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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• The traditions of western civilization offered many opportunities for individuals to blur the distinctions between gender roles. It's funny, though, how modern liberals label women who did this "proto‑feminists."
• Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards argues that Bush and Cheney were opposed to creating the Department of Homeland Security; so, why do liberals claim HSA is an attempt by the Bush Administration to impose a dictatorship?
• Liberals blame right‑wing talk radio for the level to which political discourse has sunk. They ignore that, from the 1970s onward, leftists have engaged in name‑calling and vulgarity.
• Most conservatives don't know they're conservative, while most liberals don't know they're bigots.
• One of the things liberals hate the most about President Bush, is his moral certainty. They want him to feel fearful and uncertain, like them.
• Does the fact that the U.S. supported and cooperated with Saddam Hussein until the day he invaded Kuwait, mean we should have compounded the error by allowing him to continue oppressing his people while supporting the post‑9⁄11 terrorists?
• The MOB opposes the war in Iraq, and says all mothers who don't want their children to die in Iraq, should join them. Maybe the mothers of MOB are confused, and think Iraq is like Vietnam, a conflict in which 1,000 Americans were killed every 2 weeks, rather than during an entire year; a war for which we were drafted, rather than a war for which Americans volunteer.
• Were the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in cahoots with the GOP, they would have waited until October to release the book and run their ads. This would have done more damage to the Kerry campaign.
• One of the dictates of acceptable behavior in American society today, is that masculinity is bad, but homosexuality is good. That's a recipe for extinction.
• Many liberals today behave toward conservatives the way many whites did toward blacks during the 1960s.
• Anti‑Bush groups protest being called "unpatriotic" for questioning the president. But they're the ones making most of the accusations, and no one in the Bush camp has called anybody who questions the president "unpatriotic."
• Rush Limbaugh has correctly noted that the purpose of a corporation is not to provide jobs and stability for workers. But he ignores two things. First, that, traditionally, there has been a social and economic compact between employers and employees, by which the employer provides jobs and stability in exchange for work well done, and social and political stability. Second, that people will tolerate capitalism to the point at which they begin to feel like they're being ripped off, and then they rebel.
• Anybody who says Teresa Heinz‑Kerry got her present position through intelligence should remember that she did it the old fashioned way: she was born to privilege and married well.
• Teresa Heinz‑Kerry is not politically correct. Ironically, Republicans find this more appealing than Democrats.
• Kerry tried to run on his Vietnam service record, but that's being questioned by other Vietnam veterans. So Democrats suddenly decided it was time to debate the issues, which is what Republicans wanted, all along.
• Democrats got us mired in Vietnam, but a Republican got us out.
• Liberals idealize how Indians lived prior to colonization, while conservatives point to the reality of how Indians lived, and judge that by modern standards. Neither assessment is realistic. Life in Indian country was never idyllic, but if we are to judge the Indians of two hundred or more years ago by the standards of today, then we must judge everybody by the standards of today.
• Carl Jeffers told me that George H.W. Bush brought down the economy, Clinton brought up the economy, and George W. Bush brought it down, again. But Clinton came into office when a recovery was already in progress, and Bush Jr. came into office when a recession was already in progress.
• Democrats vilify the Patriot Act as evidence that the Bush Administration is a dictatorship. But starting in August, 2004, the DNC claimed that John Kerry supported the Patriot Act before Bush did.
• The influence of the Seattle metropolitan area makes Washington state one of the most liberal in the nation. The Seattle metro area is also one of the most expensive and economically stagnant places to live, according to Forbes. Could there be a connection?
• One of the most common words that Aspies use to describe "normal" people, is "barbaric." Another good reason why all aspies should embrace conservatism.
• Cultural liberals are blind to their own intolerance of opposing views.
• While Democrats demand an "exit strategy" for Iraq, Bush is doing what no administration in almost 60 years has done: propose an exit strategy for Europe and Japan. Ironically, Democrats are attacking him for this, and Kerry says it's too soon.
• Thrift is a conservative virtue. So why does Rush Limbaugh, the preeminent "conservative" commentator of our time, urge his listeners to be spendthrift?
• For months, liberals have churned out anti‑Bush propaganda; and when Republicans began to respond, are they cried foul.
• John Kerry helped turn Vietnam into a quagmire and debacle; will he do the same thing to Iraq?
• Michael Moore panned the fact that Bush did not react to the news of the 9⁄11 attack with a fretful, limp‑wrested rush out the door, but sat stalwart and dignified.
• To the abject dismay of the Sisterhood of Perpetual Whining, immediately following 9⁄11, America celebrated the masculine heroism of the men who responded to rescue the people in the World Trade Center buildings. Since then, they have waged a quiet war to reinforce earlier victories against masculinity. Today, John Kerry is nervously trying to retain the Sisterhood's vote without alienating more reasonable voters.
• A common Republican complaint is that Unions reward mediocrity, because in union shops workers who plod along are paid the same as workers who excel. Mostly, this is about older workers, and the complaint is really that older workers aren't penalized for working slower, and it ignores the conservative principle that we should care for our elders.
• BeSafe.com says online porn is the #1 addiction in America. Why? Because of easy availability. So what makes proponents of putting slot machines in restaurants, bowling alleys and bars think gambling will be different?
• During the August 9, 2004, episode of Hannity and Colmes, a liberal guest asked how Bush would like it if, in response to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads, Democrats questioned Bush's National Guard service. Uh, guys, you did that 4 years ago.
• In many ways, the Violence Against Women Act violates the civil rights and liberties of men, but liberals support it, and so the controversy over it was squelched. But liberals oppose the Patriot Act, which consolidates powers, because it doesn't target white men.
• Capitalism does not require freedom to work. Nazi Germany had capitalism. All capitalism requires is somebody with money, and a government grant allowing that money to be invested for profit. Free enterprise, on the other hand, requires a degree of liberty.
• Forty‑six percent of American households belong to the "investor class." Of the nation's 117 million households, 54 million of them invest.
• Right‑wing lunatics occupy the fringe of the Republican party, while left‑wing lunatics have taken over the Democrat party.
• Extremists on both the left and the right love freedom of speech, as long as it's their speech.
• When Eli Pariser, of MoveOn.org, George Soros, and several wealthy music stars raise and spend millions to attack President Bush, Pariser calls it a "clear, passionate, and powerful call to arms," but when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, with less than $200,000, fight against John Kerry's powerful lawyers to get their story told, Pariser calls that a "GOP Smear Campaign on TV."
• When you're starving and out of options, war makes sense.
• For most fat people, obesity is an eating disorder.