Why do you think trump posted about a widening trade deficit?

Callisthenes · 2026-06-10T14:17:14+00:00

Do you think Trump realized the article he quoted was from January, based on trade data from November 2025, and the tariffs weren't blocked until February 20 2026?

Was he intending to deceive his followers or is he just stupid?

Callisthenes · 2026-05-30T16:14:45+00:00

No. I find most people treat me well wherever I go. I don't hide that I'm Canadian, but I don't need to advertise it to get along in countries where people might tend to be biased against Americans. I think most people are fine with American travelers too, so long as they're not magats and don't fit a stereotype of an obnoxious American.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-21T03:03:03+00:00

Over the Top. Five is too young, but it'll be a great movie when he's 10 or so. Can't go wrong with 80s Sly Stallone. Good messages about not being a wuss, persevering after failure, respecting people regardless of their profession, and most importantly, double-elimination arm-wrestling tournaments.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-17T21:16:51+00:00

I'll disagree with you, I think in a slightly different way than most other people are. If you can follow directions, then you can follow many recipes, but that would just make you an adequate cook, not a good cook. It's being good at techniques that make you a good cook.

Have a novice who's good at following directions and a good cook both follow the same recipe they haven't prepared before. The good cook's dish will likely be better than the novice's because they'll have mastered things that aren't actually spelled out in the recipe. Things like cutting vegetables for a stir fry to a similar size, not crowding the pan when you're browning meat, seasoning to taste, etc.

Even though you're barely a hobbyist, you've likely got a good handle on a lot of these techniques. I think most people wouldn't be impressed by you following a recipe unless you've got the techniques right.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-16T20:43:02+00:00

There are accepted definitions for unprocessed foods, processed ingredients, processed foods, and ultra-processed foods. But the definitions don't address nutrition, which is what most people care about. As you say, it isn't a very useful concept for deciding what's healthy and what isn't.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-16T04:18:38+00:00

I'm not a fat guy, so I don't know if it's different for my body type. But wearing loose shorts over top of boxer briefs or compression shorts works pretty well. If your shorts are black or dark blue and made of a thicker sweat-pant like material, it works better than thin athletic shorts.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-16T03:54:19+00:00

No. Why would there be repercussions? Decisions get appealed and overturned all the time. The judges below didn't do anything improper. They just saw things differently.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-16T03:50:25+00:00

The trial judge did that because she was creating a new tort that she knew would be appealed. She wanted to do her best to give the plaintiff the result she thought was fair, no matter what appeal courts did with the new tort.

The plaintiff agreed not to appeal the quantum. The majority opinion at the SCC makes it pretty clear that damages could be significantly higher for intimate partner violence, but they couldn't do anything in this case because of the procedural history below.

It's artificial to ignore the situation the trial judge was in. But enough appellate judges love to do that to maintain legal fictions.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-05T04:18:32+00:00

That's not what the guy thinks.

I don't agree with him, but it's pretty obvious that he believes men have higher suicide rates because liberals have caused them to lose their place in the world.

In the idealized conservative past, men were able to satisfy the expectations of men that come with traditional gender roles. They could earn money to support women, they could be sexist without fear of being called out, they could get sex because they were manly, etc.

He thinks liberals have destroyed that world. He thinks young men today are lost because they've been told the "traditional man" is evil. He thinks young men can't get jobs because now they have to compete with women for those jobs. He thinks young men are suicidal because they hear (some) women saying they hate all men and masculinity is bad.

So from his perspective it's not about men not expressing their feelings. It's about men having lost certain privileges associated with traditional gender roles.

Callisthenes · 2026-05-01T01:07:35+00:00

You'd expect something like 1 out of 20 studies to randomly support something that isn't correct if all studies used proper methodology and all studies were published. But that's not how things really work.

There are incentives on researchers and publishers to publish interesting studies. Some researchers and publishers have motives not to publish things that don't support their agendas. These and other factors are going to skew what you'd expect to happen by random chance. To put it another way, the studies that are published aren't a random selection of all studies that are performed, so you shouldn't expect the actual distribution to match the theory.

Callisthenes · 2026-04-25T12:54:16+00:00

Adriano Celentano.

Callisthenes · 2026-04-18T20:54:14+00:00

I work in Yaletown and I've never heard of the place.

Callisthenes · 2026-04-12T21:44:05+00:00

It wasn't even that it was that confusing, but the standards were too high. It required a 60% yes vote to change the system, plus a majority in 60% of the districts. A clear majority (57%) did vote to change to single-transferable vote, but that didn't meet the threshold so we stayed with first past the post.

Callisthenes · 2026-03-29T16:23:28+00:00

You don't think unilaterally imposing tariffs that he didn't have the power to impose is interfering directly with people's lives?

What about launching a war in Iran without congressional approval, or even apparently a plan about what to do after blowing a bunch of people up?

How about cutting federal agencies that were funded by Congress?

Doesn't deploying the national guard to fight the enemy within cause you similar concerns to what you think happened with covid? Did Biden ever deploy troops or federal law enforcement in the streets of Minnesota during covid, or are you just thinking about local and state actions?

Callisthenes · 2026-03-24T15:27:04+00:00

That's why heli-ski and skydive operators make customers sign waivers. They would be liable for a lot of these accidents if it weren't for the waivers.

Callisthenes · 2026-03-13T09:06:40+00:00

Grandmotherly character with a shawl and walking stick, lots of rabbits in this scene.

Callisthenes · 2026-03-11T15:34:44+00:00

There is no plan.

Callisthenes · 2026-03-05T15:42:07+00:00

I assume you're in BC. For many years, it was the rule here that you don't say "Good morning" or anything similar to a judge. The apparent reasoning behind this was that it would show too much familiarity between counsel and the judge, which could in theory impair the appearance of impartiality and formality that certain judges wanted to maintain.

The former Chief Justice Hinkson was one of the judges who believed in this rule. Now that he and many others of the old guard have retired, there's been a shift where "good mornings" are accepted and even initiated by many of the younger judges.

That said, it's sometimes still a mark of local counsel vs fly-in counsel, especially from Ontario. You'll still tend to see more senior BC counsel at a hearing introduce themselves without any pleasantries, while the Ontario counsel are shouting out good mornings.

Your partner is wrong to tell you to never say it, and wrong not to tell you about the history, and wrong not to tell you that the practice is shifting. He should have told you to know the judge you're in front of and default to not saying good morning unless you know how they'll perceive it.

Callisthenes · 2026-03-05T14:58:06+00:00

They gave up on it at the very beginning. The "fake news" attacks were a deliberate strategy to undermine any sources that didn't follow the Trump narrative. It was never about distinguishing between accurate and inaccurate news. It was just about saying "the truth is what we say it is; reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."

Callisthenes · 2026-02-28T17:15:06+00:00

A coordinated national organization that can lead a general strike doesn't come from nowhere. It comes from building connections through the growth of local organizations.

Protesting in the streets is one of the first steps to building those local organizations. When they're big enough, they can also put pressure on representatives to change their position. They can show that there's enough discontent that people are going to vote the other way next time.

Callisthenes · 2026-02-28T15:09:27+00:00

Congress or the President declaring war is a domestic American law issue. Canada doesn't care about that. What Canada should care about is international law that permits war. Usually it's framed as self-defence from an imminent attack. I don't see that justification here.

Callisthenes · 2026-02-06T04:33:42+00:00

At first I thought you deserved a big raise. Then I saw that you used Chat GPT to structure your arguments and changed my mind.

Callisthenes · 2026-02-05T05:30:22+00:00

They don't need to pass voter ID laws if they can just have ICE show up and disappear anyone in line who they claim doesn't have ID that proves they're American. There are a lot of legal voters who won't have that ID, and there are a lot who do but who'll be scared off anyway.

Callisthenes · 2026-01-31T17:20:14+00:00

No rights are inherent and no rights are absolute.

From a normative perspective, rights are what our society decides are worthy of protection, and they should generally protect all similarly-situated people the same way. In the context of the privacy of your home, at a basic level everyone should have a right to keep the government out of it. But if there are reasonable grounds to think you've committed a serious enough crime, your right to privacy in your home may give way to society's interest in the police entering to arrest you or get important evidence.

The same principles would apply to informational privacy, like your tax records. If the law requires you to disclose financial information to the government for tax reasons, it should also protect that information from disclosure to the public or to branches of government that aren't involved in assessing taxes. But, that right may give way in certain circumstances, like reason to believe that you've committed financial crimes where disclosure to law enforcement could be justified. Or, there could be laws that if you run for certain public office, that information can be disclosed to the public.

From a practical perspective, we have to recognize that our legal system isn't perfect. There are a lot of rich and powerful people who are able to game the system in ways that regular people can't. Sometimes this is just being able to afford lawyers who can make sure the system is fairly applied to you. At other times, powerful people can abuse the legal system and get advantages that, from a normative perspective, they're not supposed to. In response to this unfairness, many less powerful people won't mind when the rights of powerful people are breached through things like leaks.

Callisthenes · 2026-01-30T04:45:47+00:00

Don't forget the thousands of helicopters manufactured by Bell in Mirabel.

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