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.

The horror in Iraq has been protracted past the point of lunacy by George W.’s bring-it-on braggadocio, He-Ra unilateralism and damn-the-facts refusal to acknowledge mistakes — all hallmarks of a pathological masculinity that confuses diplomacy with weakness and arrogant rigidity with strength.   more »

Bush's many media sycophants tell us over and over that he is not the dribbling idiot of popular imagination.

As Hugh Hewitt and other genuflectors who are ushered routinely into the great man's presence insist, Bush is an intelligent, focused, purposeful leader, with a firm grasp on the complexities of modern statecraft.

Let us grant the truth of this assertion. What this means, of course, is that when Bush makes a statement in public, he is very much aware of what he is saying, and fully cognizant of the implications of his words.

Therefore, when the intelligent, focused and purposeful Bush declared Monday — at a highly publicized meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai — that the Iranian government "has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon," we must assume that he knew full well that he was telling a barefaced lie, and that he told this lie for some specific purpose.

That purpose is obvious: to further prepare the PR ground for inducing the public to go along with a future military strike against Iran.   more »

The debate turned into the most animated encounter of the Democratic campaign, suggesting that the battle for the party's nomination may be entering a new phase, one that is likely to grow increasingly contentious after Labor Day.

The candidates appeared far more willing to challenge one another directly, and in more pointed language, than in previous debates.

Elbows flew throughout the night, and the challengers appeared more eager to mix it up, stoked perhaps by the enthusiasm of a large and boisterous audience.

The debate over who has the best foreign policy judgment continued as the circus came to town, with Barack Obama taking punches from Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Chris Dodd.   more »

The Bush Regime played its hand brilliantly. It compared the terrorist attacks immediately to Pearl Harbor, and in the smoke and dust and shock and rage of 9/11 the comparison was superficially plausible.

But Pearl Harbor was the violent expression of hostile intent by a formidably armed nation, and it introduced four years of full scale warfare.

9/11 was a violent expression of anger by 19 radicals armed with box cutters: the physical security of America was simply not at stake.

Though the comparison was specious, a deliberate fraud, the “War on Terror” was born. It would prove to be an exquisite smokescreen.   more »

Some "authority" figures in the "peace" movement are still wrestling with the concept of resistance.

It's really bad. Do these leading persons realise that they can be considered co-responsible for the death of unnecessary Iraqi civilians? Maybe I'm too harsh, but I think that with a more consequent peace movement in the US, withdrawal would go easier.

In French they have an expression: "La naïvité pire que le crime": Naivety is worse than the crime. Think about that.

Of course we have to target Imperialism 1st, 2nd and 3rd, but "leading" figures in the US "peace" movement have a big responsibility, and they should think twice before rejecting the legitimate right of the Iraqis to resist the occupation   more »