At the suggestion of commenter Daniel, I called the D&F Hospital, a diabetic clinic just off the Line 7 Joonghwa Station subway stop. My very first question, when the lady picked up, was whether I needed to make an appointment, and she said I could just walk in. Given that I've got Some Stuff To Do at work today, I'll be visiting the hospital's diabetic-ulcer clinic tomorrow morning. The place opens at 9 a.m., so I'll be there, uncharacteristically bright and early. Assuming the visit doesn't take too long, even if it takes until 11 a.m., I ought to be in time for work at my normal hours (I normally start my work day late and end late).
I'm hoping it's just a matter of prescribing a healing balm (for lack of a better term), proper dressings to avoid leakage, and maybe some diabetic footwear that keeps my toe off the ground while I'm at home. The docs there will probably recommend against any distance walking, but I'm going to ignore that advice this weekend, do my two long walks (one with Charles on Saturday and another with JW on Sunday), then get with the healing program.
Once I start on the healing program, I do plan to follow it scrupulously because I want to be healed up for this year's big walk. I want to go back to doing the Four Rivers trail this year... I've been away from that trail for several years now, and I miss it intensely.
More Caught Illegally Crossing Southern Border in 1 Year of Biden Than Entire Trump Presidency
A troll in the comments section (there are always several such trolls) decided to make the case that this means Biden has been four times more efficient than Trump at catching illegals.* It became obvious to me, as I watched this shit-stirrer make the above comment and others as well, that the troll hadn't bothered to read the article in question and was merely drawing his own illogical conclusions. Without addressing the provocateur directly (because it's never a good idea to feed the trolls), I wrote the following comment in as civil a tone as I could:
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The assumption that 4X the number of illegals are being caught = 4X the efficiency of the border patrol under Biden is fallacious. For fairness's sake, let's assume that's one possible interpretation of the data. Here are some other possibilities:
1. The border patrol's efficiency hasn't increased. Instead, the number of people surging across the border has increased because people south of the border have heard that Biden is a softie.
2. The efficiency of reporting has increased. The media had no interest in making Trump look good, so the number of illegals caught was underreported. With Biden occupying the Oval Office, the media cynically want to make him look strong on the border, so they now feel free to report the numbers properly, resulting in a seeming 4X increase in stats.
Doubtless there are other possibilities, or a combination of the above is entirely possible. Simply to conclude that efficiency-of-catching increased under Biden is to ignore other possible explanations.
From the article:
In fiscal year 2017, when Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, the Border Patrol encountered just two individuals on the terrorist watchlist trying to sneak across the southern border between the ports of entry. In fiscal year 2018, it encountered six. In fiscal year 2019, it encountered none; and, in fiscal year 2020, it encountered three.
In fiscal year 2021, the year President Joe Biden was inaugurated, there was a substantial shift in the trend. That year, the number of individuals on the terrorist watchlist that the Border Patrol encountered trying to sneak across the southern border increased fivefold to 15.
Then, in fiscal year 2022, it climbed to 98. So far in fiscal year 2023, which isn’t even half over yet, the Border Patrol has encountered 69 individuals on the terrorist watchlist trying to sneak across our southern border between the ports of entry.
To me, this indicates that possibility (1) above is the most likely explanation, but I'm open to there being other factors at play. Possibility (1) is reinforced by the fact that the above quote is talking primarily about people on the terrorist watch list, not your typical Latin illegal. In other words, it's more than just Latinos who understand that Biden is a softie, and that the southern border has become a frayed mess on his watch.
On Feb. 7, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing on the border crisis. The witnesses were Gloria Chavez, the Border Patrol’s chief agent in the Rio Grande Valley Sector, and John Modlin, the chief agent in the Tucson Sector.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., asked them about the massive increase in illegal crossers encountered at the southern border.
“The thing I can tell you that goes to the spike that you’re talking about,” Modlin responded, “is that in the Tucson sector, interviewing people post-arrest, what became the most common response was that they believed that when the administration changed that the law changed, and policy changed and that there was an open border.”
“Chief, I’m glad you said that,” said Donalds, “because, ladies and gentlemen, the law did not change. Joe Biden decided not to follow the law.”
This is how the article actually concludes.
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My comment has received a modest number of upvotes. There's been no reaction from the troll. Maybe he'll take the bait (since I am, after all, kind of trolling him); maybe he won't.
*Note that this guy, in trying to incense Instapundit regulars, has put himself in the position of a rightie who thinks border control is good. If he truly thinks border control is good, then I applaud him! But more likely, he's insincerely adopting this position to make the petty point that Biden's done something better than Trump did. To make this point, though, the guy has to ignore what the article itself says, and the article says nothing anti-Trump. In fact, as you see above, the article concludes that the law did not change under Biden; Biden has simply chosen to ignore it. So there's been no increase in the efficiency of border-jumper-catching. And this is how you know the guy is a troll: because he's arguing in bad faith.
I passed by some impressive wind farms on Jeju Island. And I saw dolphins at play along the shore while there. I hope those dolphins are doing all right.
A religion prof back when I was in grad school once groused, "If dolphins are as intelligent as people say they are, why do they always get caught in tuna nets?" I don't think his point was Dolphins are stupid; therefore, they deserve death. I'm pretty sure he was merely complaining about false hype.
Ron DeSantis was conspicuously silent for a long time while this whole arrest-Trump thing was building. Donald Trump is a Florida resident, so some people were wondering whether DeSantis might want to make noises about protecting a citizen under DeSantis's purview. For the longest time, there wasn't a peep about the matter from the governor's mansion, but then, within the past day or two, DeSantis took a question that gave him an opportunity to speak out about the matter. Without naming Trump, and claiming that very few facts were known, DeSantis said he would not be involving himself in something that he saw as political grandstanding (not his exact words, but that's the spirit of what he said). This left a large contingent of Trump fans unhappy, and there was a groundswell of "Say his name!" demands directed at DeSantis. If DeSantis is indeed planning to run in 2024, I can see how he might be unwilling to say too much right now. Trump has also been lobbing childish insults at DeSantis, which certainly doesn't predispose the Florida governor to rise to Trump's defense. But it's also possible that DeSantis, in being hesitant to defend Trump, may have missed an opportunity to show some backbone as well as some GOP esprit de corps. In fact, a lot of Republicans have been hesitant to rise up and defend Trump, with the notable exception of Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who has thrown his hat in the ring for 2024. In the video below, Styx thinks DeSantis has "failed his first major litmus test":
You'd expect the RINOs not to support Trump given their under-the-table ties to the left. It's possible that DeSantis is doing himself no favors by acting in a seemingly RINO way. Up to now, he's often been called "Trump Lite," but how Trumpian is he if he won't defend the leader of the MAGA movement? I actually agree that this is a missed opportunity for DeSantis: it's a chance for him to burnish his own image, to prove himself the bigger man by not responding to Trump's insults and defending Trump in spite of them.
I can't comment at Dr. V's blog without my comment being shunted to his spam folder, so I'll publish my reply here. Dr. V's recent post quotes Bruce Abramson, who writes about how wokeness has infiltrated every level of American society, stultifying and enstupidating fields, pursuits, and positions that once enjoyed respect and dignity. After quoting Abramson, Dr. V asks, "Is Abramson exaggerating? I'd say he isn't. What say you?" My reply:
I wouldn't dignify "woke" with capitalization, but I'd say Abramson is on point, and my own feeling is that things have gotten to the stage where we're long past dialogue and moving into the "saddle up, lock & load" phase. The old joke about socialism is "vote your way in; shoot your way out." Conservatives, being people of conscience, don't necessarily want to countenance this option, but conservatives themselves are greatly to blame for being so peaceful and passive, for letting this encroachment happen all around them. Just watch what conservatives do if Trump is indeed arrested. I half-joked over at Instapundit that it'd be nice to see all the gun-toting YouTubers assemble and form a protective cordon around President Trump, but we all know that no such thing will happen. Being a relatively peaceful sort, I don't want to see a hot war, but other options are rapidly dwindling. At this point, all I can say is: keep the powder dry.
Today begins the new policy about not needing to mask up in public transportation (which includes taxis). I had my mask on and had gotten into a cab this morning when I suddenly remembered this fact, but I checked with the cabbie to be sure. The cabbie wasn't wearing a mask, and when he affirmed that today was the first day of the new policy, I expressed relief and ripped my mask off. It'll be nice to go on the subway this evening without needing to mask up inside the station. Normally, when you tap your farecard on the turnstile sensor, a computer vice reminds you to mask up. In theory, there should be no such announcement anymore. We'll see.
Of course, I see plenty of people still unnecessarily wearing masks outside on the street and inside buildings. Suckers. I don't normally like using terms like "sheeple" or "libtard," but yeah, these folks are sheeple to be sure.
Here's Paul Joseph Watson on the possibility of Trump's being arrested. At issue: Trump is telling people to get out and protest, and a poll reveals (to the extent that we trust polls at all) that a majority of Trump loyalists see any protest as a January 6-style trap—a sad affirmation that the right to assemble, to protest, and to demand a redress of grievances no longer exists. Also in discussion: the idea that Trump wants to be arrested as this will likely lead to a surge in support as the left overplays its hand in a way no one can deny or ignore. Trump '24 would then be in the bag. This assumes, of course, that the left hasn't refined how it plans to cheat in the next election. We are indeed in some bizarro alternate universe.
I was watching a fight when a hockey game broke out.
So goes the old joke. Flash mobs are somewhat similar, although I'd say most of them fall into the category of obnoxious performance art. But every now and again, you'll get a group of people of good will and a song in their heart, resulting in things like this:
I know there are crabby assholes who don't want their lunch interrupted this way, and while I can't blame someone for being caught while in a foul mood, I think you'd have to have a heart of stone not to enjoy such an exuberant, spontaneous performance.
There I was, having a quiet weekend while I recovered from my cold/flu (am still a bit symptomatic). Meanwhile, in New York, the grandson of former president-strongman Chun Doo-hwan, Chun Woo-won, had much more exciting weekend plans: he told everyone on Instagram that he would be revealing dirty laundry. He then got on YouTube and, during a livestreamed video, talked about his family's various misdeeds over the years, apologized on behalf of the family, claimed that he himself was a criminal who deserved to be arrested, took a cocktail of drugs, and passed out on camera. First responders eventually reached him. The livestreamed video had been on for about 90 minutes.
I saw this news over at ROK Drop. Didn't even know it was happening.
I signed on to Disney Plus specifically to watch the first two seasons of "The Mandalorian." I then left the service and decided I wouldn't watch Season 3 because of the whole "firing Gina Carano for saying nothing offensive" thing. Turns out that that was a good move because, for whatever reason, Season 3 is apparently nothing like the previous seasons. There's been a severe drop in quality, and my usual critic-reviewers are shitting all over the show. So I'm glad I left Disney... and given everything we now know about Disney's creepy grooming/woke agenda, good fucking riddance. Poor Walt Disney must be spinning in his grave. Here's Adam Olinger ranting on Season 3, Episode 3, and Season 3 in general:
I think I've shown a "tribal people" reaction video before, but the one below is new. In it, we have tribal people reacting to Johnny Cash's version of the Nine Inch Nails song "Hurt."
The video participants are from Sindh, Pakistan.
Trent Reznor, lead for Nine Inch Nails, initially had little reaction to Johnny's cover of "Hurt," but when he saw the accompanying video, his attitude changed.
Donald Trump is himself tweeting (or Truthing, or whatever they're calling it) on Truth Social that he's about to be arrested for illegal financial activity relating to a payment to Stormy Daniels, the prostitute/porn actress who reputedly had sex with Trump. Daniels and Trump have already had several dust-ups in court, with Trump initially paying Daniels money in return for her silence about their alleged (though I'd say probable) affair. Later on, Daniels lost a case against Trump and was ordered to pay Trump around $300,000, placing her in a bigger debt to him than he was in to her. Styx isn't taking the situation too seriously:
Skeleton Crawls From Hillary Clinton’s Closet, Gets Trump Off The Hook In New York Case
And when you look at the skeleton that just crawled out of Hillary Clinton’s closet, the New York case looks even more political.
Because Hillary Clinton was busted breaking campaign finance laws and paid a fine, along with the DNC, to settle the issue. She was not arrested.
For all I know, the above article is, as the kids say today, just copium, i.e., a way to cope through wishful thinking (copium = cope + opium, a thing to make you forget or ignore your dire circumstances). We all know by now that equivalencies don't work with the left: trouble almost always flows rightward. Hillary might get off the hook with just a fine, but the mob wants Trump in jail, so he's likely to be arrested for what might amount to a misdemeanor misfiling. Elon Musk cracked that arresting Trump just guarantees that, when he gets out, he'll win reelection in a landslide.
Will Trump's imminent arrest finally light a fire under the asses of conservatives who bitch and moan but do nothing? I jokingly commented, over at Instapundit, that it might be nice to see all the guys who make gun videos form an armed cordon around Trump—put their money where their mouth is and use their equipment for shooting more than just "zombie" torsos and ballistics gel. But the black-pilled* crowd is convinced that the right will not be roused to fury by Trump's arrest, probably because righties are too cowardly and passive to do what the lefties do reflexively: stage loud demonstrations, burn and pillage city districts, and lie—the dirty tactics of winning. The problem lies with the "we have to be better than that" crowd, which rejects Machiavellian tactics, thus putting all of conservatism into a suicidal downward spiral. Where is conservatism's General Patton?
From what I gather, all of this is a New York action, not a federal one. It's New York authorities (led by the very biased District Attorney Anthony Bragg) who are trying to put Trump in the slammer. In the first Styx video above, Styx wonders how it's supposed to work with Trump's Secret Service detail if Trump is jailed: do they share the cell with him, stand outside his cell in shifts, or what? It might be more practical to consider house arrest.
Personally, I see all of this as the ever-worsening shit-show of American politics. Let's say Trump goes to jail and gets out in a few months. He will now be the first president to run for a second term after having been incarcerated (is that even legal? see here). Would this be enough to fulfill Elon Musk's prophecy that Trump would get reelected in a landslide? I have to wonder. I cast my gaze around at the right, and I see very few with the spine to actually get out there and fight—physically if necessary—for their man.
This article, on some things to know about Trump's "impending arrest," ends thusly:
As noted, Vivek Ramaswamy came out against it [Trump's possible indictment/arrest] and thus far he’s the only declared or prospective GOP candidate who has. That’s not a good look to wait for political consultants or megadonors to give a candidate permission to speak out against unambiguous tyranny.
If people like Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, and others haven’t declared these actions as the attacks on the Constitution that they are by the time the arrest happens, they’re playing politics far too much. They should be disqualified from consideration.
*You're black-pilled if you've given in to pessimism. This expression expands upon the original red-pill/blue-pill dichotomy from "The Matrix." I think there's also white-pilling, which is the opposite—being relentlessly optimistic.
ADDENDUM: the video below suggests that this is a New York effort, but that Trump is being charged with a federal offense. I don't know how that works.
Ignore the dramatic thumbnail: Trump hasn't been arrested yet. Maybe Tuesday.
"The Terminal List," as a streaming-video show, seems better the second time around. It still has the flaws I mentioned in my review, but reading the novel, then going back to the series seems, somehow, to round out the story. The series definitely adds a lot of elements not in the novel, but at the same time, it follows the novel's template fairly closely. It's obvious some changes were made for dramatic purposes, but the alterations made sense when moving from the print medium to the video medium. The character of FBI Agent Liddel, who relentlessly pursues Reece, isn't even in the novel, but I'm glad he's in the series because he acts as a great foil for Reece. Liddel initially comes off as arrogant but still respectful of military servicemen. By the end of the series, his relationship with Reece has evolved and deepened. It's not a friendship by any means, but there's a level of understanding.
This is a good reminder, too, that in some cases, the best video adaptation is the series format because it allows you to explore the details of a lengthy story more fully. Mark Greaney's The Gray Man lost so much in translation, when it was made into a Netflix movie, that it was almost unrecognizable. The Russo brothers really ought to have shown Greaney's story more respect even if it wasn't that great of a story. I say that as someone who writes. The Russos could even have expanded on the storyline—as happened with The Terminal List—in order to end up with a more dimensional narrative. Instead, they went the cheap route, cutting and confabulating, and it was a $200 million effort. I hope the Russos think it was worth it. Maybe next time, though, consider a series.
I'm supposed to visit my buddy Charles next week, so the practical issue of how not to bleed on Charles's apartment's floor has arisen. A possible solution is to wear gomushin, or rubber shoes, a Korean tradition dating back to forever. Unfortunately, Coupang's selection doesn't carry anything bigger than a size 280 (Korean shoes are measured in millimeters), so I ordered a pair of black 280s that arrived today. They're heavier and sturdier than the gomushin I remember from years ago.* Of course, the shoes proved to be too tight, so I had to perform some surgery.
Devil horns!
By Korean reckoning, I am technically a 285 (285 mm = 11.22 in.), so a 280 is inevitably smaller than what I need. When I order my New Balance walking shoes, however, I get size 13s (Korean size 330) so I can minimize friction, especially in the toe-box area.
Having surgeried up my new shoes (well, shoe, really, as I need to wear only one), I think I am now ready to hit Charles's place without worrying about bleeding on his floor. I'll pack this gomushin with me for when I hit his place.
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*The tire symbol inside the shoe leads me to think these gomushin come from recycled tire rubber. The word 타이야표 (taiya-pyo, with taiya being the English "tire") does, too.
California plans to give $5 million to every single eligible black person as a way of paying reparations for the evil of slavery. I assume this money ultimately comes from the California taxpayer, who has no say in the matter. Then there's the question of how wisely these folks will save or spend or invest their windfall. Most will likely spend themselves dry in a paroxysm of financial stupidity. Also: it's easy to imagine these folks immediately moving out of their nasty neighborhoods. Just before receiving their millions, the same people would have been offended had you called such neighborhoods shitholes. Below, we've got a short video of comedian/host Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster hilariously roasting California's new policy by finding some ridiculous loopholes in it:
Keep in mind that this plan hasn't yet been implemented, but many California politicians are in favor of it, so let's all watch as California sends itself over a cliff. Yet another reason for California to become its own country.
It's a silly argument: X doesn't exist if you can't define it.
What is a woman?
Since people on the left can't or won't define what a woman is (as Matt Walsh has thoroughly proved), women don't exist. This erasure of women is precisely what people like JK Rowling—a big-time leftie herself—are fighting against.
The left's departure from reality and common sense is incredible to behold. We're reaching Douglas Adams levels of silliness these days.
Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.
"But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing.
—Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
(zebra crossing = British term for a crosswalk... pronounce it ZEH-bruh, not ZEE-bruh)
We are busily proving that black is white, up is down, and things like common sense, logic, and the plain evidence of the senses are all wrong.
WHAT CORN AND PEANUTS ARE HIDDEN IN THE WARM AND STEAMING PILE? Vapid cultural commentary, pungent reviews, sundry Korea-related musings, fartological/scatological humor, political flatulence, and nondualistic Zen excretions in prose or poetry form.
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