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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• People tend to live up, or down, to our expectations of them.
• "I didn't make the world" is an easy excuse for those who profit from perpetuating the status quo.
• It's very interesting how mention of racism automatically turns to treatment of Blacks, as if the racist treatment of other races, such as American Indians, by any other race, such as Blacks, is irrelevant.
• African Americans who complain about yesterday's slaves divert attention from today's corporate serfs.
• Feminists assert American law is rife with outdated patriarchal violations of women's rights. No doubt, they are right. But blanket condemnations without pointing to particulars works only to incite women to hate men.
• Great leaders seldom make good parents, but good parents often make great leaders.
• Animals have instincts. From their perspective, humans must seem developmentally retarded, lacking, as we do, an instinctual understanding of the rules. Just as, one might say, people with Asperger's Disorder seem developmentally impaired to normal people because we lack an intuitive understanding of the rules.
• Most people just mark time while they wait to die.
• For society to survive well, it must provide for the elderly, women and children. This requires the support of men. But for men to support society, society must support men. Without reciprocity, everything breaks down.
• Reason tells us women should prefer men who make them feel good about themselves; experience, however, leads to a contrary conclusion.
• It's easier to change your stuff than yourself.
• People with Asperger's Disorder tend to describe things in precise terms. This leads to frustrating miscommunications with normal people, who have an enormous capacity for making assumptions.
• The Jewish claim to Israel is essentially religious and cultural. Genetically, as a population, they are further removed from the region than American Indians are from Asia.
• Good habits are hard to fake.
• When women are depressed, society cares and counsels them; but when men are depressed, society scolds and calls then losers.
• Self-respecting men prefer the company of self-respecting women.
• Feminists assert both the lack of any biologically-based mothering instinct and the paramount importance of mothers to children.
• If being "snooty" wasn't racism, as some contend, but a relatively benign way for Blacks to get some pay back for generations of oppression, they wouldn't act that way toward Indians. But those who do act snooty, do it to Indians, too. Hence, it's not pay back, but racism.
• Are "nice guys" simply men with clinical depression?
• Feminists base virtually all their assertions about men on the behaviors of teen age boys, moneyed men, and the relatively few jerks who fall in between.
• At least as many women as men can and do separate sex from love, and at least as many men as women wonder how they can do that.
• Remember, only you can prevent forests.
• For decades, Hollywood producers have stolen stories and ideas from fans and writers. Now, computer technology gives consumers the ability to do unto Hollywood what they've been doing to us, and they're screaming "piracy!"
• When a woman expresses care and concern for a coworker, it's nurturing; when a man does, it's harassment.
• A large emotional component of the feminist movement is glee.
• If Americans separated their school children into academic and trade programs the way Europeans and Japanese do, the average test scores of American students would compare very well to the scores of students in other nations.
• The extremes define what is reasonable.
• The feminists behind Wages for Housework ignore the facts men do "unwaged work" same as women, and that in cases where the man earns most or all of the household income, the woman is getting room and board. Moreover, Victorian attitudes to the contrary notwithstanding, sex isn't just something women do for men. Men also do it for women.
• "If a man can be charged for raping his wife, then why can't a woman be charged for stealing from her husband?" - Anonymous
• The economic geniuses at Wages for Housework seem oblivious to the fact they are demanding that we view marriage as an employment relationship, in which men are the managers and women are their subordinates.
• Life and politics may not be fair, but the society we create should be.
• Liberals and Libertarians assume people are basically nice. Christians and Conservatives assume people are basically not nice. There is some truth in each view, and all the truth in both views.
• Expectations affect outcomes.
• What we must grasp with clarity is that we are raising generations whose lives, limits, aspirations and achievements will either be imprisoned by our ignorance and fear, or freed by our love and courage.
• The "three strikes" laws are a very effective way to spend billions of dollars warehousing petty criminals.
• Why would Palestinians choose greater oppression under an Arabian government than they get under the Israeli government? The answer is simple: National pride. Throughout history people have almost always preferred national sovereignty no matter the relative merits of foreign rule.
• You can tell a lot about a person by how they drive.
• If autism and Asperger's disorder result, as medical research suggests, from over-development of certain lobes within the cerebral cortex causing underdevelopment of the cerebellum, then the front-end cure would be to prevent that over-development. But Asperger's disorder provides significant benefits. So maybe it would make more sense to focus on a back-end cure, one that lets the cerebellum catch up with the larger cerebral cortex.
• Corporations prosper because they offer what people want. But then, so do drug dealers.
• Feminists point with grave concern to the fact we are inundated by news reports of violence perpetrated by men against women and children. They're right to be concerned. For far too long the news media has ignored male victims and female perpetrators. This must change.
• Privacy is essential to maintain community standards of morality. Without privacy, it's too easy to justify loosening standards when you can point to one another and say, "They're doing it, so why not me?"
• Women's liberation ends where dating begins.
• I was shocked to learn there is no prohibition in Christianity against killing, only against murder. What's the difference? The Bible leaves that for us to decide. How convenient.
• Recently, when I popped over to McAfee to update the DAT file on my virus checker, I noticed I could upgrade my virus checker free. Within a few days of doing so, however, two things happened. First, system performance degraded significantly. Second, I received email from McAfee promoting their PC Booster to improve my system performance.
• One of the great dichotomies of our age is comfort and inconvenience.