Mike S. Adams is my hero

Wow. I hunt, and I did pretty well in college, but that might have been the stupidest thing I've read in a long time.>

What exactly do you admire about this person, Rod?

HB>

I'm glad I'm not the only one that gave Rod demerits on this one.

The sad thing is the boys (his) will want to grow up and be a hero in dad's eyes. It's what kids do. They'll look at this Adams character and since dear old dad thinks he hung the moon, try to emulate not only just the actions, but the attitude.

I wonder if he'll still think it manly when his sons are modeling it, just for him.>

I guess I'm on my own, but that was a fun article. Thanks Rod.>

Ah yes, because Rod is mocked for posting an idiotic article, that means the forces of the p.c. therapeutic culture are out to get him. Who's the the whining victim here again?>

Savor it? Pass it on? No thanks. I would have to explain this bit, among others:

But if you choose option A , don t ever sign up for one of my classes again. Just take a course from one of the feminist professors. They have aborted 1/4 of the males in your generation and seek to turn the other 3/4 of the males into effeminate victims who are dishonest with their professors and afraid of hunting. Think this matter over carefully before you get back to me. Neither I nor our nation can tolerate another of your metrosexual missives. Nor can our nation survive without a revival of emphasis on character, responsibility, and personal integrity.

Wow. You could cut the misogyny with a knife - not to mention the straw men and logical fallacies. This is a disgusting display of contempt for women. One would think that Adams could extol the virtues of hunting without taking potshots at women, 'effeminate' men (apparently all men except for him and his fellow hunters?), his students, and really the world at large.

I'm disappointed that you would recommend such a vile piece of work. I wish I could say I'm surprised. If this is the sort of thing I can expect from your blog, I think I've learned all I can here. Sayonara.>

Come on, guys. Think about the student to whom this letter is addressed. He missed the final 28 meetings of the class in question, to wit, he blew the class off. Then rather than slinking off in silence as most of us would, he came up with the dog-ate-my-homework concoction of death robbery and firing, which I along with the author suspect is pure fiction. And now he has the unmitigated gall to protest a grade of D-, which as we all suspected before we got to that point should have been an F.

Cutting the prof a little slack for the lesbian crack, I'd say that taking this overprivileged ungrateful kid out hunting to encounter some reality is too good for him. Would you hand this screw-up a gun? I would have grave reservations about even letting him carry the machete.

Then the program is to take him to meet some people who think a dead hog is a gift from heaven because they haven't seen that much meat in one place for as long as they can remember. And he can explain to them why he is squandering the hard work and effort of so many people, undoubtedly including his parents, which is being poured into the education he is ignoring.

I hope the prof is serious. I hope the kid goes. I hope he learns something.

I'm from Los Angeles and I live in San Francisco. Many of my close friends are lesbians. I don't agree with that part.

But that's not what this article is about. It's about screw-up kids and people who have been handed the world on a platter and who can't bother to make the most minimal effort on their own behalf. And we've got lots of those folks out here in the blue states too. If asked to chose sides, I can tell you which side I'm on.>

Are you out of your MIND, Rod?? I razz you about a lot of your delusions and incoherent beliefs, but that essay is just terrible -- self-righteous, smug, sanctimonious, homophobic. And, er, MURDEROUS. I'd cheer to raise the rafters if I heard about one of those boars gutting him with its tusks.

-ml>

I forgot: It's also petty, misogynistic, arrogant, grandiose, pathetically aggrieved, and paternalistically racist.>

What is it about dickhead pundits like that which makes them so particularly nasty?

How paradoxical, spewing nastiness in response to nastiness.

On the whole I think Adams is saying what needs to be said, though I also cringed at the lesbian comment. Guess I'm not masculine enough.>

My first thought was that Rod was joking. Then I read his entry again ("Read this. Savor it. Pass it on to everyone you know.") and thought no, he's not joking. Now I'm back to thinking he's joking.

HB>

Bruce,

Dickead is uncivil.

Calling someone a liar becauase one questions hismanhood is nasty.


A nuanced difference, to be sure, but a difference nonetheless.>

Dickhead is uncivil.

I dunno, let's check the first three Merriam-Webster definitions of "nasty":

1 a : disgustingly filthy b : physically repugnant
2 : INDECENT, OBSCENE
3 : MEAN, TAWDRY

But I'll grant you it was uncivil as well.

Calling someone a liar becauase one questions hismanhood is nasty.

Except the main reason Adams thinks the student untruthful is because of the student's claim to have only missed "several" classes.

But whether the student is truthful or not is beside the point. He didn't earn a decent grade in the class, yet thinks he should receive one. If all those calamities really befell him that semester, he should just retake the class. Because the point of the class is to learn and not just receive a grade, right?>

Oh come on, Bruce. The student isn't the point here. Yeah, fail him (I assume "him," but maybe I'm missing something). Call him a dishonest whiny illiterate loser and give him a D- or an F with a hefty side of contempt. But the student here is just an excuse for Adams to go off on a general rant against what he sees as a threat to his type of manhood (unless of course the whole thing is a send-up of a Great White Hunter running scared). He could just as easily have started out "The other day I saw a girlie man walking down the street and that got me to thinking about my recent hog-hunting trip to South Carolina..."

HB>

Does it ever occur to any of you patriarchal types that the reason so many people want to see your reign end is because you're assholes?

What? And have my throne occupied by the likes of you? Never!>

Honestly, I wouldn't want to take this man's classes if that is the way he thinks and acts. He has more of a problem than the student. And yes, I agree that some people expect to get by w/o doing their work. So.....

What is wrong with I'm sorry, but you didn't attend 28 classes and your grades weren't good enough for anything other than a D-.

Plain, simple, and you are addressing the problem. All w/o insulting half the population and looking like an a**.>

Hee hee hee yourself, Rod. What's really offensive about this article is that it's just not funny. He may be a fine prof and a hunter, but he's no David Sedaris. Just plain lame.>

I'm not going to take the "hee hee hee" posts as genuine Rod posts.

HB>

Seriously, I would like the real Rod (not the hee-hee-hee guy) to explain why he thought so much of that piece. Yes, spoiled undergrads who think they deserve certain grades are annoying. When I was a grad student (a liberal, lesbian grad student, oh my!), I was responsible for grading exams. One kid failed the class because he did not give one-tenth of a crap about it, until he got his final grade and it was an F. He complained to the prof (a liberal feminist female) and got exactly nowhere. My partner teaches high school, and has had more than her share of students who think they deserve A's because of their parents' socioeconomic status, not because of the work they put in. Such a story could be told without the "I'm gonna build you up, girlyman" rhetoric. And yes, giving food to the poor is a good thing, but this guy's tone is definitely paternalistic, not to mention paranoid (he's fantasizing through the whole thing about how PETA, abortion-loving feminists, and metrosexuals would curse and cower at his big manly approach).
And as for the blind lesbian at the weenie roast? I'd like to introduce him to some of the country butches I know here in Georgia. He'd be the one shaking, hunting rifle and all.

But enough about the illustrious Mr. Adams. What's up, Rod? I like this blog, despite the fact that I disagree with you about much, as you might surmise. Usually, I find that you approach differences respectfully, even while sticking to your views. I realize that you didn't write this piece, but . . . what's the deal?>

Will the real Rod Dreher please stand up?

In the meantime while we wait for that longed-for event, I'm wondering why I am not offended by Dr. Adams. He is assuredly a misogynist, or this piece purports to be. And a homophobe into the bargain, same caveat. That might be part of it: his claim of misogyny doesn't quite ring true. I suspect that it is something of a pose here.

As someone who made a career in law at a time when everyone still was saying that I couldn't do that, I've met real misogynists, the real deal, and I'm not believing this guy particularly. Besides, I learned a long time ago to just tune that kind of thing out. Otherwise you can drive yourself crazy, and who wins then?

I'm sorry, I just do find this thing funny, so shoot me, and as the parent of a recent college student I've met a number of kids (not mine, thank God) who have precisely the wimpy attitude Dr. Adams is attacking here. "Oh golly I just couldn't get it together to come to class hardly at all because of all the misfortunes in my life, so why not give me a good grade anyhow?" And, "The world owes me." We parents and taxpayers of both genders are out here working our butts off to give these kids an education which is virtually free to them and that's what we get.

If it's racist to give meat to poor people we need more racists. What's better, that or that he takes the hog home and becomes obese? I would remind all you naturalists that hogs are not indigenous to the North American continent, and furthermore I've met some in the wild and they will as soon kill you as look at you, Dr. Adams is giving us the straight reading on that one.

And those of you who are offended by hunting, I hope you're all vegans, because otherwise you're a tad inconsistent.>

It is times like this that I regret the Confederates lost the Civil War. The USA would have been so much better off without the South.

Kim M>

I try, I really try, to cultivate a better opinion of Rod than the one I've had, in which he's a self-satistifed, holier-than-thou, better-than-you cultural conservative. He's no longer writing for The Corner (I guess), and he has admitted being wrong in backing the Iraq War. Two steps forward.

But his writing contains so much "I'm persecuted just because I'm a white male Christian Southern conservative." "Why can't all families have the dad work and the mom stay home and school the kids?" [Oops, that didn't quite work, did it?] "Why doesn't everyone believe in God the way I do?" "Things would be so much better if everyone acted like I do!"

I try, I really do. Then he favorably points to a piece of cr*p writing like this, and it's 10 steps backwards.

Come on, Rod, tell us what you liked about that article. And acknowledge the validity of some of its criticisms as pointed out here.>

That feminists are baby killers who lack integrity and turn men into wimps? .
Tope | 12.19.06 - 10:52 am | #

Uh... Yeah.

Rod, you knew this would be unpopular, so why post it? I've enjoyed reading the reactions, though. I guess the PC culture reaches deeper into conservatism than I realized. How can we teach boys to be men when our men are criticized for being men?>

Refer to the article for a couple of examples:

Stating the truth in spite of the potential backlash. Another could be - here's an idea - feeding a family that's struggling for money. Or - accepting the consequences when you deserve a failing grade.>

I believe Rod wrote that, and I've always respected him for it. While I don't find it amusing (a word frequently misused for some reason), it does constitute Reason #37 why his admiration for that fool's essay is confusing.>

Jaybird,
When you kill an animal for food, it does leave a sensitive person with a feeling of sadness. The deer wanted to live as bad as you or I do. But - there is also a sense of thankfulness to the animal itself. It gave it's life in order to give you life. It's an experience to be treasured, rather than feared. Is that really what all the criticism of this article is about? What fault could possibly be found in feeding a family in need? I guess Americans prefer chickens who grow to full size in two weeks with beak and legs removed for convenience.>

While I don't find it amusing (a word frequently misused for some reason), it does constitute Reason #37 why his admiration for that fool's essay is confusing.


Yes Rod wrote it. What I find "amusing" here is the incongruity between his stated ambivalence about the whole macho/redneck aspect that frequently characterizes the sport (fairly or not) vs. his apparent approval of same in the the moronic Adams piece he linked to earlier today.>

That article was a joke. It reeked of empty masculinity parading as "character". And the fallacies were abundant--we should all be against PETA lest poor black families starve! What? It seems like a fake article written by a liberal posing a conservative just to make conservatives look like a joke.>

I don't like to hunt myself. I have nothing against hunting per se. My admiration for the article had nothing to do with the fact that it was written in the voice of a hunter.

I liked that the author put the smackdown on privileged middle-class weenies who expect the world to bend to their wishes, and did so humorously. Nothing more to it than that. The fact that it's caused several of you to have to take to the bed after having been overcome with the vapors makes me think that Adams hit rather close to home.>

I absolutely deplore this kind of caricature.
Christine | 12.19.06 - 4:55 pm | #

I suppose you deplore clearly defined gender roles and any hint of masculinity as well. As for your opposition to hunting, if you prefer meat out of factory farms, you really have no moral authority whatsoever when it comes to animal rights.>

I suppose you deplore clearly defined gender roles and any hint of masculinity as well.

Please, enlighten us as to what a masculine gender role entails.

Is it huntin'

Is it having wild rampant sex?

Is it being good at sports, in corollary, would golf and bowling count?

Is it NOT using hairspray/gel?

Is it wearing whitytighties, boxers, or freeballing?

C'mon man, tell us what it is!>

C'mon man, tell us what it is!
Aaron | 12.19.06 - 5:27 pm | #

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The point of the article is that masculinity is NOT running away from the effects of your behavior, or trying to weasel out with lies or half-truths.

P.S.
Golf DOESN'T count.>

Rod, you knew this would be unpopular, so why post it? I've enjoyed reading the reactions, though. I guess the PC culture reaches deeper into conservatism than I realized. How can we teach boys to be men when our men are criticized for being men?

Yes, RB, right on.>

De gustibus no est diputandum. I read Adams' column as a formulaic screed to meet his contract obligation despite lacking anything worthwhile to say. "Poor people" and tuition-as-welfare were the faux redeeming social value.>

Sports are a valid outlet for natural masculine aggression, but the average professional athlete is the same whiny little brat that the article spoke of. I'm talking about media painting dad as a buffoon, or a drunken abuser. While these things do occur, and are quite detrimental, dad is NEVER unnecessary.
I don't think the tone of the article invalidated the thesis. I understand that people put up walls when they hear things that are offensive to them, but the fact is, extreme Feminism has damaged the role of masculinity in society. Gender nuetrality, fluidity, and all that other ridiculous b.s. Stupid ideas deserve intolerance.>

"Just take a course from one of the feminist professors. They have aborted 1/4 of the males in your generation..."

As if there are enough feminist professors to get pregnant with 1/4 of the males of a generation - especially if they are the lesbian man-haters the paleocons make feminists out to be!

This is the sorriest excuse for humor writing I've seen in a long time, not to mention a complete misread of feminism. But it sure does bring out some interesting, if distasteful, responses.

Some of ya'll good Christians need to start practicing more of the love your much vaunted Savior recommended. You'll feel much better.>

He might be right, but what for he posted that letter on public instead of sending it privately to that boy? It looks as if his main purpose was to show everyone how smart, brave, masculine and honest he is comparing to that guy.
;)>

Rod, I did read the piece AND your recommendation AND I am passing along the following comment to everyone I know who reads my blog.

Not as funny as a blind lesbian at a weenie roast
The "Crunchy Con", the The Dallas Morning News editor and apparent homohater who enjoys posing as One of the Good Conservatives, loves this piece of crap and calls its author his hero. The essay is so unfunny and predictable though the author comes across as an Archie Bunker sort of curmudgeon not to be taken seriously.

One of Dreher's comment box commentators says that the piece doesn't really offend because the author is obviously striking a pose. That's gotta be it. It's so insincere, it's actually amusing. The only scary thing is that Rod "I'm one of the Good Conservatives, really!" Dreher does seem to take it seriously. He calls the author his hero.

Rod, any brownie points as a "good, intelligent, reasonable homophobe" you may have ever earned with me are flushed down the toilet. I can just see you right now reading the "blind lesbian at a weenie roast" punchline and rolling in the aisles with laughter. You ... so ... funny. But hey you got attention, so maybe that makes you happy.

"Will the real Rod Dreher please stand up?" his sane readers ask. I think maybe he is standing. I've begun to ask ... Is Rod Dreher a dork? I'm open to being convinced otherwise, but the evidence--and the Google Pagerank--is rapidly mounting.>