Harvard’s political theory guru Harvey Mansfield wrote the book (literally) on manliness. Here’s a bit of what he had to say in an interview with the Harvard Magazine a few years back:

“There are two aspects of manliness,” Mansfield says. “The first is confidence in what one does, self-assurance. Second, since he is confident in his ability to run his own life, the manly man is independent. This can either make him contemptuous of dependent people, or protective of those who depend on him, like his family. The protectiveness can become political: he gets involved with others and then decides to command or rule them.”

Manliness, says Mansfield, is “an ineradicable quality in males. Its social expression changes–Achilles, the Christian knight, the cowboy, the U.S. Marine–but there has to be a place for it in society. If there isn’t, then manly men will be frustrated and will find some illegal or dangerous outlet: extreme sports, gang wars, violence in movies. Manliness involves taking responsibility for others, as in protectiveness. If no responsible manliness is permitted, it can easily pass into irresponsible manliness–deadbeat fathers, for example.”

Mansfield is also, by the way, the author of a great brief introduction to political philosophy from ISI, The Student’s Guide to Political Theory.

Edit to fix the tense.  Thanks for the heads-up.

Black riders have again been seen in the Shire.  Creatures that once were representatives of the people, now mere extensions of the will of the state, seeking blood and treasure to shovel into the insatiable entitlement maw of Mordor.  This time, they are coming for the blessed Longbottom leaf…

Imagine my shock upon reading this at JRCigar:

A new bill has been introduced and is pending in Congress, H.R. 4439, that would amend federal law established by last year’s S-CHIP expansion. The bill proposes raising the federal excise tax rate on Pipe Tobacco to be equal to the tax rate on roll-your-own Cigarette Tobacco.

The federal pipe tobacco tax is currently $2.8311 per pound, which represents a 158% increase from the pre-S-CHIP tax of $1.0969 per pound. The proposed bill would increase the tax on pipe tobacco to a whopping $24.78 per pound!

$24.78 per pound. Evidently, Congressman Steve Cohen (D-Mordor/TN) has decided to end the plague of pipe smoking in this otherwise great republic.

The sad thing is this isn’t really about pipe tobacco at all.  Phillip Morris and the rest of Big Tobacco are upset at the rebranding of roll-your-own and hookah tobacco as ‘pipe tobacco’ to avoid taxes aimed at cigarettes.  They are none too concerned with destroying the gentle pastime of pipe smoking in the process.  Plus, those pipe smokers tend to be a conservative lot.

History is filled with men who seem larger than life-men surrounded by an inflated myth of accomplishment, an aura that collapses as soon as one takes a closer look.

But a few men are truly just as remarkable as their billing.

Byron “Whizzer” White is such a man.

Worth the time to read the rest here at Art of Manliness.

Could you please provide evidence that shows Colonel Reb to be offensive  and a hindrance to Ole Miss? Do you have any written statements or videos of anybody who has been negatively effected by Colonel Reb’s existence? Or anyone who decided not to attend or financially donate to the university precisely because of Colonel Reb?

If you could present any of the above, would you please explain why those are sufficient reasons to ramrod a new mascot down the throats of students and alumni?

Thanks!

Speaking of mascots . . . not all Irish-Americans are short and green. I should know. (Recognize the fellow in the hat?) You can watch part 2 by clicking on the link at the end of the video. It’s worth it.

This video does a great job of illustrating the idiocy of political correctness, which is primarily being propagated today by liberals searching for meaning in their lives. Fight the power.

Courtesy of Yahoo news, the billboards in Georgia are getting people to talk among African American women. My personal favorite is the woman who claims that taking away the right to choose when to have children hearkens back to slavery.  She makes me laugh.  Way to play the race card, lady. You know white people can’t fight the slavery card.

Well this manages to pretty neatly encapsulate everything that is wrong with our culture.

“I’m doing this to de-mystify abortion,” she says. “I’m doing this so other women know, ‘Hey, it’s not nearly as terrifying as I had myself worked up thinking it was.’ It’s just not that bad.”

These are the words of Angie Jackson, a blogger and mother of a 4-year-old son. Her IUD birth control failed; she is four weeks pregnant and writing about her abortion on YouTube, her personal blog, and on Twitter under the hashtag #livetweetingabortion.

Last Thursday, Jackson visited a Planned Parenthood where her doctor gave her the first dose of RU-486, the abortion pill. (Note: The abortion pill is not the same as the morning-after pill.) She had to take four more pills — swallowing two and letting two others dissolve in her mouth—on Friday and Saturday.

She hasn’t taken to her various media platforms to show the graphic parts of her abortion. Instead, Jackson is chronicling how her abortion feels physically and emotionally — as she puts it on YouTube, “It’s just not that bad.” It’s almost like guerilla sex ed.

An optimistic part of me thinks that the woman’s callous disregard for human life and the way that she is acting in the public square will actually hurt her cause.  Instead of de-mystifying abortion, she offers an extreme example of self-absorption and selfishness.

Well, that’s what I tell myself to keep from weeping.

By the way, I find the comments of the person blogging about this to be hysterical.

I think it’s brave of her to share something that will make her a bulls-eye for anti-choice activists.

Oh yes, what a brave woman.  She will have to endure the slings and arrows of hundreds of furious blog comments (like this one) that she most likely will never read.  It certainly takes a brave individual to swallow a few pills in order to “do away with a problem” rather than take responsibility for one’s actions.  She’s a real warrior that one.

Powerline has a beautiful, funny  ad for their new mobile device app.   Perfect.

As a member of a proud Mississippi family I feel it is my duty to offer a suggestion to the University of Mississippi in its search for a new sideline mascot. The selection of a mascot is an important decision for a school, one that should be in keeping with the character and history of the institution.

In light of the university’s historically abysmal football program and its politically correct proclivities I suggest the gerbil. Gerbils are soft, cuddly, non-threatening, and (more importantly) have nothing to do with the state’s Confederate history.

As Joel L. posted earlier, the Ole Miss student body voted on the contentious mascot issue today. I, along with some 75% of those who voted, chose “YES” for student involvement in a new mascot selection process.

The mass confusion surrounding this vote stems from the way the vote was posed. The vote was not about whether to replace Colonel Reb, but whether the students or administration would lead an inevitable effort. The vote was a false dilemma as there was not a “do nothing” option.

The problem then was that deciding whether to vote “YES” or “NO” reuqired parsing the two options.Initially, it seems that voting “NO” would be a vote for Colonel Reb. However, voting “NO” merely supported deferral of the matter to the administration.

Because of this confusion, there was a huge effort to point out this “trap” to students, aided by none other than Admiral Ackbar.

Essentially, a new mascot effort is a foregone conclusion. The choice facing the students was whether the initiative would be led by students or an unfettered administration. Thus, the student body voted overwhelmingly to take the lead rather than leave it to the administration.

Contrary to the assertions of Joel L. and his friends in the news media, this fight is far from over. Students who want to reinstate Colonel Reb and students who want a new mascot were strange bedfellows today, voting “YES” together. Although the ultimate outcome is uncertain, the decision today ensured that the student body would retain the ability to fight when the day comes.

As the product of a Mississippi State family I have never needed much of a reason to hate Ole Miss. However, this story provides me yet another reason to hold that institution in low regard.

Since the University of MS wants to shed any and all connections to the state’s Civil War history why exactly should they be called “Ole Miss?” I say we respect their wishes and refer to that school as “um.”

From today’s NRO editorial:

A bill expected to pass the House today with overwhelming Democratic support would accomplish something peculiar for a liberal republic in the 21st century: It would partly disenfranchise a portion of one state’s residents, create a parallel government for those meeting a legislated criterion of ethnic purity, and would portend the transfer of public assets, land, and political power from those who fail to satisfy the standard of ethnic purity to those who do. For these reasons and many more, the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act richly deserves opposition.

Sorry to post so seldom here, but this is a case right up SA’s alley. Imagine a law school that refuses to recognize a Christian student group because it requires its officers to be… yes, Christian. We at the Washington Times editorialized on it today. More on the case available here.  A key paragraph from the masterful lead brief for the Christian Legal Society by the peerless Michael McConnell is here:

A “variety of viewpoints” is far more likely to be
achieved when students are allowed to sort themselves
out by interest and viewpoint—Republicans in
one club, Democrats in another; Muslims in one organization,
Lutherans in another. Without such sorting,
all viewpoints are blurred. The Democratic Caucus
becomes the Bipartisan Caucus; the Christian,
Jewish, and Muslim clubs become the Ecumenical
Society; and every other group organized around a
belief becomes a Debate Club. Each group becomes
no more than its own diverse forum—writ small. The
all-comers rule thus defeats the very purpose of recognizing
any group as a group in the first place. Preventing
students from organizing around shared beliefs
does not foster a robust or diverse exchange of
views.

This is a crucially important case. Free speech, free religion, and free association all hang in the balance.

And it’s a mismatch…

HT John J. Miller in The Corner

The more I examine the Mount Vernon Statement, the more it appears a cynical ploy by Beltway Conservatives to rewrite history and get a piece of the action. Two days ago on Fox News, Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council, promoted the Mount Vernon Statement as asserting that the GOP doesn’t speak for conservatives. The conservative movement, in his words, had become too close to the GOP:

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Hitting the airwaves before CPAC is a new declaration by several who’s who within Beltway conservative circles on a new conservative manifesto. There is nothing terribly new in this declaration. It is a rehashing of the Reagan Coalition with shades of neo-conservative desires of spreading democracy worldwide. If I were to gander the purpose of this manifesto, I’d say it is for established conservative politicos trying to tap into the Tea Party movement with something concrete. The declaration is nothing ground-breaking. But after the jump, you can read the text for yourself: (more…)

Except for on my Return to Rome blog, where I will only write on Catholic or Catholic-related topics. See you April 5.

“To begin with, the answer is clear. If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede.” ~ Justice Scalia

While I’m not arguing for secession, since when did a war “resolve” a constitutional question?

More here.

Altri Stromenti is a Polish ensemble devoted to the use of period instruments.  I encountered their album Italian Music of the 17th Century through Magnatune–an alternative music service that tries to get a fair deal for listeners and artists alike.  If you like an album, you can pay what you think it’s worth.  I’ve found myself listening to this a great deal when I’m at work on projects.

Take a listen:

Italian Music of the 17th Century by Altri Stromenti

**Except, well, if you are in Great Britain. And Anglican. Because your Bishops want you to repent of your carbon excesses. Instead of turning off that ipod and TV so you can tune in God, they want you to “carbon fast” this lent. Yes. Delightful. It’s like people who give things up for the sake of just giving things up; or avoid the sweets during lent to loose a few pounds. No. No. No. Lent is NOT about reducing our carbon footprint! After all, “remember man that you are carbon and to carbon you shall return.”

Over in the Corner, Derb was engaging in some schadenfreude over the firings of a hundred or so unionized school employees (including all the teachers) in Central Falls, Rhode Island.  The problem?  According to this report, the recession is making folks a wee bit sensitive to the pay increases and pensions of public sector employees:

The teachers at the high school make $70,000-$78,000, as compared to a median income in the town of $22,000.  This exemplifies a nationwide trend in which public sector workers make far more than their private-sector counterparts (with better benefits).

Following that link to another story in Business Insider, we find the following from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

According to a December report from the BLS, state and local government employers spent an average of $39.83 per hour worked ($26.24 for wages and $13.60 for benefits) for total employee compensation in September 2009. Total employer compensation costs for private industry workers averaged $27.49 per hour ($19.45 for wages and $8.05 for benefits). In other words, governmentemployees make 45% more on average than private sector employees.

According to another BLS report, compensation for private industry workers has increased by 6.9% between December 2006 and December 2009, compared to a 9.8% increase for government workers (state and local) over the same period.

As with the unions, though, it’s not the pay that gets you, but the benefits and pensions.  Next time you run into a retired school teacher or counselor who is retiring at 45 with a pension you will only be able to dream of at 65, ask yourself:  Is this sustainable?

For whatever reason, it’s the tradition here in Mobile to throw moon pies during Mardi Gras (the original American Mardi Gras, I might add).  The good ladies at Thrifty Mystics have been on a quest for the perfect moon pie, and here it is:

It’s Mardi Gras once again.  After all the parading, Lent seems almost a relief or at least a redirection in a more productive direction.  But…suck it up, people–we’ve got one more day of excess to endure.

The Washington Post has a good gallery of images from the NATO (read: US Marine) assault on Marja.

This just in:

Baylor University announces that Kenneth Winston Starr, J.D., current dean of the School of Law at Pepperdine University, has been named the 14th president of Baylor University. Judge Starr was the unanimous choice of both the 14-member Presidential Search Committee and the 10-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee, and was elected unanimously by the Baylor Board of Regents on February 12, 2010.

Judge Starr will be introduced to the campus community by Regents Chair R. Dary Stone, J.D. ‘77, at a university-wide meeting in the Bill Daniel Student Center on the Baylor campus at 3 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 16.

If you are not able to attend Tuesday’s gathering, the event will be streamed live at http://www.baylor.edu/president/search/live/. In the event of excessive loads on our systems, on-campus viewers may experience delays or problems with the stream. The entire program will be recorded and archived for viewing on the Presidential Search web site after 3 p.m.
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This is rather startling:

Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh will not seek re-election this year, a decision that hands Republicans a prime pickup opportunity in the middle of the country.

“After all these years, my passion for service to my fellow citizens is undiminished, but my desire to do so by serving in Congress has waned,” Bayh will say.

Bayh will announce the decision at a press conference later today.

I’m not sure I agree with Ed that Bayh would have lost anyway.  But this has to move the seat from a possible to very likely pickup for the GOP in November.

In honor of Presidents’ Day, can YOU name all the presidents? In order?

Apparently in Atlanta the pro-life groups have been garnering the support of African-Americans by appealing to their sense of racial injustice.  The article, here, has a picture of a billboard that says “Black Children are an Endangered Species.”

“It’s ingenious,” said the Rev. Johnny Hunter, national director of the Life Education and Resource Network, a North Carolina-based anti-abortion group aimed at African-Americans that operates in 27 states. “This campaign is in your face, and nobody can ignore it.”

The billboards went up last week in Atlanta and urge black women to “get outraged.”

In your face? That’s for sure.  I’m still shocked.  Thoughts?