What can we say about a country so anxiously hyper-masculine that it produces Godmen, a muscular-Christianity movement that seeks to lure Real Men back to church with services that feature guys bending metal wrenches with their bare hands and leaders exulting, “Thank you, Lord, for our testosterone!”

The trouble with manhood, American-style, is that it’s maintained by frantically repressing every man’s feminine side and demonizing the feminine and the gay wherever we see them.

In his book, “The Wimp Factor: Gender Gaps, Holy Wars, and the Politics of Anxious Masculinity,” clinical psychologist Stephen Ducat calls this state of mind “femiphobia” — a pathological masculinity founded on the subconscious belief that “the most important thing about being a man is not being a woman.”

OK, so maybe I’m overstepping the bounds of my Learning Annex degree in pop psychology. But the hidden costs of our over-compensatory hyper-machismo are far worse than a few politicians slimed by pundits.   more »

Would Jesus Wear a Rolex on His TV Show?

Why do poor and middle class Americans vote

for Bush and other Republicans?

Christian Fundamentalist hucksters give us

a clue about how the super rich work

and the soldiers of God steer America

   more »

Keywords: swindlers, fundamentalist, hucksters, capitalism, christian

In a speech about Iraq on Wednesday morning at the Willard Hotel, the president mentioned Osama bin Laden's group -- 27 times.

"For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11," Bush told a group of construction contractors.

Never mind all that talk about sectarian strife and civil war in Iraq. "The primary reason for the high level of violence is this: Al-Qaeda has ratcheted up its campaign of high-profile attacks," Bush disclosed.

The man who four years ago admitted "no evidence" of an Iraqi role in the Sept. 11 attacks now finds solid evidence of a role in Iraq by the Sept. 11 hijackers.   more »

I should think there are far more important things to worry about than a self-important anachronism such as the circus sideshow that is British royalty.

I mean, who wants to see an old 'queen' tarted out in all her best bling. Really, her job is to be head of this giant wax museum known as England.

Surely in 2007 even the idea of a royal family is an embarrassing anachronism. Hereditary privilege? And worse, a constitutional function? Based on genes? What are we thinking about? Are we mad?

There we are, preaching parliamentary democracy to the poor and ignorant of the world, (3 billion on a dollar a day or less) while we pamper our royals to the point of obscenity.   more »

How many times you might have encountered the phrases "war on terror", "Islamo-Fascist", "IED", "9/11", "ground zero" and "weapons of mass destruction" in the space of your life.

Repetition of buzz-words and key phrases are key to any successful propaganda campaign, and as these ideas bounce around the mass-media echo chamber, it is impossible to avoid them becoming a part of our shared language and pool of ideas.

But what happens when the propaganda and spin gain such power and traction that the actions of our political leaders spiral out of control?

The answer is what the military calls 'incestuous amplification', a condition in warfare where one only listens to those who are already in lock-step agreement, reinforcing set beliefs and creating a situation ripe for miscalculation.   more »