I don’t understand how Israel gets to be so special. I also don’t get how any other nation would accept anything less, especially once the deal with Israel proved it (politically) can be done. Technical feasibility shouldn’t even be in question.

Well, I guess it’s nice that militaries get to “own nothing and be happy” too.

Long before Musk’s true character became widely known, this was my primary reason not to get a Tesla. In fact, Tesla’s focus on proprietary software and post-purchase access to vehicles marked the sharp end to my favorable opinion of both him and the company.

Back when he was selling his EV vision and struggling to get the roadster into production, it hadn’t even occurred to me that someone with such ambitions would build a closed platform. It would just be so out of line with the values supposedly driving him.

Nowadays I think my best shot at getting the sort of EV I want is either doing my own conversion or finding some small operation producing kit cars. But I need a truck or at least something that can haul heavy trailer loads up long hills.

(🧠 Don’t say bootlegger, don’t say bootlegger.)

It sounds like business is booming for bootleggers right about now.

(🧠 That’s it, I quit.)

I have no expertise in military technology and cannot speak to the superiority of F-35s, the magnitude of their tactical advantage, nor the factors that justify or mitigate their operating cost. But the auxiliary benefits of buying into Saab’s ecosystem are accumulating into quite the stack. Given that our military strength is somewhat predicated on economic strength, I like seeing us take a path that grows both. The latter pays dividends even if we fight no real wars nor avert any theoretical ones.

And ultimately, Lockheed Martin’s technological advantage is built on capital investment and mindshare. With sufficient resources consolidating elsewhere, that can be eventually rivaled. Even before that point, we’re looking at facing rivals with lesser tech than the Gripen, or rivals that control the F-35 program and its supply lines. The upsides are just too context-sensitive.

Cancer is very dumb, by any metric I can possibly imagine:

• it literally lacks any mechanism for intellect/processing information
• it is a random mutation that renders affected cells dysfunctional
• it has no mechanism to spread to another host, yet still kills the host it has
• it has four different ways that it might just kill itself

This only makes the metaphor all the more apt. Intelligent foes are far less dangerous. You have to be exceedingly dumb to choose mutually assured destruction.

Good.

Let him stick to that line, keeping Canadians angry and trade negotiations stalled. He’s helping us maintain the momentum needed to build a stronger Canada and end reliance on U.S. trade for good. When he and his ilk are all eventually deposed, the U.S. will have to make many concessions to get (partially) back into our good graces. If that doesn’t happen, our need for political separation will only increase.

No deal is the best deal.

The main thing we’d lose is the autonomy to manage our own economy. Given that’s something we’ve handled especially well resulting in impressive economic stability in spite of global events, it’s not a thing to be sacrificed lightly - or at all.

The main benefit of joining the Eurozone is tight economic integration that lets member nations share the larger group’s economic stability. That benefit is never going to substantively materialize for a nation physically separated by an ocean. But we’d still be losing the right to decide how many power coupons we print, directly regulate our own banks, and set interest rates/inflation targets.

I’m open to other forms of EU association, but the Eurozone is a solid hell no.

Any reporter who’s inclined to ask tough questions and actually given a chance has about three hundred others that hit closer to home for their own electorate. They’ll be lucky if they can ask two, and know they’re not getting an actual answer anyway.

It’s just another example of Canada letting the U.S. dictate our IP laws to their media moguls’ benefit, for the sake of trade. These are the things Dumpster does not count in the balance of a deal yet presumes is entrenched even after reneging on that deal.

If the deal is ripped up, it should be ripped up entirely.

We’re being gifted more freedom to make sure our own laws are working for us.

I’ll take homelessness over being conquered, thank you just the same.

Man, he’s really hitting the ground running, and every step is fire. A couple weeks ago I was begging for Canada’s leadership to shut down U.S. negotiations until Dumpster acknowledged our sovereignty and repudiated his threats against it. And Trudeau was handling things pretty well, but no way he’d go that far.

Carney did it in on day 2. ✊

I think we might have found the only leader in the Western world that can outpace the orange clown.

Addendum: I first broached that “demand acknowledgement” move over a month ago.

I sympathize with Newfoundlanders, but running more efficient operations at scale is how we increase our national productivity. I think the answer is to figure out how to make that work both ways and also to repurpose the labor that’s made redundant.

I’d wager Newfoundland will remain the primary market for their own unique alcohol products, and won’t they additionally be able to grow their interprovincial sales? That won’t cover all the losses, but Canada also needs a lot of stuff that Canada does not produce and no longer wants to buy from the U.S. That represents opportunity.

Maybe, but we can’t be sure until they call their rivals sodomists.

If you nip it in the bud, no one has to do any butt stuff. 😉

We’re about one year into a constant deluge of off-season CPC-sponsored attack ads everywhere.

Well, apparently.

I need to go give the team behind uBlock Origin a hug, or a beer.

I took a pass on that when it released. Horror, and especially psychological horror, are really not my jam. The closest I ever got to enjoying something like that is Resident Evil. That’s why The Fly isn’t on my list either. But that reminds me of another Canadian movie that caught my interest after watching a video essay about it: Blood Quantum (2019).

You bring the jet fuel; I’ve got a ton of PLA+ in stock already. What could go wrong?

I half expected “best” to be an extraneous word, as in there only are 51 Canadian films. Lucky for me, I like to to fact check before letting my mouth leak. As it turns out, we recently produced three times that within the span of one year, and the National Film Board of Canada takes credit for over 13,000 films since 1939.

That does come with a caveat, however, in that the NFB runs on subsidy to the tune of ~$70m per year and isn’t really focused on mainstream, commercially successful entertainment. The numbers likely include “films” as short as 5 minutes, along with everything between that and feature length movies.

What’s my point? I, uh, didn’t get that far. Hopefully I’ve at least managed to pivot from parading my ignorance to acknowledging it.

Anyway, a few of the featured pique my curiosity (which I’m listing here for my own future reference):

• BlackBerry (2023, was already planning on watching at some point)
• Goon (2004)
• Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (1992)
• Seeds (2024)
• Strange Brew (1983, hoping it’s more “Dumb and Dumber” and less “Dude, Where’s My Car?”)
• Movies that aren’t really Canadian:
  • Navalny (2022)
  • Turning Red (2022)

Well now it feels like I’m parading my lack of culture. 🤷‍♂️

It’s not too late for us all to do better. 😉

Given that so much of warfare is logistics, I’d think having a plane that costs half as much to buy and one third as much per hour of flight factors pretty heavily - including on that cost of training pilots. And I cannot imagine U.S. maintenance supply would come close to cost competitiveness vs having domestic manufacturing support that also spends defense money into our own economy.

Sure that probably wouldn’t have tipped the balance a couple years ago - I mean, it didn’t.

But here we are. At least we aren’t already 40 planes into production.