The difference between the two is something i’ve dealt with since i was a teenager. Even then, seeing how ‘men’ acted, i decided that i never really wanted to become one. Too unthinking. Too sure. Too closed off to the world and what COULD be. The problem was, i never knew there was an alternative… until now.
Of course, no one totally fulfills a stereotype. Even my Dad, the man that he is, has his guy-ness. Its that guy-ness that i latch onto, that i connect with him with. His love of music, video games and sometimes gross, sometimes dark, always hilarious, sense of humor. Like my Dad, I ‘man-up’ when its needed. There are hard edifices to my personality and actions at times. I’ll guy-talk all day about philosophy, but i’ll grab a heavy, blunt object and go after some loser who has hurt someone i care for. Its what a man would (should?) do. Its in the job description of my chromosomal makeup and genitalia.
I’m concerned about not being enough of a man. Of course, thats a very guy thing to worry about, isnt it? Maybe if i didnt worry about that, i’d be more of a man and the problem would solve itself. Constant self-examination and self-awareness are key components to my personality, though. A lot of ‘me’ would go away if I were to stop being a ‘guy’.
I need to come to peace with being a mannish guy. Apparently, there are some women that want that.
yeah, i know most of you may have already seen this, but i still get a kick out of it:
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I am a conservative.
This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the U.S. Department of Energy.
I then took a shower in the clean water provided by a municipal water utility.
After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC-regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like, using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
I watched this while eating my breakfast of U.S. Department of Agriculture-inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
At the appropriate time, as regulated by the U.S. Congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the U.S. Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration-approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level
determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank.
On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the U.S. Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.
After spending another day not being maimed or killed at work thanks to the workplace regulations imposed by the Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health administration, enjoying another two meals which again do not kill me because of the USDA, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to my house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and Fire Marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its
valuables thanks to the local police department.
And then I log on to the internet — which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration — and post on Freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.
This precisely described my own feelings on the nature of the cosmos and our place in it. No Gods, no magic, no objective morals, meanings or destiny. Nothing is ‘meant to be’. There is no divine plan.
If Republicans had gotten everything they wanted for the last seventy-five years or so, the United States of America would have no Social Security, no Medicare, no Aid to Dependent Children, no civil rights, no environmental protections, no privacy rights to make contraception legal. There would be no business taxes, either, which could mean an even more vigorous business sector but also lots of gated communities and private security guards and — who knows? — maybe death squads to put down the inevitable insurrections. And there would certainly be no “death taxes,” so we’d be burdened with an ever larger cohort of inbred aristocrats. And our daughters and sisters would be flocking to the nation’s emergency rooms, hemorrhaging from illegal abortions. And we might still be at war in Vietnam.
On the other hand, consider what the Republicans gave Americans during their last eight years in power: They were asleep at the switch when Osama bin Laden attacked, overreacted by invading a country that had not attacked us (at the cost of about $1 trillion dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives), saddled the country with $43 billion a year in unfunded Medicare mandates and another $1.7 trillion in unfunded tax cuts for the rich ($2.5 trillion according to a new study by Citizens for Tax Justice [PDF]) — then followed their market fundamentalist ideology right over the economic cliff and sent the whole planet spinning into recession.
And now they’re upset about how Obama is running the country? What gives them the right to criticize, exactly?
yes, they edited out some of the critical parts, like the plane hits and people jumping (which im not exactly happy about). the emotional impact is still gut wrenching.
Im not someone who freaked the fuck out over 9/11 or someone who called for sweeping changes to our country (or other countries, for that matter…), but i am someone who feels the historical and all-too-human resonance of the events of that day.
My fear is, and was, that the aftermath of 9/11 would be more horrendous and memorable than the day itself. My fear has been more than justified, which is why videos like this are so crucial to history. Its true… we mustn’t forget. What we must not forget is what lead up to that day and how we, as Americans and human beings reacted to that day, immediately, in the inferno of the crisis and later, as our leaders used our rage and sorrow to alter our country and the world at large.
Remember the horror. Remember the sacrifice. Remember the confusion. Remember the bravery.
Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990!
When he be held accountable for his heinous actions?? When will he prove that he didn’t rape and murder a young girl in 1990??
FACT: Glenn Beck tapes his show in New York.
FACT: There are roughly 150-200 unsolved killings in NYC every year.
FACT: Glenn Beck has never provided a “believable” alibi for any of these killings.
EDIT (9/3/2009):
So, a lot of people are saying Glenn Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990. I have no evidence to either confirm or deny this, but should he be a little more forthcoming? … What is the deal here?
The first thing is to determine whether or not his alibi is valid. And what I don’t understand is why that has not been released and given over to the public record.
Something about this doesn’t smell right and the way to get rid of those odors is always just open the windows and let the sun shine in. And all we need here is a doggone alibi, but for some reason Beck doesn’t want to release that.
There are real questions here that need to be answered. Reasonable people should be interested.
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