Letters to the Editor
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re:Glenn, either we're wet or you are
Sorry, IMO you're wet.
Like it or not, you measure the threat level of another person visually. "Look at him" means "look, he's not a threat."
In the venue of words, rather than physical altercations, Hemingway is calling out another man by calling him a sissy, yet he has no way of "backing it up." When called on it, he of course, retreats.
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Wait a minute here....
Among the comments were a number that were homophobic, as if the authors were unaware that you yourself are gay.
Whoa! Wait just a minute here...you mean GG is gay? Uh, yeah, I ummm don't know Glenn Greenwald. Never read his column on Salon. Is it even on Salon - Do I even know who he is? And I take back all of the positive comments I have made about him. In fact, I never made them at all. Yeah, yeah, ummm, someone logged on as me and made them. Yeah, that's it....
backpedal, distance, backpedal
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Ok-so here's my picks for titles:
You're not a Man-Until You're a Bully.
Fat, Bald, and Stupid is the new black.
Men:Don't Blame Yourself-Blame Others.
Why Men NEED to ask For Directions
Meaculpa?...NottaMea
You don't have to Think for Yourself: I'll do it for you.
What is this thing called Empathy?
Image is Everything:Why Intellect is Overrated
You get the point by now.
Judge not-lest Ye be Judged, you Fat-Assed bastards
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Title Take II/Subtitle (with Extras)
As Right as They Wannabe: How a Small Circle of Chickenhawks and Cheerleaders and Crooks (who got Five Deferments or Crapped out of Champagne Units and Sold Out to K-Street), Turdblossoms and Gays and Perverts (with Rappers, Wide Stances, Loofahs, and Diapers), and Fat Old White Men (plus Clarence and Colin and Condoleeza and Alberto) Came to Be Viewed as a Team of Born-Again All-American Warrior Studs (with an Assist from a Flightsuit w/codpeice, the Rush of Viagra, and Conversations with Ted).
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Thank you Karen M
I have always had a strong reaction to being judged by my looks, because that technique has always been a way of keeping women in line...Not just their looks, but their behavior, how and whether they actually fulfill the roles that are deemed suitable...consider that we still live in a society where the very worst name one can call a man is any part of a woman's body or some other derogatory term to denote her feminine passivity. Why is that still the case in the 21st century, even after the second wave of feminism?
Yes! Yes!! Yes!!! They set artificial standards, then denigrate you (male or female) when you don't meet them, even though they, themselves, would be hard pressed to toe the ephemeral lines in the sand that they have drawn.
The whole "wilting flower" thing is so passe. It needs to stop.
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more on exposing gender politics...
Dr. Justin Frank's latest at Huffington Post is worth a read.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-frank/bushs-petraeus_b_63292.html
An excerpt, from his answer to queries about Bush's relationship with Petraeus:
In simple psychoanalytic terms, Cheney and Petraeus are functionally interchangeable phallic enhancements, compensating for Bush's sense of smallness. His fear of appearing weak could drive him to ever more reckless positions. New adventures - like attacking Iran - remain viable options for a President who equates leaving Iraq with personal humiliation.
As I wrote recently in "Dangers of a Cornered George Bush" (See: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18081.htm, 7/27), Bush "will flinch only if directly confronted and, so far, there has been no one to confront him in a way that gets through to him. The son has great fear of being seen as not as big as his father, and works hard to avoid public exposure of his inadequacies." Hence his need for a new mouthpiece, which for him doubles as his codpiece....but read the whole thing.
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@ Karen M
A worthy manifesto, which bears repeating. The Nazis spent a fortune measuring the length of people's noses, their hair and skin color against an Aryan ideal, while conveniently ignoring he fact that Goebbels resembled a crippled chimpanzee, Himmler a myopic ferret, and that Hitler himself was about as tall and blond as Shylock.
O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An' foolish notion.... -
Thanks, both, Pedinska and William T.
I just love a good gender-bias discussion... especially when the visual aids are photos of men, rather than women. Many kudos to Glenn.
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@ Argonaut
One difference between Kerry and Glenn: Kerry earned a well-deserved reputation throughout the campaign for being stiff, passionless and dull -- Glenn is the opposite. Kerry was unresponsive to attacks (thanks, Shrum!), Glenn flat out eviscerates his opponents.
If Kerry had suddenly turned into a down-and-dirty bar fighter near the end of the election, he probably would have energized his base support and eked out a win. I know I would've cheered his transformation, even if he crossed the line into pure ad hominem. It would have been the first sign of life in a dreary, comatose campaign. Repubs would have hypocritically attacked the new approach as below-the-belt, and they'd be right, but it wouldn't matter, 'cause they'd lose.
I know this makes me inconsistent, as well as taking an "end justifies the means" attitude. But it's the truth. 2004 was enormously consequential, and in my opinion, would've been worth fighting the Swift Boat assholes below the waterline.
Glenn, on the other hand, completely outclasses someone like Hemingway. To me, it was like watching a bout between Muhammed Ali (in his prime) and, say, Alan Greenspan (prime or not), and seeing Ali win by throwing a sucker punch. Effective, but unnecessary.
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new book title
American Idle: from codpeice conservatives to the rubber-stamp media
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Pictures, and The Book
In the discussions of whether or not to add pictures to the blog to illustrate the hypocrisy of Tough Guys, I was ambivalent. But now that I see them, it adds multiple layers of meaning and howls of laughter. Please keep it up.
With regard to the book, here are my suggestions....
Ersatz Valor
Counterfeit Courage
The Snake Oil Patriot
Charlatans Without Conscience
Fake is the new Real
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Suggestion for your book title
Here is my suggestion for the title of your book:
"Homo Republicanus: the Origin of a Political Species"
options for the subtitle are:
"Skeletons in the Republican Closet"
"Creating Electable Man"
"The Making of Male Mystique"