In this column I pose questions and raise issues. I don't always agree with the conclusion, implied or stated. The purpose is to put a slightly different spin on each item and to promote discussion.

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• Thirty percent of America’s 9.9 million preschoolers are being raised in organized facilities. (Source: U.S. Census Bureau)

• As of January 31, 1995, 2.8 percent of the adult American population were in prison, on probation or parole.

• As of March 31, 1996, 438,295 American men had AIDS versus 75,191 women. (Source: Seattle Times, Seattle-King County Health Department, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

• When virtually all romance novels were trash, it was a male conspiracy to perpetuate the "subjugation of women." Now, when advertisers use female bodies to sell commodities to men,...it’s a male conspiracy to perpetuate the "subjugation of women."

• At Fannie Mae, 56 percent of their employees are female; at First Chicago, it’s 69 percent, 58 percent at Pacific Bell, 73 percent at Unum America, and 75 percent at Wells Fargo. (Source: Working Woman, June 1996) Discrimination?

• How many so-called "deadbeat dads" are not paying child support because they have been incarcerated for non-payment of support amounts based upon "imputed income"?

• The leading cause of death among American children is careless drivers who run them down. Motorists create a hostile environment for pedestrians and bicyclists. Cars are physically bigger and inherently more destructive than pedestrians and bicyclists. By feminist logic, pedestrians and bicyclists should be able to accuse most drivers of "hostile environment road harassment."

• When someone exhausts their unemployment benefits, they are no longer counted in the unemployment statistics even if they are still unemployed, but are euphemistically referred to as "discouraged" workers. Men who are "discouraged" are called "deadbeats," homeless, or dead. Women who are discouraged are called housewives, welfare mamas, or "oppressed." More than 80 percent of the homeless are men, and, for most of the past 15 years, male unemployment has outpaced female unemployment.

• During a conference broadcast on the University of Washington’s UWTV channel (July 1996), economist Julianne Malveaux gave specific instances of sex and race discrimination to justify handicapping all white men. (Why target the individual lawbreakers when you can use them to justify your own brand of racism?) On the subject of a meritocracy, she questioned the current definition of merit, asserting we need to subordinate quantitave factors, like skill and productivity, to qualitative factors, like "Emotional Quotient." So, next time you drive off the car lot in a lemon, just remember, maybe the autoworkers who built your car don’t know a spot weld from a rubber gromet, but they feel your pain.

• Become aware of how you are treated as a male. Focus on the negative things. The women who expect you to get out of their way in the grocery store, the women who arrogantly treat you like an untouchable as you walk along the street, your female coworkers who say things like, "all men are pigs," then laugh. Try it for a few days. Then, when you're starting to feel angry, become aware of all the ways women are treated as females. The deference they are accorded at work because everyone "knows," men oppress women in the workplace. The automatic respect they get on moral issues. The automatic assumption they are always right when they accuse a man of sexism.

• Who is the predator: the fish that hits on the bait, or the fisherman who dangles the bait? The duck that flies into a cove with other ducks, or the hunter who set out the decoys to make the cove appear friendly to ducks? The man who hits on a woman, or the woman who works to make herself appear as sexually appealing to men as possible?

• Marriage is paternity insurance. It assures reproductive benefits to men who support women. Without it, why should men support women? Forcing chaste men to pay the social costs of female promiscuity is like paying for car insurance when you don't have a car. Driving is elective, so is promiscuity, and those who don't drive won't pay.

• According to popular wisdom, pathological aggression is a primary characteristic of masculinity. Few feminists, however, will acknowledge the pathological passivity of femininity, and when they do it is to blame it on men. Fewer still acknowledge either female aggression or male passivity, and again, most who do blame both primarily on men. Many agree that "patriarchal" society creates and encourages a codependency between aggressive men and passive women, and again, the popular wisdom is that men are to blame for this. When are we going to acknowledge that women are as responsible for this as men?

• Years ago, pop-feminists bragged that women live longer than men because they're tougher. What they want us to ignore is that, lacking male-developed medical and domestic technologies, historically men lived longer than women. Even during times of war.

• Many believe that women have a fundamental right to abortion. Until recently, I shared that belief. Then a friend of mine pointed out that I didn't believe in the right to abort a fetus, but the right to not carry a fetus to term. Splitting hairs? Or is there really a difference? The difference is that an unwanted fetus is like a squatter. A landlord may evict but not kill a squatter. How is a fetus different? The only way to "evict" an unwanted fetus is to kill it, so either the owner of the body (the mother) loses her rights to evict unwanted occupants from her body because she can't do it without killing the "squatter," or she does not. Since her rights supersede anyone else's right to her body, her rights supersede the unborn. Will that change when scientists develop artificial wombs? Then, unborn fetuses can be transplanted (i.e., evicted) without killing them. It will be interesting to see if the pop-feminists embrace choice in the form of eviction, or cling to choice in the form of death.

• Women are always coming up with new ways for men to "prove" themselves. Centuries ago it was jousting matches. Now, it's braving charges of rape or sexual harassment. After all, how else is a girl to know which guy is worthy to be the hero with the torn shirt sweeping her off her feet on the cover of her favorite romance novel?

• Deadbeat dads. We hear about them all the time. Men are obligated to continue supporting their families after divorce. Yet, as Susan Faludi admits in her book, Backlash, many men are emotionally devastated by divorce. Interesting, how pop-feminists expect emotionally devastated men to continue financially supporting those who no longer emotionally support them.

• When a woman gets pregnant, she has the legal choice to abort or not, but men have no choice -- they are legally obligated to let her abort the pregnancy if she chooses, and they are legally obligated to financially support the child should she choose otherwise. When we ask, what about men's choice, pop-feminists typically retort that the man made his choice when he has sex. Isn't that a lot like the anti-abortion argument? (She made her choice when she had sex.)

• If you're a straight woman, a lesbian or gay man, you can be "proud" of your sexuality, and you're respected for that. But if you're a straight man, you have to earn respect, and even then you're dissed as an oppressive patriarchal jerk. Is it time for us to come out of the closet and declare we are grouchy, and proud of it?

• If a woman isn't shallow, you can't push her buttons. If she's not interested in you, that's not going to change no matter how rich or famous you become. What does this say about women whose interest in a man depends upon his circumstances?