then I don't think you should have to pay child support. Just like I don't think you should have to continue a pregnancy if you were reasonably sure you were infertile and you got pregnant anyway. This *particular* man thought this *particular* woman was infertile. I don't think he should have to take lifelong reponsibility for this child.

If a man told you he was infertile and you got pregnant after having sex with him, you would almost certainly be very angry, and you would surely hold him responsible for the expense of an abortion. You would not let him force you to take lifelong reponsibility for a child you were reasonably sure you could not conceive. (This is different from a situation in which you are using condoms or pills, because we all know condoms and pills - and even surgery - sometimes fail.)

In garden-variety child-support cases, all of the issues of maturity and responsibility that people are discussing certainly apply. But I think it's dangerous to apply cookie-cutter standards to this case, and it shows a lack of understanding of the rights and responsibilities that feminists support. Obviously, these "men's rights" people have chosen this case because it is so clear. I hope the judges agree with them instead of applying the "two-parent" standard: that standard does not come from enlightened feminism. It is a remnant of an narrowly defined and oppressive concept of family. You know, that monkey we've been trying to get off our backs for 100-odd years? Now you want to help him climb back on?

I am ambivalent about Gore. I feel that, like Kerry, he allowed himself to be over-starched and steered to the center by bad campaign managers. But I am also a Reformed Nader Voter. Other people like me might welcome the chance to vote for Al this time. Still, Rightists hate Bill Clinton the way I hate W, and I'm not sure for most people - Fox News presumably has not been closely following Gore's academic career and heart-felt liberal speech tours - that Gore will have lost the Clinton stench even now. I think his success would depend entirely on whether he came off again as an over-starched debate club geek. But personally I would probably vote for him even if he did.

Yo! The Troll - I mean, The Man! (And John Fairfax, Brightstar, et. al.) If you hate Broadsheet, stick your nose somewhere else. No one is forcing you to read it.

Remember when Bush first got into the White House and Rove created this big fake scandal about sabotaged computers and trashed rooms? And then when Congress tried to investigate, it turned out nothing of the sort had actually happened?

I don't give a damn if the rug was frayed or not. But I also don't believe that it really was.

Way back in the innocent '80s, when girls still sucked at school compared with boys (i.e., before the ratio of college-bound females to college-bound males actually matched the ratio of all females to all males), I was shamed out of playing with my dolls at the age of 9. Playing gave way to reading horribly written fiction and being victimized at slumber parties by my vicious classmates.

Ah, sugar and spice and everything nice.

If the toys aren't working, maybe marketers should start preying on girls' need to grow up. Like, you know, they could sell make-up and purses and revealing dress-up clothes to younger and younger girls! I mean, this is a democracy, right? Every last four-year-old has a GOD-GIVEN RIGHT to learn what it feels like to be a hotel heiress engaging in high-risk sexual behavior!

Oh wait, we just had a story about that last week, didn't we.

Adults often hold children to much higher standards than they hold themselves. This is not about girls, boys, or teens in particular. We live in a culture in which human beings choose to be numb to their own feelings and to one another. Try being a pedestrian sometime and you will see what I mean. Road rage isn't just for insane, gun-toting Texans. Have you sat behind the wheel lately and paid attention to how you talk about and treat the other drivers - not to mention the people who are "in your way" on bikes or in the crosswalk? The car culture in this country is just an extension of the way we treat each other most of the time. And being the pedestrian in a car world (or the moral voice in a callous, violent culture) is not easy.