2 Timothy 4:3 NLT “For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.”
Recliner Worship
I find myself intolerably annoyed with anthems about experiencing God’s presence. How did mankind become so comfortable kicking back to imagine that God has a duty to satisfy the thirst or hunger or desperation of servants? It is a lazy and wrong-headed understanding of what it means to be an Abrahamic theist. Singung about the awesomeness of God’s presence might produce a goosenump, but it does not produce an encounter with the Almighty.Show more ›
¿Qué Puede Hacerme el Hombre?
¿A mí qué me puede hacer el hombre, y para mí qué me puede hacer el hombre? Por eso, “Levantaré mis ojos a los montes; ¿de dónde vendrá mi socorro? Mi socorro viene del Señor, que hizo los cielos y la tierra.” (Salmo 121:1-2)
A Spontaneous Meditation
“Come unto me, all ye labouring and burdened ones, and I will give you rest, take up my yoke upon you, and learn from me, because I am meek and humble in heart, and ye shall find rest to your souls.” (Matt 11:28-29 YLT)
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe.” (Prov 18:10 YLT)
“Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is [my portion] forever.” (Psalm 73:25-26 NLT)
“But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign Lord my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things you do.” (Psalm 73:28)
Envisioning Nontraditional Men’s Clothing with AI
The difficulty in demonstrating non-existent clothing is the fact that such clothing does not exist. And whether man or woman, very few consumers have the capacity to draw what they imagine or to sew what they draw. If it can’t be represented, how will a tailor or seamstress be able to create a custom order? Maybe AI can empower the strident consumer to refine his wishes with detail that he can’t quite articulate. This image is the product of “Man wearing knee length sleeveless Oxford shirt dress with elasticized waist.” (Credit to Deep AI). Perhaps its simplicity will provoke more complex endeavors. The crazy thing is that AI does not often generate any two identical images from the same text prompt. So if an image isn’t close, just refresh. If an image is close, don’t navigate away or take a break or the AI will abandon its flow. Keep tweaking the text prompt.
Yahweh, Jehovah, & Adonai
I learned a little Arabic in 2022. The classes ended abruptly so I did not progress as far as I had expected. My graduate studies included two linguistics courses that, for inteinsic reasons, were predominantly Indo-European (duh, I speak English, Spanish, French). Of course any linguistics curriculum includes an overview of other language families, and that once-extraneous knowledge of Semitic languages quickly made a lot of sense. It probably also accelerated my uptake. It definitely connected dots which I could apply to Hebrew.Show more ›
Something About Skirts and Satan?
This youtuber (somewhere in Africa) seems to be implying that homosexuals and men who wear skirts are deceived by Satan. It does not disclose the language, but rewind a little and it says “Kumbu 22:5” which I am fairly sure invokes Deuteronomy 22:5 (see 2019 post, “Skirts, Pants, and Deuteronomy 22:5“). [VIDEO EMBED]
Mikayla Daniels: “Why I Believe Men Should Wear Skirts”
Mikayla Daniels reminisces on her (high school) forensics speech titled, “Why I Believe Men Should Wear Skirts.” Her argument consists of four point: 1) Clothing has no inherent gender; 2) History of human civilization; 3) Aesthetics; 4) Comfort and practicality. She concludes, “Let’s just throw away all the nonsense and let people wear what they feel good in, no matter the article of clothing or their gender, because clothes are just clothes.” Read her full piece at https://mikayladaniels.medium.com
Surrendered Suffering Is Worship
Luke 22:42 records Jesus as praying, “Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done.” These words demonstrate total surrender to יהוה. It is the sheep submitting to the shepherd’s plans and purposes. Suffering is not just the adversity which befalls us. Suffering is just as much knowing the adversity that will imminently befall us or the consciousness that our present adversity has no apparent set ending. Feeling about to break, we ourselves are likely to beg the Almighty to bring our suffering to an end. There is nothing fallable in that entreaty. But, if we then bring ourselves to say, “not my will but yours be done” then in that moment we offer a worship of submission. And every moment of mindful submission is worship. In worship there is peace. The desperation changes to sorrow as we experience God’s sorrow for our suffering. But if all we can offer is our desperate and broken heart, then it is sufficient to offer our desperate and broken heart. The old widow who gave her last two coins (Mk 12:41-44) offered God all that she had and it was an acceptable offering. It was her worship. When we surrender our last desperate emotions, it is our worship and it is acceptable, it is pleasing. Our agony, when offered as submission, becomes a lived act of worship. Stop bucking to start worshipping.
Of Course God Exists
“The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’.” —Psalm 14:1
“Thus said Jehovah, king of Israel, And his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: `I [am] the first, and I the last, And besides Me there is no God’.” —Isaiah 44:6 YLT
There was a time
There was a time when I didn’t care and when I didn’t compromise. —Vox
Trump Truth
I saved this Trumplethinskin meme years ago because it was so perspicacious. I had no idea it would become relevant again. 
Trump & Biden Memes
Incomprehensible
To some it would seems unimaginable that God could communicate individually with all 8 billion Earth humans. If that were humanly comprehensible, then God wouldn’t be God.
Of course demons exist
To be “Christian” is to be a “little Christ” or a “Christ follower.” Jesus rebuked demons, terrorized demons, and exorcized demons. What is there not to understand?
Inshallah, Mashallah, and Alhamdulillah
These three words capture the entirety of worshiping God Most High. I could conclude this post here and it would be sufficient for decades of meditation, but since when do I not discuss a matter at length?Show more ›
Lawyer Discusses Vehicle GPS Trackers
Richard Ellis: F.E.A.R.
I should have posted this four years ago when I first saw it. Still true.
Method to download Facebook video
Like most things on the internet, Facebook videos might be here today and gone tomorrow. For purposes of a forthcoming post, I needed to download an overly long FB live video and edit it down to the key minutes. It was a definite challenge, but ultimately these instructions worked (after a few on-the-fly workarounds to overcome FB’s interim changes). It might just be useful to others out there, particularly civil libertarians who wish to archive unconscionable internet blatherskite.
MacGyver
Some people can MacGyver any problem. Other people somehow will MacFucker every problem. —Vox
On Understanding God
I don’t understand its necessity, but I understand that you (God) understand it, and that is enough. —Vox
A “play on masculinity and femininity”
To quote and to paraphrase Vogue magazine, Billy Porter “defied fashion norms” at the 2019 Academy Awards by stepping onto the red carpet in an “unapologetically fabulous[, . . .] sharply tailored tuxedo jacket overtop a full-skirted velvet gown”—”a play on masculinity and femininity [that] challenged the rigid Hollywood dress code and was boundary-pushing in all the right ways.” Show more ›
A Short Colloquy
| VOX: | I’m really tired of [this locality and these circumstances] |
| GOD: | Am I not enough for you? |
| VOX: | I withdraw my complaint |
(In other words, Do I not satisfy you? What else do you need?)
Betty Who: I Remember
Fixing the Complaint Instead of Fixing the Problem
“The eternal temptation, of course, has been to arrest the speaker rather than to correct the conditions about which he complains. I see no reason why these appellees should be made to walk the treacherous ground of these statutes. They, like other citizens, need the umbrella of the First Amendment as they study, analyze, discuss, and debate the troubles of these days. When criminal prosecutions can be leveled against them because they express unpopular views, the society of the dialogue is in danger.” Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 65 (1971) Still true today, fifty-three years later!
He saw it as practical
While visiting Saudi Arabia, Adam Graham offhandedly confessed his admiration for the Arabian thobe. Adam’s friend immediately took him shopping. “To be honest,” Adam writes, “it never dawned on me that I could buy a thobe. […] I was so pleased with it that I decided to wear it for the rest of the day while touring the city.” Show more ›
On Disputation
The person who cannot refute a disagreeable position holds an indefensible position, lacks pathos, or lacks acumen. —Vox
Jesucristo no era homofóbico
What does “women’s clothing” mean?
What does it mean to label garments as “women’s clothing”? One might (myopically) say that it means clothing uniquely suited to women. But does it really mean that? Women do not have extra arms or other anatomies that require special design. After accounting for sizing, every garment works on every human.Show more ›
Environmental Nonsense
A YouTuber so arguably wrong….due to (relative) youth and short-term myopia (at the expense of long-term memory). The 10% corn ethanol had nothing to do with sustainability, global warming, or “climate change.” Going back 30+ years, it was a seasonal additive to slightly reduce big-city air pollution in the hottest months. At least that was the claim. Show more ›
How to Dress Masculinely in a Skirt
Alex (who runs the Beskirted Man blog) offers guidance for projecting healthy, nontoxic masculinity while enjoying the freedom of a well-chosen skirt. Here is Alex’s two-part précis.Show more ›
NASA’s “Pluto Time”
Actually, the sunlight on Pluto reaches 3x the illumination of full moon on Earth. So that means other bodies like Jupiter’s moons are even more illuminated. Not at all what I expected. Could that be enough for genetically engineered photosynthesis? But wait, click now to calculate an equivalent ambient illumination experience at your Earth coordinates! Cool. NASA Pluto Time Calculator
Nâdya: Top
Accepter les erreurs, La raison des choses. Terrasser cette peur, Pour l’apothéose.Show more ›
I Wore a Thobe Today
Nearly eight years ago I posted my first manifesto, Why I Wear Skirts. Skirts are still super awesome, but today I forge another countercultural path: the Arabian Thobe. Yet for all the wisdom and perspective gained through skirts, I find myself re-learning some of the same simple lessons all over again.Show more ›
Bunny Yan: “Real Men Wear Skirts”
She’s wrong on a few points, but it’s adorably written, and she leads with a haymaker: “Not that a man HAS to wear skirts, what I meant was a confident man is fine with the concept of men wearing skirts.”
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/real-men-wear-skirts-bunny-yan
How I Unwittingly Perpetuated Clothing Discrimination
I realized today that for all my clothing advocacy, I was unwittingly perpetuating the very psychosocial disconnect of gendered clothing.Show more ›
Demanding a god that thinks like a human
How often do we hear the critique, I cannot believe in a god that allows so much suffering to exist in the world. This statement actually expresses the thought that I can only believe in a god that thinks the way that I think (i.e. because I would end suffering if I were God). Show more ›
Biochemistry of Exercise
From the anatomists at the Institute of Human Anatomy: carbohydrates necessary for exercise and protein uptake cycle.Show more ›
NY Trump Trial
The arguments, evidence, and testimony are now over and the jury is off to deliberate. On the whole, there is nothing unlawful in purchasing silence of noncrimes (NDAs, for example) and it appears certain that Trumplethinskin knowingly intended to hide the purchase price. I think Trump imagined himself a shrewd accountant burying the smoldering embers as attorney fees, the substance of which (rendered legal services) was conceivably privileged. The thing is that in New York, that constitutes a form of money laundering. Overly simplified, money laundering is the process of using legitimate business records to conceal dirty money. New York extends that principle to any type of business record. Trump ran private business(es) in New York for decades and knew, should have known, or imputably did know the state laws on business records (and for this purpose, all election campaigns are special non-commercial corporations with tax returns and employees). The testimony forcefully showed that Trump directed the false recordation of an otherwise legal payment for public relations purposes. That appears sufficient to prove the state law offense as a misdemeanor. As to the felony enhancement, it needs to be shown that Trump knew that his self-imagined shrewdness violated federal canpaign law. That is the lynchpin. I expect that Trump will minimally be convicted of the misdemeanor but I haven’t followed the trial closely enough to know if scienter (knowingness) is a required element of the alleged federal campaign law violaton (nor if scienter was proven)
A Short Colloquy (#2)
| VOX: | I’m really tired of being here. |
| GOD: | If you’re here then you’re not there. |
(In other words, You can’t know the dangers lurking elsewhere so I’m holding you ‘here’ which is better for you than ‘there’.)
True vs Accurate
I’m exaggerating but I’m not lying. —Vox
Fear Should Not Inform
All emotional decisions are bad decisions. Fear is an emotion. Therefore, fear should not inform our decisions. Decisions are rational assessments of circumstances and outcomes. Reactions are the polar opposite. Decision is a response through which the actor asserts self-directed agency. Reaction is a response through which the actor abdicates agency. Sometimes fear will conceal itself in wisdom as when one chooses a “least bad outcome.” But how often is that ‘decision’ just the fear of the harder struggle?
Full length utility kilt
Nick Saban on finding happiness
The Saucy Vixen: Marconi plays the mamba
Many years ago I discovered a blog by a Yankee lawyer Public Defender (social consciousness props to her). Anyway, she breaks down a powerful lyric with profound societal implications.
https://saucyvixen.blogspot.com/2007/04/marconi-plays-mamba.html
100 Skirt Reasons
A Short Colloquy (#3)
| VOX: | God, I really want this [matter] solved. |
| GOD: | Really? Do you want that more than me? |
| VOX: | יהוה is my shepherd I shall not want. (Ps 23:1) |
Spanish Company Only Sells Men’s Skirts
Dave’s only sells skirts for men—fourteen of them, actually. It’s a great effort, but I don’t see it being successful. In a word: try-hard. Exaggerated cuts to distinguish from womenswear, but the truth is that the confident wearer doesn’t give any shits or fucks about the thoughts of ignorant observers. The liberated wearer casts off the bondage of external opinion.
What we pray
Most of what we pray is me-me-me, want-want-want, my terms, my timing, my pleasure, my solution. We approach God with the mentality of an immature child. —Vox
Whitney Houston: I Didn’t Know My Own Strength
I was reminded of this song today and it seemed an appropriate encouragement.
Preferential parking for public servants???
In 2021 I posted a Louisiana attorney’s video about traffic stops, consent to search, and reasonable duration. I had stumbled onto that video, but for many years there is such a mountain of video revealing the extremes of police self-entitlment (as one former federal prosecutor and a Texas lawyer continually discuss). Not too long ago I observed this parking sign at a national retailer.
Isn’t this symptomatic of the problem? Police are supposed to be public servants, not special citizens. They already invent parking for their vehicles wherever suits them. Erecting signage for preferential parking validates the sense of entitlement. So I parked in that space because a public servant should be happy to defer to the public!
A Short Colloquy (#4)
| VOX: | God, please bring me someone to help. |
| GOD: | Are you willing to forgive _________? |
| VOX: | I trust your process. |
That’s a sorry cop-out.
Listen Carefully
I am intellectually disconcerted by statements attributing Donald Trump’s survival to God’s protection. Is God’s power limited (Num 11:23)? Is God’s arm too short (Is 59:1)? Can God prevent death but not a wound? Daniel did not emerge from the lion’s den with scratches and God rescued from the firey furnace “men on whose bodies the fire had no power; the hair of their head was not singed nor were their garments affected, and the smell of fire was not on them” (Dan 3:27). Show more ›
Taylor Reed: Should Men Wear Skirts?
Jesus’s Miracles
The miracles which Jesus performed closely track the miracles performed by Old Testament prophets. Perhaps Jesus’s best-known miracle is his walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee (Matt 14:25-34; Mark 6:48-53; John 6:19-21). While no other prophet traversed a water obstacle in this precise manner, four prophets reached the other side by moving the water. Moses parted the Red Sea to walk on the seabed (Exodus 14:21-22); Joshua parted the Jordan to cross on the riverbed (Joshua 3:13-17), as did Elijah (2 Kings 3:8), as did Elisha (2 Kings 3:14). Show more ›
Midnight Cry
I’m no huge fan of southern gospel, but I have always loved the original Midnight Cry, and it has been running through my head for weeks.Show more ›
My Attire
I have no duty to please you with my attire.
FreeQuency: Masculinity So Fragile
(Nontrinitarian) Christian Advantage
It might be, that as a (nontrinitarian) Christian, I enjoy the capacity to honor, respect, and revere—without snobby superiority—both my Jewish and my Muslim brethren who, like Christians, worship the God of Abraham.
Gym Christians
She says to get over gender norms
It’s quite old, no longer exists on Twitter, but memorialized on Instagram. It speaks the truth.
God is not…
God is not what we think God is, neither is God what we imagine God to be. We are blind (wo)men trying to describe colors. Everything that we articulate is conscripted by our limited vocabulary. We who are finite cannot actually understand what it is to be infinite. Our weak articulations describe the infinite as being everything that the finite is not. But we cannot actually predict the infinite. Every word that we use to describe God Most High has zero useful meaning. God is not what we think God is because we cannot think beyond the capabilities of our thought. God is more than we can imagine. Perhaos we are but one percent accurate in our understanding of God, incapable of comprehending the remaining ninety-nine percent.
Adam, Eve, and the Creation of Everything
Five years ago I observed that Scripture arguably describes a simultaneous creation of Adam and Eve. Read literally, woman was extracted from man. Extraction means the woman was already within the man at creation. Did God sort a comingled bag of jellybeans into pinks and blues, or did God change one-half of only-blue jellybeans into pink jellybeans? If the former, then Adam and Even co-existed ab initio.Show more ›
SnappyDragon: History is full of men in skirts and dresses
“Menswear worldwide and all through men’s fashion history was full of men in skirts, from medieval tunics to kilts, dhoti, kimono, and more. Men’s skirts today are gender nonconforming clothing, but fashion history is full of skirts and dresses that were definitely mens fashion! It’s often said that the ancient Romans considered trousers barbaric, Show more ›
RADIOLAB: Match Made In Marrow
Hawk Nelson: Faithful
Women Agree: Let men enjoy skirts
Alan Miller Execution
Alabama is set to extinguish a second life by suffocation. Clinically it is nitrogen asphyxiation. It is supposed to be done by slowly replacing oxygen with nitrogen. Our terrestrial atmosphere is roughly 78% nitrogen (N2) and 21% oxygen (O2). These diatomic gases coexist without binding to anything. Slowly decreasing the oxygen induces a buzz. It should be like huffing paint or receiving laughing gas (nitrous oxide) except that oxygen drops so low that unconsciousness ensues followed by brain death and cardiac death.
Earlier this year, Alabama strapped a mask on Kenneth Smith and hit him with straight 100% nitrogen. He struggled and writhed as if drowning or being smothered with a pillow. Any straight gas causes the same sensation. Try breathing into a paper bag—it quickly becomes all nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2).Show more ›
Forty-Three Years Taken
Johnny Gates before and after losing forty-three years of his life. He was nearly executed as well.
Zippered Convertible-Length Skirt
This is a really intriguing skirt idea with a horizontal zipper to go from maxi to mini.
Meme: Police state
Officer Friendly’s Evolution
This is what “defunding” targets: the excess of cash leads to purchasing toys which menace rather than serve.
Pensamientos sueltos
¿Cómo puedo dejar que mis pensamientos sueltos caigan en otro asunto cuando tengo el señor todopoderoso rey de reyes soberano del universo aquí a mi alcance? ¿Cómo puede ser que aquél no ocupe toda mi mente y toda mi conciencia?
Revealing God
God has spent all of human history revealing more and more of himself to humanity. It is time to recognize those cycles and endeavors for what they were and for what we were. The metaphors and symbolisms were appropriate for the stage of human civilization and human cognition. But we are in a different stage today and it is time to recognize the past revelations for what they were and it is time to look beyond those metaphors and conceive of something new today.Show more ›
On Easily Impressed Minds
Ignorant people are easily impressed. People who are easily impresed are only impressed by people who are only slightly more informed. People who are easily impressed by marginal knowledge will never recognize expertise because they cannot grasp the gulf between their knowledge and absolute knowledge. Very similar to the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
Daniel Calveti: La niña de tus ojos
“Lo halló en una tierra desolada, en la rugiente soledad del yermo. Lo protegió y lo cuidó; lo guardó como a la niña de sus ojos.” (DEUT 32:10)
Encuéntrame otra vez
Skirt Clarity
As I set out to re-tweak some SEO metatext, a succinct statement of cause hit me: Although “skirt” is a garment marketed to women, the concept and structural design need not be exclusive to women. I think that is what every man (and ally) has tried to articulate. A while back, I was hit by an unsettlingly realization that I had unwittingly perpetuated the societal gendered construct by speaking of garments as skirts for men rather than skirts for all. To say “skirts for men” implies that skirts have an inherent gender appropriateness that needed broadening. I was undercutting my own position that skirts were acceptable for all.Show more ›
Learning Seasons
No human is capable of learning every lesson in all seasons. Multiplication is not learned before addition, and neither is taught before due time or to the unripe mind. There are seasons for life growth, each with predicate lessons and each lesson according to developmental acumen. He who asks why it took so long to unlock a mystery must recognize that it was not for stubborness and willfulness, but for maturation of his consciousness. —Vox
Bustle: “The History Of Men & Skirts, From Ancient Times To Today”
“The entire idea of skirts being gendered, specifically female dress, was brought about by a combination of tailoring innovation and particular occupations. But the tradition of men in cloth wraps, skirts, tunics, robes and other non-pant items is vast and ancient.” Full Text on Bustle
GQ: “The Rise of the Sober, Tasteful Menswear Skirt”
“This spring, a novel variation on the skirt species may make that shrug disappear altogether. This garment is ideal for those who see the skirt as a bold fashion frontier they can almost imagine conquering.” The Rise of the Sober, Tasteful Menswear Skirt
Daily self-care
Not Not Muslim
Muslim originally meant (and still means) “one who submits to God.” That sounds like a pretty awesome designation. I desire to be wholly submitted to God. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Muslim later acquired its second meaning of “one who practices Islam.” As I pointed out previously, Islam means “peace through submission to God.” I desire that peace.
So I am Muslim, but not Muslim, or maybe just not not Muslim.
Superior Preferred Pronoun
@npcbubbles So many people have used they/them for me at it makes me so happy #bubblegoof #genderfluid ♬ My preferred pronoun is bitch – Renny
And apparently it’s a voiceover trend.
Purple Rain Adventure Kilt
Pink Pony Club
Wilfully Lost
You’re a self-righteous sell-out who pawned his moral compass to open a door and grew too comfortably cowardly to retrieve it. —Vox
Madonna’s take on gender norms
Why not male tunics?
I have at various moments stated my fascination with single-garment clothing. (a thobe today, just being practical, envisioning with ai). Striking the right balances of fit and form is nearly impossible when the only item on the menu is the dress. Unlike skirts, there are substantial anatomical considerations. Show more ›
Unintended Consequences
NBC news reports that abortions increased nationally after SCOTUS decided Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022. This unexpected outcome reminds me of a Libertarian Party video titled, “unintended consequences.” Show more ›
Zerubbabel’s Deliverance
Zechariah 4:6 records God’s message to Zerubbabel that success would come “‘not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.” Out of the blue a modern rephrasing dropped into my consciousness: not by struggle nor by strength, but by God’s deliverance.Show more ›
Comfortable with uncertainties and unanswerables
When I was younger (as in my teens and twenties) I had an abiding need (perhaps compulsion) to argue the veracity of scripture, to reduce all mystery to sensible candor. In my thirties, my great uncle (a Duke Divinity M.Th. and M.Div.) told me that when the answer to every question is faith, the explanations become irrelevant. Now in my forties, the more mature that my faith has become, the more comfortable I am with uncertainties and unanswerables. My faith is now rooted in the fact that God is so far superior to me that my mortal mind could never satisfactorily explain God. Scripture endeavors to communicate the nature of an infinite God through inadequate words. And so I find myself happier with an understanding that every articulable thought is completely and utterly irrelevant. In fact, the more abstract the thought, the more comforting I find it. Everything understandable must be wrong so only in recognizing that I am wrong can I know that I am correct.