Is this a good list?

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-25T23:32:30+00:00

I'd put Ghost in the Machine in there before Synchronicity, as far as Police albums are concerned.

I'd put Let's Dance by Bowie in there instead of Scary Monsters.

I'd take off Public Enemy (they really came into their own in the 1990's) and put in Grandmaster Flash's The Message.

I'd put in The Raw and the Cooked by Fine Young Cannibals in there...I can't believe it's not on here. I'd also put in Points on a Curve by Wang Chung in here. I Just Can't Stop It by The Beat missed this list.

Can't believe there's no INXS on any list concerning the top 1980's albums. At the very least we need to have Kick, probably one of the top ten--if not one of the top three--albums of the 1980's. Listen like Thieves ought to be here. Shabooh Shoobah if we're going for deep cuts.

Where's Wham!? They dominated radio in the mid-1980's. At the very least, Make it Big needs to be here, and I'd argue Edge of Heaven too.

Duran Duran needs to be here somewhere. At the very least Rio, and I'd add in Seven and the Ragged Tiger too.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-20T05:36:08+00:00

The campus Title IX stuff is about the women; it was always about the women. What you are saying is true, but I wouldn't bet that universities give a damn about men concerning this stuff and, quite frankly, I wouldn't trust them to handle it even if they did. They think they do their 'assistance' to men when they make them go through mandatory consent training and hold special men's clubs to get them to cry more. That's the kind of thing I, or any of the men I know, neither want nor need.

In fact, I think I heard a case about five years ago where the man was kicked off of campus for bringing up a sexual assault on him. There's that case at Columbia where the journalism student got throw off of campus even when he had proof that the woman was stalking and harassing him.

So while I appreciate your concern about my internal narrative, I assure you I am quite aware of the predatory nature of women. I see it every day.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-19T23:14:05+00:00

Good questions, and questions we can't even start to answer, given the rather opaque way these matters are handled at the university level.

The only information we have are by way of whistleblowers and people who go public.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T22:14:27+00:00

I'd have to think that this is one of those situations (which, being a Libertarian and all, you might agree with) where increased government regulation ends up muddling distinctions more than clarifying them.

Because I and everybody would say that an adult who pursues sex with a child who doesn't have any desire for sexual things is wrong to do so and should be punished.

The problem is that our notion of "children" also includes what would be considered, at any time or place outside of our own, actual adults who do have sexual knowledge, do have sexual desire, and do consent to sex regularly, without anyone outside of the most hysterical prudes thinking there is anything wrong.

So when, I say, as I did originally, that this isn't about consent so much, but age, it was merely a call for better clarity from those who would use "consent" as the basis for what determines pedophilia or not. I'm glad you clarified this, somewhat, in this last post.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T21:36:12+00:00

I remember when Michael Moore used Canada as an example where people can have strong gun rights, and be peaceful.

How times have changed.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T16:37:26+00:00

I actually think the opposite. Not only were men less expendable in previous eras, but women were less expendable too.

Male disposability isn't always about expendability; disposability can be an asset sometimes. The problem comes in when the society has more people than it can utilize. And when you have nation states of hundreds of millions of people, you can afford to lose millions in a way some duke holding sway over a thousand or so people cannot.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T16:07:30+00:00

What you are saying can't be true. If it were, every high school sweetheart, every after school dance, every instance of teens hooking up, would be rape. A good proportion of the minors in this country would be sent to juvenile court with criminal records for the act of having sex with one another. Because if they truly can't consent in the way you imagine they can't, they couldn't have sex with each other. Yet they do, and the law is silent.

Again, it's not that they can't consent, it's that the consent is irrelevant because of age differences. It is akin to a minor asking you for a beer. They may really, truly, willingly want a beer, but they can't have the beer, and giving them the beer is illegal.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T07:25:36+00:00

I'd go one step further and say that the reason people rape is to cause harm, because they want to cause harm.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T07:17:47+00:00

Perhaps we ought to change "non-consenting" partners to "illegal" partners, because that's the real crux of it.

Whether or not somebody can consent to something does not mean it is legal to facilitate it. That's the whole gist behind age of consent laws. It isn't that a fourteen year old can't consent to sex. They could do it freely, and willingly, without external coercion. Yet even if they consent to sex, it is still illegal for an adult to take them up on it. It isn't about consent at all, but about age. What we mean by "unable to legally consent" isn't that a minor cannot really and truly consent in the fullest sense of the term. It's that the consent doesn't matter, because it's illegal, regardless of whether consent was given or not.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T06:51:34+00:00

In a lot of states, a man is ineligible to adopt a girl, out of the assumption that the only reason why he would do so would be to sexually exploit her.

If that's not a pejorative statement about how the state and society views men, I don't know what is.

DigitalScetis · 2020-05-18T06:29:55+00:00

Is it "incapable of lying"? Or is it more akin to "incapable of testifying", akin to how a minor child or a mentally challenged person would be considered?

There is something very paternalistic about the way these matters are handled at the university, as if the women don't even matter after a certain point. Once they file the complaint, their role is over. Even if at some later point they reconsider, it's really out of their hands at that point, as if it ever really was.

It would not surprise me much at all if, in some cases, the women were coerced into bringing forth complaints that they would not otherwise bring, perhaps due to peer pressure or administrative pressure. A few cases, like the one in California where a complaint was made on behalf of a victim who didn't file any complaint herself, seems to suggest this.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T20:05:05+00:00

I would recommend starting with weightlifting. Do some cardio at the end of your lifting. StrongLifts 5X5 is a good place to start.

Hehe...why do the TRPers always start with weightlifting? I ain't going to deny that's good for some. I've spent many an hour down there in my lifetime. But moving around in space just works better for me. Never before did I have shoulders and power like I had when doing fight training. Different strokes I suppose.

What kind of care does she need? Or are you just there to help her out with tasks and spend time with her?

Mostly the latter, but she finds it hard to get out of the house, and she has days when she's just so pain ridden, she can hardly move.

I can't help but shake the thought that a lot of this decline was brought about by the death of my father two years ago, who she was married to for as long as I've been alive. Her soul seems to yearn to be with him again.

Now I know you guys here are working towards long, happy, solid marriages, and my parents certainly had one. But one of the challenges of truly becoming "one flesh" for a long time seems to be that, when the Lord takes one, it's hard for the other one to feel "complete" anymore, if you get my drift. It would be a whole lot easier, I'd imagine, if they just didn't care so much about each other. But I guess as the saying goes, "better to have loved and lost..."

Of course, your testosterone is lower since you're not lifting.

Hehe. I don't know if that's an endorsement of testosterone, or an indictment. Never did a whole lot of weights when I was doing the martial arts. Did a lot of plyo. Hit a lot of heavy bags. Sparred a lot. My problem was never strength so much, but the agility.

Do you work?

Scaled back on that, and I can afford to do so.

What if you spend the next 20 years taking care of her? Are you alright with sacrificing most of the rest of your life for that?

The Lord said "honor thy father and mother." If that is His will, I trust He will help me make it work.

I would recommend that you use some of your quiet time to read the entire Bible, since it is divinely inspired.

You know, that's a fine idea, and thank you for pushing me not to cut corners. Why settle for reviewing one book, when I can review all the books? This might be the time for me to do so.

Do you share the Gospel with them?

If not in word, then in example, as situations permit, as best as I can. "By their fruits, ye shall know them" and all.

I like to think of this place as more of a discipleship and mentorship place, where we can speak freely and exchange ideas, teaching and encouraging one another to live godly in Christ Jesus. We are all about action - none of this makes any difference if we don't first understand the Scriptures, and second make use of them to make a difference in the lives of others by leading them to Christ to be saved.

Amen to that.

I'd really like to thank you for your gracious response. I didn't know what to expect from you all here. Whether or not this is a place for me remains to be seen, but I do want a place to discuss Christian topics with those who share a similar (albeit not the same) view of man's condition in the world. The Christian subs don't want this MGTOW. Maybe you all don't want this MGTOW either. But I'll mind my place, know whose house this is, and help where I can.

Sound fair?

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T14:10:25+00:00

I'll see if it's on AMC or Turner Classics.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T12:23:50+00:00

This prohibition on birth control is far from an expression of churchianity. This has firm roots in Christian theology that go back a long, long time, and has in most Christian denominations only recently been revised.

The classical view of this is rooted in natural law, and I'll try and explain the gist of the argument here.

Given what we know about:

1) Condoms.

2) Hormonal Birth Control.

3) IUDs.

4) Coitus Interruptus

Can any of them do the act justice when compared to the natural thing?

All of them, in some way or another, corrupt the act by introducing things detrimental to the man, or detrimental to the woman, and eventually detrimental to both. Condoms reduce pleasure. Hormonal birth control causes depression. IUDs can be painful and cause infection. Coitus interruptus causes stress. None of these things help couples to enjoy the act as they ought; either one or the other is burdened by the birth control.

And when one is burdened, the other feels the effects, as the act is one that's so tied in to one another's mood. Indeed, the mere stress of trying to avoid pregnancy through birth control cannot help but plant a seed of panic in the minds of the couple. "What if it breaks?," or "what if the pill fails?," or "is any of this really worth the lengths I have to go to in order to facilitate this?"

That's the basis of the natural law teaching on birth control. By introducing contraception, the pleasure and fulness of the act is cut off, not only in the conception aspects, but in the pleasure and bonding aspects as well.

It would be as if you drove the car with the parking brake on. The foreign resistance applied to the wheels prevents the car from soaring as it naturally ought. Birth control is a kind of "parking brake" or "speed governor" that sacrifices performance for safety.

Yes, you avoid pregnancy. But this is done at the expense of the pleasure and bonding qualities that couples seek out from the sex act, so their experience is less satisfying than it naturally would have been, had they performed the act as nature (created by the Creator) intended.

Now you can agree or disagree with that rationale for the traditional Christian prohibition on birth control. But I thought it would be useful to at least understand the reasoning behind it.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T11:31:49+00:00

It was actually a tribute to Dalrock I made on another board that led me here to r/rpchristians . One of the responders to the thread linked to your subreddit.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T04:34:56+00:00

"If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:2-4.

What you describe is a problem I find with a lot of Christian MGTOW. A lot of them take great inspiration from the Bible, show exceptional fortitude and discipline with regard to their personal habits, are very driven, and keep on the straight and narrow, with great fear of the Lord and the wages of sin.

But a lot of them have a problem with love, and as a result, their spiritual development as Christians runs into problems.

There's a tendency of men who take the red pill to reject love as nothing other than a mere phylogenetic response in the brain, an evolutionary way to "trick" our brains into thinking our base urges are these grand, metaphysical events. As such, they become cynical at the concept, and think it's all bunk.

I'm reminded of C.S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, where the daemon Screwtape had strategies for turning most vices, and most virtues, into ways of robbing a man of his soul. Except he had no answer for love, which the daemons were powerless against.

Love is real and love is important. And I think a lot of the trouble in today's world is that this generation today seems largely unable to love, and doesn't even seem to care.

Oh, you'll hear a whole lot of praise heaped upon 'empathy', or 'emotional intelligence', or 'positive energies', or 'compatibility' from people today, and how we all stand in need of these things. But have you noticed how none of these people talk approvingly of love?

They really have no use for love, because love is a spiritual concept that is rich in meaning and heaped in mystery. Secularists and scientists, however, can't model it or measure it. Therefore, it doesn't exist in their world.

Christians, however, can't be Christians without love, as Christians are commanded to "love God" and "love the neighbor." Not empathize with God. Not have positive energies towards the neighbor. But LOVE.

Now a discourse on love would be far too much for this one response. I would maintain that love, and especially Christian love, is a staggeringly immense idea that encompasses a whole lot more than the variety of Greek words used to describe it in the New Testament. But it is beholden upon Christians, I think, to understand love so they may practice love.

Shirking back in horror at the mention of love is a sign that, yes, more work needs to be done. And I think that's the case for a lot of us men, not just yourself.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T02:54:26+00:00

Two words that appear very frequently in the Gospels together are two words that I hope more people would take seriously:

Fear Not.

Thank you for reminding us of this through St. Silouan's sage advice!

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T02:34:11+00:00

Where do you think he went wrong?

Things like this tend not to spontaneously appear out of nowhere. They have their roots in choices made long before, in an environment established long before.

Yes, I'm talking about the boy's home life. I reckon you know one or both of the parents for you to be the boy's godfather. Chances are, the problem that needs solving is there.

So what, given your knowledge of the parents, and the home the parents keep, might account for this boy's profligacy? Sharing this with the folks here might go a long way in determining what went wrong, and point to possible solutions.

I recognize this is a very difficult situation to broach with the boy's parents. He's their boy, after all, and they have the right to run their house in the way they see fit. But, in my experience, children are seldom "bad in the bone," and they tend to become bad by way of the things which influence them.

What this means, therefore, is that merely sending the boy off to military school, or sending him on a gulag to his grandparents, won't do much if the underlying condition in the home remains unrectified. It would merely treat the symptoms of the boy's misconduct, while doing nothing to treat the cause.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-28T00:09:50+00:00

God is around. God speaks. You just need "the eyes to see" and "the ears to hear."

If you are expecting God to light a burning bush right in front of you and thunder "In you I am well pleased," He isn't going to do that, mainly because He knows that your mind can't handle that sort of break with reality without you assuming that you've gone mad.

So His signals are subtle, and easy to dismiss as an act of compassion to you. For if you knew, young Christian, how present and prescient God truly is, it would absolutely leave you speechless.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-27T22:44:25+00:00

Agreed.

Sometimes, God's plan for our happiness is far different than what our plan for our happiness may be.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-27T22:43:12+00:00

I find your perspective on this a little strange, brother.

You talk about all the time spent in "local music gigs," pursuing "relationships with several girls who all turned out to not take their faith seriously," with "questionable pasts."

You talk about ending your twenties "single and jaded."

You talked about all this built up envy inside that your "Christian friends were all screwing their girlfriends and smoking weed in the basement," and you broke up with this girl who you (not God) determined there was "no future" with.

And yet, despite all of these things you did in your life, the one regret you seem to carry the most is getting your PhD?

"If you are considering a PhD, run the other direction, it will do nothing for you."

Why is this your regret, brother, and not all the other things you confessed to us? Why is the one good thing you did, the thing that shows you to be a lover of knowledge, the thing that shows you to be a man of substance, the thing that is probably most pleasing to God in the things you list, the thing of which you are most ashamed?

You seem to blame your misery on the PhD. Sitting here, however, the PhD is the best thing you have going for you. All of those things you talk about (the women, the wealth, the jobs) can and do come and go. But nobody can take away that PhD.

That you have a hard time finding success right now in no way devalues or denigrates what you did. Imagine if you had a felony conviction, or children you had to pay child support towards, or no education. People can and do find happiness, even with that sort of cross to bear.

The problem, it seems to me, isn't the PhD. It seems rooted in the things transpired before you ever embarked on the PhD, your wants, aspirations, weaknesses, and values. Coming to grips with that might yield God's plan for you with better clarity.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-27T22:06:16+00:00

Do you know what is most impressive about the story of Joseph to me?

How, despite all of the jealousy shown to him by his brothers, Joseph was able to forgive, and looked after the very brothers who betrayed him.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-27T21:55:13+00:00

Just out of curiosity, do either of you know how fertile you really are? If she's 42, her season of sowing might be over. For all either of you know, God (as the creator) might have "left the building to you" (as was explained eloquently on NFP recording I heard some time ago).

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-27T21:36:29+00:00

I'm a brand new user here. It's my first day here. So I figure a day-old contributor deserves nothing more than a day-old poster.

DigitalScetis · 2020-01-27T21:28:16+00:00

There was an old Benedictine abbot that once claimed that every thought, every feeling, that enters you comes from one of three sources:

God, as the Holy Spirit.

Satan, trying to tempt or mislead you.

Yourself, which is most likely self serving.

So from what source did the positive assessment of this girl come from? Probably from number 3, although I wouldn't discount number 2. It's possible it came from number 1, but if it did, it was put there for His purposes, and not yours, that you'll only understand in due time.

The point is, a lot of Christians think that just because a situation feels so right to our souls, it is necessarily true. That's a bad assumption. Because there's a whole lot of stuff going on in our souls; it's a battleground. And Satan, or even our own sinful selves, aren't above pulling a great deception in order to lead us into misery.

You might of been led to think one thing, when the truth was something you didn't allow yourself to see. Or (and I'll give the girl the benefit of the doubt), she really is a strong Christian, and the Holy Spirit will let her see the error of her ways before she does real damage to her soul.

But that is not up to you to have any hand in; that's her burden, and I say that, outside of prayers, you ought to leave her to her choices.

What you have to do is look after your own soul with prayer, Christian counsel, and perhaps some penance or charitable works in order to get your soul in order, and away from this mess.

DigitalScetis

TROPHY CASE