I would not insult the intelligence of women posting here by remindind them that I believe that the guy, Klein, is the kind of man who gives the entire male gender a bad name and, whether he knows it or not, promotes feminism and a polarization of genders. Since he clearly is incompetent as a psychiatrist and should not be permitted to deal with people at all, my great hope for him is that he would face a Medical Board of extreme feminist Amzonian Nazis to decide to suspend his license and whatever other punishment they choose to impose. Would a women’s prison be too good for him?

Suzanne: How right you are! I have not had a cat. But I once worte a column about characteristics of cats. Two cats, one a male and other a female, read it and showed up at my home and with the most pitiful looks required that we take them in. The female had kittens under our patio. This put new meaning into the saying, “I almost had kittens!” In fact, I’ve written about cats partly because of some of those feline traits shared by some women and all cats. But there is a distinction in my own perspective: Although I greatly admire cats, I don’t like them much. So as surely as I go into a home that cats own, they immediately descend on me, crawl up my chest and perch on my shoulders. Women don’t do that! As I indicated, I’ve written at length about cats, and usally with more reaction than any other subject. But it gets down to something that I can sum up: Cats love to eat fish. But they won’t go fishing. Do you know any other animal, including the human species, that behaves like that?

As to the romantic side of the relationships between women and me, I’ve loved this poem by Thomas Moore, though I feel that I have overcome the pitfalls implicit in the lines: The Time I’ve Lost in Wooing The time I’ve lost in wooing, In watching and pursuing The light, that lies In woman’s eyes, Has been my heart’s undoing. Though Wisdom oft has sought me, I scorn’d the lore she brought me, My only books Were woman’s looks, And folly’s all they’ve taught me. Her smile when Beauty granted, I hung with gaze enchanted, Like him, the sprite, Whom maids by night Oft meet in glen that’s haunted. Like him, too, Beauty won me, But while her eyes were on me, If once their ray Was turn’d away, Oh! winds could not outrun me. And are those follies going? And is my proud heart growing Too cold or wise For brilliant eyes Again to set it glowing? No, vain, alas! th’ endeavour From bonds so sweet to sever; Poor Wisdom’s chance Against a glance Is now as weak as ever. — Thomas Moore

A conversation with a neighbor’s wife may give some clues about what I know, or don’t know, about women. I said to her I’d spent my entire life — and that means five decades as an adult — studying women. And the more I stuidied them, the more firm became the conclusion that the less I knew. But I added that I had become persuaded that if I ever figured out anything about a woman for an instant, she would change immediately. To which she replied: Now, you are only beginning to learn.

My God, how long do we have to wait for Candice’s answer? That is more anticipated for me than the Marilyn Monroe tape, about which Liz Smith writes.

For balance, it needs viewed over generations. To paraphrase Clarence Darrow, one generation builds walls and prisons for them and the next generations build memorials.

Peace and oblivion that defies distrurbance!

Who is more of a purveyor of hate than Hillary Clinton? And when was it not so with the Clintons?

Wow! Leslie. Wow! What a story. It is at least encouraging; my 39-year-old son died of cancer in New York City in 2006. But I was moved by the inventor’s plight as well as Leslie Stahl’s own response to it; she showed a journalist with compassion and, unlike many, not jaded by being able to see through things. The combination of the inventor’s comment that he would like to live to see the first person treated and Leslie Stahl’s reaction to it, along with the joy of the possibility of a cure, moved me to tears. Bless you for doing the story. It needs more attention, as the inventor suggested.

I don’t understand the Obama connection in the message by Galina Lukin. Hopefully, she can explain it more specifically. But too often specifics are absent in discussing Barack Obama, raising my suspicions about their nature.

We have every right to appraise every aspect and trait of every candidate. That’s what gathering information for sound judgments in the voting booth is all about. We do not have a monarchy; we have an executive with two other branches of government that are supposed to be co-equal. No one requires them to run. As for the Clintons, they appear to have found out how to capitalize bigtime by using their public offices for private gain. So feel sorry for them if you wish!

Would you mind being specific and, therefore, more credible about this gap you call audacious?

It was inevitable. If a nation of 300 million was going to ship jobs to nations (India and China) with more than 2.4 billion — nearly eight times as many people — that the U.S. standard of living was going to have to meet those of the Asian countries at a lower level than it has been. Why this was not forseen is a commentary on the lack of vision in Washington and on the greed of American corporations who put profit before patriotism. We are only in the beginning stages of this downward drift and it will take extraordinary leadership and innovative projects to escape the worst economic period in America’s history. No one is safe. When the advertising dollars, the first to go, dry up, so does the newspapers, the television companies and the entertainment jobs. Coming soon: emptier theaters, emptier stadiums, empiter parking lots, and bargain stores for clothing and food. Alongside these for the extremely wealthy the upscale shops will continue to sell until the billionaires start getting pinched. And that will happen with collapses in the stock market, among the hedge funds, etc.

It is the worst of both world — recession (or regression) among soaring inflation. In my city, there are a half dozen or so “for sale” signs for homes on every street corner. The industrial jobs are gone. Now, I go to the grocery store and find egg plant at $3.50 each. So an eggplant is worth a little less than a gallon of qasoline. The one thing that is striking to me is that the middle class, at least its upper portions, are proud people, and you don’t find out about their difficulties until you read their home is up for auction in a foreclosure sale. The fed is loosening up the cash. But this “monetary” problem was with credit. I’m only sorry Alan Greenspan wasn’t in office to reap the whirlwind he sewed with the inane obsession that monetary policy controls economies. He is the most overrated public servant in my lifetime, which is a long time.

Suzanne de Cornelia: Your message is heartening in that it shows a detailed understanding of the nature of this damned, infernal war. The fear is that too few understand what you have written, though the polls are encouraging. Do you understand why whenever someone in Washington sounds an alarm designed to produce fear the cheerleaders, beaters of war drums and warmongers come out in mass parades and label any dissenter a traitor?