In a just-posted article, msnbc.com looks at the devastating effects of fatherless households, including comments from dads in "A National Survey of Dads’ Attitudes on Fathering". It found that 91 percent of those questioned agreed there is a father-absence crisis in America. They listed work demands as the No. 1 barrier to being a good father. Other major impediments included the media and popular culture followed by financial problems. Fathers who were not married to the mother of their children cited a lack of cooperation from mothers as the chief obstacle to being a good father, followed by work responsibilities, financial problems and treatment of fathers by the courts.

Interestingly, the word “feminism” never shows up in this otherwise intelligent report.

Recently there have been some registered user accounts which have been used to post spam on the site using automated methods. For the time being I have enabled "captcha" image verification for comment posting. I know this will be inconvenient for the regular posters here, and I intend to look into alternatives or ways to whitelist some of the more regular commenters.

In the meantime, please keep an eye out for these spam posts (they will be obvious, usually containing dozens of links to other sites) and let us know when you come across them. Thanks!

Story here. Excerpt:

"... when the Mayor [David Miller] was asked generally why so many young men who are involved in gun violence are also fatherless and part of a gangster culture, he downplayed the important role of fathers in the lives of boys.

Mr. Miller told [radio talk show host] John Oakley, who called him on this, that he had grown up without a father and that he is not convinced a father is needed in a child's life. That to even raise the issue is to blame the mothers."

Story here. Excerpt:

'OTTAWA -- A growing number of men are ditching work for daddy duty at home in the weeks after the birth or adoption of a child, according to a new report.

The Statistics Canada study released Wednesday showed that since 2001, the proportion of women who took time off work for a child's birth or adoption has remained stable but the proportion of men who did so has increased.

"After government increased eligibility for benefits and extended parental leave in 2001 to 35 weeks, the proportion of fathers who took any kind of leave for the birth or adoption of their child, including parental leave, rose from 38% in 2001 to 55% five years later," the report said.
...
"Among men, factors related to finances, employment and career played a dominant role in the decision not to take leave. In fact, men were twice as likely as women to cite their financial situation as a reason," the study said.'

Article here. Excerpt:

"Researchers trying to understand why high school-age boys are involved in serious delinquency more often than girls have found that males are exposed to higher levels of risk factors and lower amounts of protective factors.
...
The 22 protective factors measured included the teens' attachment to each of their parents, rewards for good behavior in school and social skills in dealing with other people. Risks included family conflict, low commitment to school, peer drug use and sensation seeking.

While boys experience higher levels of risk and lower protection for 18 of these factors, girls only reported higher risk for family conflict and less protection from attachment to their fathers. There were no gender differences for exposure to peer drug use and for peer rewards for delinquency."

Story here. Excerpt:

"A Central Florida woman told her 19-year-old son that she loved him and would stand by him after he was arrested for killing her husband. But now authorities think she is the real killer and framed her son for the crime.

Rhonda Marie Sands' husband, Everette Lema, 50, was found stabbed to death on May 2, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

Prosecutors have dropped a murder charge against Sands' son, DeShane Sands. He was arrested the day after the killing, based largely on reports from his mother."

Check this out. It's high time European governments took men's health more seriously! The International Men's Health Week (11-17 June) is the timely opportunity to advertise this petition.

Article here. Excerpt:

"It seems that after every school shooting, the usual suspects, often with vested interests, come out of the woodwork with their theories: guns, psychotropic drugs, violent video games, Satanic lyrics, Nazism ... But the Secret Service has determined that school assassins do not fit a “profile” — aside from the fact that they have all been boys. Therefore, a more productive approach would be to look for certain character risk factors:..."

From Tom: This is a heads up about an excellent resource via the men's health network web site:
http://www.menshealthnetwork.org/stateofmenshealth/

It gives reports on men's health for the US with charts and graphs. Very nicely done. Most importantly it allows the user to select only their state and creates a custom report just on their state. This is good for knowing or checking on the stats but is even better as a lobbying tool. Just send a link to the custom report to your state legislator or the feds with a short email about suicide or prostate cancer or any of the other things the report highlights. It is a great backup to our concerns. Great way to get the word out.

My new co-authored column, In this Turf War, Kids Are the Prize (Tallahassee Democrat, 6/13/07), defends the controversial concept of Parental Alienation against recent attacks from the National Organization for Women, the Family Violence Prevention Fund, and numerous other misguided women's groups.

The column, which appears below and is linked on my blog here, was written primarily as a response to NOW president Kim Gandy's recent anti-father editorial Sick Joke or Sick Reality?

MADAME PRESIDENT
By P. T. Mycas

I have no objection to electing a female President of the United States. As a matter of fact, I believe there are millions of women who could do a better job than the current male President. But that's a pretty low bar. I would like to vote for the most qualified person for President, male or female. Because I do not believe Hillary Clinton would be President for all Americans, I do not believe she is qualified.

Politically, I like to think of myself as an Independent, but in order to vote in primaries, I declare as a Democrat. I am liberal. I hold the usual liberal views with one exception. I generally do not like feminism. Feminism is defined as equality between women and men, but the name itself belies this definition. It is like trying to coin a word which expresses the harmony and equality between Ford and Chevy owners and coming up with the name "Fordism." Chevy owners would not allow such nonsense. By saying feminism is about equality, feminists are hiding that much of feminism is about sexism. Why have we let feminists get away with this?

I just heard an interview with the author of this book: A Rush to Injustice: How Power, Prejudice, Racism, and Political Correctness Overshadowed Truth and Justice in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and it sounds like it has the inside story of what Nifong's actual motivations were for rushing to prosecute the Duke LAX players. Should be plenty revealing. If you have read it, please comment.

Nice to to see it! Read How Guys Die. Excerpt:

"In recognition of National Men’s Health Week (June 11-17), MSN Health & Fitness has culled some fundamental facts and figures to raise your awareness of the most fatal conditions facing men in the United States today. With any luck, we’ll also raise your prospects for living a longer, healthier life.

You may be struck by how many risk factors for the life-threatening conditions below are within your capacity to control. We men could add years—even decades —to our lives by simply eating healthily, staying active and not smoking."

Alas, when covering Cause #3 for men's deaths, accidents, they skip over the huge difference in the numbers for men and women, instead quoting an aggregated statistic. Still, this is progress.

Seems Time magazine continues to reinforce its anti-male/-father reputation with its latest. Read about it here and take action. Excerpt:

'TIME magazine's new Father's Day hatchet job on divorced and separated fathers--"Daddy Dearest: What Science Tells Us About Fatherhood"--questions whether fathers "have done a good enough job to deserve the honor" of having a Father's Day. The contents page reads "Behavior: Why some animal fathers are more nurturing dads than many men are."'

Story here. Excerpt:

"Jubilation turned to anger Monday after Georgia's top prosecutor vowed he would fight a judge's order that would have set free Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia man serving a 10-year prison sentence for a consensual sexual encounter he had as a teenager.
...
Monday, acting on a petition filed by his attorneys, Monroe County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wilson ruled that Genarlow Wilson's punishment was cruel and unusual and voided it on constitutional grounds. The judge reduced the sentence to one year and said Wilson should not be put on Georgia's sex offender registry, as the old law required."