Matthew Stienberg

Happy Monday!

We are nearing the end of our journey with Ace Combat on IC2S... Today's Love/Hate is for the confusingly-named Assault Horizon Legacy... which is actually a remake of Ace Combat 2, but with a new boss fight against a dommy pilot and her harem of wingmen, LOL.
www.ichoosetostand.net/2026/03/love...

"In fact, it’s one of the major tasks of modern disinformation—not to persuade people in something, yet to discourage them, turn them into passive, tired, exhausted mob.”

Disinformation is bad, from either side.

Watched THE BRIDE! yesterday and, as a retelling of The Bride of Frankenstein it's bad. As a film with a message it's bad. It's themes are all over the place since it can't decide whether it's a love story, a horror story, a re-imagining or a Bonnie and Clyde story. Very pretty though.

We in Canada would love to welcome these future draft dodgers. True North strong and free!

Compare this to my pastor this morning explicitly saying "you think it's God's will that dozens of schoolgirls in Iran died from a bomb blast? Or that American students die from senseless gun violence? Really?"

Carmen Sandiego from the 90s cartoon

Happy International Women's Day to the original International Woman

Times like these I can't help but reflect on how holiness as defined in the New Testament has no bearing on which political party you follow, who you denounce, and everything with loving your neighbour and giving to the least.

I should clarify that I'm talking about Pixar. When I first saw reports of this last year it all had to do with the unanimous audience rejection.

Inside ‘Elio’s’ “Catastrophic” Path: America Ferrera’s Exit, Director Change and Erasure of Queer Themes Creatives at Pixar who saw the original director's previous cut of 'Elio' tell THR about the movie's challenging production process: "'Elio' just [became] about totally nothing."

Interesting that they seem to be changing their tune. The original reason (referenced in the article below too) was the overwhelming rejection of a test audience. But others seem to be solidifying the simple queer erasure story.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie...

Gundam 00 features a world where burning fossil fuels has been supplanted by orbital rings beaming down solar power, supported by three elevators topped with huge habitats.
This has a destabilizing effect on Earth, leading to many wars.
Here's their first episode appearance:

Benedict Arnold Gets a Bad Rep Perhaps the phrase most synonymous with traitor in the English language after Quisling, is Benedict Arnold. For those of you not in the know, Benedict Arnold was an American general serving in the …

Was Benedict Arnold really America's worst traitor? I would argue that in the US rogues gallery there are far worse traitors!

matthewstienberg.wordpress.com/2026/03/07/b...

The most mundanely interesting thing The Expanse (books and show) do is that long-range comms are all effectively voicemail. Which makes massive sense given light delay, but also leads to interesting story stuff

a man with long hair and a beard is wearing a necklace and a headband with the words the northman on it ALT: a man with long hair and a beard is wearing a necklace and a headband with the words the northman on it

Watched the Northman last night for kicks and forgotten how much dark fun it was. That it tries to portay this different moral world where vengeance is as spiritual as it is practical is a creative bit of storytelling.

We need a Joe Rogan of the left, shut up we need new Rod Serling, let’s get on that shit.

Oh hey that's the plot of my book!

Can't wait to see how this one goes down!

It's deeply amusing that Roko's Basilisk was a theory that objectively drove some staunch atheists mad, because third century theologians determined to kill the wrong sort of Christian in the Mediterranean would find it convoluted and perplexing compared to their theological feuds.

Editing is often the most frustrating part of writing because you'll read the same sentence over and over again to see why it may not work and than can be a whole writing session.

He tends to... after a few years.

Just my thoughts on the last week.

Very nice to put Seth back on my shit list.

To be fair, if the Pennsylvania Dutch or general Amish or Mennonite communities continue to have staggeringly large growth trends they may indeed end up having their own regional parties in 100 years or so.

Generally speaking, my wife loves that I do the dishes, fold laundry and clean the bathroom far more than she cares about how much I can lift.

The Ace Combat Love/Hate continues with arguably the most notorious entry in the entire franchise, Assault Horizon: a game which dares to ask "What if Ace Combat was somehow also Call of Duty?" The results are about what you expect.
www.ichoosetostand.net/2026/03/love...

Benedict Arnold Gets a Bad Rep Perhaps the phrase most synonymous with traitor in the English language after Quisling, is Benedict Arnold. For those of you not in the know, Benedict Arnold was an American general serving in the …

Was Benedict Arnold really America's worst traitor? I would argue that in the US rogues gallery there are far worse traitors!

matthewstienberg.wordpress.com/2026/03/07/b...

I do think the re-emergence of some sort of de facto "Hays Code" or unspoken rule for bad guys getting what they deserve could emerge purely from backlash on morally grey heroes and anti heroes in irritated fan bases.

I have no doubt that world will make Americans uncomfortable and angry, but I think they'd be better off imagining it now rather than being surprised by it down the line.

I do think that the period where American hegemony was taken for granted is going to come to an end sooner rather than later because countries are facing enough issues that they need to engage in more bilateral trade and defense agreements specifically because we have to confront bad US actors.

It's amazing people will claim "Canada and the USA have the same culture" and then on something as fundamental as "do you trust your fellow citizens to be good" we are further apart than any other two countries

if the Hays Code didn't exist, modern fans would have invented it