Who's running this show anyway?

What does it say about men when we let the mothers of our children kill our kids?

We all sat in shock listening to the news reports of Andrea Yates drowning her five children in the bathtub. How could a mother do that?! What I found equally shocking was hearing the father of those children defending and supporting this murderess. My deficiency in the area of self-restraint will be obvious when I tell you that, had I been her husband Rusty Yates, that woman might be safer behind bars than running around loose where I could get my hands on her.

But we've become a nation of henpecked men. Like Justice Marshall, we go home and ask our wives and daughters how to decide important matters like abortion. We sit around in support-group circles while women instruct us on expressing our feelings. We stand on the front porch holding our infant children and say "Wave bye-bye to Mommy" while she marches off to war in her Army fatigues. We help our girlfriends paint their protest signs and march dutifully behind them at baby-killer rallies. We pack their lunches before they go off to earn a living for the household, then we sit around watching Oprah and chuckling at "Mr. Mom" movies.

This is not about "man's work" and "woman's work". It's about whether or not men can even do the job assigned to them.

Jav is absolutely right when he says, "Don't get me wrong, (the father) should support the child. He's hardly a man if he doesn't." And the spokesman for the "men's rights" lawsuit said the same thing, admitting the difference between the moral issue and the legal issue. But when we're willing to distinguish between the two, when we're reduced to going to court trying to "make a point" in this battle for our kids' lives, we're hardly worthy to be called men.

I'm not saying we should be above pleading for our children's lives. Any man worth his salt would sacrifice even his own life for that of his child, let alone beg his wife to spare the child's life. By all means, let's plead on our knees! And as soon as Roe is dashed to the ground, let's bow our heads in tears as our wives are dragged away to prison for their savage crimes. But let's not cry and moan to a judge (our new Mommy) that "it's just so unfair" that we're forced to act like fathers when they don't have to act like mothers. Let's not sulk because our women took our pants and started making the rules and bossing us around.

Jav, you haven't forgotten what God expects in a home. When the man relinquishes his position to his wife, it's the children who suffer. And when men relinquish their position in a society to women, it's again the children who suffer. We don't even have to look in the Bible to learn this; we see it all around us. We've got renegade males everywhere we turn: gangs of bandits, sodomites and pansies of every sort, rapists of females age 3 to 83, guys who don't even know what sex they are. (And don't even get me started on the growing male-cosmetics market!)

I know I'm being harsh, but I'm not trying to attack you, Jav, just the argument. You're no wimp. But maybe like the rest of us you've been sold the male-impotence line of propaganda we've been spoonfed since grade school.

Here in America we like to make jokes about rifle-dropping, white-flag-waving, wine-and-cheese France. We need a mirror.