Philalethes writes "On NPR's Morning Edition news program 12/17/2002: "Susan Stamberg talks to family psychologist Michael Thompson about nurturing boys so they grow into peaceful men. Thompson is the author of Raising Cain." (Direct link to RealPlayer file.) Not too bad, despite the obligatory snide remark (Stamberg: "What about all that testosterone?"), and the usual implication that what's wrong with boys is that they aren't girls. Comparisons are also made with the "better" boys found in other countries like Britain, France and Japan -- though of course no there is no mention of the [major factor] that differentiates American child-rearing from practically every other culture's: [infant male genital mutilation], aka "circumcision." Every time I see one of the increasing crop of "What's Wrong With Boys?" books, I look in the index for "circumcision." I can't recall ever seeing the subject mentioned -- perhaps because circumcision is the American "solution" to the "boy problem."

I just wanted to let readers know that I have finished my final exams and that I really do intend to catch up on the news submissions and e-mails that have been piling up for a while. I have let things get unusually disorganized as of late and it's time to fix that. Your patience and understanding is appreciated.

I thought you might be interested to hear, Pinter And Martin are selling the
The Manipulated Man at the
knockdown price of £5.99 for us UK folk, or $8.50 for everyone in the USA. I just got my copy
today, and being halfway through, I have to say there's nothing like this. Make no mistake,
you should get this book, it's well worth it. In case you're wondering, post and packing is free. So don't delay, Order now!

Marc Angelucci writes, "Here's a transcript of the Donahue show. Overall I'm pleased with things, except of course that Gloria did a lot of interrupting and often Phil cut me off when I wanted to refute her myths. But overall it was a show where we got a lot of issues out there and I did get to mention the lawsuit against L.A. County. Some members of the Queens High School football team spoke up about how their school cut the football team and shattered their dream as a result of the feminist overkill of Title IX implementation. Other audience members had some great things to say. And Warren Farrel and Peter Allemano did great as well."

Steve writes "I will host this week's MANN chat, Wednesday night (12/18),
starting at 9:30 PM Eastern Time, at the usual location. The
topic for this chat will be 'An Attitude of Gratitude: What's Right with Men's Activism?''  
The holiday season is a good time to stop for a while and see where we
are.  What is going well for us men's activists?  Stop by
this week's MANN chat, have an egg nog or some hot cider, and savor the
good things about activism with us!"

Steve Imparl writes, "I am happy to announce that the next chat at MaleDepression.com will take place on Tuesday, December 17, 2002, at 8:30 p.m. Central Standard Time. (This is Wednesday, December 18, 2002, at 02:30 GMT.) The chat will be held in MaleDepression.com's chat room. We will talk about our experiences with depression, with particular emphasis on the male experience of this illness and the difficulties we have in seeking and continuing treatment. Specifically, I'd like to suggest that we talk about coping strategies during the holidays--how we keep ourselves well during the end-of-year holiday season. Further, with the winter solstice approaching in the northern hemisphere, it is probably a good time to talk about seasonal depression, too.

Men's issues author Warren Farrell, Marc Angelucci, president of the Los Angeles Chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men, and Peter Allemano of the New York City NCFM, will discuss gender issues and the NCFM's gender discrimination lawsuit against Los Angeles County on the Phil Donahue Show. The show will air on MSNBC on Wednesday, December 18th, at 5pm PST and again at 8pm PST.

Trudy W. Schuett writes "Our writer/activists may benefit from a series I’m doing at Writer Online called, “Basic Promotion for Writers.” There is a lot of misinformation and bad ideas floating around as far as promoting books, and in these days of the self-published and indie-published, authors need all the help they can get. I’ve put my 10 years of experience in publicity and promotions to work here, to give writers a basic strategy for promoting their work both on and offline, working with little or no budget. The series itself is, of course, free of charge."

Jack Kammer, a men's issues author and ownerof the RulyMob.com web site, is sponsoring a contest to write a song, "If I Only Had a V", modeled after "If I Only Had a Heart" from The Wizard of Oz. The song is to be a parody of V-Day, and will by judged by its "(a) effectiveness in satirizing the idea that women in western societies are always virtuous, never committing violence themselves, (b) effectiveness in satirizing the idea that women in western societies are oppressed, (c) adherence to the original meter and tone of the song “If I Only Had a Heart,” (d) suitability for being reported verbatim by the mainstream media and (e) humor." Both men and women are welcome to submit entries. The deadline is February 6, 2003 - read the official rules here.

Marc Tolbert writes "I have been searching for the smoking gun on Whitney for a long time. She has a long history of violence towards others but I had not yet found solid evidence of violence against her husband. After reading the earlier posts about the interview (which I missed viewing), I went on a search for a transcript and finally located it here. I am just amazed that she was upfront about the issue. It is like she knew ahead of time that Diane Sawyer, Primetime and ABC would just gloss over the admission."

Severin writes "The St. Louis Post Dispatch has the following article about a father who chaperones elementary children. He also does so dressed in a traditionally female style (sweater, jeans, makeup, and a "woman's hairstyle"). Many parents are outraged and will not allow their children to go on any outings where he is a chaperone. Why is it that when a woman wears pants, she's considered "liberated", but if a man wears make-up, he's a danger to kids? I think it's important that we stand up for the rights of men to wear whatever they wish, since women are given that opportunity."

Uberganger writes "A new Australian study into the problems facing boys in education has arrived at a series of woolly-minded conclusions that seem to amount to very little. The study report itself can be found in PDF form here.
The study seems unduly concerned with attacking masculinity and blurring the issues by insisting that solutions benefit girls as well as boys. It is an unsettling document because it shows just how pervasive the feminist version of reality has become in academia."

During my daily travel around the web I happened to come across a book review
of Bernard Goldberg's book Bias. While I it found fairly short, it does make for some very interesting reading, proving the old lace curtain is still around, among other things. I've
also heard rumours that there's a section on men's lack of reproductive rights. Perhaps someone who has the book can tell us?

Serge writes "Scientists from Harvard University have uncovered evdience that exposure to the chemical, one of a group known as the phthalates, may lead to damage to the genetic material of human sperm.
"The correlation found in this study is extremely troubling" says Dr. Ted Schettler." These chemicals are used in cosmetics and fragrance products, so this is a really big deal.

Our friend Erin Pizzey has been out defending fatherhood, in Bermuda of all places. Her tone seems a bit more radical than normal, but since it's in defence of us, that's allright by me. There seems to be a bit of doublethink in the article, but I can't quite point it out. Have a read
about it and see what you think.