This past Tuesday the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
Ombudsman released a 3-page report that slammed Breaking the Silence.

The CPB report highlighted RADAR's November 14 letter to chairman Fred
Upton, which called on the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications to
investigate the documentary's widespread bias. The RADAR letter was
co-signed by more than a dozen organizations representing families and
fathers.

Click "Read more..." for more.

Tumescent writes "Here is an interesting story about an unusual ruling in a rape case in Oregon where the tables were turned. The males in the case were on trial and were acquitted and the woman was then charged and convicted of filing a false police report. This is the second time this has occurred in Oregon recently and it may be show a trend in acknowledging that false rape accusations occur and should be dealt with."

Click "Read more..." for more.

Just when you thought that the world couldn't get any loopier, this comes along.

Across much of the world, especially the developed world, women have gotten their wish to legally abort. Now that abortion is contributing to a catastrophic collapse of fertility rates, and resultant population aging and population collapse -- in Russia there are now more abortions than births and the country is losing nearly a million people a year, MPs in Italy are on the verge of paying women not to abort. (This isn't the first case of paying women to have children, but it's the first time I've seen it called what it often is -- paying women not to abort their children.)

As far as I know, it was zenpriest, who coined the term "prostimum". Interesting word.

William Joseph Lake writes "I currently have a $75,000,000.00 sex discrimination suit against the family court of my district. First District Circuit Court of Florida. States may have a 11th amendment immunity against law suits but it doesn't cover actions by individuals that deprive a group or class of their fundamental constitutional rights. Unlike the class action suit waged by the Indiana group that took a scatter gun approach we are targeting one really bad judge that has a proven record of favoring women. The same thing can be done in any state under USC 42-1883 discrimination under color of law. This is a list of of writings we are using. Some of them are from Australia and England but they use American data and research it also shows that Fathers all over the world are fighting for their children. I also have this on CD and will mail it to you if you wish. If you have any relevant information that we don't have please let me know. Thank you William J Lake, 3056 Safronia Shores Rd Navarre Florida 32566,"

I've gotta say, this creeps me out. If you've got a weak stomach, you might not want to read it.

This article takes a look at the feminization of the hornyhead turbot (no, I didn't make up that name), a fish off the coast of southern California. It seems that estrogen, both natural and artificial (from birth control), is entering males of this species through the food chain and causing them to develop female characteristics. Some of the males have actually grown small eggs in their testes.

The hornyhead turbot isn't consumed by humans. Scientists are now looking at seafood species, including the pacific sand dab -- one of my favorite fish when I was a poor grad student, to see if they contain concentrations of estrogen, which might pose a danger to humans.

Dittohd writes "I know. I know. This is off the subject. But this website's posters need a good laugh once in a while."

zerostress writes "This time, it is six men that had their lives broken and spent years in preventive detention following false accusations by a woman. Another good article on this affair can be found here.

In total, 13 of the initial 17 persons originally accused have been innocented."

A rapid, over-the-counter HIV test may be available soon. Some details can be read here.

A willing accomplice and participant, she is released after 12 years in prison while her husband rightly stays behind bars. Had she been a he, she would still be there as well.

Excerpt:


Months after prosecutors made the plea bargain, however, Bernardo's attorneys handed over homemade videotapes by the couple that indicated Homolka was a willing participant, drawing the ire of Canadians.

When she was released in July, a Superior Court judge in Montreal imposed several restrictions, which her lawyers argued violated the plea bargain agreement.

"The possibility that Ms. (Homolka) might reoffend one day cannot be completely eliminated," Brunton wrote. "However, her development over the last 12 years demonstrates, on a balance of probabilities, that this is unlikely to occur. She does not represent a real and imminent danger."

Candidates for an unidentified UK police force were quite explicitly turned away because of their race and sex. The police force in question is being held to account, but one must ask why they feel they can behave this way with such impunity?

Nice to see some justice anyway.

The Child Support Agency has had to refund hundreds of thousands of pounds in maintenance payments to more than 3,000 men after DNA tests revealed that they had been wrongly named by mothers in paternity suits. One in six men who took a DNA test to challenge claims by women that they were the fathers of their children were cleared by the results, according to official figures disclosed by the agency.

Under CSA rules, men must start paying maintenance the moment they are named by mothers as the father of the child. They can challenge the ruling by asking for a DNA test but have to pay for it themselves.

Dittohd writes "A $15M alimony judgement to be paid at $125 per month for 10,000 years? Anybody here from Iran? Does this alimony obligation continue as an obligation to this guy's successors to be paid to the ex-wife's successors?"

Thanks to Mark R. for the word on this report, featured on the web site http://www.breakingthescience.org/.

The final paragraph of the CPB ombudsman's statement reads as follows:

PBS says it has received around 4,000 letters, calls and e-mails about Breaking the Silence. The National Organization for Women issued an action alert calling for mail supporting the program. Glenn Sacks used his radio show to promote mailings objecting to the broadcast. Jan McNamara the director of corporate communication at PBS says the program is now under official review. That's good. Along with the motives of its sponsor (The Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation), Breaking the Silence needs to be reviewed for accuracy, fairness and balance.

This is a big win! Thanks to Glenn Sacks and RADAR for their efforts to make these folks admit, finally, that they got it wrong. This also proves that public pressure to get to the actual truth in the face of lies and distortions can and does work. Inspirational stuff!

This is a somewhat confused article, but it also contains a few good points. It's good to see USA Today quote Richard Gartner, the psychologist in New York who authored Betrayed as Boys, "(regarding jail time) we definitely still have a double standard," with women receiving lesser jail terms than men.

As a follow-up to this story, the perp is not only given little more than time served (she'll be out of jail by Christmas) but also, the judge in his sentencing said she was really the victim.

Excerpt:

"The 16-year-old in this case is a victim in the statutory sense only," Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick told Sandra Beth Geisel. "He was certainly not victimized by you in any other sense of the word."


      Geisel pleaded guilty to one count of third-degree rape on Sept. 27 after admitting to having had sex with the boy in May. She was sentenced to six months in jail but is scheduled for release in several weeks, counting time already served. Though she also admitted to having sex with two 17-year-old students, no charges were filed in those incidents because the boys were of legal age.

      
[Judge] Herrick, in handing down his sentence, said the students "manipulated, used and sexually abused" Geisel.

This story was covered on Inside Edition (a TV news program) on 11/29/2005 (and is covered on their web site too, so have a look). In their report tonight, they mentioned that after the boy stopped seeing her the teacher started having sex with several other students, including three (i.e, all of them together) in the school's stadium.

Folks, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.