Daaaad

Pissing into the wind.

Fluffy article

Amazing!

Try giving them catnip

It’s a deep subject

We had to wager our houses to get the initial loans during startup. Loans are almost finished.

If I’m frugal, about a year. But I own a small business and this would only occur if my business is bankrupt. In which case debtors might chase my personal assets.

Yep. They’re going to need to become uncomfortable first. Really uncomfortable. But…

If we’ve learned anything from Russian politics in the last few years, it’s that a population can be placated even if when uncomfortable, if they’re convinced that their cause is just.

Weirdly, because Molson bought Coors, even some of the large American beer brands are Canadian, after a fashion.

I’m the beer guy for the hockey team. When I’m buying beer for the hockey team (in MB), I sale hunt, and it doesn’t need to be good. Sometimes it is Coors Light (made in Canada, owned by Canadian-headquartered firm, but US brand). Sometimes it is Labatt. Occasionally Moosehead or Sleeman 2.0. Whatever is on sale. Target price is about $1.60 per can and I can usually get close.

When buying for myself for pleasure, it is inevitably something actually Canadian, and often local. I’m a sucker for the Moosehead Radler. Or Trans Canada Brewing Bluebeary. But occasionally we buy Corona or 1664, sometimes in their non-alcoholic forms. No US brands in sight.

There are so many good options for just about anything you desire, but I feel for the bourbon connoisseurs.

Care to elaborate?

Meta question: this topic is about the act of reading, and not about any specific books. Is there a meta “reading” community where this topic would be better suited so as not to disrupt the signal-to-nouse ratio here? Or are we still small enough to keep everything lumped together.

Not meta, but related to the article: started reading a new (to me) sci fi series while on the beach last weekend (Canada Day long weekend). Primaterre. About a third into the first boon. Great escapism, mediocre writing. Will finish the first book and then read some reviews and see if the series is worth investing my time in. But, yeah, it feels good to zone out 😄

Right.

A lobbyist with access to federal politicians in Canada with actual portfolios is like a quarter million per year as a minimum. Maybe a million if you want to fund a “think tank” and publish “studies” and do press releases trying to get the news to bite on some of them, so you can use the news as your excuse to bring issues up.

If you’re doing it yourself, then $5k might get you a plate at a gala where you hope to run into the appropriate politician for a minute. Would you pay $5k to hope to have a one minute conversation where 45 seconds of it is pleasantries and you might get one sentence in? And you have to use that sentence to explain who you represent… And someone is tugging their elbow leading to another table and they’re gone. Well, hopefully the people at your table were interesting conversation.

Storytime: I am small business owner. We pay a few thousand dollars a year to throw industry drinking events primarily for networking. Personal invites. Sometimes I can get the provinical Minister of Mines to attend with his handlers, but only if I promise no lobbying. I might get about five minutes of their time (as host) and try to honour my commitment to no lobbying at the event (their handlers will remove them if they feel it is a lobbying event). My payoff is a direct communication line, which I try not to abuse. Then the government changes (elections or cabinet shuffle) and I have to do it again. I’ve failed to get a direct line on the current minister for almost two years. But this is small potatoes Canadian provincial politics. I’d have to spend 10x that amount to attempt get face time with the federal minister.

$6k is nothing. Bank it in case of a catastrophic server failure or something.

Patriotism is often equally bad.

Humanism ftw.

Sorry, I’m not American. Looking at it from the outside. There are a lot of things America can do better.

But from a purely math perspective, it’s a good metric to explain why Japan has what it has.

Or healthcare. Or whatever else. Yes.

But you’ve already lost the war against the capital class and are left dreaming.

Japan is smaller than California, with several times the population density.

Reframe your thoughts as: taxpayers per mile of track. Then begin to understand.

Wish you luck 🤞

“Decaf!?”, he screamed incredulously as he plunged the broken carafe into the barkeepers neck.