Two quick things – weird and disturbing things. Plus, the embarrassing reason why I don’t cook. Ever.
The One Time I Made Dinner
My once-a-year-in-Myrtle Beach golf buddies were chatting (by email) about those of us that can (and/or do) cook at home. There was a range, as you might expect, from guys that seldom do to guys that love to cook and cook frequently.
I don’t cook at all, I confessed. Not because I refuse to. I think I might enjoy cooking dinners once or twice a week. But K won’t have it.
Here’s why…
I’ve cooked only one meal in my life for others. And it was a barbecue… a dinner for K and the kids. I had it presented in platters… salad, grilled veggies, beans, potato salad, and crispy golden chicken. K looked impressed.
She tasted the veggies and looked up at me.
“How did you season these?”
“They’re pretty good,” I said proudly. “It’s a secret.”
She took another small bite and asked me again. “Seriously, answer the question.”
“Well, I wanted everything to be natural and for the tastes to sort of blend, so I marinated the vegetables in the juices from the chicken.”
Her eyes widened. “You marinated the veggies in the raw chicken juices?”
My heart stopped. My lungs froze. My brain was sending me a single-word message: salmonella!
“The juices from the uncooked chicken?!” she was shouting now.
I glanced out through the screened door to the porch and the sidewalk beyond that, within audio range of unwitting passersby.
“You don’t have to shout,” I said meekly.
But she wasn’t listening to me. She was staring at our boys, who had begun to eat.
“Spit out your food!” she screamed at them. Upon which they immediately, whether out of fear or playfulness, spit out their half-masticated food balls directly onto the table.
What seemed like a full minute of silence followed, as K stared at me incredulously and the boys stared at each of us in search of an explanation.
They got one. But since then, my only role in assisting with family dinners has been in setting the table beforehand and cleaning the dishes afterwards. Anything comprised of biological materials, including wine and beer, is now the responsibility of the boys. And they are not complaining.
Elon Musk’s Latest Post – or Is It?
Here is a short video clip I saw the other night that freaked me out – Elon Musk speaking into the camera about President Trump’s response to controversial remarks made by Ilhan Omar.
It’s 20 minutes long, but by the second minute I was beginning to think that it might be fake – i.e., AI-generated. I watched it twice and was convinced I was right. How convinced? Like 99%.
Three reasons:
1. The content of Musk’s argument is riddled with key words and short transitional phrases that I see whenever I ask ChatGPT to summarize an argument.
2. The way his argument is generally structured – the way statements are made, the way they are supported, the way one piece fits into the next one – is reminiscent of my experience working with ChatGPT.
3. The individual gestures look real. But if you watch for a while, you see that they repeat themselves with a consistency that does not look real.
It made me realize how quickly AI technology is developing. Last year, I saw the results of several attempts to produce digital images of celebrities and politicians speaking, and none of them looked remotely believable. This one was very believable.
So, what does that mean about the effect of AI on the news in the future? How soon will it be that we stop trusting anything we get through the digital media? Even when we see it with our eyes!
I misplaced the link to this video and went back online to find it by googling “Elon Musk talks about America.” I found several similar videos with different scripts but all the same tells, indicating that they, too, were AI-generated. Then I looked a bit further and found – to my chagrin – that I wasn’t discovering something that no one else had noticed. The story was already out there.
Here, for example, is a report from CBS News on the phenomenon.
England Embraces Digital ID: This Is Scary!
How weird – and disturbing – is this?
It’s British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announcing the issuance of a new form of identification – a national digital ID. A digital ID that all Brits will have to show to apply for jobs, get licenses and permits, buy cigarettes and alcohol, book air travel and train travel and rooms in hotels.
And here is where this story gets really crazy.
Starmer is promoting the digital ID as a tool to combat illegal aliens.
Really?
This is the same guy that is in favor of putting British citizens in jail for posting anti-immigrant content on their social media platforms. The same guy that excoriated Brits who protested against the stark rise in violent crime in areas where legal and illegal Muslim immigrants lived. And the same guy who, despite being in charge of keeping British towns and cities safe from violence, spent 10+ years hiding and burying the fact that thousands – perhaps tens of thousands – of young White girls were groomed, trafficked, and raped by Pakistani gangs because exposing them and arresting them would have been politically incorrect.
Keir Starmer is the face of Woke politics in Britian. This sudden turnaround on the immigration issue is not going to convince anyone that he’s seen the light, nor will it bring conservative and right-wing Brits over to his party.
But I don’t think that’s what is going on here anyway. I think it is a ruse to take attention away from what the purpose of the digital ID really is.
I’ve written about this as it relates to digital currency. In past essays, I’ve made the claim that digital currency in the US (and all other Western countries that have fiat currencies) is inevitable because it gives the government the ability to keep track of virtually everything every one of its citizens do every day. It will be promoted by the government as a tool for fighting white collar crime, I said, again as a ruse to distract from its real intent. And after it is instituted (because all politicians from all sides will recognize its value to them), the government’s control of and power over virtually every aspect of every citizen’s life will be quickly expanded until the idea of individual liberty is not just gone but not even understood.
When I wrote those pieces, I was focused on national digital currencies, because they could be structured to emulate the US dollar or the British pound. Which would mean that their supply and demand could be artificially regulated and US and British politicians could continue to make promises that their governments couldn’t afford to make. But now I can see that a government can get almost all of the power and control they want without going the extra yard to a digital currency. A digital ID, with the right sort of “sensible” regulations, will do much the same thing.
We should be alarmed. But so far, nobody seems to even understand it, let alone criticize it. Except little ol’ me.
About Charlie Kirk
I believe Charlie Kirk’s impact will be great and long-lasting. And I hope his foresight in naming his project – Turning Point – is realized. I’ve published several reader responses to his assassination. Here are a few more…
From GM: I’ve been trying to “make sense” and manage my feelings about Charlie and the unexpected impact it has had on me. Had I been able to pull it together, it would have looked like this essay written by Steve Patrick, Next Gen Pastor at Daystar Church in Cullman, Alabama, the day after the assassination:
Throughout your life, certain days with unexpected tragedies extremely bother you and stay with you a long, long, time. You never forget how you felt and how that incident shook you. Wednesday was one of those days and moments for me.
The only thing in my lifetime that I can compare the way I feel to, were my feelings on 9/11/01. For most of you, you probably can’t understand how I could compare the two. On 9/11, thousands lost their life tragically. Yesterday, one man lost his. I couldn’t explain it either… at first. I honestly wept at times all evening and I couldn’t sleep. I asked myself why the loss of one man’s life, as senseless and horrific as it was, unsettled me so much. I had seen Charlie Kirk on social media often over the last few years and had seen him on television. I was always impressed, was thankful for what he stood for, and I appreciated the way he invited open and respectful dialogue with those who disagreed with him. But tonight, as I listened to clip after clip of Charlie speaking to various college crowds and speaking via media interviews… I finally understood.
Maybe I can explain it in this way:
I never met him, but I feel like we were warriors together.
I could never speak as eloquently as him, yet I felt we had the same voice.
I was not in his squad, yet I felt that we were on the same mission.
I don’t have his intelligence and talent, but I seek to glorify God in what I have.
I don’t have his charisma and wit, so I put others on the platform.
I don’t desire to speak to great crowds, but I’ve prayed to have an impact.
I never knew him, yet my heart aches like the loss of a best friend.
I can’t articulate truth and thought like him, but I feel that we had the same “heart.”
From Joe Z: It’s insane to me that in 2025, the traditional Judeo-Christian values Charlie used as the basis for his (very reasonable) arguments, whether or not you agree with them, are somehow seen as extreme and even dangerous. So much so that he was murdered in cold blood… in broad daylight… on a college campus… with a microphone – not a weapon – in his hand… for espousing them. And most disturbing of all, this is seen by many as not only a justifiable act, but one worthy of immense praise. An act that many believe should be repeated against other prominent “conservative voices” with whom they disagree.
The one thing that inspires some hope in me has been the general reaction from most, but not all, conservatives. There were no riots. No looting. No fires in the streets. No violent mobs screaming for vengeance. Instead, there were vigils. There were moments of silence at football games. Church parking lots overflowed.
I think that’s a testament to Charlie and the people he inspired.
Italian Spelling Bee
I love everything about this, including the generalizations and ethnic stereotypes.