Must free trade come with social justice? That's what Canada is saying, reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown reports."[A]s we head into NAFTA renegotiations this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his administration want to expand the rules to include sections on gender issues, climate change, and indigenous rights. Freeland said such changes would move NAFTA from a 'free trade' deal to a 'fair trade' one." Canada has long been a major trading ally with the U.S., and it almost seems that they're trolling Trump here to get him to back off renegotiation. Yes, Canada's more liberal in general than the U.S.—and we've had some trade issues.... mainly surrouding lumber—but they've typically been a really good trade partner. Let's not blow up a perfectly good trade agreement over social justice issues, shall we? 

The license plate game: Moments after James Fields Jr. plowed his car into counterprotesters in Charlottesville last week, photos of his Dodge Challenger started going viral. As an Ohioan, I was further saddened that this sick man hailed from my home state when I saw the license plate on his car. But the Toledo Blade's copyediting team didn't just notice he was from the Buckeye state, they noticed the special county sticker on his license plate. The Columbia Journalism Review has more on how this eagle-eyed observation took the Charlottesville story from national news story to that of local interest, lickety split.

Angry white boys.... what do they want? At National Review, Kevin Williamson's sharp tongue eviscerates the racist dork parade in Charlottesville. It's brutal: "They want to be someone other than who they are. That’s the great irony of identity politics: They seek identity in the tribe because they are failed individuals. They are a chain composed exclusively of weak links. What they are engaged in isn’t politics, but theater: play-acting in the hopes of achieving catharsis. Their online personas — knights, Vikings, reincarnations of Charles Martel — will be familiar enough to anybody with a Dungeons and Dragons nerd in his life. But sometimes, role-playing around a card table isn’t enough: Sometimes, you need a stage and an audience. In the theater, actors and audience both can forget ourselves for an hour or two. Under the soft glow of the tiki torches, these angry white boys can be something else — for a night." Read the whole thing.

Governments are inherently unstable. Nick Gillespie conducts a fantastic interview with Steve Forbes at 70, where he discussed FORBES at 100, Trump, and taxes. Spoiler: Forbes has thrown in the towel on dessert.

Don't pull over! The Federal Highway Administration has some helpful information for folks in the main path of the upcoming eclipse on August 21. Among them: turn your headlights on, don't take photos while driving, don't pull over on major highways, and most importantly: Don’t try to wear opaque eclipse glasses while operating a vehicle. Probably best to enjoy this rare gift from nature from the comforts of home. With a nice bottle of bourbon. 

This is your captain speaking. Remember the Flight 93 manifesto from now-White House official Michael Anton? Jonah Goldberg reminisces: "In an interview with New York magazine, Anton went further. “If we must have Caesar,” he said, “who do you want him to be? One of theirs? Or one of yours (ours)?” The election is over. Yet that spirit not only endures, it has intensified. Trump’s conservative critics, or “apostates” as Conrad Black calls us, face the same ultimatum. “The choice, for sane conservatives,” Black writes, “is Trump or national disaster.” Black is hardly alone in making this or similar cases. The upshot of them all is that the test for “sane” (or real or good or true) conservatives is loyalty to the president, not to any coherent body of ideas or ideals. Even truth takes a back seat." Such thinking, writes Goldberg, would "invite the worst and most opportunistic creatures to infiltrate our government." And they have... Just how are they doing? 

Ain't nothing but a hound dog... Senior editor Philip Terzian has a nice remembrance of Elvis Presley (a fellow TKE, I'm obliged to point out) on the 50th anniversary of his death. Elvis, writes Terzian, was a paradox: "On the one hand, Elvis Presley was a familiar figure in the history of pop music: A unique performer who spent his later years pursuing what we now call relevance, descending in the exercise into drugs, disillusion, and emotional pathos. On the other hand, he was a God-fearing Southern boy of the yes sir/no ma'am school, who honored his father and (especially) his mother, was generous to friends, kind to strangers, and served his country, without question, at some personal cost."

Lastly, speaking of dogs, mine turns three today. While that's 21 in dog years, no beer for him.

—Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editor

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