Submission/Review question

[VersantScribe]

Don't crawl under a rock! Write an article on how men can get their b@lls back! You've got a great angle already.

[ThisOldMan]

Versantscribe, what you have just said made certain bodily parts of mine do the Turtle Tango. You know, like retracting all protruding parts. Just to be on the safe side.

Ever since the first caveman got bonked on the noggin by a lusty cavewoman, the fairer sex have had a stranglehold on some of the most strategic parts of her partner's anatomy. Yes, I am very sure it was the cavewoman who did the bonking. History had been re-written, as it had always been, to cover up the awful truth which is that a man is the king of his castle just because his wife allows him to. She is smart enough to just lie back and enjoy the fruits of his labor while he gets himself knocked senseless fighting to maintain his own personal state of serfdom.

Personally I think the best person to lead a nation would be a woman who is past her reproductive years. She would know from first hand experience what it is like to nurture life. Also she does not have to prove herself to anyone because the results of her labor of love can speak for themselves, so to say. Such a woman would make a much better leader than an overgrown male juvenile who is still hung up on the idea of winning points to prove something that doesn't exist.

I am serious. How many male leaders are there out there who are working so altruistically for the general good of the people who elected them? No way! They are wasting other people's money and precious resources to prove that they are bigger and better than the other idiot.

I really think I should crawl back under my rock for a while before some of those Gestapo-types masquerading under new uniforms track down my ip. Maybe I should use Tor from now on.

[VersantScribe]

I agree with you about the benefits of a Matriarchal society. I think it would work. Think about Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth. They got the job done, did they not?

To be honest, I'm happy to let my husband be the man of the house. But that doesn't mean I'm not a vital support to him that provides guidance in critical times. But that's what any good wife would do. We all know the most effective men often have a good wife behind the scenes.

Boy have we gotten off-topic here. In any event, I agree with you.

[Evelyn]

Unfortunately, brilliant as that snippet was, I'm pretty sure it would be rejected here as "too editorial." Sigh. Perhaps if you posted it in the humor category, or happened to catch one of the Eds in a good mood...

I wanted to add that I "hear" a little lilt in your writing that sounds Aussie to me, although the Irish have a musical way of using words, too. Plus Aussies have an absolutely amazing and wildly humorous way of butchering pronunciations and word order that a slow Minnesota English speaker finds hard to understand--but I'm too busy laughing to care.

Keep bringing your wonderful writing to us on the forums please... We need and admire people who use the language for all it's worth.

[ThisOldMan]

@Versantscribe
Sorry to have sort of hijacked your thread but the title did say 'Submission/Review'. I was actually practicing my rhetoric for an article I am submitting for a public request. The requester wanted an article that was hard-hitting and gender-biased. Actually he wanted it to be biased towards the male side but I suppose I can always change the slant. Did I mention that I was once a politician who had run for a parliamentary seat? Having undergone my trial by fire in the political arena, I learned that it was possible to present any one side of an issue with partisan brimstone-and-hellfire fervor. Said side included but not limited to the right side, the wrong side and the true side.

@ Evelyn
The Aussie lilt is probably the handiwork my first English teacher, a wonderful Australian lady by the name of Miss J. Ingersoll. The Irish part most likely comes from another one of my wonderful teachers, an Irishman by the name of Mr. Ray Hall. Didn't you detect any Indian sound in my English? I read my Shakespeare under the tutorship of one other of my wonderful teachers, an Indian by the name of Mr. Thakurta. I would like to think that their efforts in instilling in me a love for the English language had not been in vain. Really, I love the English language, warts and all.

Seriously, the English language is not the most perfect language. Phonetically, I think German or Spanish would be more accurate. And Arabic would be more precise. In Arabic, there is a term for a single item, two items and more than two items which is one step ahead of singular and plural. Also in Arabic, there is at least one level of degree more than just nominative, comparative and superlative. In terms of conciseness, Chinese is the clear leader. In the space occupied by just one letter of the English alphabet, the Chinese can put in a whole word. Some words are so complex that it takes a whole book just to give an outline of the meaning alone.

Now to get back to cooking my lunch. Rice cooked with salted fish is tasty. Especially when spiced with freshly-sliced onions.

[VersantScribe]

Your words on those more effective languages intrigues me. I agree that English has many, many warts. But I'm eternally fascinated by other languages.

I studied French for years in school, and eventually they ran out of curriculum for me in the school I was in, but alas I lost almost all of it over time. How sad is that? Lived in Belgium for 3 years taught by two women who were 100% French, then came back to the states where they weren't sure how to teach me. Went back to learn more in college down the road but didn't do anything but re-hash what I'd learned in Middle School overseas.

And here I stand 10 years later without the ability to do much more than say if subtitles in movies are accurate (they rarely are) or decipher what songs are "generally" about.

Because I'm in the wine industry now, it is a goal of mine to re-learn French, to learn Spanish (because we grow lots of Spanish grapes in Texas, aside from all the Spanish speaking here) and also I want to learn Italian. I have a thing for the Romantic languages, and I have a potentially busy decade ahead of me.

But I would ADORE learning the more "eccentric" languages like Chinese, and German would be nice. They grow fantastic grapes in Germany. ;p

[ThisOldMan]

If you are interested in learning Chinese, you can start with Pinyin which is Chinese written in English-like alphabet. However, to get the full historical and cultural significance of the language, you have to learn the actual Chinese script which are basically pictographs. So each word has its own story to tell.

[BarryDavidson]

Now, as never before, the male of the species is threatened with extinction. Already an endangered species with very little control over their very own lives, men are now faced with the possibility of being stripped of the last vestiges of their manhood in the name of gender-biased justice and sexually-slanted equality.

It's ironic, but I have heard the same argument several times over the last few years. The interesting thing is that it was women who spoke their concern. Just the other day my wife said, "Does the Disney channel have any idea of the role it's playing in turning boys into mushy non-men?" Her point was that most of the shows on the Disney channel show girls as hard-hitting and decisive while the boys are being portrayed as wimpy, subservient and indecisive to the female characters. Often, male characters are portrayed as bumbling idiots.

I have started to write articles about this several times over the years, but I know they wouldn't be accepted. They would be called op/ed and dismissed. The same goes for the articles I've written about some being more equal under the laws than others in modern legislation.

I'm not sure I agree that a matriarchal society would be better. Women are as prone to corruption as men. Let me rephrase that... Women who seek political office are as prone to corruption as men who seek political office. I'll tell you one thing ThisOldMan, I liked Margaret Thatcher. There was a woman who didn't take any s**t, and got the job done. Here in the US we have Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi types who are as bad or worse than many male politicians. Granted, I don't have a high opinion for any politician. In recent years it's come down to a choice of the lesser of evils.

I guess I'm helping hijack this thread too. Perhaps we should move it to another thread for future responses.

[ThisOldMan]

And while waiting for it to be moved, let's take a few more steps down this path.

Quoting Plato who quoted Socrates: The best man to be king is he who doesn't want to.

Very simple logic here. Anyone who wants to be king, when made king, will use all the power at his command to perpetuate his reign. On the other hand, if the king never wanted to be one in the first place, then he would do all he can to make sure that the people can get on without one. In modern language, that's called decentralization of authority.

Back to those women you mentioned. Just being female does not necessarily qualify anyone as a woman. Many of them are just pseudo-men. Meaning females who think that their ultimate goal in life is to be as good as or better than a man. Thereby totally missing out on all the inherent advantages of being a woman. Actually men and women are so different - physically, mentally, emotionally - that it is surprising they belong to the same species. However, that's the way it is supposed to be. Men and women are made to work together as a team not as opponents or competitors. Which, of course, does not stop women from taking unfair advantage of the weakened sex. How else to explain the logic of a relationship where both parties enjoy each other's company but only one party pays the bills?

I have no problem in writing an article to this effect. Just have to make sure it doesn't turn into a POV issue. If the buyer doesn't bite, I can always publish it on my own website. There are already many 'Talking Rubbish' articles cluttering my blog, as it is. So one more wouldn't make it smell any worse.

[Evelyn]

And don't get me started on how our culture has completely ruined fatherhood.

I know some very good fathers, in spite of the bullshit the media dishes out and that women everywhere perpetuate. What is a "working mother"? A woman filled with angst and shame because she's not completely available to the kids, as though fathers are incapable of providing nurture in her absence.

There's a myth that men need 45 seconds to create a child and women need 18-plus years. Whatever. In my circles, all the men have taken responsibility for their children, sometimes to the detriment of their own happiness if they happen to get a bad woman pregnant. My brother-in-law continues to live with a drug addict who has chased him around with a knife because he doesn't want to lose his kids. Because she'd get custody if they divorced.

Who decided that after divorce women become "single mothers" but there are no "single fathers"? Who said it was a great idea that fathers get every-other-weekend-Wednesday-night-Christmas-every-other-year? Who dictated that fathers pay child support and alimony as if that's all they can contribute to their children because they aren't primary caregivers because they are cut off from their children by boilerplate visitation schedules?

Whew. Thanks for listening.

BTW, if anyone from earlier in the thread is still getting notification emails, you can shut that off by scrolling down and clicking "unsubscribe topic" at the bottom.

[ThisOldMan]

@Evelyn
You must have a wonderful father. Good to know that at least one other person on this lonely planet sees through the sham of the laws which are pretending to be fair, while doing a Brutus on Caesar.

Odd how the popular media presents women, especially in Third World situations, as being oppressed, when, in actual fact, anyone who has ever lived for long enough in the countryside, would know for sure who is the real boss on the farm. I have lived in such places before and I have seen my share of men who were ordered around by their wives. Said wives, mind you, being the type who had never heard of women's liberation and, probably, had no use for it if they did, considering that there is nothing to liberate, in their case.

[Celeste Stewart]

I know a lot of divorced women who didn't get the kids. My sister didn't, and she had to pay the ex-husband alimony and child support. A girlfriend has two ex-husbands, both of whom won primary custody of the kids. Another friend's current husband has primary custody of his son and he and my friend are raising him together. In fact, the men in the relationships of most of the divorced couples I know have won primary custody. Maybe it's a California thing. It's not like the women weren't good mothers or anything like that either.

[VersantScribe]

I think a lot of custody issues are swayed differently from state to state. Washington state nearly always gives preference to the mother (as I've experienced personally with my parents' divorce.) But there are extreme cases everywhere that can skew the numbers.

It may sound like I'm a non-progressivist, or whatever you want to call it, but I see the beauty in a woman being able to raise her children and let the husband be the primary breadwinner. On the other hand, I know of amazing fathers who are there to support a wife who feels the call of the career. I don't think women should feel obligated to act outside of their personal nature just to bend to society's trends. The pendulum swings back and forth every generation regardless and what it comes down to is just finding the family situation that works best for the family itself.

Women do tend to strive for authority in whatever situation, from the workplace to the home. We've always been this way, and I think it's sad that the media portrays the extremes all the time and never show the reality of a happy home where both spouses thrive in their roles and work together. It causes a lot of discord and skewed ideals for both the men and women.

And on the subject of politics, I agree with BD up there. I'm not a fan of politicians at all, regardless of gender. I'd love for a woman to be a national leader, but not the women in the U.S. spotlight at the moment...

Now that the thread has been hijacked so thoroughly, where would it even go? LOL!

[ThisOldMan]

Since this thread has gone astray already, wouldn't hurt to meander a bit more.

Sometimes, homo sapiens do not deserve to be at the top of the list of living beings. Some of the things we do are totally illogical. For example, we require a license to drive a car. We need a permit to build a house. I have yet to hear of any legislation which requires any kind of tests, and passing thereof, that need to be taken before a human being is allowed to produce and nurture more human beings. Seems like we consider the ability to guide our children through their formative years to be of less importance than the ability to steer a car. We are not allowed to build a house any old way we want but we can build haphazard lives with total disregard for the welfare and upbringing of our offspring. After thousands of years of producing billions of children, we are not any better at the job than our ancestors.

Just some random thoughts that have been nagging
Hallelujah Lovelight.
Praise the Lord for the Light of Love.

[Evelyn]

I was actually raised by wolves--I mean, women, my mother and grandmother. In spite of my man-less upbringing, I heartily support good fathers and look down upon women who subtly or overtly stand in the way of their children developing healthy father-child relationships. As I said, I know many good fathers and it pains me to see their wives or exes or the overall culture telling them they're not valuable.

Celeste, California has many progressive laws I approve. (It's kind of a bummer about Proposition 65 warnings everywhere, though.) Minnesota changed its child support laws to include both parents' income only a year ago, and there was no grandfathering. Georgia, where my brother-in-law lives, is so backwards that his children aren't legally recognized as his even though he's on their birth certificates (he wasn't married to their mother at the time). He has to apply to the state (and pay a small fee).

What puzzles me is all the complaining about fathers not taking responsibility, abandoned children, single mothers, blah blah and yet the law and the culture and many women interfere with fathers who fight to do the right thing.

I'm done soapboxing about it. Thanks for listening.