Craig James

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

Hero's aren't chosen. They're built.

Every man has the potential to be a hero to others in the story of his life.

Use your days to boldly tread new ground, learn new things, strengthen your mind/body/spirit, and use your experiences to help save others from the brink of destruction.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

We are well aware.

[Kait Willett @KaitWillett]

I hate to tell men this but

The women dressed provocatively in the gym do want attention

They are only upset when it comes from the guy they didn’t want it from

That’s why the reaction is what it is

It’s not your fault for noticing

And yes, they will continue to deny this.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

Emily and I have been together for a little over 27 years, and today marks 23 years of marriage. As has become my habit, here are 23 reflections on marriage, one for every year God has graciously given us together...

1. Marry for demonstrated potential. Anyone can imagine who a person might become. Marry someone whose character and trajectory you can already see. Catch them on the way up.

2. Marry as young as is reasonable. There is something good about growing up together. You develop your tastes, habits, traditions, and way of life as a team rather than trying to merge two established lives later. You do not need to have everything figured out before you get married. Much of life is better figured out together.

3. Children are infinitely better than pets, so do not put them off. A pet is not a substitute for a child, no matter how much modern people pretend otherwise. Your childbearing years are shorter than they seem, and the years with your children at home go even faster. Start having them sooner rather than later.

4. Talk frankly about sex. Do not expect your spouse to read your mind or leave important desires unspoken for years. Talk honestly about expectations, frustrations, frequency, and enjoyment. Then have as much sex as the two of you reasonably can.

5. Argue from the same side. In the middle of a disagreement, stop and remind each other, "I love you. We are on the same side. We are going to work this out." Your spouse is not the enemy, and beating them in an argument gains you nothing. The goal is to solve the problem without damaging the marriage.

6. Pray together every day. Shared prayer should be a normal part of married life rather than something you save for a crisis. Talk about what you are reading in Scripture and what the Lord is teaching you. Your spiritual lives should not develop on two separate tracks.

7. Own your sins and failures. When you are wrong, say, "I was wrong. There is no excuse. Please forgive me." Do not qualify it, explain it away, or immediately bring up what the other person did. Clean repentance does a great deal of good in a marriage.

8. Have a budget and regular conversations about money. Most financial fights are made worse by secrecy and surprises. Decide together what you are doing with your money, write it down, and revisit it regularly. You should both know where the money is going.

9. Make plans and follow through. Make three- or five-year plans and break them down into one-year goals. Decide where you want to live, what you want to accomplish, what you want to save, and what kind of family culture you are trying to build. Then quit talking about it and do the work.

10. Go to church every Sunday. Make Lord's Day worship a settled part of your household. Do not attend only when the weather is good, the children are behaving, and nothing else sounds more enjoyable. Go when you are tired. Go when you are traveling. Go every Sunday unless you are providentially hindered.

11. Do not have close, private friendships with the opposite sex. Your closest friendships should be with people of your own sex or friendships you share as a couple. Friends of the marriage are a blessing. Private emotional intimacy with another man or woman is foolish and unnecessary. You are not above temptation, and neither is your spouse.

12. Do not let the children divide you. Children quickly learn how to play one parent against the other. Do not permit it. Even when you privately think your spouse handled something poorly, support one another in front of the children and work out the disagreement behind closed doors.

13. Wives, do not nag. Husbands, follow through. These two problems often feed each other. A wife keeps reminding her husband because he does not do what he said, and the husband grows resentful because she keeps reminding him. Wives should back off the constant correction, and husbands should become men whose word can be trusted.

14. Once something is forgiven, leave it buried. Forgiveness means you no longer keep the offense loaded and ready to fire during the next argument. You may need to work through consequences or rebuild trust, but you do not get to drag an old sin back into court after you have said it was forgiven.

15. Balance each other in raising the children. Mothers often need to be warned against coddling their children into weakness. Fathers often need to be warned against provoking them into bitterness. A good husband and wife correct one another and pull each other back from their natural excesses.

16. Keep some margin in your life. Do not schedule every hour, spend every dollar, and use every ounce of energy. A family with no margin is always one flat tire, sick child, or unexpected bill away from a crisis. Leave enough room to serve others and absorb problems without living on the edge of exhaustion.

17. Willingness matters more than blame. Many problems are solved faster when both people stop building a case and start showing a willingness to help. You may eventually need to determine who was responsible, but proving that the whole mess was your spouse's fault does not repair anything. A willing spirit will carry a marriage a long way.

18. Divorce is almost always worse. A hard marriage is painful, but divorce usually creates several new forms of pain while solving fewer problems than people imagine. It affects your children, your finances, your friendships, your future, and often your faith. Fight for your marriage every day rather than fantasizing about how easy life would be without it.

19. Live well within your means. Some of your friends will have nicer houses, newer vehicles, and better vacations. Some received help from their families. Some are incredibly disciplined and successful. Some are financing a life they cannot afford. Do not compete with any of them. Spend what is yours and enjoy the freedom of living honestly.

20. Build shared habits and interests. Run together, garden, lift weights, work puzzles, travel, read books, or build something. Find pursuits beyond television and children that belong to the two of you. The children will eventually leave, and you do not want to discover that you have become two strangers sitting in the same house.

21. Encourage one another's same-sex friendships. One of the kindest things you can do is push your spouse toward close and godly friends of the same sex. Your wife needs good women around her, and you need good men around you. Those friendships strengthen each of you, and two stronger people generally make a stronger marriage.

22. Play the long game. Marriages have seasons, and some of those seasons are harder than others. Things may get worse before they get better. Do not treat a low point as though it tells the entire story of your marriage. Stay faithful long enough to see what years of repentance, patience, and love can build.

23. Enjoy the life you have together. The years move far faster than you think they will. The loud house will grow quiet, the children will become adults, and your strength will fade. Many of the things that seem urgent now will prove unimportant. Pay attention, laugh often, and enjoy one another while the Lord gives you the time.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

@thisisfoster Well, at least he’s easing himself into it.

[AJAC @AJA_Cortes]

In the gym you learn that reality bends to consistent effort.

Everything after that is the same lesson at higher stakes

GO TRAIN

[CoffeeBlackMD @CoffeeBlackMD]

Every man’s TRT journey is fairly similar.

I’m going to speak in generalities that cover the highlights. Don’t get bogged down in those weeds. The brush strokes are broad.

Usually somewhere around age 35+ guys start feeling “off”. These aren’t lazy guys. Often hard charging guys. Stressful lives and jobs. Family men with a wife, kids, and responsibilities.

They notice they’re putting on a bit of weight. But it’s not ridiculous and they decide to get more serious about the gym or exercise and their diet and this keeps much at bay for a long time. This often actually improves things and sometimes by a lot at this stage. Which lasts usually 3-5 years.

Then they begin to notice the creep again. As hard charging guys they know they are just being babies and double down on hard but find that doubling down isn’t working.

The extra gear they always used to have just doesn’t seem to be there any longer. And for a period of time the extra gear will occasionally rear its head and fool a guy making him think it’s back. But it’s not. It eventually disappears.

This is usually the point when the weight begins to slide again. It’s also a common time for many guys to just begin the “giving up” process, “embrace”middle age and getting old and out of shape and fat.

The guy that eventually moves onto TRT doesn’t find the giving up satisfactory. At all. He begins to try longer rest periods. He begins looking into why he’s feeling blah with low energy, low motivation, low libido, no gains in the gym, and long recoveries. Hes even mildly depressed. And weight at this point may be sliding up even faster than is comfortable and he knows it. Maybe his wife or kids have said something. Maybe he had to buy new sized pants for the first time in a decade.

He’s not stupid and correctly identifies that he’s having symptoms of low testosterone. And he spends the next 18-24 months reading, watching videos and trying supplements. The tongkat, fadogia, fenugreek, tribulus, pine pollen. Maybe he finds the Peaters and goes ham on pregnenolone. He probably sees his regular doctor who argues about checking his testosterone, finally dies grudgingly, and then refuses to do anything about a low number because it’s not low enough.

They might also be reading online scolds about giving into treatment with testosterone when all they need to do is be better men. It’s not a medical issue, it’s a … moral one. And the reason that testosterone isn’t naturally high is because they are too fat, don’t eat good, don’t sleep good, and won’t manage their stress (as if quitting their jobs, not making the mortgage, and feeding the kids is an option).

They might see an influencer who lives on the beach, single, no kids, sleeps when he wants, works out when he wants, eats fresh local meat, fruit, and veggies only, swims in the ocean every day getting that grounding and that magnesium. High natural T. Looks great. If only …

They get told that once you are taking testosterone that you can never stop. Which isn’t true. But the ignorant and the liars seem very persuasive at times.

So they stew. Just cook in it. But finally they get sick and tired of being sick and tired and they find a doc who is facile with testosterone in the man with symptomatically low levels.

They reach out. They pull that trigger. And … they don’t realize how down bad they were or awful they felt until they start feeling better. And sometimes it’ll take a month or two to notice a huge difference while some guys notice improvements in a few days.

The life is changed. He feels confident again and strong. He loses weight. He makes gains in the gym. Him and his wife … get “friendly” 😉 again, regularly.

That’s the arc. And if you’re wondering about it reach out to a doc who is familiar. You’re not a bad guy trying to get good. No moral failings. You’re a regular guy that stress, life, and age put into a state. You don’t need to stay there. You don’t. Please don’t.

Take it back today.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

Conduct yourself as a man in the ways that naturally command these things (strength) and you won’t ever have to demand or request them (weakness).

[Joel Lopez | Save Your Marriage @TheeJoelLopez]

Most husbands are unintentionally bad leaders.

They're too needy.

- I NEED you to respect me.
- I NEED you to have sex with me.
- I NEED you to stop nagging me.

You can't lead people you need from.

That makes you a politician not a leader.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

The divergence is actually quite simple to explain.

One gender is more easily influenced, persuaded, and controlled by emotional arguments than the other - and one political party has invested heavily in exploiting this fact over the last 25 years.

[Michael A. Arouet @MichaelAArouet]

That's an interesting chart. Young men have stayed similarly conservative for over 25 years, while young women have drifted much further left.

Why such a divergence? What has changed for young women that hasn't changed for young men?

[Kevin | Large Fam Dad @LargeFamDad]

My boss's boss is like 42, never married, no kids. Earns $275-300K per year. Goes on a minimum of two international vacations a year w/ his girlfriend. 10+ days, all out.

Eats the best food, stays in top notch accomodations. Excursions, tours, nicest beaches, etc.

Great guy, I'm happy for him.

But what I've realized is that without kids, you end up chasing a lifestyle that has to continually be topped in order for you to be satisfied and find happiness.

What he and others like him don't understand is that when you have children, seeing THEM experience life's most basic things and watching their eyes light up at all the "firsts", brings greater pleasure and joy than any vacation or travel experience ever could.

Seeing THEM try blueberries for the first time is greater than dining at the best 5 star restaurant in Europe.

Seeing THEM learn how to walk is greater than walking the Great Wall of China or strolling along the most picturesque beach.

Watching THEM giggle uncontrollably at "peek-a-boo" tops any A-list comedian act.

Seeing THEIR excitement when building a fort out of cardboard boxes and making a door big enough for daddy is superior to staying at 5-star resorts.

Flying kites with THEM far outweighs excursions like parasailing or helicopter rides.

Seeing THEM perform a recital on stage for the first time is more rewarding than watching a Broadway show or top notch symphony orchestra.

-----------------

When you have children, all of a sudden you realize that life's greatest joys are not in the pursuit of things or pleasure or travel, but rather in the LOVE and bond you share with your very own image bearers.

Seeing the beauty and magnificence and wonder of life all over again for the first time through THEIR eyes and expressions gives you something the world simply cannot offer, nor even come close.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

This is spot on - and exactly why the best thing you can do to combat this is to teach your children what healthy romantic relationships look like by exemplifying it for them as father and mother in the home.

[Pat Stedman | Dating & Relationship Coach for Men @Pat_Stedman]

Most red pill guys are obviously victims, not simply because they spend all their their time online complaining about women like crybabies, but because their understanding of the "true nature of women" boils down to the banal slop that women are by nature amoral. The implication isn't simply that women want different things and have different attraction triggers, but that dealing with women is inherently a scam, like some Moroccan rug salesman. If you "buy", it's assumed you got screwed.

Even if this were true, which it obviously isn't if you have spent time around any women with integrity, it begs the more obvious question, which is - are men by THEIR nature actually any better?

Yes it is accurate that men care in the abstract more about concepts like objective truth and loyalty, but this has marginal at best bearing on how men and women actually behave towards each other romantically. Men have cheated on women since time memorial, and mostly on women younger than their wives, after their wives had already worn their bodies out bearing these men's children. And these women couldn't leave or provide for themselves when it happened. Feminism was a subversive movement designed to destroy the family, but do not think for a moment it had no fertile ground to grow out of. Feminist thinkers aren't dumb, even if their logic is distorted. There have always been untrustworthy men; feminism simply took this seed of suspicion and germinated it during an era of prosperity where it could, until women as a whole began to think it was a bad plan in general to give your body and wellbeing fully to a single man. And to be fair to these women, men gave them plenty of confirmation bias - guys were happy at first to get the easy sex and readily participated in the deconstruction of norms.

But as the consequences of this collective societal decision metastasized across generations, where promiscuity ceased to become a choice but an inherent obligation of dating, the sexes are now behaving as if they really do live in a slum. It is the third-worldification of western society. Modern feminism tells women not to trust men, the red pill tells men not to trust women; both emphasize only the worst traits in the opposite sex - and tell me what is the result of all of this? "Opt out and don't get married" and all the derivative nonsense spewed in this corner has identical outcomes as feminism - both invert polarities, they are identical in essence. They are ideologies for each sex based on the logic "you can't shoot me if I shoot myself". In other words, they're retarded.

I am not interested in any of this - it doesn't offer anyone any solutions. Many of you think the point is to stay alive, but floating on flotsam in the ocean after a shipwreck means nothing if you don't ever get to shore. The sexes need to learn to work together again; trust must be reestablished - which means bad behaviors, not "inherent traits" of each sex need to be attacked. The differences between the sexes aren't problems in themselves; the problem is the lack of compassion and growing contempt. We need to learn to appreciate each other in our differences and work together again, and focus on calling out bad actors rather than each other.

I know that many people are too hurt and proud to get this, they are addicted to despair porn, but the real "red pill truth" you should swallow is that your pain increasingly doesn't matter. The men and women who have learned to navigate and integrate the lessons of this era - who have still gotten together and are having families - will inherit the world.

Those of you too afraid to move forward and participate in the renewal will be left behind. You will remain known to future generations not as prophets, but as a failures and cautionary tales.

[Lars Mapstead @LibertarianLars]

Reasonable Tax brackets

$0-$50,000 : 0%
$50,001-$100,000 : 0%
$100,001-$200,000 : 0%
$200,001-$500,000 : 0%
$500,001-$1,000,000 : 0%
$1,000,001-$5,000,000 : 0%
$5,000,001-$10,000,000: 0%
$10,000,000+ : 0%

[Kangmin Lee | 이강민 @kangminlee]

This is one of the strongest pieces of evidence for the Resurrection, personally.

The apostles gained nothing on earth by lying (if they did). They were tortured, brutalized, and martyred instead.

No one dies for a lie.

[Sachin Jose @Sachinettiyil]

Karl Marx's body is in his grave, London.

Nietzsche's body is in his grave, Lützen

Muhammad's body is in his grave, Medina

Buddha's body is in his grave, Pingliang

But, if you travel to Christ's grave in Jerusalem, it's empty, & has been for 2,000 years.

[Michael Foster @thisisfoster]

https://t.co/s3ptngn145

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

@RadioFreeTX Without it you’re only working from a position of disadvantage. Coffee is for under-performers.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

@FunkyStickman So sorry to hear this. May God grant you some semblance of peace and serenity as you mourn and move forward carrying on the parts of his legacy reverberating through your life.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

Told my Mom after the second date that the girl was going to be my wife. We celebrate our 20th anniversary later this year.

[𝓑ᥫ᭡ @quesadaaa_]

Almost all of my married guy friends say they knew their wife was the one by the 1-3 date

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

Same for those who are currently shadow banned.

[Cernovich @Cernovich]

How is there not a liaison for banned accounts? I had to bitch publicly to get any movement on my "appeal." This is stupid. Should have been handled with one text message. I was suspended totally, couldn't even DM. Not a good system at all.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

Being a man is hard.

But it’s a whole lot harder if you’re out of shape, mentally weak, have no moral grounding, lack charisma, and haven’t learned skills that are of value to your fellow man.

All are within your grasp. You don’t have to play the game of life on hard mode.

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

@X22Report Oh no! Another very serious violation of the law. It’s so serious, in fact, that prosecution won’t be pursued in the slightest (just like all the others).

[Craig James @thecraigjames]

Accountable?

[Rapid Response 47 @RapidResponse47]

.@AGPamBondi in Minneapolis: "Whether it's a public official, whether it's a law enforcement officer, no one is above the law in this state or in this country — and people will be held accountable."