When it comes to cell phones, Android and iPhone are like capitalism and communism or democracy and dictatorship. The iPhone is a great product that delivers a reliable user experience. On the other hand, iPhone innovation is unbearably handicapped and stifled by Apple’s authoritarian control over developers. Yes, this does ensure a reliable user experience, but it also prevents good (but imperfect) ideas from reaching users where consumption will give rise to free-market improvement. But for all of Apple’s focus on user experience, it really fucked up on iTunes 12.10.x.Continue Reading
Skirts, Pants, and Deuteronomy 22:5
Cognitively-challenged Christians are eager to invoke Deuteronomy 22:5—in judgment of women as well as of men—that “woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD.” Some denominations read this as requiring women to wear dresses (or, in the contrapositive, as prohibiting women from wearing pants). Likewise, Deuteronomy 22:5 has been invoked to condemn and deny skirts as menswear. This was certainly my experience when I “saw the light” and “converted” to skirts in 2016, but it has taken me three years to get around to publishing this formal rebuttal.Continue Reading
Libertarians, Liberals, and Conservatives
Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber: Forgive Assholes
Pharmaceutical Commercials
Isn’t it an absurdity of absurdities when pharmaceutical commercials say, “Do not take [this drug] if you are allergic to it or to any of its ingredients.” Isn’t that a no-brainer? If it were a commercial for steak, would it say, “do not eat this meat if you are a vegetarian”?
On Prejudice and Perception
SAME ≠ SAFE
WEIRD ≠ WRONG
DIFFERENT ≠ DEVIANT
ACLU Blocks Abortion Restrictions
ME: I abstain from expressing opinions on abortion, but I live in [state] and [state] has no respect for the rule of law. That leaves it to orgs like ACLU to keep the asshats in check.
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On Securing Liberty
He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.Thomas Paine (1795)
In a Man’s World
Bravo has a cutting new series titled In a Man’s World. Women from various walks of life receive full-body muscle suits, and craniofacial prosthetics to create a physique that is out of this world. The women also receive vocal and movement coaching and then simulate their regular selves….as a man. The circumstances and settings are a bit artificial (after all, some explanation has to be offered for the presence of video cameras) but some balance is achieved with additional hidden cameras. What I find most interesting about the series, though, is the coaches’ observations of the subtle differences between men and women. Esco Jouléy’s keen insight into body movement is fascinating and empowering for skirted men wishing to amplify their masculine aura.
On Mistreatment
The biggest difference between Christ and most Christians is that Christ didn’t mistreat people. George Carneal
Bastardization
Way back in 1998 I adopted what I thought was a colloquial neologism of a fellow undergraduate. It turns out, though, that “bastardize” as meaning “to reduce from a higher to a lower state or condition” is recognized by Merriam-Webster. I wonder when its original 1585 meaning was bastardized to its present form?
On STFU/GFY
Self-governance on the basis of imagined external opinion is self-bondage.Vox
