Benjamin Sharma 🇨🇦 🇺🇸

Shoulda taken Japanese in college instead of Russian.

Being afraid of Canada’s Wonderland is really something.

My guess is the guy really really doesn’t like South Asians.

This is awful but it’s objectively the correct call.

Matthew Tkachuk is the face of this era of hockey.

I’m actually not sure what the Dems should be doing, aside from skewering the GOP on the Epstein file.

Stand by the premise that acting like an official opposition in a Westminster system is fine, but don’t know what’s more or less effective in the current environment.

Being pro-market urbanites who want government services isn’t illegitimate (tho I think they want too many government services, with my Tory heart).

It’s normal, it creates a relatively stable society in an increasingly unstable world.

One doesn’t need to defer to others who want to burn it down.

I'm reminded that I went to a midnight opening showing of "Independence Day" at the Yonge/Eglinton Silver City, and the crowd erupted in cheers when the White House got zapped.

In retrospect, why were we so cheery about Bill Clinton's house getting it?

(Missed that Macron already announced France would, last week. London, Paris, and Ottawa clearly are coordinating.)

I expect Britain and France will be doing the same.

Big diplomatic loss for Israel.

I get it — there is a value to having a sure thing.

But it’ll lead to cynicism among the loyal fanbase and that ultimately is corrosive to medium-term sales.

Sigh.

I’ve noticed that early ticket offers are now at above-market pricing. MLSE did that with Leafs playoff tickets, I paid more to go to Game 7 of the second round for an early ticket.

I’ll remember this for future ticket purchases.

Blackpink tix were similar, I’ve heard.

Anyway whatever.

None of this is that surprising or interesting, but here we are.

And now he’s trying to walk it back with some other tweets using the adjective “niggardly”, so he can call those calling him out ignorant, because sure why not try that.

Went to the source to take my own screenshot and confirm that it’s there.

(It is there.)

Trying to imagine what the reaction to actual internal passports would be in a North American jurisdiction.

I assume the person posting super-familiarly about “internal passports” is actually Russian.

Canada is capable of doing well enough on its own with global trade with non-American partners.

If this is how the current government of the USA views us, so be it. Then let’s put the barriers up and keep them up.

Would I have preferred the status quo ante (2015)? Sure, but it’s not on offer.

But I digress.

Oppositions should oppose, government politicians should get very little inherent respect, and constitutional monarchs should sign every ordinary bill placed before them.

Nepal had that issue.

They tried to become a constitutional monarchy post-1990, but then got a king who was not willing to be a constitutional monarch, after the royal massacre of 2001.

This is why Nepal is now a republic. (And why it should be one.)

“I couldn’t imagine a Habsburg being a monarch in a place where you would have to sign every law that your parliaments bring you.”

To which I say, OK, that’s how you view it, but that’s why I don’t see a role for a monarch with that sort of view.

Parliament must be supreme.

“And I also have this idea that if there would have to be a monarchy and any Habsburg would have to play a role in that, it couldn’t be one of these anemic parliamentary monarchies like we have them in other countries. …

Living the Habsburg Way (Guest: Archduke Eduard Habsburg) The House of Habsburg is one of the most famous and powerful in history. What was it like growing up as a Habsburg, and what can the rest of us learn from their family history?

I’ll give an example of someone whom I like very much who is not willing to so behave.

I like the Habsburgs and I like Eduard Habsburg very much. But! As the quote I’ll pull in the next tweet shows, he’s not willing to be a constitutional monarch.

crisismagazine.com/podcast/livi...

Trouble is finding worthy constitutional monarchs who are willing to stick to their knitting.

The Windsors are very good about allowing themselves to be pushed around by elected politicians, and that’s what you need.

I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a major part of the benefits of a constitutional monarchy — we pay our (much more powerful) elected politicians far less deference.

Look at how poor Sir Keir Starmer is being treated in the UK right now!

Coming from a Westminster system it seems a lot simpler.

Your duty as official opposition — which the Dems sure are, right now! — is to oppose.

Oppose vigorously even when it seems silly. Use all the parliamentary tricks you can muster.

You can never go wrong by voting against a government bill.

That I’d have been more skeptical about, yes.

Actually I’d have bought that 27 years ago.

My only comment on the big story in Canada (well, Ontario) this morning is:

Not guilty =/= innocent.

So I don't expect there to be another Steam Deck for awhile. Which is fine.

But when it comes, I expect my ROG Ally X to be way out of date.

At that point I'll wait for the Windows drivers to be good, then I'll do a dualboot Bazzite and Windows setup like on my Ally X. Now very familiar with it.

So FIFA, now EA FC, is mostly made by EA Vancouver. It’s been a mostly Canadian-developed game throughout its history.

And it, well, it brings us together in both our official languages:

Yes but maybe a more pro-social response is to just flood that space with toddlers and drive that one employee mad.