Once upon a time, there was a war. The war was ruining the cities of Greece, killing their children, laying waste to the countryside, and despoiling their treasuries. The men would not yield. The women on both sides were sick of it, and so, under the able leadership of the lady Lysistrata, used the most powerful weapon they had: sex. The entertainment message: sisterhood is powerful. The deeper message: If you want a life, stop dealing in death.

This wonderful comedy has haunted the minds of Western men since it was written by Aristophanes over 2,000 years ago. When a woman asserts herself or speaks up for her own interests or women's interests in general, the shadow of Lysistrata crosses the room.

I can't help but smile. I'm sitting at the crossroads where biology intersects with civilization, at the Great Marketplace. Lysistrata is directing traffic.

Ok, since the last post did so well, might as well stir up some more crap here.

So much for the stereotype of the politically correct liberal! LOL!

This has been a difficult post to reply to, because it's required a lot of thought. You have been honest, thoughtful, playful and frank; you deserve an answer in kind. I hope this is it.

Obviously we have two major camps of thought on these boards and some wonderful but often mean-spirited debates occur. It's great fun and a wonderful diversion from work to sometimes sit back and watch the fireworks. I've been noticing something interesting though. If I, Bowser, Alcaray, Raoul and a few others post a comment on here denouncing Bush or some administration policy, the attacks come fast and furious from the right. There's often name-calling, integrity-bashing and often our patriotism is questioned. I'm sure if we could be spit on electronically we'd be often cleaning our shirts.

However, it's fun to watch how things calm down and get polite when Mary Anne posts.

You are referring to the Malkin dust-up at Flame, aren't you? Because I noticed it too, there. It was a pleasure to have that disussion because there was no personal invective between the correspondents, at least not in the exchanges I had. But I didn't dish any either. I still think that some of the outrage over Malkin's treatment, even from her point of view (the telling "caveman" reference), was also gender-related. When is it OK to beat up on a girl? Do we still get to cash in on being the Fair Sex when we are not being fair?

She's saying the exact same things the rest of us are (although extremely eloquently) but you can almost imagine the other side stopping, counting to 10, shaving, putting on some cologne, and typing with their knuckes raised and their elbows off the desks as they gingerly try to address her issues.

Oh (to take vocabulary from another poster) cripes! What an image! [giggle] I'll have to drive that one off with a whip and a chair. ... Don't get excited.

I'll take the stopping and counting to 10 part, joyfully, if it's offered. May we apply it equally to each other and practice it personally, all of us.

Now I'm not saying that's a bad thing. Mary Anne seems to be one very classy chick and deserving of respect (and a sexy sort of fear), but for an ideology that harps so much on consistency of action, isn't this a bit of hypocrisy? Are our conservative posters pussy-whipped or simply pussy-deprived? You know, there's this theory that voters, especially men, tend to become Republican as their hair falls out and their wives cut them off. Maybe we're seeing a microcosm of that on our board.

[inchoate uncharitable thoughts] Let me resist the urge to interject an irrelevent opinion as you guys wrestle about male behavioral patterns yourselves. The way men behave toward women has everything to do with men and very little to do with women. It's up to you all to figure this out, each for himself.

But a question on the side issue you imply: if a wife cuts a man off as he ages, what does this say about the reservoir of good will and affection he has accumulated from his treatment of her while they were young? If he is "cut off", then so is she. If she finds this to be a satisfactory arrangement, what does this say about her feelings about their life before? Just asking.

Mary Anne, I think it's clear that the future of our country is in the hands of our women. It's so refreshing to hear your eloquence and watch you make these guys quiver.

Um... thank you?

You make it hard to accept the compliment: intimidation is not my intent, but conversation, even here, where conversation takes the form of argument so much of the time. Frankly, my whole thing is not to be viewed as "eloquent", however pleased and flattered I may be to hear that people think I am. What's important is to express one's self as clearly and plainly as possible, and perhaps even with a little art in respect for the beauty of the tool we have in language. What's important is the conversation. I guess that could be viewed as a girl thing, but I think maybe it's not really.

If I wanted an audience and more control, I suppose I could start a blog. But I would have to have a lot more belief in the importance of my opinion on its own, as opposed to my voice as a thread in the tapestry of conversation. We all add unique color and substance, but the cloth is made of us all.

If only we could clone an army of intelligent and involved women to subdue and pacify our angry white males.

Clones will not solve anyone's problem. We are only powerful in our diversity of experience and the empathy those experiences engender. We are only powerful in the vibrance of our imaginations, taken together and distilled into cooperative visions for our communities.

Modern men who long for the Good Olde Days wish that women were still at home, keeping house and making their worlds run smoothly. (Some men, including but not limited to whole cultures which will not be named here, even go so far as to restrict women's movements and freedom of association by force, in an effort to keep them "under control" and out of the greater marketplace of ideas.) These men don't realize that their worlds never ran smoothly, but that the women made many of the problems invisible to them because we solved the problems using our intelligence and initiative before they got home. What is the mantra of this Modern Man to his Child? "Ask your mother."

What we need to recognize is that women have not ceased to be homemakers, but that our focus of "home" has become ever broader, and our reach is expanding to include the statehouse, the marketplace and the nation as "home". That reach was limited to the precincts of the household for too long, for all the women of the world. When all the voices of all the women of the world are heard as makers of their larger home, equally with those of the men, then we will have a greater chance for real peace.