Orissa State Women's Commission accepts that male victimization is happening on a large scale. This is the first time that a government agency (in India) has accepted this fact so openly. Excerpt:

'In the past couple of years, there has been a perceptible increase in the number of such men - bullied and blackmailed, tormented and terrorised. It is true that we have a whole lot of wicked women who misuse their legal weapon." And here's the last word from her: "Contrary to popular belief, torture of men does not take place in urban areas only. It is rampant in villages also."

Also, here:
"This is only the tip of the iceberg. The number of such atrocities against men by women is rising in Orissa. Since May 2007, the Commission has registered 38 such cases," chairperson Namita Panda said.'

The war on boys is unabated. Read this story and gawk at the insanity. Excerpt:

'THE Education Department has investigated claims a six-year-old student ran a "sex club" at an eastern suburban primary school, involving up to up to half a dozen grade 1 students.
...
The mother has been unable to make a police report because the law states sexual assault by a child under 10 cannot be prosecuted.

"Victims of a perpetrator who is under the age of 10 should still have the same rights as any other victim of a sexual crime," she said.'

"Crime"? At the age of 6 showing off your wanky is a criminal act that some think should be punishable as such? The article shows how the matter has become a political issue to be addressed in a legislature! When I was in grade school boys who showed off their wankies were sent to the principal's office, maybe they got a note to take home to show mom and dad, and that settled it. Now it has become a matter for legislators? Absolute madness.

Men's Issues Presenters Encounter Hope and Biases At International Conference

"Sunday and Monday of this week I attended the annual, International Conference on Violence, Abuse and Trauma in San Diego, California."

"The morning went well, with an openness displayed by attendees that was reminiscent of our experiences from the day before. No one was overtly challenging our call to address the issue of domestic violence against men, and children. By late morning to early afternoon our booth was fully staffed and ready to meet the throng of conference attendees who had been in workshops for most of the morning."

"While the news from this conference can certainly be viewed in part as encouraging, the sad fact remains that huge segments of the domestic violence industry are still steeped in bigoted, man-hating, anti-patriarchy ideology."

Story here.

This story is disturbing. I pray these three young girls are able to fully recover. Excerpt:

'HALTOM CITY, Texas — A woman whose three young daughters were seriously burned was arrested, and neighbors said the mother told a fire investigator she had doused the children with gasoline and set them on fire.

The oldest girl, just 7, screamed, "Why mommy? Why mommy? Why did you do this to me?" after she and her sisters were pulled out of their burning house Saturday, neighbor Kevin Lopez said Monday.

The woman, Alysha Green, 29, had no answer for the fire investigator, Lopez said.

"She was crying and saying `I'm sorry' and she didn't know why she did it," Lopez told The Associated Press.

The girls — ages 7, 5 and 3 — remained in the burn unit of a Dallas hospital Monday; their conditions were not released.'

Recently I heard that the Walk a Mile in Her Shoes "event" was happening in my city. Read about it here. The idea is this: Men wear women's shoes and walk a mile in them to raise awareness of DV. Predictably there is no mention at all of male DV victims during the event or on the web site.

Does this really frost your behind? It should. Contact page is here. Note the founder/organizer is a man, too. He has his email and phone number published right there on the contact page, but I am going to ask you all NOT to bombard him with phone calls. Send him emails sure, but not phone calls. That is likely to be counter-productive and make HIM out to be some kind of victim, and remember that it is possible he just doesn't have all the facts, and this may just need some enlightening on the matter.

All I can think is that MSN uses a committee to determine what articles get published. What we see in terms of MSN's flip-flopping of sympathies and interests probably represents an editorial struggle-- or an attempt to keep on the fence in the public's mind. Warren Farrell is quoted in several places as well. Article here. Excerpt:

'So-called women's clubs don't just exist in the travel industry. Stacy Kaiser has counseled plenty of men who have experienced resistance across the spectrum of female-dominated careers. "Men have said they felt that women can be uncomfortable having a man around in a female-dominated environment," she says. "Women may think … 'having a man around will change the dynamic.'"

Having a man or two at work in a room full of women does change dynamics, "but that doesn't mean it's bad change," Kaiser adds.'

You may already know about the outlandish (and unsupported) claims made against men and fathers in House Resolution 590 (HRES-590). RADAR has critiqued (.pdf file) these extensively. But a little-noticed aspect of HRES-590 is one of its final "Whereas" clauses:

"Whereas there is a need to increase funding for programs carried out under the Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act of 2005 (VAWA 2005) ..." (p.4)

The stated purpose of HRES 590 is to promote even more funding for VAWA programs, such as services that include emergency shelter, counseling, and legal services for victims. In the 2005 reauthorization of VAWA, Congress added a requirement that the General Accounting Office (GAO) investigate and report on just what services are being provided to which people under the act. This is important because nearly half of VAWA funds go to such programs ($507 million in fiscal year 2007 alone).

From the Equal Parenting Bike Trek folks, this site. This is the bill pending in Michigan's House. Currently it is in the Family and Children's Services Committee. The members of this committee are shown here (.pdf file) on their latest minutes report:

"Members present: Reps. Clack, Dean, Hammon, Wojno, Sheen.
Members absent/excused: Reps. Accavitti, Stahl, Hoogendyk, Palmer."

MI House reps' contact info. is here.

You know what to do. :)

(Click "read more" for the bill's opening text.)

Essay here. Excerpt:

'The baby-girl boom is being blamed on the high levels of estrogen-mimicking, man-made chemicals in Inuit mothers' blood. Scientists found that the higher the amount of chemicals such as PCBs, flame retardants and DDT in an Inuit woman's blood, the fewer boys she gave birth to, suggesting that hormone-mimicking chemicals are triggering sex changes during the first three weeks of pregnancy. It was also discovered that boys who are born in Russian Arctic villages suffer from being underweight and premature.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Over the past six years, hundreds of teenage males have been expelled or felt compelled to leave the polygamous settlement that straddles Colorado City, Arizona, and Hildale, Utah.

Disobedience is usually the reason given for expulsion, but former sect members and state legal officials say the exodus of males also remedies a huge imbalance in the marriage market. (The expulsion of girls is rarer.) Members of the sect believe that to reach eternal salvation, men are supposed to have at least three wives.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'This is an online open letter to the members of the 110th U.S. Congress.
...
Although the 110th Congress Resolution 590 claims that Congress wants to raise awareness of domestic violence, Resolution 590 accomplishes just the opposite concerning male victimization; i.e.: "Whereas one in four women will experience domestic violence sometime in her life" and "Whereas 13 percent of teenage girls who have been in a relationships report being hit or hurt by their partner." No awareness of male victimization there!'

Story here. Excerpt:

"While reaffirming the resolve of the judiciary to deal firmly with sexual assault, a Bench comprising Justices R Raveendran and B Sudarshan Reddy said that courts needed to be aware of the tendency to use allegations of rape to settle scores.

"The courts should, at the same time, bear in mind that false charges of rape are not uncommon," said the Bench as it acquitted one Radhu from Madhya Pradesh, who was convicted for forcibly confining a minor and raping her through the night more than 16 years ago.'

More from the demise-of-marriage dept.:

The Starter Husband. Excerpt:

Yes, you guessed it gents. Girl abandons baby in hospital. In less than two weeks, she wants the baby back. As usual, an article with the normal female bias: "She is not a monster. She is just human like the rest of us. She just made a poor, bad decision." Let's just not talk about what would happen if a "confused and depressed" 18 year old father did the same thing. I can think of four things that would happen: felony charges, felony conviction, hard prison time, and no sympathy from the press and television news.

Article here. Excerpt:

'Every year thousands of Americans are victimized by a swindle known as the "immigrant abuse scam." What's amazing is this shake-down is paid for by the U.S. taxpayer under the guise of stopping domestic violence.

One of those persons was Roger Knudson, 64, of Arizona. When he discovered his wife was having an affair, he filed for divorce. Fearing the judge would learn her visa had expired and order her back to Mexico, she fell into a rage and attacked him.

But the DA refused to prosecute the assault. Then the illegal went to a local woman's shelter that provided her pro bono legal services and told her to accuse her husband of the very crime that she herself had committed. "I have spent thousands of dollars since 2002 clearing myself of the accusations," Knudson wrote sadly.

So here's how the scam works: A woman makes an accusation of abuse. The laws define domestic violence so loosely that she doesn't need to provide a scrap of evidence -- she only needs to scream "abuse!" So the judge issues a let's-play-it-safe order.'