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You are here: Home / My blood runs cold

My blood runs cold

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Speaking of the right-wing’s love for autocratic strong men, here’s a homoerotic Red State centerfold of Vladimir Putin, contrasting Vlad’s manliness with Obama’s lack threof (h/t reader C):

This is the part of the conservative mind that I just can’t wrap my head around: the desire to get fucked by their political leaders. It’s not specifically a gay thing (though it does seem to be an awful lot of the time) — here’s NRO women mooning over Dick Cheney and Mark Steyn, and you all know about starbursts.

I don’t get this and I don’t think I ever will.

Reader Interactions

221Comments

  2. 2.

    fasteddie9318

    OK, DougJ, since following that NRO link and stupidly reading some of it has now put the image of Dick Cheney fucking Lucianne Goldberg in my head, I’m heading off to kill myself. Somebody, please, avenge my death.

  4. 4.

    ChrisS

    spin fisherman … he must be from PA.

  7. 7.

    licensed to kill time

    While the RedStaters are swooning, somehow I imagine the ordinary Russians are sniggering behind their hands at these displays of manly manlitude.

  8. 8.

    PS

    I have wanted to say this for approximately fifty years: Hey, you right-wing scum, GO BACK TO MOSCOW.

    I was sucker-punched and knocked down while leafleting in favor of a Vietnam Moratorium by some idiot who told me to g. b. t. M. It made no sense then, so I am delighted that it does now!

  10. 10.

    Mustang Bobby

    Okay, but if this is the wingers idea of “homoerotic,” no wonder they think Teh Gayz are icky. These pictures wouldn’t make it through amateur night at MANHUNT.net.

  12. 12.

    Ross Hershberger

    @ChrisS:

    spin fisherman … he must be from PA.

    Live bait probably. Nothing so subtle as an artificial lure when a worm will do the work.

  18. 18.

    Jules

    Dear Vlad….

    As a chick I know that dudes think that their naked chests is a thing of beauty and turns us on something fierce…and sometimes it is and does.

    But seriously you have crossed over the line from “kinda buff I might do him” to “would you please put your shirt on”.

    Sorry as a 47 year old woman there is nothing that turns me off more then the site of saggy man flesh that was once firm on display in public. Leave the man chest displays to younger men like Robert Downy Jr.*

    THXKBY

    (*yeah, he was hot in that Sherlock Holmes movie)

  19. 19.

    Alex S.

    I think it’s because they’re in love with power, and not the power to change things for the better that liberals are looking for, but the kind of power that subdues people.

  20. 20.

    Ross Hershberger

    Putin seems to like to get shirtless and make sure people know he’s manly and in shape. This is less disturbing to me than some of his predecessors who favored military garb and accouterments. If it’s semi-nudity or a chest full of medals I’ll take the former. Reluctantly.

  22. 22.

    Bob Loblaw

    Oh please, like the hardcore Obamaphiles are any different. How many fucking times did we have to see him shooting a jumper?

    People are just weird like that.

  25. 25.

    Stillwater

    Homoerotic is not just for homos anymore. Also, lots of homophobes hate teh gay so much they have have to continually remind themselves, with pictures and practices, of how much they hate it.

  28. 28.

    JenJen

    From the link, Erick Ericksson writes:

    I got this from a friend on email and thought it was worth sharing.

    Which friend would that be, Erick? Not that I’m insinuating anything, but you have a friend who sends you Putin-Porn and you feel compelled not only to tell us about this friend, but share the load with your own readers?

    I don’t get it either, DougJ. I remember a time, not so long passed, when wingers might be prone to upset if someone dare call the Russian leader a stud compared to the wimpy American President.

    The times, they are a-changin’. Next thing you know, they’re going to be measuring the twigs and berries at the Palais de l’Elysée.

  29. 29.

    bkny

    there was also that ode to rummy by some aged wingnut — shit what was her name…; remember all the swooning when he’d hold his pressers. i swear that cnn barbara starr had a crush on him..

  30. 30.

    Earl Butz

    At least he’s not sporting a codpiece in a flight suit, so I think we get to keep the Most Ludicrous Leader Award.

  31. 31.

    beltane

    Why do conservatives fall in love with the whole man-boob thing? I mean, Rush Limabugh looks to be a 44DD and Putin is definitely on the droopy side.

  33. 33.

    Tonal Crow

    @Alex S.:

    I think it’s because they’re in love with power, and not the power to change things for the better that liberals are looking for, but the kind of power that subdues people.

    Yesss my preciousss.

  34. 34.

    Zifnab

    @Alex S.:

    I think it’s because they’re in love with power, and not the power to change things for the better that liberals are looking for, but the kind of power that subdues people.

    See, I always thought it was because they honestly don’t understand that national policy matters. The distance between Dancing With the Stars and control of the Senate is completely negligible.

  36. 36.

    Ross Hershberger

    Side note: look carefully. Putin is a Lefty. And that spin casting reel is a lefty model, or converted. Anyone who was taught to fish by a lefty dad would know this.

    And no, I’m not obsessively staring at the pix. I collect wrist watches so I always notice when it’s on the opposite hand.

  37. 37.

    beltane

    Is Putin going to have his own reality show on the Discovery Channel soon, Vladimir’s Russia would at least be more interesting than Sarah Palin’s Alaska.

  38. 38.

    DougJ

    @JenJen:

    Not that I’m insinuating anything, but you have a friend who sends you Putin-Porn and you feel compelled not only to tell us about this friend, but share the load with your own readers?

    For some reason, that really made me laugh.

  39. 39.

    Mustang Bobby

    Sheesh, no wonder the right-wingers think Teh Gayz are icky. That is one homely dude, and he wouldn’t even make it past “send us your ‘before’ pics” at MANHUNT.net.

    (Sorry if this double-posts; the first one vanished.)

  41. 41.

    srv

    There’s a story somewhere about Wikileak cables regarding Putin – do to the economy, he’s isolated because he wasn’t able to keep promises to all the oligarchs and their grifters.

    Does anyone else watch RT (Russia Times) news, that is broadcast in the US? They have a Rachel Maddow equivalent, and it’s pretty interesting to see their take (and the propoganda) on US politics.

  42. 42.

    beltane

    @Ross Hershberger: There was an article somewhere (Vanity Fair, maybe?) about Putin’s physique, with experts stating that he displays a weakness on his right side, possibly from a prenatal stroke, which he compensates for by working out and putting on feats of strength (no word on the airing of grievances).

  44. 44.

    ChrisS

    @Ross Hershberger:
    I’m a righty and I reel with my left hand, my right hand is my dominant hand and my casting arm.

    FWIW I wear my watch on the left wrist and I was a left handed shot in hockey.

  45. 45.

    Sly

    This is the part of the conservative mind that I just can’t wrap my head around: the desire to get fucked by their political leaders.

    Because you think of sexuality in terms of mutual gratification, like a normal person. Start thinking of it in terms of expressions of power, and you’ll begin to see where the fetishism surrounding “Strong Men” comes from. Paternalism is the fulcrum of reactionary politics.

  50. 50.

    Ross Hershberger

    @Michael D.:

    That’s an excellent rant, and yes, they should all go and fuck themselves.

    As strongly as I feel about it, I keep my politics mostly off FB. My mom & dad are on there now for heaven’s sake. FB is different things to different people but I can’t see that loosely knit web of variously-associated people being a good forum for forceful expression of strong opinions. In my case. And if one of my FB friends was coming on that strong I’d probably quietly drop them off of my FP, as I’ve done once.

  52. 52.

    WyldPirate

    DougJ:

    My blood runs cold

    And Putin is my centerfold…

    nah, nah,, nanana-nah…Putin is my centerfold…

  53. 53.

    beltane

    @Mike in NC: The same can be said for Margaret Thatcher. The world was a better place when right-wing leaders had the decency to keep their shirts on.

  54. 54.

    Mike in NC

    @beltane:

    compensates for by working out and putting on feats of strength (no word on the airing of grievances)

    Ms. Palin has placed a copyright on ‘Airing of Grievances’, you’ll be happy to note.

  56. 56.

    Tsulagi

    Can’t see how this one caused E2 to dribble out some starbursts given his earlier posts about dreamy rough men at the ready, Palin picking out his first gun (the metal ones), and the like. A shirtless Vlad, he’s holding a gun, and talks with a foreign accent. Too much for the guy. Odds are pretty great there’s a future Foley or Haggard press conference in his not too distant future. If RedState hired pages in pants, that’d send him over the edge.

  57. 57.

    Ross Hershberger

    @beltane:

    he displays a weakness on his right side, possibly from a prenatal stroke, which he compensates for by working out and putting on feats of strength (no word on the airing of grievances).

    No kidding! One of my best friends is a strong righty but shoots lefty because one eye won’t close independently. Right shirt cuffs always unbuttoned.

  58. 58.

    Jules

    Have we gotten a column from MODO yet on how much more manly and “father figure” like Putin is when compared to Obama?

  59. 59.

    JenJen

    @DougJ: Yeah, that edit of mine to include the word “load” helped. I mean seriously, not to offend the sensitive readers of this blog, but I feel like I’m looking at Erick’s money shot right here.

  63. 63.

    Ross Hershberger

    Oh crap. I put ‘left handed’ into Google to look up Putin. Now for weeks I’ll be getting web ads for left handed doorknobs, singles resorts, scholarships, hair dryers, scissors etc.

    Who knew the modern world was going to turn out to be a pain in the ass in such unusual ways?

  68. 68.

    WyldPirate

    Gahhhh..my eyes.

    They just did a 60 Minutes tease with Boehner turning on the tears for Lesley Stahl..

    Gaakkk..Orange Boner cries….

  69. 69.

    Yutsano

    @Ross Hershberger: FWIW Obama is a Lefty too. But I figured you were well aware of that by now.

    And as for the Putin porn: words fail. And all those pics were part of his publicity blitz for making it okay for him to be PM after being President. So no real new material there.

  70. 70.

    Anne Laurie

    DougJ, you do realize — 18 months from now, some fReichtard Freeper wanna-be is gonna recycle this post as a “Look how them moonbats wurship that Commie Putin ! ! ! because they are girly-men! eleventy-one ! Without irony.

  71. 71.

    Sko Hayes

    Gross, man boobs and wrinkles, not a pretty combination.
    Men of a certain age should give up their self-image of manliness and keep their shirts on…

  75. 75.

    Nellcote

    @DougJ:

    TPM has always had a weird taste for Obama porn, but I haven’t seen much of it anywhere else on the left.

    There’s BWD’s site, of course that’s why she got run out of DKos.

  77. 77.

    Colonel Danite

    Please don’t post RedState links again. I made the mistake of clicking and then found myself on their front page reading about how we need to invade and annex Mexico. Of course, the post was not nearly as bad as the comments from the racist mouth breathers. Ugh!

  81. 81.

    PurpleGirl

    @Jules: I agree. Robert Downey Jr. is quite buff. He was great in the first Iron Man movie. Unfortunately, he’s a right winger.

  82. 82.

    Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century)

    TPM has always had a weird taste for Obama porn, but I haven’t seen much of it anywhere else on the left.

    Meh. Political porn is as old as the republic:

    http://thebsreport.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/delaware.jpg

    http://buzzpressure.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/fdr.jpg

    http://iconicphotos.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/picture-aspx.jpeg?w=640&h=491

    http://www.watchmojo.com/blogs/images/jfkclinton.jpg

    http://cache1.asset-cache.net/xc/2374423.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF878921F7C3FC3F69D929FD984DCEA494EA44B6D5B3FAFC08295CCC8044EE26D188CE52E30A760B0D811297

  83. 83.

    Bob Loblaw

    @gogol’s wife:

    Today is the day for idiot commenters to equate Obama with Palin and Putin.

    You really aren’t in the position to be throwing stones…

    I’m not equating politicians. Obama != Palin, you hyperpartisan loon. I’m saying that image manipulation and propaganda is pervasive and an attraction to all sides of the political spectrum, and not a purely conservative phenomenon like DougJ speculated.

    If it wasn’t, why would First Ladies, an entirely unelected position, need an employee who’s sole job is to procure and maintain their public wardrobes and line up fashion shoots? Why do politicians care about what color their ties are? Why was McCain mocked for a week for appearing in front of the wrong color background during the campaign? Why did JFK lie about his fucked up back and make sure cameras were there to watch him throw a football around instead?

    Look at Jules. What difference does it make if the President “has a nice looking family?”

  84. 84.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Back when the press caught Obama shirtless at the beach, weren’t all the ‘wingers crying about how undignified it was?

    Make up you minds, kids.

  89. 89.

    PeakVT

    This is the part of the conservative mind that I just can’t wrap my head around: the desire to get fucked by their political leaders.

    I think conservatives are driven by tribe and hierarchy, so it makes sense that they want their leader to be tough and macho and whatnot. He’s going to swoop in and defeat the enemy single-handed, is he not?

  93. 93.

    gogol's wife

    I’m sorry, but Putin’s quasi-fascist iconography, which is created and disseminated as a governmental campaign, is not the same as people choosing freely to look at pictures of Obama’s family or Obama playing basketball.

    The Palin comparison was made on the earlier Palin-Putin thread, on which another genius said we’d be lucky to end up under a Putin-style government. I wish everyone could spend just one week in Russia AS A RUSSIAN and then see how they feel about Obama in comparison.

  95. 95.

    quaint irene

    Putin seems to like to get shirtless and make su

    Crap, this man gets shirtless more often than Captain Kirk!

    But, honestly, Cheney???? What necrophiliac has that in their fantasy tool kit?
    Going by his latest photos, this guy should be working as an extra in the ‘Walking Dead.”

  96. 96.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Given that Bellatrix Lestrange obviously had the hots for Tom Riddle, why is anyone surprised that the bubbleheaded bimbos of NRO would lust after Dick Cheney?

  98. 98.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Just realized the reference to the post and thread…

    My blood runs cold…

    My memories have just been sold…

    My angel is the centerfold!

  99. 99.

    Roger Moore

    @licensed to kill time:

    While the RedStaters are swooning, somehow I imagine the ordinary Russians are sniggering behind their hands at these displays of manly manlitude.

    And I’m confident you’re wrong. Those pictures were taken for domestic political reasons, not to show off to the international community. It gets back to some of Yeltsin’s problems. Yeltsin did some good things, but he had a big image problem. He was widely seen as showing the worst stereotypes of Russian behavior, basically being a drunken clown. A large part of Putin’s appeal is that he reversed those negative stereotypes. He doesn’t drink, and he’s seen as a tough, competent leader. He releases these of pictures to reinforce that image.

  100. 100.

    Martin

    @Mike Kay (Democrat of the Century): I agree, though this is different in 2 ways:

    1) It’s not just any picture of Putin that gets their attention – just the ones of him shooting things with his shirt off. It’s as though they need reinforcement from a world leader what a man ought to be like.
    2) Why are they swooning over a Russian world leader? Do Dems swoon over non-American political leaders? Wouldn’t the right go batshit if the Dems ever did that? Is Russia really the standard they expect America to live up to, which is sort of the implication here?

  102. 102.

    Southern Beale

    This is the part of the conservative mind that I just can’t wrap my head around: the desire to get fucked by their political leaders.

    I don’t get it either. It’s very inconsistent, for instance, I have one RWNJ friend/colleague who was a big Fred Thompson supporter in 2008. I mean, really? Fred Thompson? Not exactly Putin-esque manliness.

    When Fred bowed out of GOP primary and it looked pretty obvious that McCain would get the nomination my friend was disconsolate. I remember clearly him saying, “I just want someone who can kick some ass!”

    Again: your candidate was Fred Thompson. This does not compute.

    I just don’t get it.

  109. 109.

    Mnemosyne

    @Martin:

    Is Russia really the standard they expect America to live up to, which is sort of the implication here?

    An oligarchy run by mobsters? I think that actually is the standard they’re aiming for.

  112. 112.

    Jules

    @PurpleGirl:

    I agree. Robert Downey Jr. is quite buff. He was great in the first Iron Man movie. Unfortunately, he’s a right winger.

    lalalalalalalala
    I can’t hear you……
    lalalalalalalala

  113. 113.

    Short Bus Bully

    You guys act like this is something new and different. It’s lizard brain stuff.

    David and Goliath fought as champions of their respective armies as opposed to having the armies fight. Champions. You want your champion to be teh awesome.

    This is even more potent when you are stupid and primitive and hence… republican.

  115. 115.

    Sharl

    @quaint irene:

    But, honestly, Cheney???? What necrophiliac has that in their fantasy tool kit?
    Going by his latest photos, this guy should be working as an extra in the ‘Walking Dead.”

    Do the wingnuts have his ‘just-a-reg’lar-guy’ pic (with beer in hand even!)? He even kinda has a look of confused innocence there (contrary to his reputation).

  116. 116.

    Athenae

    I think the entire Internet knows John Kerry could take me home any night of the week he wanted. I’m around the bend. There’s something wrong with me.

    A.

  119. 119.

    tomvox1

    Nice to see all those Real Murkins lapping up some good ol’ fashioned Soviet-style manly man propaganda and preferring a former KGB chief and current shadow dictator to our democratically elected president. The daddy issues that these uber-“Patriots” have would break Freud’s brain.

  120. 120.

    aimai

    @Mnemosyne:

    Oh my god everyone should click on that link. If Obama looks into Putin’s soul he’ll have to do it by looking straight down through the bald spot on Putin’s head.

    aimai

  121. 121.

    Warren Terra

    I can’t believe that even after I read (OK, skimmed) 113 comments noone has made the obvious comment: the Republicans aren’t purely selfish; they don’t just want their leaders to fnck them – they want their leaders to fnck all of us, or at least to leave all of us well and truly fncked.

    There’s also an obvious joke there about their leaders experience as (policy) whores for the wealthy and privileged qualifying them for the role assigned them in the Republicans’ fantasies …

    There’s also a strong Orwellian 1984 doublethink going on here – I mean, I know Dubya looked into his soul and all, but don’t they remember that they hate Putin? Are we no longer all Georgians? Isn’t Putin, as we speak, conspiring with Obama to undermine Homeland Security with the new START treaty, which might put us on the path where the rubble doesn’t bounce sufficiently high for the Republicans’ dreams?

    —
    ETA iOS spellcheck converted “noone”, which I may have typo’d, to “Boone”? WTF?

  123. 123.

    Delia

    Putin looked in the mirror and saw himself at 25. Apparently so do the Redstaters. Delusion is a strange thing. Say what you want about Ahhnold, he knows not to run around shirtless at his present age.

  124. 124.

    General Stuck

    @spudvol:

    jeebus, I had to swill a glass of flouride after hearing that. I did not know the KGB did Fats Domino covers. Consider my world rocked.

  127. 127.

    Mark S.

    If that were from anywhere but RedState, I’d wonder if they were all gay. But there are such manly men over there and all.

    OT–does anyone have a good recipe for spicy orange beef?

  129. 129.

    Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    It’s not that hard to figure out, and you can watch the syndrome in action in any primate house. This behavior, the desire (by lower ranking males, as well as females) to get fucked, even if only symbolically, by the alpha male of the troop is deeply embedded in our genes. Given that the allegiances of right-wing types are based on monkey-mind allegiances and subconscious drives, it isn’t that surprising to see them acting out Chimpanzee politics.

  130. 130.

    HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist

    I don’t get this and I don’t think I ever will.

    The day you do get it is the day to finally start your self-trepanation therapy.

  131. 131.

    gbear

    Late arrival but gotta comment:

    …the desire to get fucked by their political leaders. It’s not specifically a gay thing…

    What an ignorant fucked up thing to say, DougJ. You don’t know gay at all.

  134. 134.

    change

    So, what did Sweden ever do to earn the wrath of Muslims, liberals? Is it all the imperialism and colonization that Swedes carried out in the Muslim world?

  136. 136.

    Yutsano

    @Bnut: There is much more truth to that statement than really should be comfortable. As an aside, it’s delightful watching the troll plead for attention and getting none.

  143. 143.

    nancydarling

    @Athenae:
    For what it’s worth, I used to have a patient who lived next door to an actress who dated John Kerry a couple of times after his divorce and before he married Teresa. She told my patient that John Kerry is a good kisser. And for all you guys out there, this is girl talk—if you don’t like it you can just stuff it.

  145. 145.

    Jeff Spender

    @change:

    So, what did Sweden ever do to earn the wrath of Muslims, liberals? Is it all the imperialism and colonization that Swedes carried out in the Muslim world?

    I’m bored, so I’ll point out a bit of obvious.

    These questions make a set of false assumptions. Primary among them is that Muslims as a group are responsible for the recent incident in Sweden. It was the work of radicalized murders (in this case, attempted murderers).

    These questions are as valid as a question like this: “What did George Tiller ever do to earn the wrath Christians and anti-abortion activists?”

    On every side there are nutjobs and unstable people. To blame an entire group of people and an entire religion is preposterous, and why nobody will take you seriously.

    As you said, the adults are talking. Why don’t you take your ball and go home, change?

  146. 146.

    johnny walker

    In the comments they’re fantasizing about Palin challenging the President to a game of basketball. If he declines, see, she can call him a chicken — and if he accepts he’ll get his ass kicked! Which I guess is halfway accurate. She’d certainly mock him if he declined, but I have to think she’d accuse him of trying to beat up on a girl if he accepted.

    Also a few making arguments to the effect that it would’ve been perfectly reasonable to use a picture of Obama with his kids as evidence that he’s insufficiently macho and Erickson was wrong to have edited that one out.

  147. 147.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @gbear: Ew. As a straight man, I say ew. I can only assume it is as bad for gay men or straight women or gay women or hermaphrodites or ….

  148. 148.

    quaint irene

    o, what did Sweden ever do to earn the wrath of Muslims,

    No, I think this goes under the category of ‘Would-be terrorists who are morons.”

  150. 150.

    Triassic Sands

    That’s the first time I’ve visited RS in a long time. (Now, I have to shower.) Needless to say, it was no more enlightening this time than in the past. (Next time I’ll exercise self-control and skip following a link to RS. It’s always a waste of time. And I know better.)

    I skimmed through some of the comments and they are pretty typical. There’s no appreciation for what an undemocratic thug Putin is. Of course, that’s to be expected as Russia continues to slip toward being a one party authoritarian state, which just happens to be what the RS commenters hope for this country.

    Samples of particularly stupid comments:

    “No one thinks Putin is a Muslim.”

    “And no one thinks Putin is a communist.”

    The second comment is from “Tbone” who’s been around RS forever and is an especially moronic thug-type. These two comments reveal just how thick these fools are — thinking Obama is a communist or Muslim is a sure sign or gross stupidity on the part of the “thinker.” Whatever his faults, Obama isn’t responsible for stupid people thinking really stupid things.

    Tbone let’s the cat out of the bag with his signature line:
    “Envisioning when all that is Left is the Right.” Right up there with whacking off to bare-chested photos of Vlad, is Bone-head’s greatest hope — a one party state in which the Republicans dictate to the sheep.

    Also, letting their love of selective editing show, they removed a photo of Obama being a dad, because according to Manly Man Erick Son of Erick* “The one thing I don’t like Is that whoever put it together put in the picture of Obama being a dad. If I had the skills to cut that pic out, I would.” So, they aren’t even shy about admitting that they’ll fix anything they can to create a lie that furthers their cause.

    The mind is pretty far gone when it can do shit like this without even being aware that something is amiss.

    [*My god, have you ever seen Erickson — he’s the furthest thing from being “manly” imaginable –where manliness is defined, as it is in this RS post, as being physically imposing with an emphasis violence, especially against the weak and defenseless, who deserve whatever the strong deign to dish out.]

    Anyone wanting to see the modern conservative “mind” at work should stop by RS a few times.

    PS According to one astute observer, American soldiers are so poorly provisioned in Afghanistan that they are “rationing food.”

  152. 152.

    JCT

    The hots for CHENEY? WTF? Wow, I guess if you going for the ultimate Nelson Rockefeller moment.

    So pathetic on so many levels.

  154. 154.

    Ross Hershberger

    @JCT:

    ultimate Nelson Rockefeller moment

    The word ‘ultimate’, used correctly one time out of a thousand!

  156. 156.

    KCinDC

    There’s one comment reminiscing about “a similar montage showing Reagan and Yuri Andropov” from “back when it was fashionable to be pro-America in the Mainly Sewage Media”.

    So somehow it’s pro-America to ridicule a foreign leader as unmanly compared to the US president, but it’s not anti-America to ridicule the US president as unmanly compared to a foreign leader? It’s amazing how different the rules are depending on whether the president is a Republican or a Democrat.

    And speaking of manliness and different rules, can you imagine what would be going on in the media right now if Obama had gone on “60 Minutes” and wept the way Boehner did?

  157. 157.

    Calouste

    @cleek:

    __

    do they not realize that these are propaganda pix ? and that Putin’s is a brutal anti-democratic authoritarian tyrant ?

    You say that like you think that redstate thinks that “brutal anti-democratic authoritarian tyrants” are bad. You might want to rethink that opinion.

  158. 158.

    nancydarling

    Let’s be fair to Putin. I did read recently that he is doing something to save the tigers. That is a good thing since they are in such short supply in the wild. I also read somewhere that there are more tigers in back yard cages in Texas than there are in the wild.

    He still should keep his shirt on though, And Lucianne should keep her fantasies to herself.

  159. 159.

    change

    When Obambi was on 60 minutes he laughed like he was high even at a time of 10 percent unemployment.

    He’s an arrogant little punk.

  163. 163.

    bemused

    @Michael D.:
    They can dish it out but can’t take it. Oh, the outrage and offended feelings! How dare you liberals poke holes in our knights’ shining armor.

  167. 167.

    Fuzz

    Putin’s Russia is their dream world, no exaggeration. They have a never ending war with Muslims in the Caucasus, it’s a one party state run by security goons (though not the uniformed military, that would have to change) they hate anyone dark skinned as evidenced by the constant violent attacks on Central Asian migrants, and protesters and journalists are routinely intimidated and even murdered. This is all without even going into Russia’s 19th century robber baron style economy (see the owners of Chelsea FC and the NJ Nets for examples) and the weirdo cult of personality they form around their leaders, as evidenced by groups like Nashi, the Putin fawning youth group.

  168. 168.

    Hawes

    Shit, I’ve got to move to Russia. I’m slightly overweight, balding and have “beeg moosles”. I don’t know judo, but I have cauliflower ears from decades of wrestling. That must be worth some Russian lovely’s attention.

    Or maybe you need a secret police to get them to look your way?

  170. 170.

    gbear

    @DougJ: It’s the assumption that because someone is gay that he wants to take it up the ass. There is a lot of variety in how people want to approach their sexual lives and, believe it or not, there are a lot of gay people who don’t want to engage in anal sex. To me it seemed like a cheap shot to link the submissive desire to get fucked with teh gay.

  171. 171.

    gbear

    @gbear: Oops. The photo was taken at an ice cream store but he’s not eating ice cream. I guess I wasn’t paying attention to what was he was holding…

  172. 172.

    DougJ

    @gbear:

    That wasn’t what I meant at all and I don’t think it’s what I said either. I said it wasn’t always a male conservative fantasizing about a male conservative leader, that it was sometimes a female conservative fantasizing about a male conservative leader or a male conservative fantasizing about a female conservative leader. And I think the power dynamic, in all cases, is leader=top, conservative reporter=bottom.

  175. 175.

    honus

    Where are all the pictures of the manly Bush shooting a rifle or riding a horse? I’ve never seen one of either activity. He was always riding his bicycle, which doesn’t seem to me to be a whole lot more masculine than John Kerry’s sailboard. They had those photo-ops of him cutting brush (trying pathetically to use a saw) and driving his pickup around that non-ranch of his, but given his constituency, it’s surprising we never saw him shooting anything. I heard he was afraid of horses. So I guess that’s why they had to get a sawed-off KGB guy to compare to Obama.

  176. 176.

    Maody

    Putin is a gangster so it matters little to me whether he is saving tigers. As to the bearing of chests/moobs, the display of old nuts as in the Cheney pic, remember the lizard brain… if you let it dominate, you are fucked.

    shower, shower, shower. I’m gonna go brush my teeth too. Ick x 1,000

  177. 177.

    nancydarling

    @Maody: The point is that evil people (most, but not all) can sometimes display a spark of whatever makes us human. It’s the lizard brain that doesn’t see those sparks. He still should keep his shirt on though.

  178. 178.

    Maody

    @nancydarling: definitely keep that shirt on. well, i’m not sure that good people can’t see through the attempts of evil people to display this spark you speak of – ex. Orange man crying on 60 minutes. I mean really. who, with an ounce of heart, believes him one tiny bit when he does that crying shit? it appears pathological to me.

  179. 179.

    gbear

    @DougJ: I’m a gay man who’s in a crabby mood so I realize I’m approaching the wording a lot differently than you, but why did you even bring the word gay into it then? …especially right after the sentence about wanting to be fucked by authority figures?

    You didn’t bring it up just to point out that it’s really not the case. It was there to help you make a point. It wasn’t cool. As someone said above, it’s about power, it’s not about sexuality.

    Now I have to go out and finish shovelling the fucking snow.

  181. 181.

    gbear

    @Buck: Nope. A news photographer took the photo and used it in a story that ran in a local paper (in Wisconsin, I think). It wasn’t until after it was published that anyone noticed.

  182. 182.

    Cydney

    OMG. Don’t read the comments:

    My 12 year olds perspective on Putin…
    txgeekgirl Friday, August 27th at 1:57PM EDT (link)

    Our kids are required to learn a language now and can start as early as jr. high. They offer Spanish. “No mom, that’s a waste of time. Have you seen Russia’s president? I want to learn Russian… with the way things are going we’ll all be speaking it soon.”

    My son has no faith that American in a war – against an enemy with a real military force – could survive

    Seriously, lady. This is what your son fucking said to you? If so, you need to get this little shit some mental help. Stat.

  183. 183.

    DougJ

    @gbear:

    I “brought up” the gay thing because the basis for the post was a male Red State poster and an almost all-male Red State commentariat getting excited about pictures of a shirtless Vladimir Putin. What would you call the sexuality involved with men looking at shirtless men and getting excited about it? I would call it gay.

  184. 184.

    Bloix

    Putin does all this shit because he’s short. He’s shorter than Sarkozy, who’s 5’5″. But the French are short for Europeans, while Russians are taller than average. In Russia, Putin is a dwarf. So he compensates by walking around shirtless with a big gun.

    Here’s Putin with Sarkozy:

    http://www.eu-russiacentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Sarkozy_Putin.jpg

    And here he is with Obama:

    http://connect.in.com/vladimir-putin-height/images-obama-meets-vladimir-putin–1-327728367430.html

  185. 185.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Bob Loblaw:

    Bob, you’re so fucking pathetic. I mean that is some weak shit right there. Your “a curse upon both houses” schtick would work really well at the Kaplan Times, too bad you’re too fucking stupid to get a job there.

  187. 187.

    Wile E. Quixote

    Yeah, this is totally gay. And when I say “gay” I don’t mean healthy and wholesome gay, like Rachel Maddow, pride parade, gay marriage ceremonies gay. No, I’m talking about mean, nasty and closeted gay. You know, like Larry Craig heading into the bathroom stall next to yours with a cordless Sawzall or Mark Foley inviting your teenage son over for a slumber party gay.

  191. 191.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Cydney:

    No, she and her hubby need to get mental help, along with the kid. It’s clear that the kid is proudly performing his line to prove to his parents what a good little boy he is.

    That’s some seriously fucked up shit.

  192. 192.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Ross Hershberger:

    Side note: look carefully. Putin is a Lefty. And that spin casting reel is a lefty model, or converted. Anyone who was taught to fish by a lefty dad would know this.

    There’s an interesting hypothesis about this that was explored a few years back in an article in the Atlantic by Paul Starobin called “The Accidental Autocrat”.

    I recently came across an intriguing hypothesis about Putin’s survival skills. Brenda L. Connors, a senior fellow in the strategic-research department of the Naval War College, in Newport, Rhode Island, is both a former State Department protocol and political-affairs officer and a onetime soloist with the Erick Hawkins Dance Company. Her field of study is a distinctive one: she is a certified “movement analyst.” Because of her experience greeting Mikhail Gorbachev and other global figures and her study of modern dance, Connors became intrigued by how body movement—everything from a particular way of walking to hand gestures and facial expressions—constitutes a language for conveying not only emotion but also leadership styles and behavioral patterns. From close analysis of physical traits, captured on tape and examined with the help of experts in medicine, psychology, anthropology, and other fields, she has developed character profiles of a number of world leaders. Her work may sound esoteric, but it is endorsed by, among others, Andrew Marshall, the legendary director of “net assessment” in the Pentagon, and Leon Aron, a leading Russia specialist at the American Enterprise Institute, in Washington, and the author of an acclaimed biography of Yeltsin.
    __
    I paid a visit to Connors at her Newport office not long ago. We had chatted on the phone about her work on Putin—in particular about her detection of a striking irregularity in his gait—and I was eager to see her tapes and to hear more. After a tour of her lab we watched a tape she had made of Putin, compiled mostly from Russian television footage. The tape rolled to a shot of Putin at his first inauguration, in the spring of 2000, at the Andrei Hall of the Great Kremlin Palace. “Here’s the picture,” she said, as we watched Putin enter the hall and stride down a long red carpet. I saw what she meant only when she slowed the tape—and when she did, I was taken aback. Putin’s left arm and leg were moving in an easy, natural rhythm. But his right arm, bent at the elbow, moved in a stiff way, as if jerked by the shoulder, and the right leg dragged, without absorbing his full weight. When she replayed the segment at normal speed, it was easy to pick up on the impediment, and then I had no trouble spotting it in other segments. All the momentum and energy in Putin’s gait comes from the left side; it is as if the right side is just along for the ride. Even the right side of his torso seems frozen. When he is holding a pen, his right hand appears to have only an awkward, tenuous grasp on it.
    __
    Connors has shown footage of Putin’s walk to a range of experts, including A. Thomas Pezzella, a cardiac-thoracic surgeon based in St. Louis; two orthopedic surgeons and a physical therapist at the naval hospital in Newport; and Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, the founder of the School for Body-Mind Centering, in Amherst, Massachusetts, who is certified as something called a neurodevelopmental therapist. They offer a variety of conjectures: Putin could have had a stroke, perhaps suffered in utero; he may be afflicted with, as Pezzella speculates, an Erb’s palsy, caused by a forceps tugging on his right shoulder at birth; he could have had polio as a child (polio was epidemic in Europe and western Russia after World War II). The stroke theory is consistent with what appears to be the loss of neural sensation in the fingers of his right hand. (Videotape of Putin at judo matches shows him using his fist, rather than a splayed hand, to push himself up off the mat.) Based on what she has seen and on her consultation with other experts, Connors doubts that Putin ever crawled as an infant; he seems to lack what is called contra-lateral movement and instead tends to move in a head-to-tail pattern, like a fish or a reptile.

  194. 194.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @change:

    That makes your panties wet doesn’t it change? Hey change, here’s an idea for you, Why don’t you, instead of posting bullshit in Balloon Juice about Islam go join the military and volunteer for service in AfPak or Iraq so you can fight those terrorists on their home ground. Oh wait, that’s a rhetorical question. The reason you’re not doing that is because you’re a cheap little conservative faggot who wouldn’t be able to pass the physical, much less the ASVAB or whatever they’re calling it these days.

  196. 196.

    Wile E. Quixote

    Red State. Yeah, “Red” state is the right title for Erick’s little blog. Remember when the Reds were dirty, filthy communists who hated freedom and loved Soviet dictators like Josef Stalin. Now they’re a bunch of dirty, filthy conservatives who hate freedom and liberty and love Russian dictators like Vladimir Putin.

  197. 197.

    JohnR

    I’m glad you have my favorite – top left; “Uncle Vlad” hunting separatists in the mountains of Chechnya (I hear he bagged his limit!)

  201. 201.

    Chuck Butcher

    Damn, I’ll never make it as a centerfold, but I’m 57 haven’t done a gym in 30 yrs and I can do shirtless a lot better than Vlad – not to mention I’ve got hair enough to make 20 of his head. (sorta used to be brown)

  204. 204.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Chuck Butcher:

    Plus you have the Harley and know your way around a rifle. But I’m thinking that you wouldn’t make it as a Red State porn star, not only are you not a conservative, but I’m also thinking that part of Putin’s attraction to Erick and crew is the moobage.

  205. 205.

    ruemara

    Thanks for ruining my fantasy sex life, DougJ. The man is ugly, the moobs are fart-tastic and the links kill brain cells. I just don’t get the conservative blogger’s daydream boyfriend Putin. He’s not macho, he’s overcompensating.

  206. 206.

    Chuck Butcher

    @Wile E. Quixote:

    the moobage.

    That and I’ve got actual caluses. There’s a line from a golem in Dragon Age that fits EE – squishy.

    If I ever get back to making something like a living off this construction stuff I want to have a chat with Ruger about a Ruger #1 in .243. I’m not sure the 6.5×55 cartridge has enough strength for the pressures I want to build. I have in mind 140gr HPBT at 3600fps. Think on that one.

  209. 209.

    Darkrose

    @Chuck Butcher:

    There’s a line from a golem in Dragon Age that fits EE – squishy.

    I am going to sit here and imagine Shale stomping EE to a dark splotch on the ground. It’s a nice mental picture.

  211. 211.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @Chuck Butcher:

    That and I’ve got actual caluses. There’s a line from a golem in Dragon Age that fits EE – squishy.

    Hey, Erick Erickson has calluses too, I mean there’s only so much that hand lotion can do, especially when his “friends” keep sending him those hot, hot pictures of Vladimir Putin’s moobage.

  212. 212.

    Wile E. Quixote

    @beltane:

    @Mike in NC: The same can be said for Margaret Thatcher. The world was a better place when right-wing leaders had the decency to keep their shirts on

    I’ll bet that Andrew Sullivan would find topless pictures of Maggie Thatcher pretty hot.

  213. 213.

    Chuck Butcher

    The #1 uses a falling block action, the things are quite literally cannons and can withstand internal pressures that’d explode a bolt gun. I have a 45-70 Gvt in #1 that is putting 500gr out at 1800fps – hurts like hell though.

    It would take some real serious pressure to get 140gr going 3600/+fps. The 140 gr HPBT .243 (6.5mm) is one of the most ballistically perfect rounds there is. Length, dia, shape are just damn near perfect and at 140gr has the mass to break large bones. At that kind of velocity the thing will fly in a “flat” trajcectory giving huge range and accuracy.

    R#1 may look like a short barrel rifle, it isn’t – that is the lack of bolt mechanism which shortens the whole rifle. It also cuts weight, which ups recoil meaning ow.

    My Ruger #1

  214. 214.

    WarMunchkin

    Dick Cheney, the Uber Daddy: Maybe it’s the sly, knowing smile that hides a teamster’s vocabulary that makes this man so macho. To me he is the essence of cool. I cannot imagine him raising his voice, getting flustered, angry, or non-plussed (even when someone runs in front of his shotgun). He is the kind of man you call if you are picked up for speeding and need bail. If you are sick as a dog or can’t get home or find yourself alone in the last grinding pangs of labor you call a Cheney kind of guy. When every other authority figure tells you “no,” Dick Cheney, because you are a woman and he seems to like them, would tell you “yes.”

    ….DEAR GOD… also FYWP

  217. 217.

    mtraven

    @Short Bus Bully:

    Yeah, that’s about right.

    It’s not so much about wanting to get fucked (though there might be something there) as wanting to have a virile symbol to take the place of one’s own inadequate self. This is a fundamental underpinning of the fascist mindset. Sorry to use the f-word, but what else do you call people longing for an all-powerful masculine figure to lead them?

  218. 218.

    bob h

    I recall the amazement and pride of some Republicans in the size of Cheney’s pud during the 2004 election.

  221. 221.

    Binky the bear

    Nietzsche, Emerson, and the Clash all said it different, but the gist was that one becomes what one hates and fears. I present this photographic adulation as prima facie evidence that this notion is indeed axiomatic.

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