Posted on 03/20/2006 9:13:18 PM PST by metalmanx2j
I have a new theory about what's behind everything that's wrong with the Bush administration: manliness.
"Manliness" is the unapologetic title of a new book by Harvey C. Mansfield, a conservative professor of government at Harvard University, which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House. Mansfield's thesis is that manliness, which he sums up as "confidence in the face of risk," is a misunderstood and unappreciated attribute.
Manliness, he writes, "seeks and welcomes drama and prefers times of war, conflict, and risk." It entails assertiveness, even stubbornness, and craves power and action. It explains why men, naturally inclined to assert that "our policy, our party, our regime is superior," dominate in the political sphere.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Better manly than metrosexual.
"...which makes him a species as rare as a dissenting voice in the Bush White House..."
Horse shizer. Want to see rare dissent? Try XXXtoon. After saying "feel free to disagree" a member of his Admin did. she was castigated by everyone and their liberal grandmother.
Please. Nothing is more dissent unfriendly than a communist. Need more proof? Leon Trotsky.
Oh yeah, one more. Sec. State. Colin Powell. Had he not retired, would still be the Sec. XXX fires and arkancides more people than his bimbo eruptions
I saw an interview/discussion on the subject of manliness between Mansfield and Naomi Wolf on CSPAN's booknotes last night. Mansfield was pretty vague, and over-generalizing. Real men are risk takers for the joy of risk itself, yet calm, yet given to fits of violence and rage. Whatever. Naomi gave him a rough time, in a polite way. Mansfield just doesn't have enough depth on the subject. It is all just too complex. Someone else needs to write something a bit more serious on the topic. It is a topic for the long distance runner. Sprints won't cut it.
Many manly men at Free Republic....
An a few manly women too!
bump
For example, I--The Gold Standard--do not like taking risks for the joy of it, and I seldom if ever have a fit of rage and never of violence.
A female telling everyone what manliness is.
Right.
"What a load of sh*t!
Because of 'manly' men Ms. Marcus can make 6-figures disparaging the very foundations of her success.
I got news for you, toots. The world is a wicked, evil place. And without 'manly' men you'd be an uneducated sperm receptacle."
Well said. I'll "ditto" all of that...
What I do see here is a lot of pretentious idiots pursing their lips and attempting to analyze something beyond their wit. So let me ask a question - did the Post do the "manly" thing and publish the Danish cartoons or did it...well, we all know what it did. Hope the editorial board doesn't suffer too much from menstrual cramps.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The administration's manliness doesn't stop at the water's edge. Pushing another round of tax cuts in 2003, Vice President Cheney sounded like a warrior claiming tribute after victory in battle: "We won the midterms. This is our due," Cheney reportedly said.
After the 2004 election, Bush exuded the blustering self-assurance of a president who had political capital to spend -- or thought he did -- and wasn't going to think twice before plunking down the whole pile on Social Security.
(snip)
And the administration's claim of almost unfettered executive power is the ultimate in manliness: how manly to conclude that Congress gave the go-ahead to ignore a law without it ever saying so; how even manlier to argue that your inherent authority as commander in chief would permit you to brush aside those bothersome congressional gnats if they tried to stop eavesdropping without a warrant.
Mansfield writes that he wants to "convince skeptical readers -- above all, educated women" -- that "irrational manliness deserves to be endorsed by reason." Sorry, professor: You lose. What this country could use is a little less manliness -- and a little more of what you would describe as womanly qualities: restraint, introspection, a desire for consensus, maybe even a touch of self-doubt. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This miserable woman and her opinion are 100 times more unappetizing than Mansfield's .. probably a bud of Naomi's.
There's nothing sexier than a manly man conservative. The libs can have the metrosexuals.....and Hillary Clinton.
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