I can't agree with you. In every public debate, there are a few people who will agree with you no matter what, a few who will disagree with you no matter what and a huge number who are basically open to the various sides of the discussion. Intemperate language alienates people; when you use it, they immediately stop listening to you.

During the Viet Nam war, protesters learned early on that even police and national guard members on riot duty would listen if you talked calmly, reasonably and listened to what they had to say in response. Words like "General Betray Us" are the exact opposite of what those of us who are anti-Iraq war need to use. They bespeak extreme political immaturity. And it doesn't matter that in some way those words can be defended as true. What matters is that they turn people off to both your message and to you. They won't listen to you the next time you try to convince them of something. People who truly believe in what they're saying don't use that type of charged language because it tends to accomplish the opposite of what they say they want. (Of course when I say "you" I don't mean you personally, but "one.")

has no ability to stop the PKK. On the other hand, the peshmurga do have the ability. What are they doing to control the PKK? If they're not controlling the PKK, the question becomes "why not?" That question suggests that the PKK has some influence in Kurdish northern Iraq. If that is true, why wouldn't Turkey invade northern Iraq to stop the terrorism being harbored there? And if Turkey does that, what exactly is the Bush Administration going to say? It looks like preventive war to stop terrorism to me. And the fact that there's all that oil in northern Iraq, well that's just a coincidence, right? Who would dream of invading a foreign nation to secure its oil reserves?

I can predict when the Rockies will no longer be hot. Tonight. A month ago they were a mediocre team. They got hot and that was all it took to beat Philly and Arizona. But they will no longer be hot after 8 days off, and their natural talent won't be nearly enough to compete with the Sox, sad to say. (I'm a NL fan. If the AL ever wants to drop the DH and start playing baseball again...) Speed and defense are their only weapons and that won't get the job done.

And while we're on the subject of hot. This series could well end in November. In Boston or Denver. Boys of summer? Not this year.

has any ideas worth mentioning, they're keeping them well-hidden. I keep waiting to hear or read something - anything - that resembles a coherent intelligent analysis of world events. But all I get is this loony extremism.

Iran is Hitler's Germany. Sure. Germany was a highly- industrialized, populous country in the middle of Europe with the largest, most effective military machine in the world at the time of the invasion of Poland. Iran, by contrast, is a small, not very industrially advanced country with a militarily inept army (it was unable to defeat Saddaam Hussein's army which was rolled over in a matter of days by coalition forces in 1991), no nuclear weapons and no way to deliver a nuclear weapon if it had one. And of course, as with all nuclear powers, Iranian leaders know full well that a strike against the US would bring the most horrific retaliation imaginable. That prospect has deterred every other nuclear power from attacking the US for roughly 60 years, but these crazies want us to believe that Iran would, for some reason be different.

The Right is out of ideas. It's left with shouting, fearmongering and making up facts. It is intellectually dead.

Human females, when they are pregnant or breastfeeding, produce more of the hormones cortisol, prolactin and oxytocin than do men. Those hormones are responsible for parenting behavior in all mammals that have been studied. In short, if your body produces them, you act like a parent; if it doesn't, you don't. Male lions don't produce those hormones and they kill lion cubs. Male New World monkeys produce more than the female of the species and do the great majority of childrearing. In humans, a man who lives with a pregnant female will produce the same hormones, but not as much as she does. Thus, much of our parental behavior has a biological basis. Of course biology is far from the only determinant.

As to quitting their jobs, men and women both would be well-advised not to. Many things (divorce, death or incapacity of your spouse)can render a married person single overnight, and if you don't have marketable skills, you're in trouble. I'm all for parents taking as much part as possible in the lives of their children, but, except in the rarest of circumstances, abandoning your income is not a good idea.

As to time spent with children, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that, among women and men who work full time, women spend about 170 minutes per day on domestic duties including childcare while men spend about 95 minutes per day. (Women in this category do about 60 minutes per day less paid work than the men.)

Finally, thanks again to Broadsheet for dealing sanely with an issue that is at least nominally about men. Is this getting to be a habit? Several times recently Broadsheet has proven itself capable of writing about men in a balanced, non-derogatory way. Keep it up.