Saturday, July 12, 2025
tipping culture has gone mad
This'll make my buddy Charles happy: he's never been a fan of tipping. As for me: until I went back to the States earlier this year, I had no idea that the tipping culture had gotten so bad.
the creepy kid
Remember when I mentioned, at the end of my review of "The Expanse," how there was one moment that reminded me of Pet Sematary? Let's do a deep dive.
men with balls
Vigilante Rising: Polish Bare Knuckle Boxing Group Vow to Protect Borders
A Polish bare-knuckle boxing troupe has vowed to join the ranks of vigilante groups who have taken to policing the nation’s borders from illegal immigration.
In a promotional video featuring bare-chested fighters, Gromda, a self-described “underground” fighting club for “modern gentlemen” in Warsaw, declared: “We defend Polish borders so no one can sneak in on the sly, so to all you wannabe tough guys… you enter at your own risk.”
During a separate comedy skit filmed with one of the fighting club’s black members, the group added: “This is POLAND. We keep order and take care of our own. Because if you’re one of us, you work honestly and follow the rules, then everything is smooth and cool… but if you come in with a shady, tanned face, trying to barge in and act like a thug, there’s no entry, get lost, or you’ll catch a beating and get kicked out.”
[ ... ]
It came amid an uptick in Polish vigilantism along the German border over accusations that the recently installed government of Friedrich Merz in Berlin has been pushing illegal migrants into Poland.
Groups such as the ‘Border Defence Movement’ (‘ROG’) of Polish nationalist activist Robert Bąkiewicz claimed that they were forced to “defend our civilisation” by standing watch over the border and performing “citizen checks” in light of the failures of the liberal government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk to prevent illegals from entering the country.
In an apparent attempt to take command of the situation, Tusk deployed troops along the border with Germany as well as with Lithuania and Estonia on Monday. His government said that citizens engaging in vigilante border patrols must stand down in favour of the military or face fines.
The increased border patrols by the Polish military will also seek to prevent what Warsaw and others have claimed are “hybrid warfare” attempts by Russian ally Belarus to push migrants towards the Polish border to allegedly destabilise the European Union.
Any fellow Yanks willing to step up? Doesn't matter what race you are. The only real question is: How seriously do you take the border?
...because the young ones don't know what they want, and they're a bunch of superficial, catty, betraying bitches?
Why do men get advice from other men about women? Why not ask women directly?
truth or more fluff?
Alan Dershowitz claims to know the names on the Epstein client list, but he says he's legally bound by confidentiality agreements not to disclose anything. Do you believe him, or is this just more talk-talk-talk?
Friday, July 11, 2025
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| I probably put this one up before. Who cares? I like it. |
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| This had the caption of, "You had just one job." |
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| an oldie but a goodie |
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| Time has not been that kind to me. I'm more like the hot girlfriend. |
news from Whoopi and Biden's doctor
Whoopi Goldberg surprises herself by not blaming Trump for the Texas floods (as if we should care what she thinks), and Joe Biden's doctor pleads the Fifth to avoid incriminating himself by testifying about Joe Biden's physical condition.
Headline (probably paywall):
Whoopi Goldberg ‘Shocked’ To Report That Texas Flooding Is NOT Trump’s Fault"It's important, I think, for everyone to understand — and I'm shocked that this is coming out of my mouth."
“The View” host Whoopi Goldberg was shocked to admit that President Donald Trump is not at fault for the massive flash floods that have devastated central Texas, killing more than 100 people when the Guadalupe River rose some 26 feet in about 45 minutes.
Goldberg, who still refuses to speak Trump’s name aloud on the ABC midday talk show, actually stepped in to stop cohost Joy Behar when she pointed the finger at the president during Tuesday’s broadcast.
Cohost Alyssa Farah Griffin addressed those who were attempting to politicize the flooding, claiming that President Donald Trump’s efforts to streamline the federal government — mainly through the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — had had a negative impact on the National Weather Service’s ability to accurately predict the floods and warn residents in time.
“I think after action reports are really important but politicizing and pointing fingers is not the answer,” Griffin said.
“Yeah, but Trump does it all the time. He immediately — he immediately starts the blame game,” Behar objected. “So maybe Ms. Leavitt should talk to her boss.”
[ ... ]
Goldberg jumped into the conversation, saying that she believed people should have been more prepared simply because that particular area was prone to flash flooding and had flooded quickly in the past. She argued instead that any failures were at the state level rather than the federal level.
“It’s important, I think, for everyone to understand — and I’m shocked that this is coming out of my mouth. I’m not pointing a finger at the man in the White House,” Goldberg said. “I’m saying there’s a state that is in trouble and has been. And it doesn’t seem like anything is changing. And maybe we need to get on top of that.”
Headline (probable paywall):
‘It’s Now Clear There Was A Conspiracy’: Biden’s Doctor Pleads The Fifth As GOP Probes ‘Cover Up’"The American people demand transparency but Dr. O’Connor would rather conceal the truth."
Former President Joe Biden’s physician, Kevin O’Connor, pleaded the Fifth during a closed-door deposition before Congress on Wednesday.
The interview, part of an investigation into Biden’s mental state and whether he authorized the use of autopen signatures for major executive actions, lasted roughly an hour on Capitol Hill.
In a statement, O’Connor’s attorneys told House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) and the other members of the Oversight Committee that their client would not violate his oath of confidentiality to his patients, including Biden. They also insisted that a “pending” Department of Justice criminal investigation left O’Connor “no choice” but to assert his Fifth Amendment rights.
Comer, who had subpoenaed O’Connor to testify, confirmed that the witness declined to cooperate.
“It’s now clear there was a conspiracy to cover up President Biden’s cognitive decline after Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Biden’s physician and family business associate, refused to answer any questions and chose to hide behind the Fifth Amendment,” Comer said in a post on X.
“The American people demand transparency but Dr. O’Connor would rather conceal the truth,” Comer added. “Dr. O’Connor took the Fifth when asked if he was told to lie about President Biden’s health and whether he was fit to be President of the United States. Congress must assess legislative solutions to prevent such a cover-up from happening again. We will continue to interview more Biden White House aides to get the answers Americans deserve.”
O’Connor’s deposition took place after Trump waived his executive privilege, which also happened for former White House Staff Secretary and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, who testified for several hours last month and denied there was an effort to cover up Biden’s condition. Other former Biden aides are expected to testify before the House Oversight Committee in the coming weeks.
According to the above article, Dr. O'Connor took the Fifth after being asked whether he'd been told to lie about Biden's health and fitness to be president. This is not the same as asking directly about Biden's health and fitness for office. Dr. O'Connor claims he took the Fifth to protect doctor-patient confidentiality, but based on what the article says, the question he was asked had nothing to do with revealing anything about Biden's condition: he was asked whether he'd been told to lie—a question he could have safely answered without revealing anything about Biden. So there's something bogus about taking the Fifth in this case.
For my non-American readers: the expression "to take the Fifth" or "to plead the Fifth" refers to a citizen's Fifth Amendment right not to reveal anything that might incriminate him- or herself. Here's the text of the Fifth Amendment. The relevant portion: "...nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." As you see, though, the Fifth Amendment guarantees a lot more than that, from due process on down. As a slang term, to take/plead the Fifth means not to admit something or simply to be silent about something.
keto croque madame
These were not, by any stretch, proper croque madames. First, they were keto, which means I couldn't use real bread. Second, I was using up leftover fondue cheese, which contained Gruyère and made for tasty sandwiches but didn't help with authenticity.
A croque madame is based on a croque monsieur, which is a sort of grilled, griddled, or pan-fried ham-and-cheese sandwich with melted Gruyère cheese on the inside and a Gruyère Mornay sauce on top (a Mornay is a Béchamel sauce plus cheese). A keto version of this sandwich can't be made with a regular Béchamel since Béchamel has flour in it (it starts with a roux base, then you add milk and seasonings). So instead of a proper Mornay, I used my leftover keto-fondue cheese and keto bread.
A croque madame is basically a croque monsieur with a fried egg on top for that feminine touch (what's inside the fertilized egg might be masculine or feminine, but eggs are laid exclusively by hens, not roosters, so I guess that's the tie-in). Assembly today was a multi-step process, and I had to be mindful of the order: butter the bread first to get it ready for pan-frying; layer on the deli ham and some melted fondue cheese; assemble the sandwiches (I made three small ones for myself); place the pan-fried sandwiches in a baking tray; add cheeses on top that will brown under a broiler (I used a combo of mozzarella and Parmigiano); broil, then ladle on more fondue cheese and top with that fried egg. In the photos below, you'll see that one egg yolk decided to break (there's always at least one, dammit). Aside from that, the sandwiches were all pretty good, not to mention easy to slice with a steak knife.
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| Avengers, assemble! |
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| closeup of one of the better eggs |
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| You can see the hand-grated Parm. |
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| Mister Brokenegg |
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| overhead view |
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| a messy cross-sectional view |
As I said, these were pretty good, not to mention a good way to use up my fondue cheese. Keto pizza is happening this weekend. The madness never ends.
Jeremy Renner is nearly killed, gets lowballed by Marvel
It's a vicious business to be in. Jeremy Renner was famously in a nasty snowplow accident—he had tried to help someone else, and he was in the hospital for a long period, followed by a long and painful rehabilitation. When the proposal came up to do a Season 2 of "Hawkeye," the Marvel TV show, Marvel offered Renner only a basement-level salary to return. Renner felt insulted and rejected the offer, as is only right and proper. Was Marvel actually looking for an excuse not to make Season 2?
nothing to see here, folks
So Ghislaine Maxwell is in prison for... what, exactly? Don't misunderstand me: I don't think she's innocent, any more than I think that Epstein killed himself. But there are people out there with a vested interest in not having the Epstein list come out because of all the powerful people who would be implicated by it. So it's not enough to focus on the list: we have to be about the business of demystifying who, exactly, is trying to cover the list up. Pam Bondi went from saying the list was "on my desk" along with "tens of thousands of hours" of compromising video footage to saying almost nothing these days about arrests she plans to make. She (attorney general) and Kash Patel (FBI) have proven to be useless. And it's aways like this: the right shouts about malfeasance, claims it has evidence, then fails to produce. (Of course, the left does this, too, but the balance always tilts in favor of the left when it's time to arrest people, whether there are good reasons to do so or not. Witness January 6 and all the unjust imprisonments. The right always lacks the balls to make any arrests. It's grown too afraid of the Nazi/fascist accusation, something that doesn't stop the left.)
this movie sure came and went, didn't it?
Another woke piece of trash. Girl-boss, evil white villain... everything fits the formula.
And to the oversensitive: the criticism of "evil white villain" doesn't imply that all villains must be non-white. But there is a pattern that fits today's PC racial politics that requires the villain, in most cases, to be white while the hero is generally some perceived-as-oppressed class—female, non-white, whatever. Gotta get those racial/sexual politics right! That's why I saw "Hobbs & Shaw" as something of a relief: it was a dumb action movie, but Idris Elba, a talented actor who has played many sorts of roles in his illustrious career, heroic and malefic, made for a great villain in that movie. And it broke the PC mold.
high culture vs. low culture: the rot comes for us all
France leads the way, but this is happening everywhere:
I've seen gaggles of non-white minorities in Seoul—in Itaewon, on subways, randomly in other cities. I've never had a problem with them; they've never had a problem with me. Of course, I'm also remembering experiences from years ago: these days, I don't go out that much, and when I do, most of my travels don't take me to minority-heavy areas. But does Seoul now have roving bands of drunken minorities—white or otherwise—singing loudly in subways and other shared spaces? I wouldn't know. I know that crowd-related things often happen here while I'm not looking, like the Itaewon crowd-crush disaster from a few years ago—so I suppose anything's possible. I also keep weird hours and am active at different times of day from the rest of the populace; on top of that, I prefer activities, like distance walking along creeks and rivers, that keep me well away from the madding crowd, so I may be in my own, self-created bubble when it comes to current realities.
From the Japanese perspective, Koreans often seem like loud, rowdy, uncouth, unpolished people, and frankly, I agree with some of that given the behaviors I encounter almost daily. But Koreans can also be kind and warm and caring; they can be laser-focused and disciplined when the need arises, and since, like the Japanese, they tend to value group harmony over notions of individual fulfillment, they have more at stake in preserving social orderer than many non-Asian cultures do. But from the Japanese perspective, Koreans must look like pussycats compared to the raw crop of foreigners stampeding into Japan.
With the influx of minorities from places that are utterly culturally alien to Koreans and Japanese these days, the sociocultural landscape is changing. As you see in the video above (which focuses on Japan and makes no mention of Korea), the signs and symptoms of rowdy minorities have arrived on Japanese shores. And why? Because like in Europe, some Japanese politicians concluded years ago that the solution to Japan's low-birth-rate problem is to bring in minorities from other countries and cultures—people who, nowadays, have no interest in assimilation (or at least pacific integration), and whose only goal is to become welfare queens, to leech off the systems of care already in place, to drag society down to their debased level.
In a sense, I'm glad I'll be dying early. The future that's coming into focus—and already a reality in cities like Paris—doesn't look to be very pleasant. My friend, the late Bill Keezer, was right to focus so much on immigration.
the snag... and the consequences
I asked Google AI how many separate blogs I can host on a single Squarespace site, and this is the answer I got:
In Squarespace, you can create multiple blogs within a single website, according to SEOSpace. There's no limit to the number of blog pages you can create on your website. However, it's worth noting that Squarespace suggests a maximum of 400 pages (including blog pages and other page types) per website for optimal performance and loading speed.
This means that while you can create many blog pages, the total number of pages on your site, including all your blog pages and other content, shouldn't ideally exceed 400 for the best user experience.
Each website you create under a single Squarespace account will require its own separate subscription, says SEOSpace.
For managing multiple blogs effectively on one website, utilizing categories and tags to organize your content is highly recommended. This allows you to filter and display specific blog posts on different sections of your site, making it easier for visitors to find the content they are interested in.
So I guess it's time for some cold, hard reality.
This blog, the Hairy Chasms, has way, way, way more than 400 pages' worth of posts after decades of blogging. And my seven in-Korea walk blogs (Kevin's Walk 2 onward; the first Kevin's Walk was about trying to walk across America, then about mom's brain cancer), which include pre-walk posts and postmortem posts, together probably total close to 400 pages' worth of posts, if not more. Add the first Kevin's Walk blog to that, and the total is also way more than 400 pages.
Conclusion: migrating my old blogs over to Squarespace will not be worth the trouble, especially if this means porting over all the pictures and video. It's too much, and based on the above info, I'd have to subscribe to several Squarespace websites.
It's therefore not worth my time to migrate everything over. I'm going to leave all of my blogs right here, and my Squarespace blog will be a wholly new thing.
Coming to this conclusion is both sad and a relief. It's a relief because this means much less work for me (e.g., I won't have to deal with any migration-related formatting questions, nor will I have to re-upload videos and images), but it's sad because I feel as if I'm abandoning these blogs. I'll keep watch over them, though, and try to keep them active—at least the main blog—by scheduling occasional posts. Google/Blogspot's policy is apparently to delete accounts, not individual blogs, that have been inactive for more than two years, which is why old walk blogs like Kevins' Walk and Kevin's Walk 2 remain active. So maintaining my Blogspot/Blogger presence shouldn't require much effort.
Thursday, July 10, 2025
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| eagle-shaped tumors sprouting from his shoulders |
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| Maybe Troi's the one saying that. |
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| Don't joke about Prostate Man. |
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| Shouldn't Kathleen be in the lower-right quadrant? |
Nerd Cookies vs. Villeneuve
As you'll see in the video below, Nerd Cookies has fully come around to the idea that Denis Villeneuve has, in many ways, fundamentally misinterpreted the main ideas, characters, and themes of the Dune novels. Villeneuve undoubtedly approaches the intellectual property with a mature artistic eye, but I'd have to agree that his two-movie adaptation, which I generally liked (see here and here), does make some major missteps in terms of plot and characterization, and this is likely going to carry over into the planned third film. In the end, Villeneuve is little different from Lynch or Jodorowsky, finding his own way of being faithful-yet-unfaithful to the canon, putting his own spin on a franchise that needs no spin.
getting what you vote for—good and hard
Crime-stat demographics? Imagine the results! But by all means, keep denying reality.
visiting "luxury vegan" restaurants
Fascinating. I might want to try this at some point. Prepping fake meat at home seems to require industrial-level equipment. Better just to eat out. The premade home products I've tried, like Beyond Meat, have proven to be terrible, and the one time I made seitan was an abject failure as well (but I might try that again at some point). There was that recent video about faux loin, though...
initial reviews of "Superman"—a mixed bag
I'm not exactly tripping over myself to go see this movie. I think I have a fundamental problem with James Gunn's having crossed over from Marvel to DC.
Babish vs. Nashville hot chicken
What he's calling "The Great Babish Beat-off," i.e., can he do better?
turning the argument turtle yet again
A cogent argument against reparations. The speaker makes the obvious point about how the punishments for the sins of the fathers shouldn't be visited on their descendants (an archaic biblical concept of inherited guilt); she also notes that the descendants of the white soldiers who freed the slaves shouldn't be forced to pay reparations to the descendants of the slaves. In this vein, she asks whether a child born of a rapist should be branded a rapist because of its father's deeds. Then, she brings it all home by noting that the Democrats were the slave owners and the makers/enforcers of Jim Crow laws, so should we treat today's Democrats as slave owners and advocates for Jim Crow?
The only real question is whether the left has enough self-consistency to heed this argument. The left tends to believe whatever is convenient in the moment.
Honest Trailers: "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"
When I was a kid in France for the first time, and someone pronounced "Monty Python" the French way, I had no idea what that person was saying: \ mõnti pitõ \.
Wednesday's numbers
My blood pressure was higher at the hospital (the usual stress), but here are the numbers I recorded at home before I set out for my Samsung Seoul Hospital appointment:
blood sugar: 104 (not bad, but not ideal)
"official" HbA1c: 7.3 (measured in May)
"home" A1c: 6.79
BP: 129/77 (a bit high for systolic)
weight: 115.5 kg (about 255 lbs.—some weight gain)
"official" HbA1c: 7.3 (measured in May)
"home" A1c: 6.79
BP: 129/77 (a bit high for systolic)
weight: 115.5 kg (about 255 lbs.—some weight gain)
Blood sugar got fairly low, but still not under 100. Thursday's blood sugar will be high: after my appointment, I got Subway sandwiches and cookies for lunch (say what you will about the sandwiches, but Subway cookies are strangely good, and despite my being a chocoholic, I think my favorite might be the raspberry cheesecake). A1c continues to go down; my next appointment with the diabetes doc is this coming September 29; if I'm at 6.7-something now, I could be down to 5.6-something by that time. My lowest-ever A1c was 5.7. Ideal A1c is about 5.5—even better if it's lower. I do need to work on my weight, though; the goal still remains to get down to 90 kg, and I'm over 25 kg above that. Maybe I should hire a personal trainer despite how expensive that is. BP is a tad high; it'll come down once I'm distance-walking again. I just bought a hydraulic stepper (photo coming soon), so I'll be doing steps in my room, away from the nasty summer heat, until around the end of August. Because of the clicking/thumping noise the stepper makes, I need to buy some gym tiles so as not to annoy the neighbors who live directly beneath me. I might attempt some nighttime walks outside once in a while, but no promises, especially during flood season (roughly August).
I told the cardiac/stroke doc about my recurring angina (it's not severe, but it's worrisome) and occasional breathing difficulties. These things both hit me when I eat and then walk. (I tried to hide my angina symptoms when I went down to Masan recently, but I'm not sure how successful I was.) The doc said I'll get a heart scan (plus a kidney scan) the next time we meet, but that's not for six months. My next appointment is scheduled for early January next year, so I'll have to cling to life until then. I seem to be at my best when I walk after fasting, and I just learned that walking in a fasted state is a good way to lose weight, so I'll be trying to practice more of that from now on. I also asked the doc how I might schedule a colonoscopy, something I should've done back when I turned fifty. Since I have to call the hospital's cancer center to schedule that appointment, I'm also going to schedule a checkup for my nether regions because I keep thinking I'm feeling a little mass down there (and no, it's not my dick). I also asked whether we could schedule both cardiac/stroke and diabetes appointments to happen on the same date from now on, but the doc said that that would be difficult.
So just to survive, I'm going to have to do a lot more fasting. I've got a few keto things I want to prep for myself this week, but starting next week, I'll be back to fasting on weekdays and eating on weekends. Oh, lovely, lovely discipline.
It's funny to watch my circumscribed life constricting, depriving me of choices. God is making my decisions for me as I get older and frailer: at this point, I can drop any thoughts of being an actor or a cartoonist; I can also drop any notion of ever climbing my building's staircase three times in a row ever again, or of lifting anything over a hundred pounds (45 kg). That door seems to have closed. All that's really left to me, at this point, are behind-the-desk jobs like video personality and writer, and exercises like light weightlifting and walking (in the right circumstances, and on flat ground for the most part).
But a decrease in choices brings an increase in clarity, which may be the motivation I need to get going with the rest of my increasingly limited life. Wish me luck, and hope that I get through the end of this year. I'd like to visit the States, and maybe France, next year. Also: here's hoping I'm still capable of long walks. In this hot weather, I'm not about to tempt fate by trying a 30K route at night: even the summer nights are hot and humid, and I'd be a sticky, stinky mess, assuming I even survived such a walk.
Righto—more later. My next major appointment is on the 15th of this month to re-renew my F4 visa. I think I have everything I need, document-wise. We'll see.
ChatGPT does an image of David's dawg
I asked ChatGPT to render an image of a pit bull terrier/boxer mix, and I had to hone the prose until, at long last, ChatGPT gave me the following AI image that comes pretty close to showing the real Penny:
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| The major difference is that the real Penny has a gray muzzle. |
I hope I get to see Penny again next year. And my brother.
Wednesday, July 09, 2025
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| She's apparently a rightie troll who inserts herself into leftie demonstrations. |
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| Vader never said, "Luke, I am your father." He said, "No: I am your father." |
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