[Little Ray]

I think Mr. Locklin may have something here.

So, who, in the current crop of candidates, would you trust to get your back?

I'm keep coming up with a complete blank.

[Chode]

i've still got the crooked nose to prove it...

[jmacusa]

I was raised by a father who’d punch me in the face or head for so much as a look. He taught me and my four brothers to box. I’ve played soccer , I took karate classes and I’ve been cold-cocked with a black-jack but didn’t go down(rule #1 in a street fight: don’t go down), I’ve been in plenty of fistfights. I know what this guys talking about.

[dog breath]

I don't know, Newt has always been pretty ornery, I think he once shot a man in Reno just to watch him die....or was that Johnny Cash?

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

This goes with my theory on free speech spoken from a barstool. You are free to say anything you want but it may have consequences.

[Inyo-Mono]

Manly bump.

[Minn]

Entertaining, but silly. Real men are tough, but have no need or desire to prove it. Inadequate men feel the need to prove toughness.

[Major Matt Mason]

Teddy may have been a tough guy, but he wasn't a great president, certainly not a conservative one. But most of the GOP presidential candidates have been wimps because many of the establishment types are wimps. I honestly think that is the appeal of Obama to some people that would otherwise not like him - even though he isn't a tough guy in reality, he tries to project that persona with at least some success. He has somehow given the idea that he has street cred when he is in fact a wimpy elitist like most of the folks running the show in DC.

[MarkL]

Well, GHW Bush was a naval aviator during WWII, who survived being shot down and was rescued by a US submarine.

GW Bush was a jet fighter pilot who flew what may have been the most dangerous (to the pilots) fighter jet ever put into service by the USAF.

Mark

[Psalm 144]

“So, who, in the current crop of candidates, would you trust to get your back?

I’m keep coming up with a complete blank.”

Perry. Probably Huntsman - I am assessing the man here, not his policies. Newt if we were attempting the same objective. Could be wrong on any or all.

[gettinolder]

I like this article. It resonates with me.

I recently showed one of my daughters scars on my knuckles from fist fights as a younger man, my wife was so impressed she called in my youngest son (17) to see them too. Neither of them knew about the source of these scars.

I've had a revolver pointed at me at point blank range after I broke up a fight.(cocked, and held by a scared cop too cowardly to stop two thugs who were beating the crap out of a young man. WTF?)

Also had a confrontation with another gun (all these earlier in life...)

Today, I find the same attitude surfacing that I had early as a young man, "Don't Tread On Me". I feel the necessity to stay as physically strong as possible with these perilous times, two young daughters and a beautiful wife to protect and defend.

Thanks for posting the article.

[Track9]

[Jeff Chandler]

What’s with the slap at Israel and defense of moslems? Those didn’t fit in with the rest of the article.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I think Mr. Locklin may have something here."

I think Mr. Locklin spent a lot of time needlessly typing away when he could have simply quoted CS Lewis:

“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

[piytar]

Perry. He at least will defend his dog by shooting a coyote...

[Fester Chugabrew]

Not that it would give reason to trust me, but I was punched in the face at a fairly young age, right after the State forced busing into my school. The impact came out of nowhere, for no other reason that I gave a friendly wave to someone from the inner city.

In retrospect, while his reaction was totally inappropriate (he was suspended), he probably thought he was being mocked and took action. Standard assumptions taught him to be defensive (or rather offensive).

Ever since, I don’t look strangers in the face, or reach out to them in any way, without reserve. When the fellow walking down the sidewalk with pants drooping half down his ass turns around to stare as I approach from behind in my car, I look away and mutter to myself words that would cause Al Sharpton to take offense.

[Secret Agent Man]

Here’s the problem living in today’s world.

You can’t look cockeyed at someone before your 2A rights are taken away. Idiotic zero-tolerance policies and now misdemeanors that you get get by shouting at someone can grab your gun rights from under you.

You don’t want to get a record of fighting. THey make examples out of good people that fight for good reasons. The asshole criminals that fight don’t care and they have civil rights groups that care about reducing their sentences. Joe Citizen gets the shaft.

[Haddit]

What an idiotic statement. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good bar fight as long as I’m bigger and badder than the other guy, but that doesn’t make me smarter. What makes me smarter is stopping fights.

If my idiot brother deliberately spills the beer of a 300 pound bald headed guy sitting at a table all by himself because the guy looks evil, I’ll buy the guy another picture of beer. If my kids, in their 30s, are near blows, I’ll stand between them. One of my kids went to Iraq and was in Force Recon, the other is a natural born fighter.

I was so impressed with Bush’s restraint when he started the Iraq war, how he knew the French, Russians and the United Nations were making money off of the boycott. Yet Bush had the restraint to let it slide. That is leadership.

[Publius6961]

Teddy Roosevelt, my ideal President, kept a lion and a bear as pets in the White House and took his daily exercise doing jiu-jitsu and boxing. He even lost vision in an eye in a friendly boxing match while he was president.

This must be a myth foisted upon a trusting citizenry by the Tea Party or extreme right wingers.

Fortunately, we now have PETA, who would never allow such barbarity and animal abuse in the White House.
Today, the ACLU would probably sue LBJ for picking up his hounds by the ears. And win. Noble animal rights advocates, ya know.

[golux]

Bump! My first fight made me a little man instead of a wimp. My last fight... Well, not so much. But hey, I got home OK!

[muir_redwoods]

My first black belt test (I've passed three) was six hours long. I took 300 falls and delivered as many throws. The last bit was a three round sparring match. As I was readying my exhausted, bruised self for this last challenge my teacher's teacher asked if I thought I could win if I got hurt. With more bravado than brains I said " yes". He said, "So you now understand that you can win and still get hurt"

It forms good advice. One doesn't have to be the toughest person, one simply has to be tough enough to hurt ones opponent even if one loses. It's a good way to keep things from coming to a boil if the bully knows he's going to get hurt even if he wins. I also have a degree in literature but bookish men who have never had to successfully sweat their way through three rounds know a bit less about much of classical literature than I do no matter what degree they hold.