Thursday, July 17, 2025
he said it himself.
He said foreign steel accounts for about two-thirds of Canada's consumption for the metal, which is used in the construction of infrastructure projects, the production of cars and ships, and in manufacturing.
so, expect the cost of housing, the cost of cars and the cost of anything else you buy with steel in it to go up dramatically, purportedly to save less than 1000 dirty coal-smelting jobs that i'd be happy to outsource to china altogether, but in truth to appease american military goons.
it's one thing for the government to buy steel from local producers and use it in government projects. that's ok. it may not be the decision the market would make, and it may not be the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars, but it is a decision by local government to subsidize local industry. the items being made are not going to be sold on any sort of a market, so it sort of doesn't matter. it's a handout to industry.
it is another thing to tell the local real estate market or the local automobile sector - which the media is not even mentioning - that it has to pay 30% or 90% more for steel by buying locally because it is no longer able to access resources at more competitive prices. that is going to lead to massive increases in the prices of the goods that are going to have gigantic markups, and in sectors that we can't afford to see that happen in.
the right approach is to allow foreign steel manufacturers to import steel at lower prices for goods being sold as commodities and to subsidize local industry by prioritizing local contracts in government building. that saves the jobs (which i don't think are that valuable, but whatever. that's government policy i disagree with.) without creating tremendous inflationary pressure in key, specific sectors that we need prices to come down in. that means you ban foreign companies (including american companies!) from competing on government contracts, but you don't put tariffs on the general import of foreign steel. i strongly oppose the latter measure, as it will create absurd amounts of inflation.
as it is, i don't particularly care about building weapons for nato. that's not on my priority list. my priority list is building more housing. this policy is going to hurt canadians and help american military planners in washington.
it's so blatantly stupid that it's almost treasonous.
i did not think and still do not think that prolonging the lives of 85 year olds by a few months was worth the restrictions on civil liberties that young, healthy people had to endure, and my perception is that the fact that it was the capitalist left that became the no fun party during the pandemic is what has shifted so many young people to the right, in what appears to be the start of a long term cultural reversal. conservatives are now the cool kids, and liberals are now the losers. michael j fox is shaking in his seat.
i want to repeat that i'm sure i was vaccinated against measles some time in the 80s. i'm 44 years old. this was decades ago.
i did not think covid vaccination was something healthy people should do, because the chances of complications from the vaccine, while low, appeared to be higher than the chances of complications from the virus. strictly playing the odds actually meant you should try to beat it on your own. nor was i very concerned about building herd immunity to the common cold, or did i think it was very plausible to happen. i argued it was the responsibility of the vulnerable to protect themselves from infection, not my responsibility to protect them from getting infected.
measles, on the other hand, has a 20% hospitalization rate. it's a much more serious disease, and you should absolutely vaccinate your kids.
what i'm describing is apparently an italian delicacy called Caffè Gommosa, with an extremely unnecessary accent grave that i find starkly offensive. you damned wops didn't need to pull that accent grave out like that. fuck. settle down.
the answer is that it does get rubbery, and i'm supposed to like it.
i guess we'll have to see.
the food bank gave me marshmallows. are marshmallows food? i'm not sure.
i don't think i've had a marshmallow in over 20 years.
so, what do i do with these things? i decided to try them in my coffee, and it didn't work because i put the cold milk in first (and i used a fair amount of milk). the result is a coffee with a sugar flotilla.
next time, i'll try to put the marshmallow in first, let it melt, and then add the coffee. does marshmallow stay melted or does it re-marshmallowize?
and, in fact, i'm realizing that the internet is confused about blood and urine ketone levels.
many, many relatively reliable websites define ketonuria using blood concentrations. that is, they say that urine ketones over 3.5 is a medical emergency, but the ranges they are reporting seem to be the same as blood, which seems suspect.
i had to dig down the results a little, but i think this is a better definiton:
We categorized ketosis according to blood β-OHB levels as absent (<0.6 mmol/l), mild (0.6–1.5 mmol/l), moderate (1.6–3 mmol/l) or marked (>3 mmol/l). Ketonuria was semi-quantified as mild, moderate or marked for urine ketone levels of 1–4 mmol/l, 5–14 mmol/l and ≥15 mmol/l, respectively. The presence of ketoacidosis was assessed using both definitions suggested by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the Joint British Diabetes Society (JBDS) [15, 16].
at 3.9, that would put me in the mild category, and not be that concerning at all.
but if the blood results were 3.9, i'd be dead.
there's a reason i couldn't make sense of it - it was wrong.
when i was a kid, i had a dog named lou. it was technically my sister's dog; my dog was goldie. they were sisters, from the same litter. lou didn't live very long, as she got bone cancer.
lou was a good enough dog, but you couldn't give lou anything to chew, as she'd rip right through it. this worried my father, as lou's teeth were extremely sharp and he had two young kids of his own, in addition to extended family and kids in the neighbourhood to worry about. so, he took lou to the vet.
lou, it turns out, was genetically superior to other dogs. those sharp, pointy teeth were wolf dna. it didn't make her more dangerous, but it did mean that humans around her would have to be a little careful.
maybe i'm like lou; maybe i'm genetically superior.
it doesn't alter the evidence that i've been drugged with steroids.
ok.
i don't eat several times a day. i eat once a day. i drink liquids like water, coffee, pop, milk, soy milk and juice through the day. it had been about 10 hours since i'd had a meal when i took the test, but i would not have eaten before that for a full day, and a full day before that, etc. i will only rarely do things like eat a bag of chips or a pile of cookies in between, and i may end up skipping meals on days that i do.
i'm not starving myself. i'm not anorexic. if i was more hungry, i would eat more; in fact, i often have to force myself to eat what i do eat. i also make gigantic meals, as can be verified. these pasta plates are restaurant-sized portions and full of carbs.
but i'm eating one plate a day, even if it takes me a few tries. i could go 15, 20, 25 hours before the next meal.
some level of urinary ketones make sense in that context, because i'm burning the fat i'm storing. i eat well and stay thin because my metabolism is working. i was said to have a fast metabolism as a child.
it doesn't explain the extreme elevation. that ketone level should mean i'm dying; it's unhealthy. but, i should have some low level of ketones, and i suppose it's possible that my daily 15+ hour fasts are amplifying the steroid results.
i think that makes a moderate amount of sense.
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