NEVER MARRY A MAN WITH I.E.D.

When you read the headline, you probably wondered what I was talking about.

After all, "I.E.D." is Pentagon-speak for a street bomb, or "improvised explosive device," as the generals like to say. Iraq's insurgents have killed about 2,000 American soldiers and Marines with deadly I.E.D.s.

What woman would consider marrying an I.E.D. or a ticking bomb?

Besides, how can you marry a mechanical/chemical device?

It seems that there's a human version of the military's I.E.D.

Twenty-three years before the start of the Iraq War, medical researchers identified a new psychological disease. It had to do with men who had explosive tendencies. Men who would do serious damage to people and property. The researchers said such men had "Intermittent Explosive Disorder," or I.E.D.

The research didn't get too much publicity because it was thought that fewer than a half percent of all adult men had I.E.D. But now Harvard has released a new study which claims that an incredible 9.3 percent of all adult men in the USA are afflicted with I.E.D.

This means that one in ten men is likely to break your bones, your skull or your furniture. Or do serious damage to your children.

We've always liked movie heroes who seemed afflicted with I.E.D. Did you ever see a John Wayne movie that didn't have a major fight, fists or guns? Who but Americans would elect a "Terminator" governor of its most populous state? If the "Rambo" character didn't have I.E.D., who did? Why do we tune in to the violence of NFL football, admiring field thugs like Bill Romanowski? And how can we accept hockey, a sport where fights are encouraged and weapons are provided?

I.E.D. movie and sports stars may be acceptable, but would you want one in your house? Battered wives. Dead wives. Abused children. Mean streets. All speak to us about the reality of male "Intermittent Explosive Disorder." A disease that ranges far and wide beyond the worlds of entertainment and sports.

I.E.D. explains the husband who hits his wife and apologizes, promising "I will never to do it again, honey." He will surely do it again. And again. And again.

I.E.D. men are easily provoked to violence. It lies just below the surface.

If you or your daughter are thinking of marrying someone, you should inject a little provoking into the courtship. If the guy explodes or loses it just one time, run (do not walk) to the nearest exit.

There's bound to be a better candidate just around the corner.

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