Valentine’s Day Forum
Steven L. Taylor
·
Saturday, February 14, 2026
·
22 comments
OTB relies on its readers to support it. Please consider helping by becoming a monthly contributor through Patreon or making a one-time contribution via PayPal. Thanks for your consideration.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor Emeritus of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter and/or
BlueSky.
Is double Friday a new OTB thing?
@Kathy:
I thought Twos-Day was the day for double shots.
John Locke’s reasoning had a flaw, as identified by David Hume and Thomas Jefferson, namely
“Life, liberty and property” – Locke
vs.
“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – Jefferson
An essay on relating this to our current circumstances:
“The Crisis, No. 14”
A multipart series headed towards this:
“No. 15”
More here:
“Link”
An exhaustive examination of what Musk, Thiel, Trump, Bari Weiss etc. etc. are doing.
Happy VD Day!
And remember
Love is fleeting
Herpes is forever!
Update from rehab: I think I mentioned that I got fitted for a prosthetic leg a few weeks ago. It truly is amazing what a difference that makes. The physical therapist took me for a long walk inside the building yesterday, me bumping along slowly with my walker. I started out energetically enough, but by the end it felt more like the Bataan Death March. But they say I’m making great progress.
@Gregory Lawrence Brown:
😀
@CSK
Good to hear!
@CSK: Hang in there!
Whoa! All of a sudden the format has changed dramatically.
Now the format has returned to what it is normally is. Am I the only one to whom this happened?
@CSK:
No, it seems the mods were trying to fix something.
In unusual news today, a Brazilian skier won Brazil’s first ever gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
It was necessary to spend money to mitigate the COVID recession, most of it in 2019 and ’20, but blamed on Biden. And this produced inflation. Joe Biden had a bad debate performance leaving Kamala Harris six months to campaign. The result was Trump’s election. Many leaders and pundits saw, or pretended to see, this as a rightward vibe shift in the country, a shift I suspect many secretly welcomed for the expected tax cut. A couple of lefty bloggers this morning see hints of this supposed vibe shift reversing.
Trump’s upcoming State of the Union is widely expected to be a dumpster fire, leading Ann Laurie at Balloon Juice to observe,
And Paul Campos at LGM, under the title Will the Trump presidency collapse over the next 35 months?, observes,
I have occasionally in these threads expressed my disdain for David Brooks. I would admit my opinions are those of an amateur and based on only occasional reading of Brooks. This morning I stumbled across a highly professional, deeply researched, condemnation of David Brooks by one John Warner.
I’ve observed here that Brooks is a highly successful pundit. But his success is in marketing, not insight.
@gVOR10:
Costco: “Lol there’s no vibe shift, these fools think tariff man will lower prices.”
I think I’m becoming technophobic in my late, late, late, late youth.
I wanted to print two credit card statements. First one printed fine. The second printed on both sides of the page. As the printer uses recycled paper (ie already printed on one side), this was no good. I assumed I selected double-sided print by mistake. I tried again, making sure it was on single side, and it came out double side again.
For the third attempt, I took a photo of the screen prior to printing. I can confirm the “print on both sides of the page” box was not selected. It came out printed on both sides.
So I just gave up and used a new, clean paper sheet. And for some reason refrained from smashing either the printer or the laptop to smithereens, as I’m ever more certain they richly deserve.
Olympics Update: Trump Wins Gold in Downhill Presidency
Source
@CSK: Nice!
@Sleeping Dog: @Steven L. Taylor: @dazedandconfused:
Thanks very much for your good wishes.
@CSK:
I do hope it works out as best it may.
My very best wishes to you.
@gVOR10:
@DK:
Appeare the Orange Overlord has decided to roll-back tariffs on steel and aluminium.
Also, there seems to be a developing catfight in the administration between the advocates of “stablecoin” and the banks who think that might steal their lunch.
The tempations is to say “Pity they can’t both lose.”
But objectively, if stablecoin crypto engrosses savings deposits, without the Fed etc adjusting, and fast, there’s a major possibility of a US lending crunch due to banks curtailing lending due to reduced deposits.
Oopsie.
@Kathy:
lol
I’ve developed a habit of mailing my account statements to work, and printing them there.
When I actuaully want a print-out (which is rare).
Because I no longer have printer at home
(Well, it’s been gathering dust in the spare room, for years.)
And when the formating goes sideways, I can just monkey about with it in Adobe or whatever.
Usually comes good after several sheets of shredworthy crud.
Mea culpa.
@JohnSF:
Thank you, John.