Let's try to get a grip (BR)Here's to the housebroads!

I don't want to make a big deal out of this; people are obviously going to read what they will into my commentary and anyone without a skin thick enough to take criticism shouldn't be putting their ideas out on the internet and asking more popular websites to syndicate them.

That being said, I personally think one would have to navigate an extremely circuitous path to come to the impression some visitors reached regarding my views on gender relations, based solely on the previous article.

Housewifery, the maintenance and upkeep of the home and the care of children, is real work and necessary, more strenuous and taxing than the vast majority of occupations. If performed well, it is generally rewarded with a pleasant, healthy environment and well-adjusted, responsible children, both of which are more important and valuable than mere money. Let there be no mistake: It is noble and indispensable labor, on the same level with callings like medicine and public service, certainly worlds apart from picking tomatoes for Taco Bell.

As a short aside, I am a strong advocate for having one parent at home with children at all times, and I care not a whit whether said parent has a vagina.

Though I can't say I've ever sat and watched an episode of ABC's Desperate Housewives, I know enough about the show to surmise that its intrigue and popularity are probably not due to the housekeeping aspects of the lives of the titular subjects. In fact, I'm fairly sure that the characters' exploits are made possible by the fact that the women on the show do little or no work of any kind, which brings us neatly back to the point I was making all along.

Perhaps there was the whiff of intentional emasculation of Mr. Rove and his apparently delicate son in my article, but so what? I have no qualms about holding up for ridicule a healthy, able-bodied young man who is afraid of physical toil (or, for that matter, a "housewife" who engages in adulterous love affairs in lieu of housework).

I meant absolutely no disrespect to anyone in any occupation, but I make no apologies for how this one innocuous sentence has been interpreted, particularly considering the fact that the article itself was laudatory of hard work, as one of the angry commentators observed, without irony.

However, I will give the detractors the benefit of the doubt, assume their outrage is genuine and assure them that I did not mean what they thought I meant, in spite of my nagging suspicion that the couple of fans Rove still has left were trolling over here and zeroed in on the "housewives" quip in order to change the subject and make me look like the insensitive wretch.