Apologies to my readers who can’t stand the NFL, but last night’s game between the Minnesota Vikings and the Chicago Bears was one of the most “tales of two halves” I’ve ever watched. I missed most of the first offensive series, but I don’t think it would have been any more enjoyable than the rest of the first half of football. The Bears under quarterback Caleb Williams really were the better team on the field over the first 30-45 minutes of play (and I hate to admit it, but it was true). Williams completed his first ten pass attempts, which is apparently the first time that had happened for a Bears quarterback since the 1970s, and his amazing ability to avoid sacks kept the Vikings offense off the field. Even when they got on the field, they were not very effective, not making a first down until late in the first half.
September 9, 2025
The J.J. McCarthy era in Minnesota started very slow but improved as the game went on
Uh-oh. It’s not a good sign to see your town’s name in Not the Bee
We’ve lived in Bowmanville for ten years and in that time the demographics have changed substantially. Some of those changes have been positive, but others have definitely been negative:
Video out of Bowmanville, Ontario, shows Southeast Asian men (do with that what you will) flipping salmon out of a small stream during the annual salmon run back to their spawning locations.
Early September is peak salmon-fishing season. Fisherman across the continent catch millions of fish as they return upriver to spawn.
But it is highly illegal to catch salmon near their actual spawning sites (especially with nets), which includes Bowmanville (upriver from Lake Ontario). It is also unsafe, as the fish die off in mass numbers after spawning, making the meat inedible.
Despite this, migrants have been seen poaching fish in the area for several years (at least).
In the comment section, some people shared stories of their own, including this anecdote from Port Hope, Ontario.
Over the summer, SE Asian men went viral in Muskoka, Ontario, for filming themselves shooting up a local bridge and river. Locals say they have reported such incidents for years, but despite the danger and the leftover environmental pollution, authorities have been slow to act.
Employers insist that there are lots of high-paying “entry level” jobs that Canadians won’t do
Canada’s insanely out-of-control temporary foreign worker program hinges on employers being honest about the jobs on offer being impossible to fill with Canadian citizens or legal immigrants. The huge numbers of these jobs — often listed at much higher than minimum wage in areas with very high unemployment — strongly implies that employers are systematically gaming the system:
A selection of jobs subject to active Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIA), meaning that an employer has applied for a temporary foreign worker on the grounds that no Canadian is available to fill the position.
Photo by Government of Canada Job Bank.
If public sentiment is turning against the TFW system, it’s partially because of a greater awareness of the conditions under which employers are claiming they cannot find Canadians for their jobs.
Any hiring of a temporary foreign worker has to first be preceded by a “Labour Market Impact Assessment”. It’s effectively a job posting laying out the basic details of the position, and carrying the disclaimer “the employer could not find a Canadian worker for this job and applied for a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) to hire a temporary foreign worker”.
What’s made many of these LMIAs so controversial is that they often describe quite desirable jobs with minimal qualifications. There are also noticeably high numbers of them being submitted in cities with high unemployment.
Last year, a viral Reddit post featured a heat map of all the Toronto-area employers who had been approved for temporary foreign workers after claiming to find no Canadian applicants. More recently, the website JobWatchCanada has launched a searchable database of active LMIAs, complete with interactive maps and guides to which employers are the heaviest users.
What really bothers a lot of Canadians about the program is the high number of jobs posted with few or no qualifications at well-above market rates at the same time that young Canadians are finding it impossible to get hired no matter how many positions they apply for:
In June, a Calgary auto shop submitted an LMIA for a “motor vehicle mechanic helper”. The job is to essentially act as a “gofer”. The starting wage for the helper job is $36.50 per hour, the employer promises to cover relocation costs, and the “experience” category contains only the words “will train”.
A Langley, B.C., drywall contractor said it can’t find any Canadian drywall installers at $36.75 per hour. A vape shop in Lloydminster, Sask., has filed an LMIA to fill a $36.05 per hour shift supervisor job in which the educational requirement is a high school diploma.
In Woodbridge, Ont., a homeowner filed an LMIA for a $38 per hour housekeeper in which the only qualification is that the applicant has to speak English. “No degree, certificate or diploma”, is listed in the space for educational requirements, and the requirement for work experience is just “will train”.
The useful site fakejobs.ca currently shows three LMIA positions in my small town each paying at least $35 per hour that supposedly can’t be filled by local applicants. The jobs — two food service supervisors and a marketing co-ordinator — can’t possibly have such exotic required qualifications that nobody in the area can match, which is why I strongly suspect they’re fakes.
MG38: Colt’s Interwar Water-Cooled Machine Gun
Forgotten Weapons
Published 7 May 2025After World War One, Colt was the sole owner of license to produce Browning machine guns. With production tooling well established from the war, the company set about looking for international sales. The water cooled .30 caliber (the M1917 in US service, essentially) was designated the Model 1919 Automatic Machine Gun. In 1931, it was renamed the MG38, although basically the same gun as in 1919. It had a few distinctions from the US military pattern, including:
- Manual safety on the backplate
- Self-contained recoil spring
- Large water fill and drain fittings, identical to the ones used on Colt’s .50 caliber guns
- Slightly different top cover latch
Colt offered the guns with lots of options and features, including a variety of calibers (basically any modern rifle cartridge of the time), flash hiders, lightened anti-aircraft bolts, and spade grips (guns sold with spade grips were designated MG38B). From 1919 until commercial production ceased in January 1942, Colt had sold 2,720 water-cooled Brownings in total. Most went to South America in 7.65mm, with Argentina being the single biggest buyer.
Full video on the Browning M1917:
• Browning M1917: America’s World War O…
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QotD: The horrible 1970s
It should be noted, though, that it really was kind of gross to be alive during the ’70s. You can’t unsee all those hairdos, medallions, and Day-Glo typefaces. You just kind of have to put your head down like a shell-shocked veteran and stride your way grimly through a happier age.
Colby Cosh, “Cinema: recently seen”, ColbyCosh.com, 2005-08-19.
