Charlie Sheen single-handedly redefines the concept of "lower than whale shit"

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I'm not going to post the content of his voice mail to Denise Richards here. You can read it at this link:

http://www.wwtdd.com/post.phtml?pk=8201

Good luck reading it and walking away with any reaction other than "What the FUCK is wrong with Charlie Sheen?"

[Elidor]

1. Nothing Charlie does could surprise me

He's repulsive throughout.

[WinkyDink]

2. Like father, NOT like son. A shame.

[ForrestGump]

3. Charlie Sheen's an appealing actor, and seems quite a character

in his good moments (that may well be few and far between), but it'd probably be easier to list what is right with him than what is wrong with him.

But the thing that really disturbed me was the nature of some (many) of the comments on the linked page. This gem, for example:

"Gag & restrain the whore & leave money on the nightstand when you're through."

That and similar garbage hit me right between the eyes even more swiftly than usual today because I'd earlier followed a link to another site ("the superficial," I think it is) that's got the same kind of stuff posted and that attracts the same kind of comments. The actual content of the text accompanying paparazzi pictures and the like was bad enough, but many of the comments are just sick: misogyny is perhaps the prevailing theme, but it's accompanied by healthy doses of racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, and whatever else may be even obliquely germane to the degradation of whoever the piece's subject is.

It made me start wondering -- and the comments on the above-linked page compounded the wonderment -- if a great number of American men, perhaps even a majority, are this sick and twisted in their hatred of or contempt for women in general (leaving aside, for now, other forms of bigotry so apparent within these comments). My roommate and work partner of late (after a spectacular meltdown one violence-laced night I moved out but I'm still somewhat tied to the pig through work) is a man filled with hate and anger who is a true misogynist, an ugly woman-hater who very sincerely and deeply does not trust women and does not like women but who will not hesitate to use them when it suits his needs. He calls all women 'whores' and worse, too, just like these pathetic excuses for masculinity who post on those trash-culture message boards. But he's not the only one: from where I sit (bear in mind that where I sit is Las Vegas, Nevada, still home to an awful lot of sleazeballs) I see a lot of men who at least cultivate the appearance of a misogynist, albeit rarely as virulent as that of my ex-roommate. For his part, he often reels out his hateful talk about women in front of men he knows or has just met, and there seems to be a huge 'macho' posing element to it. It's easy to tell that some are taken aback by it, or not happy about it, but for others it's like some pheromone integral to some kind of warped male bonding. I don't get it. It's sick, as far as I'm concerned. I wonder what effect it would have, given the homophobia he and doubtless many of these 'men' also cling to, if I pointed out that not liking women is so gay (no, not that I think that at all, or that gay men would for a second want these hateful scumbuckets turfed into their ranks, but I'm sure the concept would fit their warped worldview even if the irony of it led to my being threatened with bodily harm).

Anyway, I've long thought -- looking around some of the places I've been -- that I'd hate to be a single female because it really does seem like truly good men are few and far between. Men who sit around drinking beer after beer and agreeing on their superiority to all those 'bitches' are really quite a pathetic thing to behold, and I hope that they get left behind ever more as society progresses around them. These so-called 'macho' jerks are far from real men. They're just the same blowhard bullies we saw in primary school, slapping each other on the back and destined (I sure hope so) to live miserable lives that, no matter what degree of material success or silicone-enhanced trophy partner they attract, will ultimately be as profoundly empty as their hearts and characters. They're beneath contempt, really, which is why I usually pretty much just ignore their blathering...all that bombastic chauvinism and bigotry is, after all, a desperate cover for very obvious personal failings. They're also ultimately cowards, and not just the ones who vent their feelings (real or contrived, or a combination of both) on Internet message boards.

To hell with them all.