There's so much bizarre trolling going on in this thread that I won't answer all the questions directed at me since my previous comment, but a couple of things to clarify:

• Any suggestion that Sweden is a matriarchy is purely idiotic. Gender equity here is better than in most countries, but of course better doesn't mean perfect. It's no feminist utopia. Institutions are still male dominated. There is still domestic violence, etc etc. But don't worry boys - those afraid of the emasculating effects of the Swedish system - improvements in gender equity can still be delivered without resort to castration.

• For those who have wondered, I'm not a woman. I'm also not Swedish. I'm an Australian man who has been living here for a couple of years. My own country is one of the few others with no paid maternity leave (although it was on the government's platform at the last election). So although I don't speak from expertise, I think I can at least claim a sense of perspective and varied experience.

• I won't speak for Swedes, and wouldn't do even if I was Swedish. There is a healthy political culture here where people disagree on policy. But even so, the basics of the parental leave policy seem to be well entrenched in the national pysche and although more of the leave is still taken by mothers, it is generally the case that men are able to take substantial amounts of leave to look after their family without being considered flaky, unreliable, or unambitious.

• And yes, h0tr0d, Sweden is small, but why should that mean it's easier to provide a humane equitable social system? Despite having less than 10 million people, and such a radically dangerously scary social welfare system, it has a highly competitive industrial economy and punches well above its weight at the international level. Make a case for why a sensible, fair, functional system can't be made to scale?

And why do people spend so much energy trying to poke holes and inflate myths about systems that work pretty, and yet cling so loyally to systems that have been clearly failing for such a long time? I've never understood that.

While I applaud your writing and really appreciate the approach you take to sports writing - and while I'm a big sports fan myself - I was not a regular reader of your column. Not being an American, nor living in America, baseball, basketball, and American football have limited appeal. One suggestion I would have for Salon, in figuring out "the future of this racket" would be to take a more international view. Online publications are inherently potentially global - go with that.

Good luck with life after abdication.

You don't think this suggests what is happening at last is that the war is winding down and that's why we are starting to get movies about the return of soldiers rather than they tours of duty?

nope