Wednesday, April 15, 2009 - Posts
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Esquire is running a series of pieces that revolve around the idea of what it means to be a man. While others here took issue with another feature in the magazine, the cover story, "What Is a Man?," a rather ham-fisted take on what supposedly makes the 21st century man that comes across as more cartoonish than reality-based, I'm of the camp that while there's plenty of talk these days about what it means to be a woman, what it means to be a man remains one of the great under-discussed subjects of our time. Tom Chiarella may come across as Norman Mailer redux, but, heck, at least he's trying to sort it all out, right?
For what it's worth, another piece in this issue, "Interviews with Regular Guys," is a worth a look. The magazine asked a dozen so-called "regular guys" what they've learned thus far in life. My favorite comes from Gil Duran, a 32-year-old, D.C.-based communication director for Senator Dianne Feinstein.
My mother was the most important man in my life. I remember her
being six months pregnant with my sister, crawling around under trucks
with a rivet gun in a Grumman Olson factory in Tulare, California. With
a mother like that, you don't need a father.
It bears keeping in mind that what makes being a 21st century male so complicated has a hell of a lot to do with women.
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The Swedish government would like to inform "young girls" who strip in front of webcams that...their income is taxable. "We think that perhaps they are not well informed about the rules," says Dag Hardyson of Sweden's tax authority. Hardyson and his office appear to be targeting hundreds of stay-at-home strippers who don't bother to file returns. Meanwhile, in other important tax day news: Nevada's brothel owners say they want to be taxed at $5 per customer, presumably because industries that create tax revenue are less likely to suffer from political backlash. The state Senate is refusing to cooperate.
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I love this video of 47-year-old Susan Boyle in her audition for the new season of Britain's Got Talent, the U.K. version of America's Got Talent. Boyle, an unemployed village lady from West Lothian, was saucy but awkward in her short pre-audition interview with the panelists, and came off as a provincial, drab, stylishly frumpy, biddy with an unrealistic fantasy to be a professional singer on the scale of "Elaine Paige." As with the U.S. version, reality impresario judge Simon Cowell typically says insulting things to untalented contestants. Susan, seemingly selected for her comic value, was a sure target for Cowell's opprobrium until the decidedly unglam ma'am brought the mic to her mouth and rocked the room to standing ovations. Boyle had apparently never performed outside of her church choir before the televised audition, but her interpretation of "I Dream the Dream" from Les Misérable impressed the unanimous panel to put her in the season's competition. Unfortunately, the panel members couldn't help insulting Boyle a little bit, anyway. After the wild applause, Piers Morgan told her "everyone was laughing at you" before, and Amanda Holden delivered the heartfelt bulletin, "everybody was against you."
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Actually, Willa, there already has been a pro-life ad that uses the same concept as the German condom ad, but for a different purpose. While the condom ad implies that your sperm could turn into Hitler, the pro-life ad, sponsored by CatholicVote.com, is called "Life: Imagine the Potential," and it sends the message that the baby you're aborting could be Barack Obama. Check it out below. Just as the "self-flagellation" in the condom ad is very German, it's so American to say that any child raised by a single mother could be president, as if Barack Obama were not an exceptional person.
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Yet more high-powered support for Obama nominees Harold Koh and Dawn Johnsen: Endorsements from Douglas Kmiec, Jonathan Adler, and Glenn Reynolds for Johnsen (both Kmiec and Johnsen have blogged for Slate), and ones from Kenneth Starr and Ted Olson for Koh. In light of this growing split, it will be interesting to see whether John Cornyn continues to take his constitutional cues from these scholars and former government officials, or if he takes them from Glenn Beck.
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