I was just reflecting on a past confrontation where a niece spewed unwarranted hate and vitriol (she’s a millennial, of course). In retrospect, I wish I had said something like I don’t know what your damage is, but what right have you to visit that damage upon me? A former pastor used to say that hurting people pretty much do two things consistently: 1) they are easily hurt by other people and 2) they easily hurt other people. When someone is blinded by psychic trauma or by a sense of social entitlement, it’s hard to say whether such a person could comprehend the truth, but it’s worth a shot.
Live With Nature
The country has lost its mind trying to control the uncontrollable. Trying to stop pathogenic dispersion is like trying to prevent California wildfires. Humans want to think that our evolved intellect empowers us to bend nature to our wills. The reality is that all animals–homo or otherwise–must live with and within nature. Human suppression of natural fire turns the surrounding nature into a tinderbox. Fire is a critical part of nature’s ecosystem. Pathogens are too. I don’t hear all the macroevolutionists Continue Reading
On Striving for Gender Neutrality
I once experienced a freak Saharan heatwave with highs over 40° C while studying in Madrid. It was a dry heat, though, and very different from one recent 103° F July afternoon in south Georgia. I bounced to a thrift store in search of some well-worn (breathable) medical scrubs and that’s when I saw it: the plain, charred olive A-line mini. It struck me as the ultimate heatbuster and looked so sensible and professional that it triggered a brief flashback to my days in the corporate offices of a large regional bank and I wondered, as progressive as the bank was, if I would have been permitted to elect its female dress code. On second thought, I have no desire to cross-dress, but shouldn’t gender equality give men the option to wear skirts just as it gave women the option to wear pants many decades ago? As counterintuitive as it might be, I suspect the bank would have been much more cerebral than most universities in contemplating such questions. This being a summer break, I decided to test the waters and having donned various skirts for three weeks now, I reflect upon deeply disconcerting truths.Continue Reading
On Belief and Justice
On my first day of law school, my professor says two things. First was: “From this day forward, when your mother tells you she loves you – get a second opinion. If you want justice, go to a whorehouse; if you want to get fucked, go to court.” Richard Gere as Martin Vail, Primal Fear
Nobody Ever Wins a Fight
Kilt Lifting
On the Age of the Cosmos
A fundamental problem in articulating the age of the universe is that time has not always existed. Whether one subscribes to the big bang or to creationism, there is evidence that time was not constant throughout the universe’s existence.Continue Reading
Umpires and Referees Are Better Impartial Observers Than Police
It occurs to me just now, and I will develop this more in the future posts, but sports officials are better observers in their professions than police are in their professions. Just by way of comparison, what percentage of video replays show a referee or umpire was incorrect in his (now her as well) initial assessment of split-second events? What percentage of body and dash cameras show police were dead wrong on events that crescendo over a period of minutes? Yes, there are
Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501 (1946)
Marsh v. Alabama is a remarkable decision in which a Jehova’s witness attempted to distribute literature in a township operated by a private company. She was arrested and charged with trespass. The Supreme Court reasoned that even though the township existed within the property rights of a private company, “[o]wnership does not always mean absolute dominion. The more an owner, for his advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it.” The U.S. Supreme Court reversed Alabama on First Amendment grounds and vacated Marsh’s state conviction. Supreme Court opinions from the era are notably concise and this one is definitely worth the read. Marsh v. Alabama
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?
Why Women Can Dress Like Men But Not Vice Versa
Happy Holidays, Mr. President
President Trump is making an issue of saying “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.”
So here’s the thing: when I was an adolescent, I too made an issue of saying “Merry Christmas” and that begs a comparison to President Trump’s petulant soapbox (i.e. is he playing a political angle or just acting immaturely?).Continue Reading
I Still Don’t Understand Religious “Modesty”
Perhaps it is just something peculiar to my neurodiverse brain (probably), but religious “modesty” practices are nonsensical. Why is an ankle-length skirt “modest”? Is an exposed calf that alluring? And why is such skirt a “modesty” when the presence of the ass is still known and the form of the breasts is still evident? The reality is that there is no universal anatomic feature that captivates every man. As is best known, there are “ass men” and “tits men” and yet this is absolutely too reductionist. Men are likewise captivated by Continue Reading
Hypocrisy of a “Christian Nation”
It is ridiculous and incredible that as a popularly-styled “Christian Nation” American society requires laws compelling compassion and fairness (by way of example, Colorado’s and Washington State’s laws on public accommodations). While the government should not dictate the conscientious objections of private enterprise, neither should private enterprise be allowed to hatefully mistreat a class of people. Continue Reading
The Story of the Women’s Restroom
Separate areas with sofas, vanities, and even writing tables used to put the “rest” in women’s restrooms. Why were these spaces built, and why did they vanish? Read City Lab’s story titled The Glamorous, Sexist History of the Women’s Restroom Lounge
On Losing
Losing doesn’t make me want to quit. It makes me want to fight that much harder. Paul “Bear” Bryant
Why do women wear high heels?
Cristen Conger explains everything.
Profesores que fueron a clase con falda y otros gestos que fomentan el respeto
A Guy’s Guide to Basic Aesthetic Improvement
A man need not be “trans” or “metro” to want to present his most attractive self to the world. After all, men shave (or shape) their facial hair and style their hair in a manner that they see as enhancing their aesthetic. I do not want suggest that all men wear full-on cosmetics, but having some knowhow in a back pocket and some basic tools in a gearbag can really prove useful! After all, ho hasn’t had a important photo scheduled or a really big date planned or a really big presentation prepared only to see a giant pimple, an ingrown hair, or a boneheaded razor nick in the bathroom mirror?Continue Reading
Brant Hansen’s Tedx Takeaway
Would It Help?
On Righteous Causes
Grammar, People, Grammar
I just heard an NPR correspondant say “may” when she should have said “might.” Here’s the difference: may indicated permissibility; might indicated possibility. So it is incorrect to say that an event may not occur if one is trying to communicate doubt or uncertainty of its coming to pass. The correct usage is that such an event might not occur.
On Righteous Boundaries
We made too many compromises already, too many retreats. They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no farther! Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek VIII
Which calls to mind this other memorable performance from the TV series.
Gender Equality in the Shadow of 1960s Civil Rights
The outside temperature reached 103° F one recent July afternoon in south Georgia. I once experienced even hotter temperatures in Spain a decade ago, but the gulf humidity here is a beast of a different kind. I bounced to a thrift store in search of extensively used (i.e. breathable) medical scrubs. Little did I know that this simple mission would ignite a profound inquiry into gender equality.Continue Reading
More Double Standards
Some time back I came across this image and I later scolded myself for not saving it. Then as serendipity would have it, I found it again. Continue Reading
Three Types of Denizens
It would seem that there are three types of people: cowards who run from risk, fools who ignore risk, and agents who accept risk. Vox
Fear of External Opinions
Denzel Washington: “Put God First”
Bad-Ass in a Utilikilt
Just because (wo)men do(n’t)….
Just because women normally do (or don’t do) a-b-c and just beause men generally do (or don’t do) d-e-f does not mean non-conformity is inherently improper. After all, most people eat whatever they wish, but then there are vegetarians…..
Do Artifacts Have Politics?
Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Advice For Hardgainers
Otros ángulos analíticos sobre coronavirus
No puedo creer como se finja entender el coronavirus sin admitir lo oculto o incognoscible. Coronavirus ya existía hace décadas; sin duda hay muchos que ya tienen inmunidad parcial debido a su contacto anterior. Es más, no creo que afectará a todas personas de igual manera. Tiempo no basta ya para hacer los estudios genéticos para ver cuales linajes serán más susceptibles que otros. Y es cierto que en poco tiempo, se anunciará que hay COVID-19a, COVID-19b, etc, etc. Como el 19° se evolucionó de aquél de 2003, así el 19° se evolucionará en otros. Y no es muy diferente de la influenza que en el.mismo invierno puede descapacitarle a uno y sólo molestarle a otro.
Is Sexual Orientation a Choice?
So I was just pondering the statement that “straight” people don’t choose to be straight. Of course, the über-religious will say that’s because it’s the natural order of things…the way we’re created. But if someone is physiochemically wired a certain way, doesn’t that imply that God either makes mistakes or that God is a watchmaker rather than a timepiece? To avoid that theological quagmire, they equate homosexuality with sin and since sin necessarily depends on choice, sexual orientation must therefore be a choice as well. It seems to me that the blindly religious are spending way more energy trying to avoid the theological heavy lifting than it would take to just sit patiently and meditatively for understanding to come. Theophilosophy shouldn’t weaken one’s faith; it should strengthen and deepen it. As an axiom, a sovereign deity cannot err and all people must have the same free will. So shouldn’t it be the case that if heteros don’t choose to be hetero, homos don’t choose to be homo?
Full Trailer of ‘American Circumcision’
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
Even More Reason to Use Private DNS
On Arrogant and Undisciplined Youth
Why I Wear Skirts
Why I wear skirts has everything to do with equality. It started one roastingly hot July day in 2016 and I haven’t looked back since. Sure, I see the curiosity in others’ eyes and on their faces, but it surprises me how few people are direct enough to ask about it. This is, after all, the deep south far from international megatropolises like Miami, Los Angeles, and New York where cultural anomalies might be more commonplace. Perhaps southerners just want to avoid the appearance of rudeness. Even so, a few days ago a local librarian lamented that I had not blogged my experience and this led me to think that just maybe the public at large might be interested in my personal reasons and my social message.Continue Reading
Laws & Outlaws
I stumbled upon a politician’s Facebook meme yesterday that employed at least a hundred words to restate a very succinct bumper sticker of the 1980 : “If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.” This truth—that laws only regulate the law-abiding—is not true only of guns.Continue Reading
Misandry – Hatred or Disfavor of Males
People probably know of “misogyny,” but what about “misandry”? This Psychology Today article explains.
What To Call Skirts Marketed For Men?
Part of the women’s liberation movement was inventing new vocabulary which enabled women to differentiate their agenda as the pursuit of equality and not emulation. Women sought to be treated equally as men (particularly in employment) but it was also clear that they were not to be regarded as men. Employment law shifted accordingly such that if trousers were acceptable attire for men, they must also be acceptable attire for women. And since men were not required to wear stockings or heels, neither could women. As I have pointed out in other posts, these cultural strides were not reciprocated for men. While it remained acceptable for women to wear sandals to the office, I have yet to read a single employee dress code that specifically extends such option to men. (Granted, no one wants to see most men’s feet, and most men lack fashion sensibility to select dignified sandals, but the same can be said for a number of women as well.)Continue Reading
Les dangers du jour
It occurs to me that America enjoys obsessing over pathogenic dangers and maladies. Following the Al-Qaeda attack of 9/11, Americans went insane in the membrane over Anthrax. By 2003 America wrung its hands about West Nile virus. In 2009 America deployed millions of gallons of hand sanitizer in response to grave prognostications of H1N1 swine flu. In 2014 America went bonkers over Ebola. In 2016 America obsessed over Zika. In 2020, America conked its skull on Coronavirus. America, it seems, needs new obsessions to forget its former preoccupations.
Brett Kavanaugh: The Standard For Confirmation Is Not the Standard For Conviction
In my gut, I don’t want to see Brett Kavanaugh confirmed—and not just because Donald Trump wants him on the Supreme Court—that was just the first strike. Listening to the compelling testimony against him was the final nail in the coffin. But my gut was not without its heartburn for feeling that way. I disliked myself for judging a matured man for the offenses of his youth. Even so, his declaration (“I am innocent of this charge”) sounded too much like the famous “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” line. Continue Reading
Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451 (1987)
Houston v. Hill is a remarkable U.S. Supreme Court case that tackles abuses of power by police departments. The Supreme Court decided 7-2 that a Houston, Texas ordinance that was routinely used to arrest citizens for merely “arguing, talking, interfering, failing to remain quiet, refusing to remain silent, verbal abuse, cursing, verbally yelling, and talking loudly” toward a police officer.
Not only did the Supreme Court rule this type of conduct to be protected First Amendment speech, but the Supreme Court also expressed that the right to question police conduct is a fundamental distinction between democracy and dictatorship.Continue Reading
On Doing the Impossible
The Time a Cop Touched My Junk at a Club
A few months after the “double standards” occurrence, I was again at the same club and speaking with two ladies. Something in the conversation prompted a third to disclose that she was municipal police (and although the club was not in that city, municipal police in this state have extended jurisdiction for the entire county in which the city partially lies, which did include the county of this particular club). No fan of cops (and definitely not white cops), I excused myself from the conversation and went on my way. Over the course of the eveningContinue Reading
Circumcision Fiction
For many decades of the twentieth century, American physicians both recommended and presumed consent for routine infant circumcision. However, the American Academy of Pediatrics sharply revised its policy position in 1999 to hold that circumcision was strictly a cultural and/or religious consideration with no medical bias for or against. A decade later, the AAP again revised its policy position in 2012 citing two medical benefits—reduced risk of UTIs for the first year of life and reduced risk of STIs later in adulthood. (There may also be an indirect reduction in risk of penile cancer due to a reduced risk of HPV, but there is now a male HPV vaccine). However, the data only showed that the statistical benefit was greater than the statistical risk of the procedure. Therefore, infant circumcision was categorized as an acceptable medical procedure, but the data were not strong enough to medically recommend the procedure.Continue Reading
Heroes, Villains, and Toilets
The old cartoons with the heroes in white hats and villains in black hats were pretty much right on the money. Heroes and villains can dress alike, look alike, and even act alike and if not careful, the hero can be lumped in together with the villain. Continue Reading
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.
There Is No Single Divinely-Appointed Marriage Partner
For quite some time it has been a popular Charismatic Christian belief that God creates one perk perfect mate for each person. I have long believed that this is not true but I now believe it could not be true for additional reasons.Continue Reading
Pro-Choice on Abortion, but What About Circumcision?
To be clear, this post is not about abortion but rather a sociocultural contradiction and hypocrisy revealed by the political lens of abortion. A few weeks ago I was struck by the irony that those who advocate “pro-choice” regarding women’s bodies fail to extend that philosophy to men’s bodies.Continue Reading
Life Struggles
Why do those who have never experiened soul-crushing struggle think themselves equipped to mentor those who are working through their issues?
Remember Snowpocalypse 2010? What about the related “global darkening?”
Use the Foreign to Serve the Domestic
Chairman Mao Zedong once said, 古为今用 洋为中用, “use the past to serve the present, the foreign to serve China.” I wonder if the same is true for my relationship with Google.Continue Reading
First-Amendment Inclusiveness
The same First Amendment which guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of speech, also puts a qualifier on it as “the right of the people peaceably to assemble”. At first blush those words are taken to mean that citizens have the right to congregate, whether that be to exercise the First-Amendment freedoms or to seek government redress of grievances; however, those words could just as easily be read to condition all First-Amendment freedoms upon a righteous purpose Continue Reading
The Practice and Exercise of Faith Vis-À-Vis Coronavirus
I just had to take a blogger to task for condemning religious leaders who declined to suspend services. It went like this:Continue Reading
American Nationalism from Toby Keith
Online Census? Think Twice!
Completing the decennial census online probably seems like an easy task, but convenience comes at a price—a price that I am unwilling to pay.Continue Reading
Lesbians and Transwomen — Part 1
Without judging the writer, let me say that am a little baffled by this opinion piece that I stumbled upon just now. Perhaps it is simply that, being neither ciswoman nor transwoman, I am unable to relate to the argument of “Lesbians need to get the L out of the LGBT+ community.” That said, I think the author is defending a ciswoman’s right to be exclusively attracted to ciswomen. Taking the role of spokesperson for like-minded lesbians, she complains of pressure form gay and/or transgender community to consider transwomen as romantic candidates. With the caveat that no one has a right dismissively label another person’s opinion, I find myself in conflicting (dis)agreement. Continue Reading
Nâdiya: Et c’est parti
Incapable of Incompetence
You are incapable of that level of incompetence. Jonathan Frakes as Cmdr William Riker, Star Trek TNG S4E8
Colin Kaepernick’s Patriotism
Greg Locke Compliance Defiance
Simultaneous Misogyny and Misandry?
I found myself in a brief conversation today about gender roles. Specifically, the topic was equitable division of labor in the family, that is, where one spouse or partner is the career breadwinner and the other is the homemaker. All available indicators point to the thriving gender bias that men are expected to be breadwinners and women, the homemakers. But this tacit social norm is simultaneously misandrist and misogynist. Continue Reading
Saias para homens: liberdade, estilo e cultura
An interesting morsel, in its original Brazilian Portuguese, or in English, via Google Translate.
Portuguese: Saias para homens: liberdade, estilo e cultura | Moda Sem Crise
English: Skirts for Men: Freedom, Style and Culture | Fashion Without Crisis
Mine, Not Hers
— Garjan Sterk (@GarjanSterk) August 25, 2018
The American President ACLU Rant
For the record, yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU, but the more important question is “Why aren’t you, Bob?” Now this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question, why would a senator, his party’s most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the constitution? Now if you can answer that question, folks, then you’re smarter than I am, because I didn’t understand it until a few hours ago.Continue Reading
Mikayla Daniels: “Why I Believe Men Should Wear Skirts”
Another Man’s Skirt Conversion
Right now I’m on a train headed to Toronto, writes Travis Martin, and I will be on another train coming back, late tomorrow evening. I’ll be participating in a photoshoot at Ryerson University as part of a research project on men’s fashion. The focus of the study is men of my generation who are using fashion to express themselves, and changing what “masculinity” means in the process. I am expressing myself right now, with my fashion. It feels awesome, empowering, and…. Continue reading How (and why) to Wear a Skirt (as a man)
When Coronavirus Gets Really Personal
A number of people, quite understandably, have not taken fondly to my vocal fortress-of-fear / fortress-of-faith position. We shall now see whether that position is summarily disproven should I test positive. Of course, testing negative does not affirm my position, but a positive result would presumptively invalidate it. But when it is all said and done, I elected to self-isolate because, should I test positive, others should not suffer the consequences of my inadequate faith. To be absolutely clear, though, nothing I have stated, past or present, should be construed to suggest that those who contract corona are somehow lacking in faith. In this life, misfortunes do strike undeserving people. This does not mean that God intends for anyone to suffer or that God wishes to instruct us by way of suffering. While commendable for a suffering soul to be able to glean something positive from tragedy, God must be viewed as benevolent. God no more causes one to die of corona than God would cause one to die from an earthquake. There simply are natural forces at work that were long ago set in motion and which play themselves out. Earthquakes happen, hurricanes happen, mental illness happens, All of these can result in considerable tragedy and losses of life. Pure evil also happens (Pearl Harbor, 9/11, JFK).Continue Reading
Love Your Neighbor *as* Yourself
Christ’s ‘great commandment’ instructs Christians to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ […and to] ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31 NIV). This summation, of course, recompiles a few Old Testament passages, notably, Leviticus 19:18 (“love your neighbor as yourself.”) A week or so ago I commented on another professor’s blog post that loving our neighbor *as* ourselves means that we must love ourselves equally as others. By way of example, a battered spouse should not remain with an abusive partner because, no matter the love for the partner, the battered spouse must love the self as much as the other. A loving parent does not place a beloved child in harm’s way so neither should a loving self place a beloved self in harm’s way. Today my eyes were opened to another implication of Mark 12:31.Continue Reading
Una Vez Más – Ceci Bastida
Designing Our World: Clothing Without The Gender Binary
The 1-A aired a segment today on NPR titled “Designing Our World: Clothing Without The Gender Binary.” A transcript does not appear to be available, but the 30-minute segment can be streamed from the 1-A website.
More Reporting on Sex-Segregated Toilets
Though it offers nothing not already contained in the research and publications of Univ. of Utah law professor Terry Kogan, Time magazine’s Why Do We Have Men’s and Women’s Bathrooms? is still a good, medium-length read.
French Art Installation Memorializing Snowden, Manning, and Assange
Skirt Memes
Kelly Clarkson “Sober” (Sessions @ AOL 2007)
What I Became Because of You
In Star Trek S4E12 (“The Wounded”), the Enterprise crew are forced to cooperate with Cardassian leadership to stop a rogue Federation captain from destroying their fragile peace. The Cardassians’ presence aboard the ship is barely tolerable, but after dialogue with his wife, Chief O’Brian is later able to articulate an especially perspicacious explanation for his animosity.
“The only people left alive were in an outlying district of the settlement. I was sent there with a squad to reinforce them. Cardassians were advancing on us, moving through the streets, destroying, killing. I was with a group of women and children when two Cardassian soldiers burst in. I stunned one of them. The other jumped me. We struggled. One of the women threw me a phaser, and I fired. The phaser was set at maximum. The man just incinerated, there before my eyes. I’d never killed anything before. When I was a kid, I’d worry about swatting a mosquito. It’s not you I hate, Cardassian. I hate what I became because of you.“
So I wonder, how many of us become bitterly angry at a spouse or a parent or a corporation when the interaction fundamentally changes an idealism that shapes out identity? Do we really hate or are we morning the loss of our innocence?
Internet Coverage of Skirted Men
Instances of men wearing skirts in non-traditional regions is nothing new, but now the world is starting to take notice.Continue Reading
On Peace and Conflict
More Thoughts on Death Penalty
I just finished watching The Ted Bundy Tapes on Netflix and I am conflicted more than ever by the death penalty. How does homocide remedy homicide? To what degree is the death penalty entrenched in antiquated Judeo-Christian religiosity? And what do the evolved states of those religions say about the preciousness of life? Does the Talmud not teach that to save one life is to save the whole world? Did Christ not teach that even the most wretched life is still worth sparing? And to what degree is pronouncing the death penalty our attempt to vangloriously exalt ourselves to equality with God to decide who should live and who should die? I think that as a society the death penalty must exist as the ultimate repudiation and condemnation of intolerable crime. But as a civilization, should we not then immediately commute that death sentence to exile (which is to say, prison)? We euthanize animals in the name of compassion, but we refuse that same compassion to those agonizing in the throes of slow natural death. Yet we force death upon those we condemn in the name of justice for the victims. Is that just a reverse–and a perverse–euthanasia? Using death in the name of compassion, not for the one dying, but for the one already dead? More death does not reverse the finality of the a priori death. And no, I haven’t been the victim of anyone like Ted Bundy, but I can say that the natural death of the alcoholic who terrorized my childhood brought me neither pleasure nor displeasure. His death closed the cover of an open book, but it did not erase the contents of the chapters.
On Reclaiming One’s Life
No one can give you your life back, so you have to take your life back. Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock in The Defenders
European Men, the Historical Initiators of High Heels
Very few people know it, but high-heeled footwear actually began among European men. Women then emulated the style, daintifying it in the process. in time, the fashion fell out of favor (perhaps for practicality) among men which leaves society with the mistaken belief that high-heeled shoes are uniquely feminine. Cowboy boots are “high-heels,” as Jill Maurer points out. Continue Reading
Famous People I Want to Meet
I would love to meet President Clinton whom along with President Reagan and Margaret Thatcher I have long regarded as the best post-WWII world leaders.
I would love to meet Richard Gere whose method acting has made him my man-crush for at least a decade.
I would love to meet Rod Stewart because of his clear passion to entertain others and the joy he finds in bringing joy to others.
I would love to meet Phil Collins because of his astounding talents and his ability to (re)invent himsel, his life, and his career.
I would love to meet Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz because they were so perfect for their character roles. I also want to meet Charisma Carpenter because she was just super hot!
I would love to meet Madonna to better understand her life and professional evolution.
God and Dice
Albert Einstein famously said (and Stephen Hawking famously repeated) that “God does not play dice with the universe,” but perhaps dice are marvelous illustrations for understanding the trinity.Continue Reading
On Discovering Truth
[T]ruth is best discovered by powerful statements on both sides of the question. Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
N.B. Though often attributed to Lord John Scott Eldon (1751-1838), Eldon was, in fact, quoting Bacon.Why Is “Cunt” So Radioactive?
Men do not casually call women cunts. Yes, men might casually refer to them as bitch or ho, but cunt is neither casually bantered nor indiscriminately hurled. Indeed, cunt is reserved for extraordinary cases and when it is used, it is (probably) well deserved (either on general principle or for specific conduct demonstrated at or near the moment of invocation). But why is cunt so horrifying? Perhaps it is that cunt is the ultimate reductive objectification . . . meaning that the denigrated female has absolutely no value apart from her vagina *or* that she so lacks social and intellectual value that she is equal to a whore or prostitute. Yes, in this light cunt would seem unbelievably harsh, but as far as reductive objectifications go, why is cunt so taboo while dickhead, prick, and asshole are not?
Deep Thoughts on Book of Genesis
The creation account(s) in Genesis can be rather puzzling. Only so much can be ascertained from a literal reading of the text itself. Enlightened inquiry begins by posing questions and seeking to answer those questions. There are certain deductions and interpretations that can adduced from the self-referential metatext (that is, each creative iteration implicitly depends on predicate iterations and thus subsequent passages reveal things not explicitly disclosed by former passages). This post seeks to elucidate some of those readings, but it cannot conclusively explain everything. For that reason, one of the principal aims here is to pose more questions than answers so as to invite the reader’s own contemplation. Ultimately, though, full understanding probably depends upon prophetic revelation apart from the text proper.Continue Reading
The History of Men’s Nightshirts
The Wall Street Journal has this interesting piece on the historical legacy of men’s nightshirts, and their suppression due to evolved Western gender constructs.: Why Some Men Favor Nightshirts Over Pajamas.
Why Men Still Don’t Casually Wear . . .
In the not too distant past, European aristocratic males wore both skirt-like garments as well as high heels. (In fact, women adopted high heels from European men and made them daintily and femininely narrower.) Over time, though, the European and American industrial revolutions made bifurcated pants and flat shoes more utilitarian for daily life. Women, however, who were relegated to lives of domesticity continued with the less practical fashion. But there has always been a double standardContinue Reading
Human Life is Sacred: What the death penalty, abortion, birth control, and 9/11 can teach us about the intersection of homicide and suicide
For a couple of years now I have come to believe that the death penalty should not be enforced. By this, I am not saying that the death penalty should not exist or that the death penalty should be abolished. On the contrary, there are acts that are so heinous that justice demands a sentence of death! However, once pronounced, humanity must step in and commute death to life imprisonment…unless the offender consents.Continue Reading
Nymphomania and Satyriasis
I was cogitating on the percrptive societal dissimilarities of sexuality while turning the use of “nymphomania” over in my head. The “nymphomania” label (to say nothing of “nympho”) carries an implicit connotation of abnormality and even a subtext of whoredom that is not commensurately accorded to males (the implication being that males are whorish dogs whose sexuality is valueless while the sexuality of women is valuable). There is so, so much to unpack here, but for now I want to mention a particularly interesting preliminary finding. It turns out that there is a male analogue called “satyriasis.” That said, the fact that no one ever hears this word is itself a statement on society’s dissimilar treatment of female and male sexuality.
How “Chick” Came To Refer To Female Humans
Humans are not covered in downy feathers, they are not yellow or mottled, and they, usually, do not chirp. Obviously, no one would confuse a human with an adorable baby bird so how did chick come to refer to female humans?Continue Reading
Cuando los ojos vean tu dolor
En mi clase de literatura Española del siglo XVI, tuvimos la tarea de escribir un soneto en el estilo del período. Éste es el que yo escribí el 11 de marzo de 2003.
Cuando los ojos vean tu dolor
y el corazón se sienta tal tristeza
las lágrimas huecas regarán hiedra
tu ilusión otra vez querrás de amor.
Una vez pasión, ahora rencor,
nada más de leña para la hoguera
solución no sobra sino las piezas
del lazo hiriente de alabado amor.
¡Huye! ¡Huye! A tu secreto hogar.
Adónde el refugio te esconderá.
Un día saldrás, y verás el sol,
Extenderás la mano así probar
rosas venenosas te abundarán,
cuando los ojos vean tu dolor.
On Magical Solutions
Corporate Retailer Gender Policies
USA Today reports that Target does not stand alone in its respect for non-cisgender persons. Starbucks, Barnes & Noble, and Hudson Bay (Sacks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor) all condone customer election of the facility that matches that customer’s gender identity. Sears (as well as its Kmart subsidiary) is not as outspoken, but condemns all forms of discrimination. Read the full print article here
And there is evidence that other companies agree. CBS affiliate KTVT reports that Ross Dress-For-Less and TJX (TJ Maxx, Marshall’s) also endorse facility election based on that customer’s gender identity. The station also reports that Walmart has no specific gender policy one way or the other. Read the full story here.
Sobre perspectiva
On Mistreatment
The biggest difference between Christ and most Christians is that Christ didn’t mistreat people. George Carneal
First Amendment Right to Be “Weird”
It occurs to me today that Americans do have a Constitutional right to be “weird” by virtue of the First Amendment’s freedom of expression.Continue Reading
Be Water
Matchbox Twenty: Unwell
David Hall on Phil Donahue & Johnny Carson
Skirt pioneer David Hall’s son, Patrick, has uploaded a number of advocacy and apologetics YouTubes including David’s appearance on Phil Donahue and Johnny Carson.Continue Reading
Why do women wear skirts?
A Meme to End All Memes
Homo Sapien
Is being “sapien” homo’s Achilles’ heel? Homo sapien’s life might be an easier existence but is it a better existence? Shouldn’t it be preferable to live in a state of nature? So is our sapienhood a perversity of evolution or a cruelty of creation?Continue Reading
Anoche, Cuando Dormía
Cursando en la Universidad de Alcalá en 2002 con la Dra. Susana Cavallo, tuvimos la tarea de buscar y recitar un poema que «nos conmoviera». Luego de una larga búsqueda, una amiga madrileña me sugirió el siguiente escrito por Antonio Machado.
Anoche, cuando dormía,
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que una fontana fluía
dentro de mi corazón.
Di, ¿por qué acequia escondida,
agua, vienes hasta mí,
manantial de nueva vida
en donde nunca bebí?
Anoche, cuando dormía,
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que una colmena tenía
dentro de mi corazón;
y las doradas abejas
iban fabricando en él,
con las amarguras viejas
blanda cera y dulce miel.
Anoche, cuando dormía,
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que un ardiente sol lucía
dentro de mi corazón.
Era ardiente porque daba
calores de rojo hogar,
y era sol porque alumbraba
y porque hacía llorar…
Anoche, cuando dormía,
soñé, ¡bendita ilusión!,
que era Dios lo que tenía
dentro de mi corazón.
On Ugly Truth
Nothing has an uglier look to us than reason, when it’s not on our side. George Savile
Envisioning Nontraditional Men’s Clothing with AI
The problem with 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.” Perhaps its simplicity will provoke more complex endeavors. (Credit to Deep AI) The crazy thing is that AI does not often generate any two identical images ftom the same text prompt. So if an image isn’t close, just refresh. If an image is close, don’t havigate away or take a break. The AI will abandon its flow. Keep tweaking the text prompt.
Alan Turing
On Introspection
People do not deeply examine that which they deeply disdain.
Kellyanne Conway on The Daily
On Civil Disobedience
Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves. Henry David Thoreau
A Society of Speech
Two days ago a man asked me why I was carrying so many papers with me. My response was not as articulate as I would have liked it to have been, so this is what I wish I had said: We are a nation built on words and the ideas which those words express, a nation that considers words the ultimate weapon. Of all the constitutional amendments, the very first one sets out to protect speech above all else. It is no accident that it is the first of all amendments nor that it is immediately followed by the protection of arms and a militia. We must speak first and fight second.
On Teachers’ Striking Over Salary
It has been said that the government which governs least also governs best. And as a libertarian, I think the government’s interference with those things which can be handled locally should be avoided. I have often remarked that the federal government should not be involved with school lunches. But the recent spate of teacher strikes makes me wonder where this nonsense will end.Continue Reading
More Enthusiasm for Sport Than for One’s “Neighbor”?
I just stumbled upon a 1970s or 1980s Billy Graham crusade. He said: “here in this stadium when you have a football game, if you’re really for Texas Tech you’re really gonna shout loud when they make a touchdown and the man who loves his neighbor the most will fight all that hurts and deprives and oppresses his neighbor. Paul said, ‘who is offended and I burn not?'”Continue Reading
On Prejudice and Perception
SAME ≠ SAFE
WEIRD ≠ WRONG
DIFFERENT ≠ DEVIANT
Whether and How to Wear Skirts (as a Male)
Reviewing Google’s search data I was surprised to see queries about how to wear a skirt (the suggested subtext being “. . .as a male”). I have seen this and similar queries on Quora were a variation asks whether a parent should allow a boy to wear skirts “like a girl.” The answer to both is astoundingly simple:Continue Reading
Energy better invested in solving violence rather than insisting on segregtion
Government-Run Healthcare for Children and the Boat That Obama’s A.C.A. Missed
How much federal involvement should we permit and how much involvement should we require in the lives of American children? The quick answer is “as little as possible” but I think there should be an exception for healthcare.Continue Reading
Carmen Carrera on Transgender Experience
If You’re Going Through Hell….
Paris Attacks
In view of the recent Paris attack, I say that we are within 100 years of a world religion and world government.
Evolution as Religion
An exceeding number of evangelical Christians have long crusaded against Evolution Theory solely because it discredits Abrahamic teaching. But is this really the most appropriate doctrinal or theological battleground? It occurs to me today—and I hope to explore the idea in a future post—that Evolution Theory is a greater doctrinal threat to the premise of salvation than it is to scriptural inerrancy. Continue Reading
Coronavirus and Religious Exception
2 Timothy 1:7 declares that “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”Continue Reading
Hey Google….DBAA
Some time ago I created a Tasker profile called DBAA (Don’t Be An Asshole). Basically, this profile watched for certain keywords in wireless network names and then put the phone on vibrate based on the assumption that ringing in those locations would be undesirable (specifically, it looks for church, mosque, synagogue, shrine, theater, cinema, movie, patron, library, academy, school, elementary, middle, high, auditorium, lecture, recital, and hall). It isn’t perfect; some places might not have wifi or the wifi name might not contain one of the hotwords. Still, if it helps anywhere, it’s a benefit. But why, I wonder, hasn’t Google implemented this sort of functionality tied to Android’s location awareness? That would be easy enough and much more reliable. Of course, nothing should be forced upon the user so, like Do Not Disturb mode, a user should have the option to enable or disable. Better still, why not prompt the user to enable silent mode upon arriving at such a location?
All Clothing Is Unisex
Wow, check out the replies and comments!
All clothing is unisex if you stop being a little bitch about it
— Saint Sims (@SimsJoseph) August 23, 2018
A Guy’s Guide to Getting Skirted
Words do not adequately describe a skirted man’s enhanced comfort in the sweltering summer months. While comfort is an enormous justification for donning a work-appropriate skirt, comfort is neither the sole benefit nor the sole justification, as I have pointed out in “Why I Wear Skirts” and other posts about men and skirts. Skirts need not be frilly, froufrou, or feminine, and skirts can indeed be very masculine if a person first understands the basic design characteristics and uses this knowledge to make some sensible selections.Continue Reading
Ricardo Arjona – Minutos
Boys Wear Skirts to School to Protest Homophobia & Sexism
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”?
Lorie Smith, What Would Jesus Do?
Does anyone remember the WWJD wristbands from the 1990s? Jesus opposed all that the pharisees stood for, yet he welcomed them into his gatherings. If they were not among the attendees, how were they have been there to pose questions to him? They tried to compel his speech about paying taxes to Caesar (Mt 22:17, Mk 12:14, Lk 20:22). But what did Jesus do? He got creative and avoided the very words that the Pharisees expected put in his mouth. Whether it is baking a cake or designing a wedding website, can we not love these neighbors as ourselves? Should a Christian refuse to love her neighbors by withholding alms from homeless lesbians? Should the Christian who pulls off the road to assist stranded motorists drive away when he adduces them to be homosexually-wedded men? Not every Christian is sufficiently spiritually mature to implement what I propose here, but why can’t Christians design a wedding website or cake while engaging in genuine loving prayer for the customer-celebrants? And shouldn’t a Christian do that for every such customer, even the heterosexual ones? Indeed, can the designer not imprint a resonant verse like “God Is Love”? (1 John 4:8,16) Does that not avoid the issue, love our neighbor, and plant a highly memorable seed that the Holy Spirit can cultivate over time? Tragically, high profile battles like Creative, LLC, and Masterpiece Cake Shop only injure Christianity’s message. I’m relieved that SCOTUS preserved free speech protections, but I wish this case had never been brought.
Black Gospel Puts the Soul in the Soul
I’m a Role Model
Philip Ellis and Sebastiaan Vermeulen on Culturally Transgressive Fashion
I love that this piece about Sebastiaan Vermeulen appears in a gender-targeted venue with a largely heteronormative readership. Philip Ellis and Sebastiaan Vermeulen sublimely and succinctly lay it out for the reader: “In the end, it’s the same you, just a different piece of fabric.”
The Mask of the Mark of the Beast
Scripture speaks of a time when the government “causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads. And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark.” (Rev 13:16-17 KJV). I have been vocal about the threat that corona-hysteria government overreach poses to religious liberty, but I now also see a grave eschatological danger.Continue Reading
Oldest-Surviving Trousers in Archeological Record
I don’t have a basis to evaluate the academic credibility of Science News, but the takeaway is that Trousers seem to have originated with asian horsemen.
The History of Skirted Men
In the not all to distant past, men wore unbifurcated garments and while few would want to dress like Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales, it is not a novel concept that men should not be confined to trousers. Little by little, journalists, sociologists, and artists are looking into the history of skirted men and sharing their findings:
- Bustle: The History of Men & Skirts
- 1883 Magazine: Men in Skirts
- NY Metropolitan Museum of Art: Bravehearts: Men in Skirts
- Victoria and Albert Museum: Men in skirts
Police Discretion In Enforcing Mala Prohibita Crime Law?
Haven’t read or listened fully, but it holds out some measure of wisdom (albeit vain). https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/police-discretion-enforcing-mala-prohibita-crime-law.html
First Amendment Paradox
There is no first amendment right not to be offended by another’s first amendment right to offend. (But the sissy millennials will always whine anyway.)
Double Standards
I was just recalling an incident from several months ago at a local club (this event was still a few months before the time a female police reached under my skirt at this same club). I rocking an awesome 15″ Gap or Ralph Lauren chino skirt. I found myself speaking with a group of three or four females when one of them rather abruptly asks me, “what do you have on under your skirt?”Continue Reading
Egoísta – Belinda (feat. Pitbull)
Te Extraño, Te Olvido, Te Amo
Police Turning to UK to Learn De-Escalation
“A difference long curious to Americans stands out: Most British police officers are unarmed, a distinction particularly pronounced here in Scotland, where 98 percent of the country’s officers do not carry guns. For them, calming a situation through talk, rather than escalating it with weapons, is an essential policing tool, and one that brought a delegation of top American police officials to this town 30 miles northeast of Glasgow.”
Libertarians, Liberals, and Conservatives
The New York Times: “Skirts for Men?”
The social acceptability of men wearing skirts is by no means a nascent subject, but has has anything really changed since the Industrial Revolution? In 1984, the New York Times ran this piece regarding a Paris fashion show featuring men in skirts that was, according to French designer David Hechter, “the most important thing to happen in fashion in the past 20 years!” Hechter was one of the first designers to break fashion norms previously “when it was scandal for women to wear pants.” Rodney Martin puts a sharper point on it: “It makes me feel free. It’s a statement by which I can say I am free to do whatever I want. It does cause hostility on the streets, though. Sometimes I keep my coat closed over my skirt so no one will see it. And I do have to sit differently. But it’s not about being a woman.”Continue Reading
Lesbians and Transwomen — Part 2
After further contemplation of the original post, I think I misapprehended the (albeit unarticulated) argument that lesbians should not ab initio exclude transwomen as romantic partners.Continue Reading
A Brief History of Unisex Fashion
According to The Atlantic, “gender-neutral clothing is back in vogue, but the craze in many ways has mirrored broader social changes throughout the 20th century.”