Free Republic

This was a hard piece to write, because guns by definition are manly, except for Berettas, gold-plated TEC9s, .25 caliber pistols or anything made by the French. To simplify things, I have limited it to modern cartridge firearms a man might, can, and should collect and shoot. There are certainly other manly weapons, and you may have a different list. As long as the list contains nothing French, gold-plated, .25 or with pearl grips (which Patton correctly observed are the mark of a New Orleans pimp), it is a good list.

When Owen Schmitt, fearsome fullback for the Seattle Seahawks, opened a game last month with a presentation of his manly bona fides that consisted of skull-bashing himself with his helmet until blood ran down his forehead like it was the lobby of the Overlook Hotel, what should your response have been? (a) Laughter (b) Alarm (c) Disbelief Trick question, The answer is (d) Nostalgia. Owen Schmitt, for being the snarling, sweaty avatar of pumped-up, hoarse-throated, brain-damaged heavy metal manhood, did you ever know that you’re my hero? You are the idiot wind beneath my wings. Owen, my good hombre, your...

I've commented before on celebratory history and how elites in academia like to focus on the "sins of the fathers" in their perspective. This approach, contrary to their claims, is agenda driven and is part of the broader culture war against American exceptionalism and the re-writing of American history. I recently came across an anecdotal comment that, in a small but profound way, points this out. . .

"Whenever I’m watching a movie that hearkens back to a sepia tinted yesteryear, it isn’t the simpler times I long for so much as a return to the distant days when a man rose alongside the sunrise and was expected to give the daylight his best. Clothes were sharper, adolescence shorter, and the word man still deserving of the first spot in the word manners. Now it seems as if there is something *missing, something stripped from today’s men, besides their buttons and blazers . . ." ~ Sean Platt

The reaction to Governor Sarah Palin’s selection by Senator John McCain has been nothing short of epic. From the first moment people saw and heard her, most either hated her or loved her. What made her instantaneously extraordinary to both sides of the political spectrum? It has to be more than the media-driven issues. This election has turned into an unspoken referendum on human nature and the idea of “gender neutrality,” the poster child for the left taught to the past several generations as something real, instead of the imaginary nonsense it is. Men and women are different – not...

NBC recently made the gutsy decision to renew this fall the superb but little-watched Friday Night Lights, its rookie drama about high school football in Texas. In a season marked by quick exits for highly promoted serial dramas with big stars — notably Fox’s Drive, ABC’s The Nine and NBC’s own Kidnapped, all of which were quality shows — this is a remarkable event. The renewal is especially noteworthy because, in its own laid-back way, Friday Night Lights is one of the most politically incorrect shows on television. Maybe 24 hero Jack Bauer drew all the fire from the ACLU....

Nashville — THE strobe lights pulse and the air vibrates to a killer rock beat. Giant screens show mayhem and gross-out pranks: a car wreck, a sucker punch, a flabby (and naked) rear end, sealed with duct tape. Brad Stine runs onstage in ripped blue jeans, his shirt untucked, his long hair shaggy. He's a stand-up comic by trade, but he's here today as an evangelist, on a mission to build up a new Christian man — one profanity at a time. "It's the wuss-ification of America that's getting us!" screeches Stine, 46. A moment later he adds a fervent:...

The death of manlinesshttp://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52283 Posted: October 5, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern Mark Foley is a sick man in a sick culture. He apparently was abused by a priest as a child, and then he, too, abused House pages (how extensively is uncertain) before it ruined him. By the way, as his attorney affirmed on Tuesday, Mark Foley "is a gay man." Aside from the political tides generated by Foley's resignation, there are much larger cultural tsunamis swashing round. The Foley scandal intensifies the strain on relationships between youth and adults. It is particularly damaging for relations between old men and...

In the name of the fatherhttp://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1033732006 http://tinyurl.com/ozefu DANI GARAVELLI Sun 16 Jul 2006 ONCE upon a time, I believed it didn't matter a whit whether a baby was born into a family with one parent or two. Or with two mothers or two fathers rather than a mother and a father. Why should it? What was important was not the number or gender of the parents, but whether or not they were loving and attentive. That was, of course, before I had any of my own. Now I realise that bringing up children is a challenge even for two well-meaning...

A question of manlinesshttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=395271 http://tinyurl.com/zmrh5 By MARTIN NEWLAND, Daily Mail 07/12/06 - News section There is, apparently, a resurgence of manliness in America. Superman has returned to the big screen and unshaven, testosterone-charged film stars such as Colin Farrell no longer look socially marginalised. The A To Z Of Manliness, a compendium of tips on such matters as how to punch properly, is number two on the New York Times bestseller list, while a rash of academic books on the importance of real men have added fuel to the fire. The Boston Globe recently summed up the phenomenon: "We're in...

There is, apparently, a resurgence of manliness in America. Superman has returned to the big screen and unshaven, testosterone-charged film stars such as Colin Farrell no longer look socially marginalised. The A To Z Of Manliness, a compendium of tips on such matters as how to punch properly, is number two on the New York Times bestseller list, while a rash of academic books on the importance of real men have added fuel to the fire. The Boston Globe recently summed up the phenomenon: "We're in the middle of a Menaissance." It is the atavistic desire to provide for those...

FOR THOSE who have ever wondered when a promise of protection becomes a protection racket, this is your moment. We now have the forced admission that in 2003 George W. Bush himself approved the leaking of classified intelligence gathered before the Iraq war. He didn't let it all leak out. He authorized a trickle of information buttressing his case that Saddam Hussein had been a nuclear threat. Information that had already been discredited. After manipulating this faucet of fear, the president then defended the war in the name of national security, casting himself as the country's father-protector. In short, he...

"....“Manliness,” by Harvard Professor Harvey C. Mansfield, has succeeded in ruffling the feathers of feminists and liberals alike. The New York Times felt that professor Mansfield needed more than one intellectual assassin—like Rasputin—and sent two (at least so far) to lay him to rest. The Times published a fresh-mouthed, snarky interview with the affable professor a couple of weeks ago (click HERE), and last week it published a review of his book in the Book Review by Walter Kirns (click HERE). The latter, with the soul of a girly-man, wrote a dismissive review dripping with sarcasm and bitchiness which only...

Sometimes an editor is tempted to assign the religion reporter to cover war, revolution and other hostile gunplay and sectarian sword fighting. Like this week, for example. In Afghanistan, liberated from the Islamist brutality of the Taliban by an army of mostly Christians and Jews, the new government of men inspired by "the religion of peace" has threatened to kill for the heinous crime of becoming a Christian. In Iraq, a dramatic rescue of "peacemakers" saved three goo-goo do-gooders from beheading, or worse, and all the thanks the soldiers who put their lives on the line got was breathtaking ingratitude...

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Manliness and the Mindless By James Bowman Published 3/22/2006 12:08:51 AM The sneering review in the New York Times Book Review by a novelist called Walter Kirn of Harvey Mansfield's Manliness could have been anticipated, but its obtuseness -- especially when viewed alongside the subtle and supple line of argument pursued by Professor Mansfield -- is unusual even for the mainstream media culture which Mr. Kirn represents. He compares the professor to Hans and Franz, the German body-builders portrayed by Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon on Saturday Night Live back in the 1990s. "Remember how unwittingly fey they seemed," he...

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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....

This week on After Words, Harvey Mansfield, professor of government at Harvard University, explains his answer to the question, "What is manliness?" Using historical, philosophical, and political examples, Professor Mansfield traces the evolution of the word's definition from ancient times to its current meaning in today's gender-neutral society. He is interviewed on his new book, Manliness, by author and feminist Naomi Wolf, who has also written books on gender and society including Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood, and her most recent book The Treehouse: Eccentric Wisdom from My Father on How to Live, Love, and See, will be published...

Harvey Mansfield, conservative political theorist and academic provocateur, argues that women--and society--need to come to terms with 'manliness' ___ WHO IS NOT JUST a man, but a manly man? And who today can even say the words ''manly man" without smirking? These questions are at the heart of ''Manliness" (Yale), the new book by Harvard government professor Harvey C. Mansfield, who has long shouldered a reputation as the campus's most outspoken conservative. In answer to the first question, Mansfield nominates, among others, the marshal played by Gary Cooper in ''High Noon." When the town's sniveling semi-men slink away from the...