Looking back on 200 years of feminist agitation in this country, we've got to get it that the moral high ground doesn't get us anything. Pleading with powerful men never gets us what we need. Talking doesn't do it. Being right doesn't do it. Hardball politics does it ... and a political strategy.

We are in the midst of a violent backlash againist feminism that uses images of female beauty as political weapons against women's advancement.

When a leader has deployed a private army, that is one definition of a police state. Another is when the president, or a leader, has his own treasury.

Of course a woman who decides to work full time as a mother in the home can be happy and deserves full respect from us. Motherhood is one of the most challenging and creative jobs anyone can do. The goal is to remake the world so that our choices are not so stark.

Beauty provokes harassment, the law says, but it looks through men's eyes when deciding what provokes it.

What are other women really thinking, feeling, experiencing, when they slip away from the gaze and culture of men?

Al Gore was a good guy and he wanted to give flextime to American women who are trying to balance work and family, but he couldn't because the business interests are organized, and they don't want it to happen.