: Monday, Monday.

THE NEW SPACE RACE: Falcon 9 rocket sets new reuse record on SpaceX’s 2nd Starlink launch of the day.

I DON’T LIKE SUGAR SUBSTITUTES: Popular Sugar Substitutes Linked to Faster Cognitive Decline.

IT’S ALWAYS IN THE LAST PLACE YOU LOOK: Mars’ Missing Water Mystery Takes an Unexpected Turn.

WELL, GOOD: Scientists develop first-of-its-kind antibody to block Epstein Barr virus.

PLUG-IN HYBRIDS MAKE MORE SENSE THAN ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Zap! The 2027 Audi RS5 Sedan and Wagon Pack Big PHEV Power.

DECADES OF UNRAVELING THE SOCIAL FABRIC HAS ACHIEVED ITS GOAL: Cold Civil War: Many College Students No Longer See the Rule of Law as a Restraint.

Flashback: Politicians are tearing down the guardrails because they’re convinced they’re always right.

UPDATE: Link glitch fixed. Sorry!

GAVIN NEWSOM EXERCISING POWERS HE DOESN’T HAVE: Governor bans Kid Rock from his state: ‘Not what you want around our children!’ I’ve seen what you want around children, Gavin, and so I’m not impressed.

WELL, THEY’VE BEEN OVERSOLD: Patients want bigger benefits from statins before they consider taking them, finds new study. “Even at a moderate risk (10%) of developing a heart condition within the next 10 years, 42.9% of US adults and 42.4% of Japanese adults declined to take statins after knowing how effective the drug is and what side effects it can have.”

JAMES PETHOKOUKIS: The end of work? Not yet—maybe not ever. “Calm down. Artificial intelligence can already do plenty, but work is bundled, economies have bottlenecks, and rising prosperity tends to create new kinds of labor rather than eliminate it.”

I certainly agree that these are reasons why predictions that jobs and work will be largely gone by 2030 or 2035 are at the very least premature. I wonder, though, if the combination of AI and robotics won’t have a much bigger impact than the introduction of other technologies in the past, making prior technological revolutions an inadequate model.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Why you can salvage moldy cheese but never spoiled meat − a toxicologist advises on what to watch out for.

MAYBE THAT’S THE GOAL: Mayor Mamdani’s spending frenzy will lead NYC into a rapid decline. Looting the West and wrecking it is a logical policy for people who like money and hate the West.

PHIL HAMBURGER: When Is a Tax Not a Tax? When it’s a taking, like California’s proposed wealth levy.

California’s proposed billionaire tax is unconstitutional. The ballot initiative calling for one-time retroactive 5% tax on the net worth of the state’s billionaires has prompted much unease, but the legal arguments against it have remained elusive. It’s therefore important to recognize that this tax is an uncompensated taking or at least a deprivation of property without due process, contrary to the Fifth and 14th amendments.

Disgruntled taxpayers often grouse that taxation is state-sanctioned theft, and libertarians frequently complain about regulatory takings. But the billionaire tax is a problem for more basic reasons—reasons that are crucial for all of us, not only the hyperwealthy.

Although taxes are generally lawful, that isn’t true of everything called a tax. Consider a hypothetical Bill Gates Tax (imagined by legal scholars Calvin Massey and Eric Kades) that imposes an income tax of 100% on Mr. Gates and no one else. In form, it’s a tax; in reality, it’s a confiscation.

The example of the Bill Gates Tax is extreme in demanding 100% of income from one person. It’s less extreme, however, than the California tax in taking only income, not wealth, and in being prospective.

Three considerations coincide to make it especially clear that the California proposal is confiscatory.

It’s also an admission that the California machine has stifled growth and now has to confiscate available wealth in order to maintain desired levels of fraud and defalcation.

(Archived version here.)