Captain Chesley B. ‘Sully’ Sullenberger, III, to Ground Control: “Unable: We’re Going To Be In the Hudson.”

Those were the laconic, spare words of ‘Sully,’ as he calmly prepared to land Cactus 1549, an engineless passenger plane, in the Hudson.

This former ace F-4 fighter pilot is so obviously of the right stuff. This is what it means to be a man—in the traditional sense. Silent, steely, short-on-words and ego, big on humility, ability, and reliability. The kind of guy who’s the best at what he does and almost always comes through for you.

There is a deep lesson here about the value of an endangered virtue: manliness. You see it in older men like Sully. They have that deep voice, the slight swagger no amount of politically correct taming can subdue, and they do their jobs to perfection.

Then there is the New Man. I described him here:

“I was stocking up on groceries at Fred Meyer when I heard this fretful falsetto. ‘Honey, look at these ingredients. Oh my God. Check the percentage of trans fats. It’s outrageous!’ The fussing, believe it or not, was coming from a man. He was hopping up and down on spindly legs, beckoning his wife excitedly. I quickly moved on, thanking my lucky stars that the spouse had gravitated automatically to the hardware section of the store, and was itching to move on to Home Depot.”

“Whenever I venture out, I encounter this not-so-new breed of man. Typically, he’ll have a few spoilt, cranky kids in tow, and a papoose strapped to a sunken chest. He’ll be laboring to make the outing to Trader Joe’s a ‘learning experience’ for the brats—one that every other store patron is forced to endure. This generic guy oozes psychological correctness and zero manliness. He’s not necessarily effeminate, mind you. Rather, he’s safely androgynous, and most certainly not guy-like in the traditional sense. As personalities go, he and the wife are indistinguishable.”

It’s rather alarming: everywhere around me—and on television—the prototypical father, in his early 50s, late 40s, is often more Sully-like than his son. The latter is the New Man: high voice, pudgy face, sensitive mannerism. Unattractive.

Ladies (“mature” ones, at least), who would you rather date, Chris Cillizza of the trendy eye-wear and affectatious mannerism, or Tom Brokaw? (Old-style gentlemen also seem to stick with their sweethearts until death do them apart.)

All the above is why I, personally, find men in the writing profession (with exceptions, naturally), especially bloggers, particularly off-putting. (And a man who blogs shoulder-to-shoulder with his wife is like a man who bakes with her. You just know he’s puny in spirit and petty.)

And not solely because we writers are often ego-bound, self-centered, and unable to get beyond ourselves–vices that are particularly ugly in a man. Rather, I like men who can do what I can’t do. I like that my husband manipulates for a living concepts I cannot fathom.

Don’t get me wrong; I did well at math, but I had to work at it (hard working is another manly trait). And I loved post-graduate level statistics, which I aced. But there is no comparison between the level of math required for the soft subjects—business, economics, statistics—and the hard and applied sciences. The latter is beyond me. Physics, astrophysics, and electrical engineering—manipulating the laws of nature for a living—which is what goes into a thorough understanding of physics and electrical and aerospace engineering: that awes me, because it is beyond me. (The old boy won’t even read this blog unless forced to; or if we’re arguing and he wants to check up on what I’ve been up to. GRIN)

Since I’ve already meandered from the topic, and the Main Man: In his fascinating book, America’s Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama’s Story of Race and Inheritance, Steve Sailer comments on the intelligence of Obama versus that of his Ivy-League, physicist half-brother. Unless I misunderstood the IQ Ace, he believed these values would be comparable.

I disagree. Granted, I assert this based on gut, not numbers. But since Steve, I believe, did not provide a citation for that particular snippet, I’m willing to bet that Obama is unable to master the level of abstraction required by a, presumably, top physicist such as his half-brother. I can do law; I can’t do physics, astrophysics–or design, calculate, and calibrate the stuff that goes into a cell phone. I don’t buy the theory of differing, but equal, intelligence. Such intelligence egalitarianism in just a PC way of elevating more common, attainable abilities. There are many more lawyers than physicists.

In any event, the steel that is Sully is worth protecting (as opposed to protectionism for American steel and steel workers).