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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• Faith and hate are powerful antidotes to reason for which neither deity nor humanity has found a remedy.

• Some call Microsoft products "the greatest productivity enhancement in the history of the world." The Fed would not agree: "The peak of labor productivity growth and increases in living standards during the postwar era occurred prior to 1973. Specifically, productivity growth averaged nearly 3 percent during the five business expansions from late 1949 to late 1973. ... Labor productivity during the current expansion has risen by a paltry 1.3 percent average annual rate (see chart)."

• In my experience, most women take no risks but are upset if men don't; many work hard to hurt men's feelings, and are offended if the result falls short of their mark; and a few strive their utmost to set men up as stalkers or worse, and are enraged if they fail. If this is what moves men to call them the "gentler sex," then we are a sorry lot indeed.

• Men will take no for an answer when men who take no for an answer get laid.

• Advocates of absolute freedom of speech do not want us to know they oppose an even more fundamental right: freedom to sleep in peace.

• Americans are not so much obsessed with looking eternally young and healthy as acting eternally young and stupid. The former requires knowledge and wisdom, the latter balks at age and rages against the night.

• Life is not like Beverly Hills 90210 anymore than it is like Star Trek. The difference is, most Trekkies know this.

• The reason standing up for what is right is notable is because so few do it; if more people made it a habit, fewer would have to sacrifice themselves and wrong doing would be rare.

• The American Dream used to be, "Just give me a chance." Now, it's, "Just let me win the Lotto."

• Some wonder why Microsoft is fighting the government over what amounts to a relic - the days of Windows are numbered. But the answer is actually fairly simple: Windows is their cash cow today, while the Applications and Internet comprise their future. Take away one, no more mother lode, take away the other, no more future.

• Sinead O'Connor just announced what the rest of us already knew: she wants to be embraced by the "I've been a victim of the evil white male hegemony which is solely responsible for all my previous tantrums but now I'm joining the nobody left to blame" movement.

  The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was featured in a King 5 News special report which managed to blame the power of men for the horrible health conditions in Africa while simultaneously lauding the power and leadership of women within African society.

• If, as many women's organizations say, there is no excuse for domestic violence, then there is no excuse for a woman to hit her husband, boyfriend or children.

• Is buying customers an exercise in monopoly power?

• In the eyes of the French, Cyrano de Bergerac is a romantic figure; but to most Americans, any real-life Cyrano is a loser.

• In the bad old non-pluralistic, unenlightened, patriarchal, oppressive days, most Americans wouldn't dream of having sex with a stranger, but most would help a stranger. Now, after nigh onto 40 years of pop feminist, ethnically sensitive, politically correct training, it often seems like more people are willing to have sex with a stranger than they are to help a stranger. Some people would have us believe that's progress.

• Decades ago, the Federal Trace Commission broke up AT&T's monopoly. Now, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is telling state governments they have no jurisdiction over AT&T's nascent Cable TV monopoly because "it is a telecommunications service, and therefore governable only by federal law."

• In June, a Manhattan grand jury indicted several men on charges of sexual abuse and rioting during the Central Park rampage which may ultimately result in indictments against at least another 20 men. Thank goodness we no longer live in the bad old pre-pop feminist patriarchal days when boys were taught to behave like female-oppressing gentlemen.

• Corporations that abuse employee trust and amass huge profits at employee expense are creating the backlash that will lead to a resurgence of union membership, and the more they do it the worse the backlash will be. When it comes, experts will shake their heads and ask, "What were they thinking?" Question is, why aren't the pundits asking this now, when it could do some good?