Young men: "lurchy, impressionable… and politically inept"

The Toronto Star takes a frightening look at young men, the subclass of "hormonally deranged" who make a "prime fodder" for Al Qaeda and related enterprises. This according to Rutgers Professor Lionel Tiger, an expert on "male bonding" (he came up with the term in 1969). The last time we heard from Tiger, he had just published a high profile piece on Slate.com from which we pull the nasty and noticable quotable that young men are "the most lurchy, impressionable, energetic, socially exigent and politically inept" of all people. (Hat tip goes to Arts & Letters Daily.)

But not to worry! William Pollick has some advice for those of us with only one X chromosome. He offers four simple heuristics for overcoming our genetic hurdle: "Be stoic. Be independent. Chin up. Be, to use a tired term, macho."

Just in case you're not scared by the prospect of 14.2 million "lurchy" 18-24 year olds walking around looking for such "national civic narcotics" as (gasp!) professional hockey, the article offers the reader a final fright: "There's plentiful anecdotal evidence that girls are moving closer to boys on the terrorism continuum." Now isn't that special?